INTEGRATED MARKETING COMMUNICATION STRATEGY TO IMPROVE THE PERFORMANCE OF KUMON INDONESIA

• Main Author: Magdalena
• Format: Theses
• Language: Indonesia
• Online Access: https://digilib.itb.ac.id/gdl/view/46232
• Institution: Institut Teknologi Bandung

Indonesia is a country with the fourth largest population in the world, with number of children aged up to 9 years old accounted about 18 percent of its total population that currently reaching more than 269 million people. Due to the large number of young people, Indonesia become a focus market of Kumon – one of the well-known Japanese company doing after-school education business – in its global market. The first Kumon learning centers for Indonesian children opened in October 1993. After that, the number of students increase gradually until in April 2019 reached nearly 150 thousands of students studying mostly in Mathematics and English as a Foreign Language (EFL) subjects. However, the growth of number of students is strongly influenced by the growth of the number of centers as Kumon Indonesia aggresively expands its business to new fields in Indonesia. When looking at the average number of students per center, the number has decreased. An interesting fact is, when the average number of students per center reached the highest number in 2013, at that time the number of preschool students also showed a high number. From 2013 to 2018, the number of preschool children decreased to 80% of its number in 2013. Therefore, the increasing of preschool students influences the increasing of average number of students per center. In addition, there are 3 main reasons why it is important to focus on preschool children: for children’s growth, to improve instruction skills of Instructors and for center development. Considering the importance of Kumon studying for preschool children, it is necessary to research the integrated marketing communication strategy to improve the performance of Kumon Indonesia especially in preschool market. By identifying external and internal analysis as well as SWOT analysis using the quantitative and qualitative approach in this research, some of the factors causing the problems of only few numbers of preschool children in Kumon Indonesia can be identified as following. • The need for learning in preschool age is low. • Mindset of parents who think that preschool period is playing period, so providing academic learning to preschool children will burden the children. • People think that Kumon is a serious place of learning that teaches mathematics to children that considered not suitable for preschoolers. • Local government campaign that prohibits reading-writing-counting learning for preschoolers in several regions in Indonesia. • Some Instructors are reluctant to accept preschool children because instructing preschool children requires bigger effort and energy rather than elementary school students. Based on research findings, the purpose of most of Kumon parents enrolling their preschool children is to equip their children with abilities to be ready to study at elementary school. They also feel the learning benefit such as concentration ability, good study habits and basic academic skills that required for studying smoothly in elementary school. Therefore, it is proposed to define the new segmenting, targeting and positioning for preschool children target market in Kumon Indonesia. The main problem of only few number of preschool children in Kumon Indonesia are parents’ awareness of the importance of learning in preschool period and the understanding about Kumon itself. Therefore, new marketing mix is recommended to be implemented. The elements of product, promotion, process, people and physical evidence are priority parts to be improved in the near future. In term of integrated marketing communication improvement, one of strategy is using education influencers on social media, especially on Instagram. Meanwhile, on the offline “Below the Line” campaign, using brochures, leaflets or booklets given directly to potential customers can be considered effective. For cost efficiency and ease of distribution, making 2 versions (for general children and for preschool children) of brochures is not always necessary. If using promotional rewards, it is recommeded not just giving ordinary gimmicks, but considering the tools that will be beneficial to support preschool children's learning in Kumon.