HubSpot: Inbound Marketing and Web 2.0

Thomas J. Steenburgh; Jill  Avery; Naseem Ashraf Dahod

Case | HBS Case Collection | May 2009 (Revised January 2011)

HubSpot: Inbound Marketing and Web 2.0

by Thomas J. Steenburgh, Jill Avery and Naseem Ashraf Dahod

Abstract

This case introduces the concept of inbound marketing, pulling customer prospects toward a business through the use of Web 2.0 tools and applications like blogging, search engine optimization, and social media. Students follow the growth of HubSpot, an entrepreneurial venture which, in its quest for growth, faces significant challenges including the following: developing market segmentation and targeting strategies to decide which customers to serve and which to turn away, configuring pricing strategies to align with the value delivery stream customers experience, and determining whether inbound marketing programs can generate enough scale or whether traditional outbound marketing methods need to be employed to accelerate growth.

Keywords: Customer Relationship Management; Entrepreneurship; Price; Growth and Development Strategy; Marketing Communications; Social and Collaborative Networks; Segmentation; Web;

Format: Print

21 pages

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Citation:

Steenburgh, Thomas J., Jill Avery, and Naseem Ashraf Dahod. "HubSpot: Inbound Marketing and Web 2.0." Harvard Business School Case 509-049, May 2009. (Revised January 2011.)

Nike's selection of politically polarizing Colin Kaepernick as the spokesperson for the thirtieth anniversary of its iconic "Just Do It" campaign catapulted the brand into the media spotlight and made it a political flashpoint for consumers across America. Would the choice of Kaepernick positively or negatively affect Nike's business results or just generate a lot of social media chatter? As Nike's management team watched some people burn their sneakers in protest on YouTube and others applaud the company's behavior on Facebook, they wondered whether inserting Nike into the middle of a heated political debate was the right thing to do or the most reckless action Nike's brand stewards had ever taken, putting Nike's $30 billion brand asset at risk? After all, on social media, it was easy to say that one would boycott or buycott a brand due to one's political beliefs, but in the marketplace, other purchase criteria often reigned supreme.

Marketers have long appreciated the value and power of storytelling. Stories fill brands with resonant and relevant meaning and empower brands to serve as critical elements in the lives of consumers. Mastering the art of brand storytelling is an increasingly important part of managing brands in the contemporary brandscape, as today, we live in a world filled with an ever-expanding panoply of physical and virtual media spaces and places within which to create and tell stories with and to our consumers. This technical note outlines how and why consumers respond to brand stories, illuminates the four elements that make up good stories, discusses the use of archetypal plots and characters and other storytelling appeals, and provides guidance and a template for creating resonant, relevant, authentic, and differentiated brand stories.

Case | HBS Case Collection | December 2017 (Revised March 2019)

Armarium: Luxury Fashion Brands for Rent

Jill Avery, David Fubini, Natasha Dossa and Devon Stewart

Armarium, a two-sided online platform that offered consumers the opportunity to rent the most coveted, current season high fashion clothing and accessories from the top global luxury brands, had emerged from its first sales season with two distinct customer segments: the High Net Worth (HNW) woman and the High Earner, Not Rich Yet (HENRY) woman. As it began to scale its operations, it had to decide which customer segment was the more desirable target market and how to refine the company's value proposition to maximize value creation for both consumers and the luxury brands that supported the business model. The jury was still out on whether a rental model could attract higher income women who could afford to buy luxury brands and whether it could support the $400 rental price points Armarium would need to charge for its one-of-a-kind pieces with retail values that could reach as high as $15,000. The two founders faced significant scaling challenges, from how to establish guardrails around curation of the collection to go-to-market distribution channel strategy and customer acquisition strategy.

Keywords: brand management; retailing; sharing economy; luxury brand; ecommerce; e-commerce; Startup; fashion; brand positioning; customer acquisition; internet marketing; social media; Marketing; Marketing Channels; Marketing Strategy; Brands and Branding; Business Startups; Luxury; Consumer Behavior; Growth and Development Strategy; Fashion Industry; Retail Industry; Apparel and Accessories Industry; United States; North America;

Citation:

Avery, Jill, David Fubini, Natasha Dossa, and Devon Stewart. "Armarium: Luxury Fashion Brands for Rent." Harvard Business School Case 518-047, December 2017. (Revised March 2019.) View Details

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HubSpot: Inbound Marketing and Web 2.0

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