MedNet is a health information website that earns revenue through advertisements. Its largest advertiser, Windham Pharmaceuticals, wants to change MedNet's revenue model from cost per thousand impressions to pay per click. This would significantly reduce MedNet's revenue. Marvel, a competing website, uses a pay per click model that gives advertisers more flexibility. Windham is considering shifting its advertising dollars to Marvel. MedNet needs a strategy to survive in this competitive market and avoid losing customers and advertisers. Options include charging for content subscriptions to diversify revenue, taking a more diagnostic approach to visitors, and expanding globally and into alternative health topics.

1. Harvard Business School
Case: Mednet.com
confronts ‘click through’
competition
Sachet Jain
IIT Delhi

2. What is MedNet ?
A company delivering scientifically based health information
free to consumers. Earns its profits through advertisements.

3. Windham Pharmaceuticals
It is MedNet’s biggest advertiser

4. Players from MedNet?
Heather Yates: Vice President ( Business Development) @
MedNet
Bill Bishop: Vice President (Consumer Marketing) @ MedNet
Frank Do’nofrio: President CEO, MedNet
Bradley Meyers: CFO, MedNet
Players from Windham?
Mahria Baker: Windhram CMO

5. Situation Analysis
• MedNet’s Chief advertising company is asking for change of
rules in the revenue model
• Widham planning to shift its MedNet and Dollars to Marvel, a
Competing Website which gives more flexibility to their
Advertising Companies with their different Revenue Models
• In Case MedNet either looses Widham or changes its model
as asked for. In both cases a loss of revenue happens.

6. MedNet VS Competitors
• Scientific based Medical Information to a non professional
consumer base, free of cost.
• Trusted and evidence based scientific information
• MedNet Users clicked on more pages and advertisements
than general web surfer does.

9. Objectives
• Suggest a Strategy to Survive in the Growing and
Competitive Health Services Market.
• Garnering better Revenues and Avoid Losing the General
Customer Base and Advertising Agencies

10. MedNet’s Income Statement

11. MedNet’s Revenue Model
• CPM ( Cost per thousand impression) Basis
One impression that one visitor requested from a web-server
a page that had a specific advertisement on it, hereby
monetizing of ‘ eyeballs’ i.e. Site Visitors

12. How Marvel Posed a challenge to
MedNet?
• Marvel(A highly successful search engine) Turned the Tables
on its competitors by declaring that it would provide
impressions for free and charge advertisers only for click
throughs.
• Pay Per Click Basis Revenue Model where CTR(click through
rate) was measured as the number of clicks divided by total
number of ad impressions delivered.
This is the major reason why other companies asked for
CTR’s.

13. Widham’s Ad. Campaign

14. The Threat : Marvel
If MedNet decides to sell only click throughs at a rate
competing with of marvel’s, their revenue will decrease by
atleast 80% given their audience space remains same.

15. MedNet vs Marvel
• Mednet provides more actual sales rather than just giving an
opportunity to give medical information.
• It provides evidences and is more user friendly. It also uses
Coupon sale confronts

16. Strategic options to be implemented
Take a more Prescriptive, Diagnostic posture toward site
visitors treating them as cholesterol.com did, almost as
patients.
They could charge for content like magazine/e-file
Subscriptions, and be less dependent on advertising
revenues.
Bring Alternative Health Information to the site, like
Conservative Scientific Studies of Acupuncture, Chiropractic
medicines and Herbal Remedies.
Going Global by presenting information in Several Languages
like cholesterol.com did, this will also improve their ad.
Revenues. Build Customer Relations, integrity and their

17. Created by Sachet Jain,IIT Delhi, during an
internship by Prof. Sameer Mathur, IIM
Lucknow.
www.IIMInternship.com