MNG91002 – Entrepreneurship and Marketing Session 1, 2015
Assignment 2: Case Analysis – Google
The purpose of this assignment is to provide you with an opportunity to apply knowledge, theory, frameworks and tools from the early part of the unit to an analysis of the marketing practices of a real organisation. You will work in analysing the strategies pursued by Google since its creation. You will evaluate the strategies and their effectiveness and relate those real-life experiences to relevant research and theory. The aim is to provide experience of marketing analysis and practice and to determine your ability to relate real marketing strategy to theory and research.
The Overall Task
It was mid 1998. The dot com bubble had started to burst, and with it the demise of some of the Web’s earliest search tools and browser platforms. Yet despite such chaos, two Stanford University PhD students set about ‘organising the world’s information and mak[ing] it universally accessible and useful’ (Google Mission Statement). From those initial plans grew a multinational firm, now with 53,000 employees, and a market capitalisation of $USD360 billion.
A great documentary on Google can be found at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dnabJegAtMY
Your task in this case analysis is to answer three questions by critically analysing Google’s history, resources and market situation. Please do not just describe events, although you should read Google’s history to understand the background to your analysis. You should use the principles and concepts that you have learned in marketing-related modules to answer the following two questions:
1. WhatmarketingstrategyorstrategieshasGoogleadoptedsinceitwascreated?Answerthis question by applying one or more of the theoretical marketing approaches and/or models discussed in the literature.
2. WhatstrategicmarketingoptionscanyoudescribeforGoogleifitwishestoremaina successful organisation throughout the next decade? Answer this question based on a SWOT analysis of the circumstances that exist in 2014/15 and your best forecasts of relevant future industry factors.