Table of Contents

Research proposal statement............................................................................................2

Introduction......................................................................................................................3
Academic city international School..................................................................................4
Competitors......................................................................................................................5
Website.............................................................................................................................6
Fees...................................................................................................................................7
Infrastructure and staff....................................................................................................8
Conclusion........................................................................................................................8

Research proposal statement

1
 Academic city international School based in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, in last few years is

getting lower on the table rankings and it is losing market shares since 2015. Now the big

question that needs answering for this school is in fact my research question: “What

strategies can the Academic city international Schools implement in order to prevent losing

market share to competitors”. Answering this question is going to be beneficial for this

school and it might help it make a prosperous future.

Introduction

2
 In this investigation I will be looking at a school called “Academic city international

School” based in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, meaning that this school is my target audience and I

will be researching which particular strategies might be implemented by this school in order

to prevent it from losing market shares overall but especially to its competitors. My research

question is “What strategies can the Academic city international Schools implement in

order to prevent losing market share to competitors”. Firstly, we need to define some crucial

terms stated in my research question in order to proceed further. What do we mean by market

shares? Market shares might be defined as the portion of a market controlled by a particular

company or product1. After we have defined this crucial term from our research question we

might proceed to investigating our target audience and all of the strategies that need to be

implemented by it.

Academic city international School

Academic city international Schools has a slogan that an ambitious person has a goal

or a dream and strives to achieve, we were among those, and our dream has come true and the

goal is being achieved by establishing the Academic City Schools which will be –by God

help – among the pioneer excellence schools through offering the educational services to our

sons and daughters and to always have their names linked to the name of our schools

characterized by successes and achievements. Furthermore, school goals, as stated on the

official website of the school are:

 Provide a safe educational environment with high potential to achieve the objectives

of our sons and daughters and their future aspirations

 Offer quality education to enable our student to master different basic skills

1
Investopedia; Market Shares; page visited on 3 rd of November 2018-11-07
https://www.investopedia.com/terms/m/marketshare.asp

3
  Achieve the cognitive and intellectual growth among our sons and daughters and give

them a window from which to look out on the world and the achievements of man

everywhere

 Excellence in the area of education through recruitment of qualified efficient faculty

and staff

 The development of self-esteem and showing respect to others and to promote the

language of dialogue and respect for the opinions of others

After understanding the school slogan and goals we might conclude that we know a

lot about our target audience however, it is important as well to understand the philosophy of

this educational company. Therefore, after a shorter investigation we might conclude that the

school philosophy is to emphasizes both academic attainment and character development, we

value that: Every student has an individual and cultural skills and interests that should be

taken into consideration in the teaching and learning process Students’ diversity enriches the

school community and provides a wealth of cultural embracement. Rigorous education

depends on the academic development of a student and the personal development which are

both based on respect, tolerance and responsibility by all stakeholders. The school’s

communication is invaluable and is open with the school community. School’s programs and

curriculum foster of the 21st century skills to prepare students meet the world challenges2.

Competitors

In order to improve our target audience, we need to understand the competitors of

our targeted school. To do so we have to look into other schools which are competitors to
2
Academic city international school official website; page visited on 3 rd of November 2018
http://www.acs.edu.sa/en/Default.aspx

4
our targeted school and observe some kind of ranking table that is reliable and accepted by

a lot of people, we may accept the ranking tables that were reviewed by a significant

amount of the people. Due to a significant amount of reviews and rankings I have selected

Edarabia ranking table to be the one used in this comparison. In this ranking table our

targeted school, Academic city international Schools is rated as the 5th best school in Saudi

Arabia while the first one on the table is Al-Alameen International School and the second

highest ranked is Riyadh Schools. We will have to look and investigate this two schools in

order to compare them to our targeted school so that e can give strong arguments to different

strategies that might be implemented by our targeted school in order to improve in these

rankings as well as overall.

Website
As much as it does not sound as important however, websites are really important for

a school’s image and market shares. More children that enroll the school more market shares

for the school to get. After investigating websites for both our targeted school and its

competitors that are better ranked in the ranking mentioned above, I have noticed that both

website from Al-Alameen International School and Riyadh Schools were better designed and

more visitor friendly to the comparison to the website of the Academic city international

Schools. Furthermore, Academic city international Schools websites lacks content in

comparison to other two websites, lacks more helpful information and most importantly

Academic city international Schools website is available in Arabic and English language

while the other two websites are available in more languages. This is crucial in globalized

world. It may seem as a small thing however, as stated in the book 100 top tips for a business

website is one of the most important tips. We are living in a 21 st century in which around

5
64% of the people get informed via web. This tells us how important a website actually is. It

represents the school and it is the biggest commercial the school can get. For a school it is

crucial to get as much parents interested into sending their kids to this school as possible

because that would mean more income flow and more market shares.

Fees
Fees are crucial for every school business. They dictate how attractive and how

affordable the school is. It is more than important to set up realistic fees that parents can pay

but in the same time the fees that wont lead towards bankruptcy of the business. It is difficult

to make a prediction how much does the school need to earn in order to stay in an economic

surplus however I will compare the fees of our targeted school and the one that is the best

rated one on the Edarabia list. But before doing that it is crucial to investigate the economical

situation of the Saudi Arabia a country where both of these schools are located. An average

annual salary in Saudi Arabia is 63.712$ per person. To add up to this annual fees for 1st to 5th

grade in our targeted school is 8.531$ while on the other hand the annual fee for 1 st to 5th

grade in Al-Alameen International School is 6.665$. Here we can see that the first ranked

school on the rankings is cheaper in comparison to our targeted school. This tells us that the

Academic city international School should probably lower its fees as one of the strategies in

order prevent loosing market shares. This is a typical economical situation which tells us that

more people will go for an education that is cheaper however better ranked than the one that

is more expensive and lower ranked. If our targeted school lowers the fees it would become

more requested by a greater amount of the people.

Infrastructure and staff

6
 Infrastructure is really important for a school. Both schools have a good infrastructure

however I do have to conclude that the Al-Alameen International School has a better

infrastructure that probably attracts more parents and makes them enroll their children to this

school rather than to our targeted school. This means that one of the strategies that our

targeted school should do is invest into infrastructure. Al-Alameen International School has

in its infrastructure modern labs, 3D cinema etc. which Academic city international Schools

does not have. This is unfortunate as infrastructure most definitely shapes the number of

people who enroll the school. Furthermore, Staff is really important as well. There are more

extracullurical activities available in Al-Alameen International School in comparison to our

targeted school as well as the fact that Al-Alameen International School has an international

Cambridge program as well which our targeted school does not have. Academic city

international Schools should introduce more clubs and an international program as well as

two new strategies which would prevent its competitors from taking their market shares

Conclusion

To conclude, Academic city international Schools is well rated and highly successful

school in Riyadh Saudi Arabia. It is the 5th best rated in the whole country by the Edarabia

ranking and that is a significant result. However, there are several strategies that this school

might introduce in order to stop losing market shares to its competitors. Those strategies are;

improve its website in order to gain a better commercial and a wider spread among the people

that are in its targeted audience, this is crucial in a globalized 21 st century world. Secondly, it

should probably lower its fees as they are to high in comparison to an average annual salary

in Saudi Arabia and in comparison to its competitors. Thirdly, it should invest into its

infrastructure, staff and programs as those are crucial things for a parent that want to send his

kids to a school being a targeted audience by the school. If all of these strategies were

7
introduced by Academic city international Schools, it is undoubtable that this school would

stop losing market shares to its competitors. It is important to be aware that we are living in a

globalized world and business of any kind especially the business that deals with the

education needs to keep up with the world we are living in.