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Bradford School of Management

Strategic Marketing Plan

for InterviewBayBalaji Bangalore VaradarajanUB No. 08013436


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Statement of Authenticity

I have read the university regulations regarding plagiarism and certify thatthis project is my own work and does not contain any

unacknowledged work from any other sources

WORD COUNT: 14591


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ABSTRACT

This is a real-time project done for InterviewBay, a start-up venture

specializing in MBA Admission consulting field (providing mock interview

services for top business schools). The aim is to create an effective and viable

strategic marketing plan to improve the revenue of this company.

Some of the well-known classical marketing theories of Jobber, McDonald and

Cohen have been used here to analyse and develop a new marketing template

that would fit InterviewBay appropriately. Even though these marketing plans

were framed few years ago, they are still appropriate to the contemporary

business environment through customisation.

Research has been carried on to determine cost-effective means of

advertisements for InterviewBay. The author has collected primary and

secondary data. Primary data was collected through personal interviews as well

as by conducting online survey to get feedback from aspiring MBA students.

This information has been used for setting up pricing strategy as well as to

understand the need of these students from the Admission Consultants. The

secondary data was sourced from various b-schools and Admission consulting

websites. Based on the research results, the author has identified the main market

segments that the business can focus on.

Financial forecast (Break-even analysis, Revenue and Cost Projections) for next

3 years of operation has been performed. Suggestion about strategic alliances hasalso been provided to capture business across the globe.

The author has also provided more recommendations in terms of the pricing,

promotions, website development, appointment of an exclusive marketing

personnel etc. for the growth of organization


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STRATEGIC MARKETING PLANNING FOR

INTERVIEWBAY

By

Balaji Bangalore Varadarajan

(UB No. 08013436)

Management Project submitted to the Bradford University School of

Management

in partial fulfilment of the requirements

for the degree of

Master of Business Administration

2009


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PREFACE

With an inner desire to start my own venture in the nearest future, my interests for the

past few years has been to understand the problems that a start-up venture would be

faced with and to prepare against those issues. My marketing modules in the MBA

programme created a major awareness about the need for an effective marketing plan. It

also highlighted the usefulness of the marketing plan in the business. Although a

marketing plan is required by large as well as small companies, since my interests were

towards starting up a venture, I was interested to do a strategic marketing plan for a

start-up venture. My MBA subjects and several readings about marketing literatures

imparted the knowledge about how a marketing plan can be of great support in thesuccess of a business growth. More than that, it taught me, how many companies have

failed due to lack of marketing plan. It also has taught me that writing a marketing plan

makes us think about many aspects of business including our strengths and weakness. It

forms a clear road map for every individual in the organization. In order to capitalize on

the gained theoretical knowledge, I proposed to do a strategic marketing plan for

InterviewBay, a start-up firm and a venture of my interest and develop my strategic

skills. Thus all these have led to the basis for me to do this project.

Acknowledgement

I would like to take this opportunity to thank some of the people who helped me to

complete this project successfully.

Firstly, I would like to thank Prof. Paul Webb and Prof. Steve Pagefor providing me

with splendid support and valuable feedback to produce a quality project.

Secondly, my sincere most thanks to Mr. Naveen Patha, Business Adviser of

InterviewBay for giving me a wonderful opportunity to work on this project for his

organization and also for his guidance and support.

Lastly, I would like to dedicate this project to my wife and all my family members who

helped me with moral support during tough times that I faced during this project.


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Table of Contents

1. Introduction .......................................................................................................................... 9

1.1 Project Objective: ...................................................................................................................... 9

1.2 Project Methodology: ................................................................................................................ 9

1.3 Company Background:............................................................................................................ 10

1.4 Management Teams: ............................................................................................................... 11

2. Literature Review .............................................................................................................. 13

2.1 Admission Consulting Industry:................................................................................. 13

2.2 Marketing Plan:......................................................................................................... 21

2.2.1 Jobbers Marketing plan:........................................................................................... 22

2.2.2 Cohens model: .......................................................................................................... 26

2.2.3 McDonalds model:.................................................................................................... 30

2.2.4 Recommendation:...................................................................................................... 33

3. Research Methodology ...................................................................................................... 36

3.1 Introduction: ........................................................................................................................... 36

3.2 Research methods used in this project:.................................................................................... 36

3.3 Research Strategy:................................................................................................................... 38

3.3.1 Exploratory Studies:.................................................................................................. 38

3.3.2 Online Survey:........................................................................................................... 383.4 Data Collection:....................................................................................................................... 39

3.4.1 Secondary Data:......................................................................................................... 39

3.4.2 Primary Data:............................................................................................................ 41

3.5 Validity and Reliability:........................................................................................................... 42

3.6 Ethical Stance:......................................................................................................................... 43

4. Strategic Marketing Plan .................................................................................................. 44

4.1 Business Mission:..................................................................................................................... 44

4.2 Financial Performance of InterviewBay:.................................................................................. 44

4.3 Marketing Audit:..................................................................................................................... 45

4.3.1 External Marketing Audit:......................................................................................... 45

4.3.2 Internal Marketing Audit: ......................................................................................... 51

4.4 SWOT Analysis: ...................................................................................................................... 52


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4.5 Marketing Objectives: ............................................................................................................. 53

4.6 Target Segment: ...................................................................................................................... 57

4.7 Marketing Strategies: .............................................................................................................. 58

4.8 Budgeting: ............................................................................................................................... 62

4.9 Implementation and Control: .................................................................................................. 63

5. Recommendations & Conclusion: .................................................................................... 67

5.1 Recommendations:......................................................................................................... 67

5.2 Project Conclusion:........................................................................................................ 68

Appendix A: Project Proposal.................................................................................................. 70

Appendix B: Survey Results, 2009......................................................................................... 76

Appendix C: Online Survey Questions................................................................................... 77

References: ................................................................................................................................ 79


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List of Figures:

Figure 1: Growth of Consultants. 13

Figure 2: US B-Schools Admission Details.. 14

Figure 3: Top Admission Consultants 15

Figure 4: Gordons Attributes and Dimension Map.. 16

Figure 5: Details of GMAT Applicants 18

Figure 6: Male-Female GMAT applicants details 20

Figure 7: GMAT Applicants Age Details.. 21

Figure 8: SWOT Conversion Strategy 24

Figure 9: Ansoffs Matrix.. 25

Figure 10: BCG Matrix 26

Figure 11: Cohens Marketing Plan . 27

Figure 12: McDonalds Marketing Model 30

Figure 13: Marketing Plan Template for InterviewBay.. 35

Figure 14: The Research Process Onion.... 36

Figure 15: Operational Profit of InterviewBay. 44

Figure 16: Business Revenue % Split Up of InterviewBay. 45

Figure 17: Porters 5 forces analysis of InterviewBay 48

Figure 18: SWOT Analysis of InterviewBay.. 52

Figure 19: BCG Matrix for InterviewBay 53

Figure 20: Ansoffs Matrix for InterviewBay.. 54

Figure 21: Break-even Analysis of InterviewBay. 64

Figure 22: Projected Profit & Loss Statement of InterviewBay. 64

List o f Tables:

Table 1: Fundamental Questions by Jobber. 22

Table 2: Project Plan for implementing InterviewBays marketing strategies.. 63


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1. Introduction

1.1 Project Objective:

This project aims at creating a realistic strategic marketing plan for InterviewBay, a

company specialising in the field of Admission Consulting. Being a start-up venture,

this company has ambitious plans to nurture its business growth and is in the phase of

defining its business strategy to achieve its mission. The company expects a marketing

plan to attract investors.

The author is expected to analyse the existing business state, perform research on

effective advertising strategies and to identify strategic business partners in order to fuel

its growth. As a part of this exercise, the author defines the following as the scope of

this project after discussions with the stakeholders:

Study the existing business concept and develop a strategic marketing plan for

the next three years covering business growth & market positioning and to

improve the top line of the company

Identify strategic partners to tie-up for marketing InterviewBays products

3 Year detailed financial forecasts (Sales and Cost projections including the

break-even analysis)

1.2 Project Methodology:

This project starts with an introduction about the company InterviewBay, its

management team and a basic idea about the companys products. It is followed by a

literature review on the MBA Admission Consulting industry and three different reputed

marketing plans. Based on the analysis, a marketing plan template will be created by

customizing the marketing plan which fits closely to InterviewBays requirements.


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The project then focuses on the research methodology to show the kind of approach the

author has used in this project. It will be followed by the research design and will deal

with the methods through which the author has gathered data.

Using the marketing template and the results from the research, the strategic

marketing plan for InterviewBay will be created. Thus the author combines the

theoretical concept with the real-time need of an existing company. The final part

of the project will comprise of the recommendations by the author to

InterviewBay.

1.3 Company Background:

Founded in London, InterviewBay offers mock interviews to aspiring MBA students.

The companys methodology is unique. If an MBA applicant has an interview with

Harvard Business School (HBS) then the mock interview will be conducted by either a

current student or an alumnus of HBS. The company strongly believes that a current

student or alumnus knows best about their B-School. The interviewers include former

admissions officers from the worlds most elite MBA programs. Collectively, they have

interviewed hundreds of prospective MBA candidates. They are passionate about

helping clients gain entry into business schools of their choice, and the results have been

spectacular with InterviewBay clients receiving admission to the worlds top MBA

programs.

InterviewBay also offers mock interviews to aspiring Strategy Consultants, Bankers and

General Managers. Created by recruitment experts from London Business School (UK)

and Virginia Tech (USA), InterviewBay's methodology includes a verbal and written

review of the mock interview by a current employee or an alumnus of the client's target

Company, combined with proven strategies to approach the interview with confidence

and skill. For example, if a client has an interview with Goldman Sachs, the mock

interview will be conducted by a present or past employee of Goldman Sachs. Since its


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inception, InterviewBay has hired only the most talented and engaging interviewers,

each of whom graduated from a top business school. InterviewBay has consistently

maintained high interviewing standards and as a result, its clients receive the best

results.

InterviewBay is a late entrant for this business but has entered with a niche

strategy. Already this industry has considerable number of big and small time

players. The big players constitute a major market share and have built good

customer relationship over the years. InterviewBay faces tough competition from

these players. Hence it requires a strong and effective business strategy in place to

succeed in this business environment. This forms the basis for this project.

1.4 Management Teams:

InterviewBay was founded in the year 2008 byMrs.Sarasavani Patha, a MBA graduate

from a reputed Indian business school. She holds 100% stake in the business and she is

the CEO of the organization. With a solid background in the Human Resources function

including consulting and recruiting divisions, she has built a strong network of resources

all over the world which is crucial for InterviewBays growth. The company is

registered and based out of London. It has a Board comprising of four directors

including Mrs.Sarasavani Patha. She is supported by a strong team of technical and

marketing personnel.

Name Role Responsibilities

Mrs. Sarasavani PathaCEO, with 100% stake inInterviewBay

Visionary and isresponsible for thebusiness strategy

Mr. Srikanth Yadha Technical Adviser IT Infrastructure Designand procurement

Mr. Waziri GarubaBusiness DevelopmentManager

Developing business inUS markets


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Mr Naveen Patha Business Adviser Consultant to provideguidance on businessstrategies

Mr. Srikanth Yadha, a MBA graduate from Virginia Tech is the Technical Adviser of

InterviewBay. He possesses immense experience in building e-commerce related

products and services. He heads the responsibility of designing and maintaining the

InterviewBays website fulfilling the needs of the clients with required information.

Mr. Waziri Garuba,a MBA graduate from Columbia Business School and with a rich

experience in Investment Banking from Goldman Sachs is responsible for developing

marketing network in US for InterviewBay.

Mr. Naveen Patha,a MBA graduate from London Business School works as a Business

Adviser for InterviewBay. His responsibilities include suggesting business strategies for

InterviewBay. His experience includes working for private equity sector which focuses

on real estate investments in Central and Eastern Europe. He has also worked for top

multinationals like Oracle Corporation and Accenture.


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2. Literature Review

There are two dimensions while working on a project the academic and the practical

part.The academic part focuses more on the theoretical concepts of marketing plans

and also about the evolution and growth of Admission Consulting industry. Thepractical part focuses on constructing a strategic marketing plan based on our

research and analysis pertaining to environment, competitors and the companys

objectives and strategies.In this section, different marketing theories are analysed

and evaluated to identify the suitable marketing plan for InterviewBay.

2.1Admission Consulting Industry:

2.1.1Introduction:

The admission consulting industry began almost 30 years ago (Baron, 2008). It started

as an industry practiced only by a few dozen experts with an in-depth knowledge in the

field of boarding school world. But this industry underwent a major transformation

fifteen years ago, when consultants began to offer their services for top college

admissions also. Sklarow in his interview with Baron (2008) claims that the number of

consultants has almost tripled from 2000 to 5000 in a span of 5 years catering to

different educational programs like MBA, law, medicine etc (Figure 1).

Figure 1: Growth of Consultants (Source: Sklarow (2008))

0

1000

2000

3000

4000

5000

6000

2004 2009

Growth Of Consultants between 2004 and 2009

Growth Of Consultants


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However, in her interview to BusinessWeek (2007), the Director of Admissions for

Fuqua School of Business, Liz Riley expresses that she is not thrilled about the

Admission Consulting industry. She strongly emphasises that if someone else does the

work of another, it is like admitting a fraud to the Business School.

Currently there is significant number of reputed business schools in US, UK and some

in Europe among the worlds top 30 (FT.com, 2009). Admissions411 (2009) have

collected information for some of the top US b-schools about the MBA programs and

the admission details (Figure 2).

Figure 2: US B-Schools Admission Details (Source: Admissions411 website)

Similarly, it has done a research (2009) to obtain the number of interviews conducted by

the top Admission Consultants per intake (Figure 3).

050

100150200250300350400450500

CarnegieMellon

Chicago

Columbia

Cornell(Johnson)

Dartmouth(TUCK)

Duke(Fuqua)

Emory

Harvard

Kellie

MITSloan

Kellogg

NYUStern

Wharton

Stanford

UCLA

# Applicants

Interviewed

Accepted

Rejected


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Figure 3: Top Admission Consultants (Source: Admissions411)

2.1.2Current MBA Admission strategy:

Every University sets up an Admission Committee which is a group of professionals

who are responsible for selecting the prospective students to MBA programs. These

professionals are required to understand the Universitys admission criteria extensively,

should review the candidates credentials without reservations and are entrusted with the

responsibility of selecting prospective students in line with the Universitys mission (b-

school-apply, U.D). Thus, it needs to be emphasized that every business school has its

own selection criteria and hence the candidate needs to prepare in three different ways if

she or he applies for three business schools.

The Admission committee checks for specific set of attributes in all the applications that

they review. For example, academic performance is critical with cut-off points for

admission and denial (b-school-apply, U.D). Apart from this, there are other selection

criteria like the Graduate Management Admission Test (GMAT) score and the

admissions essay.

34

21

79

10896

24

02040

6080

100120

No. of interviews conducted


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Figure 4: Gordons Attributes and Dimension Map (representing the main dimensions

for essay writing)

The essays also play a crucial role as they are the spectacles through which the

Admission Committee members will be able to analyze and gauge the candidate.

Gordon (2005) mentions that good application and good essays generally carries many

of twenty attributes mentioned in the figure 4 spreading across all the four dimensions in

the application thus providing a necessary balance to the profile.

They also review their resumes, references and the recommendation letters. It is quite

difficult for the candidates to understand this process for every top school. Above all,

the admission committee conducts a personal interview as a part of the last round in

order to select the candidates (b-school-apply, U.D).

2.1.3What is MBA Admission consulting industry about?

With the consulting services available in the educational fields like law and medicine

(AdmissionConsultants, 2009), this industry started to focus towards the high-valued

MBA program. Eight years back, there were only a very few MBA Admission

consultants but today there are significant number of consultants in this industry


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(GeekMBA360, 2009). These consultants target the candidates who dream of joining the

top business schools in the world especially in US, UK and Europe.

As mentioned in GeekMBA360 (2009), generally these MBA admission consultants are:

Former Admission Officers from top MBA programs

Graduates from MBA programs who were part of their schools admission

committee

Entrepreneurial MBAs who want to do their own business

As these consultants know about the b-schools admission process very well, they use

their extensive knowledge to groom the candidates. Generally, following are the

services provided by a MBA Admission Consultant (ClearAdmit, 2009):

Constructs an initial strategic plan about the schools that the candidate desires

for

Reviews their resume and make appropriate changes to suit the respective b-

schools requirements

Reviews their essays and fine tune them in order for the candidate to market

themselves well

Conducts mock interviews before the actual interviews, identify their strengths

and weaknesses and provide tips to convert their weakness to strength

Feedback reports

2.1.4How consulting industry has changed

Heiser (2006) comments the enrolment of international graduate students to US

institutions has increased significantly during the 2006. He also notices that the major

shift has happened from the countries India (32%) and China (20%) with 10%increase to the business schools.

Research by Gardner and Witherell (2007) has shown that there has been a strong

increase in the number of applicants from India (up by 10%), China (up by 8%)


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and Korea (by 6%). GMATs exam data reveals that the number of students

undertaking exams has increased in India and China tremendously by 251% and

108% between 2000 and 2007. Similarly the number of GMAT applicants from Asian

continent has grown by 63% (figure 5) overall between 2000 and 2007 (GMAT website,

2008).

Apart from these countries, signs of increasing trend are spotted from the Middle East

Countries, Vietnam, Taiwan and Thailand (figure 5). Karen (2007) claims that the

dynamism, diversity and excellence in US higher education system has paved the way

for the increase in the international students applying for US institutions.

Figure 5: Details of GMAT Applicants (Source: GMAC website, 2008)

Thus the Admission consulting business is not only confined to US and Europe but

also broadening across the globe, in particular, to Asia-Pacific region.

Sklarow (2008) mentions that the educational consultants are not considered as

intermediaries any more. They act as guides and advisors to support the students indeciding their future business schools. They provide them with services starting from

the scratch, which includes the list of top business schools that the candidate can focus

on based on the candidates credentials.


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Earlier, the business schools never appreciated the consultants role as they felt that they

are tampering the business schools admission process. But now, days have changed.

Sklarow (2008) says that the number of colleges that do not desire to work with

consultants have reduced drastically. Rather they look at these consulting firms as a

means to find suitable candidates, thereby, increasing the retention and improving the

students success growth.

Haas Admission-Director Johnson (2009) in his interview mentions that there are

reputable consultants who provide services by helping the candidates think through the

admission process better. By working with such consultants, the candidates sharpen

their own set of goals and how they present themselves

2.1.5Where is it heading to?

In his article, William (2006) claims that the MBA Admission Consulting is a booming

industry but, at the same time alarms that this industry is highly unregulated. Porter

(2007) says that more and more MBA Applicants are paying huge money to these

consultants in order to prepare themselves with all the required criteria to get into their

dream business schools. She also mentions that applicants from Asian regions have

started getting these services more, simply to get an admission in the top business

schools.

Since the criteria to start this business is very simple, any MBA alumni or admission

officer is able to start the business making the industry unstructured. In order to bring

regulations in the industry, the top MBA Admission consultants have started an

association called AIGAC (Porter, 2007). AIGAC has been started with the mission to

maintain the highest standards of integrity and competence in dealing with Association,

other members, clients and third parties. It has designed the policies to suit the needs of

the clients and mainly with the b-schools, to follow highest ethical practices in graduate

admission services (AIGAC, 2009).


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According to AIGAC (2009), every admission consultant should get registered with the

association and follow its ethical rules. By doing this, AIGAC is trying to build a

relationship between the Admission Consultants and the B-Schools and to bring in

confidence about the Admission Consultants in the Admission process.

The consulting industry also sees a major change in the sex ratio applying for b-schools.

Dan Bauer in his interview with Gherghe (U.D) has mentioned that there has been a

steady increase in the number of women applying for MBA schools. The top b-schools

also have been marketing aggressively to improve the women applicants in their MBA

programs. Schweitzer (2009) mentions that women are motivated by the factors like

gaining core knowledge and networking aspects and it provides them the opportunities

to move into senior positions. Thus the customer base of the Admission consulting

industry has widened to include the female gender also.

GMAC (2009) has released details about the men and women ratio applying for GMAT.

Over the past 10 years, although the number of applicants in both the genders has

increased consistently, the male-female ratio has hovering around 1.5 (Figure 6)

Figure 6: Male-Female GMAT applicants details (Source: GMAC website, 2009)


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Another important attribute that a business should focus on while preparing the

marketing plan is the age group of its clients. This helps the organization to target the

right segment for its products and services. GMAC (2009) provides the trend about the

age group of the students who are applying for GMAT to get into a top b-school (Figure

7).

Figure 7: GMAT Applicants Age Details (Source: GMAC website, 2009)

It can be noted from the figure 7 that there has been an increasing trend in the number of

applicants in the age group 24-30 and in particular, younger than 24 years. This provides

the business with the vital information about identifying the right target segment.

2.2Marketing Plan:

In the present world, many scholars have designed their own marketing plans for

large and small businesses. In order to arrive at an appropriate marketing template

for InterviewBay, a literature review about some of the famous authors marketing

plans is conducted here. The merits and demerits of these models would be studied.


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Criticisms as well as the positives of the plan will be understood based on which the

appropriate model would be selected.

Here the objective is to find a marketing plan which will discuss extensively about the

marketing objectives and strategies. Here, we are considering the models of Jobber

(2007), Cohen (2005) and McDonald (2002).

Interestingly, Cohen (2005), in his marketing plan emphasises the use of Executive

Summary and makes it mandatory in his plan which the other two scholars have not

insisted upon. Jobbers (2007) marketing model follows a fixed structure. However

Piercy et al (1989) challenges the need for sequential steps in a marketing plan and

raised questions about their usefulness and validity.

2.2.1Jobbers Marketing plan:

Jobber (2007) defines marketing planning as a process by which the businesses study

the marketing environment and their capabilities, decide upon courses of marketing

action and implement those decisions.

He (2007) starts his marketing planning with five questions (Table 1). These questions

would allow usto think about the progress that we have made in our business so far and

also help us to look forward

Table 1: Fundamental Questions by Jobber (Source: Jobber (2007))


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Jobber has outlined a nine-step framework model for the marketing planning process. It

demonstrates a clear plan from generating a business mission to implementing and

controlling the resultant plans. McDonald (2002) uses a ten step model while Cohen

(2005) has an eight step marketing plan.

Business Mission:

Ackoff defines business mission as A broadly defined enduring statement of purpose

that distinguishes a business from others of its type (Routi, 2007). Jobber shows

interest in the two important components in the statement - enduring and specific to

individual organization. It raises two fundamental questions about the business that we

are in and the business that we want to proceed with. Answering these questions would

result in defining the scope and activities of the company. But Abell (1980) suggeststhat the business mission may include about market, needs and technology. The term

market would reflect the customer groups that are being served, needs refer the customer

satisfaction and the technology would depict its usage for developing customer

satisfaction.

Marketing Audit:

This is used to examine the businesss marketing environments, their objectives and

related strategies systematically with the main focus to identify the threats and

opportunities (Jobber, 2007). This task is so powerful that it provides answers to half of

Jobbers fundamental questions for marketing process

Where are we now?

How did we get here?

Where are we heading?

McDonald (2002) also supports the view on marketing audit by preparing answers forthese questions. They both have similar views on the structure of the marketing audit.

They have classified marketing audit into internal and external audits.


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This is the second step in Jobbers model (2007) and Cohens (2005) but third step in

McDonalds (2002). At this stage, McDonald discusses about the corporate objectives.

However he does not explore much and leaves it to the organizations to decide how they

want to follow it.

All the three scholars share the same idea about the external and internal audit. The

external audit will cover the macroenvironment and the microenvironment.

Macroenvironment deals with the Political/Legal, Social, economic, ecological and

technological forces that might have an impact on the business whereas

microenvironment focuses on the Market, Customers, Competitors, Suppliers etc. The

internal audit helps to evaluate the performance and the activities of business in the light

of environmental changes.

SWOT Analysis:

Kotler (2001) defined SWOT analysis as a methodical and a practical approach to

evaluate the strategic position of a business by exploring its strengths, weakness,

opportunities and threats. It is a simple way to synthesise the marketing audit results.

Piercy (2002) insists that only those capabilities or resources that are valued by

customers should be considered while evaluating the internal strengths and weaknesses

of the business. Similarly, the threats and opportunities are ones that are outside the

business and that impacts its performance.

The powerful SWOT analysis can be used by the businesses to ponder about converting

the weakness to strengths and threats into opportunities. This process called as

conversion strategies (refer figure 8) are very useful for the success of the business

(Jobber, 2007)


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Figure 8: SWOT Conversion Strategy (Source: Jobber, 2007)

Marketing Objectives:

Businesses need to concentrate much on this section as it determines the products to beconcentrated on as well as the strategy that needs to be implemented to make the

product successful (Hiebing et al, 1990). Jobber (2007) classifies marketing objectives

as Strategic thrust and Strategic Objectives.

Strategic thrust deals with setting the objectives in terms of, which products to sell in

which market. Ansoffs matrix is a very useful way to look at the growth opportunities

(Figure 9). It provides a useful framework to determine the product strategy for the

organization

Figure 9: Ansoffs Matrix (Source: Jobber (2007))


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Jobber (2007) advocates the usage of tools like BCG matrix, the General Electric

Market Attractiveness Model to determine the strategic objectives of every product. A

model of the BCG Matrix is shown in the figure 10

Figure 10: BCG Matrix (Source: Jobber, 2007)

Implementation and Control:

Drucker (1993) mentions no marketing plan will succeed unless it degenerates into

work. Jobber (2007) also emphasizes that the business should design an organization

that has the capability of implementing the plan. He discusses about the final stage of

control which is to evaluate the results of the marketing plan so that correction actions

can be taken if the defined objectives does not produce the desired results for the

company.

2.2.2Cohens model:

Cohen (2005) suggests that a marketing plan is very important for every business

operation and for efficient and effective marketing of any product or service. He

believes that it is true for new business venture or even for a new product or service

within a company.


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Cohens marketing plan (2005) includes an executive summary (Figure 11) and explains

that the corporate executives and the venture capitalist get interested in funding a

business based on the attractiveness of information in the executive summary. Ward

(2009) emphasizes that the executive summary provides the readers with an overview

about the marketing plan and creates interest in their marketing plan.

Cohens model focuses on the Situation Analysis which is divided into four categories:

situational environs, neutral, competitor and company. Green et al (1996) claims that the

situational analysis is the foundation of marketing plan and lack of information about

the business and its competitors may result in short-sighted plans.

Figure 11: Cohens Marketing Plan (Source: Cohen, 2005)

Situational Analysis:

Situational environs deals with the demand and the demand trends for the product or

service. It identifies the customer group who purchase the product. This analyses how,


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when, where, what and why do these potential customers purchase the product. It also

considers the social and the cultural factors the demographics of consumers. It

analyses the economic conditions during the period covered by the marketing plan. It

also analyses about the technology and how it affects the product life cycle.

Neutral environ is concerned with the influence of government on the companys new

project. It checks whether the governments new legislation on the state, federal or local

level would affect the products demand in the market. PESTLE analysis can be used to

understand the macro environmental impacts on the business. Green et al (1996) claims

that a successful marketer would be totally aware of the environmental changes and

capitalize on the opportunities provided by these impending changes. This model

focuses on media whether the current method of promotion and publicity makes a

difference in the success of the product in the market.

Cohen suggests that competitor environ is the most critical one that a business need to

focus on as these are the forces which compete against the business. These forces will

act intentionally against the interests of the business and hence need to be provided more

importance. Swain (1993) suggests that companies should set benchmarks for its

strategies and operations against best-in-class companies, thereby identifying and

adopting the best practices to improve the performance of the business. Hooley et al(1998) cautions that, in a medium-term plan, a business can remain focused on

competitors within the same strategic group, but in a long term, the company should

identify its indirect competitors in order to avoid new entrants at a later stage.

The company environ allows the organization to understand their position with the

customers or potential customers. Piercy (2002) recommends that the company performs

its SWOT analysis to understand its strengths and weaknesses and at the same time, to

know about the threats and opportunities. Hooley et al (1998) argues that by doing thisprocess, it would help the company to identify its core competencies and utilize the

strengths to its maximum level.

Target Market:


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Hardcastle et al (2004) defines target market as the part of public that a marketer wants

to make an exchange. Cohen (2005) focuses on targeting the right customers for the

product, their buying capability, their frequency of buying and the reason for buying the

product. He feels that the business should be confident about the selected target

segment. Cohen suggests that the target market can be defined using demographics (e.g.

age, income), geography, psychographics (i.e. how the customers think) and their

lifestyle. The size of the market also needs to be considered.

Problems and Opportunities:

This section is to deal with the main points that have been already covered in the earlier

sections. While putting the plan together using the situational analysis and the target

market, it is highly possible that the problems and opportunities are implicitly covered.But Cohen (2005) insists that they should be explicitly restated in this section with

opportunities first followed by the problems. Some thought process over these

opportunities and problems would help the company to take advantage of the

opportunities while the business can plan to handle the problem. Neither Jobber (2007)

nor McDonald (2002) has insisted on such a task in their marketing planning.

Marketing goals, objectives & strategies:

Cohen (2005) claims that the marketing goals and objectives are accomplishments that

the business needs to achieve with the help of their marketing plan. It should be ensured

that the goals and objectives fit together. This can be done by adjusting goals and

objectives after having completed the financial portions of the plan.

Marketing strategy focuses about the tasks that need to be performed to reach the

business objectives and goals. But Jobber (2007) mentions that this important part of the

plan is frequently left out by many businesses. And he also claims that the businesses

which use this part gain a competitive edge over their competitors and take advantage of

the opportunities created, solve problems and avoid serious threats.

Implementation and Control:


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In this section, the breakeven point and forecast of other information would be

performed. This would help to control the project after it has been implemented. Sales

revenue and cash flow on a monthly basis needs to be computed. Thus, when the budget

is exceeded, it raises an alert for the business to rework on the resources. Cohen (2005)

focuses much on these financial aspects which Jobber (2007) had missed out.

2.2.3McDonalds model:

McDonald (2002) defined marketing planning as a series of activities that leads to

setting up of marketing objectives and formulation of plans for achieving them. In small

and undiversified company, this process is very informal whereas in larger companies,

they follow a very formal methodology in order to design a marketing plan (McDonald,

2002). Carson et al (1989) strengthens McDonalds suggestion by arguing that themarketing process in small companies is different from a large company.

McDonald (2002) demonstrates that a formalized marketing planning procedure

generally leads to better profitability and stability in the long term for the organization.

It also helps in reducing the operational difficulties within the organization.

Figure 12: McDonalds Marketing Model (Source: McDonald, 2002)


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In many situations where a marketing planning has failed, it could have been due to over

emphasis on the procedures, rather than generating useful information to the

management (McDonald, 1989).

McDonald uses a 10 step process to arrive at a marketing plan splitting them into four

different phases (Figure 12).

Marketing Audit & SWOT analysis:

McDonald (2002) defines audit as a systematic, critical and unbiased review and

appraisal of the environment and of the companys operations. He suggests that audit

is the way by which the following three fundamental questions of a company can be

answered.

Where is the company now?

Where does the company want to go?

How should the company organize its resource to get here?

Hooley et al (1998) supports McDonalds views about the marketing audit by raising

similar questions for the success of marketing plan thereby indicating the similarity in

the thoughts about marketing audit by different scholars.

Audits can be classified as external and internal audits (McDonald, 2002). External

audits are concerned with the external variables like environmental, market and

competitiveness and companies do not have any control over these variables. The

purpose of internal audit is to evaluate the resources of the internal organization and

hence the companies have control over these audits. Tools like PESTEL analysis and

Porters five forces (Jobber, 2007) are used in external audits.

McDonald agrees with Kotler (2001) and Piercy (2002) views about the SWOT

analysis. He insists to include SWOT analysis in the marketing plan to understand the

internal strengths and weaknesses and also the external threats and opportunities.

Marketing objectives and Strategies:


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McDonald (1989) says that an objective is what the business wants to achieve while

strategy is the way to achieve it. Marketing objectives deal with products and markets

only. Thus he insists that it should not be confused here with other objectives like sales

promotion, pricing and advertising. McDonald (2002) follows similar model like

Jobbers (2007) to identify the nature of the products and markets in which the company

should focus on for its future growth.

Thus, based on the marketing audit and the SWOT analysis, the business needs to

identify its future strategy in terms of the product and the market.

Marketing strategy are the means to achieve the marketing objectives of the business. It

is generally concerned with 4Ps product, price, place and promotion. Kumar (2004)

cites that Booms and Bitner has extended the marketing strategy to 7Ps by including

People, Process and Physical Evidence and claims that this model is more useful in the

services industry. Even though these scholars have extended the traditional marketing

strategy, the marketing plan still does not address the issues of corporate branding,

image and reputation.

Marketing budget:

McDonald (2002) comments setting up a companys marketing budget is much easier if

it is performed by all the functional departments and not just by a single department.

Zahorsky (2009) insists that a low-budget marketing plan is a must for small businesses.

Newman (2007) claims that marketing budget is not an expense but an investment and

mentions that it allows the business to understand the limit to which they can stretch

their expenses. Marketing budget allows building a hierarchy of objectives so that

budgeted expenditure can be directly related back to corporate financial objectives.

Financial Projections:

When preparing a marketing plan, managers are expected to submit their financial

projections for the upcoming three full-year period as per the organizations costing

specifications.


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McDonald (2002) suggests that the business should develop a tactical one-year plan

which will contain specific sub-objectives for the products with the respective strategies

to achieve them. Budget and targets must be included with a consolidated budget. These

should reflect the marketing objectives and strategies. In this section, the business

should prepare the sales and cost projections to predict the revenue generation for the

company.

2.2.4Recommendation:

The analysis of the three marketing plans shows that they are common in many of the

areas. Jobbers model (2007) is very generic in nature but does not involve financial

related information in its plan. Jobbers model is more of fixed structure in nature.

McDonalds model (2002) fits well for business but it is a 10-step approach with fourphases. However, McDonald has insisted on using different marketing templates for

small and large organizations emphasizing the fact that it might be too early for the

small companies to provide many of the information. He advocates the idea of

customizing the template for smaller companies. For a start-up company, the marketing

plan template needs to be simple and flexible. Cohens model is a loosely arranged

structure and involves data which a start-up company may not be able to provide

proving it to be exhaustive for start-ups.

McDonald has discussed about the corporate objective but for some reason, he has not

explained them in detail. Jobber and Cohen do not specifically insist on a separate

corporate objective. The author believes that it makes sense to define corporate

objectives for large companies but for start-up ventures, it would be too early as well as

makes it complex to define corporate objectives.

In the rapidly changing world, when things are bound to change, Jobber and Cohen have

recommended to develop marketing plans with a long-term vision of 5 years. But

McDonald, considering the pace of the changing business scenario has strongly

recommended developing plans for 3 years even though he has discussed about 5 year

plans in his model. The author strongly agrees with McDonalds views for a 3 year plan,


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particularly for start-up ventures. This is apt for Admission Consulting industry as it is

already in the maturing phase.

One of the crucial aspects involved in running a business is defining a budget and have

an absolute control over the financial expenses. Many companies have run out of

business due to the simple but a powerful reason that they do not focus on their cash

flow activities. But Jobber has not touched upon this subject in-depth in his marketing

model. As a mark of showing the need for budgeting, McDonald and Cohen have

included this in their marketing plan. In particular, McDonald has discussed about the

budgeting in detail by allocating a separate section.

For a company to perform well in the market, it requires niche skills which are not

present with its competitors or at least not easily available to its rivals (Johnson et al,

2008). Mauboussin et al (2007) claims the competitive advantage determines the

companys ability to maximize its return on the capital employed and generates better

returns for the shareholders. Jobber and McDonald have shown considerable interest to

emphasize the need for a firm to build its competitive advantage. But Cohens model

has missed out on dealing with the competitive advantage.

A well-written marketing plan becomes highly effective only when it is implemented.

During the implementation period, there might be changes to the plan and hence it

should be flexible enough to accommodate the new changes (Sliva, 2009). Jobber and

Cohen have spent considerable effort on explaining how to control the marketing plan

whereas McDonald has not dealt much about it.

After analysis, the author believes that all the three models has its own merits but also

gaps. But to find the model which would fit appropriate for a start-up venture like

InterviewBay, the author feels none of the three models can be directly used as a

template. Every model requires customization to design an effective marketing plan. But

looking at the level of customization required to fit for start-up ventures, McDonalds

model proves to be proper fit. Due to the simplicity and flexibility of McDonalds model

and also its structure to accommodate the financial aspects to run a business effectively,


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the author has decided to proceed with the McDonalds model and customize it to fit

InterviewBays requirements (Figure 13).

One of the important areas that a start-up venture generally looks for to grow its

business is the strategic alliances. But none of these models focuses on this area. In the

current business scenario, this is an important aspect and moreover InterviewBay is very

keen to have joint ventures to grow its business. Hence, the author plans to cover this

topic under Marketing Strategy in McDonalds marketing plan.


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3. Research Methodology

3.1Introduction:

Ghauri et al (2005) defined research as a process of planning, executing and

investigating in order to find answers to our specific questions. In order to get reliable

answers, we need to do this investigation in a systematic manner, so that it is easier for

others to understand the logic of and believe in our report.

Thus the purpose of doing research are multiple such as to describe, explain, understand,

foresee, criticize and/or analyse already existing knowledge or phenomena in social

sciences. White (2002) mentions the role of a researcher is that of an observer. But each

observation is prone to error. Hence the researcher needs to go out and research to find

the truth.

3.2Research methods used in this project:

Saunders et al (2003) explains the research process by using their research onion model

(Figure 14). They argue that the researcher has to determine the research philosophy to

solve the research problem, identify the approach and strategies that they would be

follow in this research.

Figure 14: The Research Process Onion (Source: Saunders et al, 2003)


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There are two main research approaches namely Inductive and the Deductive. Trochim

(2006) explains that in inductive approach, general conclusions are drawn from

empirical observations while in deductive, conclusions are drawn through logical

reasoning. Bryman et al (2003) mention that the deductive process is associated with the

quantitative approach and the induction process follows qualitative method.

Distinguished authors (Cavaye, 1996; Hussey and Hussey, 1997) have commented about

the differences between qualitative and quantitative research in the research

Kelly (2005) mentions that the secondary data can be collected from the external

sources such as magazines, newspapers, television etc while the primary information

can be collected through surveys, interviews and focus groups, which show the direct

relationship between potential customers and the companies.

Ghauri et al (2005) mentions that the secondary data are available relatively easily and

quickly when compared to primary data. They are also inexpensive to obtain. With

advancements in internet technology, the researchers are able to source the secondary

data without much hassle. But he (2005) also highlights that the secondary data relates

to the past and the accuracy of the data for the present situation might be unsatisfactory,

whereas, the primary data, even though it consumes significant time and money to

gather information, is the latest information and also has been gathered specifically forthe project purpose. Secondary data, sometimes, may not accommodate the needs and

requirements of the organization but primary data can be customized to meet up the

objective of the resource of this project.

With the research question focused on the interests of MBA aspirants about MBA

Admission Consulting, its services and its usefulness and the ways to improve them, the

author of this research intends to use both the research approaches in this research with

main emphasis on the deductive approach using online surveys and also inductiveapproach through qualitative interviews. The authors views are well supported by

Cavaye (1996) and Perry (2001) about the use of both the research approaches by saying

that both research approaches can be used in the same study


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3.3Research Strategy:

Saunders et al (2003) have considered eight different research strategies. They are

experiment, survey, case study, grounded theory, ethnography, action research, cross-

sectional and longitudinal studies and exploratory, descriptive & explanatory studies.

3.3.1 Exploratory Studies:

Robson (2002) describes exploration studies as a means to find out what is happening;

to seek new insights; to ask questions and to assess phenomena in a new light.

Saunders (2003) mentions three principal ways to conduct exploratory research. They

are search of literature, talking to experts in the subject and conducting focus group

interviews. Saunders (2003) refers Adams and Schvaneveldt (1991) for accepting that

this method is flexible and adaptable to change but also argues that the flexibility does

not mean the absence of direction to the enquiry.

The author intends to use the exploratory studies as one of the research strategies in this

project. With the advertising strategy being one of the core interests of the company in

this project, the author needs to search on various literatures about the different

advertising modes and their details. As there are very less literature about MBA

Admission consulting, to understand more about the industry, the author feels that it

would be an effective way by talking to the industry experts and gain more insights.

3.3.2 Online Survey:

Couper (2000) claims that Electronic surveys provide the facility of capturing large

scale data. Sheehan et al (1999) adds to Coupers claim by supporting that the growth in

technology has provided an inexpensive way to gather information through online

surveys. Andrews et al (2003) supports Sohns (2001) claim that electronic surveys have

distinctive technological, demographic and response rate characteristics that affect how

they should be designed, when they can be used and how they can be implemented.

Web-based surveys have the advantage of low cost and distribution. Moreover, the data


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can be easily transferred to a database eliminating transcription error and preventing any

alterations by the survey respondent (Andrews, 2003).

The Admission Consulting business model can cater to MBA aspirants globally from a

single location thanks to the growth of internet technology. Since the target customers

are present across the globe and with the intention of capturing information using

inexpensive method, the author intends to use the Online Survey method in this project.

Research conducted to analyse the effectiveness of online surveys have proved to be

better than the conventional postal surveys (Lazar and Preece, 1999) Thus, this method

would be used to capture the perspectives of the students worldwide by designing an

online questionnaire and gather the information by distributing the web link in suitable

websites.

3.4 Data Collection:

Businesses, generally, require both the primary and secondary data for making effective

decisions. In this project, we would be gathering both the primary and the secondary

data. These data would be collected from their respective data sources. First we need to

gather the secondary information even before trying to collect the primary data (Ghauri,

2005)

3.4.1Secondary Data:

Online Questionnaire:

With the prime objective of the research being to understand the perspectives of

MBA aspirants about the MBA Admission consulting services and also to assess

the need of these services, an online questionnaire has been carefully designed

based on the research question to capture the maximum details using the rightset of questions and by taking very less time of the respondent (Appendix C).

Andrews et al (2003) has mentioned Yun and Trumbos (2000) suggestion that

the online survey must be designed to (1) prevent multiple submissions (2)


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collect both quantitative as well as narrative answers. (3) Provide feedback

thank you upon completion of survey. The author has taken into consideration

all the suggestions of the scholars and incorporated them in the online survey.

The author has used the survey website www.survs.com for hosting the

questionnaire and has posted the links in websites extensively used by MBA

aspirants to share their information. Some of the websites used are

beatthegmat.com and pagalguy.com. This has been done keeping in mind to

collect feedback globally. The author has received 83% of the expected number

of respondents.

Information about Admission Consulting industry and about InterviewBay:In order to understand better about InterviewBay and their current strategies, the

author has researched and gained an in-depth knowledge about the industry that

they are operating in and also about their competition in the market. The author

has used e-books and many interesting websites (Refer Literature Review) to

obtain this information. As a measure to know about the company, the author

has used the companys website to gather details about their business, how do

they co-ordinate between the interviewers and the interviewees etc. The author

also used the master document maintained by InterviewBay to understand more

about the organization and their strategies.

Information about Advertising Strategies:

One of the main requirements of this project is to determine the best and cost-

effective advertising strategy for InterviewBay. In order to find that, first the

need was to understand the various modes of available advertisements. Smith et

al (2008) has described in detail about the different advertisement options

available for a business. Smith has also suggested the cost effective advertising

strategies. They have referred to an Accenture report which made them argue

strongly that the adults interest in television advertisements have changed
http://www.survs.com/http://www.survs.com/http://www.survs.com/


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drastically for the worse in the past 20 years and advocates that for small

companies, advertising in television media proves to be very costly and

ineffective.

Brassington et al (2007) refers to the BMRBs survey which reveals that only

20% of internet users are interested in the web advertisements and feel that it is

entertaining. But Brassington has counteracted by citing Tiltman (2005) that the

online advertisements have grown rapidly and was worth 490m by 2010.

Research conducted by IABUK (2004) has revealed that internet usage by adults

in the age group of 20-34 years for information has been consistently increasing.

This is an interesting fact as the targeted customer segment for the MBA

Admission consulting falls in the same age group. It also has exposed that the

time spent on Internet by this age group is considerably ahead of the time spent

on newspapers and magazines (IAUBK, 2004).

Moreover, there are many websites offering e-books which describe the latest

available modes of cost-effective advertising. eMarketing (U.D) explains in

detail about the available advertising modes like Email marketing, OnlineAdvertising and Affiliate Marketing. Using the Exploratory method of research,

the author had contacted different media like newspapers, online advertisers to

collect information.

3.4.2 Primary Data:

Conducting Interview with Management Staff:

With the knowledge gained from the secondary data about the admission

consulting industry, the competition and also some basic knowledge about the

company, a personal interview was scheduled with the Founder of the company

in order to gain insights about the Admission consulting business and its

competitive environment. Before this, the author had prepared an informal


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questionnaire with the necessary questions related to the nature of the business,

its current organization structure, its current marketing strategy and their

advertising modes. During this interview, the author learnt about the companys

target segment and the countries that they were focusing on. Some of the

questions asked during the interview with the founder of the company:

o The background for starting up the organization

o Mission of the organization

o Explain more about their product and services

o Current stakeholders of the company

o Investment pattern

o Management Team

o Competitors for InterviewBay

o Current Advertising & marketing Strategy

o Current Pricing and their strategy

o Number of interviews conducted

o Number of clients who successfully got an Admit to respective b-schools

o Substitutes for their product

o Roles played by the interviewers and InterviewBays level of

dependency on themo Competitive Advantage

o Target segment

This method of capturing information proved to be very useful as it fuelled the thought

process of both the author and the management to build effective strategies for the

business growth.

3.5 Validity and Reliability:

The author has gathered information and conducted interviews and the online survey

without any bias. In order to uphold the highest level of validity and reliability, he has

been objective as much as possible. In terms of validity, the author has used proven


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online survey websites for gathering the MBA aspirants feedback. Moreover, in order

to avoid bias, the author has managed to collect information around the globe by posting

it in reliable international websites. Limited time frame for the project has attributed to a

smaller sample size.

The author had conducted research on different survey websites and has arrived at the

selected one for its statistical friendliness. The website provides means to measure

users feedback and display useful statistical graphs. In terms of reliability, since it is a

third party website, no one including the author has access to modify the users data as it

is stored directly in the survey companys server. Thus the author assures the highest

level of reliability in this project.

3.6 Ethical Stance:

Online Survey has been conducted keeping in mind the ethics of research. Feedback

from users has been received with their total consent. Due to the acceptance of

anonymity with the feedback providers, the author has used their valuable feedback only

for his analysis and to understand about the need of the MBA aspirants based on which

InterviewBay plans to provide better customer services to achieve its business mission.

In compliance with that, the author has not disclosed the information about them here.


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4. Strategic Marketing Plan

4.1Business Mission:

The company aims to provide a quality mock interview service to top b-school

aspirants and top consulting, financial and general management job-seekers. Our goal is

to strive for the success of our clients, provide the highest level of customer satisfaction

and create value to our shareholders. This mission statement clearly indicates

InterviewBays focus on customers as well as to keep their shareholders satisfied.

4.2 Financial Performance of InterviewBay:

InterviewBay is a start-up company and has been in the business for almost less than a

year now. Like any start-up venture, it too has faced ups and downs during this 10

month period. But it has managed to reach an overall operational profit of 35% in its

first 10 months by deploying effective cost reduction methods (Figure 15).

It is evident from the figure 16 that InterviewBay has been getting its major revenues

from Admission Consulting Business. The second source of revenue is from the mock

interview services for Strategy Consultants. Even though InterviewBay has not received

any business towards the interview services for the Investment Bankers, it is highly

optimistic about its growth as soon as the global economy starts to boom.

-250%

-200%

-150%

-100%

-50%

0%

50%

100%

150%

Nov '08 Dec Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug '09

Fig.15: Operational Profit of InterviewBay (from Nov '08 to Aug '09)


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4.3 Marketing Audit:

4.3.1External Marketing Audit:

4.3.1.1 Macroenvironment:

PESTLE analysis was conducted by regular interactions with one of the management

staff of the company. Based on those discussions, it has been identified that for the

Admission Consulting industry there are no political, legal and ecological problems.

Hence they are not discussed here.

Economic:

Global economic conditions play a big role in the number of students enrolling to MBA

programs. During times of recession, when there is an increase in unemployment, the

trend generally increases while it remains normal during economic boom. GMAC has

reported an increase in the number of applications by 77% of business schools as against

64% in 2007 (BusinessWeek, 2008). Survey conducted by CGS in U.S. proves this by

showing that during the current global recession there has been an increase of 4% in

international applications while the domestic students increased by a steep 8%. (Heiser,

2009). Recent poll surveys conducted by the consulting firm AdmissionConsultants

have indicated that almost 43% of students have indicated that they are applying for

88%

12%

Fig.16: Business Revenue % Split-Up

MBA Admission consulting

Strategy Consultants


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MBA during the current recession period as they have no choice (AdmissionConsultants

Survey, 2008). As InterviewBays business is global in nature, the economic conditions

around the world play a big role in defining the growth of their business.

The currency value of dollar against the aspiring students countrys currency matters a

lot in the number of students opting for the mock interview. Many Asian countries

currencies are weak against the dollars and hence the conversion value appears to be

high for those students from those emerging countries. For example countries like India

whose currency value is Rs.48.1 against $1 (MSN Money, Sep 2009) amounts to huge

sum as fees for the mock interviews. This becomes a hurdle for those students to opt for

international institutions providing the mock interviews and force them to go for a local

vendor.

Social:

The MBA Admission consulting is a fragmented industry leading to lack of standards.

There are too many small and few big time players operating their businesses without

standards. Pioneers in MBA Admission consulting industry have identified this issue

and as a step to bring in process, they have started a not-for-profit organization AIGAC

which defines and promotes ethical standards and professional development against

graduate admission consultants and increase public understanding about the consultants.

An organization with a stamp of AIGAC is an emblem of highest quality to the public.

Going forward, every admission consultant would be required to have this AIGAC

recognition in order to gain a competitive edge in the market. Again, losing this symbol

will become a mark of poor reputation in the field. InterviewBay, as a start-up firm, has

to obtain this recognition and maintain it in the society in order to achieve success in its

mission.

Earlier, one of the criteria for getting admits to top MBA schools had been work

experience. But now the trend has started to change. The number of admits straight out

of the college has increased drastically when compared to five years ago (VeritasPrep,


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2009). If the same trend continues, InterviewBay needs to rework on its targeted

customer segments.

Technology:

In the current business scenario, the world has shrunk due to rapid development in the

internet technology. But the evolving internet technology plays a big role in the growth

of business by effectively connecting the aspiring candidates with the mock

interviewers. MBA applicants are spread across the globe signalling the need for a

technological interface to connect the mock interviewers with these aspirants. Internet

with its voice chat and video conferencing facilities has bridged this gap. When the

MBA aspirants are local, face-to-face interview helps but in order to reach out to the

students worldwide, the industry banks on the internet technology to develop theirbusiness.

Growth in internet technology has spread widely among the developed countries. In

many of the developing North-African countries like Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia etc also,

there has been a wide usage. But, at the same time, there has been a poor growth in

internet usage due to lack of internet infrastructure in South-African countries (Rena,

2008). Being a global business, Admission Consulting largely depends on the internet

facilities to connect to the rest of the world in a cost-effective manner. But the poor

facilities in the South African countries make it dependable on the alternative mobile or

the traditional telephonic communications. But as this is very expensive, interfacing

technology poses as one of the challenges for the students in poorly developed internet

countries. It is the same case with some of the developing Asian countries thus posing a

threat to the Admission Consulting business.

4.3.1.2 Microenvironment:

Porters 5 forces (Figure 17):

Threat of new entrants:


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MBA Admission Consulting is a very young industry and anyone can become an

Admission Consultant (GeekMBA360, 2009), especially, the Alumni of the top b-

schools and the Admission Officers. This business does not require a huge investment to

start up. The investment required to set up the infrastructure is minimal. It requires an

office space with an admin staff to handle the enquiries and book slots for the

candidates requirement. The company needs to have a website where the prospective

candidates can learn more about the companys services, their consultants and also to

make payment. Many times, the student need not even meet the interviewers in person

and everything can happen over phone or Instant Messenger Services. Thus it is easy to

start this business by anyone who knows this industry. Hence, the threat of new entrants

would be high.

Suppliers:

Interviewers are one of the suppliers. They are crucially important for building a

successful relationship with the prospective student. As these interviewers are largely

the alumni or current students or the Admission Officers of the b-schools, they are

available in large numbers in the market. Hence getting the best talent depends on the

negotiating skills of InterviewBay as it includes monetary terms also. Thus this can be

medium.


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InterviewBay sources its clients through partnership with other websites. If the students

referred by these websites take up interviews with InterviewBay, then InterviewBay

needs to pay these websites a negotiated percentage from the fixed price of the mock

interviews. Thus, InterviewBay depends on external websites for attracting students to

increase its top line. Hence, there is a significant level of dependency by InterviewBay

on these websites to improve its business line.

Buyers:

Prospective candidates are the buyers here. In this field, quality matters considerably as

it is concerned with their success with respective Business school. It also depends on the

value added services that the training centres provide for the prospective candidate. So

it is not simple to attract new clients unless the company provides the customer with

their expected requirements. And at the same time buyers are even ready to pay

premium cost to improve their confidence level before their final interview.

Threat of substitutes:


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Alumni students of the top business schools can be the substitutes here. If the

prospective candidates have friends or relatives who happen to be alumni of the schools

that they are trying for, then all the services provided by Admission consultants can be

provided by the Alumni without any cost to the student. But this is hypothetical as, at

the same time not every prospective candidate has a friend or relative like that.

Top B-School like Stanford has made it strictly clear that applicants "cross a line when

a piece of the application ceases to be exclusively yours in either thought or word."

(Stanford website, 2009). Similarly there are few more schools like Fuqua and Harvard

which feels that they are doing additional checks to find the right person as these

schools confidence level about the Admission Consultants is below the mark. Hence

this may force the MBA aspirants to stay away from the Consulting Services and submit

their work on their own.

But the Admission Consulting industry has been taking every steps through AIGAC to

ensure that they do not follow any illegal or unethical activities against the b-schools

admission process. They are working towards a supporting role for the b-schools in

reducing their admission processing time (AIGAC, 2009).

Even though there are schools which are still against the MBA aspirants use of

Admission Consulting services, the standards set by AIGAC and the goodwill building

measures taken by AIGAC makes this threat to be considered as medium.

Competitive rivalry:

The MBA Admission Consulting is highly fragmented industry. There are numerous

players operating in this industry and hence there is a high level of competition among

these rivals. But this industry is dominated by few companies which have been in the

field for a longer period and they hold a major market share. Being a start-up firm,

InterviewBay will have a tough competition against these rivals. Moreover, in this

industry, the top firms have more services to offer which can be combined with the


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mock interviews than the start-up firms. Hence this also adds up to the toughness for

start-up firms to survive.

The analysis of the five forces leads us to an understanding that the MBA Admission

consulting business is part of an unstructured industry with excessive competition from

pioneers to new entrants. It also faces threat from the Alumni and the Admission

Officers. Financial services and consulting firms which hire almost two-thirds of the top

business school students are contemplating about recruiting undergraduates at a lower

cost and groom their through their in-house programs (Thompson, 2008). With all these

considerations, although the Admission Consulting industry seems to be risky, the

various steps taken by institution like AIGAC and the increased number of applicants

for the top business schools (Heiser, 2009) make this industry still an attractive and a

lucrative one.

4.3.2 Internal Marketing Audit:

4.3.2.1Current Marketing Objectives:

InterviewBay has been focusing on mock interviews for aspiring MBA students. It has

been currently providing services to students from any nationality. However, it has not

been focusing on any specific markets. It has also been providing mock interview

services for job-seekers like Strategy Consultants, Bankers and General Managers wholook out for jobs in top consulting firms.

4.3.2.2Market Segmentation:

The admission consulting industry is highly fragmented and there is very less data about

the market size of this industry. Also, the mock interview is the last stage of the

admission process for the students who try for the top 30 business schools. The market

size is almost fixed for mock interviews as it depends on the total number of seats

offered by the business schools. Since this industry does not offer information on the

market size, it has been calculated based on the formula (MarketingProfs, 2009) and has

been determined to be approximately 26000 prospective students annually amounting to

$15,000,000 business. However, the market size is huge when the other admission


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consulting services like essay writing, resume and recommendation letter services are

also taken into consideration. The number of applicants taking up the GMAT exams has

crossed over 200,000+ (GMAC website, 2009) thus representing a huge business.

Currently, business is generated from any prospective student and it is not focused on a

particular target segment.

4.3.2.3Competitive advantage:

InterviewBay has identified itself in the right sector in the Admission Consulting

industry. In proper sense, its mock interview services are conducted by the alumni or the

existing student of the b-s

Documents

Ebay type diseratation business plan