Online branding

The consolidation of Google

and the war against Facebook

Carlos A. Scolari - Universitat de Vic / Universitat Pompeu Fabra

carlos.scolari@gmail.com

www.digitalismo.com - www.hipermediaciones.com

Branding and possible worlds

• What’s a brand? The brand is a semiotic device (Semprini)

that:– Produces a discourse;– Creates a sense;– Communicates it to audiences.

• The brand is an interpretative contract between

the companies and the consumers: they propose a series

of values and consumers accept (or not) to participate

in this narrative world.

Brand-worlds

• Brands are possible worlds (Umberto Eco) that propose complex

narrative worlds. These worlds contain characters, and these

characters must satisfy their desires. These worlds also propose

stories that attract the consumers and feed their imaginary.

• Sometimes just one image is enough for building a universe of

senses and values.

• Possible worlds always are:

– Not completed: the enunciator can never tell the whole story. The reader must complete it!

– Consistent: we’ll never see the Marlboro’s cowboy with black tie or red shoes.

The Marlboro world

• World founded on a series of values (freedom, man, rural, etc.)

that create a difference with other worlds (brands based on

urban, feminine or funny values).

• Narrative level (Propp): cowboy (Subject-hero) works very hard

and smokes a Marlboro when the work is finished (Object).

• These values express in different texts and supports. They may

be also not be present in the final text.

• The brand-worlds propose different narrative programs

(Greimas) to their subjects (and to their consumers).

Online branding

• And what about the online brands? – ¿How can a narrative world be built in an interactive

environment?– ¿Do the narrative structures change when applied to interactive

environments?

• More than manipulating images or verbal discourses,

online brands have focused on the interactive experience

of their users.

"Every time a user successes developing a task in a website, the reputation of the brand increases.

When the user is frustrated, the reputation of the brand decreases."

McGovern, 2004

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Online branding

• In digital media the interaction –the interactive experience

of the user- is a basic component of the hypermedia mix

and a basic device for the construction of a brand.

• Companies like Facebook, Google, Amazon or eBay

do not focus on the graphic or verbal elements of the discourse:

they concentrate in the experience of their users.

• Like traditional brands, eBrands also propose narrative

programs to their subjects (and to their users).

• Let’s see the world of Google.

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The world of Google

• To search information in Google is a ”simple, honest and

objective” experience.

• World based on:– values (simplicity, speed) that introduce a difference with

other services (traditional portals like Yahoo)– oppositions (centrifugal/centripetal).

• Narrative level: the user (Subject) is searching for information

and manipulates an interface (Propp’s magical instrument)

to accomplish the task (Object).

• The hero is not a character: the user is the hero!

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The world of Google: logotype

• Graphic elements are in a secondary place: Google can modify

the logotype everyday and nobody cares… The symbolic capital

of the brand is not affect (Can we do the same with Coca-Cola

or Apple?).

• Where’s the symbolic capital of the Google brand:– The simplicity of the interface– The speed of the searching technology– The “democratic” output of the Page Rank system.

• What Google users see (the logotype) is not as important as

what they feel, that “simple, honest and objective” search of

information.

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The world of Google: the words

• Google’s narrative world has developed a semantic universe

around it called the "googlossary":– - Googolopoly: Google’s strategy for the domination of the

web– - Kilogoogle: 1.000 Google hits– - Google Dance: upgrade of the index every 20/30 days– - Google Doodle: logotype transformations

• The value of a brand … ¿Is it connected to the extension

of the semantic universe that it generates?

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The world of Google: the paratexts

• Hundreds of websites and blogs are dedicated to Google

(with or against Google). They talk about Google like

paratextual parasites.

• This textual network participates in the construction of the

narrative world of Google. This worlds are always incomplete

because the enunciator can never tell the whole story (the rest

is in the hands of the users).

• The value of a brand … ¿Can it be measured analysing the

paratextual blogs and websites grow around it?

But…

ALREADY OLD INFORMATION!MORE THAN 300 MILIONS USERS!!!

Google versus Facebook

Google

• Centrifugal website

• NO-place (Augé)

• Information is visible

(transparency)

• They know SOMETHING

about us

Facebook

• Centripetal website

• THE place (OS of the digital

natives)

• Information is no visible for

Google (walled-garden)

• They know A LOT about us.

If in the ‘80 the conflict was between interfaces

(Windows versus Mac), and in the ‘90 it was between

the browsers (Netscape versus Explorer), now

there’s a war for the control of the cloud computing.

The reaction of Google… Google Wave

The reaction of Google… Google Docs

The war has just started…

The war has just started…

BREAKING NEWSAGREEMENT GOOGLE-FACEBOOK!!!

The war has just started…

Real-time search

The war has just started…

Real-time search

Conclusions…. ?

Cancanier!

Pédant!

M'as-tu-vu!

Babillard!

Biblio

• Scolari, C. (2008a). Online brands. Branding, possible worlds

and interactive grammars. Semiotica. 169(1/4), 143–162.

• Vogelstein, F. (2007) Great Wall of Facebook: The Social

Network's Plan to Dominate the Internet — and Keep Google

Out. Wired Magazine: 17.07 - Online:

http://www.wired.com/techbiz/it/magazine/17-07/ff_

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Gracias!

facebook: carlos.scolari

carlos.scolari@gmail.com

twitter: cscolari

www.hipermediaciones.com

www.digitalismo.com