My Business Standard Story – Why Google Buzz Failed….

Monday, January 3, 2011Business Standard Story – Why Google Buzz Failed….
Despite a sharp uptake of social media (Facebook and Twitter) on mobile phones why did Google Buzz fail to get users excited online?

http://www.business-standard.com/india/news/www-shaping-your-online-behaviour/419646/

India is witnessing a mobile revolution — we have crossed 600 million subscribers. Add to this the introduction of low-cost smartphones, the growth for Facebook and Twitter, which were already popular platforms online. Also, the generation to come is more comfortable with personal devices like a mobile phone for social networking than a home PC, which is shared by many. No wonder we saw Twitter and Facebook making their mark on Indian audiences this year. Facebook even became the number one social networking site in India overtaking Google’s Orkut.

Facebook numbers are overwhelming not just in terms of subscribers but in terms of active usage. The reasons are obvious — Facebook is your social life on the web. It is as real as it can get. You have your friends in your network, you share your pictures with them, you poke them, put up status messages for them, even organise real life parties with them. Another very interesting aspect was the resurgence of gaming in India through Facebook. The site utilised and engaged game developers, and threw the medium open for them to develop games. It was an instant success.

Twitter, too, saw exponential growth in the last two years in India. Indians have been very active SMS users, using abbreviated languages on text messages that helped in taking to Twitter. A broadcasting medium to let your friends or colleagues know what you are doing, reading and feeling, Twitter quickly peaked in popularity. The celebrity angle, the simplicity — all gave it the impetus. However now it needs a real push in terms of user engagement. We also saw some brands like Airtel and Samsung utilising the medium for brand promotions.

Now coming to Google Buzz. First of all, noone seems to be using it. It was a launch that went wrong from the beginning. For one, a person uses Gmail for one purpose only — emailing. The product was piggybacked on every one’s Gmail account, which means that one ends up following almost the entire Gmail address book and gets almost 100 buzz updates a week. Now, one may not want updates from all the people on their Gmail account, and may need to only know about people they know. One might be using Gmail for different reasons — for personal emails, for official communication, for sending in professional articles, resumes etc. Gmail is an email tool for most and they do not want to mix that up with any update engines. And on top of it most people already have Twitter and Facebook for that. People simply lack the time or effort to update Google Buzz and Twitter. Google Buzz came late to the party.

There Is More to Performance Marketing than Measuring Performance !!

Today we are in one of the most dynamic phase of our marketing journey. Gone are the days where it was difficult to exactly measure the impact of an ad in TV, Print or Radio. With the advent of internet and technology marketers have gotten better and faster at not only measuring results but also improving them – real time basis. Today’s best online marketers are performance marketers.
The question always looming large over our heads is what if marketers could accurately predict the return on the marketing dollars before even starting the campaign? What if they could pay media only when the target consumer has taken a certain action, For example – asking for more information, asking for a brochure, or setting up appointment with a sales representative? Also while the campaign is running, the marketer could change campaign elements such as media mix, creative, the deal, the call to action, in order to optimize sales related to the advertising program? If this is possible, in true sense a performance marketing campaign is being carried out. This is truly a great revolution since this will make advertising cost a variable cost; hence the concept of budget becomes obsolete all together. This is the core of online performance marketing!!! Organizations looking to fuel their customer acquisition strategies, while building profits, will increasingly turn to performance marketing to power their growth. The ability to improve results during a live campaign makes online performance marketing a game changer.
Last decade saw whole new world opening up for marketers. The ability of marketers to actively manage the “new age media” and drive more profitable sales from marketing has caused a surge in the advertising dollars being spent online. Good online advertisers know how far their dollars are going to go and how much they can expect in profits. We can take advantage of the near real-time flexibility of the Internet to actively manage campaign elements and improve marketing to sales conversions. Inspite of such a powerful medium and strong proposition aligned to revenue and sales targets, why then is online performance marketing still underutilized? Why aren’t more marketers, advertisers, and companies taking advantage of these tools? There are only a handful of marketers using it to full potential, rest are debating, mulling or sitting on fence.
That once again brings me back to question how and why online medium is accountable for brands. Is there an un-necessary pressure on medium to perform? The above arguments clearly indicate the potential of the medium; however that’s the strength of medium, not product or consumer needs and psyche. The final sale is a function of logical and emotional connect a user has with a brand. Once again, is the expectation from medium much more then it can deliver? It can for sure deliver measurable results, but can it solely change perceptions, create brands, or create affiliations with a brand? Once again, we come back to the question of measurement gap or frustration gap I spoke about in my earlier post. Let’s use the digital medium as one stronger medium for brand experience, engagement and interaction rather than putting un-due pressure on medium to make it a sales channel!
We deliver results which are measurable, we deliver experience which is customizable, and we deliver performance which is trackable, measurable & is optimized.

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