SECONDARY DATA RESEARCH

Name: Vo Thi Diem Trang

ID number: S3480032

Lecturer: Nguyen Van Thang Long

TEEN ENGLISH PROGRAM

TABLE OF CONTENTS

BACKGROUND

RESEARCH OBJECTIVES

METHODOLOGY

KEY FINDINGS

LIMITATIONS

RECOMMENDATIONS

REFERENCES

SUPPLY, DEMAND & BACKGROUND OF THE TARGETTOP INSTITUTIONS COMPARISON

WHAT ARE THEY LOOKING FORHOW WE APPROACH THE TARGET

BACKGROUND INFORMATION

BACKGROUND INFORMATION

CLIENT:

CURRENT SITUATION:

CHALLENGE:

RMIT Vietnam is going to introduce the English for Teen program in order to cater the needs of younger target market and commenced their English studies later than many others.

How we could take advantage of the potential of market and compete with other English for Teen providers?

RESEARCH OBJECTIVES

RESEARCH OBJECTIVES

Grasp the initial sense of market

potential

Gain the insights of target

markets and their demands

Understand the competitors and

our target markets’ perception

towards

METHODOLOGY

SECONDARY DATA RESEARCH

Google is used with general keywords such as

“English for teens” in the first step to get what

people often seek for in the Internet, from

which we could get useful keywords to

investigate further.

SECONDARY DATA RESEARCH

Documents analysis including reports, online newspapers and online forums are used

to generally look into the target publics and their problems towards English for teens.

• Report “Vietnamese language study and motivation”

and “English studies practice in Vietnam” are

investigated to understand the general sentiment of

Vietnamese people towards learning English,

including: reasons to choose English, English center

choice factors, key areas to improve.

• Report “Online English learning” are looked into to get

general perception about choice factors when

choosing English providers

SOCIAL LISTENING TOOLS

Social listening tool is used to listen and measure

real-time conversations, from which we could

understand their perception and our competitors’

activities on all online channels

In order to get appropriate result and

avoid spam, keywords need to considering

carefully and previewed many times

before getting it runs.

GOOGLE TRENDS

Google Trends is used collaboratively with Social

Listening Tools to get more understanding about how

consumers are searching on Google.

In this report, this tool is maximized

to see how increasing the need of

studying English and the searching

situation of all centers.

FACEBOOK GRAPH SEARCH

By using the search algorithm and relationships

between the users and their behaviors, Facebook

Graph Search results in what people interest

expressed on Facebook.

For example, we could use Facebook Graph

Search to know what people who like a

single page will also like by using: Pages liked

by people who like + Page name

KEY FINDINGS

1. THE TARGET PUBLICS UNDERSTANDING

1A. THE TARGET PUBLICS

A. THE TARGET PUBLICS PROFILE

● Studying in secondary schools

● Teens are often unclear about their future

● They are not very active in choosing the

way they live and the way they grow up,

so they often depend on parents’ decision

(thanhnien.vn 2015)

● However, their development is the main

focus of the family.

Teens (11-15)

● Studying in high schools

● Have more thoughts about what will they

become in the future as they are pushed

to think about their career path more

(compared to when they were 11-16)

● Their concerns are more mature, they

may have voice to their parents

Teens (16-17)

A. THE TARGET PUBLICS PROFILE

● The decision maker in a family

● They always care about their

children, especially the potential

development in career

A. THE TARGET PUBLICS PROFILE

THERE IS A HUGE DEMAND IN THE MARKET

For future career

For studying abroad

For scholarship opportunity

THE REASON BEHIND NEEDS FOR THIS COURSE

According to Vnexpress (2016), people aim to

develop their children’s English from the

beginning to:

• Ensure their future career (1)

• For easier and cost-saving studying abroad

in high school study or Bachelor/ Master

degrees (2)

• For scholarship opportunity (3)

English study is believed to bring more opportunities for a “good job” and improve “current work operation”.

(1) FOR FUTURE CAREER

(Q&Me 2016)

Vietnam ranked number 8 among the top 10 countries that have most students study abroad, with the number of 130 000 students in 2016 (Vnexpress 2016)

The term “du học” is searching more and more in Google in the past 5 years (Google Trends 2016)

(2) FOR STUDYING ABROAD

From 2012 till now, there is significant increase on number of people, who do a search related-to study abroad (Google Trends 2016)

When studying abroad, English spoken country is the most preferable one, which counts for about 60% (Vnexpress 2016)

(2) FOR STUDYING ABROAD

(2) FOR STUDYING ABROAD

• The trend of studying abroad in high

school is increasing as parents want their

children to prepare well for Bachelor.

Therefore, there are more demands for

studying English in teenage years.

• Mostly, parents are the one who care

more about the learning journey.

(3) FOR SCHOLARSHIP OPPORTUNITY

• However, some senior students

in secondary schools are more

actively for seeking

opportunities.

• For these scholarships, English is

the main requirement.

THE TARGET PUBLICS SUMMARY

TARGET PUBLICS VERSUS DEMAND

Vietnamese students Parents

Age 11-15 16-17 35-45

Geographic Ho Chi Minh City & Hanoi

Psychology• Not really clear

about future• Know what they want • Have thoughts about how to

develop their children

Demand

• Learning English is fun

• Being asked to study English by their parents

• May seek for some course to improve their skills

• Certificate for scholarships or to move to international schools or study abroad in high school

• Seeking for needed English certificate and English courses

• Want their children begin their studying journey soon, so they could develop well on their career

AND THE HUGE SUPPLY AS WELL

SUPPLY FOR ENGLISH STUDIES

When mentioning about English for teens, most people think about International

English institutions/ centres. However, we may consider some substitutions such as

English private tutor, English online platform, International schools and the new

program: English at schools

Social Heat (2016)

ENGLISH PRIVATE TUTOR SERVICE

Hiring an English private tutor is one of a popular choice for parents when they want to improve their children’s skills.(+) Positive perception ● One-to-one tutoring helps understand

clearly what students need to improve● Teacher will easily focus on grammar,

reading and writing(-) Negative perception● Most Vietnamese tutor may not provide

excellent speaking skills compared to native teachers

● Class will not be energetic and bustle● High cost

AT SCHOOLS PROGRAMAn innovative program from 2015,

developed by the Ministry of

Education to provide students

with English skills in different

subjects (thanhnien.vn 2016)

(+) Positive perception

● Students could communicate

with native speakers

(-) Negative perception

● Class has too many students

that may affect teaching

quality

THROUGH ONLINE PLATFORM

Online English learning has become more

popular, especially for students (tinmoi.vn

2016) .

(+) Positive perception

● Flexible about time and have choice to

choose teacher

● Flexible about programs and studying

level

● More efficiency saving

(-) Negative perception

● Do not know how credible of teachers’

information could be

INTERNATIONAL SCHOOLS

With more than hundreds international

secondary and high schools in Ho Chi Minh

City and Hanoi, students are believed to

equip with best English practice.

(+) Positive perception

● Native teachers practice with students

everyday in every subjects, which can

help to improve every skills

(-) Negative perception

● May lose basic knowledge about

Vietnam

● Require extremely high investment

TRAINING CENTRES

Training centers are still the most popular

options for parents as:

(+) Positive perception

● The tuition fee is flexible for different

demands

● Students could choose to begin with their

appropriate proficiency

● Most institutions have native speakers

(-) Negative perception

● We cannot choose the lecturers

● There are many centers which make

consumers confused to choose

2. SCHOOLS, INSTITUTIONS OR TRAINING CENTERS

a. TOP BRANDS IN THE MARKET

TOP MENTION CENTERS ON SOCIAL

Yola, ILA, Apollo, VUS, AMA and SEAMEO are all considered as high-reputation and

experienced training centers for English for teens. Especially VUS with the highest

number of centers all over Vietnam is the most mentioning institutions.

Social Heat (2016)

TOP SEARCH INSTITUTIONS ON GOOGLE

The difference on top search and top

mentioning may due to some reasons:

• There are more seeders for VUS,

who help to create conversations

more on online platform

• ILA & AMA are the top-of-mind

centers when people decide to

find more information about

• People know a lot about VUS that

they do not need to search more,

they just directly recommend/

mention it when talking with

others.ILA and AMA are the top search centers on Google.

Google Trends(2016)

B. WHAT ARE THE AUDIENCE SPECIFICALLY SEEKING FOR?

THE LEVEL OF ENGLISH PROFICIENCY

Proficiency level CEFR Certificate

Beginner A1IELTS 1-2

TOEIC 0-150

Elementary A2IELTS 2-3

TOEIC 151-300

Pre-Intermediate B1IELTS 3-4

TOEIC 301-350

Intermediate B1+IELTS 4-5

TOEIC 350-500

Upper Intermediate B2IELTS 5-6

TOEIC 500-600

Advanced C1IELTS 6-7

TOEIC 600-780

There is no mention about the level people

are looking for. However, desired English

proficiency is measured by popular rate of

International certificate such as IELTS

5.5-6.0,TOEFL 500-600 or TOEIC 600

(newocean.edu.vn 2015)

From that, we could interpret that the

desired level of English proficiency is about

Intermediate or Upper Intermediate. After

that, people may consider course that

specifically focus on IELTS/ TOEIC.

Speaking is the key area that people want to improve.

KEY AREAS THEY WANT TO IMPROVE

Q&Me (2015) Google trends (2016)

Social heat (2016)

80% of secondary students and 100% of teachers answered that they want to improve speaking skills for students when being asked (Giaoduc.edu 2015)

KEY AREAS THEY WANT TO IMPROVE

From students' perspectives From teachers' perspectives

C. THEIR NEEDS AND CURRENT DELIVERABLES

KEY AREAS VERSUS CHOICE FACTORS

Speaking and pronunciation are the most

concerned skills, which could illustrate

the effectiveness of learning quality

Intermediate is the average

level people aim for

Money is always a big problem

Native speakers and interaction

activities are the first considered

factors.

If students start from the

beginning, they will consider

lenghth of time.

Learning cost could always a

barrier to consumer’s choice.

From the understanding of their needs specifically in key areas and English proficiency, we could interpret that:

In social listening tools, we know that people often discuss about price, learning method & program, good reputation and quality of teacher.

CHOICE FACTORS AMONG INSTITUTIONS

Social Heat (2016)

Variety of program, length of studying and curriculum is also considered.

CHOICE FACTORS AMONG INSTITUTIONS

Q&Me (2015) Datasection (2016)

Tuition fee Facilities Teaching & learning method/ quality Other comments

VUS Affordable Quite good• Experienced

Good backgroundSome common classes only have Vietnamese teacher

ILA Very expensiveBest

investment in facilities

• Very experienced native speakers• Good at “English for children” and

“English for teens” program, especially for speaking skills

APOLLO Quite expensive Quite good

• Popular for “English for children” and “English for teens” program

• 100% foreign teacher but not native teachers

The entrance test is not credible. It may lower your

real ability

SEAMEO Affordable Quite good• 100% foreign teacher but not native

teachers• Quite good but cannot compare to VUS/

ILAAMA Affordable Quite good

PERCEPTIONS AMONG TOP ENGLISH CENTERS

4. HOW COULD WE APPROACH THEM?

Facebook and forum are the most popular platform to discuss about “English for teens"

TOP PLATFORMS

Social heat (2016)

TOP PLATFORMS

FACEBOOK NEWS FORUMS

Advantages ● A personal page that people could interact with others

● Various topic to look into

● Reliable sources that are checked before publishing

● People are free to create new topics and express their opinions

Disadvantages ● Credibility of information is unsure

● Many PR articles● Less familiar to

comment and discuss

● May have seeding topics that mislead true information

● Subjective perspective

Other platforms

Youtube is also developed as a learning tool when learning online is more popular. However, people tend not to discuss a lot on Youtube comments.

TOP FORUMS

TOP PAGES

TOP PAGES

Tu hoc IELTS 8.0Like: 243.359

Elight learning EnglishLike: 337.119Review: 4.6/5

Ms.Hoa ToeicLike: 692.0005Review: 4.5/5

These pages have the similarity of their content:

• They have edutainment content

• Some posts bring tangible value at the beginning, such as: like & share to

receive learning toolkit

Ms Nguyễn Thị Hoa• Alumni of Foreign Trade University• Have 7 centers at Hanoi & Ho Chi Minh City• Attract 200-300 students with 15-20 classes/ month • Website has 200 000 members study online

Ms Phan Kieu Trang• Full scholarship of Australian Government about

Marketing and English studies in 2013• Graduate in Top 5 at Hanoi University

Cựu sinh viên DH Ngoại Thương HN, cựu nhân viên công ty chứng khoán PSI, ngân hàng HSBC Tự học Ielts 8.0

Mr Ngoc Bach• Alumni of Foreign Trade University• Founder of Fanpage: Self-learning for IELTS 8.0

Similarity in their profile:• Used to be not good at

English but they try their best by themselves to be successful

• Really active on social media, from their personal page to main Facebook page

IDENTITY OF INFLUENCERS

IDENTITY OF INFLUENCERS

Famous people such as Ho Ngoc Ha, Tran Thanh, Hariwon &

Pho are followed a lot by people who are interested in English

center Facebook page.

LIMITATIONS

The social listening system only allows to

collect data within maximum 3 months,

which is the end of July & August.

However, based on Google Trends, the high

peak of conversation is usually on June.

Social media listening tool is not allowed

user to filter the area people are living

in, which may cause the differentiation

in data collection

TIMING GEOGRAPHICAL AREA

AUDIENCE

Based on the statistics of social media listening tools, the audiences are

mainly from 18-34 years old, which are completely not correct with the

researching target market.

AUDIENCE

This statistic also integrates with the Facebook users profile in Vietnam. Then,

although Facebook is the most popular discussion platform (as mentioned

above), any marketing strategy conducts on Facebook may not reach the

appropriate number of parents targeted.

APPROPRIATENESS OF SECONDARY RESEARCH

All found report on Q&Me do not have

completely same samples as our needed

research. Therefore, we could only use these

sources to understand the social sentiment.

RECOMMENDATIONS

KEY FINDINGS RECOMMENDATIONS

• Parents have clearer direction than teen in

English study. High schools students may be

more aware of their learning but it is

limited for secondary students.

Our marketing strategy should focus more on parents

as they are decision maker. Other tactics may aim to

create interest of senior secondary students (15 years

old) and upper.

• The most concern of learners are the

potential of their career

We could focus on the selling point that “RMIT is not

only an English institution, RMIT is a high-reputation

university that could offer wide range of degrees,

from Bachelor to PhD, from Vietnam to Melbourne.”• Studying abroad and getting scholarships

are reason behind to choose the course.

• Our key competitors are training centers.

However, we also have other substitutions

to consider.

We may consider the weakness of other substitutions

to add more value to our services. For example,

one-to-one consultation service could compete better

to private tutor.

KEY FINDINGS RECOMMENDATIONS

• People often discuss about price, learning

method & program, good reputation and

quality of teacher on social.

We may not offer the low price but we may add more

value on teaching & learning method (which could be

used to learned in international environment) or

native teachers.• Speaking and listening is the key area to

focus

• Facebook is the top popular platform, but

not the most effective platform to reach

parents

We must think about other traditional platforms to

approach the parents well.

• There are many influencers/ bloggers could

be used to trigger student’s interest.

We could take advantage of those people but it is

limited.

• May & June is the time have most search

about English study

Our marketing campaign should be kicked-off from

April.

REFERENCES

REFERENCES

Datasection Vietnam 2016, “Learning English online", 31 June, viewed November 1 2016,

http://datasection.com.vn/tag/hoc-tieng-anh-online/

Giaoduc.edu.vn 2015, “Students are not yet confident for speaking English”, December 15,

viewed 7 November 2016,

<http://www.giaoduc.edu.vn/hoc-sinh-chua-tu-tin-noi-tieng-anh.htm>

Q&Me 2016, ‘Vietnamese language study and motivation’, Q&Me, viewed November 1 2016,

<https://qandme.net/vietnam-report/Vietnamese-language-study-and-motivation.html>

Q&Me 2015, ‘English study practices in Vietnam’, Q&Me, viewed November 1 2016,

<https://qandme.net/vietnam-report/English-study-practices-in-Vietnam.html

Thanhnien.vn 2016, “The advantages of English at schools program", June 30, viewed November 7

2016, <http://thanhnien.vn/giao-duc/nhung-loi-the-cua-chuong-trinh-tieng-anh-tich-hop-718273.html>

REFERENCES

Tinmoi.vn 2016, “3 benefits of learning English online", November 16, viewed November 19 2016,

http://www.tinmoi.vn/3-loi-ich-cua-viec-hoc-tieng-anh-online-011436143.html

Vnexpress 2016b, “10 reasons English is the world language", August 31 viewed November 11 2016,

http://vnexpress.net/tin-tuc/giao-duc/hoc-tieng-anh/10-ly-do-tieng-anh-la-ngon-ngu-cua-the-gioi-3460

244.html

Vnexpress 2016a, “Where are Vietnamese studying abroad", November 2, viewed November 11 2016,

<http://vnexpress.net/infographics/giao-duc/du-hoc-sinh-viet-nam-dang-hoc-tap-tai-nhung-nuoc-nao-3

493240.html>

Vu, H 2015, “How much IELTS do we need for studying at Australia", New Ocean, 10 October, viewed 12

November 2016, <http://newocean.edu.vn/du-hoc-uc-can-ielts-bao-nhieu.html>

THANKS FOR READING.