The education sector has changed considerably in recent years, accelerated by the growth of edtech in particular. From K-12 to higher education, learning centers and professional development, we have international teams of specialist market researchers trained to deliver world-class studies in education.

Explore our education research solutions & case studies:
Assessing the Opportunity | Enhancing the Customer Experience | Building the Brand | Developing the Offer & Pricing

 

Our Deep Experience Across The Education Sector

We have been researching education markets for over 20 years, helping educational institutions, learning centers, supplemental education providers, educational technology firms and publishing companies optimize their offering to:

  • Improve student outcomes
  • Improve student acquisition
  • Improve student management
  • Improve the student experience
  • Improve the experience of educators and trainers
  • Improve the credentials of corporate learners

We have surveyed multiple types of establishments across the education sector, including extensive research with audiences of relevance to the following:

Elementary schools, middle schools, high schools

Main audiences researched:

  • Educators for K-12
  • Principals & Superintendents
  • IT Directors / CTOs
  • Purchasing Directors / Procurement
  • Curriculum Developers
  • Instructional Technologists
  • Parents / caregivers of K-12 students

Undergraduate & graduate colleges / universities, vocational schools, community colleges

Main audiences researched:

  • Educators and staff at colleges and universities, including faculty and department heads as well as administration (e.g. President, Dean, Provost, CFO, etc.)
  • IT Directors / CTOs
  • Purchasing Directors / Procurement
  • Auxiliary Services Directors
  • Directors of Admissions / Enrollment
  • Students

Language learning centers and supplemental education providers

Main audiences researched:

  • Undergraduate & graduate students
  • Parents / caregivers of K-12 students
  • Educators
  • Language learners

Training / executive education providers

Main audiences researched:

  • Corporate decision-makers for professional learning & development (e.g. Chief Learning Officers, HR Directors, etc.)
  • Recipients of corporate training

 

Insights That Set You Up For Success

Our research solutions for the education sector span the following categories:

Case study: Seeking a competitive advantage through segmentation

Challenge

A large supplemental education provider wanted to understand how to enhance its offering to better meet the needs of different target segments. This resulted in a comprehensive segmentation program to help our client:

  • Strengthen its brand position through a more differentiated value proposition;
  • Optimize targeting (lower hanging fruit to prioritize);
  • Improve its offering to different segments based on a deeper understanding of requirements, unmet needs, psychographics and behaviors;
  • Inform a revised go-to-market strategy based on market evidence and the voice of the customer.

Solution

A kick-off workshop ensured buy-in of all stakeholders from the outset, following which focus groups were conducted as a pre-test to the subsequent online survey.

The quantitative research was large in scale and scope, resulting in a robust dataset from which statistical analysis revealed the optimal segmentation solution.

A final workshop assisted our client team in embracing the segmentation and empowered stakeholders to drive action.

Case study: Assessing the nature and size of the opportunity

Challenge

A major global leadership training and education company required a comprehensive opportunity assessment to inform its growth strategy. The aims of our research program were to:

  • Size the global market for leadership training, including a breakdown by key solution area and anticipated growth over the next 3 years;
  • Profile key competitors including their strengths, weaknesses, overview of their offering, pricing, etc.;
  • Explore market perceptions of our client’s brand against competitors, including brand associations, purchase drivers, and unmet needs.

Solution

The research method comprised the following phases:

  • Desk research and expert interviews to map the market and size the prize, arriving at both the TAM (Total Addressable Market) and SAM (Served Available Market);
  • A quantitative survey of decision-makers / influencers of training, as well as training recipients.
  • A workshop to assist our client in digesting the findings and to establish a winning growth strategy.
 

Case Study: Understanding the student path-to-purchase

Challenge

A multinational provider of educational services, programs, professional training and certifications was looking to understand the student path-to-purchase in their pursuit of the CFA (Chartered Financial Analyst) designation. This included obtaining an understanding of:

  • The triggers that drive interest;
  • Awareness of, and associations with, providers;
  • How providers were evaluated and selected, including value drivers;
  • Information sources used during the decision-making process;
  • The payment process (e.g. who pays for the prep program);
  • Opportunities to optimize the student experience.

Solution

In response to our client’s desire for depth of insight, we conducted focus groups across New York, London and Singapore. This method enabled us to probe for deeper meaning behind responses, along with rich verbatim comments.

Education Market Research - Case Study: Understanding the student path-to-purchase

 

Case study: Building a more differentiated brand in educational technology

Challenge

A well-known edtech company providing hardware and software solutions to predominantly K-12 audiences was looking to understand its perceived brand position in schools / school districts and opportunities to achieve greater differentiation.

The objectives of the brand research study were to:

  • Understand perceptions of the brand promise and value drivers, relative to competitors;
  • Measure brand associations to identify positions owned versus white space potential;
  • Assess brand performance through the brand funnel to inform brand improvement targets;
  • Optimize the customer value proposition to be more distinct, differentiated and desirable.

Solution

Depth telephone interviews were conducted upfront for exploratory insights and to inform the design of the subsequent online survey.

The quantitative phase comprised a structured survey with a robust sample size, enabling confidence in numbers and deep dives into key segments.

 

Case study: Enhancing the offering

Challenge

A leading industry association was looking to develop its text and data mining solution for academic institutions and corporate accounts. A voice of the customer program was designed to inform the product development roadmap, including:

  • Application of the tool and content (e.g. use cases);
  • Perceived value of the tool and content;
  • Unmet needs the tool would potentially address;
  • Desired features and benefits;
  • Willingness to pay.

Solution

We carried out depth telephone interviews with a range of roles that specify and/or use the tool (such as faculty, students, scientists and researchers), as well as subject matter experts across publishing organizations. The research findings assisted our client in transitioning from a product-first mentality to a user-centric design and experience focus.

Education Market Research - Case study: Enhancing the offering

Case study: Optimizing the pricing model

Education Market Research - Case study: Optimizing the pricing model

Challenge

A cloud-solutions provider serving high schools and higher education required pricing research to streamline its pricing structures and enhance its pricing model. This included:

  • Identifying the value drivers behind the offering;
  • Exploring price sensitivity and price elasticity for the suite of products offered;
  • Ascertaining the optimum price for the different solutions;
  • Arriving at enhanced value propositions with the goal of boosting adoption and revenue.

Solution

We carried out a telephone survey and leveraged statistical techniques to determine the optimal price that would deliver increased revenues, along with drivers analysis to inform the evolution of the value proposition.

 
Find out how our education market research can help your organization grow
 
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