Lee Sin Ming 09369162D ENGL 325 English for Professional Communications Final assignment – Business report
Report on the Launching and the Marketing of PolyStutor
Content Cover
1
Content
2
I.
Introduction
3
II.
Background A. Definition of intermediate tutorial service
3
B. Tuition situation in Hong Kong
4
III. Methodology of primary research
4-5
IV. Research findings
V.
A. Experiences of providing tutorial services
6-7
B. Attitudes towards current intermediate tutorial service
7-9
C. Opinions towards our proposed service
9-10
Discussion
10-14
VI. Conclusion
15
VII. Recommendation
15
VIII. References
16
IX. Appendices A. A sample questionnaire of our research on intermediate tutorial service
17-19
B. Special fee for specific cases
20
C. Recommendations on tuition fee for primary students, secondary students
21
and musical instruments D. Budget plan of PolyStutor
22
2
Introduction This is a report on the launching and the marketing of our new plan, PolyStutor, to provide intermediate tutorial service. Our target groups are The Hong Kong Polytechnic University (PolyU) students who want to be tutors and people who demand tutorial services in Hong Kong. In this report, the results of a survey conducted regarding the situation of PolyU students providing tutorial services will be discussed. And the corresponding design of our service and the marketing strategies will be explained in details.
Background Before studying the main content of our plan, the following is the background information about intermediate services.
A. Definition of intermediate tutorial service The person or the organization that provides intermediate tutorial service is called a middleman. Middlemen recruit tutors and gather clients mainly through the Internet. They earn commission by matching tutors and clients according to the information and requests collected from them. The operation of PolyStutor will be similar. The major differences are that we only accept PolyU students as our tutors and only 1 week tuition fee will be charged for commission.
Application
Application
1. Time & place 2. Types of tuition 3. Special requirement of tutors
&
1. Time & place preferred 2. Types of tuition offered 3. Qualifications
Middlemen Commission $ Reply
Reply Tutorial service
Tuition fee $ Clients Tutors Parents Tu * Free registration for both clients and tutors Clientsa to Fig. 1nd A flow chart showing how the business operates rs 3 Students
B. Tuition situation in Hong Kong Academic results have been heavily emphasized in Hong Kong for long and hence employing private tutors is a common practice among many primary and secondary students. According to the survey conducted by The Hong Kong Federation of Youth Groups in September in 2009, among 512 participants, 57% had tutorial classes in past 6 months while 77% did in last year. The numbers increased by 22% when compared to those resulted 13 years ago. And 28% and 20% respondents spent $500-$1000 and $1000-$1500 each mouth on tuition respectively. These findings indicate that the number of students who had tutorial classes is increasing and students are willing to spend money on tuition. On the other hand, being a tutor is a popular part-time job for university students. Thousands of registered tutors can be found from various popular online intermediate tutorial service providers, like Tutorkingdom and HKTA.edu.com, and university students are the majority. There are over 700,000 primary and secondary students and uncountable tutors in Hong Kong. The market is so big that it is costly and different for both tutors and clients to search for a suitable partner. Therefore, intermediate tutorial service is in great demand and deserves high market value in the society. However, our new service will face keen competition from similar companies in the market. And some may worry that whether we can obtain enough tutors and clients to support our business. In view of this, we have done a survey to acquire updated firsthand information for the design of our plan to ensure a success of our business.
Methodology of primary research As we target at recruiting PolyU students as tutors, a questionnaire survey was conducted in the campus to gather information on their past experiences in private tuition, attitudes towards related services currently provided in HK and opinions towards our proposed service. Questionnaires were distributed to 86 subjects in the library, classrooms and canteens in March 2010. Information of the subjects is listed below. ď Ź
58% of the respondents were female.
ď Ź
Students of Foundation Year to Year 4 filled in the questionnaire while 41% and 38% of them are in Year 1 and 2 respectively. (From Fig. 2.1)
ď Ź
The respondents were from all the 8 faculties of PolyU. Most of them were from the Faculty of Health and Social Sciences (29%) and the Faculty of Humanities (20%), followed by Faculty of Applied Science and Textiles (13%) and Faculty of Construction and Land Use. Only 2% are from the School of Design. (From Fig. 2.2)
As a result, the findings were objective without bias to students of any gender, year of study or faculty.
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Distribution of Respondents (by Year of Study) 50%
41%
40%
38%
30% 16%
20% 10%
5%
1%
0% Foundation Year
Year 1
Year 2
Year 3
Year 4
Fig. 2.1 The Distribution of Respondents by Year of Study
Distribution of Respondents (by Faculty)
School of Design, 2% School of Hotel and Tourism Management, 9%
Faculty of Applied Science and Textiles, 13%
Faculty of Business, 7% Faculty of Humanities, 20% Faculty of Construction and Land Use , 12%
Faculty of Engineering, 8% Faculty of Health and Social Sciences, 29%
Fig. 2.2 The Distribution of Respondents by Faculty
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Research findings After the personal information, the respondents were asked about their experiences of the provision of private tutorial services, attitudes towards the intermediate tutorial service currently provided in Hong Kong and opinions of our proposed plan.
A. Experiences of providing tutorial services
About 60% of the respondents have offered private tuition in the past or at present.
For the types of private tuition offered, nearly all was academic and 11% was on musical instruments. Sports, visual arts and handcrafts and, others occupied 4% each. (See Fig. 3.1)
The subjects got the tuition mainly from friends and relatives (70%) and intermediate tutorial service providers (39%), followed by tutorial centers (15%) and advertisements and leaflets (11%). Only 6% obtained the tuition from other ways including schools and youth centers, and another 4% from job board. Respondents could choose more than 1 option. (See Fig. 3.2)
Types of Private Tuition Offered Visual Arts & Handcrafts, 4%
Others, 4%
Sports, 4%
Musical Instruments, 11%
Academic , 96%
Fig. 3.1 Types of Private Tuition Offered by surveyed PolyU students
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Methods of Getting the Tuition Others, 7% Job board, 4% Tutorial centre, 15%
Friends and relatives, 70%
Intermediate tutorial service providers, 39%
Advertisements and leaflets, 11%
Fig. 3.2 Methods of getting the Tuition of surveyed PolyU students
B. Attitudes towards current intermediate tutorial service ď Ź
At present, most intermediate tutorial service providers charge commission of 2-week tuition fee. Near 70% of the subjects found it too high or high. Only 26% found it reasonable. (See Fig. 3.3)
ď Ź
When choosing intermediate tutorial service providers, reliability (55%) and commission (34%) were the major factors to the respondents. Factors like amount of clients and customer service only account for 7% and 5% respectively. (See Fig. 3.4)
ď Ź
Over half of the subjects commented that the current intermediate tutorial service providers had to improve commission charge and customer service. Reliability and amount of clients were the areas needed improvement to 35% and 23% respondents. More than 1 option could be selected. (See Fig. 3.5)
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Opinions towards Commission Charge of Current Intermediate Tutorial Service Providers Too Low, 2% Low , 3%
Too High, 31%
Reasonable, 26%
High, 37%
Fig. 3.3 Opinions towards Commission Charge of Current Intermediate Tutorial Service Providers
Most important factor in choosing intermediate tutorial service providers
Customer Service, 5% Commission, 34% Amount of client, 7%
Reliability, 55%
Fig. 3.4 Most important factor in choosing intermediate tutorial service providers 8
Aspects of present intermediate tutorial service providers to be improved Customer Service, 50% Commission, 57%
Amount of client, 23%
Reliability, 35%
Fig. 3.5 Aspects of present intermediate tutorial service providers to be improved
C. Opinions towards our proposed service
Near 90% respondents agreed that charging 1-week tuition fee as the commission is reasonable.
Setting a maximum charge for commission is necessary to 78% subjects.
Over 60% of the students surveyed would you be interested in the rewarding scheme.
Cooperating with other student bodies could improve our reliability according to about 70% of the respondents.
85% subjects expressed that they were interested in our service in general. Reasons for negative answers included ‘details not known’, ‘I have lots of students’, ‘no time to participate’, ‘not interested in tutoring’ and ‘I have tutor jobs already’.
As for the promotion channels, 74% respondents paid most attention to emails. Other methods like poster, leaflet, advertisement materials in canteens and online news board account for less than a half. More than 1 option could be chosen. (See Fig. 3.6)
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Preferred Promotion Channels Online News Board, 30%
Poster, 48%
Leaflet, 35%
Email, 74% Promotion Materials in Canteen, 27%
Fig. 3.6 Preferred Promotion Channels
Discussions With the results of the primary research and other relevant information about the current intermediate tutorial service industry collected, we have done comprehensive evaluation on our plan and the main points to be noticed are listed below.
Source of clients From Fig. 3.2, nearly all respondents got their tuition through a third party like friends and relatives and tutorial centers. We can see the huge demand for intermediate tutorial service. According to the PolyU’s website, the total number of students in 2009/2010 is 28,702, including part-time degree, SPEED, Higher Diploma and sub-degree students. With reference to the percentage resulted from our survey, i.e. 60% respondents have offered private tuition in the past or at present from Question 4, there will be over 17,000 PolyU students to be our clients each year. Together with the uniqueness of PolyStutor, such as our high reliability and low commission charge, our service is very attractive to them. From Question 14, 85% subjects were interested in our plan. Thus, we will have adequate supply of tutors although we only target at PolyU students. On the other hand, PolyStutor has no restriction on the nature of tuition since we have PolyU students offering different kinds of tuition apart from the academic one according to Fig. 3.1. Hence, we can accept students of all age groups, from all districts of Hong Kong, demanding for various types of tuition. 10
There are over 700,000 primary and secondary school students in Hong Kong every year and employing private tutors is an uprising trend in recent years. It is because parents think that this is an effective way to enhance children’s results and students afraid that they will be academically inferior if their classmates have private tuition but they do not. So, there is unlikely an insufficient supply of students demanding tutorial services. And they need help when searching for suitable tutors. A faithful intermediate tutorial service provider like us is desirable as a result.
Reliability
From Fig. 3.4 and 3.5, over half of the subjects regarded reliability as the most important factor for choosing intermediate tutorial service providers and 35% of them thought it is one of the things that current providers could be improved. The reason is that there are lots of negative reports criticizing current providers. Some of them charged tutors high commission fees unreasonably and there were examples of tutors producing fake qualification certificates. We ensure our reliability by building our own brand name ‘PolyStutor’. ‘Poly’ contains the meanings of ‘Hong Kong Polytechnic University’ and ‘many’ while ‘Stutor’ combines ‘students’ and ‘tutors’. The name indicates that we are a trustworthy service provider offering many qualified tutors who are studying in or graduated from Hong Kong Polytechnic University. Unlike the existing providers, PolyStutor need to prove the academic and other achievement claimed by the tutors. To ensure our reputation, when PolyU students register as our tutors, they have to submit their resume together with a copy of their student card, HKCEE and HKALE certificates, GPA transcripts and other relevant certificates like the level certificates of any musical instrument if they want to provide relative tuition. We will deal with their application and do the pairing up within 3 days. Clients can make complaints and change tutors when necessary as we are a responsible service provider. For tutors, we will charge only 1 week tuition fee or the maximum charge, depending on which is lower. For clients, we only collect $20 administration fee. After having lessons for a week, if the clients find the tutor suitable and decide to continue the tuition, they deposit the tuition fee and administration fee into our bank account directly. No extra fee will be charged, except the special charges for particular cases like conspiracy to defraud or deferred payment. We have stated these charging clearly. (See Appendix 2) For tuition fee, we provide recommendations according to the market situation to maintain a reasonable pricing of the tutorial services offered by our tutors. (See Appendix 3) From Question 13, about 70% subjects agreed that our reliability will be enhanced if PolyStutor cooperates with other student bodies. For this reason, we are going to work with Hok Yau Club, a well known organization serving local youngsters. We supply tutors to their youth centers for tutorial classes and they refer private tutorial cases to us.
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Commission Charge
According to Fig. 3.4, commission was the second most important factor for respondents to select intermediate service providers. Yet it was the aspect that most respondents found necessary to be improved (from Fig. 3.5) as almost 70% subjects found it too high or high (from Fig. 3.3). From the results of Questions 10 and 11, nearly all respondents were content with our 1 week commission fee and around 80% found a maximum charge necessary to protect tutors from being charged too heavily. The maximum charge is set at $500 as it is attractive enough to tutors but not causing loss to our company. Referring to Fig. 4.1 and 4.2, these two pricing strategies are really repulsive as almost none of the existing service providers adopt them.
Collect 1 week of tuition fee
Collect 2 weeks of tuition fee 1. A Class Tutor Services Centre 2. EC Tutor
NO
3. Kitken Tutorial Centre 4. Go2tutor 5. Sky tutor 6. Tutor group 7. Tutor –HK 8. Tutor OK 9. Kits-tutor 10. Tutor Kingdom
Fig. 4.1 Comparison between PolyStutor with Major Current Service Providers on Commission Fee
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Provide a maximum charge
Does not provide a maximum charge 1. EC Tutor
1. A Class Tutor Services Centre
2. Kitken Tutorial Centre 3. Go2tutor 4. Sky tutor
2. Kits-tutor
5. Tutor group 6. Tutor –HK 7. Tutor OK 8. Tutor Kingdom
Fig. 4.2 Comparison between PolyStutor with Major Current Service Providers on Maximum Charge
Customer service Form Fig. 3.5, customer service is the second area that most subjects found needed to be improved. There are complaints from both tutors and clients criticizing the staff attitudes are poor for intermediate tutorial service providers. They are impolite and impatient when answering enquiries. And most current providers offer no ways for clients to complain. To provide better customer service, we will train our staff for the appropriate working attitudes and correct ways of handling enquiries and complaints. And we will collect evaluation about their partner from each tutors and clients and solve their problems. For example, if the client is not content with the quality of teaching provided by the tutors, we will offer him/her another one free of charge. This helps to maintain our reputation and competitiveness.
Rewarding scheme PolyStutor is confident in launching a rewarding scheme, which was supported by over 60% respondents in Question 12. Sometimes PolyU students have to give up their existing tutorial jobs due to the lack of time or graduation. If they provide these clients to us, $50 will be awarded for each successful referral and we believe this will be an effective mean to attract more tutorial cases. And this scheme can enhance our competitiveness as it is seldom used at present. The following 2 charts show how the scheme works and the provision of such scheme by current popular intermediate service providers.
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Cases
PolyU tutors tustudent
$50 for successful referral * No limit for the no. of cases referral * Not applicable to cases introduced by PolyStutor
Fig. 4.3 The Operation of Rewarding Scheme
No Rewarding Scheme
1. A Class Centre
Claiming that one has a Return half of the fee CHANCE to get $100
Services Kits-Tutor
Tutor-HK
2. EC Tutor 3. Sky tutor 4. Tutor OK 5. Tutor group 6. Go2tutor 7. Tutor Kingdom 8.Kitken Tutorial Centre Fig. 4.4 The Provision of Rewarding Scheme by Current Popular Intermediate Service Providers
Promotion strategies From Question 15, the majority of respondents suggested email as their preferred promotion way and about half suggested using posters. We will send promotion messages to PolyU students’ email accounts, distribute leaflets and post posters around the campus to arouse students’ attention towards PolyStutor. Promotion on the Internet is another effective way to publicize our service. We will post advertisements on local popular websites like the websites of Google, Yahoo and Hong Kong Forum to gain attention from uncountable web users. As parent is another major target group and they may not have access to the Internet, we will distribute leaflets listing our service in numerous housing estates in Hong Kong. Hotline number will be printed on the leaflets for their enquiries. 14
Conclusion Our business, PolyStutor, is to act as a middleman linking up tutors and clients according to clients’ requirements and tutors’ abilities and we earn from charging 1 week tuition fee as commission. From now on, it will be our preparation period and PolyStutor will starting running from September 2010. Our survey and the current situation show that the market for intermediate tutorial service is in great demand and there are many rooms for the existing industry to be improved and expanded. We are confident that our well-designed and unique service will gain great popularity and make a huge profit beyond satisfactory.
Recommendations 1. Facing keen competition from numerous similar service providers, public attention should be drawn on our uniqueness, including the 1 week tuition fee commission, high reliability and the rewarding scheme. These are also the main focuses of our promotion. 2. To enlarge the market share, we should expand to other local universities setting up similar brands, such as ChineStutor and LingNamStutor, when PolyStutor is mature, i.e. earning stable income and having continuous development. 3. We may cooperate with other famous or charitable organizations in providing intermediate tutorial service in schools and community centers and offer voluntary education in poor mainland villages. This helps improving PolyStutor’s reputation and publicity. 4. Further research can be done on the marketing strategies to strengthen our promotion, which is a key for PolyStutor’s success. For example, promotion methods like discounts provided to the clients who bring us new clients should be explored.
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References 10A Tutor (2009). Retrieved March 27, 2010 from http://www.nowcyber.com/projects/tutor/ ectutor.com (2009). Retrieved March 27, 2010 from http://www.ectutor.com/index.asp Facts & Figures (2010). Retrieved March 27, 2010 from The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Web site: http://www.cpa.polyu.edu.hk/cpa/polyu/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=8&Itemid=4 3&lang=tc HKTA (2006). Retrieved March 27, 2010 from http://www.hkta.edu.hk/ Hong Kong Haedline (2009). Retrieved March 27, 2010 from http://www.hkheadline.com/news/html_wnn/html/2009/9/22/wnn89261.html?section_name=wnn Kits-tutor (2009). Retrieved March 27, 2010 from http://kits-tutor.com/ SkyTutor (2005). Retrieved March 27, 2010 from http://www.sky-tutor.com/ TutorDB.net (2001). Retrieved March 27, 2010 from http://www.tutordb.net/main_aservice.php Tutor Group (2009). Retrieved March 27, 2010 from http://tutorgroup.hk Tutor Hong Kong (2002). Retrieved March 27, 2010 from http://www.tutor-hk.com/ Tutorkingdom (2008). Retrieved March 27, 2010 from http://www.tutorkingdom.com/ TutorOK.com (2007). Retrieved March 27, 2010 from http://www.tutorok.com/employ.php
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Appendices Appendix 1: A sample questionnaire of our research on intermediate tutorial service
Questionnaire on Intermediate Tutorial Service(導師中介服務) We are year 1 students of BA English Studies for the Professions. We are now conducting a research on the intermediate service between tutors and students. Please kindly spare a few minutes in answering the following questions. All the information collected will be kept confidential and will be discarded after the research. Thank you very much for your cooperation!
Part 1 1. Sex _______ 2. Faculty: □ Applied Science and Textiles □ Business □ Construction and Land Use Engineering □ Health and Social Sciences □ Humanities □ Hotel and Tourism Management Design
□ □
3. Year _____ Part 2 4. Have you ever offered any private tuition(私人指導)? □ Yes
□ No (Please go to question 7)
5. What types of tuition have you offered? (You may select more than 1 option) □ Academic □ Musical instruments □ Sports □ Visual arts and handcrafts □ Others (Please specify: ______________________________) 6. Where did you get the job from? (You may select more than 1 option) □ Intermediate tutorial service providers □ Advertisements and leaflets □ Friends and relatives □ Tutorial centre 17
□ Job board □ Others (Please specify: ______________________________) 7. Most intermediate tutorial service providers charge commission(佣金) of 2-week tuition fee. What do you think? 1
2
Too low
3 Reasonable
4
5 Too high
8. Which factor is the most important in choosing intermediate tutorial service providers? □ Commission □ Reliability □ Amount of clients □ Customer service (e.g. handling complaints, staff attitudes) 9. Among the present intermediate tutorial service providers, which aspect(s) can be improved? (You may select more than 1 option) □ Commission □ Reliability □ Amount of clients □ Customer service (e.g. handling complaints, staff attitudes) Part 3 We are planning to launch an intermediate tutorial service in PolyU. All tutors would be PolyU students. There is no restriction on the nature of tuition and the number of cases. Interested students can register as tutors in our website without paying any administration fee. Tutors
Only PolyU students
Commission
1-week tuition fee
Maximum charges
Yes
License
Yes
Others
Tutors will be proved by certificates and transcripts Rewarding Scheme will provide $50 reward to tutors for each successful case referring(補習 出讓) 18
10. Is charging 1-week tuition fee as the commission reasonable? □ Yes
□ No
11. Is setting a maximum charge for commission necessary? □ Yes
□ No
12. Would you be interested in the rewarding scheme? □ Yes
□ No
13. Do you think the reliability can be enhanced if we cooperate with other student bodies? □ Yes
□ No
14. Generally speaking, are you interested in our service? □ Yes □ No (Please specify your reason: __________________________________________) 15. Which promotion channel(s) would you pay special attention to? (You may select more than 1 option) □ Poster
□ Leaflet
□ Advertising materials in canteens
□ Online news board Thank You!
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Appendix 2: Special fee for specific cases
20
Appendix 3: Recommendations on tuition fee for primary students, secondary students and musical instruments Grade
Market price (per hour)
Primary 1
$50 - $60
Primary 2
$50 - $60
Primary 3
$50 - $60
Primary 4
$70 - $80
Primary 5
$80 - $90
Primary 6
$80 - $100
Grade
Market price (per hour)
Secondary 1
$110
Secondary 2
$120
Secondary 3
$130
Secondary 4
$140
Secondary 5
$150
Secondary 6
$160
Secondary 7
$170
Grade
Fee(30-min)
Fee(45-min)
Fee(1-hour)
Grade 1
$100
$130
$150
Grade 2
$110
$140
$160
Grade 3
$120
$150
$170
Grade 4
$ 125
$160
$190
Grade 5
-
$180
$210
Grade 6
-
$180
$230
Grade 7
-
$220
$260
Grade 8
-
$260
$300 21
Grade 9
-
$320
$360
Appendix 4: Budget plan of PolyStutor
Budget Statement of PolyStutor Dr.
Cr.
Expected Income Commission
720000
Advertising
8000
Administration fee
48000 776000
Expected Expediture Salaries
483840
Legal Fees
2450
Rental of web hosting
600
Registration of web
200
Reward Scheme
30000
Advertising
20000
Promotion materials
7500
Repairs and Maintainance
5000
Telephone
1800
Miscellaneous Expenses
2050 553440
Net Income
222560
Payback period: 2.5 years
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