Hbr - Target the Right Market Question

HBR.ORG

October 2012

reprinT R1210X

HBR Case Study

Target the

Right Market

A software company debates its strategic focus.

by Jill Avery and Thomas Steenburgh

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EXPERIENCE

Case Study

Jill Avery is an assistant professor of marketing at the Simmons

School of Management. Thomas Steenburgh is an associate professor

of marketing at the University of Virginia’s Darden School of Business.

A software company debates its strategic focus.

by Jill Avery and Thomas Steenburgh

Target the

Right Market

T

HBR’s fictionalized case studies present

dilemmas faced by leaders in real

companies and offer solutions from experts. This

one is based on the HBS Case Study “HubSpot:

Inbound Marketing and Web 2.0” (case no.

509049), by Thomas Steenburgh, Jill Avery, and

Naseem Dahod. It is available at hbr.org.

he knock on Jane Tamsen’s office

door startled her. Vikram, one of

Jane’s sales directors, poked his head

in. “You ready for us?” he asked.

Jane waved him in. Andrew, another of

her team members, followed. “Let’s hear

it,” Jane said.

“The data are showing what we’ve suspected all along,” Vikram started. “We’re

playing in two major markets. The first is

small businesses—they have owners who

run their own companies, fewer than 20

employees if that. The other is mediumsize businesses with 20 to about 100

employees; the purchaser at these places

is a senior manager, not the owner.”

“I think of them as ‘small Sams’ and

‘medium Marys,’” Andrew added.

“Creative,” Jane said.

Andrew had been one of her first hires

at SparkPlace, a two-year-old provider of

online-marketing software, and he’d continued to impress her. Founder and CEO...