Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Dissertation submitted to School of business for the partial fulfilment of the degree of
Guided by:
School of business
Submitted by:
Anisha Malhotra
April 2018
1
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
First of all, I extend a handful of warm greetings to my report guide, for initiating me to
undertake this dissertation study. The framework and manner-of-study prescribed by her, has
helped me achieve the true objectives of the study.
Further, I extend my heart-felt gratitude for the authors of various articles & books, and the
webmasters of various study-related websites; whose works have been great sources of
secondary information.
Last but not the least; I thank all my peers who had helped me shape my thought process to
carry out this study.
2
Content
Acknowledgement
Table of Contents
Introduction
1.5 Products
Literature Review
Research methodology
3
Findings and analysis
5.1 Conclusions
5.2Recommendations
Bibliography
Annexures
4
CHAPTER-1
INTRODUCTION
The main idea behind the study conducted was to ascertain the distributors’ preference towards
the Smartschool products situated in Rohini,Delhi, this study was conducted in one of the
renowned companies of this particular sector, which is Smartschool Education Pvt Limited.
This study deals with identifying the distributors’ preference towards smartschool,where,
Identifying the distributors’ preference refers to, ascertaining the characteristics and demography
of investors who make and have made investment in the Smartschool Education Pvt Ltd, study
also emphasizes on satisfaction of these distributors with the services received by Smartschool as
well as the earnings from this market accumulated by the investment as they seek marketing
directives from their business development managers who are assigned to them, which also may
lead to some distributors’ dissatisfaction with the services and the information provided by their
respective Areahead. This project is focused towards understanding the distributors’ preference
towards e-learning market and how their dissatisfaction may be ameliorated, if there is any, and
keeping these things in mind the objectives of the study have been laid down.
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In Smartschool distributors are the imperative intermediately who are responsible for purchasing
the products at a certain transfer price as defined by the company policies and the level of
distribution that they start from.
Following are the different types and levels of distribution that a prospective investor resorts to:
The Gold package is the premium distribution package primarily meant for consumer products,
the starting amount for this package is INR 2,49,000/-
a. SmartSchool Tutor and ExamGuru products worth INR 2,44,000/- transferred at distributor
transfer price.
c. Brochures.
Distributor will be initially provided with some stock. Rest of the products can be ordered by the
distributor as when they are sold and which will be delivered within 7 days of the request. This is
done to reduce the unsold inventory of any category at the distributor end since we have updates
done at every quarter.
Note: - Gold distribution is the master distribution and is district wise with the annual target of
minimum 1,000 products. Gold distributor will be authorized to bill SmartSchool Tutor and
SmartSchool ExamGuru to any Silver or Smart Distributor in his/her territory.
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Product pricing for GOLD distributor
The silver package is the starting distribution package primarily meant for consumer products,
the starting amount for this package is INR 49,000/-
a. SmartSchool Tutor and ExamGuru products worth INR 44,000/- transferred at distributor
transfer price.
c. Brochures.
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Distributor will be initially provided with some stock. Rest of the products can be ordered by the
distributor as when they are sold and which will be delivered within 7 days of the request. This is
done to reduce the unsold inventory of any category at the distributor end since we have updates
done at every quarter.
Note: - Silver distribution is state wise with no annual target. Silver distribution is meant for
people who want to work for a bigger territory without any target. This is also ideal for people
who want to start with a small investment.
1) L1 SmartSchool ICT distributor - There is 40% margin in this. This is the entry level
distribution for SmartSchool ICT. This distribution starts from Rs 1 lac.
2) L2 SmartSchool ICT distributor - There is 50% margin in this. The status of the L1
distributor will be changed to L2 when the amount of total billed licenses increases beyond Rs 5
lacs.
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3) L3 SmartSchool ICT distributor - There is 60% margin in this. The status of the L2
distributor will be changed to L3 when the amount of total billed licenses increases beyond Rs 15
lacs.
Territorial exclusivity:-
1) Any school closed (license sold to the school) by one distributor will always be catered by that
distributor only. No distributor will be allowed to sell the license to any school in which the
license has already been sold by some other active distributor.
2) The same information can easily be observed from the “Promotional board” placed outside of
the school and the information can be confirmed from SmartSchool's school list panel also.
3) This school wise exclusivity will remain functional only for the particular branch of the school
in which the license(s) has been sold. This exclusivity will remain valid till this contract has not
been terminated.
4) Violation of this clause can lead to the termination of the distribution contract in case the issue
cannot be mutually resolved.
5) Every distributor who closes a school must share the name of the school to be put into the bill
and also into the SmartSchool's school list panel so as to avoid any territorial confusion.
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One Year Validity: Means Content license valid for one year from the date of activation. And it
will be renewed every year after receiving annual charges.
Life Time Validity: Content license for Life time means Content will never expire.
After One Year: for updates & other technical support AMC will be applicable.
The Smart package is the most recommended distribution package primarily meant for people
who want to deal with all SmartSchool products, the starting amount for this package is INR
99,000/-
c. Brochures.
Distributor is initially provided with some stock. Rest of the products can be ordered by the
distributor as when they are sold and which is delivered within 7 days of the request. This is
done to reduce the unsold inventory of any category at the distributor end since we have updates
done at every quarter.
Note: - Smart distribution is designed based upon the market feedback and is state-wise with the
annual target of minimum 2 lac worth of SmartSchool products.
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Description MRP Distributor transfer
price
1)Instructor led solution (ICT) - This is for schools and coaching institutes, which is installed
directly into the classroom which is used by the teachers to teach the students. It usually involves
a projector, interactive whiteboard, computer and digital educational content in schools and a 32”
LCD, computer and digital educational content in coaching institutes.
2) Self study solution - This is for students, which is used directly by children to study in the
comfort of their home. This solution helps the students to understand difficult educational
concepts using animated content and practice their concepts using assessment modules.
SmartSchool ICT (Classroom license) is our Instructor led solution which is our classroom
solution and is already being used in more than thousand schools across the globe.
SmartSchool ERP (School license) is school solution is already being used in more than dozens
of schools across the globe.
SmartSchool CoachWell (Coaching Institute Classroom license) is our Instructor led solution
which is our coaching institute solution and is being sold through the network of our CoachWell
Area Franchisees.
SmartSchool Tutor and SmartSchool ExamGuru both are self study solutions, which are
aimed at students, which form the largest consumer segment in this country.
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SMARTSCHOOL LAB:
The concept of SmartSchool Lab is to load the content in all the computers of the school lab and
one seperate period will be kept for self study where students will use the content. It allows
teachers to enforce self studying from digital content and with this phenomenal result is observed
in student’s performance.
Pricing:-
Margins:-
It offers 30%, 40% and 50% margins to Silver (or L1), Smart (or L2) or Gold (or L3) distributors
respectively.
Note - If a school adopts DVD product for all the students – SmartSchool Lab is offered free of
cost to the school.
Note – In addition to SmartSchool Lab school promotes SmartSchool Tutor DVDs among
students and itadvices distributors to share the margin with the school for that as well.
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1.2 INTRODUCTION TO THE INDUSTRY PROFILE
Education Industry is the one of the fastest growing industry in India. With over 10 crores
students and over 3 lacs schools and millions of coaching institutes across the country, there is
huge growth potential to do business in education sector with such immense target audience. In-
case the product offered is affordable with mass acceptation; there is huge money to be made.
Looking at the current technology powered education industry; there are 2 main products in this
sector.
1)Instructor led solution - This is for schools and coaching institutes, which is installed directly
into the classroom which is used by the teachers to teach the students. It usually involves a
projector, interactive whiteboard, computer and digital educational content in schools and a 32”
LCD, computer and digital educational content in coaching institutes.
2) Self study solution - This is for students, which is used directly by children to study in the
comfort of their home. This solution helps the students to understand difficult educational
concepts using animated content and practice their concepts using assessment modules.
SmartSchool ICT (Classroom license) is our Instructor led solution which is our classroom
solution and is already being used in more than thousand schools across the globe.
SmartSchool ERP (School license) is school solution is already being used in more than dozens
of schools across the globe.
SmartSchool CoachWell (Coaching Institute Classroom license) is our Instructor led solution
which is our coaching institute solution and is being sold through the network of our CoachWell
Area Franchisees.
SmartSchool Tutor and SmartSchool ExamGuru both are self study solutions, which are
aimed at students, which form the largest consumer segment in this country.
SmartSchool Junior is the preschool chain of the company; the preschool chain is the most
affordable and the most advanced preschool in the country. We are looking for unit and area
franchisee for our preschool chain.
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1.4 KEY FEATURES USED IN SMARTSCHOOL MODEL
1.5 Products
1.5.1 SmartSchool ICT (Classroom license) is an education product for Schools. It contains
curriculum mapped education content of classes ranging from Kindergarten to XII. It contains
animations, key points, quizzes, interactive simulations and a built in assessment platform where
students can get their relative ranks. The software is loaded on the hard disk and can run on any
Windows based machine.
SmartSchool CoachWell (Coaching Institute Classroom license) It is the first company to have a
very cost effective solution for coaching institutes. The company is very aggressive towards this
segment. It not only licenses them their brand but it also provides them full content in audio
visual format using which they can teach. It not only creates a USP (improves the general
perception of the coaching institute) but also provides educational quality assurance.
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1) Books and teachers can only teach through text but they cannot let the students visualize the
educational concepts. As a matter of fact when we see something in the form of a movie we can
easily memorize it and retain it for a much longer duration. SmartSchool ICT and SmartSchool
CoachWell provide best audio-video visualization of concepts; as a result student is able to
remember concepts for longer duration.
2) It creates a USP i.e. it improves the general perception of School as well as of coaching
institute.
3) It provides them the opportunity to increase fees thereby making profit by introduction this
technology.
4) Some subjects are not taught in the coaching institutes. Using our solution subjects like social
science, Hindi, English etc can also be taught.
1.5.2SmartSchool Tutor is an education product for the students, containing curriculum mapped
education content for students from classes Kindergarten to XII. The software is loaded on a pen
drive or SD card and can run on any Windows/Android based machine. Single license of the
software enables the student to access only one class for one year duration. It runs completely
offline.
1) Our solution has been designed and reviewed by the experts from IIT, IIM and NCERT and
covers all the subjects of the class. Our solution is available at a fraction of the cost of having
good tutors for all the subjects.
2) Books and teachers can only teach through text but they cannot let the students visualize the
educational concepts. As a matter of fact when we see something in the form of a movie we can
easily memorize it and retain it for a much longer duration. SmartSchool Tutor provides best
audio-video visualization of concepts; as a result student is able to remember concepts for longer
duration. Students learns maximum during self study. SmartSchool Tutor has been designed to
encourage and help the students to do self study. The complete Tutor content is also available
online, through webportal www.studynlearn.com D.
1.5.3 SmartSchool ExamGuru is exam testing software for students containing huge collection of
questions (more than 1 lac questions) to practice and revise. The question bank is curriculum
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mapped for students from classes I to XII. It also contains quick study material like Key points,
revision notes, practice maps etc. The software is a must for quick revision and practice for
securing maximum marks in the examination. Single license of the software enables the student
to access all the classes, but for one year duration.
1) Our software has the INDIA’s Largest Question bank for students to practice.
2) With our software, parents can keep a track of their children’s day to day performance in
studies.
3) Apart from questions, the software also has huge amount of subjective questions, key points,
and revision notes for students to practice and revise.
4) With huge repository of practice content, you no longer require to purchase any costly help
books. Hence a perfect affordable solution for any student.
5) Competitive examinations full length test series for AIEEE, IITJEE are part of this package.
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1.6 INTRODUCTION TO COMPANY PROFILE
Smartschool has education products which are meant for students, schools, and coaching
institutes. They sell these products by Their distribution network. They also have a franchise
model which is India’s first 100% audio visual content mapped preschool cum coaching institute.
The education products for students come in the form of a pen drive. It is a learning solution,
students can study from this. It contains digital contents like animations, key points, quizzes,
assessment platform, interactive simulation, fully solved NCERT etc.
They also have the education products for schools, which is used into classrooms through
projector and interactive board. It is called as smart class solution.
Also the franchise model is called as SmartSchool Junior where they run a preschool in morning
between 9 to 12 and a coaching institute in evening from the same premises.
Retail prices
Smart Price
SmartSchool Products MRP Gold Price Silver Price
SmartSchool Tutor
2999 1500 1800 2100
6th - 10th
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Bulk prices (DVD model – Min quantity 100)
Smart Price
SmartSchool Products MRP Gold Price Silver Price
SmartSchool Tutor
499 167 200 233
Web subscription
For consumer products Smartschool has 3 levels of distribution i.e. Silver, Smart and Gold
distribution. Silver distribution is the starting level distribution with the starting amount of
49,000 with 30 percent margin in the products and with no annual target.
For Smart distribution the starting investment is 99,000 with 40% margin in the products with an
annual business target of 2 Lacs.
For Gold distribution the starting investment is 2,49,000 with 50% margin in the products with
an annual business target of selling 1,000 products. In one area, we make only 1 gold distributor.
Company does direct billing to the gold distributor and gold distributor does it to the silver and
smart distributors.
In the starting amount of any distribution model investors choose, they provide products worth
that amount at their distributor transfer price.
1) Quality - Smartshoolis having one of the finest quality content which can be seen in demos on
youtube and website. It cover all the aspects of learning like animation, quiz, assessment
platform, fully solved NCERT, live videos etc.
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2) Quantity - We have the largest repository of content. We have more than 50k modules. In our
assessment platform itself there are more than 1 lac questions.
4) Delivery - Our solution is a plug and play delivery. Our content can be installed directly on a
computer without the requirement of a server and LAN networking. Not only it reduces the
hardware cost but also the maintainability of the solution. You do not require a specialized
resource person to manage the system.
5) Our way of working –it is the only company which worksthrough distributors and does not
sell directly. So even if a school approaches them directly, the lead is passed back to the
distributor who is appointed in that region. And the biggest of all, it claims to be the only
company whose content is approved and recommended by CBSE itself. Neither of Digischool,
Educomp or Edurite's content is being recommended by CBSE.
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CHAPTER 2
LITERATURE REVIEW
2.1 Brian Thomas (2002) has mentioned that brand awareness plays an important role in
consumer preferences.
2.2 Mohanty and Bhasker (2005) have proposed a different methodology to the consumers based
on the decision support tool for the internet shopping. This tool generally comprises of multiple
number of attributes of the products which are generally conflicting, ambiguous and
noncommensurable in nature. They have mentioned in the following example, the data such as
mileage, comfort, maintenance cost, re sale value and cost seems to be imprecise in nature. Here
fuzzy logic has been used to solve the complex issue.
2.3 ArjunChowdhri (2006) has remarked that brand commitment is an important determinant in
buying behavior for consumers.
2.4 David B. Eastwood et al(1987)have examined the consumer behavior based on the purchase
regularity, satisfaction, origin and willingness to pay for selected local versus non-Tennessee
grown fresh produce.
2.5Ali Nasr Esfahair(2012) has analyzed the psychological factors on consumer’s buying
behavior.
2.6Soren W. Scholzet al(2010) have stimulated and expanded on the substantial discussion on
the preference measurement for complex attributes products which are imprecise in nature and
vague to predict which is suitable and where to use which is based on paired comparison-based
preference measurement. To perceive and predict the decision, preference measurement
approaches are needed that accommodate large number of attributes without overburdening the
respondents. This study provides empirical support for the predictive validity and managerial
usefulness of PCPM in understanding preferences for complex products.
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2.7 Rachel Dardis and HoracioSoberon-Ferrer(1994) have investigated the rapport between
automobile attributes and household characteristics to consumer preferences for cars. The
analysis was confined to households that purchased new cars in 1986 and employed two-stage
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CHAPTER 3
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
3. RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
This research has been conducted to understand the answers to various questions that arehighly
overlooked but imperative for the organization, two of those questions have been mentioned in
the primary objectives below, first, is to understand the factor that influence individuals to
become a distributor and second, is to find out the method of promotion that they use.
Primary:-
1. To determine what are the factors that may influence prospective individuals/companies to
take the initiative to become distributors.
Secondary:-
1. To determine the demography of the distributors who invest in the Smartschool Education
Pvt Ltd, i.e. age, occupation, monthly income, educational qualification.
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3.2.1RESEARCH DESIGN
This research is descriptive where the data was collected without any external support of any
person in respect of getting the questionnaire filled, although the fusion of the primary and the
secondary data is used because of the assistance taken by previous internal document, internet,
and the faculties and here answers to various questions regarding the distributors’ decision,
influencing factors, characteristics is solicited, construed and exhibited. For this, various
objectives were formulated, methods available for data collection were used; decision regarding
the samples size and method was taken; logical interpretation was done and finally research was
made specifically according to it.
The convenient sampling technique was used for selecting the samples from the population
which is on the basis of convenience and judgment deemed suitable by the researcher.
Sample size is the number of respondents selected for the study out of a universe of distributors
of Smartschool Education Pvt Ltd as it is unrealistic and unviable to involve all the investors
who invest in the company, therefore the sample size of 40 is selected.
To achieve the objectives of the study assistance of the questionnaires was taken as they are the
best possible and the cheapest way of conducting a study as compared to the other methods
available. In this research, questionnaires were not distributed to the clients as the face to face
interaction with them is not possible because very less number of clients visit the company for
taking the investment decisions as there is a more convenient facility made available to them, by
the company itself, which is dealing through the phone. So, to conduct the study,lists of the
details(names/numbers/address/regions) of the clients who deal withSmartschool were taken.
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CHAPTER 4
4.1.1 GENDER
Gender
10%
Male
Female
90%
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4.1.2 AGE
Age
60
50
40
30 57.5
Respondents
20 30
10 12.5
0 0
Below 25 25-35 35-45 Above 45
years
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4.1.3 INCOME
Income Respondents In
percent
Below 3 4 10%
lakhs
Between 3- 20 50%
6 lakhs
Between 6- 14 35%
10lakhs
Above 10 2 5%
lakhs
Total 40 100%
Income
5% 10%
Below 3 lakhs
35% Between 3-6 lakhs
Between 6-10 lakhs
Above 10 lakhs
50%
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4.1.4 EDUCATIONAL QUALIFICATION
Under graduate 24 60
post graduate 0 0
and above
Total 40 100
Educational qualification
70
60
60
50
40 32.5
30 Respondents
20
7.5
10
0
0
Up to 12th Under Post graduate post graduate
graduate and above
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4.1.5 OCCUPATION
Businessman 17 42.5
Self-employed 2 5
professional 13 32.5
Total 40 100
Occupation
45 42.5
40
35 32.5
30
25 20
20
Respondents
15
10 5
5
0
Government Businessman Self-employed professional
servant
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4.2 REPRESENTATION AND ANALYSIS OF THE RESPONSE RECEIVED
Self-driven 9 22.5
Already 14 35
working/worked in
Education sector
Online 7 17.5
advertisement
Existing 10 25
distributors
Total 40 100
Factors
Self-driven
25 22.5
Already working/worked in
Education sector
Online advertisement
17.5
Existing distributors
35
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4.2.2 PERCEPTION(in terms of returns)
Favorable 17 42.5
Neutral 14 35
unfavorable 3 7.5
Highly 1 2.5
unfavorable
Total 40 100
7.5 12.5
Highly favorable
Favorable
Neutral
35
unfavorable
42.5
Highly unfavorable
30
4.2.3 Approach
Approaches Respondents In
Percentage
Cold calling 6 15
Exhibition 12 30
Participation
Through 17 42.5
schools
others 5 12.5
Total 40 100
Approaches
45 42.5
40
35 30
30
25
20 15
12.5 Respondents
15
10
5
0
Cold calling Exhibition Through others
Participation schools
31
4.2.4 SATISFACTION WITH THE OVERALL RETURNS
Response
27.5
Yes undoubtedly
No, not at all
52.5
can’t say
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32
4.2.5 HOW DO YOU FUNCTION
Function
12.5 5
On my own
sales team
Both
82.5
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4.2.6RESPONSE OF RESPONDENTS TOWARDS RISK ACCEPTABILITY
Acceptability
12.5
Neutral
50 Risk aversive
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4.3 SUMMARY OF THE FINDINGS
3. Most of the respondents (50%) are having an income level of 3-6 lacs followed by respondents
having income level of 6-10 lacs.
4. Most of the respondents (60%) are graduates where only 32.5% are post graduates.
6. Majority of the respondents (60%) have invested in the Smartschool for promoting our E-
learning products as either worked or were already working in Education field, they were pretty
aware about the potential of this market.
7. Most of the respondents (42.5%) believe Smartschool is favorable in terms of returns whereas
almost 1/3rd of the respondents have stayed neutral on the same question.
8. Majority of the respondents (52.5%) said that they are completely satisfied with the returns
that they have earned by selling the Smartschool products .
9. Around 82.5% of the respondents deal through sales team and sub-distributorsfor selling their
products whereas only 5% perform the opening to closing the deal individualy.
10. 50% of the respondents are neutral about their willingness to take risk whereas 37.5% are
firmly opposed to take risks.
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CHAPTER 5
5.1 CONCLUSIONS
Based on the above study it can be inferred that the factor, that drivesindividuals and companies
attention and motivates them to invest into the Smartschoolis majorly because they are already
working/ have worked with the educational products and most the investors are aware of the
market potential with most of them selling regional content, hardware, etc and majorly
distributors approach the target market through schools, on discussion it was found out they
request the school management to make the DVDs as a part of curriculum and share certain
margin per DVD.
The study has also revealed the demography of the investors where, majority of them have come
out to be male graduates of 25-35 years of age, having their own businesses with the annual
earnings of 3-6 lacsand they also feel that Smartschool is favorable in terms of return and they
are satisfied with the investment directives that they receive from their respective area head.
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5.2 RECOMMENDATIONS
1. From the demographic factors it is found most of the investors are of age 25-35 and are mostly
businessmen, so theSmartschool or any other institutions dealing in Education industry can take
these factors and develop suitable marketing strategies and activities for them to attract them to
invest more in commodity market.
2. Also it is found that the people who are already working in this industry are more inclined to
become distributors of Smartschool products, SotheSmartschool or for that matter any
othercompany dealing in the same, should directly approach the companies which are selling the
regional content, or are hardware manufacturer or supplier.
3. As second to most number of respondents are unwilling to take risk the company should
develop certain kind of strategywhich makes it easier for distributors to get out in the field and
invest without any inhibitions, and a reliable business model can be suggested to them that
assures product sale.
4. Most of the investors (individuals and company) are in male category. So Smartschool
Education Pvt. Ltd is advised to concentrate more on getting the investment from female
investors by developing various schemes which may attract their attention.
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BIBLIOGRAPHY
BOOKS
Kothari C.R. Research Methodology, New Age International Pvt Ltd 8 th edition
WEBSITES
1) www.smartschoolonline.in
3) www.marketingdonut.co.uk/direct-marketing
4) www.investopedia.com/terms/m/multi-level-marketing.asp
5) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Business_software
6) www. Educomp.com
7) www.extramarks.com
8) www.teachnext.com
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QUESTIONNAIRE
2-What has influenced you to invest in the Smartschool Education Pvt Ltd?
(a) Self-driven (b) Already working/worked in Education sector (c) Online Advertisement
(d) Existing distributors
3- What is your perception towards Smartschool Education Pvt Ltd? In terms of returns
(a) Highly favorable (b) Favorable (c) Neutral (d) unfavorable (e) Highly unfavorable
(a) Cold calling (b) Exhibition Participation (c) schools (d) Others
(a) Below 3 lakhs (b) Between 3-6 lakhs (c) Between 6-10 lakhs (d) Above 10 lakhs
(a) Up to 12th (b)Under graduate (c) Post graduate (d) post graduate and above
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7- Are you satisfied with the overall return that you receive from selling Smartschool products?
10-Kindly select how would you rate yourself in reference to the degree of risk that you will be
willing to take on a good returns option?
40