Analyzing Credit Karma's Brand Strategy: A Business Case Study

This case study delves into the establishment and success of Credit Karma, founded by Kenneth Lin in 2008. It highlights the challenges faced in building a brand in an industry initially viewed with skepticism. The company focused on creating positive customer engagement and leveraging non-revenue generating products to build trust and familiarity. Lin's hands-on approach to customer service and willingness to address concerns played a crucial role in establishing a strong brand reputation. The case study further explores Credit Karma's market leadership, achieved with a relatively small budget compared to competitors, emphasizing the importance of understanding team capabilities, avoiding direct brand imitation, and prioritizing what not to do. The analysis reveals key strategies that contributed to Credit Karma's $3 billion net worth and its position as a leader in its sector. Desklib provides this case study and other solved assignments for students.

Running head: CREDIT KARMA
CREDIT KARMA
Name of the student
Name of the University
Author note

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CREDIT KARMA
Response to Question 1.
Credit Karma is a company established by Kenneth Lin in the year 2008, and it took him
to consider all the challenges to be faced while setting up a new business (Lin, 2019). It would be
rightly said, that this man has to face quite a lot of issues as during that time, surrounding credit
score companies were literally loathed which is not supposed to be. People had bad notions
regarding companies as they falsified promises in order to spam people (Rufaidah, 2017). To
break this notion Lin’s team had to put a lot of effort in establishing the company’s branding
strategy.
The successful Credit Karma that we admire today took five long years of struggle to get
this place in the market. Initially, even if people liked the brand they would not prefer it to
others. For this the company had to build the positive engagement with its customers which was
next to impossible for a newly startup business firm. It was found by Lin that products which do
not generate good revenues, may turn out to be the greatest competitive advantage for company.
The Credit Karma team built credit counterfeits to counter check the reports yet having no
monetary value, but an acquaintance with the site (Lin, 2019). The company had to revise its
business model to increase the searches which required utter perseverance and this way laid the
foundation for the company which has started once with zero searches. In the early years of
business establishment, Lin handled situations calmly as it supposed to be. He used to sit and
answer to clarify customer queries to make services better and welcome criticisms positively. Lin
always believed that to create customer relationship as an early leader one must respond to
customer concerns regularly which creates a rapport and a fine reputation for the company in
customer’s minds (Lin, 2019). With this attitude Lin intended to establish the brand in the early
days which is really commendable.

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Response to Question 2.
Credit Karma entrenched the market leadership with over 50% of consumers who have
heard of the site from any third party sources (Lin, 2019). It has been googled excessively than
Geico considering the standards for organizations which have created personalised and sexy
brands in unsexy organisations which is the reason why Credit Karma pulled it off with 1% of
the size of Geico’s, budget and in fact no such PR agency have contributed in those early,
analytical and measurable years of brand establishment (Lin, 2019). The company has
established itself from the preceding years and as a result, the net worth of company is over
$3billion which involves these current daily exercises as a secret behind their brand establishing
success.
 To enlist pointers that will honestly assess the team’s abilities. There is a vast difference
between, what people aspires to be and what they are originally. This is one of the way
Credit Karma builds the brand today by being the most distinctive among others. The
company restrains from flattering its brand by using strong adjectives that actually do not
resonate with people. The way it builds up the brand today is by believing in the team’s
inner strengths and capabilities.
 Refrain from coping the brand one loves, rather use it as a weapon to strategize one’s
own brand establishment. To be precise, it signifies the team much to focus on its
working strategies and adhere to own company policies (Biraghi & Gambetti, 2015). The
key understanding is strategies that did wonders for Apple, which is a much admired and

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CREDIT KARMA
lovable brand may not work for Credit Karma. Its customers demand it to be more
developing.
 The Credit Karma team keeps the track of what not to be done in their priorities, as that is
the most common mistake people does in action (Odoom, Narteh, & Boateng, 2017).
References
Lin, K. (2019). [online] Firstround.com. Available at: https://firstround.com/review/credit-
karmas-ceo-built-a-sexy-brand-in-an-unsexy-category-with-no-pr-firm-and-a-tiny-budget-heres-
how/ [Accessed 27 Apr. 2019].
Brookhouser, T. (2018). Intuit Strategic Audit.
Rufaidah, P. (2017). Branding strategy development based on innovative
behaviour. International Journal of Business and Globalisation, 18(3), 396-416.
Thelander, Å., & Säwe, F. (2015). The challenge of internal stakeholder support for co-creational
branding strategy. Public Relations Inquiry, 4(3), 323-341.
Odoom, R., Narteh, B., & Boateng, R. (2017). Branding in small-and medium-sized enterprises
(SMEs) Current issues and research avenues. Qualitative Market Research: An International
Journal, 20(1), 68-89.
Biraghi, S., & Gambetti, R. C. (2015). Corporate branding: Where are we? A systematic
communication-based inquiry. Journal of Marketing Communications, 21(4), 260-283.