A 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)

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)

Authorization
I hereby declare that the Interim report titled Assisting 7ps and 3
Cs 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

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 wouldnt 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 Ngapal
15BSP2079

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
So 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-today 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
5

Studymate.

TABLE OF CONTENTS
Sr no
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18

Topic
Cover Page
Title page
Authorisation
Acknowledgement
Executive Summary
Structure of the company
Target Segment of studymate
SWOT
Name Of The Project
Introduction
Competition analysis
Target vs achievement
ATL and BTL
Plan of data analysis
Research Methodology
Limitations
Annexure
Biblography
6

Page no
1
2
3
4
5
7-8
9
10
11
12-14
15
16
17
18-22
23-35
36
37
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 generated by the marketing activity. This involves doing the
proper counselling of the student on phone in face- t o - f a c e 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 ro v e m e n t s a re 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 fexible one and has
8

adapted frequently and accurately to a lot of market stimulus, hence

enhancing its success.

Target Segment of StudyMate

The figure above tells us that total number of students going to

lasses 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.

10

SWOT Analysis of StudyMate

11

NAME OF THE PROJECT

7PS AND 3CS IN STUDYMATE

COMPETITION ANALYSIS OF OUR AREA
TARGET VS ACHIEVEMENT
LEARNINGS IN STUDYMATE

12

OBJECIVES
Converting lead into
customer
Lead Nurturing
Selling ancilliaries
Learning variousMarketing
activies
Achieving targets

13

Introduction
Purpose and scope of report:Marketing 7Ps and 3Cs
Marketing 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 products 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
14

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.
Process Procedures, mechanism and fow 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.

15

7 Ps in studymate
7 Ps

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 , Leafets , Brochures , Etc

3 Cs
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.

16

 Company Ht STUDYmate is an Initiative of Hindustan Times

And Works to Provide Coaching to students in an Organised
Format.

17

COMPETITION ANALYSIS
List of competitors of studymate in my area1. 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.

18

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.

19

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 of
communication 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, fyers, 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 sales
promotion 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 an
incentive 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:

2.
3.

1. Best of Luck activity (Distribution of Sample Papers and

collection of student data outside school premises).
Installation of No Parking Boards outsides houses.
Canopy activity at various locations such as markets, schools,
20

airports etc
4. SMAT exam taken in December 2015 all over Delhi NCR region
in 100 schools and 80,000 students appeared for data
collection and scholarship.
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.
School
Counsellin
g
Mentoring

Effort
Maximizati
on

Posters
and
Bulletins

Workshops

Stude
nt
Word Of
Mouth

Friends
Forever

21

Board
Center
Activity

Telephone
Counsellin
g and
Direct
Mails

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: 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 its 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:
22

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:
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.

23

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
leafets but the preparation for this activity is very complex.The Below
the Line Activity is executed in five stages
1. Planning
2. Clustering of schools
3. Training of manpower
4. Execution of the plan on the exam day
5. Designing and updating the leafets.
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
24

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 its the responsibility of the counsellors to convert the
student into an enrolment.

Counselling

Increases Visibility
Creates awareness and brand recall

Below The Line

Telecalling

Brings student to the center

Student either registers or wants a demo class

Walk-ins
Follow-Ups

Creates urgency and thus helps in enrolling

references

Enrolled Students bring their friends

So as to develop Personality development and
hone their skills.

Effort
Maximization
:- 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
25

of every activity was to create response, generate enrolments and

hence increasing the revenue and brand awareness for the company.
.

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.

26

ANALYSIS AND FINDINGS

Q1. Are you going for any coachings?

1.2; 12%

YES
NO

8.8; 88%

27

As per the above analysis it has been found that 88% of the students
goes for coachings and 12% of the students does not go for coachings
as they are satisfied with what they are studying at school and dont
want any extra guidance.

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

10%
11%
42%

2%
20%
15%

Fitjee

Akash institute

home tutions

studymate

career launcher

others

28

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.

Q3. What kind of coaching do you prefer?

29

5%
35%

60%

home tutions

group tutions

no coaching

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
30

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 dont feel the of going to tuitions.

Q4. For which subjects is child taking tuitions?

Table: Subjects

Accounts
Accounts, Economics
Accounts, Economics,
Maths
Business Studies,
Accounts
Maths
Maths, Accounts
Maths, English
Maths, Science
Maths, Science, English
Maths, Science, SST
Maths, Science, SST,
English
Physics, Chemistry
Physics, Chemistry,
Biology
31

Frequency
2
5

Percent
2.0
5.0

8.0

1.0

15
2
1
29
3
1

15.0
2.0
1.0
29.0
3.0
1.0

3.0

5
1

5.0
1.0

Physics, Chemistry,
Maths
Physics, Maths
Science
Total

15

15.0

1
8
100

1.0
8.0
100.0

This table refects the subjects for which students generally take up
tuitions, Maths and Science (as a combination) being the front runners.
Besides that Physics, Chemistry and Maths are also popular subjects
for which students generally take up coaching.

32

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

10%

40%

50%

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 dont 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.

33

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

20

80

most

more

less

least

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.

34

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

6% 2%

35%
57%

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
35

compared to faculty and studies infrastructure is less important to

many parents.

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

Decision maker

5% 15%
20%

60%

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.

36

Q9. What infuences your decision to send your child to a coaching

institute?
Basis of decision making

5%
20%

30%

45%

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.

37

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

Impotance of fee structure

10%

5%

85%

ver important

moderately important

of little impotance

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.

38

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

Sales

30%

70%

yes

no

As per the experience and analyses it was found that 70% of the
people do refer but in rest 30% cases they dont refer because they
dont want their friends should disturb them while studying.

39

40

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

41

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.

42

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 coachings?
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

Tuitions
Q4. For which subjects is child taking tuitions?
___________________________________________

43

c) Group

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

a) Most important

b) important

c) less important

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

a) most
d) least

b) more

c) less

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

a) Most
d) least

b) more

c) less

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

a) Mother
both

b) Father
d) Student

c)Mother and Father

Q9. What infuences 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
44

 Of Little Importance
Q11. Would you recommend this institute to family and friends?
Yes

b) No

c) Maybe

BIBLIOGRAPHY

1. Congruence Model

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. Studymates Website
Studymate | helps sharpen minds. 2014. Studymate | helps sharpen
minds. [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.studymateonline.com.
[Accessed 06 July 2014].
4. HT Medias Website
HT Media. 2014. HT Media. [ONLINE] Available at:
http://www.htmedia.in. [Accessed 06 July 2014].

45