Title:                           Aire Fresco: B2B or B2C?

Subject Area:          Competetive strategy

Region:                      Spane, other Spanish-speaking countries

Industry:                  Midfullness applications

Company:                 Aire Fresco

Challenge:              Aire Fresco, a Barcelona-based mindfulness and meditation app, was conceived to bring quality and tailored Hispanic-focused mindfulness and meditation programs to the more than 400 million underserved Spanish-speakers around the globe. Though it gained decent traction since its launch in early 2019, Aire Fresco has struggled to convert its user base to paying subscribers. Additionally, Aire Fresco has faced increasing competition in the broader meditation app market due to a rise in the number of new competitors and a strengthening of the large incumbents. As a result of dwindling resources and time to capitalize on first-mover advantages in the Spanish market, Aire Fresco consulted our team to analyze the company’s current situation and advise on the imminent decision of whether to stay on course by serving the broader but more saturated B2C app market or focus on a B2B model serving corporations.

Embedding in the Industry. Methodology

Data collection started with documents sent by the CEO and founder of Aire Fresco, Victor Coutin including internal marketing research documents, financial information, and a
detailed business plan that he created when he first developed his Aire Fresco idea, as well as interviews with Victor to discuss industry and market trends, current operations, and company
plans going forward. Additionally, we performed in-depth secondary market research, from canvassing the Spanish market and the global meditation industry to synthesizing customer reviews
to serve as supporting data for our analysis.

Generating Value: Findings and Recommendations

As a result of extensive research and applying strategy frameworks such as VRIO, SWOT, PESTLE, Industry Life Cycle Analysis, Porter’s Five Forces, among others, into the B2C and B2B mindfulness and meditation app markets in Spain, we recommend Aire Fresco follow a focused B2B differentiation strategy, spearheaded by its launch in Barcelona for
the following reasons:

• Legal, Political, and especially Sociocultural forces are encouraging more corporations to expand health and wellness benefits packages.
• First-mover advantages: large U.S.-based incumbent players (Calm and Headspace) have yet to enter the Spanish B2B market, leaving it untapped for Aire Fresco.
• Focused Differentiation: Aire Fresco has the ability to uniquely differentiate itself from broader competition as the only B2B and Spanish-focused offering in the market.
• Due to increased demand for and adoption of health and wellness programs by Spanish corporations, Aire Fresco’s corporate-enabled platform will be a strong value driver for businesses seeking to increase and track productivity and employee satisfaction returns on their investment.

Implementation Strategy:

to ensure the viability of the recommended B2B strategy, Aire Fresco will have to reformulate its organizational design, control systems, and culture using a strategic and
chronological plan to achieve a sustainable competitive advantage:

• Organizational Design: Aire Fresco should reorganize into an organic structure with a functional strategy, allowing for efficient and specialized teams with department heads.
• Process and Controls: Due to budget restrictions, inputs should be controlled and only a necessary hire should be made in sales to grow business. Additionally, Aire Fresco can
  implement a rewards system of additional perks for top-performing employees.
• Culture: As the company grows, Aire Fresco can implement various corporate events to grow the workplace community and continue instilling the norms and standards.