I was surprised to see this public service advertisement from Google here on Banner Blindness.  I’m certainly not upset that Google is taking my ad inventory and using it to promote social welfare - this site isn’t really meant to make advertising revenue, but to find clients.  I wonder though: could Google be using the Chinese earthquake catastrophe to increase its goodwill with China and thus its search and advertising presence in China?  Serious investors are very cognizant of the fact that Baidu is a serious threat to the long term growth of Google.  Google has to take serious steps, such as raising money for Chinese disaster relief, in order to strategically position itself with Chinese communist leadership.  Baidu is a Chinese company, and therefore, the Chinese leaders want its nation to use a Chinese product - why send all the potential profits back to America?  Below is a screen shot of the Google Chinese disaster relief page:

There are also some additional resources on this page that are rather interesting - and of course they utilize Google products such as Google Maps (waring: link may take a long time to load as its in Chinese characters).  Google is having a hard time convincing the Chinese internet-going public to use its products.  Google is experiencing international growth headaches just as eBay has been facing them as well.  It seems like these types of international growth issues are the only “large scale” issues that I personally studied in college.  Google would be far better off purchasing Baidu instead of trying to compete with it; and eventually losing.  However, I think that Google is hesitant to purchase Baidu because they fear government intervention and losing billions to government interference.  Chinese communist leaders could determine that Google controls too much of the media in its country and reclaim Baidu, at Google’s expense.  China is still by far the fastest growing internet audience in the world and Google desperately needs them to switch from Baidu to Google.  Could this Chinese earthquake disaster be the stepping stone that Google needs in order to get the Communist leadership to assist it in gaining competitive advantage?  It certainly seems that way. aside from the fact that Google is “Doing no evil”.

If I wasn’t so established in the United States I would move to Thailand, Bali, China, India, Indonesia, or ANY third world country to start a business based on basic marketing and branding principles.  I’m currently in Thailand and amazed at the number of companies that have names like “Goi Chin Limited Trading Company” “Hang Seung Group” “Mokrat Hanolup Co.”  On a bus I saw Colonel Sanders from KFC “Kentucky Fried Chicken” - this is branding.  My sister made a simple yet poignant observation when she stated that the best billboards don’t “say” anything but the actual name of the company “a.k.a…the brand”.  So many start-ups, medium sized companies, entrepreneurs, and even corporations don’t FULLY realize what a brand is and what brand marketing is.  The following are some simple principles to consider when developing a marketing campaign based on a brand:

You need a logo.  A logo is a picture or text that is a “graphic”.  A “graphic” is professionally done, stands out from plain text, is attractive to the eye, and most importantly it is SIMPLE.  Less is more when creating a logo.

Your logo should include an image that represents the primary function of your business.  In the KFC example there is a bucket with Fried Chicken and Colonel Sanders.

When creating a billboard advertisement just advertise your Brand (logo).

The name of your company should be one word.  For example: McDonalds, Google, Yahoo, Chipotle, Dicks.  Antithesis: Panda Express, Sports Authority, etc…

In Thailand there are approximately 65 million people.  Pareato’s 80/20 principle tells us that approximately 50 million people work to support the 15 million (or upper/middle class) in Thailand.  The 15 million people are who businesses want to be targeting as they are the ones with disposable income.  15 million people is 1/5 the population of people in the US with disposable income; therefore, foreign countries present a tremendous opportunity to brand marketers.  Additionally, as 3rd world countries begin to roll-out more credit cards and other credit instruments (leases, mortgages, notes, etc…) you will see increased spending and less saving.

The # 1 viewed YouTube video today is Chinese propoganda. Below are screen shots:

I have to admit, the video brings out some valid points about Tibet being part of China. However, I don’t want to get into a political debate about whether or not Tibet should be a free nation or part of China. I would rather discuss the marketing and public relation aspects of using YouTube to espouse political views. To make a YouTube video one of the most watched videos, it is 99% of the time, viewed on a popular website with lots of visitors, and it becomes one of the most watched videos of the day, and then people visit the most watched videos of the day, generating even more daily views. This video receive a majority of its views from this chinese website. This video refutes all the negative press that US Media puts out about China, and hundreds of thousands of Americans have watched this. This hurts the Bush administration’s position on China and Tibet - and I think that position is pro Tibet and passively against China, as the Lama was just recently given some sort of peace prize from Bush. In short, YouTube is becoming a PR nightmare for powerful organizations and governments.