Google+ - Just a Testing phase or a Marketing ploy??

Google Plus.

As of now, the internet is flooded with posts regarding the new G+ social networking initiative by Google+, so I daresay it has become the current G-spot of the internet. There are the praisers and there are the nay-sayers. Mostly praisers.

This brings us to the focus of this blog. Analysis of Google's Marketing Strategy which they have employed for G+; and is their general approach for almost all of their products.

So before I begin, Let me ask you a very silly question. Why are diamonds so dear; but sand so cheap? Both Diamonds and sand find equally useful applications and yet the discrepancy in their values is mind boggling. The key word here is Rarity. If we simply reverse the availability of sand and diamonds (that is make diamonds as abundant as sand and sand as rare as diamonds), the value of the two will be swapped accordingly as well.

The point I am trying to make is, it is human nature to value things that are rare and cannot be attained easily.
Rarity == Value.
The good people at Google understand this very well. As 'TechCrunch' puts it, "Google has tried to downplay its super top secret social project as much as humanly possible". And when one day, they were finished with coding and testing, their product was ready to go on air, poof, they put just put a black bar on their homepage. I for one had though it to be a permanent design change until I read about G+.

I was one of the lucky ones to get in without any glitches. So, I came, I saw, and I liked what I saw. I ran back to Facebook to herald it to the world - All behold! A worthy opponent to Facebook arrives. Everyone was obviously curious, but when they tried to get in, they were denied entry. The reason being - G+ had exceeded its sign-ups capacity.

Like Really?! Who would have thought the words 'Google' and 'Low capacity' would ever make their way into a single sentence! Okay okay, I already hear y'all arguing that G+ is still in its testing phase. And perhaps you are right. But I can't help wondering, if it was more of a marketing ploy rather than 'just pure testing'. By letting only a certain chunk of people in, Google managed to get rest of the left-out ones curious. And suddenly, the fact that you hold a G+ account is a thing to gloat about and to get your friends jealous.

So there, create a scarcity to increase the demand. Make it a rarity, and hence increase its value. So, without any countdown, without any trumpet blowing, without a single advertise anywhere* - Google managed to turn everyone's head to their product. A super cheap yet super efficient marketing ploy. Ingenious I say.


* personally, I dint see a single ad. Feel free to let me know via comments if you saw any G+ ads.


PS: Don't try this marketing strategy with your mid-sized business. It only works for the giants.

An Official Story

It’s another day at Money makers, Ltd. The haughty Miss. Boss walks in swiftly. She shoots an order at Mr. Ego to give her the report within 5 minutes and then disappears into her cabin. The roving eye of Miss. Chic–the secretary, lingers towards her legs; she hurries towards Miss. Frolic, the receptionist to point out to her, the new Prada shoes Miss Boss is wearing. Miss. Chic prides herself to be omni-knowledgeable about her boss and to nobody’s surprise is the source of all the gossip in the office. Ms. Frolic loves her job as she gets to chat on the phone to her heart’s pleasure; needless to say, she does just that.

Mr. Ego darts an irritated glance at the boss’s cabin. He doesn’t really like being ordered about by a woman like most of his male colleagues, and even more so when he has to submit an unfinished report in 5 minutes. Naturally he gets fired for his lack of punctuality. He leaves the cabin fuming only to make way towards his all-time favorite pals Mr. Baldie– the hen-pecked husband, and Mr. Snob–the pompous. The trio loves to gossip about their boss. And the fact that she is a woman only adds to their ire. Each one has their valuable inputs for the better administration of their workplace.

How they wish they had Mr. Mystery for their boss! Apart from Miss. Sensible– the accountant, everyone seems blind to Mr. Mystery’s follies and his “black” ways, because they think they’ll be better administered by a dynamic young man that he is. Miss. Chic and Miss. Frolic are awestruck by Mr. Mystery’s exuberant charisma and charming personality. Mr. Techie declares that Mr. Mystery is the proud owner of the ‘Oh-So-Luxurious’ car, but also reluctantly admits that Money Makers have better equipments than Mr. Mystery’s Money Takers Inc. His sentence is followed by unanimous scoffs by his male colleagues. Mr. Know-it-all is quick to add that Mr. Mystery was declared by the Ace Magazine as the Ace Entrepreneur. Miss Sensible is sensible enough to realize, the Money Makers Ltd. is far better off under Miss. Boss’s reign and Mr. Mystery would only care for his own pockets than the employees. Her remarks are met by some more scoffs.

Consequently, Mr. Mystery with his manipulative ways is successful in taking over Money Makers, Ltd., much to the joy of Mr. Ego, Mr. Baldie and rest of the male clan.

Now that things have changed, Mr. Ego and the others don’t really appreciate their diminishing salary and harsher working conditions. They yearn for their former boss. After all, when it comes to money, gender doesn’t really matter. Does it?