Google, Sony, and a bad marketing day

A bad marketing day is the corporate form a personal bad hair day, except that it’s usually more tragic than funny. Google and Sony both had a really bad marketing day today. First up we have the largely snafu-free Google blatantly ripping off one of Yahoo’s page designs. I originally thought this wasn’t going to be that big of a story, but as Scoble points out, it’s Google’s poor response that is the real story (expect major Google grovelling sometime later this week). Scoble’s advice (involving buying a Yahoo team pizza and beers) is stunningly spot on, especially since Google’s following this creative good advice would be newsworthy all by itself. As Scoble says “it’s the little things that define companies and Google is being defined right in front of us.” Why is it that Scoble knows what to do and Google’s press people do not? The other snafu of the day is Sony’s pathetic attempt to market the PSP through a fake fan site. Gosh, when will Sony learn? It might have turned out okay if the attempt hadn’t been totally lacking in creativity and anything even in the same vicinity as “cool”.