Porters Five

New Entrants: This refers to the companies that are not presently competing in the market but have the capacity to do given a chance. KICD has to be careful to the new entrants since they can create capacity and desire to gain market share hence affecting prices, costs and the rate of investment required to compete in the market. 
Competitor Rivalry: This refers to the competitive tussle for market share in a sector. This is a  threat to KICD since the rivalry can come in different forms such as price discount, more digital content.
Buyers Bargaining Power: This refers to the customers who purchase the end products and their powers to bargain on the prices offered by the companies is the sector. KICD has to be careful to such customers since they can bring down their business.
Suppliers Bargaining power: Suppliers here refers to the companies that provide inputs into the industry. The powerful suppliers gain more value through various ways; they either charge higher prices or limit their products quality. If KICD deals with such suppliers this means that they need to charge their services high for them to get profit, and this is a threat since they might lose customers due to the high price. 
Product and Technology Threat:  This referred to as the threat of substitutes which execute similar or same function as an industry's product using different means 

STRATEGIC OBJECTIVE
Goal
The goal for the company is to increase customer base and sales

                           VISION

Embark trust and loyalty  as a center of excellence in transformative and globally competitive curricula.

                          MISSION

Consistent care value,loyalty and support for our online customers and clients

OBJECTIVES

• To create customer loyalty and customer retention through social media.
• To acquire more customers through social media

SWOT Analysis

Today we started with a small meeting as this is normal for the company since they want to know whether everything is going on well. Later after the meeting me and the person am working with we started by doing a research of the company in order to identify the internal resources of the company. In this case we did:
Situational Analysis

STRENGTHS	WEAKNESSES
Offer good services Have products of good quality Trustworthy. Professional employees Development of digital content Online shop	poor social commerce
OPPORTUNITIES	THREATS
Has  a chance to get new partners New services Better social communication Social marketing Customer loyalty	Competition from other broadcasting media houses.  Competition from other providers coming up with digital content.

TOWS ANALYSIS

Internal Strengths (S)	SO "Maxi-Maxi" Company has a chance to get new partners	ST "Maxi-Mini" Offering good services would mean less competition
Internal Weaknesses (W)	WO "Mini-Maxi” Has a chance to do social commerce means they will have better customer loyalty.	WT "Mini-Mini" Good customers support system wouldn't engage people to use competitors services

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Reflection

I started to implement the strategy which the company will use to market their company through social media. I started by making thei business model canvas and it was very interesting since it was their very first time to make a business model, and I was impressed when we were discussing and seeing the company making their business model since they have their ways of categorizing their customers segments, which is one of the things that I have learnt.

Strategy Analysis

Been that KICD is an institute that offers services like, online primary teachers orentation courses, tertiary education and training etc. They also sells products such as books to secondary and primary school and also supplies to some of the bookshops in the country. That why they need a marketing strategy.

Today I started with analyzing the strategy, I analyzed the business environment, looked at factors that may affect the Institute. I also looked at the factors within the Institute that may affect the it position. For the external analysis I examined the social issues that affect the institute through a PEST analysis.

PEST Analysis. These analysis will help in understanding the analytical processes in which KICD managers understand, their customers and the market environments in which they are operating.

Political:

Social: There is an increase of educational achievement and living standards, Kenya has also increased in social awareness and this has lead to expansion of social media. Meaning that KICD by use of social media will able to reach a big number of people

Legal: KICD type of business isn’t unusual, so laws can’t affect it a lot. However, they need to care a lot about the quality of the products because there are a lot of laws about buyer’s protection and health / safety. 

Economic: lower people income could affect the sales of the products at KICD. Although the kind of products and services that KICD offer are not expensive, they get their product directs from the Suppliers where they get discount and are able to lower their price with a small percentage off, so people could choose them instead of buying similar products in expensive type of shops in case of lower income. 

Technological: With connection to undersea fibre optic cables enhancing internet speeds, and data, this might be benefit to KICD since there is lot of people who are shifting to digital technology and KICD will get a lot of customers

Business Model Canvas

We started the day with a small meeting as the company wanted to know whether everything is going on well  and whether I needed any kind of information about the company. We later discussed the task for this week and we did brainstorming. From today we will start with implementing the strategy to use on social media. But before we start to implement the strategy we started to make the business model for the company, where we were discussing and defining company's business model, and it was very interesting. This business model will help me to explore and see which area the company is not doing well and where there is a 
possibility for improving.  

Reflection

This week was rather busy but very productive, since I continued to do marketing and it was very interesting since we did a lot of discussion with my colleague from the Company and we both shared a lot, and it is amazing that these people that don't know or have never thought about participatory journey.  I also created the concept to use on the digital platform chosen. I was also asked to give the advantage or benefit of using the social media chosen, This was also a benefit to me since there before I didn't know all the benefit of marketing a company through social media but now I can say I have added some few points in my knowledge

Today I delivered the task which I was given, which was to give out or rather to write about the benefit of the digital platform which the company is using to market their company through, we went through it and my colleague didn't have anything to add on it.

Benefit of social media
LinkedIn

• To connect with fellow minded people.
• To generate trust and credibility.
• To get recommendations.
• LinkedIn provides its members the opportunity to generate sales leads and business partners.
• Members can use "Company pages" similar to Facebook pages to create an area that will allow business owners to promote their products or services and be able to interact with their customers.

Twitter

• Brand loyalty: Once your business and its brands has been known for great services and customers supports, your customers will be loyal to your brand.
• Allows you to spy on your competitors: You can use twitter to spy on your competitors. You can be able to see what your competitors are saying, and its customers by reading through their tweets.
• It helps you keep up to date with what’s going on your industry.
• It lets your customers stay in touch with the latest happenings of your business.
• It brings you closer your customers: With twitter, you can monitor what customers are saying about you. If they are complaining about your services, let them know you are sorry and give them the reason to stick with you by improving your products/services.  If they says well about your services then try to keep them happy and keep improving on your service

Facebook

• Good for branding: Facebook is an excellent platform for creating a brand for your business or product. It can help instil in the minds of the customers what you want them to think of your product.
• One can engaged your customers: Because you is communicating directly with your customers, you can entice them to get your product directly. You can engage them through different means. 
• Online traffic: It is necessary for businesses to have websites these days and a good way to drive traffic to ones site is by including links of it on one Facebook page and promoting it there. That way people would discover your site and visit it more often.
• Getting new customers: It is very easy to spread around Facebook and one have to take advantage of that in order to be promoted to many new people. That is the best way that one can get new customers
•  Retain old customers: It is a lot more difficult to get new customers than to retain old ones, so you have to do everything to keep the old customers that you have. One way that you can do that is by engaging them on the Facebook profile of your business.

Today I worked on the next step on media planning. It is important to think on how the company will promote their digital platform they are using to market their company. At this point the company have to consider choosing the right media and also the one they can afford, I suggest that since their target market have access to internet, they can use Google ads to promote their digital platform.

We started the week with a meeting manager of the company as he wanted to know whether everything is going on well with my internship. Whether I have any questions regarding task and also whether I need any kind of information regarding the company.
The thing that I really wanted to know is why the company want to market itself through social media? in other words what is its 
goal (KPIs)? And what social media platforms they want to use?
 The company  pointed out their goals they have set,

Company Goals (KPIs)
 Customer Acquisition.
 Creating customer loyalty.

Choice of social Media channels.

1. Facebook
2. Twitter
3. LinkedIn

After knowing the company's goals I moved to the next step which is to choose digital platform.

Platform proposition 

Competitive Differentiation:
Providing useful and relevant information to users will increase brand loyalty and generate word of mouth exposure. In this matter, 
Facebook page will be use by the target group to share any kind of experience they have by using KICD services and products, and ask any kind of questions.

On the Twitter account will also be updated more frequently and will be more relevant and user generated content.

LinkedIn page will be used by the company to showcase their services and work done.

Addressable Channels (Channel mix plan)
Channel Insight 
One way of meeting the customers of KICD to digital platforms is by use of various social media platforms. The company has already decided on using Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn. 
This is because the target market are already utilizing this sites as part of their daily lives, and can be accessed via mobile phones.

Participatory Journey.
At this point I have created a customer journey map which will show the steps that the target market of KICD will be passing through in order to find out, consider or perhaps use KICD company.

Concept 
Currently KICD Institute has a Facebook which is very dormant and it is not utilized at all and has only 311 likes. My idea is to improve it and become a place where the customers of KICD will be sharing their experiences when using services and products from KICD.
I will create a twitter site for the company which will be updated with the news by the company and lets its members to know what's news in the market.
The company will also have a LinkedIn account which the company will showcasing their services and product to their customers.

Content Outline
After creating concept be-hide the chosen digital channel I asked the company about their content outline they will provide, how often it will be shifted. We discussed this with the person who I was working with and finial we came up with an idea that with the purpose of maintain a high degree of loyalty (retention), and to ensure an attractive interface-it is a necessity to give the end-user a perception of living and ever changing content. 
Therefore I suggested that it is a paramount to the company to keep in touch with the end-users and respond to their feedback.
I also suggested that the content should be refreshed based on few criteria:- Customers' feedback and changes in services provided by the company.

Both the company and I today we have shared alot and we were happy for the day. One amazing thing is that the company didnt know or they have never thought about the participatory journey.
The company also asked me to write to the about the benefits of social media  

Reflection

We started to implement the strategy which the company will use to market their company through social media. we started by making their business model canvas and it was very interesting since it was their very first time to make a business model, and I was impresses when we were discussing and seeing the company making their business model since they have their ways of categorizing their customers segments, which is one of the things that I have learnt.

Marketing

After doing user research/survey and analyzing the data. It is time to do marketing. But the first step is to identify the Target group. And after discussing with the company about the Target group, the company have already decided that it would like to keep their target group.

Target Group

The company has 3 types of target market.
    1.Government Institutions i.e primary and secondary schools.
    2. Both general public

Digital Profile

    a)Digital usage profile

As we have done a research for the target group, we have seen that they are fun of internet and the technology. Also by the fact that KICD  has a website, we are sure that the target group is already digital users. Also the target group owns digital devices that include televisions, radios, computers. They use their Television when it comes to getting news and information. 

    b)Content Consumption Preferences

It is important to point out that “adoption of use” is not the same thing as embracing technology, KICD's Target group, are less embracing and more reluctant adopters of new technologies. Therefore I can assume that the target consumers would not read printed content about KICD unless they were specifically and intentionally searching for that type of information. However, it is important to also note that the target market will like to stay connected to the latest information, which explains why customers of KICD are using the Internet to check the news and other information most often.

We started the day with a small meeting in the office since the company wanted to know whether everything is all well and whether am having any problem regarding the internship, whether I have all the information, I need to know about the company. In addition, whether I have any questions. We also discussed with the person whom am working with the plan and the task for this week. Which include-:
·         Do Online survey
·         Data analysis
·         Define and segment target group

Reflection

I was doing user research and survey and what I have learnt from comparing the results from both the quantitative and qualitative research I have done is that, the quantitative research has given me a lot of useful information that I needed to know and I will apply during the marketing. However, the results from the qualitative research were not that good since people were not giving any useful information although there some few points which are useful..

Research and survey

To research KICD identity and image, I conducted surveys both online and during the curricula activities of KICD.  The online survey was quite challenging, because filling out online surveys is not popular.I did survey to to obtain the perception of KICD'S customers regarding the quality of its services. The information I obtained from the respondents am going to use to develop a composite index of the customer satisfaction.

The survey I assessed through the following questions:

•        How they know about KICD servises and products?
•          The usage of the products and services?
•          The attitudes and perception of customers regarding KICD's services?
•          The quality of the services provided?
•     Which online tools they use.?

I obtained response from various stakeholders including teachers, publishers, government agencies and other clients of the Institute. I obtained and analyzed both qualitative and quantitative data.

KICD has a number of challenges in its internal processes and operations. The Institute is committed to respond to the external demands of the stakeholders in the education system in Kenya; it provides quality curricula that will transform the country's education to a globally competitive status.

User Research

After been introduced to the company and knowing they need, it's time to start the research. Today we started with a small meeting where we discussed about user research. I started with brainstorming and decided to follow the 5 steps of user research and the first was to create and set goals (objectives). After that i choose a hypothesis questionnaire i choose to use both interview and online survey. We discussed about who will be they participant and they decide they will be teachers and general public. 

User research plan
I was shown on how to create a user research plan which was new to me.

KICD User Research
Author: Lydia Nyoike
Date: 08/07/2013

Company's background
KICD has been in the market for the past 45 yrs, they are not able to offer a good customer retention and customer loyalty.
They would like to hear views from their customers about their services and products. In addition, they would like to know if there is any difficulties in reaching their customers.
 Goal
To identify the strength and weakness of their communication with their users and provide opportunity for improvement.

Research questions.

• Do you KICD?
• How did you get to know about KICD?
• What do you think of the quality of the services provided?
• Do you use social media?
• What online tools do you use?
• Do you think that KICD marketing themselves through social media will make them create loyalty and retention?

Methodology
Interview people and also do online survey.

Participants

• Teachers
• General public

Schedule

Recruiting start 09/07/2013

analysing data 17/07/2013

result delivery 18/07/2013

Social media marketing at Kenya Institute Of Curriculum Development

Introduction

Today I visited KICD . I meet with senior director and he showed me the offices, I was surprised to find out that my internship place it a big institution  with different department but working under one institute.
I got to know about KICD through a family friend  who works there.

My main task :-

• Perform user research/survey for the company  
• Market the company through social media and implement the strategy.

My learning goals/ambitions.

learn how i can perform a good user research.

Improve my skills on marketing, that is:

• How to identify and segment the participant to focus on while marketing.
• How to choose social media channels.
• How to involve participant and engage them to participate in a chosen social media platforms.
• How to reach the participant and let the be aware of the chosen social media channels.

Working plan
I am working at the KICD office from Monday to Friday. Starting from 8 am to 5 pm, as this is a rule in kenya that all the interns works like normal employee . Huh! I know it will be some how boring since am not used to sit in the office and for that matter 10 hours but have to cope,,, since i need to get best out of it.