However, Google’s sprawling branches of success haven’t gone unnoticed by rivals Yahoo! and Microsoft who are hurriedly cultivating competitive pay dirt systems, in hopes of harvesting some bountiful cash-crops of their own. As the evolution of online advertising continues along the tech timeline, Google continues to innovate and develop
media-rich, online advertising collateral – such as interactive ads, in addition to improvements to its contextual-related text ads.

The rapid pace of changing, new technology, coupled with continually growing demand by small, medium, and large corporate advertisers and entrepreneurs seeking “eyeballs” stands to fertilize already luxuriant search-soil into an evermore-important element of the promotional mix.

Advertising companies know not to put all their advertising eggs in one basket. By combining precisely measurable click-through ads with less measurable, but more emotionally effective, online full-colour and multimedia ads, companies are better able to reach targeted customers among increased promotional noise and clutter. Displaying banner ads are inexpensive and easy to track, so companies can update them easily and measure the response to the implemented change. But, as people begin to bookmark “sticky” sites, they will potentially use Google and other search engines less frequently, necessitating advertisers to employ display ads rather than simple text-based ads.

Just as advertisers spread their promotional budgets among many different mediums to reach consumers, they too spread out their online-advertising budget to maximize exposure to “eyeballs.” It is a futile attempt, trying to make any one promotional vehicle do too many tasks -  as the vehicle will most likely fail at all of them. Spreading out the tasks yields far great success.

Two of the lesser-known firms that I’m familiar with are WordPress (wordpress.org) and Joomla! (joomla.org). Both of these firms produce content management system (CMS) software that allows an individual to publish, maintain, and manage a web site’s content efficiently. WordPress is geared more toward blogging, whereas Joomla! extends capabilities akin to online news services such as MSNBC or The New York Times.

Word of mouth spreads exponentially faster through unremitting use and acceptance of the product or service. The more people who use the product, the more people will spread the word; conversely, the narrower the market for a product the slower word spreads. Google fills the need of consumers for a way to locate information among the infinite amount of data hosted via the Internet. In fact, that’s Google’s mission statement: “Organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful.” It would be difficult using Internet-assisted word of mouth for Joomla! or WordPress to become world renown, as universal market demand is quite fragmented – not everyone has a need or desire to host their own blog or manage a web site’s content. In other words, there is no mass appeal by people for these two products like there is for search like Google, Yahoo!, or Microsoft LiveSearch.

The search titan, Google, does offer a free-blogging service called “Blogger” for individuals who want to get up and going with a simple blog. But, social networking sites such as MySpace and Facebook that have obtained world recognition also offer blogging ability. These two sites have mass appeal; therefore, it is no surprise that they too find themselves “verb-alized.” For example, it is not common for people to say they are “MySpacing” or that they have been “Facebooked.” Some individuals have even been subjected to “MyStalking.” Ahh, all the glorious splendors of the Internet.

The plain-Jane, whiteboard front-page of Google’s web site allows search content and results to be located quickly and viewed easily. One point of view would take the position that all that white-space is elegant and stunningly simple – a design tactic that strategic partner Apple employs often.

Google can market itself as a clean, revolutionary, high-tech services company, but it’s web page appears to be very low-tech when compared to other Flash-based, interactive sites; however, by keeping the site basic, it loads much faster than its multimedia-rich counterparts – resulting in faster search results for users. For advertisers looking for ways to cut through clutter and noise, Google’s approach seems to be a refreshing and welcome change from overly obnoxious colors or high-bandwidth graphics that force longer pageloads. And, Google isn’t so ho-hum and drab after all. One approach Google utilizes to maintain a fresh-looking and fun page is to slightly alter its logo on holidays or other special event days.

The sterile background can present a marketing challenge for Google though. As it’s home page is more or less no frills, there may be resistance by some advertisers to pay a premium for an otherwise “vanilla” web presence. Google’s overly simplistic design could be potentially interpreted as basic, cheap, or having little value. And, it would be difficult for Google to devise an ad that’s laden with colour when its brand identity is primary stark white. As a positive, the company saves a tremendous amount on color-matching costs or printing on corporate-colored paper.

By maintaining a clean, white homepage – a homepage whose color has been universally accepted to mean positive, good-natured, the color of perfection, angelic, and simplicity, Google portrays an uncluttered, positive corporate image. Undeniably, that is a powerful weapon that Google can draw on from its marketing arsenal. And, having brought together billions of people of every color, creed, nationality, race, and ethnicity from all corners of the world through its technology, it is fitting that of all the googols of colors available, Google enlisted the one color that contained all colors to serve as a cornerstone of its brand identity and unite the world’s people in their search for knowledge and information.

Google targets two main groups with its AdWords and AdSense advertising programs. The former caters to advertisers seeking to reach a target audience who is performing search requests on Google or Google-supported web sites. The latter AdSense program is geared toward web site owners who are looking to generate revenue from their sites by hosting Google-produced ads on web pages.

Google uses logical appeal to advertise its programs to prospective marketing advertisers, citing such attributes as low overall cost and ease of implementing ads with its AdWords program. A similar approach is taken when marketing its AdSense program, coupling the logical appeal of easy to customize ads with eye-catching graphics that visually support the clean, 3-step approach to earning passive income from a web site.

Additionally, Google offers AdWords and AdSense banner ads as part of an affiliate exchange program that participants can use to spread the word about these programs. These ads take the form of word-of-mouth advertising, in the sense that an affiliate will be electing to tell others about the program by placing ads that tout specific features of the programs. Google doesn’t place these ads; individual users of the programs place them!

Several success stories are provided as examples of how advertisers have benefited from Google’s search-related advertising programs. From the new-business startup, to the company looking to increase its customer base, these are stories that share quantitative results and the effectiveness of AdWords and AdSense. From my own personal experience using AdSense, I can attest that it is easy to implement and generate results. I have several
AdSense-enabled web sites; and while I haven’t seen returns quite as marketable as the examples Google shares with prospective clients, I have promoted the service to other colleagues who have asked my opinion regarding AdSense’s value.

WORKS CITED

1. Bovee, Courtland, John Thill, and Michael Mescon. Excellence in Business. 3rd ed. Prentice Hall, 2007.

Students are a low-risk target because many are still dependent on their parents – who are willing to bail their children out if they run into trouble paying off the credit card’s balance. This behavior has resulted in only approximately 40% of all full-time college students paying their credit card balances in full every month – with “10% of students carrying a balance of $8,000 or more.” This epidemic will force hundreds of thousands of students into personal bankruptcy before the age of 25, and will drastically affect their ability to secure future housing after college. As if the current sub-prime lending situation hasn’t made acquiring a loan difficult enough, a record of bankruptcy will surely cause finding a mortgage with an attractable rate to be nearly impossible.

Students’ reactions haven’t been accepting of the colleges’ initiatives; most students feel the universities are “playing parent” in their efforts to shelter them from the credit card marketers. And, banning credit card companies’ marketing strategies on campus doesn’t affect the direct mail, online, or other point of purchase efforts to solicit students to pay with plastic. Recently, Visa has been aggressively marketing the benefits of plastic through broadcast advertisements that depict cash as clunky and slows down the “purchasing process” to the point of causing disruption and mayhem. So, how are impressionable, young adults supposed to filter out the noise and make financially healthy decisions, when there is so much pressure to “Don’t leave home or the dormroom without it?”

Credit card solicitors are participating in market segmentation when selling the idea of credit cards to students. Understanding why they are focusing on them is the first step a student can take when being approached by a credit card solicitor. Rather than ban credit card companies from soliciting students on college campuses, perhaps education and enlightenment is the answer – not prohibition.

Banning the credit card solicitors from a campus doesn’t eliminate the problem of students incurring more debt than they can pay off. The companies will continue to target students through other promotion strategies like broadcast, online, and POP displays, similar to how Scion differentiates its promotion efforts. However, if students are educated and required to take a credit management class during their initial freshman semester – similar to college orientation, they will be better armed to make informed, adult decisions. As the text alluded to, it’s amazing consumers will spend weeks researching a $500 iPhone but select a $30,000 per year university based on whether or not a friend is attending that school, or apply for a credit card at a store’s checkout without paying attention to the interest rate or annual fees charged by the card. Most of the time the card’s annual percentage rate is more than twice as much as the percentage discount off the initial purchase with the card.

There is an adage that the best offense is a good defense. Banning the marketers from university grounds doesn’t solve the root of the problem – credit card companies are not like teeth, if you ignore them they won’t go away. If it can be assumed credit card companies will continue to market to students (and older adults), it would be prudent to empower consumers with helpful counsel and credit education that will serve as hardened battle armour against those CapitalOne warriors who pose the question, “What’s In Your Wallet?”

Credit card companies continue to target students for a myriad of reasons; while students may have a limited income, their parents have more financial resources and can – and do, usually pay off their children’s balances. In that vein, credit card marketers have identified a need by students for instant, accessible purchasing power, and a benefit in the form of deferred payment. Students are more likely to use the card for impulsive buying or on spring break trips where it’s inconvenient to carry cash. The impulse buying translates into higher monthly interest charges, and the trips results in cash advance fees on top of monthly finance charges.

College students are also communal, there isn’t a single other point in time where an individual will be constantly surrounded by his or her peers that are continuously conversing about new products, services, or wants and needs. In other words, college students are ripe consumers whose retail synapses are firing at all hours. “Dude, I was up all night finishing my BUS-104 homework, thanks to Red Bull and my bag of Snickers.” “Oh, Red Bull – I love that stuff! I’ve been craving it all day.”

In targeting young, adult consumers, the companies are harvesting a new, continual crop of brand-loyal customers. For example, I still have my very first credit card I received almost 10 years ago from CapitalOne. Personally, I use my loyalty on a regular basis as leverage to bargain for an exceptionally low interest rate. If I hadn’t been marketed to, I would have never pursued a card, even though I knew I would need one eventually for car rentals or foreign trips where I wanted to carry a card in lieu of cash. And, if I didn’t invest the time to learn about making smart credit decisions (for example, choosing a card that doesn’t charge international transaction fees), I’m positive I would have succumbed to the statistical ranks that many others have over the past year alone.