Hubspot Case Study

Case Study Questions

1) If you were one of the co-founders of Hubspot:

i) Should you be selective about which customers to focus on? If so, which customers should you focus on and why?

Initially, Hubspot’s inbound marketing strategy did not have a specific target audience. This was good for kick-starting its business as it helped to expand its customer base at an exponential pace. Before being established, it is always important for a company to expand its client base as much as possible to make its business known in the market. But it may be detrimental to a company if it grows at a pace too fast for its manpower and management to handle. The engineers at Hubspot were heavily understaffed and it became difficult for them to match the product with the market needs.

As Hubspot became more established, the diverse nature of its clientele began to create more problems. It made strategic planning more difficult as different customers had different needs, and it was impossible for Hubspot to cater to every need. Thus if I were one of the co-founders of Hubspot, I would refine my customer focus to eradicate these unnecessary problems. I would focus on the small business owners (“Owner Ollie”) as these small businesses are less knowledgeable and sophisticated than the larger firms. This meant that Hubspot can generate more revenue from its consulting services, while at the same time the Owner Ollies derive a greater initial value than Marketer Marys. Owner Ollies tend to have a higher churn rate than Marketer Marys, but this issue can be rectified by pushing the content management system (CMS). The market for small and medium-size businesses in the United States was also very large; hence if Hubspot were to focus on small businesses, it would be much more beneficial for their profit margin.

ii) What is the pricing model that you would have used? Would you have used different pricing for different customer groups? Why? Defend your answers.

Hubspot’s...