After reading Adweek’s blog entry by David Gianatasio, I felt the urge to further comment on this new initiative by Google. Helpouts is a live video-chat network of more than 1000 experts on a variety of fields such as music, cooking, fitness, home repair and many others. The idea is very straight forward. People who don’t want to leave the comforts of their homes, can just go online and get free or paid tutoring for playing guitar, baking a cake, yoga lessons, etc.
David makes the case that Helpouts makes the relationship between humans and computers stronger than ever. Helpouts slogan is that they deliver customers with “real help from real people in real time”. Although I agree that the “real” component is clearly overstated, considering the fact that you’re interacting with a computer at the end of the day, I can’t help but notice that from a marketing perspective, Google’s marketing team is doing a great job.
Nowadays, in a digitally driven world, having a significant presence online is probably what matters the most in terms of being recognized worldwide. After all, it isn’t mere coincidence that companies all around the world use social media as a means to reach out to their target segments. Thus, this latest addition to Google’s product breadth makes the California-based company even more omnipresent online. Marketing excellence achieved through the expansion of its marketing mix to satisfy even more segments of its customer base.
Lets face it. Nowadays, it is seen as normal by society for human interaction to take place through an online medium, albeit this is not ideal, it is the reality. Like in any competitive industry, therefore, Google must seize every opportunity to remain on top of the game.