Hoover’s Guide nearly wrecked its subscription business, moving from selling individual subs to the in-depth profiles for $195, to requiring a five-seat license for $1995, to selling individual subs at twice the price and with fewer tools for $395. Thanks to ContentBiz for the case study.
Hoover’s came close to letting their lack of software for user authentication keep them from serving their core customers (individual users) in the way they wanted to be served at a price they could afford. Only by recognizing the resistance of their prospects to the new plan and by adapting their plan were they able to save their subscription business from disaster and get away with doubling their price.