Narayan Kulkarni

The vacation of my first semester of MBA class  was over and was all set for the second semester to begin. We got the syllabi for our second semester from our course coordinator with all the new books and authors published which would be required as reference material for our second semester. I was quite reluctant in getting or buying the books at first instance without having seen it or experience it. May be at that moment I realized the human attitude towards the buying pattern has already evolved over a period of time. i.e. the basic principle of traditional path to purchase modeled as stimulus + Shelf + Experience is no more traditional and has evolved.

Stimulus is first you are aware of a product via advertisements or promotions or by identifying your need. Shelf is where you evaluate a product on store or practical by examining it off shelf. Experience is something you have experienced the product after buying it and evaluate post purchase whether it has met your expectations fulfilling your needs. Here the Shelf or evaluating a product refers to as “First Moment of Truth” and this moment was first discovered by P&G (Procter & Gamble) that leads to the mindset whether to purchase or not. The product experience post purchase whether it has fulfilled your promise is referred to as “Second Moment of Truth”.

I encountered many such practical situations day today when I am standing there and looking at many cell phones/Refrigerators/Televisions from varied brands and which one buy? First thing that strikes to my mind is grab my notebook or my smart phone and look at the review the consumers have posted for the particular model that I want to buy. Is it worth the value of the cost? or any other brand is providing better features or services with the same price? The best brands consistently win two moment of truths. First occurs at the store shelf where I decide which one to buy, either one brand or another. The second occurs at my home when I use the brand and I am satisfied / delighted or not?

Google’s Jim Lecinski comes up with new Study referred to as “Winning The Zero Moment of Truth”. It states there’s new critical moment of decision that happens before consumers get to the stores and their first impression is the final decision and will be made at that moment: Zero Moment of Truth. May be this happened to me and of course many of us when we see an advertisement in the TV and I liked the ad and before going to the store I would surely grab my notebook or smart phone to really know the review of the product. Finally, I bought my book having heard the review from my friends and I am satisfied too. I learnt, I decided at the Zero Moment of Truth. Winning the Zero Moment of Truth – ZMOT is really amazing study by Google and how social conversations really influenced new model of changing behavior among all consumers.

I think its been since a long time all SEO’s were waiting for this right time to understand the Google’s strategy of organizing the keywords based on its importance. Below is the list from A to Z that showed up in the Google Instant for faster searches.

A – Amazon, AOL, Apple, ATT.

B – BART, Bank of America, Best Buy, Bing.

C – Craigslist, Costco, CNN, Chase.

D – DMV, Dictionary, Droid X, Disneyland.

E -Ebay, ESPN, Expedia, Evite.

F -Facebook, Facebook login, Fandango, FIFA.

G -Gmail, Google maps, Google, Great America.

H -Hotmail, Hulu, Home Depot, HP.

I -Iphone, Ikea, Inception, IMDB.

J -Jet Blue, Jeremy Lin, Jamba Juice, Java.

K -Kaiser, KTUV, Kayak, Kohls.

L -Lowes, Lost, LinkedIn, Limewire.

M -Mapquest, Myspace, MSN, Maps.

N -Netflix, Nordstrom, NBA, News.

O – utsidelands, Orbitz, OSH, Office Depot.

P -Pandora, PG&E, Paypal, Petco.

Q -Quotes, QVC, Quicktime, Quinoa.

R -REI, Ross, Redfin, Rosh Hashanah.

S -Skype, SFGate, Sears, Southwest.

T -Target, Twitter, Thesaurus, Travelocity.

U -USPS, UPS, United Airlines, Utube.

V -Verizon, Virgin America, VLC, Verizon Wireless.

W -Weather, Walmart, Wells Fargo, Wikipedia.

X -Xbox, XKCD, XM Radio, Xfinity.

Y -Yahoo, Youtube, Yahoo Mail, Yelp.

Z -Zillow, Zappos, Zipcodes, Zynga.

If you have a brand with a single letter, its a golden opportunity to be in the above list…

Today I saw the first Google Adsense on my orkut homepage. I think Google has started campaigning their marketing strategies of Sponsored Links on the Orkut Social Networking site. These are viewed just below the Community column. Since I saw this for the first time today, and I am not sure whether they dispayed these sponsored ads before this.

After Orkut what is Google’s next marketing strategy to invite more visitors for thier ads?

“Impossible is just a big word thrown around by small men who find it easier to live in the world they’ve been given than to explore the power they have to change it. Impossible is not a fact. It’s an opinion. Impossible is not a declaration. It’s a dare. Impossible is potential. Impossible is temporary. Impossible is nothing”.