Founders Brian Halligan and Dharmesh Shah of upstart inbound-marketing firm HubSpot have come to a crossroads in their business model. In order to continue on the path of growing as big as possible and as quickly as possible, the direction of the company must adapt. To achieve the company’s goals of growth acceleration and maximum profit, HubSpot realizes they need to overcome several challenges inbound marketing presents.
Currently, HubSpot is operating as a more diluted company, lacking a niche market focus. As a result, HubSpot found itself attracting a diverse set of customers which makes strategic planning difficult. The needs of its diverse customer base are different and it cannot possibly cater to all these needs effectively. Having
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Ideally, the target audience should be early adopters, heavy users and acquired at low costs (Kotler and Keller, 2016). When focusing on a specific target market, single out the group of consumers who are prepared to purchase goods and services in order to yield bigger returns (“Benefits of Identifying a Target Market”, n.d.). It is recommended that HubSpot define the customer group which presents the best opportunity for growth and prioritize the needs of that group. According to Kotler and Keller (2016), a firm can achieve a strong market presence through concentrated marketing. With that being said, It is further recommended that HubSpot place more emphasis in increasing the percentage and retention of the Owner Ollies in its customer portfolio. Although the churn rate is higher for the Owner Ollies, they consist of 73% of HubSpot’s client base opposed to Marketer Marys 27%. Their demand is fairly simple and it is these firms which have more use for HubSpot’s products and services, are more easily convinced to make early commitments as well as the market able to produce positive cash flows faster. To further reduce the churn rate of the Owner Ollie …show more content…
Today’s consumers are turning to the web for information about companies and products before buying (Nagel, 2015), which is a prime example of how important inbound marketing is for a firm. According to Nagel (2015) inbound marketing improves business growth by attracting consumers to your product or service using content that serves a purpose. In addition, it is cheaper and more accessible to small companies; therefore, becoming the more preferred marketing strategy. Inbound marketing is an ingenious method of marketing which generates measurable results and makes optimum use of financial resources. However, one key issue that hampers HubSpot’s current marketing strategy is that since they pull customers to them, it becomes difficult to determine which strategy to implement before knowing what segment of customers are attracted to them. In contrast, the importance of outbound marketing should not be underestimated. It has a huge advantage over inbound marketing in that strategies are formulated and implemented after deciding the target audience. In addition, some products and services, for example the food/beverage and automobile industries, cannot possibly target the required audience through inbound marketing. Inbound marketing has not captured market potential and has lost a lot of potential revenue that outbound
Besides marketing its customer service, the company markets different programs according to its three major types of customers. Some of them being,
In the beginning, we choose the Workhorse to become our first target market, and the Traveler has been our second target market. However, we didn’t get a successful sale at the beginning since our brand does not meet the needs of Workhorse and we had a very poor rating of our advertising for our target market even though we have a cheapest price in market. After a few quarters, we try to modify our brand and we find the Traveler may has high demand of our brand since we design a new brand for them, so we change the Traveler to be the first target market and the Workhorse move to second.
In this assignment, I will cover who the core customers are of Bolt bus, how Bolt bus uses its knowledge to decide their marketing procedures based on their core customers. I will also include the type of product advertising that this company does to promote business, and indicate whether, or not it uses consumer sales promotion(s), if so what is it that they use.
The SWOT analysis (abbreviation for Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats) is an essential tool in marketing for understanding and supporting decision-making in all kinds of situations in business and organisations. In brief, it provides an accurate context for studying strategies, positions and directions of a company proposition. It is used mainly for business planning, competitor evaluation, marketing, business and product development and research reports. SWOT analysis is also a widely recognised method for gathering, structuring, presenting and reviewing extensive planning data within a larger business or project planning process. (Chapman, 2014)
proven to be effective in attracting and retaining customers. The company's mission and vision clearly state their commitment to the inbound experience, and it is important for them to stay true to their identity. While outbound marketing may have its benefits, it goes against the principles of HubSpot's approach. Instead, the company should focus on maximizing the potential of inbound marketing by improving their strategies and reaching out to more potential customers who are interested in their message. By doing so, they can continue to make the world more inbound, one business transformation at a time.
It has also established a distinguishable name among its competitors with a reputation for leading customer service. However, even as an established venture, the company needs to maximize its profits in order to stay in business and expand into new territories beyond its conquered boundaries. A strategic analysis was carried out by our team to establish the company’s current situation. A SWOT analysis was performed to come up with three referenced, strategic alternatives. These alternatives are meant to act as strategic guidance to the company in order to enhance growth.
Once the target market has been identified it is important to develop a marketing strategy. In today's fast paced, information overloaded society; conveying a message about a product seems to be more difficult than ever. The consumer is bombarded with advertising everywhere they look. Today advertising not only exists on television, radio, magazines, and newspapers, it can be found on billboards, park benches, in our mailboxes, on buses, taxis, at sporting events, and on clothing.
In early 1999, Ford announced an integrated e-commerce strategy, with the objective of creating an interface among customers, dealers, vendors and even competitors. The SWOT analysis was studied for the development the strategy, as well as the chances of success of such strategy. With Ford's desire to shift from dealer-centric' selling to consumer-centric' selling, we looked at the typical characteristics of online customers and how dealers could reinvent themselves to remain relevant in the changing automotive industry. The quest of Ford's goal to become the world's leading consumer company that provides automotive products and services has compelled Ford into integrated e-commerce strategy in connecting with consumers through multiple touchpoints namely those Ford's automotive-related services. (ie. Hertz, Ford Credit and Kwik Fit) Ford has also reviewed her competitive advantage against her challengers to remain on course of her vision: "To become the world's leading consumer company for automotive products and services".
Pine, B.J., Peppers, D. & Rogers, M. (1995). Do you want to keep your customers?. Harvard Bussiness Review. March-April. pp. 103-104.
Marketing is a process of determining a consumer’s needs, devising a product or service to satisfy those needs, and trying to focus customers on the goods and services you are offering. Marketing is extremely important, and a fundamental building block for business growth. A marketing team is given the task of creating customer awareness through a variety of different marketing techniques. If a business does not pay close attention to their consumer demographic and needs, they will eventually fail over time. Two important aspects of marketing include acquiring new customers, and the preservation and growth of relationships with current customers. Marketing has always been viewed as a creative outlet, which encompassed advertising, distribution, and the selling of goods and services. Marketing staff will also try to anticipate what customers will want in the future, often being accomplished with market research. In summation, a good marketing plan should be able to create a favorable proposition or series of benefits that a customer can value through goods or services. The marketing mix is normally described as the strategic positioning of a product or service in the marketplace, using the specification of the four Ps. During the early 1960’s, Professor E. Jerome McCarthy of Harvard Business School stated that a marketing mix contains four elements. The four key points are product, pricing, promotion, and placement. It is recognized that all these aspects must be present to ensure a successful business model within a given industry. We will now take a thorough look at the four marketing mix points.
To help these businesses, a more appropriate or better marketing plan needs to be designed. Small business internet marketing services can help businesses develop and thrive in a highly competitive market. For the highest quality internet marketing services, hiring an online marketing company to design a customized internet marketing campaign may be advantageous for some businesses (EStartup business blog and contributors, 2010). Identifying the role that marketing plays in a successful business is demonstrated by the use of two examples, the importance of developing a marketing plan, and ethical and legal issues that surround marketing practices (EStartup business blog, 2010). To be a successful business, the owner of the business should use the marketing mix and the results of market research; having identified its key audience a company has to ensure a marketing mix is created that is targeted specifically to those people.
In this report, we adopt SWOT analysis to determine the strategic fit between the company’s internal, distinctive capabilities and external threats in the current market. Recommendations were provided in the later part of the report on the possible approach to tap on external market opportunity and our suggestion to resolve current issues faced by the company.
The internet is the biggest digital networking tool. The internet offers a number of platforms for digital marketing. Many electronic communication tools offer access to the internet. Personal computers, mobile phones, smart phones, tablets, and various other electronic products offer access to the internet. Over the internet, platforms such as websites, emails, applications (classic and mobile) and social networks are essential for marketing (Hutley,...
This model consists nine components in total including customer segments, value propositions, channels, customer relationships, revenue streams, key resources, key activities, key partnerships and cost structure in a conceptual priority order (Osterwalder 2012) which are belong to four main areas comprising of offerings, customers, infrastructure and financials (Rytkonen & Nenonen 2014). Although both nine are important, this essay will only concentrate to three key characteristics which are customer segments, value propositions and
Internet threw open the plethora of opportunities for enormous scaling of business, thanks to the massive scope of expanding as well as popularizing the business by way of online advertisement. Now, every kind of business no matter big or small businesses can expand itself by way of online advertising where there are massive users across the whole world.