To fuel the fire of you conspiracy pundits, here you go:

http://masterplanthemovie.com

IF google was evil… oh boy! Don’t get me wrong, I use gmail and love google. I mean look at those colourful playful letters, how cute!

I would argue though, beyond a great technology company, Google’s greatest strength is as a master of PR. It’s like a magician showing you one of his tricks and distracting you with truth while the real illusion is still going on.

Look at their logo. Cute, friendly, playful, non-corporate.

Don’t be evil. I mean they come right out and say it.

Lava lamps. How can the iconic 60’s lavalamp ever be associated with anything but love and goodwill to all people?

Services.. “Yes, our crawlers are reading your gmail to give you relevant ads so we can provide a great service for free.” They don’t hide it, deny it or play it down. It’s right there. Who would you believe, someone you think might be lying but can’t quite prove it, or someone who blatantly admits to something which might make you uncomfortable but reinforces that it maintains individual privacy? Hmmm… Magic!

Fanatical workforce. Anyone pick up the (Jan or Feb?) issue of Forbes listing the best companies to work for? Google #1. The list of services isn’t just long and generous, it’s also quite thoughful. Gift certificates for $300 of takeout after having a baby. Generous? Sure, but genuinely thoughtful? Damn right. It’s a moment in the employee’s life that is special and now is also associated with the benevolent Google; an emotional hook into the employee. Loyalty? Unquestionable.

Anyone looking for a lesson in PR and examples of genius, i would start with Google as a great case study.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, February 14th, 2007 at 4:36 pm and is filed under Internet Marketing. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.