KEL654

MOHANBIR SAWHNEY

Microsoft Office: Gaining Insight into the Life

of a College Student (A)
In April 2009 Kristena Louie, program manager for Microsoft Office, was thinking about the
next steps to take in developing a digital marketing strategy for the college student market.
College students represented a critical segment; they were the next generation of users for
Microsoft Office as they entered the workforce. However, they also represented a huge risk for
Office, as they were one of the most likely segments to try competitive applications. Thus, despite
the fact that most students already owned the software package, Microsoft Office was facing an
increasing challenge in engaging this audience. Thinking about these students—the most digitally
involved and tech-savvy generation, with high penetration levels of Internet and cell phone
usage—Louie wondered what was the best way to reach this audience.

Louie reflected on the most recent research she had received from the Microsoft Business
Division (MBD) Product Planning Group.1 The findings showed that Google had been gaining an
increasing presence on campus through official partnerships with universities (Exhibit 1). Louie
had even heard that student governments at some colleges were asking the administrations and IT
departments for a campus-wide transition to Gmail and Google Apps for Education. Google
claimed that a thousand universities worldwide were using Google Apps for Education. Notable
partners included Northwestern University, the University of Phoenix, Lakehead University in
Ontario, Hofstra University, and Trinity College in Dublin. Google’s biggest partner in higher
education was Arizona State University, which had made Google Apps for Education available to
its 65,000 students; by March 2007, 40,000 of its students and faculty had switched to Gmail.

The study also showed that Facebook played a vibrant role in students’ social lives, and had
started playing a bigger role as a productivity tool (Exhibit 2). Facebook was beloved by
students, who used it to stay connected with “networks” of friends. The site continued to grow its
capabilities and attracted 500,000 new users a week, forging ahead of rivals such as MySpace.

Microsoft, in contrast, played a limited role in students’ lives (Exhibit 3). Research found
that Microsoft Office was the homework standard, but generated little enthusiasm and was rarely
used for non-homework tasks such as communicating with friends and organizing social

1
The MBD research methodology for the quantitative studies involved an online survey of 500 full-time undergraduate and 250 full-
time graduate students (queries about technology ownership, use, and awareness) and an online survey of 175 full-time undergraduate
and 72 full-time graduate students (follow-up about e-mail, Facebook, and awareness of Microsoft brands in comparison to other
brands). The qualitative study involved seven universities, individual interviews with 24 faculty and/or staff, and two focus groups
(one for undergraduates, and one for graduate students) at each university, totaling 87 students.

©2011 by the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University. This case was prepared by Ashuma Ahluwalia ’09, Yuliya
Gab ’09, Kevin Gardiner ’09, Alan Huang ’09, and Amit Patel ’09 and revised by Pallavi Goodman under the supervision of Professor
Mohanbir Sawhney. Cases are developed solely as the basis for class discussion. Cases are not intended to serve as endorsements,
sources of primary data, or illustrations of effective or ineffective management. To order copies or request permission to reproduce
materials, call 800-545-7685 (or 617-783-7600 outside the United States or Canada) or e-mail custserv@hbsp.harvard.edu. No part of
this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, used in a spreadsheet, or transmitted in any form or by any means—
electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise—without the permission of the Kellogg School of Management.
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 MICROSOFT OFFICE: LIFE OF A COLLEGE STUDENT (A) KEL654

activities. While students used a variety of tools for communicating, including texting, instant
messaging, voicemail, and e-mail, Microsoft Outlook was rarely mentioned as an e-mail client.
University e-mail, Gmail, and Yahoo merited the top spots when it came to e-mail clients of
choice. Microsoft’s Hotmail garnered only “junk” account status, and only a small number of
students used it as their primary e-mail.

The research also showed that college students cared most about the following:

 Managing Homework: organizing notes and accessing schoolwork remotely

 Creating Great-Looking Schoolwork: building dynamic presentations with school-
specific features such as citation and bibliography tools
 Preparing for the Workplace: getting ready for life after school, building a professional
network, and finding a job
 Sharing and Communicating: working from anywhere, sharing and collaborating with
friends and classmates

Louie knew that engaging this audience was critical, but Microsoft’s past efforts had been
lackluster. Most notably, a recent survey had showed that Microsoft’s latest commercial,
featuring Bill Gates and Jerry Seinfeld, had been poorly received by college students and had
resulted in a negative perception of Microsoft in the areas of innovation, technology, and trouble-
free design, while many of Microsoft’s key competitors took the top spots for best commercial
among this demographic.2 Microsoft had also tried to engage students through campus
ambassadors and through discounted student pricing for Office, but was unsure of the impact of
either program on student awareness and engagement.

As Louie reflected on the research results, she contemplated the next steps in developing
effective tactics to reach college students. Microsoft had a lot of ground to cover when it came to
capturing their attention. Its chief competitors, Facebook and Google, had found ways to excite
the student community with ads, applications, and programs that lay at the heart of students’
personal and social interests. Microsoft, in contrast—though considered to be a reputable, must-
know brand—was also thought of as aging, less reliable, and unable to reinvent itself or adapt to
the changing needs of an increasingly tech-savvy undergraduate community. How could Louie
overcome negative perceptions of Microsoft Office and make it an attractive and compelling
package? How could she enable it to go toe-to-toe with its younger and savvier competitors and
effectively meet the needs of college students?

2
Marius Oiaga, “Gates and Seinfeld Ad Voted Top ‘Bad’ Commercial by College Students,” Softpedia (blog), December 1, 2008,
http://news.softpedia.com/news/Gates-and-Seinfeld-Ads-Voted-Top-quot-Bad-quot-Commercial-99004.shtm.

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 KEL654 MICROSOFT OFFICE: LIFE OF A COLLEGE STUDENT (A)

Exhibit 1: Google and Universities, Official Adoption

Google has focused on higher education and the student market.

 Google offered universities Google Apps for Education.
o Google used this market as a proxy for large enterprise deployments.
o The Google Apps for Education project sat under the education head, Jeff
Keitner, in the enterprise division under David Girouard.
 Google had sent a survey to students in April 2007 asking for opinions on their existing
e-mail systems.
 Google piloted a Google 101 class for computer science students at the University of
Wisconsin, and planned to extend the class to Berkeley and Stanford.

Google has worked with universities to roll out hosted e-mail and the Google Apps for Education
product.
 David Girouard, vice president of enterprise, claimed a thousand universities worldwide
were using Google Apps for Education as of 2007.
 Notable partners/customers included:
o The University of Phoenix, which was considering migrating to Google Apps
for Education to address its remote learning issues and collaboration needs.
o Northwestern University, which had migrated its e-mail over to hosted
Gmail.
o Lakehead University in Ontario, which had 34,000 students using Gmail; it
estimated it would have cost the school US$5–6 million to develop an e-mail
system internally.
o The Faculty of Management Studies at Delhi University, Hofstra University,
Manhattan Christian College, South East European University, Prem
Tinsulanonda International School, Cambria-Rowe Business College, and
Trinity College, Dublin.

Arizona State University was Google’s biggest partner in higher education.

 Google began an on-campus facility at ASU (3/17/2006).
 ASU started testing Google Apps for Education and made it available to all 65,000
students (10/2006).
 40,000 ASU students and faculty switched to Gmail (3/2007).
 ASU expected to shut down its in-house mail servers, claiming a $500,000 yearly savings
by not providing e-mail to students (6/30/2007).
 A Google facility on the ASU campus was slated to open (7/2007).

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 MICROSOFT OFFICE: LIFE OF A COLLEGE STUDENT (A) KEL654

Exhibit 2: The University Student and Facebook

FACEBOOK SITS AT THE CENTER OF THE STUDENT SOCIAL LIFE

Facebook is a social networking site connecting “networks” of friends.

 26.5 million users in June 2007; 500,000 new users a week
 Opened to non-colleges in September 2006
 1 million concurrent users online
 1 billion photos using 120 terabytes; 6 million photos uploaded daily
 9 million unique logins per day; 1 billion page views a day; more than half of all users
log in daily
 Overall Internet rank: 15

Facebook use among university students had quickly caught up to MySpace usage.
 The charm of MySpace was quickly waning among college students.
o “I don’t have MySpace and it’s for thirteen-year-olds.”—Harvard undergrad
o “I have [MySpace] but I don’t check it.”—University of Illinois undergrad
o “I don’t check [MySpace] as much as Facebook. Not everyone is on
Facebook, so I use MySpace for people who aren’t in college—but now that
Facebook is for everyone, it’s easier.”—University of Illinois undergrad
 Facebook was beloved by the majority of students and used begrudgingly by the rest. It
encompassed almost all social aspects of life and was growing in capabilities.

Facebook enhances productivity.

 Facebook was evolving into a productivity tool.
o Contacts, birthday reminders, calendars, pseudo e-mail, instant messaging
o Club/group management: communications, calendar, membership lists
 “I normally use [Facebook] for productivity—like I need to call someone and find their
cell phone, or I’ll look for someone’s room number—and then every now and then I
break down and look through everyone’s photos and birthdays, etc.”—Harvard undergrad

Students are very cognizant of privacy issues surrounding their online identity.
 There were differences in how undergraduate upperclassmen and graduate students
viewed privacy. The job search played a key role in concerns about online identity.

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 KEL654 MICROSOFT OFFICE: LIFE OF A COLLEGE STUDENT (A)

Exhibit 2 (continued)
At Least Once a Month Less Than Once a Month Heard Of, Do Not Use Never Heard Of
MySpace 50.6 15.8 30.8 2.8
Facebook 43.3 7.7 31.6 17.4
Hotmail 42.9 13.4 41.7 2.0
WL Mail 20.7 6.1 33.6 39.7
Google D&S 17.8 7.3 22.3 52.6
WL Spaces 12.9 6.5 26.7 53.8
LinkedIn 10.6 4.9 9.3 75.3
Friendster 9.3 9.7 37.2 43.7
Orkut 7.7 3.2 9.3 79.8

Source: IW Product Planning Survey, April 2007 (n=850) and May 2007 (n=247).

Exhibit 3: The University Student and Microsoft

MICROSOFT PLAYS A VERY NARROW ROLE IN STUDENTS’ LIVES

Figure 1: Students’ Lives—Three Themes

Homework
Microsoft Office (Word, PPT, Excel) was the homework standard.

 Office generated limited enthusiasm, however, and rarely extended into use for non-
homework tasks such as communications with friends and organizing social activities.

Search
Google Search, Wikipedia, and university-provided tools were mentioned frequently as students
described homework projects.

 “I tried looking in the books I was using [for project pictures], but I looked online and
found them through Google images.”—University of Illinois undergrad

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 MICROSOFT OFFICE: LIFE OF A COLLEGE STUDENT (A) KEL654

Exhibit 3 (continued)

 “I had to go to the library to go through the dusty books. . . . I could’ve used Harvard
resources, but I chose not to use some of the online resources. . . . I just went through and
Googled pictures of school kids and didn’t make it too jazzy.”—Harvard grad student

Communication
Anecdotal and quantitative data indicated that students were comfortable with and used a variety
of tools for communication. Microsoft was only part of the communication story.

Figure 2: Students Who Used Communication Tools at Least Once a Month

 Text: Often used for short bursts of information, generally with peers.
o “I text a lot . . . because it’s not really intrusive and it gets your message
across really fast.”—Harvard undergrad
o “If I have a quick question, I just text. You don’t want to do all the
pleasantries on the phone; it’s just easier.”—University of Illinois undergrad

 E-Mail: Heavily used, but seen as practical/functional and mainstream. E-mail was for
communications with professors and parents—not friends—and it was often used
deliberately.
o “My mom uses e-mail a lot for corresponding.”—Harvard undergrad
o “I’ll use e-mail if I don’t know someone super well, or I’ll call.”—University
of Illinois undergrad

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 KEL654 MICROSOFT OFFICE: LIFE OF A COLLEGE STUDENT (A)

Exhibit 3 (continued)

o University e-mail, Gmail, and Yahoo were most frequently mentioned as e-

mail clients of choice. Outlook was rarely mentioned as an e-mail client
(similar to consumer trends).
o Hotmail was often referred to as a “junk” account; although 60 percent of
students had a Hotmail account, only 14.2 percent used it as their primary e-
mail.

Figure 3: University Student E-Mail Accounts, Primary vs. Multiple Accounts

15.2%
University mail
84.7%

Yahoo! 33.8%
74.4%

14.3%
Hotmail/WL Mail
60.0%

11.7% Primary Account
Gmail
46.6%
Multiple Accounts
13.0%
AOL
40.4%

Comcast 3.9%
21.9%

7.8%
Other
49.0%

0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100%

 Voice: All students spoke passionately about voice communications, particularly for
longer conversations and with specific people (close friends, parents). Conversations on a
monthly basis outpaced texting but lagged behind e-mail and instant messaging.
 Instant Messaging: Used, but complemented by many other forms of communication.

Note: 17.3 million students are enrolled in U.S. universities.

Source: IW Product Planning Survey, April 2007 (n=850) and May 2007 (n=247): Q. Which of the following applications have you used your
mobile phone for within the past month?; Q. The following is a list of e-mail providers. Using the spinner next to each provider, please
indicate the number of accounts and/or identities that you have with each e-mail provider.; Q. How frequently do you use a PC for these
class-related activities/personal productivity activities/entertainment-related activities?; Q. Which of the following do you consider to be your
primary e-mail account?; U.S. Department of Education, July 2005.

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