Textbooks Made Easy Inc - University of Kansas



Textbooks Made Easy Inc.

By [author's name]

Table of Contents

Project Overview 1

Target Audience 1

Goals 1

Financial 1

Industry 2

Requirements 2

Marketing and Awareness 2

Ease of Use 2

Details 3

How It Works – Student Perspective 3

How It Works – Consultant Perspective 3

Dependencies 7

Letter from the CEO 7

References 7

Project Overview

Textbooks Made Easy Inc. is an internet company that provides college students at the University of Kansas a simple and inexpensive method for purchasing textbooks. The online company uses student course schedules to obtain textbooks and provides the most economic approach for funding a student’s textbook needs. With limited time and money, college students can eliminate the intermediate steps of shopping at local bookstores or searching the net by having their textbooks delivered directly to them. Students simply attach their class schedule to the Textbooks Made Easy Inc. website and provide a shipping address where books can be sent. Company consultants review schedules, analyze textbooks needed for individual classes, and present students with three different dollar values. The first dollar value represents the price students would pay if they bought their books at the University of Kansas Bookstore. The second dollar value represents the amount consultants can save the students when buying through Textbooks Made Easy Inc. The third dollar value represents the total amount students will have to pay to acquire their textbooks. No additional fees are charged. The company earns a pre-determined percentage of the amount saved.

Target Audience

Most University of Kansas students are price sensitive—meaning a small change in textbook price causes the demand to change by a greater amount. If textbook prices increase, student demand for textbooks decreases. Similarly, if book prices decrease, student demand for textbooks increases. Evidence of this elasticity is described in an online article of the Washington Post. Kisha Warren, an art student at the University of District of Columbia states, “A lot of students don’t buy books because they are too expensive.” (Kinzie, 23 January 2006) The first category consists of students who simply do not purchase textbooks when prices are too high. A second category consists of students who have limited time to shop for the lowest textbook prices. The third category consists of students who are lazy and have college expenses paid by parents. For these students, textbook price is not a limiting factor. They would rather have someone else do the work of purchasing the textbooks than exert the effort themselves. These three categories of students make up Textbooks Made Easy Inc.’s target market.

Goals

Financial

The mission of Textbooks Made Easy Inc. is to provide University of Kansas students with an easy and affordable solution to the growing problem of rising textbook costs. As an entrepreneurial company, it is in the company’s best interest to earn a profit, but not at the student’s expense. Revenue is earned directly from the amount a student saves by purchasing textbooks through Textbooks Made Easy Inc. It is a pre-determined percentage of the total amount saved.

In 2008, the University of Kansas “had a record-breaking 30,102 students enroll for the fall semester” (University of Kansas). A student typically purchases three to six textbooks per semester. Our goal is to gain a market share of 10%. With textbook costs ranging from $30 to $160, potential gross revenue could be $120,000 per semester.

Industry

A second goal of the company is to separate itself from competition by offering a quick and convenient service. It is advantageous to do so in order to sustain a significant market in the textbook industry. With on-campus bookstores, off-campus bookstores, and online textbook superstores, such as and , it is evident that competition in this market is great. Any competitive advantage developed must be maintained. Textbooks Made Easy Inc.’s competitive advantage is its ability to provide inexpensive textbooks without significant effort on the part of students. To help establish itself as a leader in the market, turn-around time is essential. After a customer submits his or her course schedule, it is expected that a consultant responds to the student with the savings amount within two hours. The savings amount will be provided to the student via an e-mail containing an internet link to either accept or reject the textbook offer. If accepted, the order will automatically process and a confirmation will immediately be sent to the student. If rejected, student information will be discarded.

Requirements

Marketing and Awareness

In order for Textbooks Made Easy Inc. to establish a presence in the competitive textbook industry, the online company designed a specific marketing strategy to capture its intended target market. There are four main time periods where it is extremely important to capture the attention of students, making them aware of Textbooks Made Easy Inc.: at the beginning and end of each semester, roughly July through August, December through February, and April through June. Classes begin in August and January. Therefore, most textbooks are purchased in these months. Classes end in December and May and while textbook are sold rather than purchased in these months, it is important to increase customer awareness for upcoming semesters. To promote Textbooks Made Easy Inc., consultants will be located near the main exits of core buildings on the University of Kansas Lawrence Campus. Included are McCollum, Ellsworth, Hashinger, Templin, and Lewis residence halls, Budig Hall (Largest Lecture Courses), Strong Hall (math courses), and Fraser Hall (foreign language and English composition). Freshmen students are housed primarily in these buildings and are considered to provide the greatest value to our company. Once a freshmen student is established as a customer, he or she is a potential customer for the next four to five years. It is less expensive and requires less work to maintain a current customer than to establish a new customer. Students enrolled in science, math, and business courses are a principal focus as these textbooks provide the greatest profit margin.

Ease of Use

Textbooks Made Easy Inc. has established a competitive advantage helping to distinguish it from competitors. The advantage comes from its ability to make purchasing textbooks as easy and cheap as possible—two high value characteristics for college students. For ease of use, it is required the website be simple, and easy to navigate. The website contains areas for students to paste or type an existing course schedule. Billing and delivery information are also required. Because customer security is a priority at Textbooks Made Easy Inc., PayPal, an online payment solutions company, is utilized. While having to create a PayPal account reduces ease of use, further complicating the process, it is hoped that customers will appreciate our effort to secure their identities.

Details

Textbooks Made Easy Inc. is a corporation that understands the financial burdens earning a degree can bring to students. All our employees graduated from the University of Kansas and have experienced the same burdens students face today. It is our hope we can diminish that burden, providing a service that is simple and enjoyable.

How It Works – Student Perspective

Once a student becomes aware of our service, they can visit our website at . Here, they will first be prompted to create a PayPal account. This can be done by clicking on the “Create PayPal Account” link, a free service. This link will take the student to the PayPal web page where the student will click on the “Sign Up” link on the left side of the page. Only one PayPal account need be created in a college career. Once complete, he or she will be navigated back to the Textbooks Made Easy website. The student then attaches an electronic copy of their course schedule to the “Attachment Your Course Schedule Here” box or manually enters his or her course schedule into the “Type Your Course Schedule Here” box. The final step before consultants can save a student money is for that student to enter billing and shipping information. This allows an order to process more quickly should a student decide to use our service. Within two hours, a consultant will process the student’s course schedule and provides a savings.

How It Works – Consultant Perspective

A student’s course schedule provides valuable information Textbook Made Easy Inc. consultants use to create savings for students. This includes course numbers and titles, section numbers, and names of instructors.

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(University of Kansas)

With this information, a consultant can proceed to the University of Kansas Bookstore website. Below is the process a Textbooks Made Easy Inc. consultant took to find a savings for a student in 2008.

1. Go to the University of Kansas Bookstore website at . Click on the “BOOKS” link at the top of the page.

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(University of Kansas Bookstore)

2. Next, click the “Textbooks” link in the middle of the page.

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(University of Kansas Bookstore)

3. Then, “Click Here to Find Your Course Textbooks” at the bottom of the page.

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(University of Kansas Bookstore)

Drop down menus appears with titles “Step 1: Term,” “2: Department,” “3: Course,” “Step 4: Select a Section to see your books.” A consultant would take the following actions:

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2) [pic]

3) [pic]

4) [pic]

(University of Kansas Bookstore)

The most important piece of information is the ISBN code at the bottom of the page. The ISBN code is each book’s individual identification number. Once the consultants have this piece of information, they can use it to look for less expensive textbooks on the internet. Two websites a consultant would search for used textbooks is and . At , The ISBN number is typed in the ISBN box and the textbook is searched for.

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The resulting screen would appear with multiple textbook options. The consultant would proceed to e-mail the student with a savings amount.

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In above example, if the student had purchased his Management 498 textbook at the University of Kansas Bookstore, he would have spent $108.15 for a new book or $81.15 for a used book. The consultant found the textbook at a used price of $69.00. The bookstore did not sell this textbook used. The consultant saved this student $39.15 for one textbook. Usually, students purchase three to six textbooks. To finalize the sale, the consultant e-mailed the student three figures: the cost of the textbook at the bookstore ($108.15), the cost of the book after our search results ($69.00), and the saving ($29.36). Twenty-five percent of the saving amount ($9.78) was deduct for the consultants work. Once approved by the student, the order was processed and shipped to the student.

Dependencies

Textbooks Made Easy Inc. is a service that does not stand alone. Without the University of Kansas Bookstore website as a resource for ISBN numbers, consultants at Textbooks Made Easy Inc. will have a difficult time providing savings for students. Textbooks can be found online in other ways using the title, edition, and author of a textbook. These search options are however, less accurate and could cause potential textbook matching problems. A second option is available should the online ISBN numbers become unattainable. Consultants can physically enter the University of Kansas Bookstore and obtain the ISBN numbers. This method would be less economical and would greatly slow down the processing time. Textbooks Made Easy Inc. also depends on other online book websites such as and . Without these online textbook superstores, our company would not have a solution to high textbook costs.

Letter from the CEO

Being a University of Kansas graduate, I understand the frustrations of having to purchase expensive textbooks every semester. Not only does it drain our pocketbooks, but creates an unfavorable attitude toward our beloved alma mater. Students do not want to skimp on their education by postponing textbook purchases, but they do not want to pay overpriced University Bookstores prices either. It is my hope that Textbooks Made Easy Inc. can provide a convenience to students that is value added, allows for a less strenuous college experience, and provides lower textbook costs.

References

1. Kinzie, Susan. “Swelling Textbook Costs Have College Students Saying 'Pass'.” The Washington Post, January 23, 2006, Page A01, The , (accessed October 21, 2008)

2. , “Textbook Superstore,” half. Screenshot (accessed October 27, 2008)

3. University of Kansas. “KU enrollment breaks 30,000; sets records in minority enrollment, ACT scores.” University of Kansas website. (accessed October 25, 2008)

4. University of Kansas Bookstore, “Books,” , Screenshot (accessed October 27th, 2008)

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