ThinkNoLimit Marketing Coaching

It's the high time for different schools to compete for students who can't get into F.6 or local universities. HKU SPACE in particular is quite aggressive and has spent quite a bit on outdoor advertising. Maybe education organizations are not used to putting up advertising and their ads are usually of lower standards compared with the ads of commercial products. In this case, it's an outdoor ad with blue words on blue background. The words just can stand out to catch attention.

Thought it was a new TVC of Cathay Pacific or some corporate advertising of a financial institution. Surprise, surprise, it's the HK Institute of Education - HKIED. 教育要教大理想, no one would disagree with that but the ad doesn't tell anything special about HKIED. Education is a big market but if any of these education institutes really want to win a good share of it, its marketing will need to be improved. Easier said than done as most of these institutes did not have marketing function like commercial organizations before. Recruiting marketers can solve part of the problem but it also takes certain change of mindset in the management. People running these institutes are scholars and academics. It's not easy for them adopt marketing thinking.

Continuing education is a big market. Private and not-for-profit schools like SPACE, HKMA and HKBU SCE are competing with one another for market share with all kinds of programs from certificate to doctorate levels. It's interesting to see HK4As entering the education arena too. Given its background, its courses in advertising should be very appealing and well-received. Is that right ? Hold on. Have a look at this course promotion ad. We are taking about a course in advertising from the reputable HK4As. Does it deserve a more creative ad to promote ? And we always have to consider who we are talking to in advertising. The ad doesn't tell you who the course is for ... just interested parties ??? An ad for an ad course, which doesn't really sell. What a shame.

O2 Xda Atom Life for free. Thought that it was a promotion ad from one of the telecos again. Surprise surprise, it's not. It's from an IT education centre called Feva Works. The offer is that if you take this Microsoft Mobile 6 course at HK$5,380, you will get an O2 Xda Atom Life for free (worth HK$5,280). Sounds like a good bargain, doesn't it ? What's the catch ? You can figure it out if you think about it the other way round. You are actually paying for phone and taking a a complimentary course about how to use the Mobile 6 platform in business applications. My fair guess is that the course costs Feva Works nothing to run as it must be taught by Microsoft personnel. Look, it's a good opportunities for Microsoft to educate and hence soft-sell its mobile system platform to IT people who may consider using it for their companies. That's a pretty smart line-up for win-win-win. Feva Works can make a profit, Microsoft can do communications to IT people and the IT p...

Sometimes I wonder whether idolization of tutors is something unique in HK. Don't know if there is the same phenomenon elsewhere. It's a product of our poor education system and opportunist culture. I bet the bosses of these tutorial schools are from the entertainment industry where they package and promote the tutors like movie stars. Beacon School is selling warmth and friendliness for its tutors, June and Richard. On the other hand, Modern Education is selling authority and charisma. Doesn't its ad look like a movie poster ?

The stock market is bullish and more and more people talk about stocks and investments. Another phenomenon is that there has been an offspring of investment courses and talks. All in a sudden, there are so many investment experts saying that their secret skills can earn you a fortune. Like this one , it is said that the trainer has a track record of turning HK$200,000 into HK$6,000,000 in 14 months. Isn't that miraculously attractive ? Who doesn't want to make quick monies and get rich ? You can learn these miraculous skills for just several thousand dollars. It's quite a bargain, isn't it ? Well, this is how this kind of courses ride on the quick return mindset. I've been to some of these courses as an observer, some participants don't even know how to use the Internet and some of them are quite insensitive about the current economic affairs. All they want are tips and stock codes. Guess they need some good education for the right mindset about investment i...

Can't remember where I got this ad from but I'm sure it was from one of the travel magazines, either U-Magazine or Weekend Weekly. It looks very much like a travel agency ad, advertising a trip to Hawaii or alike and you get even more confused when this ad appears in a travel magazine. Come to think of it, is travel magazine the right medium for them to advertise ? Those who read travel must love holidaying but they are not necessarily interested in getting into the tourism and hospitality business. Let's think before we really want to advertise. There must be some other means of communicating to the right target audience.

In face of fierce competition, there are usually two things poeple will do. First slash the prices. The effect : price competition drags everyone down making the category unprofitable. Second air some eye-opening advertising with silly execution and misleading claims. The effect : consumers' mistrust and negativity prevails and the category is killed. Slimming houses, Lingzhi products and here tutor schools. When you see this kind of ads, it's about time.

The marketers in 現代教育 are really doing their job in marketing. Just take at look at this pair of vertical executions. You want gimmicks, you have gimmicks. The heading is 美女班房 Ken sir 監製, featuring two good looking, long-legged tutors in mini skirts. A bit of sex appeal. 問你死未? Even I want to go back to school again ..... You want promotion offers ? They are offering coupons for 3+1 free lesson and free first-lesson. No complaint about their creativity at all... It's phenomenon of Hong Kong where everything is pushed to the limit.

Let's continue to talk about the tutorial school phenomenon. When we use the same approach, idolization in this case, to advertising within the same category, what will happen ? Brand confusion. People can't tell which is which. What's more, certain share of association would benefit the market leader who succeeded first in using the pioneering approach. If idolization of tutors is first adopted by 英皇教育, these 遵理學校, 嘉勤教育中心 and so on are basically advertising for 英皇教育 in effect !

Hong Kong people are quick, responsive and opportunistic. This is reflected in the culture of advertising. Remember who first started the approach of tutor "idolization" to promoting tutorial schools ? 英皇教育 if I'm not wrong. Now that the market is flooded with advertising with the same approach. In Hong Kong, whenever a market of anything starts to grow, players will join the game all in a sudden and all of them tend to take the similar business model, air same look-&-feel ads and compete with big budgets. What will happen ? Market explosion and then quick contraction in a short while. Slimming houses, health food supplements (Lingzhi in particular), telecoms and beers (in the 90's) are all examples of such cycle. Whenever a market grows, new marketing positions are created. As in my case, I moved from traditional FMCG to beers, then to telecoms and then health food supplements when these categories were hot. In the case of the private/semi-private education sect...