Google Brand Optimization

Google Announced Brand Refinements for broad product terms on the 1st of May 2010. So far only released on Google.com this new feature is going to prove critical to large brands around the world. After all if your brand is not considered to be one of the top brands for your product by Google, then your brand becomes second rate in the eyes of Google users.

The good news is that optimizing a website to show up for product listings like this is not that hard. The only real requirement is that your brand actually BE a "Major Brand" recognized in each country that you are optimizing for. Other people actually need to believe you are already a major player in the manufacturing of that type of product.

If a brand is already a major player but is NOT appearing on Google Brands for it's target products then the site must be optimized for those products individually and back links must be optimized for product names rather than company brand name.

What does Google have to say?

"Brand refinements in search results. Sometimes when searching for product information on Google, you may not know some of the brand names relevant to your particular search. For example, if you're taking on a new river-rafting hobby, it's quite likely you don't have a clue about kayak manufacturers just yet. So, we wanted to make it easier for you to find the brands other people consider useful for popular product searches. So this week we launched a search refinement that calls out brand names related to your query in a single line above the rest of the results. Determined algorithmically, these highlighted brand names may help you find what you're looking for faster, and make your research and shopping experience all the more enjoyable."

Example searches:
Le Creuset makes and sells all kinds of kitchenware. Here are two examples of their products and what brands Google shows for those products.
Brands for Saucepans:     Calphalon      Revere ware      Le Creuset      All-Clad      Cuisinart
Brands for Spatula:      Turner's      Rubbermaid      Pampered Chef      Oxo      Wisk

Kenwood makes and sells kitchen electronics in Europe. They do not sell their products in the USA so they are not listed there on the .com site but they will be once this service is made available on the European sites.
Brands for Food Processor:      Cuisinart      KitchenAid      Hamilton Beach      Black and Decker      Magic Bullet
Brands for Hand Mixer:      Braun      KitchenAid      Cuisinart      Hamilton Beach      Sunbeam
Brands for toasters:     Cuisinart      Dualit      Toastmaster      Krups      Oster