Google's strategic products, services, and competitive advantages

Google is a multinational organization that has specialized in offering services and products related to the internet. Some of these include online advertising of products and services, cloud computing and search. The global competitiveness and company's expansion has been facilitated by the multiple chains of products and services that it provides. Studies confirm that the company has over a million servers that it runs in data related centers throughout the world (Barksdale, & Lund, 2006). The comparative analysis that has been conducted affirmed that the company is among the leading companies that have the most visits by the internet users globally. Other than providing the services and products, the company offers employment opportunities to the public all over the world (Battelle, 2005). The purpose of this article is to provide an executive summary including an overview of the company's strategic plan for its clients.

It is pertinent to identify that the Google Company faces various challenges over the recent past. Stiff competition, need for technological upgrade, and the criticism of its services are among the major obstacles.

Products and services

Google various products and services all aimed at enhancing customer satisfaction. Advertising services to other organizations is among the significant services that the company provides. Learning institutions implement the services provided by the Google Company to advertise their services and learning opportunities for the students. The process of advertising using the company is possible through the DoubleClick technology. In this case, the company is allowed to determine the interests of the customers. It is pertinent to identify that there have been several criticisms that have been raised concerning the possibility of fraud (Barksdale, & Lund, 2006).

Additionally, the company has a search engine that provides the required superiority to exploit the opportunities present in the global markets appropriately. The search engine has constructed PageRank algorithms that discriminate other websites from utilizing the services offered by the company. Through the search engine, the company hosts other services such as the Google Books, Google Scholar as well as the Amazon. The providence of other productivity tools such as Gmail allows for communication and sharing of information across the world. The Google Company provides enterprise products that are made possible using the Google search Appliance. The Google Apps also allow the global organizations to incorporate other products such as the Google Docs and Gmail into other areas (Battelle, 2005).

Goals and objectives

There are various goals and objectives of the company. Google seeks to implement an enhanced infrastructure that will facilitate productivity. It is aimed at providing employees with the desired universality that increases efficiencies and functioning process. Besides, it is the plan of the company to be among the best companies in providing Internet search services to its customers. The improvement of the advertisement system in order to accommodate more services that will offer more competitive advantage and visibility power is also necessary (Abraham, 2012). Studies identify that the company aims at ensuring that the company's tools are running everywhere to meet the needs of its consumers.

The company also targets to strengthen its competitiveness by introducing new products and services to the global markets having features for the customers. Moreover, the company is striving at acquiring insights in ways in which the consumers recognize the leading services and products (Barksdale, & Lund, 2006).

Michael porter asserted that companies can achieve their performance competitiveness through the application of three generic strategies that offer the required insights into the desired performance targets. These are pertinent because they provide competitiveness at the market place. Some of the strategic plans identified by porter include, cost leadership, market segmentation as well as product and service differentiation (Abraham, 2012). It is worth identifying that many companies often consider two variables: strategic scope and strategic strength. These are significant because they affect the ability of a particular strategic plan. The strategic scope considers the composition and size of the target market. On the other hand, strategic power aims at the supply dimensions and firm competencies (Battelle, 2005).

The major objective of this strategy is reducing the overall production of the company while acquiring ground in the market share. It implements the process of appealing the cost consciousness to the customers. Organizations adopt models such as unique pricing models, economies of scale, supply chain control as well as low performance in its direct and indirect operations (Barksdale, & Lund, 2006). Both product and service differentiation is significant because it ensures that the firm offers unique products and services in the marketplace. It is through differentiation that the firm is provided with the abilities to provide its products and services to particular consumers since the competitors cannot offer similar products. On the other hand, market segmentation aims at dividing the target market for the firm. Additionally, it provides goods and services that are specific to their particular needs (Abraham, 2012).

In Google's strategic plan, there is the application of product and service differentiation to acquire the performance and competitiveness objectives. It is worth affirming that the fact that the Google Company is not price sensitive provides it with perfect opportunities that can be utilized to acquire the required differentiation abilities. Product and service differentiation that the company has adopted can be traced to the actual specificity of its search engine to the services it provides to all its consumers (Fogg, 1999).

Strengths

One of the major strengths that the Google Company has is the fact that it has an extensive market share in the industry. Additionally, the company has acquired both the loyalty and trust of the potential consumers in the market.

Weaknesses

Product and service protection is one of the major weaknesses that the company faces because of poor security strategies.

Opportunities

The expansion of the internet related markets is one of the most significant opportunities for Google. In this case, it can expand its market share. Technological advancement on the internet arena is also an opportunity that the Company can exploit (Barksdale, & Lund, 2006).

Threats

The presence of other critical players in the industry is a serious threat faced by the Google Company because they threaten its profitability. It is pertinent to identify that during its operations, the company has diverse marketing goals. Consumer awareness is among these strategies. In this case, the consumers are aware of Google's products and services. Expanding the market share of the company is also one of the marketing objectives set by the company's management (Barksdale, & Lund, 2006). Additionally, the company aims at diversifying all the strategies that it has adopted. The final marketing objective of the company is the improvement of the distribution channels used. The process of service development within the company involves various steps. The description of the services provided by the company was the first step. Additionally, the implemented pricing strategies underwent thorough analysis before they were adopted (Fogg, 1999).

Besides, the process involves the development of appropriate service delivery systems and capabilities. The identification and maintenance of suppliers of the essential elements that affect the performance of the company is also crucial during service development. There are various factors that the Google Company faces during its operations. Some of these include shortfall in its revenue, high competition, and technology, negative and adverse publicity. Besides, the varying global policies on the consumer protection and organization's legal requirements are also among the threats (Barksdale, & Lund, 2006).