Chapter 18. Sales Promotion and Personal Selling

It is surprising that Google has become the world’s largest search engine when the promotion strategy of the company relies heavily on viral, or referral, marketing. Google has gained consumer loyalty and in turn Google customers recommend Google to their friends. Its minimal homepage and knack for gaining consumer trust through a “morally superior” advertisement policy. Google promotes its services and products by purchasing its own AdWords internet ads and through its own Google channel on YouTube. An example of Google’s minimal internet advertising strategy was when they released Google Chrome. When it comes to Google Apps, the company has gone a little further in their advertising campaign through the use of television ads, the most notable being those for the Android mobile phone platform, sales promotions, and other public installations. It is safe to assume that Google relies heavily on internet advertising and viral marketing. Google’s reputation and brand has gained clout because of their dedication to simplicity. While Google customers generally do not have to purchase Google products, the company still manages to give the public incentives for their loyalty and promote how superior the Google brand truly is. Google’s massive “Going Google” campaign included a “use promotion” that awarded customers with premiums for their product testimonials. Google also sponsored “a $30 million competition for an unmanned lunar landing. It is easy to say that sales promotions are a little more difficult to pull off for a predominantly internet based company due to the sheer fact that Google offers majority of its products for free. While there Is a very short list of Google’s sales promotions activities, the company has used these seemingly small opportunities to increase brand awareness among consumers.