Case Study: One.com

One.com was established in Denmark in 2002, and is now one of the leading domain name and web hosting providers in Europe. One.com had developed a dominant brand presence in Denmark, and was ready to expand its innovative domain and web hosting services to new markets. Open Eye (OE) was tasked to help them understand the viability of expanding into eight new markets over a three-year timeframe.

One.com required the clarity to understand its next best moves, and wanted OE to make those strategic “go” or “no-go” recommendations for each market.

Customers in new markets have specific domain and web hosting needs, namely language support, price tolerance, and loyalty programming. Open Eye set out to analyze these in addition to the current competitive landscape of incumbent providers to see what works in the market and where there is space for new entrants, like One.com, to excel

After understanding One.com’s goals, we developed a methodology useful for conducting research on each market. One of the key factors was the relative online conversion cost. We were able to determine which markets to gain customers, at a rate where revenue would offset advertising spending. This was crucial because each market had different going rates for similar services and different advertising keyword pricing and competition.

A framework for entering new markets involves:

• Clear Goal-Setting
• Target Market Assessment
• Understanding Internal Capabilities and Resources
• Prioritization of Markets & Efforts
• Developing Market Entry Options

With the success parameters defined by One.com, Open Eye proceeded to conduct discovery meetings with leadership and internal teams. In doing so, we uncovered the critical market data that was required for their financial models and determined whether it was possible to gain an adequate percentage of each target market within a select budget.

Every market is unique and entering a new one has inherent risks. In our analysis, we were able to find the most relevant revenue opportunities and associated costs for each market, as well as identify key pathways to success within the established frame of time. More specifically, the key quantitative and qualitative data delivered by Open Eye was specifically able to help our client decide on which markets would have the highest growth potential, avoiding highly saturated markets, or markets with margins too low to be viable.

In collaboration with OE, One.com is now equipped with an informed market expansion blueprint, and ready to take its valuable web offerings to new customers in new markets with the highest likelihood for success.