gcl
Case Synopsis 1
University of Texas

Introduction: Kristena Louie, program manager at Microsoft office is confronted by an extraordinary challenge. As per the Microsoft Business Division Product planning group’s latest report, Microsoft’s competitors mainly Facebook and Google are making giant strides in the area of technology surrounding students. Kristena’s task is to try and devise a plan to not only counter the competitors by reestablishing Microsoft as a brand and make it more relatable as a product to its target audience.
Problem: As per the MBD report, Google has collaborated with a vast number of educational institutions around the world. Since, 2007 Google has expanded its brand from being the number one search engine in the world to one of the most widely used email provider in the world. Its association with universities such as Arizona State University and many others has allowed it to launch itself into a market comprising young and enterprising individuals looking to launch their careers in different walks of life. Google provides a wide array of services such as Google docs (sharing data), Google talk and messenger et al that its users swear by.
Additionally, Facebook comes along in the mid 2000s. It redefines social networking and has not looked back ever since. With 500,000 users added to Facebook every week, it currently is the leader in social networking and is a big worry to Microsoft owing to its brand image and its humongous fan following among students and young workers.
When Microsoft created the Microsoft Office, it created a platform to perform business functions that to this day remain extremely critical to almost any business and especially to students who consider it an indispensable asset for homework or presentations.
However, Microsoft’s brand image and its platforms such as Microsoft Office and Outlooks have started losing their sheen in the minds of students who are enamored by the new kids in the world of hip and savvy technology namely, Facebook and Google. Students now have been found to report that Microsoft’s features can only be used for homework purposes but it does not provide any opportunity for more interactive platforms.