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Thailand first Online International Student Community Made by student for students Thailand has become a popular destination for business students and due to the fast placement of South-East Asian countries it has opened a lot of opportunities for businesses and International University to encourage people to work and study abroad. Keeping this the sharp change in demographics and people visiting Thailand in mind our company has launched a new product. (Education in Thailand, 2011) “Personal Assistance” For new arrived International students at a low price provided by foreign and Thai students based in Thailand.
To help them cope with difficulties they encounter when coming to Thailand. Our service would not only solve their problem but also encourage more students to take a semester abroad. Our service comes in packages designed for international students who do not have enough time to learn the language and culture and need help with university admissions, Visa regulations, medical insurance, finding an apartment, getting around the city and local Benefits of the Service Ensure international students a well prepared and safe and enjoyable stay!
We have made an easy to use website that has a strong traffic, which has helped us to make it profitable. What makes our business unique? Firstly it’s run by undergraduate and graduate students and driven by demand rather than by profit. Secondly we provide an online meeting place where students can share their experience of living and studying abroad and a regular updated blob to make people come back from time to time to see what’s new.
Thirdly having students monitor the websites users, uploaded information and changes to ensure quality and credibility of the information and service provided on the website. As well as having affiliations with medical insurance companies and real estate agents. Our Partners are Real Estate: AD Property Medical Insurance: AX and Pupa The websites would mainly generate profit through our affiliations, advertisers who sis to place banners on our website and students who purchase one of our packages. 1. – Positioning the identified service in a competitive market The following 5 questions will answer our current market position, goals and Strategies which are very important in the identified competitive market. Who are our competitors? (Four different Groups) 1 . Direct Competitors: ‘SEC College Contact and Yugoslav. Com 2. Indirect Competitors: DAD AD Forum 3. Product Competitors: Express Visa and Calumnious (See Appendix 1) 4. Implied Competitors: Not Important Competitor Analysis (Appendix 2 and 3) Appendix two shows a comparative analysis of our Product with our three main Competitors.
Appendix 3 compares our company with the competitors across the five internal dimensions of Market, Strategy, Marketing, Organization and Finance. For us the most important groups are the Straighter or Direct Competitors. The exact determination and analysis of these groups are crucial for our success in the market. (college contact, 201 5) (SEC Abroad, 2014) (DAD AD Forum, 201 5) (That Visa Express, 201 5) (Calumnious) (Study in Asia) As our main competitors are ‘SEC and Yugoslav it becomes vitally important that we notational scan the internal and external environment.
In addition when a company launches a new product similar to ours it is extremely important that we examine our internal resources, strength and weaknesses as well as opportunities to stay ahead and be successful in the short and long run. The internal analysis shows the strength and weaknesses inside the company and the external analysis reflects the various opportunities and threats in the industry environment. Strength Product Strong Product, Innovative Idea Combination of Price/Power results in best customer value Finance/Organization Specialize in helping students from Europe
Staff are students that work on a Part-Time basis from different universities to make sure their studies don’t get affected Low investment required which lead to high revenue Low costs, we have only the domain and program to pay. There are no physical costs such as an office. Weakness Product and Marketing Lack of physical evidence, we don’t have an office We are a start-up company, which results in low customer loyalty Company relied on WHOM and meow, which we believe could be a disadvantage for growth Finance Weak Turnover profitability Opportunities Market Good chances to gain Market Power in the Future Create Job opportunities
Good reason to get support from the ministry of Education Marketing Good chances to eliminate our weaknesses through being a growing company Threats New rules and regulations Strategy Encourage new competitors Through encouraging new competitors we always have to be the first mover Imitation of Products, through having a unique product. What can we do to reduce our Weaknesses and Threats? Steps Choose the right Legal Form by having a strong Business Plan steps Transfer the full liability to Insurance. For example Deliverer Insurance.
Our major risks are the damage of company’s image, customers and partners. Tepees Perform a Risk analysis. Hire a legal team to deal with future regulations that might come into effect. Apply for an ‘intellectual property in Thailand to safe our idea “personal assistance”. Steps Share the risks with Partners. Integrate a real time feedback system for our new product to ensure the quality of our Website and Service. Steps Implement a reporting System that gives key information about the performance from the company and product. Tepee Reduce financial risks by hiring professional accountants and advisors. Which target results from the SOOT Analysis for the Company? Short term Goals (There are a lot of things to consider when it comes to study here and our product ensures them a well-prepared and enjoyable stay. What makes our Product unique to our competitors is that we also provide assistance in finding an apartment, medical care, getting around the city and adjusting to the new environment. The Product comes in different Packages designed for different needs. (See Appendix 5) Study-Thailand already contains a lot of information on how to live and study in Thailand which is freely available and always updated with the most important changes.
We also have a Forum that enables students to connect with each other and share their experiences of living and studying abroad. This helps potential customers to make wise decision on which university to choose. With our product we provide assistance starting from getting the most important information they need to know bout the universities to helping adjusting to the new environment. To make our Product high quality we have partnerships with real estate agents and medical insurance companies which help us to keep our customers fully satisfied. Price Considerable thought has been given to the pricing of our Products.
Our target market is customers aged between 18 to 30 and mostly unemployed, which made it very important to have a reasonable price. International Students that come from Europe to Thailand have a higher purchasing power, which we used to make our prices for the packages. However that does not mean that we are over-priced. Our prices are reasonable so that students can afford it and we can cover our costs as well as make money out of it in the near future. In addition we ensure that that the money we make out of our assistance is enough to pay our part-time student staff that is based in Thailand.
As we are an Internet based business the most effective way to promote our Service is through firstly our Website and secondly through Social Networks such as Faceable, Twitter and Youth. We simply chose these social networks because our customer are used to the internet. We have a regular updated blob and a discussion arum where potential and existing customers can rate the different services. This helps potential customers to gain trust and choose the suitable package. We also have a Testimonial Page where students tell about their positive experience they had of using our service.
Place As we are a web based company, location is secondary for us. We focus more on improving our web presence and make the website more accessible from all around the world. Place would be only important if they purchase one of the two packages, ‘New Faring in Town’ and ‘Carefree Package’ (See Appendix 5) Service would start by kicking the student up we arranged for them to showing them around. Packaging As our Target Market is International students we have decided to make fancy flyers which we promote the Social Networks. Also the appearance of our staff is important for us when meeting our customers.
We decided that our staff does not look too formal. Instead our staff wears a casual outfit Just like other students to make it more personal. Positioning Being in the Service Industry our Position in the customer’s mind should be that we have a high quality service, are trustworthy, reliable, well managed and committed to customers. That should not only be in the customers mind, it should also be when they talk about us. To make it real, we have made an after sales service and a Testimonials Page where customers can rate our service.
People An important aspect of our new product offerings are the people. Our staff can speak 3 different languages, English, German and Thai and are based and study in Thailand, which are willing to provide international students personal assistance. We have only experienced and reliable students working for us that have experience with all the difficulties that new arrived international students face in Thailand. 1. – Developing Customer Relationships In order to have good customer Relationships we will follow these steps to keep them fully satisfied. (How to Develop a Relationship With a Customer) 1.
Research the Client Through research we will learn everything about our potential customers which is 2. Identify the needs and wants By interacting and doing background research we want to identify our customer needs and wants. 3. Maintain multiple lines of communication that the customer may use We will use various forms of communication forms to communicate with our customers. Faceable, Skips and E-mail are our main ways to communicate. . Provide full disclosure when interacting with clients Being able to answer all the questions customer may have is very important for us.