Google Brand | IPO | Brand Management

What will be the result of Google's IPO?

Berkshire Hathaway proves that it’s possible to go public and still exist under ones own terms. Google has a good chance to retain its quirky brand despite shareholder pressures.

Frank Fisher, Financial Services - May 3, 2004

The paid advertising was the beginning of the end for Google. The brand is almost entirely functional. So the minute its search results become questionable, the brand is sunk.

Concerned Google Addict - May 3, 2004

With Yahoo and Microsoft breathing down their neck, I hope that Google can hold true to their guns. When measured against the hype, I do wonder how successful the IPO can be.

Let's hope that investors' pressures will not sacrifice the purity of Google's search.

Daniella Sceats, MARE, Amsterdam - May 3, 2004

Google,
This company has respected its user base from day one, been honest, continued to deliver value, and deserves to buck the monopolistic financial system that does not produce product.

Being in Australia it will be hard to buy stock, but i i am able to will support Google . Since the first day i was intrduced to Google by an English friend i have not bothered with any other search engine. Have a G'day from Australia

Chris Drysdale, Director, 2SS Solutions & strategies - May 3, 2004

Google has some advanced search facilities that make it so much easier to retrieve academic research - which makes it a winner in my books.

Monique Broekaert, Academic Librarian, IMM Graduate School of Marketing - May 4, 2004

Branding is about values and communities. There is a brand community. And now there's the financial community.

I believe that the most important fact is that google has become – as every sucessful brand - something human, something social. Google is friendly, looks like a smart hobbytool with maybe 20 people behind. It's a friend you invite into your computer, your home and its not a part of corporate america. Thats the most important brand facts that are creating all the spirit and power behind the brand.

From this point of view the ipo must be something social, something shared. Google follows with its/his ipo-strategy this key facts. But i don`t believe that the financial community is thinking the same.

Markus Petzl, Brand Consultant, Institut für Markenentwicklung Graz/Austria - May 4, 2004

Google going public means it will have to compromise on so many aspects of its brand that it risks becoming like Yahoo! -- A diffused brand that changes direction every few months.

As Google concentrates on how to remain profitable, it will take its eye off of its great service. The very real demands of being a public company cannot be good for the future of Google.

Anonymous - May 6, 2004

Google's culture is 'do no evil,' which is good but i'm not sure it's living up to that. Plans to launch an email system that reads through our mail so Google can sell advertising is pretty evil. Going public will just tempt Google into other similarly evil ideas to make money.

Disgusted - May 7, 2004

We all know Google as the 'friendly' and 'free of advertisment' search toll on the Internet. I think its going-public strategy will put Google at the same level of other search tolls in most of Users' minds; that will make it oose its positions as the TOM on this field. It's something that has to be deeply analyzed.

Marco Alvarez, MKT Student, PUCE UIO - May 8, 2004

People use google first and foremost because it is the best product. As long as it remains that way, people will continue to flock to use it.

James Watson, Solicitor - May 10, 2004

Going public will only 'brand' Google like the other guy(s). What makes it different – easy, fast, accurate, etc., will no longer be an issue. In other words, Google is walking away from their brand identity. Which begs the question, "Was their brand still working, or had it become stale?" From a consumer's point of view, I question whether going public will help or hinder?