Case Solution for Hubhot 2.0
Autor: Xiao Ding • June 12, 2016 • Case Study • 970 Words (4 Pages) • 868 Views
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- Problem Statement:
The management of HubSpot should decide which segment is the best to cater to, due to its diverse customer base, making an effective pricing strategy for either Owner Ollies or Market Maryers.
- Situation Analysis
Context
As the development of Internet, Web 2.0 era gradually transforms the channel and method of people obtaining information. Software based marketing products- inbound marketing programs, tend to supplement or even to supersede traditional ones. Meanwhile, those promising and contents-users automatic matching products are attracting venture capital firms to invest high-tech characteristic startups like HubSpot.
Company
HubSpot is established by two MIT graduates and offers inbound marketing program based on its patented software and social media-oriented services. (e.g. content management system and SNS Grader) The vision from top management is that HubSpot is able to dominate lead-generation and analysis/qualification stages of the customer funnel.
Competition
Competitors operate their own online ecosystems to strengthen customers’ online presence through blogs and social media etc., and others offer customizable software to manage and track sales efforts, such as Salesforce.com. Inbound marketing service providers are serving businesses to ‘fill and manage their customer funnel’ in three areas ‘Creating Traffic’, ‘analyzing and qualifying leads’ and ‘Closing the sales’.
Customers
The set of HubSpot customer-portfolio is diverse, and the Small Business Owner Customer and Marketing Professional Customer made up 73% and 27% of its portfolio respectively. While at the same time, those customers are categorized into B2B and B2C mainly.
Collaborator
HubSpot doesn't have any official correlative partners, but online SNS platforms are its natural helpers to some certain extent, such as Facebook, LinkedIn and Youtube. HubSpot creates contents through these networks to pull in target customers who are interested in the product.
- Alternatives:
Plan 1: Choose Owner Ollies as the target segment with original SaaS pricing strategy.
Pros: shorter selling cycles, easier to reach, derive more initial value than MM; leads-based profit model fitting with HubSpot‘s competency (3,000 leads generated in 2008); dominant share (73%) at HubSpot customer base and higher potential segment with 1,676,130 (See Exhibit 2) businesses and lower acquisition cost ($1,000)
Cons: higher churn rate (4.3%), discontinue inbound service more easily with lower customer loyalty; unstable business model with high risk of business failure; deficient knowledge about inbound marketing with higher support costs; spend more time on training.
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