Andrew Walmsley on digital: Agencies dismiss search at their peril

search marketing, and it has become a vital weapon in the marketer's
armoury, making Google one of the biggest media companies in the
world.

Search isn't new, but we are hearing some remarkable thinking about it
from the traditional media world. I was at the WARC Research Conference
a few weeks ago, and was struck when one of the speakers opined that he
'wasn't really sure that search is really advertising - it is just
distribution'.

Nobody picked him up on it, and clearly smoking the same meme, M&C
Saatchi chairman Moray MacLennan at the FT Digital Media Conference a
couple of days later picked up on the same theme. 'When you are putting
money into search, you are taking it out of marketing,' he said. 'All
you are doing is buying a space on the internet high street. You are
commoditising your brand.'

Are they right? Is search advertising or marketing at all? Is it just
distribution? Let us for a moment assume that MacLennan is right -
search is simply buying space on the internet high street. If he means
that it is a part of distribution, then that would make it part of
McCarthy's four 'p's of marketing. If he means that it is part of what
many marketers call 'the last six feet', then to dismiss it as
commoditisation of the brand is to similarly exclude in-store
merchandising.

And are you commoditising your brand by using search? A commodity has no
differentiating characteristics, and is bought on price only, so is
search leading brands this way? That is up to us. If we choose to throw
up our hands in resignation at this challenge, the brands we nurture
will probably wither - either becoming commoditised, or more likely,
beaten into submission by those who rise to the challenge, because
consumers make brand choices in search.

This isn't speculation, it is empirically demonstrated by the data.
Search engine users don't make just one search before a purchase,
typically, they make several. We can track this behaviour, and
understand how the process works as they progress - say, 'flat-screen
TV', 'Sony TV', 'Bravia', and often the model number. We can see where
they were diverted to competitors, and where competitors lost them to
us, and, most importantly, we can influence this with the text we use in
the listing, and test that copy to refine its effectiveness.

If we say the right things, and do so in the right places, we can work
to protect, and even build, our brand premium.

This is marketing, and, moreover, it is advertising, in a pure,
analytical and rather detail-obsessive way. To master it truly, we must
understand how it creates value in the marketing and media mix, and
where and how it influences users on their journey to being customers.
We are not going to get there if we dismiss it.

I suspect MacLennan was being deliberately provocative. However, what he
said plays to the prejudices of the Luddite faction, and is on the lips
of many in what, for want of a better term, might be referred to as
'traditional' advertising. For these increasingly beleaguered folk,
these fresh forms of advertising and marketing are sparking a semantic
debate, rather than a determined attempt to master techniques that bring
real value to marketers.

For these folk, the barbarians are at the gate, and they are using
Google to get in.

- Andrew Walmsley is co-founder of i-level

30 SECONDS ON ... MCCARTHY'S FOUR 'P'S

- E Jerome McCarthy, a professor at Michigan State University, proposed
the four 'p's - product, price, place and promotion - in 1960.

- They make up the marketing mix and describe the strategic position of
a product in the marketplace.

- By offering a product with the right combination of the four 'p's,
marketers can improve their results and marketing effectiveness.

- Small changes in the marketing mix are considered to be tactical,
while big changes in any of the four 'p's can be considered
strategic.

- Peter Doyle argued in 2000 that the marketing mix approach leads to
unprofitable decisions because it is not grounded in financial
objectives such as boosting shareholder value.

- An expanded system, based on seven 'p's, stresses the importance of
place, product, price, promotion, people, process, and physical
evidence.