Written by David A. Wise, 306 Pages
Reviewed by Oscar Manduku, for Innov8 Bookshop, Zimbabwe
The Google Story starts with extremely bold financial results, for a small start up. Founded in 1998, Google.com became the world's fastest growing Corporation to ever grace the earth, even before going public in August 2004. This book is not about Technology or America, but about how innovation, locked up in every individual, can be turned into a Money Machine within the shortest time frame, without changing one's personality. It is a book about how focus, vision, determination, and endurance can change the way people conduct business the world over.
Google was not started by the US Government as we “Techies” thought. It was started by two humble students, who chose to take on the world, by creating what everyone needs information access for all. The money behind the business is not as important as the vision behind the founders, who consider themselves to be in the infant stage of their “Google Story”.
Upon establishing the company, The Google founders sort to build an environment that was very conducive to productivity without having to be academic or industrial per se. They managed to fuse a good culture by employing certain individuals who influenced the culture they wanted. They were ready to make sacrificial decisions so as to ensure that the culture that best delivered the vision was enforced.
Google Products have managed to create what is now known as The Google Economy, where more than 10 billion web pages are affiliates of Google Advertising Programs. These products have re-shaped the Internet landscape, creating an undisputed advantage for Google. Google's objective is to make available ALL information to the ordinary web consumer. Sergey Brin and Larry Page, the founders, have personal ambitions to download, store, and make accessible the whole WEB. They offer products and services that normally other firms charge, for the sake of retaining a consumer. Their products also make serious assaults on their competitors, and recruit new ones in every new territory they move into.
Google Inc displays unique Team work, as it operates as an Academic Research Institute, with a Membership Club and Project Management Concept, where people are assigned certain projects new ideas, product development, etc, with a Project Leader. These teams are not more than 5 people to allow maximum innovation. They are goal driven, with specific time lines, and objectives, that have to be met, or else the whole ship will sink. This production structure allows maximum mind contribution by each member of staff and helps deliver Quality of Service, which competitors are failing to match.
Corporate Governance and Innovation have been fused well by the founders, who sort the guidance of the Industry's most successful man Eric Schmidt, to captain this small ship that had a cargo even lager than the titanic itself. Google has managed to stay innovative in corporate administration, product development, and service delivery. So often Corporate Governance, Product Development and Delivery are always pulled in different directions. Not so for Google; because Eric Schmidt, the founders choice, successfully turned the idea into a world in itself. The Google Story is also about guidance and stability.
Google is without competition, even from Microsoft, who woke up one day to find Google ahead of the technology race. Google went beyond competition when they invested in product development that lasted many years of losses, and recruited personnel whom they could not pay for a while, but ultimately managed to turn the company around into their destined place number one, even on the NASDAQ bourse. The Google Story is about Corporate Competitiveness in this Global Economy.
The Google Story is about involvement in the lives of consumers. Google did so in consumer communities with their generosity initiatives, as they seek to cooperate with every consumer in order to satisfy them. Their advertising and marketing costs are next to nothing as word of mouth is their strength. Because Google Cares, they are getting more and more users by the day, making them the best Online brand, if not Offline as well.
Showing posts with label Information Services. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Information Services. Show all posts
Monday, 02 July 2007
Friday, 29 June 2007
Impact of Online Advertising in Zimbabwe
The Internet is only one of many platforms on which an enterprise can publicise itself. At present Websites are competing for advertising attention with Print and Television advertising content. Let us seek answers for the following questions:
How much advertising material are web consumers exposed to?
This helps an enterprise formulate effective marketing strategies, which involve their website. DSTV, ZTV, Billboards, Clothing Publications (Labels), Movies, Food Courts, Specific Magazines, Newspapers, just to name a few.
Do webverts ™ (Website Adverts) work?
It is not a matter of just advertising, but an effectiveness measurement has to be put into place. Relevance, convenience, quantity, structure, of adverts should be considered.
What is so different about Webvertising ™?
Marketing gurus classify Advertising methods according to emotions nowadays – Fear and Love being the two extremes. We see this on Television and in Print media. Marketers often make consumers feel as though left out, if they do not acquire their product or service. This does not work on the internet, because they so freely move onto another website.
The most effective extreme is love based advertising, wherein marketers build a sense of belonging that allures consumers. The most common emotion to address on the internet is love, because every consumer wants to belong somewhere. I am a good example. Cabsonline.co.zw and Google.com have given me care and a personalised touch, hence will be loyal to them. We all have our websites we visit because of the loving aspect.
LURING WEB CONSUMERS
When it comes to “Zimboz” (as they are called), cyber strategies that work in the west or east do not apply. There are two issues concerning this subject – What Annoys them and How to promote your website.
What Annoys Zimbabweans?
Zimbabwean web consumers are serious and shrewd people when online. Without education, they can filter SPAM, POP-Ups, and other JUNK MAIL. Anything in these lines will not be tolerated. They value their space and freedom on the Web, to the extent of dismissing any form of deemed violation, whether valuable promotional material or not. My advice to enterprises that want to deploy POP-UP strategies is being very careful. When I worked as a Systems Administrator in a Printing company, I noticed how my network clients so often expressed their irritation in regards to SPAM (annoying email from unknown senders) and POP-Ups (Webverts that flash onto your screen after a web page is opened).
How to attract Zimbabweans
How then, do we attract Zimbabwean web consumers? Try the following:
- Promotions that have incentives.
- Through search engines.
- Advertising on other websites.
- Offline – Build Web oriented marketing strategies that are applicable in brick and mortar set ups. Examples are given in the Examples.co.zw chapter.
How much advertising material are web consumers exposed to?
This helps an enterprise formulate effective marketing strategies, which involve their website. DSTV, ZTV, Billboards, Clothing Publications (Labels), Movies, Food Courts, Specific Magazines, Newspapers, just to name a few.
Do webverts ™ (Website Adverts) work?
It is not a matter of just advertising, but an effectiveness measurement has to be put into place. Relevance, convenience, quantity, structure, of adverts should be considered.
What is so different about Webvertising ™?
Marketing gurus classify Advertising methods according to emotions nowadays – Fear and Love being the two extremes. We see this on Television and in Print media. Marketers often make consumers feel as though left out, if they do not acquire their product or service. This does not work on the internet, because they so freely move onto another website.
The most effective extreme is love based advertising, wherein marketers build a sense of belonging that allures consumers. The most common emotion to address on the internet is love, because every consumer wants to belong somewhere. I am a good example. Cabsonline.co.zw and Google.com have given me care and a personalised touch, hence will be loyal to them. We all have our websites we visit because of the loving aspect.
LURING WEB CONSUMERS
When it comes to “Zimboz” (as they are called), cyber strategies that work in the west or east do not apply. There are two issues concerning this subject – What Annoys them and How to promote your website.
What Annoys Zimbabweans?
Zimbabwean web consumers are serious and shrewd people when online. Without education, they can filter SPAM, POP-Ups, and other JUNK MAIL. Anything in these lines will not be tolerated. They value their space and freedom on the Web, to the extent of dismissing any form of deemed violation, whether valuable promotional material or not. My advice to enterprises that want to deploy POP-UP strategies is being very careful. When I worked as a Systems Administrator in a Printing company, I noticed how my network clients so often expressed their irritation in regards to SPAM (annoying email from unknown senders) and POP-Ups (Webverts that flash onto your screen after a web page is opened).
How to attract Zimbabweans
How then, do we attract Zimbabwean web consumers? Try the following:
- Promotions that have incentives.
- Through search engines.
- Advertising on other websites.
- Offline – Build Web oriented marketing strategies that are applicable in brick and mortar set ups. Examples are given in the Examples.co.zw chapter.
Zimbabwe Internet Facilities Needed
Zimbabwe does not have sufficient numbers of the following facilities, capable of securing consumer confidence:
Online Transaction Processing Systems. By this I refer to a simple software application that allows web consumers to purchase goods or services over the Internet, without the use of bank notes. These are more transaction oriented than credit rating oriented. I know of one such innovation, through the Zimbabwe Association of Inventors. One of our members developed an electronic wallet, which is currently going under scrutiny with our Reserve Bank. This product is not a duplication of western technology, but a literal new innovation. When it passes the test, it will transform eCommerce in Zimbabwe.
Online Credit Rating. We are one of the few Literate countries which have not been affected or bulldozed by Visa or Master Card, in our credit rating systems. I believe that this is a good thing because it enables the birthing of our own credit rating processing Systems.
The good news is that Credit Rating will not be difficult to implement in Zimbabwe because many banks, offer some form of credit rating. Howbeit Uniswitch or Zimswitch take this further to become our own versions of VISA and MasterCard. Believe me, we poised for great heights as a nation. Insurance companies may also venture into this business, in partnership with banks, and Uniswitch.
Information Portals. Does it not strike you that we are very educated, yet do not have many information portals in our Cyberspace. Out of the existing portals, many have foreign styles, not necessarily relevant to the Zimbabwean Web Consumers. Zimbabweans behave differently from Tswanas, Zulus, English, Portuguese, French, or Chinese. Do we not have Behavioral Marketing Consultants in our midst, which are able to advise us as we build these portals?
I believe we have the potential to do greater than what we have done, only if we look within ourselves, and around us. A very simple allegory for an Information Portal is our very own Waterholes in the wild. An Information Portal can be likened unto a Waterhole in the wilderness of Zimbabwe. All animals throng to it at specific hours. They come to drink, quenching their thirst. It is a place for interaction with other creatures. At the Waterhole, there are Predators and Prey, there are Parents and Children, and there are Critics and Supporters. This is what you can create your Information portal to be, a place where you can contain all such people, and make money.
Free Services. Thanks to websites like Ygm.co.zw, yo.co.zw, and fbnet.co.zw one of the cries of my heart has been answered. Zimbabwe now has its own answer to Yahoo.com I believe, with enormous potential. Free services, especially email are very beneficial for a nation in Cyberspace, because they provide a reference point for the physical businesses, where enquirers can visit when offline. The more we have free services, the greater chance we have of establishing in consumers’ minds this wonderful world of technology. Free service websites provide alternatives for consumers as they browse the Internet. The more alternatives, the healthier competition is, and results in increased Internet usage. There are businesses which need platforms to market themselves, and free services websites offer a good platform.
Online Transaction Processing Systems. By this I refer to a simple software application that allows web consumers to purchase goods or services over the Internet, without the use of bank notes. These are more transaction oriented than credit rating oriented. I know of one such innovation, through the Zimbabwe Association of Inventors. One of our members developed an electronic wallet, which is currently going under scrutiny with our Reserve Bank. This product is not a duplication of western technology, but a literal new innovation. When it passes the test, it will transform eCommerce in Zimbabwe.
Online Credit Rating. We are one of the few Literate countries which have not been affected or bulldozed by Visa or Master Card, in our credit rating systems. I believe that this is a good thing because it enables the birthing of our own credit rating processing Systems.
The good news is that Credit Rating will not be difficult to implement in Zimbabwe because many banks, offer some form of credit rating. Howbeit Uniswitch or Zimswitch take this further to become our own versions of VISA and MasterCard. Believe me, we poised for great heights as a nation. Insurance companies may also venture into this business, in partnership with banks, and Uniswitch.
Information Portals. Does it not strike you that we are very educated, yet do not have many information portals in our Cyberspace. Out of the existing portals, many have foreign styles, not necessarily relevant to the Zimbabwean Web Consumers. Zimbabweans behave differently from Tswanas, Zulus, English, Portuguese, French, or Chinese. Do we not have Behavioral Marketing Consultants in our midst, which are able to advise us as we build these portals?
I believe we have the potential to do greater than what we have done, only if we look within ourselves, and around us. A very simple allegory for an Information Portal is our very own Waterholes in the wild. An Information Portal can be likened unto a Waterhole in the wilderness of Zimbabwe. All animals throng to it at specific hours. They come to drink, quenching their thirst. It is a place for interaction with other creatures. At the Waterhole, there are Predators and Prey, there are Parents and Children, and there are Critics and Supporters. This is what you can create your Information portal to be, a place where you can contain all such people, and make money.
Free Services. Thanks to websites like Ygm.co.zw, yo.co.zw, and fbnet.co.zw one of the cries of my heart has been answered. Zimbabwe now has its own answer to Yahoo.com I believe, with enormous potential. Free services, especially email are very beneficial for a nation in Cyberspace, because they provide a reference point for the physical businesses, where enquirers can visit when offline. The more we have free services, the greater chance we have of establishing in consumers’ minds this wonderful world of technology. Free service websites provide alternatives for consumers as they browse the Internet. The more alternatives, the healthier competition is, and results in increased Internet usage. There are businesses which need platforms to market themselves, and free services websites offer a good platform.
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