The purpose of this assignment is to provide you with an opportunity to apply knowledge, theory,
frameworks and tools from the early part of the unit to an analysis of the marketing practices of a
real organisation. You will work in analysing the strategies pursued by Google since its creation. You
will evaluate the strategies and their effectiveness and relate those real-life experiences to relevant
research and theory. The aim is to provide experience of marketing analysis and practice and to
determine your ability to relate real marketing strategy to theory and research.
Your task in this case analysis is to answer three questions by critically analysing Google’s history,
resources and market situation. Please do not just describe events, although you should read
Google’s history to understand the background to your analysis. You should use the principles and
concepts that you have learned in marketing-related modules to answer the following two
questions:
1. What marketing strategy or strategies has Google adopted since it was created? Answer this
question by applying one or more of the theoretical marketing approaches and/or models
discussed in the literature.
2. What strategic marketing options can you describe for Google if it wishes to remain a
successful organisation throughout the next decade? Answer this question based on a SWOT
analysis of the circumstances that exist in 2014/15 and your best forecasts of relevant future
industry factors.
These are wide-ranging questions and you should undertake extensive independent research into
Google and its industry – we might define it as the search industry. You should explore different
aspects of these issues and incorporate them into your paper. This is a practical assessment of a real
company, but you need to show an understanding of theory and research in your evaluation and
suggestions.
Process
1. Begin to gather information about Google and its strategies. There are a range of sources you
can make use including the companies own corporate website and related publications,
academic journals, business press and media, blogs and so on. The quality business press such
as Forbes or Business Week or the Economist are in some ways good places to start.
2. However, you need to begin to study relevant course materials as the task requires you to
analyse and evaluate Google’s marketing strategy in relation to theory, frameworks and
research.
3. Consider each of the two questions carefully and begin to relate practice to theory in an
attempt to answer each of them.
4. The first question asks to you identify the marketing strategy and/or strategies pursued by
Google. For example, you might consider this in relation to the 4Ps model, or even an
extended Ps model which are often found within the marketing literature. Or you might try
and determine if Google pursued a clear plan, with respect to their marketing function, or
whether you can discern emergent aspects of their marketing strategy. There is latitude here
for you to explore things and provide an analysis that you think makes sense. Your analysis
should include an assessment of why you think Google developed the strategies that they did
5. The second question is difficult since it asks you to look forward and to suggest the type of
marketing strategy and strategising that Google might fruitfully pursue going forward through
the rest of this decade. One explicit suggestion is that you use the well known SWOT tool to
analyse the situation confronting the company now and as part of the input into determining
strategy going forward. However, that does not preclude you using other tools and
frameworks to do an analysis and suggest a strategic marketing path for Google.
6. It should be clear that there is no definitive right answer here. This also mirrors reality,
companies are not able to find a single solution or pathway; they have to make difficult
choices from alternatives. In the light of that try to explore different aspects of the three
questions – there are no ‘correct’ answers and lots of valid arguments for and against all kinds
of alternatives. The merits of your argument will depend to a large extent on how much
evidence you can cite to support your point of view; that is why this is called a research
project.
