Hubspot 2.0 Briefing
Hubspot 2.0 was founded in 2006 and quickly garnered acclaim and buzz, receiving numerous awards early on. Yet, Hubspot 2.0 is now at a critical junction: they must decide how best to scale up their business so they can they can meet their venture partners’ expectations. Founders
Brian Halligan and Dharmesh Shah have heard that you took an awesome Intro to Marketing
Course and they now want you to evaluate Hubspot 2.0 from a marketing perspective. In particular, they have asked you to write a report addressing the four questions below. 1) Do you agree with Hubspot that the “rules of marketing” have changed? If so, how? Is inbound marketing the answer? Why or why not? (1 pg.) 2) Given its position as a start-up company, should Hubspot widen its focus to serve any customer that comes its way? Or narrow their target by focusing exclusively on either Owner
Ollies or Marketer Marys? Or, by focusing exclusively on either B2B (business-to-business) or
B2C (business-to-customer) customers? In formulating your answer, you can make use of the data in the case, and potentially even use a very basic formula for calculating customer lifetime value (CLV): CLV = [(monthly profit) * customer lifetime in months)] – (acquisition cost).
Note, consumer lifetime in months = 1/churn rate. There is not one right answer. In other words, even if one customer segment has a higher CLV, that doesn’t mean that you necessarily have to argue for solely targeting that segment. Or, you can. Please make sure to back up your decision with a clear argument. (1.5 pgs.) 3) Hubspot has begun to differentiate its products as it has learned more about its customers.
Should it do more? Should its pricing strategy change too (think about how other software is priced: sometimes it is open-source, sometimes the consumer has to pay up front for the software package (a perpetual license), and sometimes the consumer has to pay periodically for a license
(a
Brian Halligan and Dharmesh Shah have heard that you took an awesome Intro to Marketing
Course and they now want you to evaluate Hubspot 2.0 from a marketing perspective. In particular, they have asked you to write a report addressing the four questions below. 1) Do you agree with Hubspot that the “rules of marketing” have changed? If so, how? Is inbound marketing the answer? Why or why not? (1 pg.) 2) Given its position as a start-up company, should Hubspot widen its focus to serve any customer that comes its way? Or narrow their target by focusing exclusively on either Owner
Ollies or Marketer Marys? Or, by focusing exclusively on either B2B (business-to-business) or
B2C (business-to-customer) customers? In formulating your answer, you can make use of the data in the case, and potentially even use a very basic formula for calculating customer lifetime value (CLV): CLV = [(monthly profit) * customer lifetime in months)] – (acquisition cost).
Note, consumer lifetime in months = 1/churn rate. There is not one right answer. In other words, even if one customer segment has a higher CLV, that doesn’t mean that you necessarily have to argue for solely targeting that segment. Or, you can. Please make sure to back up your decision with a clear argument. (1.5 pgs.) 3) Hubspot has begun to differentiate its products as it has learned more about its customers.
Should it do more? Should its pricing strategy change too (think about how other software is priced: sometimes it is open-source, sometimes the consumer has to pay up front for the software package (a perpetual license), and sometimes the consumer has to pay periodically for a license
(a