Google's Annual Report: Two Targeted Publics

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Google targets a small audience with their Annual Report. This is not a tool to communicate with their customers and consumers, the media, or their employees. It is tightly focused on exactly two publics: Google's investors and the United States federal government. The primary reasons that the annual report does not also try to target other publics are the differences in the type and amount of detail required by each public. Investors are looking for this information to determine whether to buy, sell, or hold their shares. The government, specifically the Securities and Exchange Commission, wants this information to make sure that Google is operating within federal law. Both of these groups need highly detailed financial information for their purposes. Of Google's other publics, some groups such as employees or the media may be interested in some financial information. For example, if the company is doing poorly, some employees may lose their jobs. The media will take note if Google reports record profits. However, neither group really requires the level of detail as the government and investors. Other publics, such as customers and consumers, have little to no interest in financial information of any kind and only care about new products and features. The company has other channels and formats for communicating with these other publics. Rather than making a long report even longer by trying to cater to the diverse needs and wants of all their publics, Google's annual report zeroes in on two publics who are interested in the same information. When we look at the characteristics of these two publics, we find that the government and investors have other things in common. For instance, both of these groups are trad... ... middle of paper ... ...vely. In this case, the information in this annual report is a valuable resource that Google controls and these two publics need. As far as I can tell, this publication is effective in reaching the target audiences. The report was submitted directly to the SEC and is readily available to investors in the Investor Relations section of Google's website. It appears to go beyond the most basic requirements of such a report and offers additional information such a long list of risk factors for the company. The report is visually appealing and easy to read due to good formatting and font choices. Only a financial expert would be able to say whether the report covers absolutely everything that investors and the government might desire, but the continued success of Google in 2009 suggests that this report contained everything these two targeted publics needed to know.

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