How would you re-position Google's offerings to counteract competitive threats from Microsoft?

Question to ask: Are there any specific product categories in mind / would you like me to list out the broad categories:

Categories:

• -    Web Search (Google vs Bing)
• -    Mobile space (Android vs Windows Mobile)
• -    Notebook space (Chromebook vs Surface)
• -    E-mail (Gmail vs Outlook)
• -    Chat services (Google talk vs Messenger)
• -    Video services (Google Video vs Skype)
• -    Cloud services (Google Cloud Platform vs Azure)
• -    Browsers (Chrome vs IE/Spartan)
• -    Mapping (Google Maps vs Microsoft Maps)
• -    Online Storage (Google Drive vs. One Drive)
• -    Productivity Apps (Google Apps vs Office 365)
• -    Advertising (Adsense vs MSN + Aquantive)

Ask the interviewer what area(s) he/she would like you to focus on. Provide input on where you think there are genuine competitive threats. For e.g., Bing isn’t much of a competitor to Google’s Web Search. Why? Google cares about the user and works backwards. Microsoft on the other hand seems to focus on market share and revenue and somehow wants to reconcile that with a better user experience. Do you think this worries Google? Maybe but I don’t think it keeps them up at night.

There are additional considerations here. Google has Android to help in the search arena while Microsoft has the Xbox platform and their donations to schools (and hoping school admins don’t switch to Chrome on the kids’ machines). Google might want more “social integration” of their maps / maps API; point being that one should be aware of the context/environment.

If I had to pick one, I’d talk about browsers (harder topic) with Microsoft touting Spartan. Microsoft can in theory make it harder (not impossible) for Google to keep up with browser updates with their next version of Windows (be aware of desktop vs. mobile dynamics if you go here). An easier option would be enterprise productivity software.

Talk about Office 365 vs. Google Docs: You should know that over the years, a lot of office clones haven’t quite been able to replace (Desktop) office: StarOffice, OpenOffice, LibreOffice but Google Docs isn’t quite that. It doesn’t aim to provide an Office 365/ Desktop Office clone. However a consideration here is that customers who are used to the desktop version of Office might be swayed towards using Office 365 (instead of Google Docs). How can Google address this?

Is cost a consideration? Compare licensing costs of Office 365 and costs of Google Docs for enterprise (remember Office 365 gives users desktop version licenses).

Do some 4 P analysis here – mention the 4Ps

• -    Product (already mentioned)
• -    Price
• -    Placement (what you need to focus on here)
• -    Promotion

How would you place Google Docs to counteract competitive threats from Office 365? First, understand how Microsoft is positioning their current offering. Match that up with you think users will want / use.

Think of it from Google’s perspective. They work back from the user. Can Google afford to give away its offering for free? (I think so). Are there other considerations? (Look at Kingsoft, iWork – I don’t think they are legitimate contenders or at least scary enough to bother Google but they might be bothering Microsoft).

Look at platform support (Google Docs works as well on iOS devices now as it does on Android).

Look at schools (network effects, getting kids to use an application suite from an early age) for product placement. How would you encourage use of Google Apps educational institutions? (Provide these free of charge? Be wary of advertising to kids)

Look at how much functionality users actually use. Look at customer forums for requests, complaints. Look at analytics and reconcile your findings with the answers to the above questions. Finally, organize your thoughts (Start with the 4Ps + studying Microsoft's positioning once the interviewer lets you pick a category). I shouldn't really have to mention this but these are hastily scribbled suggestions intended to kill your brain.