Xplora Design Skool: India's Premier Vocational Multimedia Education Company

Abstract

Mr. Rohit Swarup, Director of Xplora Design Skool (XDS) was reviewing the report and recommendations made by a student group on selection of towns where XDS could open centres to exploit the opportunity of significant interest in multimedia in the country in February 2004. He was particularly interested in the process they had used, the prioritization recommended and the broad entry strategy suggested. This will help him develop a suitable marketing and communications strategy which would provide the means for XDS to start new centers rapidly and replicate the success achieved so far. Xplora had adopted a conservative approach in terms of using a direct marketing mode and had opened about 27 centers in the span of about five years. Now the target was to open approximately 300 additional centers in the next two years and to significantly expand the brand. Rohit was mulling over both the micro and macro dynamics which affect his business, knowing that a full and complete understanding would be crucial to the successful choice of marketing and communication strategy. The case describes multimedia education and its growing importance in India, competition faced, Xplora’s current customer segments, buyer behaviour, current communication strategies used by Xplora and its competitors, process of identifying towns and prioritization of them, entry strategy recommended and breakeven analysis of one town so as to enable the readers to understand and critique the process followed in opportunity assessment. The case ends with key questions to be discussed.