Business Analytics Capstone

Framework for Strategy

Bruno Gonzalez
July 1st, 2017
Problem Statement
Describe the Problem Adblockers present to GYF

Use this space for describing the problem. Be as specific as possible! You should focus on the implications of adblockers on GYFs ad-buying customers; in exploring
this, you might also consider the implications for GYFs end users, operations, and/or internal organization.

Adblockers threaten GYFs business model, as all its revenues come from advertisers (its three core business are offered free of
charge to end users). In a worst case scenario, if all its ad-buying customers stopped buying ads in GYFs websites, the company
could no longer exist, unless they decided to switch to a paying model for its end users. Even this could not necessarily guarantee
GYFs survival, as its current user base is used to have free access to all of GYFs services now, so many users will likely leave as
a consequence. Nonetheless, if enough users remain and pay for GYFs services, the company may reorient itself towards a
profitable business model, with no advertisers and all revenues coming from end users; this will however represent a significant shift
in the company and a restructuring of its operations/organization might be needed.
From a Customers-Analytics point of view, the loss of data caused by adblockers will dramatically impair the companys
marketing strategy, as GYF will lose its capacity to know the characteristics of its users, thus becoming unable to better target their
interests and needs.
Strategy
Describe your proposed strategy

Make sure your strategy is clear, well-defined, and feasible

My strategy would be to develop a hybrid business model, aiming at two types of end users:

- Non-paying users, to whom the same services will be offered as in the current situation. But, I will try to develop a policy of
non-invasive advertisement, that is, all the ads offered by the company will have to comply with a certain standard of quality
and respect for the user, and I will try to integrate the ad space within GYFs websites and services in as smooth a way as
possible.

- Paying users, to whom no ads are shown at all and who may also have access to additional value services.
Effects
Describe the anticipated effects of your strategy

Please describe the anticipated effects of your strategy. Make sure you address the effects on customers, revenue, and the internal organization.

- Effects on customers:

The most advertising-averse customers may probably leave as my hybrid model still keeps some sort of advertising, but in the
long term I dont think our customer base will significantly decrease; it will just be slpit in two: paying and non-paying. Besides, if
we manage to implement, as I suggested, a respectful, smooth, non-intrusive ad policy, I think this occasional loss of customers will
be compensated by the number of new users we will attract from other sites with no such policy.

- Effects on revenue:

We will have a new revenue stream, namely our premium, paying customers. On the other hand, we may experience a certain
reduction of our traditional advertising as a result of our efforts to soften the advertising load on users. Nonetheless, if our
customer base does not decrease substantially we will still be able to keep attracting advertisers, and the new revenue stream shoud
compensate for the loss of advertisers. However, this will not necessarily mean that we will be profitable; we will have too new
additional costs associated with our premium business model: content development, IT, admin costs, selling costs

- Effects on the internal organization:

Our organization will also need to slightly change as the old model was not used to the premium culture. The departments that
will be affected the most are: content development, customer relationship management and sales&marketing
Measurement
Describe the anticipated effects of your strategy and how you will measure them

Please outline your plan for measuring these effects using data. Make sure you use techniques you learned about in the courses

I would launch a survey among our customer base to understand what our users value the most in our current offering, what they
would change and for what kind of services/features they would be willing to pay.

I would also do a specific survey for those customers who unsubscribe or who have stopped visiting our website, to understand the
reason for their decision and know what we could do to retain them.

Last, I would keep a very careful supervision of financial and user-related KPIs in the following weeks after our transition to the
new business model. A/B tests on our customer base should provide useful insight into predicting our users behavior.
Conclusion
Summarize your key points from the preceding slides

Ad blockers represent a threat to GYFs traditional business model. As a consequence, significant changes should be addressed in
order to adapt to the new environment. The recent history of the Internet and the Economy 2.0 has shown us that no leading
position is granted or secured for ever. Business models in the internet era are continuously evolving, and evolving very fast. The
only way to keep ahead of competitors is by always looking forward, and taking steps in advance, anticipating or, even better,
creating disruptive transformation. If customers needs are met in a respectful, honest way while being environmentally friendly and
making a positive impact on society, then success is 100% guaranteed!