PROBLEM STATEMENT
Due to environmental changes, AssociationPower.Com (APC) must decide on new product-market and marketing-mix plans to raise its market share and hedge against competitive risks.
Strategic Issues & Marketing Mix
Pricing: Web site sales provide “annuity-type” revenue with annual cash flows of ~$3000 per
contract. Vendor-partner relationships allow APC to receive 1% of all sales revenue purchased by the client associations or their members. APC has a $50/hour ‘set-up’ fee for helping client associations migrate content from their current site to the APC site. Roland’s proposed web site would sell for $250 per contract; Matheson’s proposed web site would sell for $500 per contract.
Product line: APC core product is a branded, leading-edge, template-driven Web site that
could be customized to meet customer requirements. Included is membership to a group purchasing organization (GPO) that provides clients with discounted rates for products and services such as: discount long-distance conference calling, selected software packages, discounted auto rental services, and the like. The new products proposed in the case were “AssociationPowerLite”, “MicroAssociations” and a “stripped-down” web site.
Promotion: One thousand association executives are contacted via email each week. This
accounts for two-to-three new licensing agreements (per week). The 48 association conferences attended by APC, per year, generate between 336-384 new leads that result, on average, in 180 new contracts.
Place: Due to the nature of the business, APC can operate anywhere the World Wide Web
exists. Their offices are located south of San Francisco, just north of Silicon Valley. Their customers are disproportionately located in the Northwest ...