HubSpot Case Analysis
Question:
1. Do you agree with HubSpot that the “rules of marketing” have changed? If so, how?
Is inbound marketing the answer? Why or why not?
2. Is HubSpot finding and serving the right set of customers? Given its position as a
start-up company, should it widen its focus to serve any customer that comes its way? Or
narrow their target, by focusing exclusively on either Owner Ollies or Marketer Marys? Or
by focusing exclusively on either B2B or B2C customers?
3. HubSpot has begun to differentiate its products as it has learned more about its
customers. Should its pricing strategy change too? Does the software-as-a-service (SaaS)
pricing model work for both Marketer Marys and Owner Ollies? Should HubSpot try to
immediately capture more value for either of these customers?
4. Are Halligan and Shah being too stubborn by not doing any outbound marketing? Or
should they continue to practice what they preach by focusing on inbound marketing
alone?
5. Halligan and Shah want HubSpot to be to marketing, what salesforce.com is to sales.
What would your plan of action be to make this happen? Why would you take these
actions? What keeps you up at night about your plan?
1. Do you agree with HubSpot that the “rules of marketing” have changed? If so,
how? Is inbound marketing the answer? Why or why not?
The rules have not changed per say, but the environment changed, people changed,
communication and interaction channels changed. The fundamentals of marketing didn’t
change yet, they are in the process of transformation, which eventually might result in
significant alterations from the original marketing concepts that we learn from the books.
Inbound marketing concept is one of the candidate concepts that try to address the level of
change that had taken place.
Nevertheless it is still too early to state that inbound marketing is the new dominating
concept. We don’t know where the wearable devices and Siri like personal assistant
software is going to take us and how it ultimately would alter our shopping behavior. At
least we can say that inbound marketing concept advocated by the company is the first step
towards understanding the new realities of modern world and trying to come up with
effective tools to use for marketers to do their job. But blindly preaching it and observing
its postulates might not be the best option not for the company itself nor for its customers.
Inbound marketing must be the central part of the marketing strategy of pretty much any
