Google SCHMICK

April Fools, the notorious holiday of games, jokes, pranks, and gags.  Some relish it, others prefer to deny its existence.  The act of denial is the understood norm among corporate America and businesses in general.  Google, however....well they're Google.  The search-engine giant once again craftily found a way to participate in April Fools' Day without enraging too many masses.  For this year's April Fools' Day the company released Google SCHMICK which stands for Simple Complete House Makeover Internet Conversion Kit.  Apparently, the SCHMICK is an addition to the company's Street View service.  It lets users decorate their boring houses with tons of features and themes.  In a way, the user becomes an impromptu home architect.  Ok, so what's the big catch with Google SCHMICK??  In order to play along with the holiday, everything about Google SCHMICK is actually fake.  That's right, there's no real service to virtually decorate your house.  In fact viewers that click on the dummy link for the fake service get routed to a blank April Fools' page.  All in all I think Google implemented a hilarious and harmful prank.  1) It's so minimal of a prank that no is likely to get seriously offended.  2) There are a few things to be gained from this little prank.  For instance, what if Google wanted to seriously implement SCHMICK?  Now they have an idea of how much buzz was generated on the web and its search engine about the fictional service.  Also, the company could gauge consumer interest on this fake product based on click-throughs of the dummy link.  Who knows, this little prank generated tons of data, and we all know Google aims to be the king of data.  Perhaps the jokes on us, as Google uses a prank to launch its next revolutionary product.

March Madness Marketing

Every year as the month of February comes to a close, basketball fanatics prepare for the craziness that is March Madness.  Fans support their team, and everyone jumps at the chance to become an amateur bracketologist and pick the winners for each round.  However, just as college basketball enthusiasts plan and prepare for the NCAA tournament so do businesses.  Nike, Adidas, and Under Armor compete for the right to be the official athletic apparel sponsors for each competing team.  Strategies for designing the best uniforms that will result in jersey and team apparel sales from fan bases are heavily considered.  Additionally, just like the Super Bowl, various businesses are competing for commercial space and air-time to attract the large viewership of the March Madness tournament.  Also, TV networks like Turner Broadcasting and CBS battle it out for the rights to air NCAA basketball games.  I find it interesting how so many facets of marketing surround this one singular tournament.  But if there's a lesson to be learned, it is that strategy is key.  If a business is going to get involved with the March Madness tournament, whether through designing apparel, airing games, or buying airtime for commercials, they better have a knowledgable staff regarding the teams that play and their popularity with the American public.