HubSpot Report Case Solution And Analysis, HBR Case Study Solution & Analysis of Harvard Case Studies

Problem Statement

Hub Spot with its diverse customer base needs standardization in its product offerings and a profitable and growth orientated strategy. Decisions about changes in the current pricing model for enticing new customers, assessment of inbound marketing being worthwhile as a marketing startegy on its own without needing the support of outbound methods and convincing customers of its worthiness are the critical issues.

Situation analysis  

HubSpot, an inbound marketing company focusing on a diverse customer base can be further analysed with the additional breakdown of its customer base, collaborators, competitors and context or business climate.
5 C Model

Company:The 5C model (appendix 1) shows that HubSpot has two customer groups namely the B2B (business to business customers) and B2C(Business to Customers).

Customer:A further division of the customer base comprises of Marketing Marys and Owner Ollies. Owner Ollies being sole traders are a potential target market for HubSpot since they need inbound marketing tools to manage and analyse their own marketing activities. Marketing Marys are owners of medium sized businesses with a greater need for outbound techniques and sophisticated analysis tools.

Competitors:Competitiors include professional service providers like Eloqua and specific marketing service providers like Web Positions, Mark to, Coremetrics and Markting Sherpa which focus on lead generation for other businesses. Consultants, software companies and other online social media sites are also potential competitors to HubSpot. So it’s not just a direct competitor providing inbound services but any online business which can offer this service to customers can be a potential threat to HubSpot indicating that competition is vast and this is a highly comeptitive industry. Additionally, outbound marketing companies offering traditional above the line promotional techniques are also indirect competitors.

Collaborators:Collarortors in the form of Twitter, YouTube and LinkedIn are strong groups with renowed names and credibility. Information sharing in the forms of tweets, videos and discussion groups about HubSpot’s effectivness has been used to get through to the target markets.

Context:The context or climate in the 5C model can be further assesed through the five forces analysis model of Porter to see where the energy lies in the industry. We can see how the online inbound marketing business model has low barriers to entry which could potentially affect growth and profitability in the long run.

There are a large number of substitutes which offer alternatives to the inbound marketing techniques that Hub Spot offers. This has already been mentioned in the types of competitors that Hub Spot has. Even outbound marketing techniques are a substitute to this business model.

It is suggested that the buyer looking for analysis and evaluation with dependency on profesional services and consultancy may have a lower bargaining power compared to one that is able to use cheaper inbound marketing techniques since he has access to a number of alternatives.

The supplier also has a low bargaining power as there are various substitutes available to the buyer when it comes to inbound marketing. With inbound marketing targeting the customers of outbound marketing techniques, the supplier can have challenges since it means showing the effectiveness of a new strategy.

So the climate or context suggests that the business environment is new and offers growth for new entrants especially as currently there is no market leader that has taken over the customer base. However, there are challenges which could exist in the form of low profitability and difficulty in capturing the target market........................................

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