Xplora Design Skool

India’s Premier Vocational Multimedia Education

Company
BY-
SWATI SINHA
THE COMPANY

Xplora Design Skool, India’s premier

multimedia education and development
company, is based in Gujrat and has 27
franchise education centres spread across
India (within first 5 years of its operation) with
a turnover of Rs. 70 million in 2004.
It mainly focuses on constantly exploring and
delivering cutting edge technology and
developing latest softwares.
AREAS OF EXPERTISE

 SOFTWARE DEVELOPMENT AND

EXPORT
 CONSULTANCY SERVICES
 MULTIMEDIA EDUCATION
 OVERSEAS PLACEMENT
BRIEF HISTORY

Xplora had always laid special emphasis

on multimedia development and serving
overseas markets. With time, the industry
started to experience a scarcity of trained
professionals. Thus Xplora came up with
the idea of training individuals in
multimedia to satisfy their manpower
needs. The approach proved to be fruitful
for XDS.
THE WORLD OF MULTIMEDIA

 Multimedia education being often confused

with IT education faced a major setback
with the downturn of IT in early 2000.
 Lack of awareness about multimedia was a
constraint.
 People didn’t consider it to be a long-term
career option.
 Additionally, software license acquisition
was a problem in this field.
 However with progress in computerization
and growth of related industries like
media, advertising and film-making,
multimedia industry stands a fair chance
in 21st century. The government estimated
a requirement of 3 lakh multimedia
professionals by the next 10 years.
What is MULTIMEDIA

 Multimedia can be defined as “A presentation

made on a computer using more than two
forms of media.” Ex: TV, Movie, Print
advertisements, specials effects etc.
Multimedia has four broad areas:
 Graphics
 Animation
 Web design
 Audio
XDS-EXPANSION
 XDS wishes to set up as many as 300 centres in
the next 3 years.
 Industry tie-up yielded the significant benefit of a
job guarantee to students who enrolled for the
course at XDS.
 XDS has gathered strong technical and software
expertise in all areas of multimedia and using
licensed software programmes.
 The key objective of XDS is understanding
student requirements in terms of industry needs.
MARKET SEGMENTATION

The market segments which the XDS

currently caters are :
 Students
 Professionals
 Multimedia enthusiasts
 Job seekers
BUYER BEHAVIOUR

 53% of the students thought that the course

was “value for money”
 The students of Xplora gave maximum
importance to the course content followed by
job guarantee and quality of faculty.
 Another noticable trend was that the students
had not given much importance to the industry
tie-ups.
 The students at the multimedia institutes were
very satisfied with the institute and the course.
 55.8 % of the students gave a score of 8
out of 10 and above.
 87% of the respondents at Xplora said
they would recommend the institute to
others, which is the highest level achieved
by the institutes of this type.

 
COMPETITION

Primary competitors were :

 Arena (subsidiary of Aptech computers)
 Image
 C-Dac (govt.)
Secondary competitors were :
 NIIT
 APTECH
 NETVISION
 MAAC
 EDIT
ARENA

 50% growth rate.

 Offer a variety of courses, giving more
options to customers.
 They also offer nationally recognized
certificates more valid than those of XDS.
 Greater market penetration in advertising
and communication.
 More cost effective due to centralized
marketing.
IMAGE

 Known for corporate training and excellent

corporate connections.
XPLORA

 Longer course duration

 In depth knowledge
 Live projects in curriculum
 Limited flexibility in price structure
 Indulge in discount-offering straps result in
losses.
MARKETING ACTIVITIES
 Product positioning :
Arena focused on long-term hobby oriented
course, whereas Image focused on short-
term professional courses.
 Distribution and pricing of a course :
Everyone followed a discount of upto 50%
of the fees. Xplora avoided discounts on the
fees however there were some
considerations in branches of smaller cities.
MARKETING ACTIVITIES

 Advertising and Publicity :

Major tool of advertising was newspaper
in addition to word of mouth advertising.
Image used events and seminars to
promote their courses.
Arena used discount and joint offers in
addition to seminars and events for
promotion.
COMMUNICATION
STRATEGIES
XDS has been using various
communication tools as a way to promote
their institute. The various sources used
were newspapers, Radio Mirchi, banners,
posters, cable television, danglers, data
base mailers, road shows, handbills, stalls
at exhibitions, bus shelter advertising,
dispensers, discount coupons, caps,
bags, pens etc.
PROJECT OBJECTIVE

The key objective of the project was to develop a

marketing strategy and media plan for XDS. The
processes were :
 Consider small towns for expansion and leave aside
metros.
 Clustering of town based on social status,
profitability, existing competition, ease of entry etc.
 Market segmentation and identification of target
market.
 Market positioning.
 Designing market strategies.
SUGGESTIONS

Strategies :
After market clustering, a different marketing
plan needs to be chalked out for each cluster.
 Brand awareness in high income and high
awareness states such as Jaipur. It is easy to
market in this cluster so it should be prioritized
first.
 Bringing down the ‘hobby’ factor for promotions.
 Students must find it beneficial and utilization of
their time.
 Inlow income cities it can be projected as
a source of income for the people with
wider career prospects.
 Promotion through advertisements, local
media to create awareness in low
awareness areas.
 Target the female customers as they are
more interested to utilize such courses in
spare time and improve their CV.