We prioritize the end user over the advertiser.
“People wouldn’t like it”, he said “we prioritize the end user over the advertiser.”
That was Google’s Eric Schmidt speaking about his reluctance to allow advertising on Google’s home page – despite a shareholder value he says that “ could probably fetch some number of billions of dollars”*.
It raises a number of points that are worthy of a further discussion.
1. How much is enough? Is there a point of diminishing (profit) returns that enterprises shouldn’t cross because it will lead to customer ‘wallet fatigue’? We seem to agree on the economics principle but appear to be reluctant to put it into practice.
2. If these landing page ads would detract from the user’s Google experience – what does that say about the user experience of the search? Aren’t sponsored links the same thing?
Schmidt seems to be making an implicit differentiation between relevant and irrelevant ads as a defining characteristic for “user experience”. Is this really a debate about push Vs. pull based marketing? (And let’s add a new category; NUDGE marketing into this matrix to reflect the advances and growing popularity of geospatial and behavioral technologies.)
Are we doing enough to make our brands relevant? Does relevance really mean a price point? Are we training our customers to be price-centric? And before you automatically answer NO, consider what percentage of your communications mix relates to a discounted price point? Be honest add up all your communication messages (advertising, events, press releases, email, retail flyers etc.) and do the math, does discount pricing account for 30%?, 50%?, 70% of the mix?
What would happen if your brand were to disappear tomorrow? How would your customers respond? This fascinating clip from the folks at Burger King is a humbling experience.
While we are on the topic of push vs pull marketing, what would happen if consumers had the same google-ish choice in selecting the commercials they wanted to listen or watch? With streaming video, that reality is not far away. How many of them would pick your ad? What do you need to do today to start moving with the emerging curve?
“We prioritize the end user over the advertiser.”
Cheers
Miro
