Chapter 5. Innovation and branding for the web
CASE STUDY 2: IHAVEMOVED.COM[21](A)
What next?
In July 2000 the four founders of ihavemoved.com sat at their boardroom table in the grip of a mild panic. Having launched their website in November 1999, secured £2.5 million finance in March 2000 – signed just before the NASDAQ crash – they were faced with significantly dropping registration rates. The advertising campaign they had run in May and June 2000 to raise awareness had had a positive impact on overall brand awareness and had attracted lots of visitors to their website but actual sign-ups to their services were dropping significantly. What were they to do next in order to secure the future of the company in which they had invested all their personal wealth?
The starting point
The ignition point for ihavemoved.com (IHM) occurred during an MBA course at London Business School (LBS) in 1997. For their second-year project, David Anstee and Niko Komninos teamed up to develop a business plan. Internet ideas were still hip and cool back then so the original idea was to devise a website on which people could view properties for free and the company would make money from selling mortgages. Their idea got nominated to represent LBS at the European Business Plan competition at INSEAD, France in June 1999. As soon as they arrived they found out that people from Imperial College had a very similar ...
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