Google faces Competition from Local Vendors

Google has a new competitor who is using his logo. I am not talking about Yahoo or MSN but someone who is far smaller. That same color combination. I was shocked when I saw the picture. It happened when I was shopping in one of the markets in Bandra. I saw a Golawala or sharbat wala. Just for the information of those who do not understand "Golawala" Gola is a kind of refreshment which is made of ice and topped with flavored syrups. It is called Golawala in India or sharbatwala. It looked like an ordinary sharbatwala untill I saw the name on the signboard it was written "Gogola" with the color combination of that of GOOGLE (red, blue and yellow). The pictures above will clearly represent what I am referring to. This creative is not the product of any top level advertising agency but it is created by someone who does not even know what Google stands. When I asked the vendor what prompted him to keep this name and all he said was that this idea came from his 15 year old son who studies in school and he created this. He himself does not know what this stands for. If you note there are two generations involved, one who does not even know what it stands for and the other one has probably learnt from school. The point I am trying to make here is Google has become such a common name and the brand is so powerful that it can be used innovatively to sell products. He added that people have asked him and have bought his product because of the name under which he is selling. When I told him what Google is he said "Hame kya karna hai saab.........Hamara maal bikna chahiye. Agar iss naam se bikta hai to yahee sahee".So now we know how powerful can the name Google be and its implications at the very ground level.