A REPORT ON

7P's & 3C's of Hindustan Times Learning center Ltd. (Studymate)

By Manu NagpalEnrollment No. 15BSP2079

Hindustan Times Learning center Ltd.(Studymate)

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REPORT ON

7P's & 3C's of Hindustan Times Learning center Ltd. (Studymate)

By Manu Nagpal

Enrollment No. 15BSP2079

Hindustan Times Learning center Ltd.(Studymate)

A report submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements of PGPM Program of IBS GURGAON

Distribution List:

Mr Gaurav Kararia (Company Guide)

Mr Sudarshan Baurai (College Guide)

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Authorization

I hereby declare that the Interim report titled ― Assisting 7p’s and 3 C’s of HINDUSTAN TIMES LEARNING CENTERS LTD (STUDYMATE) which I have submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirement of PGPM Program of IBS Gurgaon (Semester II), is an original piece of work, the data and statistics used have been duly acknowledged. This submission has never been a basis for any previously awarded degree to any individual to any institution.

Date: 14th April 2016

Manu Nagpal

Signature

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

Foremost of all, I express my serious indebtedness to ―Almighty , for bestowing ‖with me all favourable circumstances and keeping me in high spirits.

I express my heartiest thanks, deep sense of gratitude and indebtedness to Mr. Saurabh Gupta, (CEO), for providing me the opportunity to have the training session here in the branch and for his judicious guidance, constant and vital encouragement, unstilted interest and determined efforts even in his demanding schedule and also inspired me to work seriously and gain practical knowledge through this project.

I would also thank Mr. Debojit Sen (Sales and Operations Head), Mr. Gaurav Kararia (Zonal Manager), who all help me out in providing information about the working of the branch and thanks to all those also who are directly or indirectly related to my project and helped me out in making it and whose names are not mentioned in it.

My gratitude also goes to Prof. Sudarshan Baurai IBS Gurgaon who as my Faculty Guide has always motivated me to put my best foot forward by setting high standards. I thank him for guiding me at every step of the project and motivating me to do in-depth analysis. The achievements wouldn‘t have been possible without his guidance and support. I thank my business school, IBS

Gurgaon for giving me this opportunity to put to practice, the theoretical knowledge that I imparted during the first two semesters. Last but not the least I feel highly indebted to my parents who always supported me and are continuously guiding me to work on the path of success.

Manu Ngapal15BSP2079

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EXECUTIVE SUMMARYSo far the Tuition Industry has been largely un-organized and none of the players in the industry have had a very huge presence. Hindustan Times Learning Center, Studymate was started in 2010 to provide best in industry supplementary education to the students of classes VllI-XII studying in the CBSE Board schools. Studymate chose CBSE Board as 98% of the schools in Delhi/NCR region follow CBSE curriculum. It was started with 4 centers and the number now has gone to 29 centers across Delhi/NCR region. With the increase in number of centers across the region, Studymate through its supplementary Education is now looking forward to make true the dreams of several 8th -12th class students across Delhi/NCR region.

This report would tell us about the offerings of the company along with its USP, the marketing activities of the company and the role played by me in carrying out the marketing activities. Also, my role in the various operational activities that take place at tuition center have been described.I was involved in 3 major projects during the course of my internship given below:

A ) Assisting the Shalimar Bagh and Model Town Center in the day-to-day sales and operations activities

b) Assisting the Center in NORTH DELHI which include Shalimar Bagh and Model Town for the BTL promotions

C) Doing Competition Analysis for my respective located area.

Having spent 2 months at Studymate, it gave me an opportunity to have an in-depth understanding of the various procedures and processes followed at the company. I have also tried to identify some areas where there was a scope of improvement and tried to come up with suitable solutions. These identified issues along with the proposed solution will be presented to the Corporate Team at the Head office during the Final Presentation. After receiving inputs on the identified issues from the Corporate Team, I worked on fine-tuning the solutions and the final presentation was sent to the Corporate Team of Studymate.

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

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Sr no Topic Page no

1 Cover Page 1

2 Title page 2

3 Authorisation 3

4 Acknowledgement 4

5 Executive Summary 5

6 Structure of the company 7-8

7 Target Segment of studymate 9

8 SWOT 10

9 Name Of The Project 11

10 Introduction 12-14

11 Competition analysis 15

12 Target vs achievement 16

13 ATL and BTL 17

14 Plan of data analysis 18-22

15 Research Methodology 23-35

16 Limitations 36

17 Annexure 37

18 Biblography 38

STRUCTURE OF THE COMPANY

The company in itself is much unstructured owing for two reasons-

1) The seasonal nature of its business: the company though works on a full

year scale the peak time of its operations is in the months of February, March

and April; since the company hires Summer Interns every year to work with

the formal structuring is difficult to do.

2) The company itself is in the initial stages of its growth due to which the

roles are majorly undefined.

Though the employees and the interns have to play multiple roles the company can

be divided into six functional areas.

1. Marketing team

2. Counselling (sales) team

3. Product team

4. Human resources

5. Operations Team

6. IT based R&D

The Marketing team is responsible for planning and execution of marketing

strategies mainly the Below the Line Activity (explained in the later part of report).

After the execution of the marketing plan the marketing team is dissolved

barring a few people and merged with the sales team.

The sales team or the counselling team is responsible for converting the leads

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generated by the marketing activity. This involves doing the proper counselling of

the student on phone in face-t o-face meeting and also to convince him/her for

joining Studymate.

The product team is like the corner stone barely visible but of utmost importance.

They are responsible for creating the study material of excellent quality. This work

requires a lot of research and analysis of the product being offered by the

competitors as well.

This company is a labour intensive company; more than 50 MBA students are

working. So the role of HR becomes very important and also the HR works in sync

with the ‘Product team’ for hiring the quality faculties for the product delivery in

the classroom.

RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT

Apart from the above, the “ operations team” is responsible for the Smooth running

and R&D work for the everyday running of the company.

The ITR &D team makes s u r e t h o s e i m p r o v e m e n t s a r e m a d e through IT

and standardized tools and work becomes easier. The company has started using

Internet as a source for enrolments.

As will be seen later, the company has been a flexible one and has adapted

frequently and accurately to a lot of market stimulus, hence enhancing its success.

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Target Segment of StudyMate

The figure above tells us that total number of students going tolasses 9th -12th in Delhi/NCR region is 4.4 million. Out of this our target are the students in SEC-A category which roughly amount to 0.6 million. SEC-A is our primary target segment particularly because of the fees charged which comes to about Rs.1500 per month.

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SWOT Analysis of StudyMate

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NAME OF THE PROJECT 7P’S AND 3C’S IN STUDYMATE COMPETITION ANALYSIS OF OUR AREA TARGET VS ACHIEVEMENT LEARNINGS IN STUDYMATE

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OBJECIVES

Converting lead into customer Lead Nurturing Selling ancilliaries Learning variousMarketing

activies Achieving targets

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Introduction

Purpose and scope of report:-

Marketing – 7Ps and 3CsMarketing is an organizational function and a set of processes for creating, communicating, and delivering value to customers and for managing customer relationships in ways that benefit the organization and its stakeholders. Marketing is the art of finding, developing, and profiting from opportunities.Philip Kotler, “On Marketing”

7Ps of Marketing:- Product – Anything that can be offered to a market to satisfy a want or need,

in-cluding physical goods, services, experiences, events, person, places, properties, organizations, information and ideas.

Price – Price that is set for the product not only determines the amount of profit the business will able to make from it, but also affects the value of the product as perceived by the consumer. Many consumers will use the product’s price as a means of judging its quality, most will compare the price with that of similar products before deciding which to purchase.

Place - Place is a platform or market place where goods and services are offered and sold by the producers and retailers.

Promotion- This is an umbrella term, covering all the media by which business in-forms and aware customer about its product including advertising, public relations and sales promotion.

People – All people directly or indirectly involved in the consumption of a service are an important part of the extended marketing mix. Knowledge workers, em-ployees, management and other consumers often add significant value to the total product and services offering.

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Process – Procedures, mechanism and flow of activities by which services are consumed which are essential elements of marketing strategy.

3Cs of Marketing:

Customer - A customer (sometimes known as a client, buyer, or purchaser) is the recipient of a Good or a service, or a product, or an idea, obtained from a seller, vendor, or supplier via a financial transaction or exchange for money or some oth-er valuable consideration.

Company - A company is an association or collection of individuals, whether nat-ural persons, legal persons, or a mixture of both. Company members share a common purpose and unite in order to focus their various talents and organize their collectively available skills or resources to achieve specific, declared goals.

Competitors - competition is the rivalry among sellers trying to achieve such goals as increasing profits, market share, and sales volume by varying the ele-ments of the marketing mix.

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7 P’s in studymate

7 P’s

Product – Coaching from class VIII to XII.

Price- eg. Class VIII-18000 per subject for the whole year

Place – 29 centres all over delhi /ncr

Promotion- Newspaper Inserts, Ht newspaper advertisements , Study

mate website , “NO PARKING” sign boards of Studymate , Posters and

Hoardings , BTL activities , Etc.

People – Interns , Student Advisors , Centre Heads , Zonal Managers ,

Sales & Operations Head And The Business Head.

Process – Communication with Interested parents and convincing them

to make their Children join Ht Studymate .

Physical Evidence – Learning Centres , Own Study Material ,

Worksheets , Leaflets , Brochures , Etc

3 C’s

Customer – Students going From class VIII to XII , Potential Parents

who can pay the fees for the service , Etc.

Competitors- For Ht STUDYmate the close competitors are Career

Launchers , Brilliance Tutorials , Private Tutors , Aakash institute , Etc.

Company – Ht STUDYmate is an Initiative of Hindustan Times And

Works to Provide Coaching to students in an Organised Format.

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COMPETITION ANALYSIS

List of competitors of studymate in my area-

1. AAKASH – Competetion in fees and tuitions hours and the most important this is that it is an older company than us.

2. PMT CLASSES- More established and us and is charging monthly fees and has a good word of mouth than us

3. VMC CLASSES- Good word of mouth than us.

4. NARAINA- Attracts students of 11th and 12th towards competitive exams

5. FIT-JEE- Is a lot more established and older than us and attracts students towards competitive classes by doing various workshops in schools.4

6. ACE CLASSES- A well established local player there.

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TARGET VS ACHIEVEMENT

As a Centre Team Mate I was given a Target of 5 Lakhs for the month of April 2016

out of which I could achieve 12.5 lakhs i.e 250% from the Out Centre Activities

which I used to do on a regular basis outside Schools , Counsellings, calling also

through Data Calling on the School Data of class 9th data , class 10th data , etc.

On an average I used to do calling on per section basis of one class like for example

for class 9th- section A-40 students are there.

I got a great help from my center head MR VAIBHAV BHATIA as he motivated me all

the times also when the things were not going right.

I learnt how to work as a team in hard times from him.

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ATL Marketing:

ATL is a type of advertising through media such as television, cinema, radio, print ,and out-of-home to promote brands or convey a specific offer. This type ofcommunication is conventional in its nature and is considered impersonal to customers. It differs from BTL advertising, which uses unconventional brand-building and promotional strategies, such as direct mail, sales promotions, flyers, point-of-sale, telemarketing and printed media (for example brochures) – and usually involves no motion graphics. It is much more effective than when the target group is very large and difficult to define.

BTL Marketing:

Below the line, sales promotion are short term incentives, it majorly focus on customers. 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. In other words, below-the-line salespromotion is an immediate or delayed incentive to purchase, expressed in cash or in kind, and having only a short term or temporary duration. BTL Sales Promotion is anincentive immediate or delayed, to buy, expressed in money or in kind, and has short duration. It is efficient and profitable to direct a limited and specific group. Uses less conventional methods than traditional advertising ATL channels usually focuses on the means of direct communication, more direct mail and e-mail, often using highly targeted lists of names to maximize response rates. BTL techniques ensure removal of the brand while simultaneously highlighting the characteristics of the product.

List of BTL activities done by Study Mate:

1. Best of Luck activity (Distribution of Sample Papers and collection of student data outside school premises).

2. Installation of No Parking Boards outsides houses.3. Canopy activity at various locations such as markets, schools, airports etc4. SMAT exam taken in December 2015 all over Delhi NCR region in 100

schools and 80,000 students appeared for data collection and scholarship.

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5. 5. Calling done on various student data received from various sources.

PLAN OF DATA ANALYSIS:

The overall study of all these factors provides a comprehensive knowledge

regarding the market segments, requirement of target audience and the

constraints of the company. So a strategy had to be developed where in the target

audience could be hit directly in the most cost effective measure and conveying the

message clear to the audience.

So it was decided to use below the line marketing strategy, customized to the needs

of target audience and using few above the line marketing strategies. The strategies

used were: -

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Student

School Counselling

Workshops

Board Center Activity

Telephone Counselling and Direct

Mails

Friends Forever

Word Of Mouth

Posters and Bulletins

Effort Maximization

Mentoring

1. School Counselling

This is the first time a student comes to know about Studymate, and probably about

the career options after class 12 in the field of management. This is a very critical

activity because the class 12 students has no information about the companies

providing the training for BBA, therefore it’s better that he comes to know about

Studymate as soon as possible, before he comes to know about the established

brands like IMS and Career Launcher.

The main objectives of school counselling are:

Providing the student the right guidance about the courses he/she can take

after their class12 exams.

Making them realize that coaching is necessary for cracking any entrance test.

Positioning Studymate as the specialists in this field.

Creating brand awareness of Studymate in the target market.

Gathering database, which can be used to be in touch with the students and which

can also be used during the peak season.

2. 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.

3. Posters and bulletin boards:

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Posters can be very powerful when placed where the customers will actually notice

them. Hence various posters were placed near the school vicinities, coaching

centres, outside banks and University areas.

4. Conducting DEMO tests:

During the Below the Line Activity, I was given the responsibility of conducting the

demo tests, which were designed to invite the students to take the trial classes and

enrolled with Studymate. After the trial class was completed, the students were

mentored by our expert counsellors and were enrolled.

5. Telemarketing:

The use of telemarketing is on the rise as the response rate in comparison to

other promotional tools is very high. 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 telesales were planned to convert this

data into the final sales enrolment. Counselling script with all basic information

was designed to market the work mode accurate and accountable.

6. Below the Line Activity

Since this was my responsibility in the first month of my project I can explain this

activity in detail.

By the looks of things this activity looks very simple, distribution of leaflets but the

preparation for this activity is very complex.The Below the Line Activity is executed

in five stages

1. Planning

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2. Clustering of schools

3. Training of manpower

4. Execution of the plan on the exam day

5. Designing and updating the leaflets.

The Below the Line Activity is one of the major business development and

promotional activity of Studymate. 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 six day activity in which we were supposed to cover maximum number of

schools in our assigned zones (East Delhi Zone in my case), which were the centres

of class XII board examination. The work schedule of the activity includes:

Information Booklet distribution to students and parents

Counselling of parents

Database collection of both parents and students.

8. Friends Forever:

Friends Forever is a program where students have to tell about the Studymate with

their friends, if any of his/her friend will take admission, he/she will get rewards.

The latest prize is I Phone 5C.

SALES AFTER USING THESE METHODS

After all the marketing is done, the sales take place. The role of marketing is to bring

walk-ins to the centre; after the student comes to the centre it’s the responsibility of

the counsellors to convert the student into an enrolment.

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:- The sales process.

As we see sales is a continuous process, which involves lots of marketing efforts,

explained earlier. All the promotional activities were designed keeping one thing

clear in the mind that the ultimate motive of every activity was to create response,

generate enrolments and hence increasing the revenue and brand awareness for

the company.

.

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Increases VisibilityCounselling

Creates awareness and brand recallBelow The Line

Brings student to the centerTelecalling

Student either registers or wants a demo classWalk-ins

Creates urgency and thus helps in enrollingFollow-Ups

Enrolled Students bring their friendsreferences

So as to develop Personality development and hone their skills.Effort Maximization

RESEARCH Methodology:

For our research study, the target population was the students from class VIII-XII

which belongs from a CBSE school:-

Population Under study- 150-200

Source of data- Primary and Secondary

1. Primary Data- Lead generation, Below the line Activity, newspaper.

2. Secondary Data- Inbound and Outbound callings, Walk-ins, Counselling,

Internet

Survey technique- Questionnaire, Below the Line Activity.

With the help of this methodology, We can know the exact result and output which

is coming from the Studymate.

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ANALYSIS AND FINDINGS

Q1. Are you going for any coaching’s?

8.8; 88%

1.2; 12%

YESNO

As per the above analysis it has been found that 88% of the students goes for

coaching’s and 12% of the students does not go for coaching’s as they are satisfied

with what they are studying at school and don’t want any extra guidance.

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Q2. IF YES, from which coaching centre are you taking tuitions?

42%

15%

20%

2%

11%

10%

Fitjee Akash institute home tutionsstudymate career launcher others

As per the analysis of name of the coaching centre the students are going is

maximum is 42% which is preferred as fitjee because it makes them prepare for

CBSE as well as competitive prepration and next preferred is home tuitions because

parents feel that their child should get the individual attention and next preferred is

akash institute as is also prepare for entrance as well as CBSE and mostly preferred

by all medical students as its result is always high and then is career launcher as

upcoming competitor in the market and preferred because if its low fees as

compared to others . Then also there are small small coaching centres near by the

homes which are available they are also being preferred because of low fees and

closer location and least is the studymate till now as per my research and as per

Gurgaon market if I talk about because it is new in the market and there are just two

centres and fees also high as compared to other compititors.

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Q3. What kind of coaching do you prefer?

As per the above analysis 60% of the students prefer group tuitions as it is cheaper

and more fruitful and 35% of the students prefer home tuitions as this has become a

trend and parents perception that it helps score more and gives individual attention

and easy to clear all doubts and rest 5% who don’t feel the of going to tuitions.

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35%

60%

5%

home tutions group tutions no coaching

Q4. For which subjects is child taking tuitions?

Table: Subjects

Frequency Percent

Accounts 2 2.0

Accounts, Economics 5 5.0

Accounts, Economics, Maths 8 8.0

Business Studies, Accounts 1 1.0

Maths 15 15.0

Maths, Accounts 2 2.0

Maths, English 1 1.0

Maths, Science 29 29.0

Maths, Science, English 3 3.0

Maths, Science, SST 1 1.0

Maths, Science, SST, English 3 3.0

Physics, Chemistry 5 5.0

Physics, Chemistry, Biology 1 1.0

Physics, Chemistry, Maths 15 15.0

Physics, Maths 1 1.0

Science 8 8.0

Total 100 100.0

This table reflects the subjects for which students generally take up tuitions, Maths

and Science (as a combination) being the front runners. Besides that Physics,

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Chemistry and Maths are also popular subjects for which students generally take up

coaching.

Q5. How much is the location of the centre important?

40%

50%

10%

most important important less important

As per the above chart for 40% of the people it is most important that where is the

coaching centre as for students it is not possible for the students to travel far away

as students also don’t have much time to spend on travel and rest 50% of the people

says important because it is not possible for parents also to pick up and drop out the

students every day so the location matters a lot as it should be convenient for the

students to approach.

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Q6. How much is faculty important for a coaching centre?

?

As faculties are the asset of every coaching centre so it is important for every

student and parent also to make the student teach from the best faculty so 80% of

the people said that it is most important and rest 20 % that it is more important.

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80

20

most more less least

Q7. How much is Infrastructure important for you in a coaching centre?

2%

57%

35%

6%

Most more less least

As per the above analysis 57% says more important to have a good infrastructure as

infrastructure matters to customers somehow because parents want to see their

students at a comfortable place as compared to faculty and studies infrastructure is

less important to many parents.

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Q8. Who takes decision regarding the coaching’s at your home?

15%

60%

20%

5%

Decision maker

mother father mother and father both student

As per the above analysis father takes the decision in most of the cases and then around 20% cases it is mutually decided by mother and father both and in 15% cases it is decided by mother and in very less cases especially class 11 and 12 class who can take decisions decide for the same.

Q9. What influences your decision to send your child to a coaching institute?

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30%

45%

20%

5%

Basis of decision making

wom advertisements brand name others

As per the analysis 30% cases where people get convinced with word of mouth and 45% of people get attracted through advertisement as in case of lot if BTL is done through that only it worked for many cases. Rest through 20% was there through brand name also in case Studymate as it was from the house of HT customers were able to trust the brand.

Q10. How important is fees as a factor for choosing an institute?

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As per the above analysis 85% of the people for whom the fee structure makes

difference and 10% people to whom other things and fee structure both are

important and in very less cases where fee structure is less important.

Q11. Would you recommend this institute to family and friends?

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85%

10%

5%

Impotance of fee structure

ver important moderately important of little impotance

70%

30%

Sales

yes no

As per the experience and analyses it was found that 70% of the people do refer but

in rest 30% cases they don’t refer because they don’t want their friends should

disturb them while studying.

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LEARNINGS

• Working on conducting MENSA in various colleges.

• Learnt how to convert a lead into customer.

• Managed 2 centers at same time.

• Various Sales Techniques

• Excelled in giving counsellings

• Learnt various BTL activities

• Learnt the operations of the organisations

LIMITATIONS OF THE STUDY

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This study was primarily limited by its small sample size of just 100 respondents.

Another major limitation was the short time duration associated with the Summer

Internship Project. The time allotted for the internship project was only ten weeks

which was too less to understand such a complex topic involving consumer buying

behaviour.

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ANNEXURE

QUESTIONNAIRE

I am pursuing Post Graduation from IBS, GURGAON. I request you to kindly provide

me with your valuable responses to the following survey questionnaire. It is

designed to study consumer buying behaviour while selecting a coaching institute.

This study is undertaken purely for academic purposes and the responses will be

dealt with utmost confidentiality.

Student Name:

Class:

School name:

Address:

Occupation:

Q1. Are you going for any coaching’s?

Yes No

Q2. IF YES, from which coaching centre are you taking tuitions?

___________________________________________

Q3. What kind of coaching do you prefer?

a) No coaching b) Home Tuitions c) Group Tuitions

Q4. For which subjects is child taking tuitions? ___________________________________________

Q5. How much is the location of the centre important?

a) Most important b) important c) less important

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Q6. How much is faculty important for a coaching centre?

a) most b) more c) less d) least

Q7. How much is Infrastructure important for you in a coaching centre?

a) Most b) more c) less d) least

Q8. Who takes decision regarding the coachings at your home?

a) Mother b) Father c)Mother and Father both d) Student

Q9. What influences your decision to send your child to a coaching institute?

a) Word of Mouth b) Advertisements c) Brand Name d) None of these

Q10. How important is fees as a factor for choosing an institute?

• Very Important

• Moderately Important

• Of Little Importance

Q11. Would you recommend this institute to family and friends?

• Yes b) No c) Maybe

BIBLIOGRAPHY

1. Congruence Model

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Congruence Model - Strategy Skills Training from MindTools.com. 2014. Congruence Model Skills Training from MindTools.com. [ONLINE] Available at:http://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/newSTR_95.htm. [Accessed 06 July 2014].

3. Studymate’s WebsiteStudymate | helps sharpen minds. 2014. Studymate | helps sharpen minds. [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.studymateonline.com. [Accessed 06 July 2014].

4. HT Media’s WebsiteHT Media. 2014. HT Media. [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.htmedia.in. [Accessed 06 July 2014].

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