Principles and strategies of Dropbox

Founded in 2006, Dropbox is a venture-backed Silicon Valley startup providing online storage
and backup services to millions of customers using a “freemium” (free + premium offers)
business model. This case recounts Dropbox’s trajectory through mid-2010, when founder/CEO
Drew Houston must make strategic decision about new product features, how to target enterprise
(business) customers, and whether to pursue distribution deals with smartphone manufacturers.
Specific Questions/Assignment to Address in your Dropbox Case Write-Up:
Play the role of a marketing consultant, using the principles and
strategies of Dropbox (e.g., freemium) to advise a new online survey platform called Shah’s
Surveytastic Surveys. Surveytastic seeks to enable its users to do all kinds of online data
collection for purposes such as of market research, customer satisfaction, concept testing,
employee evaluations, and product evaluations. This company seeks to become a major
player in the corporate world. However, that is no easy task. The company CEO decides that
it might be a good idea to offer its services to universities (particularly really good
universities like UTSC and Rotman School of Management where undergrads and MBA
students who will graduate and become famous corporate executives in the future). The
hope is to gain the credibility in the academic marketplace in order to attract corporate
customers. How can you apply the freemium strategy to help Surveytastic make money in
the long-term?
VERY VERY VERY Helpful Hints for this Question!
I want you to apply to principles of freemium pricing in a new way. Universities typically have a
tighter technology budget, so it is probably not wise to think of them as the revenue generators
directly. However, the students go on to the corporate world, where there is a much higher
technology budget and where word of mouth is important. Can you leverage freemium strategies
across customer groups (Universities and corporate clients) rather than within the same customer
like in Dropbox? Also, keep in mind that there is no direct need to do analyses on Dropbox (no
need for the company VP, competitor analysis, etc.), but rather APPLY the principles that you
learned from Dropbox. This assignment will help develop your ability to apply concepts/lessons
from the course and from the cases to other companies in the future.