e B.O.L.

Be B.O.L.D.
4 Common Sense Ideas
to Build Your Brand Online

( plus 1 free! )

An Industry initiative brought to you by Google India

 India is online. Latest research seems to put that
number anywhere in excess of 4 crore people.

The average Indian also visits the Internet almost

everyday for upto a half hour at a time.

So, of course, you want to build your brand on the Web.

This is often easier said than done. It certainly doesn’t

seem easy - not everyone understands exactly how to
do this; there seem to be so many new things to learn,
so many different rules. Plus, today’s economy certainly
doesn’t make things easier.

What if we told you, it’s actually simpler than you think?

To prove this to you we present 4 common sense ideas

that will help you get started towards establishing a
powerful brand presence online.

Sometimes all it requires is for you to Be BOLD…

Sources: Comscore | IRS 2008, R2 | Comscore World Media Metrix | First study of Internet usage in India tracks users
across India for May 2008
Be BOLD
4 Common Sense Ideas to Build Your Brand Online

Build for Efficiency

Operate to Acquire

Lead with Experimentation

Design for Engagement

 How to use this booklet

This booklet is divided into four sections, one for each of the four ideas of Be BOLD.

Each idea is further supported by two marketing insights. These marketing insights
show you how to actually put the Be BOLD ideas into action.

Each marketing insight is broken down as follows:

Marketing insight

Research data

Marketeer Advertiser insight

check list

Tools you
can use
1. Build for Efficiency
Catch trends before they become trends
Save money the old-fashioned way… Don’t waste it
Catch trends before they become trends

Did You Know? "The tipping point is that magic moment when an
More Indians online are comparing prices and idea, trend, or social behavior crosses a
purchasing products online today than in 2005* threshold, tips, and spreads like wildfire.”
- Malcolm Gladwell, Author

Ask yourself: No one knows exactly when the next big thing
becomes just that - the next big thing. The
Do I get regular and accurate feedback on what problem, though, isn’t being able to predict what
my customers feel about my product/ services? the next big trend, fad, best seller or killer product
might be. It’s often not being able to read the signs
How long will it take me to respond to changes in in time. The trick is to catch these just as they start
my target group or market? to form not when they’re near tipping point.

Think about using : Google Trends

1. IPL Final Match
Google Trends allows you to see how often people are
5. IPL Final

16. Manish Pandey

searching for different things on Google. It also shows how
19. Zoozoo wallpapers
frequently certain topics have appeared in Google News
stories, and in which geographic regions (in India or the
whole world) people have searched for them most.
With Hot Trends you can see the fastest-rising searches for
different points of time. For example: you can see a list of
today’s top 100 fastest-rising search queries in India. You
can also use Google Trends to get insights into the traffic and
geographic visitation patterns of your favorite websites!
Google Hot Trends indicates the Top 50 most searched for terms on www.google.co.in the day of the Find it at : www.google.com/trends
IPL final

* Google India Benchmark Study | May 2008 | Google India, Netpop Research
Save money the old-fashioned way, don’t waste it

Did You Know? “If brands are built over years, why are they
The impact of online ads is equivalent to TV and managed over quarters?”
greater than other forms of offline advertising* - Leonard Lodish, Wharton Business School

In the 2008 IBM Global CEO Study, CEOs rated

Ask yourself: market factors (48%), people skills (48%) and
technological factors (35%) as the three external
Do I know which of my marketing campaigns are factors that would most impact their businesses.
working and why? As more and more marketers move from intuition
to science, tracking and tweaking their campaigns
Do I have a way to get the information I need to using increasingly complex models, the future will
make better marketing decisions? undoubtedly go to the more diligent. And this is,
perhaps, where the digital medium rolls up its
sleeves. What makes the digital medium such an
incredible marketing channel are the robust
campaign data it gives marketers.

When you embark on a marketing activity,

especially one that aspires to wield the enormous
power of the Internet ensure you have the tools at
hand to accurately track if your campaign
objectives are being met.

Think about using : Google Analytics

Google Analytics is a free tool which can help you improve
your marketing ROI. It shows you which sites, search
engines and search words are sending traffic to your
website. It also shows you how long visitors are spending on
your site and which pages they seem to prefer.
Find it at: www.google.com/analytics/

Custom Reports
Create, save, and edit custom reports that present the information you want to see organized in the
way you want to see it.

Source : India Benchmark Survey | May 2008 | Google India, Netpop Research
2. Operate to Acquire
Reach Wide but Target Narrow
Find the People Who Want to Find You
Reach wide but target narrow

Did You Know? "Customers buy for their reasons, not yours.”
53% say the Web/ online is how they prefer to - Orvel Ray Wilson, Author
learn about new brands
And that may be truer today than ever before.
Estimates indicate that the average person will
Ask Yourself : have access to some 80 million commercial
messages in their lifetime. Research also
Do I know the different themes that could be
indicates that we’ll now produce more information
relevant to my brand and brand message?
in just one year than has been produced in the last
Do I know which sites are the most relevant for
5,000 put together. With so many options for
me to be present on and why?
information your consumers now have a multitude
of places to get their information.

The converse is also true-your brand now has

more places it can be heard. It’s important that you
know where to reach your customer effectively.

Think about using : Google Content Network

Advertising on the content network allows you to be present
at multiple consumer touch points. Google’s Content
Network allows you to tap into the advantages of display
advertising and make contextual targeting work for you. By
advertising on Google’s content network your text, video and
image ads can be exactly targeted to different websites and
their content. These ads are so well matched that readers
find them useful.
Find it at: www.google.com/adword/containnetwork

Advantages of the Google Content Network

Brand Reach - Up to 70% of the India’s Internet users
Brand Awareness - Over 400 million chances every month to show your ad across a range of BFSI-
related websites alone
Brand Re-inforcement - Over 25 billion unique page views every month
Brand Association - Tens of Thousands of content specific sites on which to show your ad

Source: India Benchmark Study May 2008 1005 online interviews Google India, Netpop Resea
Find the people who want to find you
Did You Know?
Over 80% said online ads increased their interest
in the brands or products advertised; 40% said
1
they “greatly” increased their interest
Ask Yourself:
When my consumers look for me online, can
they find me?
Source: 1. India Benchmark Study | May 2008 | Google India, Netpop Research
2. I-Cube 2008 | Online Content Report | 4.9MM users in 30 cities | MRB
3. India Retail Survey | February 2009 | Google India, Netpop Research
One of the Internet's strengths is its ability to help
consumers find the right needle in digital haystack
of data.”
- Jared Sandberg, Wall Street Journal
More than half Indian Internet users polled
indicated the first thing they did on the Internet was
go to a search engine2. Data also indicates that
consumers prefer to do their homework online
even if they’re eventually going to purchase offline
- even among in-store purchases, search engines
are key: 97% of in-store purchasers use search
engines3.
The implications are clear-no matter where they
hear about a product or service or where they’re
evenutally going to buy it, consumers seem to
prefer going online first.
Think about using : Google Adwords
Google Adwords allows you to reach your target consumer
by putting control entirely in your hands. Change an ad
anytime you want, set your own budget and accurately track
your ad’s performance
Find it at: See details on Pg 19 to find out how to get started
3. Lead With Experimentation
Redefine the rules of the game
Get more from what you already have
Redefine the rules of the game

Did You Know? "I still observe executives exhibiting the same lack
Indian internet users view blogs and forums as of courage or knowledge that undercut previous
good sources of information and an excellent waves of innovation.” - Rosabeth Moss Kanter,
platform for publishing their own views to the Harvard Business School
world1
When it comes to communicating your brand
message, building associations with your offline
Ask Yourself:
campaigns or simply creating and sustaining a
If I just changed where I used them, would I be true first-mover’s advantage, the trick is knowing
able to make my campaign creatives do more how to make your advertising work for you,
for me? whether this means finding a new way to say what
Could the Internet easily prove a more cost- you want to or picking a different channel to get the
effective extension of my branding and PR same message across.
activities, if I just tweaked my internal
resources? If you’re going to change: experiment early, iterate
quickly and innovate boldly.

Think about using : Blogger, Google Maps

Blogger.com is Google’s free publishing service that allows
you to customize and publish your own blog on the web
instantly to communicate with anyone on the Internet.

Google Maps offers user-friendly interactive maps of India

and the world. It also allows individuals and businesses to
create a custom map for personal use, to mark a business
location, service provider and more
Find it at : www.blogger.com
local.google.co.in
Google maps could provide a powerful way to reach out to your customers. For eg: By clearly marking
where your ATMs/ bank branches offering specific services are located in the city

Sources: 1. I-Cube 2008 | Online Content Report | IMRB

2. Google Internal Data; 3. Google Zeitgeist
Get more from what you already have

Did You Know? “Investors and analysts often prefer that firms
Photo/Video sharing has emerged as one of the maximise shareholder value by ‘sticking to their
activities Indian Internet users do most every day* knitting’.”
-Mary Benner, Wharton Business School

Ask Yourself: This holds true for both your customers and your
content. Imagine the kind of brand engagement
Are my TV ads the kinds that people would
you could generate if your ad went viral - 1 person
readily pass on to their friends if I simply made
sends it to 10, who send it to 100, who send it to
them more accessible?
1000... And what if you discovered that all it
Do I have campaign video creatives – both
required for this to happen was an easy way to
global and local – that I can easily use online to
show other people that video?
extend the life of my campaign?

Better yet, what if we said you don’t even need to

‘create an ad’. Remember the new credit card ad
with the funny guy dancing in different parts of the
world? It all started with a video called ‘Where the
heck is Matt?’ (find it on YouTube)

Think about using : YouTube

YouTube allows you to use the combined advantages of the
Internet & video to extend the ways your brand and
messaging interacts with your target consumer. Today, over
15 hours of content uploaded onto YouTube every minute2.
In 2008, YouTube was the fastest rising search term on
Google India, and was also among the top 5 most popular
searches for 2008 after Orkut, Gmail, Yahoo and Google3
Find it at : in.youtube.com

* I-Cube 2008 | Online Content Report | IMRB

4. Design for Engagement
Don’t underestimate ‘Word of Mouth’
Force Your Brand to Listen
Don’t underestimate ‘Word of Mouth’

Did You Know? “While it may be true that the best advertising is
78% of consumers trust - either completely or word-of-mouth, never lose sight of the fact it also
somewhat - the recommendation of other can be the worst advertising.”
1
consumers - Jef I. Richards

Ask yourself : Consumers influence each other as easily as they

are influenced. They talk, when they like
Do I know what my consumer is saying about
something and especially when they don’t. With
me?
social networking and the Internet, they’re no
Do I have a way of talking so they listen?
longer talking to just their friends and family.

Today, when they talk the whole world can listen in.

Think about using : orkut

Research indicates that Indians spend 2 Billion minutes on
social networking sites every month.2 When you build an
online community on orkut, you could access some 14
million+ unique visitors and about 2.5 million daily visitors in
India alone. Over 80% of orkut’s audience in India is
between 18 – 34 years in age. You can now also advertise on
orkut.3
Find it at : www.orkut.com

MTV India uses Orkut to create 260,000 new Roadies faster & cheaper

Sources: 1. ‘Trust in Advertising Global Report’ | Nielsen, October 2007

2. Comscore
3. Comscore for India, July 2008, Comscore Media Metrix, Oct 2008
Force your brand to converse

Did You Know? “The consumer isn't a moron. She is your wife.”
55% of consumers want an ongoing dialogue with - David Ogilvy
1
brands
Your consumers and how they feel about different
products, prices and their favorite brands are
Ask yourself : always changing. They are influenced by tens of
thousands of messages, videos, chats,
Do I know what is most important to my
commercials and so much more. What’s more,
consumer?
consumers no longer want to be talked to or told
Do I know how my consumer feels about me
what’s good for them by brand propaganda.
or my branding message?
Today’s consumer is changing faster than she
Do I have a way of listening when my
ever has. And for any brand hoping to talk to their
consumers talk?
consumers it’s important to know what to say and
in a manner that they will listen.

Think about using : Google Insights for Search

Google Insights for Search allows you to know what your
customers are thinking. Get insights on what people were
searching for in Mumbai, India or around the world today,
yesterday or in 2004. For example : You can use Google
Insights for Search to learn that people in India have been
looking online to ‘buy iphone’ since 2006! And the most
interest is from Delhi & Gujarat!
Find it at : www.google.com/insights/search
Google Insights for Search indicates how the only time the number of people searching for
information on Harbhajan surpassed that for Dhoni was in April 2008 - the time of the controversial
Sreesanth slapping incident

Sources: 1. ExPO TV Survey (administered to influential consumers on the ExpoTV community) | 2008
2. Comscore Matrix: Community India for Oct 2008
3. Comscore for india, July 2008, Comscore Media Metrix, Oct 2008
5. Know what works and do more of it
Know what works and do more of it

“Any company that cannot imagine the future The only way to succeed is to stop talking and start
won’t be around to enjoy it.” doing.

- C.K Prahalad & Gary Hamel, Management “The key question is, “How do I accomplish growth
Authors & Gurus and cost efficiency at the same time?”

Our strong point of view is that a ruthless and

disciplined focus on ROI is the only answer. ROI
should be the key yardstick by which you measure
how you invest your precious resources going
forward. And the Internet can deliver these
efficiencies.

The Internet is measurable and provides precise

control over how your marketing investments get
allocated. There is no more efficient media
channel available. Period.

At the same time it is also the Internet that can help

you grow by:

1) Reaching relevant customers in India and

around the world

2) Converting these prospects into revenue

efficiently

3) Enabling you to grow along with the fastest

growing medium in the country”

Shailesh Rao
Managing Director,
Google India
Supercharge your brand now

To understand how to implement these four ideas Finance

for your brand, please schedule a customized Pavan Varma
presentation: +91-9987521735

Technology & Telecom

Manish Tahilyani
+91-9953591223

FMCG
Ashwin Venkatraman
+91-9611897125

Auto
Gaurav Kapur
+91-9810158071

Travel
Manan Singhi
+91-9818411908

Education
Ajay Malhotra
© 2009 Google Inc. All rights Reserved. Google and the Google logo are trademarks of Google Inc. No part(s) of this publication
may be copied and /or excerpted in any way, form or manner without the prior written permission from Google Inc.