1

A REPORT

ON

BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT &

COMPETITOR ANALYSIS OF

CAREER LAUNCHER

By:-

Shruti Singh

10BSP1255

CAREER LAUNCHER INDIA PVT. LTD

2

A REPORT

ON

BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT &

COMPETITOR ANALYSIS OF

CAREER LAUNCHER

By:-

Shruti Singh

10BSP1255 CAREER LAUNCHER INDIA PVT. LTD.

A report submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements

Of PGPM program of IBS GURGAON

Distribution List: Prof. Ranjita Gupta

Tushar Goyal

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Authorization

This is to certify that this report is submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements of PGPM

program of ICFAI Business School (IBS), Gurgaon. This report document titled: “Business

development and competitor analysis” is done by Shruti Singh as part of the completion of the

study at Career Launcher during her Internship program under the guidance of Mr. Tushar Goyal,

Operations head, Smart Careers a division of Career Launcher.

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Acknowledgements

With great pleasure, I express my heartiest thanks to Prof. Ranjita Gupta for giving me an opportunity to work under her guidance. She gave me the guidelines that helped me a lot in the preparation of my research report.

I am also extremely grateful to Mr. Tushar Goyal, Operations Head, Smart Careers for helping me and providing me with the useful information. By regularly interacting with him, I learnt few facets of Educational Industry and I am sure the knowledge imparted will go long way in enriching my career.

The project could not be completed without their support and guidance. Thanking them is a small gesture for the generosity shown.

I express my thanks to all the respondents to whom I visited, for their support and valuable information, which has helped me in the completion of my research project work. I express my sincere gratitude to my parents, friends and all those who have directly or indirectly inspired and helped me to complete my project with unremitting zeal and enthusiasm.

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

1. ABSTRACT ................................................................................................................................... . 8

2. INTRODUCTION ........................................................................................................................... 11

3. UNDERSTANDING THE PRODUCT AT SMART CAREERS ............................................ ….18

3.a.1. PRODUCT CLASSIFICATION ……………………………………………………..19

3.a.2. PRODUCTS & PRICES……………………………………………………………...21

3.a.3. PRODUCT FEATURES ……………………………………………………………. 22

4. IDENTIFYING COMPETITORS: .................................................................................................. 23

4.b.1.COMPETITOR ANALYSIS: ....................................................................................... 24

4.b.2.COMPETITORS PRODUCTS & REACH: ................................................................ 25

4. b.3. MARKET SHARE ANALYSIS……..………………………………………………26

5. MARKET LEADER ANALYSIS: ................................................................................................... 28

5.1. I.M.S................................................................................................................................ 29

5.2. EDUMENTOR …………………………………………………………………………31

6. PROMOTIONAL STRATEGY FOR SMART CAREERS:………………………………………33

6.1. INTRODUCTION:……………………………………………………………………..34

6.2. SEGMENTING , TARGETING & POSITIONING …………………………………..37

6.3. ANALYZING COMPETITOR PROMOTIONAL STRATEGIES ……………………39

6.4. ANALYZING COMPANY'S LIMITATION……………………………………….….40

6.5 METHODS SUGGESTED…………………………………….………………..41

6.6. SALES FLOW CHART…………………………………………………………….......43

7. BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT:…………………………………………………………………….44

7.1. BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT AT CENTRAL DELHI CENTRE ……………………45

7.2. MEASURING EFFECTIVENESS OF PROMOTIONAL TOOLS ……………………46

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8. CUSTOMER SATISFACTION SURVEY:……………………………………………………….47

8.1 FINDINGS ……………………………………………………………………………….56

9. LEARNING FROM THE PROJECT:……………………………………………………………..58

10. CONCLUSION & SUGGESTIONS:…………………………………………………………….61

11.ATTACHEMENTS ……………………………………………………………………………….63

12. REFRENCES ……………………………………………………………………………………..68

13. GLOSSARY ……………………………………………………………………………………...69

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LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

A) List of figures

S no. Title

1. Growth of major players in the market……………………………………20

2. Types of sales promotion………………………………………………….28

3. Sales flowchart ……………………………………………………………36

4. Effectiveness of marketing tools …………………………………………39

5. Appendices ……………………………………………………………….57

B) List of tables

S no. Title

1. Programs & prices at Smart Careers ………………………………………14

2. Product Features ………………………….……………………………….15

3. Competitors products & reach ……………………………………………18

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ABSTRACT

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The project deals with learning of Business environment of education sector with prime focus on Business development of the organization & its products. It is followed by understanding consumer behavior & Competitor analysis which will benefit the organization by increasing its market share in the future. Thorough analysis of marketing strategies used by different organizations in the sector has been done. Project implementation is in the following order:

1. Studying the education industries & understanding their trends.

2. Understanding the functions & operations of different departments of the organization & identifying their products in the market.

3. Identifying the market leaders.

4. Sales & Marketing of the existing products by studying consumer buying behavior.

5. Understanding the promotional strategies used by market leaders & identifying the

strategy best suited for the organization.

6. Critical Competitor analysis to make peer comparisons of the companies strategies.

7. Managing activities of a full fledged operational centre ( Connaught Place )

8. Qualitative survey so as to understand consumer’s needs & expectations.

Work executed at different stages of the project has been mentioned below: To have an insight of the industry, I first started understanding the services & products of the organization during my initial training days (8th – 12th Feb. 2011). Promotion & marketing started after the training & continued till the end of the project work. As a beginner initially I gathered all the information about the industry and the organization. During the training period of 5 days I got a chance to interact with the top executives and chief mentors of the organization, who introduced me to their products and briefed me about their services. Identification of market leaders was done by analyzing previous year’s statistics.

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Segmenting & profiling of potential customers was done. Segmentation was done on different parameters. Understanding consumer behavior, their buying pattern and marketing the products to them was done. In the middle I studied the market leaders, competitors, their evolution & comparative comparison of their marketing & promotional techniques with that of the organization. Handling the operation of the Cannaught place centre was given to me after this. This operation also continued till the end of the project. Issues of renovation work were there in the beginning but now the centre is operating well. In the final stage learning of each stage of the project work was used for a qualitative survey. Latest up to date information of the organizations & effective tools of marketing research like ghost shopping, questionnaire research, customer feedback, etc. have been used.

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Chapter 1

INTRODUCTION

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With dramatic increase in demand for professionals in almost all spheres and good quality education becoming an avenue to success, private coaching institutes have mushroomed across the country in recent years, becoming an industry worth thousands of crores of rupees. The trend of group tuition is also becoming popular. In fact, some classes and group tutors have tie-up with colleges, as a result of which these colleges recommend only particular institutes India’s youth, often referred to as its demographic dividend, accounts for over 50 per cent of its total population, with 367 universities and 18,000 colleges with half-a-million teachers and about 11 million students on the rolls, India could reap huge returns off its demographic dividend. Industry experts say coaching institutions imparting only engineering education to make ways for Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) in lead metropolis collectively earn an annual turnover of Rs 10,000 crore per annum from nearly six lakh aspirants that appear for these exams. It is believed that based on the current and future manpower requirements of the various sectors; there is a huge demand-supply gap in the education space. This has attracted many players to invest in education and training institutions with the aim of building valuable franchises that can be rapidly scaled up. Company’s Profile: Career Launcher India Pvt. Ltd. Career Launcher India Limited (CL) is Asia’s leading education service provider with presence in over 130 locations across India, Middle East and the United States. CL provides test-prep education to enable school and college students gain admission to professional courses. It is also actively involved in the field of mainstream education, mainly through its growing network of play schools and secondary schools. Today over 400+ academicians and professionals around the world work with CL to counsel and groom over 50,000+ students across the globe . It is a leading education corporate providing world class education services in South Asia with annual turnover touching Rs 150 crores. With over 15 years of experience in the education sector, the organization has moved from being a purely test prep based company, to three distinct areas of education services- test prep, mainstream education and employability training. The education industry is estimated to be currently in excess of 150,000 crores & is growing at a steady 16%+ every year. It continues to be the highest non -food expense pan South Asia. As part of their growth and expansion plans, they are looking for partners in the MENA (Middle East and North Africa) regions

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Smart Careers: (A Career Launcher division) Smart Careers which became a division of Career Launcher India Limited in 2009 was started in the year 1990. It was started by chief mentor of the company Mr. Virendra Khanna (V.K), who was ex-H.O.D of Shaheed Sukhdev College of Business Studies (CBS) for past 20 years. A coaching institute which initially started as a small classroom on terrace today has total of 21 locations all across Delhi and N.C.R with the head office being located at Cannaught Place. They have been responsible for training several thousands of students in the last 20 years by expanding their domain knowledge & by introducing varied preparation modules for media, law, hospitality & IT entrances after 10+2. The company has more than 60 MBA graduates (full time & interns) (called as Mentors of the company) working with them. As a result of VK’s continued association with CBS; faculty, content & pedagogy at Smart Careers was especially tuned to be suitable to 17 year olds’ learning needs attention for all its students. Company vision: Smart Career is the only specialised BBA/BBS/BBE Entrance Coaching Institute with an expertise of more than two decades. A lot of things are constantly changing at Smart Careers to keep pace with the changing times. But one thing that has not changed is our compassionate focus on how a 17 year – fresh –out–of–school student is different (almost fragile) as compared to his graduate counterpart & how he can be trained to crack the toughest entrances in the country.

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Scope of the project:

SMART CAREERS has been in the existence for as long as 20 years. It has nice grip

over the market as compared to its counterparts but threats of new entrants like

Edumentor, Pratham Educational services and old players like I.M.S & T.I.M.E is

present there. The project has been undertaken by keeping business development of the

organizations as the prime focus. The project report will give the organization a view of

the current market trends. The fact and information provided in the report would give the

company opportunities to expand their business & counter the threats of its competitors.

It will help the organization increase its efficiency by learning effective promotional

strategies implementing them & shelving old ones.

Product development at the organization meeting the changing

requirements of the customers will be taken into consideration during the course of the

project. As during the project I will b involved in selling & marketing of the organization

products, it will also help me to understand the consumer buying behavior. S.T.P analysis

would be done to explore new segments thereby providing the company with an

opportunity of business development and hence increasing their market share. Surveys

conducted towards the end would help us to know customer satisfaction level, and

effectiveness of current promotional tools used by the company. Apart from this, it will

also help me in shaping my knowledge about the education sector.

Methods or Tools used:

The methodology followed comprises of a brief study of the evolution of undergraduate

management entrance test preparation markets and its growth in India.

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• Business development strategies

As a part of business development strategy various activities like Board center activity, public relations, would be conducted throughout Delhi/N.C.R in order to reach the target audience. Collection of information from all possible sources to understand the organization products, competitor offerings would be done. Promotional techniques used by them would be studied.

• Profiling Collection of primary & secondary data, its analysis & profiling of the potential customers would be done by telecalling.

• Ghost shopping

In order to gain insights of the strategies of competitors a study would be conducted

to gain knowledge about the business model of various competitors like T.IME,

I.M.S, Edumentor, etc. On its basis competitive promotional strategy for Smart

Careers would be developed. Ghost calls would be made to understand the products

of competitors and their unique selling point.

• Relation building Interacting with class XII students and their parents in order to

get an idea of what all they expect from an institute preparing for BBA/BBS/BBE

entrance exam and also to brief them about various options one has after XII.

This will be done by:

a) Conducting counseling at all centers. b) Counseling parents & students over phone by telecalling. c) On the day of the Board exams, interacting with the parents, do short term

counseling and give them brief knowledge of our product and services we offer.

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• Marketing research: The help of questionnaire & surveys would be taken to conduct this operation. This would be done towards the end of the project as the company feels it would hinder the operations if conducted during the peak sales season.

• Direct Sales : Individual counseling of parents & students would be done to brief them about the product & services offered by the company & ultimately make the enrollments by convincing them about the products. This will benefit the company financially.

Project Limitations:

The major constraints or limitation of the project is given below:

• Primarily the project requires a lot of secondary data & the availability of this data forms

the limitation also the precision of the data collected cannot be measured.

• The results and conclusions of the project cannot be generalized as my area of work is

restricted to central zone.

• Exact information about no. of products sold by the competitors would be out only after

end of the sales season. ( i.e. ; June end )

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Values added to the organization:

• Finding out new products & courses in the industry.

• Business development of company

• Finding out loopholes in the organization structure

• Finding products of the competitor & their promotional strategies

• Finding customer perception about the industry, products & factors affecting their selection.

• Helping out the company in knowing the latest tools being used by market leader to survive in the market.

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CHAPTER 2

UNDERSTANDING PRODUCT AT SMART CAREERS

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CLASSIFICATION:

The main business of Smart Career is of providing specialized coaching to students preparing for

undergraduate exams. The organization represents itself as a career development institute by

mentoring young class 12th passed out students. Its core competency lies in counseling &

mentoring young students to choose the right career path for themselves.

Their products cater to most of the undergraduate streams. The

company basically deals in the following undergraduate streams:

I. Management

II. Law

III. Media

IV. Hospitality

V. Information technology

All the above degrees are three year full – time course for which coaching is provided in

a classroom format. Providing coaching in the above streams forms the products for

Smart Careers. Coaching for each of the courses above is itself a product of the

organization.

All the streams in detail are discussed below:

I. Management – This stream deals with all the management courses at the undergraduate

level. Courses which fall under this stream are BBS, BBA, BFIA & BBE.

BBS is the management degree provided by Delhi University (D.U). The same

management degree provided by Indraprastha University is known as BBA. One major

difference between both these courses is that for writing a BBS exam a student

compulsorily needs to have mathematics as one of his subject in class 12th. A BBS/BBA

provides students with knowledge of business environment & managerial skills required

20

to survive in the business world. BBE degree is the study of business economics. It is the

learning of product & services of the country & gives an idea of economy. BFIA degree

stands for Bachelors in Finance & Investment Analysis. This course was designed by the

chief mentor Mr. Virendra Khanna himself. It is more towards financial learning of

management. All the above courses are professional degree courses having more

weightage in the market as compared to other traditional degree courses. A professional

degree course guarantees a job, while a traditional degree course has to be completed by

undertaking a professional course to find a job. Being a professional course it ensures a

healthy balance between theoretical foundation and practical exposure to the present day

business world. It transforms a student into a corporate personality.

II. Law - Law preparation is for students who plan to become a legal advisor, corporate

lawyer, Magistrate, Judge, Litigation expert etc. Degrees which fall under this course are

LLB, BALLB, and BBALLB. For law preparation there are separate modules for legal

aptitude which is added to the syllabus. For this module separate workshops are arranged

in the middle of the course for the students.

III. Media - This course is widely popular among youngsters. A student opting for this

course can land of become a TV reporter , Journalist , Film editor , Radio jockey , script

writer , wildlife photographer ,etc. Degrees falling under this course are BMMMC,

BJMC. This stream mostly attracts the female customers.

IV. Hospitality – career options in hospitality industry are Front desk executive , food

connoisseur , PR executive , Chef , etc . Special 10 workshops are arranged for this

course.

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V. Information Technology – Students with interest in computer & those with computers

as optional subject in class 12th can opt for this course. With the increasing popularity of

software and computers among the students this course also sells itself good.

Products & Prices:

The Management product (i.e., BBA/BBS/BFIA/BBE) is priced at Rs. 9,900 at all its 19 centers. A customer buying it can prepare for any or all of the four courses together at the same price.

Law, Media, B.C.A & Hospitality packages are each priced at Rs. 11’900 if purchased alone. A customer buying two of these courses together can get it at a discounted price of Rs. 13,900 i.e. for each additional course on the package he needs to pay Rs. 2,000 extra.

BBA Grill one of the exclusive products of Smart Careers is aimed at the premium customers. This product priced at Rs. 13,900 has added benefits of extra 25 hrs. of teaching along with special G.D/P.I sessions for the customers. This product is currently offered at only one of the

PRODUCT PRICE (Rs.)

BBA/BBS/BFIA/BBE 9,900

LAW

MEDIA

B.C.A

HOSPITALITY

11,900

11,900

11,900

11,900

BBS GRILL 13,900

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centers i.e. Connaught Place. Since I was the centre manager for this C.P, I was mostly involved in marketing & selling this product. The main reason of selling it at C.P centre was to attract the premium class crowd as C.P is known as hub of shoppers and buyers.

Product Features:

The reference materials, books, study kit is provided to the customer at the time of enrollment. Worksheets are distributed everyday. Mock tests, simulated and assessment test are conducted at regular interval. A G.D/P.I session come only with the BBS GRILL product and is given towards the end of the course. All the products are complete classroom programme.

The advantage of having Mr. Virendra Khanna, CBS ex- H.O.D as the chief mentor of the company provides it with extensive knowledge of the product and process. It helps the company to gather the best in town faculty for teaching the above mentioned course.

FEATURES

STUDY KIT , BOOKS

REFERENCE MATERIAL

WORKSHEETS

CLASS ASSESMENT TESTS

57 MOCK TESTS

G.D/P.I TRAINING

SIMULATED TESTS

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CHAPTER 3

IDENTIFYING COMPETITORS

24

COMPETITOR ANALYSIS

Competitor analysis is a critical part of a firm's activities. It is an assessment of the strengths and weaknesses of current and potential competitors, which may encompass firms not only in their own sectors but also in other sectors. Directly or indirectly, competitor analysis is a driver of a firm's strategy and impacts on how firms act or react in their sectors. Analysis is an essential component of corporate strategy; most firms do not conduct competitor analysis. They operate on what is called “informal impressions, conjectures, and intuition gained through the tidbits of information about competitors every manager continually receives.” As a result, it places many firms at risk of dangerous competitive blind spots due to a lack of a complete competitor analysis.

In utilizing competitor analysis as part of strategy formulation, firms are able to adapt or build their own strategies and be able to compete effectively, improve performance and gain market share in their businesses. In a large number of instances, firms are able to tap new markets or build new niches. In any business the main motive is to offer something better than the competitor.

Competitor analysis framework focuses on four key aspects:

• Competitor's objectives,

• Competitor's assumptions,

• Competitor's strategy,

• Competitor’s resources and capabilities.

List of competitors according to their ranks is given below:-

Rank 1: IMS Rank 2: SMART CAREERS Rank 3: EDUMENTOR Rank 4: T.I.M.E Rank 5: CAREER LAUNCHER Rank 6: P.T. EDUCATIONS Rank 7: PRATHAM Rank 8: CAREER POINT

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Competitors Products:

Competitors Reach:

I.M.S NATIONAL

EDUMENTOR DELHI/NCR

T.I.M.E NATIONAL

P.T EDUCATION NATIONAL

CAREER LAUNCHER NATIONAL

PRATHAM WEST DELHI/GURGAON

SOURCE: author compilation from various sources

IMS CAT , Management , LAW , MEDIA , B.C.A , etc.

EDUMENTOR Management , Law , Media , Mass comm., CA-CPT , etc

T.I.M.E CAT , Management , LAW , H.M

P.T EDUCATION CAT , Management , LAW , H.M , etc

CAREER LAUNCHER CAT , LAW , H.M ,Management , etc

PRATHAM Management, B.Ed., H.M, etc.

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Market shares of major players in the market for last year:

Source: author compilation of various secondary sources

Market share of major players for the current year:

Source: author compilation of various secondary sources

COMPANY PRODUCTS SOLD

I.M.S 3700

SMART CAREERS 1600

EDUMENTOR 1800

T.I.M.E 1250

P.T EDUCATION 850

PRATHAM 900

COMPANY PRODUCTS SOLD

I.M.S 3900

SMART CAREERS 1450

EDUMENTOR 1700

T.I.M.E 1300

P.T EDUCATION 800

PRATHAM 500

COMPANY PRODUCTS SOLD

I.M.S 3700

SMART CAREERS 1600

EDUMENTOR 1800

T.I.M.E 1250

P.T EDUCATION 850

PRATHAM 900

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Source: Author compilation of various secondary sources

0

500

1000

1500

2000

2500

3000

3500

4000

2010 2011

IMS

SMART CAREERS

EDUMENTOR

TIME

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CHAPTER 4

MARKET LEADER ANALYSIS

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From the facts & information collected from various primary & secondary sources, it is quite clear that I.M.S, Edumentor & T.I.M.E are the top competitors of Smart Careers. Profiles of the following institutes have been given below:

IMS-

1. An institute with over 34 years of experience in shaping success stories. 2. Leader in Management Entrance training. The institute has been ranked 4th in the

education sector and 44th amongst the Top 50 Most Trusted Service Brands across India 3. IMS has spread its wings across India with more than 140 centers and over 50,000

students, successfully making it to some of the most prestigious institutes in India and abroad.

4. People get into the best colleges after completing their classes in IMS. It is an institute with maximum no. of enrollments in consecutive years

5. For a normal management package there are total of 46 sessions : 1 Preliminary Test, 1 Goal Setting Session, 12 sessions for Quantitative Aptitude, 8 of English, 12of Reasoning, 8 sessions for General Awareness & 8 sessions Business Awareness and 4 sessions for Assessment

Their marketing mix:

• PRODUCT – It has product for both for both undergraduate level and post

graduate level.

• PRICING – The pricing of I.M.S products are slightly high as compared to other players in the market. Major factors influencing I.M.S pricing is its brand value & quality service. Its pricing strategy is mainly dependent on

Demographic factors (mainly income). Price of their basic product is around 11,500.

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• PROMOTION – IMS unique selling point is its brand image all over the country. During their promotions they make sure that masses get to know about the fact that they are the market leader. Their previous year results reflect the quality service offered by them. Being a major player of the industry it enjoys Brand Reorganization, high financial resource back up. Capital intensive promotion is employed by them.

They use the following above the line promotional strategies:

I. Media promotions such as Radio Ads - Their belief is that a radio add reaches the houses in cities as well as towns.

II. News papers – One of the most effective promotion tools of all the time .Vastly used for promotions in education industry.

III. Telemarketing – Both in form of calls and SMS’s IV. Internet Ads – Social networking sites, blogs, paid ads, etc. V. Banners – Putting logos & banners outside schools , colleges , metro

stations

Below the line marketing strategies used are:

I. Sales promotion – Which boasts up the morals of employees and fosters a competition among them to perform better.

II. Outdoor publicity

On the whole I.M.S uses more of capital intensive strategies. With a good financial backup the company focuses well on above the line promotions and not on below the line promotions.

• PLACE – The scale of operation is nationally. With a good reach in all the major

cities of the country I.M.S has its network in all the four zones of Delhi & NCR.

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Edumentor-

1. Edumentor is a specialized self funded institute for BBS / BBA / BBE entrance exam

preparation. With the highest success ratio in Shaheed Sukhdev College of Business Studies (SSCBS), 91.7% got final offer from renowned BBA institutes and 72.7% got multiple offers from various BBA colleges

2. Course material and the creative teaching tools are developed by the team of SSCBS and IIT, Delhi based on the latest trends in entrance test

3. Although it is a small firm but it is fastest growing coaching centre ever (according to data provided by them). Edumentor is just six years old and is now threatening the business of Smart Careers.

Being new to the field of education and coaching, Edumentor has grown a lot in the last six years. Established in 2006 with only 1 branch in East Delhi and 35 students, it has grown to 17 centers across Delhi and NCR and more than 1800 students .In 2010 it has obtained the second spot in BBA coaching institutes across Delhi and NCR.

Customer base growth for Edumentor –

YEAR STUDENTS

2006 35

2009 900

2010 1800

Source: author compilation from various secondary sources

This organization has shown a customer growth rate of over 300 % compared to previous year.

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Their marketing mix:

• PRODUCT - It serves undergraduate level products. It has stretched its network with providing coaching for accountancy & CA-CPT class & Bank P.O exams preparation. Starting in the year 2006 with just one product in the market, they are serving for most of the undergraduate level courses.

• PRICING – Its products are priced quite high as compared to its counter associates. Price variation is based on demographic factors ( income , education)

A basic product at edumentor costs Rs.12, 500 +Rs.1000 (for add on).

• PROMOTIONS – Their promotion strategy is a mix of both above the line & below the line strategies .Since being a new player in the market & lack of financial support majority of promotions is labor intensive. Using only few but effective capital intensive tools have moved Edumentor top in the charts.

Few of the promotion techniques used by Edumentor are:

I. Radio ads

II. Internet ads

III. Posters , bulletin boards

IV. Board centre activity ( Different from Smart Careers )

V. Bank centre activity

VI. Telemarketing

Young & Fresh minds in the company have experimented with the right promotional strategies which has brought Edumentor to such heights.

• PLACE - The company had a single centre in east Delhi in the year 2006. It has good network today with total of 19 centers across Delhi & NCR.

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CHAPTER 5

PROMOTIONAL STRATEGY

FOR SMART CAREERS

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INTRODUCTION

The major work that I was assigned was to understand the company objectives, its customers,

company limitation and then to decide a marketing strategy for the organization which would

increase its brand awareness and ultimately lead to its business development.

There are basically two categories of sales promotion:

Above the line sales promotion

Above the line is a type of advertising through media such as TV, cinema, radio, print, banners and search engines to promote brands. Major uses include television and radio advertising, web and Internet banner ads. This type of communication is conventional in nature and is considered impersonal to customers. It differs from Below the line advertising, which believes in unconventional brand-building strategies, such as direct mail and printed media (and usually involve no motion graphics).These strategies require huge amount of investments and are majorly Capital intensive.

Below the line sales promotions

These are short-term incentives, largely aimed at consumers. With the increasing pressure on the marketing team to achieve communication objectives more efficiently in a limited budget, there has been a need to find out more effective and cost efficient ways to communicate with the target markets. This has led to a shift from the regular media based advertising. These strategies involve high level of ground work involving manpower and hence are more of Labor intensive.

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Below the line

promotion

Endorsement

Public relation

Trade show

Personal selling

Sales promotion

Direct mail

Sponsorship

Product placement

NEWSPAPER

INTERNET

BANNERS, ADS

TELEVISION

RADIO

MOBILE PHONE

Above the line promotions

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Before starting promotions, sales forecast is done to decide the amount to be spent on the

promotions based on the revenue expected from the product. Successful advertising depends on

knowing the preferred methods and styles of communications of the target markets that has to be

reached with the ads.

STEPS FOR DEVELOPING PROMOTIONAL STRATEGY

The steps involved in developing strategies for SMART CAREERS can be enumerated as:-

1:Understanding company objective

2: STP of the organization

3:Analysing competitor promotional strategy

4:Analyzing organization limitation

5 : Selecting effective methods

UNDERSTANDING COMPANY OBJECTIVE

Major objective of Smart Careers for conducting promotions are:-

Understanding consumer buying behavior & their needs

Hit the target audience in cost effective manner

Create Brand Awareness for the company nationally.

Create competitive advantage

Increase in the customer base

Positioning for company in the mind of target audience

Generating sales

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SEGMENTING TARGETING POSITIONING OF THE ORGANIZATION

SEGMENTATION

A segment is a group sharing one or more characteristics that cause them to have similar product

and/or service needs.

A true market segment meets all of the following criteria:

• It is distinct from other segments (different segments have different needs)

• It is homogeneous within the segment (exhibits common needs)

• It responds similarly to a market stimulus

• It can be reached by a market intervention

BASIS OF SEGMENTATION

Segmentation of an organization can be done depending on many variables:

Demographic

• age ,gender , family life cycle, education , income, occupation

• socioeconomic, religion, nationality , language

Geographic

• Region ,country , Climate

Psychographic

• Attitude , personality ,life style

Behavioral

• product usage rate, brand loyalty, product end use

• readiness-to-buy , profitability, income status

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SEGMENTATION

Smart Career defines its segment on the basis of Demographic Variables, i.e. age, education

and income. The management coaching is provided at undergraduate level, so students are

required to be segmented on their age i.e.; 17-18 age group, their educational specialization i.e.

Science, Commerce, and Arts etc. Income of family helps to segment the students and thus

facilitates Smart Careers to plan its target audience more accurately.

TARGETTING

For any organization serving all the segments is not possible , so specific segments have to be

targeted which can be most beneficial for the organization .Smart Careers decides its target

audience to be students of Class 12th which comprises of commerce students who are interested

in management courses, that is, mainly students who do not expect a percentage beyond 95%.

Apart from this, students with specific interest in Law, Media, Hospitality, etc. are also targeted

.The parents of these students act as the Opinion leaders and Decision makers & at a later stage

in the season as target audience too.

POSITIONING

It is the process by which marketers try to create an image or identity in the minds of their target

market for its product, brand, or organization. Most of the competitors serve more than one

segment, with no clear positioning of a specialist management coaching institute. Many players

have positioning in terms of Quality-Prices model, others on basis of faculty and so on, but no

player in the market specifically focuses on management coaching at undergraduate level. This

forms as the core advantage of the product and the service provided at Smart Careers. So, the

company decided to position itself as the “Only specialist institute for management coaching at

undergraduate level”.

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ANALYZING COMPETITOR PROMOTIONAL STRATEGIES

After conducting S.T.P of the organization it is required to analyze the strategies used by

competitors, considering both old and new players in the competition.

Strategies adopted by competitors are:

Most of the players are national level player enjoying high brand awareness in Delhi and NCR region. One or two players like Edumentor, Pratham operate at local level & are growing at an alarming rate. They can be threat for the organization in the future. Being a major player of the industry it enjoys high financial resource back up and the study of their promotional strategies portray that they conduct Capital intensive promotions. Few of above the line marketing strategies used by the competitors are:

1. News paper ( used throughout the season, with varying intensity and updated offerings with respect to change in market conditions )

2. Mobile ads (bulk SMS , to create buzz among the masses )

3. Telemarketing ( most common tool used by any organization )

4. Internet ( requires high investments , mainly used by old players )

5. Banner ads ( used by both old & new players )

6. Television ( used by I.M.S , tying up with local cable operators )

7. Radio ads ( during start of the season )

The local players in the market are restricted to use Labor intensive strategies but its drawbacks

are that it gives relatively a cheap image of the organization.

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Few of the labor intensive strategies are:

1. Direct sales

2. Sales promotion

3. Endorsements

4. Public relations

5. Trade show

6. Person selling

ANALYZING COMPANY LIMITATIONS

Company’s limitation has been:

• Time Constraint: The first challenge which was there before devising the business development strategy was the time constraint. The target market i.e. the class XII commerce student is busy with their board examination in the month of March. This the time when the promotional activity is at a full swing because after the completion of the board examination, students opt for different institute for their entrance exam preparation. So the effective time of promotion is around two months in which we have to build the brand name and adopt different strategies to make a strong brand recall.

• H.R.: The next major constraint for the promotional campaign was the insufficient Human Resource availability as the majority of the people were inexperienced and had to be trained in the limited span of time.

• TRADITIONAL METHODS: In the age of internet media and TV ads, company still follows the old traditional methods; this is one major drawback in the organization.

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STEP 5: Methods suggested

Analyzing all the above factors , right mix of both above and below the line marketing strategies

has to be used to generate positive leads .Few of the methods which can be introduced or

continued further are :

Direct mail: Mails were sent directly to the customers(children giving board examinations) highly

customized, giving them tips regarding boards and information about form details of

entrance exams with an immediate calling helpline to generate response.

Educational newspaper (booklet distribution)

Newspaper distribution in form of sample papers and informational booklets formed the

basic and the most important promotional activity for the company. The distribution was

done in the main promotional activities of the company:

Board Centre activity:-

The board center activity is one of the major business development and promotional

activity of Smart Careers. The activity was designed in such a way that maximum

number of target audience can be covered in the limited span of time. It was a four

day activity in which we were supposed to cover maximum number of schools in our

assigned zones (Central Zone in my case), which were the centers of class XII board

examination. The work schedule of the activity includes:

• Information newspaper & Booklet distribution to students and parents

• Database collection of both parents

The same activity is conducted by Edumentor too. But they are more focused on

counseling of students during this phase while Smart Careers focuses on inviting

customers to an educational seminar, where the can later counsel parents. This activity

reflects good image of the organization to the masses.

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Telemarketing: The use of telemarketing is on the rise as the response rate in

comparison to other promotional tools is very high. This activity is carried throughout the

operation phase. All the work done during the outdoor publicity lead to collection of huge

student data, the dedicated quality managers managed to ensure that the data is real and

not fake. The telecallers were planned to convert this data into the final sales enrolment.

Counseling script with all basic information were designed so to make the work mode

accurate and accountable.

Bank Centre Activity: Started by Edumentor, one of the most effective strategies of

hitting the right customers at the right time. In this the organization tie – ups with major

banks where forms of entrance exams are available. Customers are counseled on the spot.

Internet: One of the most effective tools used in the modern world. Blogs, paid ads,

social networking sites are big hit and generates good no. of positive response from the

customers.

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Sales Flowchart :

During my term, I was involved in each of the activity of the sales flowchart. Collection of database was done by me during the board centre activity, checking of database was done in the initial months to track potential customers. Telemarketing, counseling & enrollments were done till the end.

Collection of Database

Checking of the database by quality

managers

Outgoing Calls made to generate a WALK-

IN

Walk-in(student or his/her parents)

attend counselling session

Student gets enrolled

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Chapter 6

BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT AT CENTRAL DELHI CENTRE

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After completing major part of promotions for the company, in the mid of March I was assigned the responsibilities of Connaught Place centre. I was designated here as the Centre Manager. Smart Careers have had maximum enrollments at this centre thus to continue this record for the company was a great challenge for me. Since, product price at this centre is quite high as compared to other centers; it is ensured that this centre has maximum product satisfaction from the customers.

Batches at this centre have been given the name of Grill Batches. At this centre special batches of BBS preparation named Grill Batches are conducted , which offer customers with extra teaching time & exclusive group discussion & personal interview sessions by Mr. Virendra Khanna.

The main activities at the centre were:

• Responsibility for exclusive Grill Batches product.

• Promotion of the center

• Training of associates

• Database checking

• Meeting target of enrollments for C.P centre

• Handling customer grievances

• Generating revenues by counseling & selling

• Account maintenance , inventory check

• Conducting classes & tests

• Communicating with other centre managers

• Finance handling for the centre

• To generate references from enrolled students by Snowball technique.

Throughout this I learned the various entrepreneurial activities involving comprehensive learning of the business environment. The basic target for the central zone was to increase the enrollments or the selling.

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Measuring effectiveness of promotion tools of Smart Career:

The company has restricted us from conducting surveys within the organization during the operational period. A rough estimate of effectiveness of promotional tools can be measures by considering the enrollments forms filled by the students during their enrollments. This enrollment form has a section which gives us the information as to how the customer got to know about the company.

Results of 400 forms collected from C.P centre & other centers were examined and the results are tabulated below:

Source: author compilation from various secondary source

5.1

1.5

2.9

0.10.4

How the students got to know about Smart Careers

Sample educational newspapers

Seminars

Telecalling

Counselling

Others

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CHAPTER 7

CUSTOMER SATISFACTION SURVEY

48

Customer satisfaction surveys provide the tools to improve organizational performance & profitability. Customer loyalty & satisfaction levels can be determined by analyzing the data gathered from our survey questions. It can help the organization with the following:

• Discover new product & service development ideas

• Determine what makes your customers loyal

• Understand customer issues & relationship to your employees

• Achieve a competitive edge with satisfied customers

For the research, a survey of 15 questions was formed and 40 respondents (Smart Careers’

students & parents) were surveyed. The analysis below shows the findings of the questions that

were asked in the questionnaire

Q1. Which course did you enroll for?

The survey shows that 83% of the students joined Smart Careers for the preparation of BBA/BBS entrance exams while 1% each for the preparation of B.C.A & MEDIA while 2% for Hospitality entrance exam & 13% for LAW.

BBA/BBS

LAW

MEDIA

H.M

B.C.A

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Q2. What do you like most about smart Careers?

48% of the students liked test series, 28% liked the faculty of Smart Careers while 14% liked the

study material.

Q3. Did you get proper motivation from teachers?

71% of the students were satisfied with the motivation from the faculty.

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Q4. Did the center manager communicate important information timely?

90% of the students were satisfied with the information provided by the centre managers where

as only 2% was dissatisfied.

Q5. Was syllabus of all the subjects finished on time?

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74% of the students were not satisfied with time taken for the completion of the syllabus of

various subjects whereas 26 % were satisfied.

Q6. Did the faculties helped in solving the doubts?

94% of the students were satisfied with the faculty in solving their doubts.

Q7. Do you think that sufficient numbers of classes were allotted for all the subjects?

73% of the students were not satisfied with the number of classes allotted to the various subjects.

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Q8. Were classes held on time?

86% of the students were satisfied with the scheduling of the classes.

Q9. How do you rate overall faculty?

43% of the students rated the faculty as good and only 14% rated them as poor.

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Q10. How do u rate study material?

71% of the student rated study material as good.

Q11. How do you rate test series?

86% of the students rated the test series as good and very good.

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Q12. How do you rate infrastructure?

The infrastructure was rated as poor by 57% of the students.

Q13. Were your problems/ issues taken seriously?

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The students were moderately satisfied with issues handling by Smart Careers with 57% of the

students being satisfied.

Q14. Did you like the management at smart careers?

71% of the students were satisfied with Smart Careers’ management

Q15. Will you refer Smart Careers to your friends/relatives in future?

71% of the students were not satisfied with Smart Careers as a whole and would not refer it to

their friends and relatives.

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FINDINGS -

1. Research shows that majority of students enrolled opted for BBS/BBA (Management) course .Development of this particular product stream can be thought of as it accounts for almost 80% revenue generation.

2. Since Media & B.C.A products did not get enough public response, new streams such as fashion designing, M.B.A, B.Eled. , Bank P.O, etc. courses can be considered for inclusion in the product range.

3. After interviewing parents it was found that the major factors which influence their decision of choosing a coaching institutes are :

• Quality of education ( past records , brand image )

• Product price

• Infrastructure

• Course features

• Faculty qualification

• After sales service

4. It can be seen by the customer satisfaction survey that most of the students were not

happy with the infrastructure conditions at the various centers. It is because Smart

Careers doesn’t have any infrastructure of their own, they are using the facilities of the

local tuition centers in various areas without checking the facilities there. Therefore, there

should be certain parameters which every centre should satisfy before getting a brand

name of Smart Careers.

5. Tools like sponsoring events, conducting school counseling and conduction of carries

counseling seminars may increase the interaction of students with the organization.

6. As Smart Careers is active only for 5 months from January – May and rest of the seven

months are enough to forget a brand name that’s why every year they start from scratch.

So if rest of the year they conduct programs like Language course or PDP course it would

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be better to run the business for a year and people will be connected to the company and

the extra expense that company invest for marketing, it won’t be there.

7. According to the students, the syllabus of most of the subjects was not completed on time

and sufficient number of classes was also not allocated to most of the subjects. This has

led to students not referring Smart Careers to their friends and relatives; this is a very

serious issue on which Smart Careers has to pay much heed on.

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CHAPTER 8

LEARNING FROM THE PROJECT

59

By far the project has given me immense exposure of the marketing environment & the education sector. There has been learning at each stage of the project. Lot of responsibilities during the project has helped me to explore the industry completely.

Few of my learning at the organization have been listed below:

From BUSINESS:

I. Understanding education industry and their trends.

II. Competition in Education industry

III. Understanding organizational structure & their responsibilities.

IV. Employer & Employee relationship

V. Business development activities

VI. Flexibility for learning different skills

From INDUSTRY:

I. A little variation in the pricing strategy of the competitors may divert lot of customers. So, a continuous check over competitor’s products & prices should be kept.

II. In an education industry which has a seasonal operation, promotional strategies are needed to be updated almost every other day to have an edge over the competitors.

III. Advertising in the form of educational newspapers is the best marketing tool in the education industry.

IV. A good mix of capital intensive & labor intensive techniques should be used in the promotional activity & it should be influenced by the demographic factors.

V. Quality of service should be the last resort of any organization.

VI. While deciding on promotional strategies or distribution material, nothing should be left on the customer to comprehend; a simple language creates a greater amount of response rather than using bombardic words.

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VII. Temporary workforce has very low accountability; back up of H.R. should always be present so as to ensure the successful completion of the activity even in case of crisis and back outs.

VIII. In outdoor publicity activity is always mentally and physically tiring, hence rotation of workforce to different centers is important to reduce monotony in work.

IX. Promotional activities are all about response generation. During this, the masses should get a strong reason to respond.

From CUSTOMERS:

I. Customer relationship management with new, existing & also with those customers who reject the product.

II. Understanding customer needs & dealing with them differently.

III. Profiling of potential customers.

Other Learning:

I. Grooming personality

II. Time management

III. Team management skills

IV. Team player & leadership skills

V. Communication & interpersonal skills

VI. Conflicts & grievances handling

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CHAPTER 9

CONCLUSION & RECOMMENDATIONS

62

The research work is still incomplete but at this stage following conclusions & recommendations can be drawn from the findings.

o The company is operational on seasonal basis. All the selling, marketing & distribution activities are conducted only for five months (January - June). This intern has restricted the revenue growth of the company for limited period.

Hence, the company can bring educational packages that provide the

coaching for a year or two year comprehensive test preparation, by which the company

will be operational throughout the year resulting in increase of its market share.

o Currently there’s only one segment of the audience that has been tapped by the company

i.e., students preparing for undergraduate programs. Because of this products offered by

the company is also less as compared to its competitors I.M.S, T.I.M.E & Edumentor.

Undergraduate courses like CA-CPT, Fashion industry preparation can be added to its

product range to increase customer base and for diversifying its operations.

o Majority (say, 80 %) of the workforce in the organization is part time or full time interns.

Recruitment of the workforce is done on a random basis as the company doesn’t have a

responsible H.R division. With permanent employees in the organization cost of training

the new employees can be saved.

o Employee transfers in the organization during the operational period results in employee

demotivation. It should be minimized to boost up employee confidence level.

o Incentive based sales will ensure quality work & hard work from the workforce.

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ATTACHEMENTS

64

APPENDICES

Customer Satisfaction Survey

1. Which course you were enrolled in?

• BBS/BBA

• HM

• Media

• Law

• BCA

2. What do you like most about Smart Careers?

• Faculty

• Study Material

• Test Series

• Others________________

3. Did you get proper motivation from the teachers at Smart Careers?

• Yes

• No

4. Did the centre manager communicate important information timely?

• Always

• Only when asked

• Never

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5. Was syllabus of all the subjects finished on time?

• Yes

• No

6. Did your faculty help you in solving the doubts?

• Yes

• No

7. Do you think that sufficient number of classes was allotted for all the subjects?

• Yes

• No

8. Were classes held on time?

• Yes

• No

9. How do you rate overall faculty?

• Excellent

• Very Good

• Good

• Average

• Poor

10. How do you rate study material?

• Excellent

• Very Good

• Good

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• Average

• Poor

11. How do you rate test series?

• Excellent

• Very Good

• Good

• Average

• Poor

12. How do you rate infrastructure?

• Excellent

• Very Good

• Good

• Average

• Poor

13. Were your problems/issues taken seriously?

• Yes

• No

14. Did you like the management at Smart Careers?

• Yes

• No

15. Will you refer Smart Careers to your friends/relatives in future?

• Yes

• No

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16. Please share your experiences and tell us how we can serve better?

Name: _____________________ Address: ______________________

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REFERENCES

• Smart Careers, 2011. Information booklet.

• IMS, 2011. Information booklet.

• T.I.M.E, 2011. Information booklet.

• EduMENTOR, 2011. Information booklet

• Times of India, 2011. [Advertisement], New Delhi, Bennett, Coleman & Co Ltd.

• Career & Education Times [2011] , New Delhi

• Hindustan Times, 2011. [Advertisement], New Delhi, Birla Group.

• Kotler Philip, 2007.MARKETING MANAGEMENT, New Delhi: Dorling Kindersley

(India) Pvt. Ltd. licensees of Pearson Education in South Asia.

• SPSS Conjoint 14.0PDF file, copyright 2005 by SPSS Inc., Printed in the United State of

America.

• SPSS Conjoint 8.0PDF file, copyright 1997 by SPSS Inc., Printed in the U.S.A

• Websites :

http://www.imsindia.com [accessed 2 March 2011].

http://www.edumentor.co.in [accessed 2 April 2011]

http://www.en.wikipedia.org [accessed 13 March 2011].

www.businessworld.in[accessed 6 April 2011].

www.smartcareers.co.in[accessed 2 March 2011].

www.careerlauncherindia.com[accessed 2 March 2011]

www.expressindia.com[accessed 6 April 2011].

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GLOSSARY

• BBS:- BACHELOR OF BUSINESS STUDIES

• BCA: BACHELOR OF BUSINESS APPLICATION

• BBA:- BACHELOR OF BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION

• BBE:- BACHELOR OF BUSINESS ECONOMICS

• BElEd :- BACHELOR OF ELEMENTARY EDUCATION

• HM:- Hotel Management

• IMS:- INSTITUTE OF MANAGEMENT STUDIES

• CL:- Carrier Launcher

• T.I.M.E:- Triumphant Institute of Management Studies

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