R&R Partners: Build the Brand, Protect the Brand

It’s no secret that I am completely and totally enamored with Google. I spend my days wondering what they’ll invent next or what company they will buy. I love their desire to simplify search, browsing, photo sharing, blogging, communicating etc., etc., etc. I love that they open the source code and invite others to create things that make what Google does and my Internet world even better. I just got done reading a blog about the new Google Chrome Operating System. I love the idea behind it. I love that they keep it simple mentality. I love that they intend to make your PC operating system light on memory use, easy to use, open source, and reliant on the Web for the bulk of the computing. But, another Google product in my life also gets me thinking.

Think about this for a minute. You use Google to search and they know what you search for. You might use a Google Android phone and they know who you call, where you go every day and what apps you download, buy, etc. They know who your friends are and what you talk about by offering products like Gmail, Google Messenger and now, Wave. And, with this new browser, they’ll learn more.

I wonder what Google does with all of that data they collect. I wonder if it’s good to have one company know so much about me. I think of movies like Terminator and Minority Report and think to myself the rise of the machine is inevitable. I think about which Gap pants will be suggested to me as I walk by the outdoor board and it scans my retinas (please note, I am a nerd). I also ponder the billions of ways marketers can use that data. Part of me drifts into daydreams of robust targeting methodologies and one-to-one messaging. I dream of automated systems delivering multivariate ad units that can predict what products and services a consumer is likely to buy next based on the millions of other consumer data profiles. Some of these things may be built by now. I dream of a future where companies consult with Google to determine what types of business models to pursue. Why? Because Google will know everything we’re talking about, searching for and buying to the person. Why not start your R&D process with Google? How much would that data be worth to you as a business searching for new products to build and market?

Did Minority Report predict the future of advertising?

I also think about how annoying all of that could be. I think about the plethora of spam that lands in my e-mail inbox. I think about the spam-robot Twitter followers I swat at on a daily basis. I think about how much I hate it when people tell me what I should need or want. I am a free thinker after all. Not really!

Remember that old cartoon where the bulldog is being annoyed to death by the little dog that jumps around saying, “Hey Spike! Hey Spike! Hey Spike!”? We run the danger of being that little annoying dog. As marketers, we have a responsibility to not annoy people. To use the knowledge we have for the purpose of good. Not evil. Our responsibility is to the consumer and for us to provide them with messages that improve their lives. To send them messages they want, when they want them, how they want them. Google is our friend. Not the Terminator.