Assignment Submission: Reflection

Submitted by: Deborah Cruz                Page 1

Marketing a B-School

Challenge   I work in a Private B- school as Head of Marketing and Admissions team. As a background the B-School  offers Management programs for people with prior work experience of minimum two years. We believe  that we operate in a very niche space as we are a private B- school that offers one year full time  management program (Most B- schools in India offer a management program that is full time and is of 2  year duration. In addition, these 2 year programs open for fresh graduates and have no minimum work  experience criterion)

The B – School is now planning to enter into the space of 2 year MBA program. The target group will now  include graduates who are fresh out of undergraduate colleges. The new program, (MBA 2.0 for our  discussion) presented a real “Wicked Problem” for the school in more than one ways. The areas up for  discussions ranged from what courses should be offered in order position ourselves differently to how we  make ourselves heard in a very noisy, busy and competitive marketplace.

To me as head of marketing, the biggest problem was the human problem. The target group of fresh  graduates was completely alien to us. We had no idea of their aspirations, what they are looking for, what  are their compelling reasons to do a management education. The entire team was looking at us to provide  inputs on the audience so as to help in decision making. Above everything else, I was very aware that we  are not selling a product, it about a young person’s career and we have to do a good job in representing  the aspirations and dreams of the young people to our management team.

Selection  There was a lot of urgency in the leadership team to get an understanding of the target audience and the  owner and leader of the B- School commissioned a primary market research. They sent out a quantitative  research tool to around 150 plus respondents to understand their demographics and areas of interest  post their graduation. In a weeks time we had spent good money to generate a thick report which only  concluded that most fresh graduates want to pursue post-graduation. Management education did not  figure a top choice. The study provided no real insights on the Target group.

As marketing, I was looking for deeper insights.  At this point I decided to use the visualization tool with a  small group of target audience. As mentioned in the video – the visualization tool helps to get the specifics  to get a better understanding of our users (target group) and is useful for extrapolation. . I had with me  two other faculty members who also wanted to be part of the process and observe and gain insights for  their area of work, which was curriculum design.

Assignment Submission: Reflection

Submitted by: Deborah Cruz                Page 2

Application  I reached out to a study center (In India, most admissions are through a competitive examinations and  there are centers which provide guidance on preparing for these exams) to arrange a meeting with a small  group of around 14 students who were keen to pursue management education.  Before I walked in I was  very apprehensive about using the tool and whether I would be judged by this group of young students.  But both the students and we experienced something unexpected

I started by  putting them at ease and telling them that  this exercise was about them , to help them get a  better understanding of their own goals , and clarity on what they really want to do in life .

I asked them to do the following exercise

1. I invited them to imagine their most joyous moment in life? What would that be?  After around 7

mins of reflection time and writing I asked them to sketch the same.

2. I asked them to reflect on the primary motivation that makes that moment joyous?  Sketch the

motivation.

3. I asked them to reflect on what would it require to achieve that moment? Draw the motivation

on  paper.

The entire exercise took around 90 mins and in between we invited people to share their future “happy  stories” if they were comfortable. All of them sketched out the 3 – 5 pictures. Color pencils- pens, posits  etc. were provided to help the bring their emotions on paper.

Insight   We later analyzed the sketches and looked for patterns to gain insights on the dreams and aspirations of  the audience.  We learned new things about our audience – what matters to them, what motivates them  above all what they think their strengths and talents are. The insights we gained were like a treasure trove.  For starters, the students immediately connected with us – they had never been exposed to an exercise  or a time that allowed them to envision their future happiness. For a few students it was an overwhelming  experience as they were able to connect to their deepest desires that they had buried inside due to  pressure to do academically well. As an example we had sketches of “Café by the Beach”; “A sports  manager managing Manchester united”; sketches of students “delivering convocation address at B  school”, gifting a luxury car for their parents.

These insights will influence our Go to market approach and our overall communication plan from a  marketing perspective. They were also valuable pointers that emerged to inform the curriculum design

I would like to share a few of our learnings. A key insight that we gathered was that the primary motivation  for these fresh graduates was a validation of their abilities and talents by their parents.  Parents are also  key decision makers in the final choice of the B School. Thus parents have now become a key stakeholder  in the entire go to market strategy. This was a brand new insight for us .This kind of insight did not emerge  from the quantitative research undertaken earlier. The experience has significantly increased my  confidence on using design thinking in areas that involve human emotions, particularly when I need to  develop communication strategy. The greatest insight for me was that what the words can cannot capture  our deepest desires and visualization is a very effective tool to express the unstated desires of the  audience.

Assignment Submission: Reflection

Submitted by: Deborah Cruz                Page 3

Approach   Visualization or envisioning is a powerful tool. It was very effective to highlight the nuances that were  missed in the quantitative research.  For my Marketing problem, as a next step, I will use mind mapping  tool to assimilate insights gathered from all sources to build a design criterion for our MBA 2.0 .  It will  ensure that we involve the stakeholders and bring all perspectives to the table for ideation and  deliberation.

On the Visualization tool – I would like to use the tool in the other areas of our academic engagements.  For example Visualization can be a very useful tool for us to use designing our convocation ceremony. We  can use the tool to extrapolate the desired emotions and experience.

