Case Study: Case 1Gulab SinghHa NguyenRhea-alexis Alabado

1. Introduction

a. Describe the name of the company and its main activities (10 lines maximum).

The company’s name is Turner Test Prep, a California company specializing in preparing students for the Certified Public Accountant (CPA) exam. The activities include providing live classes to the student to engage them more into the subject matter, audiotapes to indulge their free time into learning and on-call assistance.

b. Outline the main issues mentioned in the case (10 lines maximum).

In the spring of 2003, Jessica Turner (CEO of the company) felt that she did not gain market share and grow in the right direction. After 3 years, Turner has about 10% of the market and has faced stiff competition from its main rival, the national testing service.

2. Body

-Identify at least three major problems in the case (in some situations the case provides hints to the problems or help needed).

The company doesn’t have prior market research – Jessica wasn’t focused on being an entrepreneur, thus she had no knowledge about the market and she didn’t go for market research also, which lacked the basic advantages to be more competitive than her competitions.

Even though 3 years have been completed, the institute isn’t able to achieve its break-even point.

Turner Test Prep Co. is suffering from a low market share.

-Provide detailed answers, solutions or corrections for each problem that you have identified. (Section length depends on number of problems).

As TTS is new to the market they should offer lower pricing then their competitor to gain more market share and attract more students. The TTS price of $1100 is about the same that NTC is providing to students. Given NTC experience in this field, students are more likely to join NTC.

They should provide more materials or mediums of study to the students just like NTC is providing like Videotapes, software and online testing options along with other services she is availing to the students so they can choose between the available methods of study. This can give them competitive advantage over NTC as they offer live lectures and one-to-one meetings for students.

They can use their success rate or passing rate in their advertisements and marketing strategies to influence students to come to their center. Given their success rate of 80% in latest session, which is almost three times the passing rate of NTC, it can work very effectively to attract more students to their center.

They should use more sources of advertising like TV ad, social networking sites that are easily accessible and are very effective method of advertising.

3. Conclusion

a. Provide a summary of your answers (5 lines maximum).

In order to reach more market and attract more students Jessica should concentrate on creating more competitive advantage over her competitors like offering lower prices, more materials, better means of advertising and better customer service to the students just like NTC methods of live chats with instructors and toll-free numbers.