Marvin Chow on raising up Asian-owned businesses through Google products

Ad Age is marking Asian American and Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander Heritage Month 2023 with our Honoring Creative Excellence package. (Read the introduction here.) Today, our guest editor Soyoung Kang turns the spotlight to Marvin Chow, VP of global marketing at Google. Here, Chow writes about the rollout of community representation labels on Google Search and Maps. As a marketer, I’ve always gotten tremendous satisfaction from marrying my craft with my convictions, especially bringing beautiful stories to the world that showcase my brand’s values—and my own. But while at Google, I’ve also witnessed, time after time, how “purpose-driven marketing” is so much bigger than traditional storytelling or communications around a single campaign. Walking the talk on brand values is one the hardest things for a brand to do, yet one of the most impactful ways to drive cultural change and positive brand impact. For us, that’s about solving real problems and lifting underrepresented groups through Google products directly, driving change through technology and everyday behaviors. One of the simplest yet personally meaningful examples for me has been our work to make Google Search and Maps more helpful. Millions of people turn to these products to make decisions about which local business to support—whether it’s where to eat, shop or get a pet groomed. Since 2018, we’ve made it easier for businesses and organizations to celebrate their communities and identity. We launched our first representation label, for women-owned businesses, in March 2018, followed soon after by the veteran-owned attribute. During the social unrest of 2020, when searches for Black-owned businesses spiked 600%, we added Black-owned—and 97% of Black business owners have seen positive impact when identifying as Black-owned online. We’ve continued to build on the momentum, adding Latino-owned in 2021, and most recently, last year, LGBTQ+ owned and Asian-owned. As an Asian American myself, the launch of the Asian-owned business attribute in the U.S. was a bittersweet moment. While members of the Asian American and Pacific Islander community continued to face an onslaught of hate and violence, the Asian-owned attribute felt particularly symbolic of strength, solidarity and pride. The groundswell of activism for #StopAsianHate had fueled hope, and in March 2021, while Google Search interest in the U.S. for “Asian hate crimes” reached record highs, so too did Google Search interest in “Asian-owned”—a clear signal that people were looking for productive ways to direct their allyship. So it was a notable milestone to deliver a scalable product solution for Asian-owned businesses to get spotlighted and found—and, in turn, for consumers to shop their values and show ongoing support for them. As empowering as the product feature is, the process in bringing it to market was equally meaningful. We worked with hundreds of Asian-owned businesses to make sure the attribute celebrated the diversity of Asian cultures, and we partnered with the U.S. Pan Asian American Chamber of Commerce Education Foundation and community-specific organizations to get the word out and drive adoption—just as we’d done for the efforts preceding this one. I’m heartened when I reflect on the role of brands and communities working together, and deeply gratified that since 2018 we’ve seen millions of businesses celebrate their identities and communities on Google products. It’s a testament to the change-making power of strong product marketing married with purpose.

Marvin Chow on raising up Asian-owned businesses through Google products

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