Tallen Lu

Angie Wong

Dylan Chancey

SWOT Analysis for Google

Google products and services are generally used by most people with Internet

access on a daily basis. Despite their reputation as a powerful multinational technology

company, Googles products are not as invincible as some falsely believe. In fact,

Google has had a history of creating failed products that never gained popularity with

their targeted market. However, Google still created numerous successful diversified

products ranging from the Chrome web browser to the Android mobile operating

system. This project will assess the four controllable aspects or marketing mix of

Googles business. Although there are controllable aspects, there are also

uncontrollable conditions Google has to deal with such as competitive, regulatory,

economic, social, and technological factors. Like other companies, Google has its own

strengths and weaknesses with opportunities that they can exploit and threats that can

damage their business.

Strengths in SWOT

There are a variety of differentiated products and services that Google offers to

its customers. For example, some of the services it offers are Google Maps, Google

Translate, Google Documents, etc. The main product it offers to its customers is a

search engine that makes it easier to find the information customers need. Googles

brand name is so strong that it is used as almost a synonym to searching anything on

the internet. People say they Google it when they plan to search something online
even though Google is just one search engine and not the entire market. YouTube, the

leading video sharing website and a Google acquisition also has such a strong product

brand name that whenever people think about video streaming, YouTube is probably

the first website that comes to mind. Despite many of their products failing, Googles

search engine and some of their other more well-known products are viewed as

qualitatively superior to those of their competitors. For example, Gmails massive

storage space was revolutionary in the time of its debut. According to Business Insider,

Google Translate can provide instant translation for up to 64 languages. The Bing

equivalent of Google Translate is not nearly as popular in comparison. There is no

monetary price to use most Google products. Yes, one must have internet access to

use most of these products but Google is not the company that charges them for

internet use. YouTube, Google Translate, Google Maps, Chrome, etc. can all be

accessed for free. Google prides itself on enhancing user experience by making it highly

accessible. Google Docs for example serves as a free alternative to the much more

expensive Microsoft Office. Products like Google Docs or YouTube do not suffer sub-

par functionality as a result of being free since most of Googles revenues come from

ads generated by user activities. Unlike companies such as Best Buy or McDonalds

who needs physical places for their business, the majority of Googles services are all

offered online. This makes it easily accessible and convenient for customers. According

to the business and industry department for the Government of Queensland Province

Australia, there are several advantages in doing business online as opposed to trying to

get services to customers physically. The online businesses like Google have a global

access at all times and can be managed anywhere in the world. People can purchase
products and receive customer service effectively and efficiently that way. One of the

ways Google can use strengths to address weaknesses and threats is by using their

massive ability to reach people online to advertise themselves on new products and

products that they know customers want instead of diverting resources to TV and

newspaper ads to promote their products that do not appeal to people such as the

Google+ social media outlet.

Weaknesses in SWOT

Contrary to what some might believe, Google actually spends considerable

resources promoting itself. According to Matt McGee of the Marketing Land (a digital

marketing and technology new outlet), Google spent about 70 million dollars on TV ads

in the United States alone. Google continues to win hearts and minds with the

promotion of their most well-known services. However, much of their promoted products

are the ones that are struggling to gain popularity with Internet users. In the past they

promoted products like Google Video that failed to achieve much success for the

product. Google ended up having to buy YouTube instead. Currently, Google is focused

on promoting Google+. Despite dramatic measures such as taking entire pages out in

the New York Times to for advertisement, Google+ has not seen significant user

engagement. Luckily, Google does use their strengths in promoting their more

successful products to cover the fact that some of their other products fall short.

Technologically, Google is advanced but they cannot control what other technological

innovations other companies come up with. Technology issues that limit Google are the

social media aspects of it and also how people look for information on smartphones.

Google is not the leader in social media technology. Google cannot hinder or take away
people from Facebook or Twitter with Google Plus. Some companies that threaten

Googles products are Apple and Amazon. The IPad and the Kindle Fire could threaten

Google products such as the Google Reader. The Apple app store can also be a threat

to the Google Play store.

Opportunities in SWOT

Google is presented with tremendous opportunities in uncontrollable recessions

in the national and global economies. While that may sound strange at first, but Google

actually improves their revenue during economic downturns. Economic issues such as

high unemployment and increasing inflation rates actually drives people into the arms of

Google products. According to Time Magazine, everyone turns to free services such as

the ones Google provides especially in difficult economic times. People look for new

jobs, opportunities, and advice on Google and companies are in more dire need to use

Google to advertise their products in order to avoid further financial damages to their

business. Googles revenue increased by $1.35 in the year after the 2008 financial

crisis. They can capitalize on their increased earnings during times where other

companies are experiencing net losses to further aid the innovation and improvement of

products and services. Other uncontrollable aspect that presents Google with

opportunities is the increasing social influence of Google. According to Time Magazine,

Google has become an essential part of peoples daily lives. Whether people use

Google products for work or leisure, they have become very reliant on them. This is true

for most hailing from Generation X and even more so for younger people in Generations

Y and Z. Also as people in developing countries such as India grow their middle class,

there will be an increased amount of Internet users which means more potential
customers for Google products. International businesses which rely heavily on Google

will relocate to those places will likely make use of Google and influence the local

populace to do the same. Huge foreign markets could be opened up to Google in the

future. As businesses and average people across the globe becomes more reliant on

Google and their services, perhaps Google can use their good reputation with them to

persuade more government leniency in regulating them. After all, providing free services

enhancing the needs of common people have saved Google from antitrust lawsuits

before.

Threats in SWOT

When assessing the Googles search engine market share, it could be difficult to

imagine that Google faces any major threats from competitors. After all, Googles iconic

search engine dominates competition such as Bing and Yahoo Search with more than

60% of the market share. However, other competition presents threats to Googles

business. Google generates most of its revenue by online advertising but social media

sites such as Facebook are now challenging them in this aspect. Google uses their

search engine to track a users interests to provide free advertisements. According to

Investopedia, Facebook noticed that they can use the same principles with their user

profiles to generate personalized advertising and then allow advertisers pay for the ads

to appear users newsfeeds. Facebook ads superior ability to reach people through

specific profile information presents a severe challenge to Googles practice of

generating ads through search strings. While Google still leads online marketing,

several advertisers have already decided to make the switch to Facebook. Google also

faces threats from government regulations. Antitrust laws are set up by governments to
regulate the activities of corporations like Google. Being found guilty of violating antitrust

charges could have severe consequences. According to Russia Today, Google faced

such charges in the European Union in 2015 after European and American corporations

accused Google of favoring their own products over those of their competitors in their

search engine. If the European Commission finds Google guilty of this, it can fine the

company more than $6 billion and force Google to alter their business practices.

Unfortunately for Google, regulatory factors such as this could not be controlled. This

isnt the first time Google has been brought to court for similar accusations. As a major

company, they will continue to face this kind of challenge.

Conclusion

Google is a strong company. By using the marketing mix which is product, price,

promotion, and place, this company is able to discover their consumers need and

satisfy it as well. This company offers products that consumers use because they are

convenient and helpful, allowing customers to continue coming back to use their

services. However, although Google is a large and successful company, it has also

experienced downturns due to uncontrollable factors such as competitive, regulative,

economic, social, and technology. Google has its strengths but also has its weaknesses

through several failed products. This company also has had many opportunities to grow

and expand their company even through recessions. However, Google also

experiences threats such as competition and a past lawsuit. All in all, Google still

continues to grow and fulfill customers needs.

 Works Cited

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$70M On TV Ads. MarketingLand, 27. March. 2012. Web. 11 Feb. 2016

Poppick, Susie. 10 Ways Google Changed the World. Time Magazine, 18. Aug. 2014.

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