HubSpot: Lower Churn through Greater CHI

Jill  Avery; Asis  Martinez Jerez; Thomas  Steenburgh

Teaching Note | HBS Case Collection | June 2016

HubSpot: Lower Churn through Greater CHI

by Jill Avery, Asis Martinez Jerez and Thomas Steenburgh

Abstract

HubSpot, a web marketing startup selling inbound marketing software to small- and medium-sized businesses, is under pressure from its venture capital partners to rapidly acquire new customers and to maintain a low level of customer churn. The B2B SaaS company is in the midst of pursuing a Series C round of funding. To do so requires them to bring their business metrics into line with VC expectations and peer companies’ performance. In the case, students use big data about their customers’ demographics and usage behaviors to explore the drivers of customer churn and uncover opportunities to increase customer retention via the customer selection, selling, and training processes. Students assess an algorithm that yields a metric, CHI (Customer Happiness Index), that HubSpot uses to predict which of its customers will churn and suggest alternatives to improve the firm’s predictions. Students develop action plans to reduce churn post-hoc and then reengineer the company’s marketing, selling, and customer relationship management processes to preempt churn proactively through market segmentation and targeting, product design, and customer interactions. Decisions are critical at this stage of HubSpot’s development, as its continued growth hangs in the balance.

Keywords: marketing; customer relationship management; CRM; customer acquisition; customer retention; Churn Management; SaaS business models; customer lifetime value; marketing strategy; venture capital; Startup; software; accounting; monitoring and control; Marketing; Customer Relationship Management; Marketing Strategy; Accounting; Technology Industry; United States;

Language: English

Format: Print

30 pages

Purchase

Citation:

Avery, Jill, Asis Martinez Jerez, and Thomas Steenburgh. "HubSpot: Lower Churn through Greater CHI." Harvard Business School Teaching Note 116-051, June 2016.

Shiseido was in the midst of a six year corporate turnaround, trying to reverse the effects of decades of under-investment in R&D and marketing which had led to a cycle of declining customer support and brand value. Would the CEO’s VISION 2020 plan, centered on four strategies: 1.) increasing R&D spending from 1.8% to 3% of sales, 2.) investing an incremental ¥120 billion in brand-building marketing, 3.) moving to a “think global-act local” matrixed brand management structure, and 4.) rethinking brand portfolio strategy, be enough to achieve aggressive 8% per year sales goals while simultaneously increasing the company’s operating margin from 8% to 10% in the highly competitive and slow growing beauty industry?

On Friday, February 22, 2019, following an unexpected and disappointing earnings report, The Kraft Heinz Company’s stock price fell 27%, wiping out $16 billion in market value. CEO Bernardo Hees had announced that the company had taken a $15.4 billion asset write-down, that the company would be cutting its annual dividend from $2.50 to $1.60 and that it was under SEC investigation for accounting irregularities related to its procurement process. $8.3 billion of the asset write-down was related to a loss in value of the firm’s intangible assets, specifically its Kraft and Oscar Mayer brands. As Kraft Heinz looked ahead to the future, it was time to recalibrate its brand management strategies. With $50 billion in brand assets remaining on its balance sheet, effectively managing its brands going forward was critical to avoiding another brand asset write-down and to regaining the $8 billion brand value the company had just lost. Was Kraft Heinz's brand asset write-down the beginning of the end of the market dominance of "Big Food" brands across the board or was it idiosyncratic and a result of the firm's brand management resources, capabilities, and strategies?

Case | HBS Case Collection | January 2019 (Revised June 2019)

Glossier: Co-Creating a Cult Brand with a Digital Community

Jill Avery

Glossier’s proclaimed strategy was “born from content; fueled by community.” The digital-first, direct-to-consumer beauty brand had experienced rapid growth, with sales up 600% in 2017 and a customer portfolio that grew by threefold. But, its founder, Emily Weiss, was not complacent. Instead, she dreamed of creating the world’s first socially driven brand that inserted its community into the buying experience so that the company was merchandising people, their opinions, and their content, just as much as they were merchandising products. As her team debates marketing strategies for 2018, they recognize the opportunities and challenges associated with managing Glossier’s rapidly scaling brand community. While the community’s support had emerged organically in the past, the team was now debating whether the company’s next phase of growth would need to be fueled by a greater emphasis on paid peer-to-peer sales representatives, professional influencer marketing, paid media, and a physical market presence.

Keywords: Brands; brand management; brand communication; retailing; e-commerce; DTC; influencer; digital marketing; social media; Startup; internet marketing; big data; crowdsourcing; Marketing; Marketing Channels; Marketing Communications; Brands and Branding; Marketing Strategy; Entrepreneurship; Venture Capital; Consumer Behavior; Distribution; Growth and Development Strategy; Consumer Products Industry; Beauty and Cosmetics Industry; Retail Industry; United States; North America;

Citation:

Avery, Jill. "Glossier: Co-Creating a Cult Brand with a Digital Community." Harvard Business School Case 519-022, January 2019. (Revised June 2019.) View Details

Cite View Details Educators Purchase

Faculty & Research

HubSpot: Lower Churn through Greater CHI

Abstract

Citation:

About the Author

More from the Author