How do we build the amount of Google searches we get? Is there a correlation between a businesses Google searches and their stock price?
‘Bad Press is Better than No Press’ – PT Barnum
You’ve heard the expression there’s no such thing as bad publicity. The thought behind the proverb had originally been expressed earlier by Oscar Wilde. The only thing worse than being talked about is not being talked about. So why is this relevant? You want your brand to be talked about, to be seen and to be recognised surely, but not if it is linked to your brand. Your brand may suffer and consumers may recognise it for the negative press they have seen. Businesses of course suffer from bad press for a variety of reasons and Google does not discriminate. Websites that have Google ranking them on the 1st page of its search results for any given search are the ones to be considered most relevant or useful. Rankings are rankings, and can still increase whether the information on page 1 is positive or negative.
We wanted to look data behind the brands we know and their Google rankings. If a company was doing very well for themselves they may have a high ranking but what if there has been a scandal within a company? There stock growth may drop, but there google search might increase due to consumer curiosity or concern! We have pulled data from FTSE 100 companies to see how their Google rankings correlate to stock growth.
A Piece of Cake
Associated British Food is a British multinational food processing and retailing company whose headquarters are in London. Its ingredients division is the world’s second-largest producer of sugar and baker’s yeast and a major producer of other ingredients including emulsifiers, enzymes and lactose, have some interesting results. Known to be hovering over their debts but stable, their Google search results and stock price is almost perfectly contrasting. With a large-cap stock it is considered by a lot of investors as a safe investment bet. But research has shown that if a word such as “debt” increases in search frequency or decreases in search frequency from one week to the next, the Google ranking is obviously affected. With higher debt levels, stock price falls and Google ranking rises.
Oil and Gas Prices…
Oil and gas stocks represent an essential portion of the energy sector. In fact, they are often considered to be apart from other types of energy companies and this is because oil exploration, production and distribution companies foresee any fortunes to be very much linked to the price of crude oil, and it makes a lot more sense to consider these companies as their own entity. They are a huge global market holding large amount of asset. As we explore the top performing oil stocks below, we want to focus on the company’s broad set of interests and goals within this massive industry, and to be more specific, on branding.
A lot of respectable news platforms, such as the BBC, publish market data on oil and gas prices, stock market, and overall change. If there has been a crash within the oil stock price, Google search will inevitably rise as people demand further data and information. There is a clear relationship within oil and gas companies. A high level stock price means a lower Google search.
Branding vs Stock Price & Google Searches
Can we bring short-term sales goals and long term value together through brand-building and marketing? Originally known as Thomson Holidays, the holiday company decided to undertake a total rebrand, becoming TUI, in 2017. TUI UK is a UK-based travel operator and subsidiary of TUI Group. The Thomson Travel Group was owned by the Thomson Corporation of Canada until it was then floated on the London Stock Exchange back in the ‘98 – over 20 years ago. The headquarters of TUI UK is based in Luton, England. A few years of shedding Thomson to bring travel company Tui under one strong and one single brand has culminated in its largest marketing campaign ever. The path from Thomson’s transition to what it is known as today, Tui, was very long with everyone buckling down on the rebrand. Beginning about three years ago before being rolled out in Holland, Belgium and France with the UK being the final market to undergo the big shift and change. A large ad campaign launched on the October 18th 2017 to reinforce the rebrand with one last big push. It was developed by the committed agency partner, named Y&R, which was centered on the newest slogan. The slogan today is ‘We cross the ‘T’s, dot the ‘I’s and put ‘U’ in the middle’ and in fact has taken inspiration from a few musicals to “bring to life the idea that Tui takes care of you”.
So how did this affect the company? In 2017 (see graph below) amidst all the change, the company shot up in terms of stock prices and Google searches – a clear growth that can be put down to the massive rebrand that they worked so hard for. It paid off. Tui had never done so well as a company before. The CMO of TUI, Kate McAlister, had explained that upon this massive rebranding, they were able to see that their brand awareness had actually increased by a huge 36% in under one year, not to mention the growth of sales predicted to go up too. With their stock growth booming, Google searches also increased substantially.
Branding is a consistent combination of several factors that come together to create a company’s image.
The cold Coca Cola you’ve been craving, or the newest Apple iPhone upgrade. Brands, brands, brands. We recognise these immediately – we trust them. So how does branding impact stock price? Companies that have greater brand values experience significant positive returns. On average brand power accounts for 5% of a company’s stock price. This might not sound like a lot, but it is equivalent to the 6% attribute to the financial strength of a company, representing billions of dollars of market value.
Large brands such as Coca-Cola, attribute as much as 21% of market cap to their corporate brand alone.
Branding is also important when trying to cultivate more business. A strongly established brand can grow a business’ value by giving the company more leverage in the industry. This allows it to be an appealing investing opportunity as it is a firmly established place within the marketplace.
It also generates new customers and clients. Once a brand has been well-established, not only will its Google ranking rise but also word of mouth will be one of the company’s most effective advertising technique. A strategized brand will help build the company’s consumer-trust, as well as potential clients and customers. Which then comes hand in hand with advertising. Advertising is another component to branding, and advertising strategies will directly reflect the brand and its desired portrayal.
Advertising techniques such as the use of promotional products from companies that people trust, for example amazing branding, will make it easy to create a cohesive and appealing advertising plan that will help play well into a companies’ branding hopes for the future.