In attacking the write-up, please consider the following:
1. A case write-up is just like an essay or story. It should have a Beginning, middle and an end. The "theme" of the case/essay is to resolve some key decision or decisions. The study questions give you a good start on what the overall content should be. However, organizing the paper into sections according to the questions is sometimes not a good idea. Use the study questions as a guide, but these must be connected and prioritized.
2. The use of sub-headings and bullets go a long way in improving your presentation and organization of your write-up. Sub-heads can be very general: "company situation," "marketing mix analysis," "summary and conclusions." Or they may be specific to the case: "copy test results," "trade promotion," "consumer promotion," "advertising campaign."
3. At the beginning always include an "introduction" or "background" or "the situation" section. At the end it's a good idea to have a "conclusions" or "summary and conclusions" or "summary and recommendations" section. Putting a summary of your recommendations up front is a plus.
4. The introduction should briefly outline the situation and what key decisions will be addressed in the write-up. It's a good idea to briefly state your final decision/recommendation.
5. In the final summary section, it is helpful to quickly reiterate the highlights of the preceding analysis. Do not introduce new facts or analysis in the summary although you can use this section to draw conclusions based on your prior analysis of facts.
6. In general, don't present facts without interpretation and don't present interpretation (conclusions) without facts.
7. Use Exhibits to present large tables of numbers. a. Usually the tables or charts should represent some recalculation or re-presentation of numbers from the case. Usually you don't include whole tables verbatim from the case. For example, if the case has a 10-year sales history and you are interested in sales growth rates, you may calculate these and present in an Exhibit.
"The product sold $15 million in the first year."
2. A) It may appear obvious that this is good, but it's really not obvious. For example, if the goal were $20 million, $15 million would be very disappointing indeed!)
b. Even though you have an Exhibit, refer to the key numbers in the text of the case. Also, discuss any assumptions you made in the calculations if these are likely to be controversial.
c. If the numerical exhibit is very brief like one or two numbers or a short table, consider putting it right in the text.
d. In general, don't put verbal information in an exhibit at the end. For example, lists of "pros and cons" or "strengths or weaknesses" or "factors to consider" should be included within the text. An exception to this might be if you create the script for a commercial, you could include the whole script as an exhibit. But don't forget to explain why you did this -- your interpretation of why it's a good script -- in the text.
8. A case analysis requires that you ultimately recommend a single course of action -- that you advocate one alternative over others.
9. Do not approach the write-up as a "memo" from a "consultant" (you) to the decision maker in the case. I have found that this format tends to encourage an informal and "familiar" tone in the write-up. Emotion and familiarity should be used very sparingly in business communications. Often, these are distracting and take away from the clarity of the presentation.

Question:
Please consider the following questions when preparing the case for class discussion:
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 Mary’s? Or by focusing exclusively on either B2B or B2C customers?
3. HubSpot had begun to differentiate its products as it has learned more about its customers. Should it do more? Should its pricing strategy change too? Does the softwareas-a-service (Saas) pricing model work for both Owner Ollies and Marketer Mary’s? 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?

In attacking the write-up, please consider the following: 1. A cas...