Case Analysis #1: Monster.com
Objective: Remaining the leading online career service provider by achieving continuous growth and profitability
Problem: WIth the threat of the rising unemployment rate coupled with the shortages in skilled labour and the retirement of the baby-boomers, how can Monster.com achieve continouous growth and profitability in both the short and long run?
Alternatives
Strengths:
• Very loyal customer base
• They have 50% of the online recruitment market share
• High barriers to enter into the market
• Gained a vast amount of recognition for their marketing campaign “when I grow up”
• High brand awareness
• The monster.com company offers many different products/services in order to attract a vast array of customers
Weaknesses:
• There is a possibility that Monster is offering too many products and services. It is clear that they would like to eventually appeal to the entire market but their abundance of products can ultimately confuse their potential clients because they have failed to select a target market
• There is a lack of credibility with monster.com in the learning market
Opportunities:
• With the retirement of baby boomers, many new jobs will become available therefore the employers will want to seek out recruitment advertisers
• the constant development of new products and services to appeal to different market segments
• they are exploring a number of recruitment segments mainly the hourly job market to allow all candidates to search by geographic location and pay
• the development of a new system that would allow for people without internet access to search for jobs as well
• Have a developed complementary businesses i.e. Monstermoving.com and Monsterlearning.com in order to compliment Monster’s core career management site
• Expansion into the European job market
Threats
• The abundance of niche online recruiters
• The consolidation among the leading online jopb boards – CareerBuilder’s purchase of HeadHunter.net
Decision Criteria:
1. The impact their alternatives will have on their company profits
2. The impact their strategy owill have on their competitors
3. Their impact on their current customers i.e. eill they be able to keep all their customers or will they have to sacrifice some to obtain more
Alternatives
1. Tap into the hourly job market segment which comprises 66% of the U.S. workforce
a. Impact on company profits: this alternative can help raise company profits because this market hasn’t been penetrated by any other online job recruitment agencies
b. Impact on competitors: this will allow Monster to gain even more of a competitive advantage
c. Impact on current customers: This could have a negative impact on current customers because the hourly job market segment tends to get paid [next page]