Term Paper on "Blackboard, Inc. Marketing Plan"

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Blackboard Inc. marketing plan

Blackboard Inc. is a software company focused on delivering high quality products that satisfy a wide array of customers. Their products and services mainly target students, teachers and universities and are aimed to facilitate the e-learning process. Aside from online learning, the Blackboard products are also used for online purchases and other e-commerce operations. However, the current marketing plan is focused on the learning features of the Blackboard products, represented by the Blackboard Academic Suite.

But in order to analyze the one particular product, emphasis must be placed on the current features and characteristics of the overall company, including its' vision, objectives, core competencies, human resource and financial highlights. The outside environment must also be analyzed in order to identify what defines the company's competition, social, political, technological and economic backgrounds and also the company's current and potential customers. Also, analyses have to be conducted as to better understand the manufacturer's internal strengths and weaknesses, along with the environment's opportunities and threats.

Further on, the emphasis will be placed on the product itself, through a detailed description of its unique features, its functionality, its price and the adherent promotion and distribution strategies. Once these elements are understood, the past financial highlights will be discussed, followed by projections for the future. In order to successfully market the Blackboard Academy Suite, the company has to possess a skilled marketing department to design and implement the stated strategies, which w

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ill be evaluated and controlled by the Blackboard management.

2. Company Description

Blackboard Inc. was founded in 199 in Washington DC; it operates in the electronics industry and it went public in 2004 (NADAQ: BBBB). Given that they are a relatively new public company on the stock market, Blackboard is committed to the highest quality of their financial and accounting reports, promoting integrity and high ethical standards. The key figures within the company are Chairman Matthew Pittinsky, President and CEO Michael L. Chasen, Chief Financial Officer Michael Beach and Chief Legal Officer Matthew Small.

Blackboard Inc. currently produces and markets six software applications grouped into two groups: The Blackboard Academic Suite and the Blackboard Commerce Suite. The Blackboard Academic Suite includes the following three applications: the Blackboard Learning System, the Blackboard Community System and the Blackboard Content System. Blackboard Transaction System, along with the Blackboard Community System and the Blackboard One are the remaining three applications that compose the Blackboard Commerce Suite.

The customers of the Group include colleges, universities, schools, other educational providers, textbook publishers and student-focused merchants. On 28 February 2006, the Group acquired WebCT. On December 31, 2006 the Group acquired more than 4,700 licenses of five software applications, in two suites and 3,400 clients in approximately 70 countries."

Customers of the e-learning and e-commerce systems manufactured and sold by Blackboard can choose between installing the application onto their own servers or installing it on the company's server. "As of December 31, 2006, approximately 87% of Blackboard Inc.'s installations were installed locally and approximately 13% were hosted by it."

However their existence is short, it has been marked by legal confrontations with other software companies. In all, Blackboard Inc. manufactures software applications that support the e-learning process. They sell their products worldwide, currently being present in over 70 countries. In 2006, the company operated with a total of 765 employees. Their financial highlights for fiscal year 2006 included:

Revenue: $183.06 million

Gross Profit: $128.38 million

Operating Income: -$11.83 million

3. Strategic Focus and plan

Mission/Vision

Blackboard Inc.'s mission is to enable educational innovations everywhere by connecting people and technology.

Blackboard Vision:

Our role is to improve the educational experience with Internet-enabled technology that connects students, faculty, researchers and the community in a growing network of education environments dedicated to better communication, commerce, collaboration and content.

Blackboard's large and diverse community of practice supports, enhances and extends our offerings every day, all over the world. The Internet offers great potential for education and the educational experience. While our role as the platform is important, communities of practice make the best solutions. The value of the network is connectedness. Each Blackboard client makes every other Blackboard client's solution more valuable as a result of that connection.

Goals

Blackboard Inc. has certain financial, strategic and individual goals. The financial goals "component is based on total revenues (30%), pre-tax earnings (40%) and contract value plus non-ratable deferred revenue (30%). Contract value is an estimate of annualized recurring ratable revenues under existing contracts with clients. The company strategic goals and individual goals components are based on criteria established by the Committee and the Board of Directors." All Blackboard goals are SMART in the meaning that they are Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic and Timely.

The company's financial goals revolve around:

Increase total revenues from $183.06 million in 2006 to $339 million by 2010;

Increase gross profit from $128.38 million in 2006 to $140.00 million by 2010;

Increase the BBBB quotation on NASDAQ from $42.52 in November 9, 2007 to $60.49 in November 9, 2010

Increase customer palette and market share from 60% to 80% by 2010.

Product Improvement goals:

Increase Ease of Use by enabling meaningful adoption among both novice as well as advanced users

Create an Open Architecture and provide pedagogical and administrative flexibility through extensive API technology for clients and 3rd-party developer

Enterprise Technology - Enabling a mission critical e-Education operating environment that is reliable, scalable and interoperable with other key systems

Maximizing Value - Addressing client's goals while protecting previous technology investments and reducing burdens on precious administrative resources."

Other goals:

Increase investments in client support and services; the goals is to register 100% client satisfaction

Upgrade goal: "integrating the campuses through technology, better sharing and distribution of knowledge resources and enhancing learning opportunities for the more than 18,000 students and faculty at the institution."

Improve the quality and the interface of the Blackboard Academic Suite in order to make it more user-friendly study conduced at the Humboldt State University by professors Munoz and Van Duzer revealed that only 21.4% of the participating students prefer Blackboard; therefore the company's goal is to increase users' preference of Blackboard Academic Suite

Core Competency and Sustainable Competitive Advantage

Blackboard Inc.'s core competencies are those of a high quality of their products and services, combined with the usage of the latest technologies. "Blackboard has built core competency in continually delivering cutting edge software for the education industry and we will continue to do so for years to come."

The company's comparative advantage is represented by their large understanding of the business sector, understanding which led to several alliances with companies that produce and market complementary products and services. "Blackboard Inc. has entered strategic alliances with a few companies selected for their core competencies and shared vision of expanding the Networked Learning Environment. Providing complementary products or services or incorporation of the partner's products or services into our Blackboard's core system architecture is a key to a successful partnership and business outcome."

4. Situation Analysis

Blackboard's situation analysis revolves around the five major C's of any company's situation analysis: Company, Collaborators, Customers, Competitors and Climate. The Company component answers questions in regard to the organizational culture, its perception on the market, its objectives, products and services, the technologies used and the company's expertise in its work domain. The Collaborator component highlights any strategic alliances and the company's relationships with the distributors, purveyors and other intermediaries or partners. The Customers component answers questions in regard to Blackboard Inc.'s market share, segments, customer demands and behaviour. The fourth C. points out competitors' features and the level of threat they pose upon Blackboard. Finally, the Climate component, otherwise known as the PEST analysis, answers questions in regard to the political, economic, socio-cultural and technological environments.

Company

Blackboard Inc. produces software applications that ease the e-learning and e-commerce processes. The current plan is focused on the Blackboard Academic Suite

The Blackboard products are perceived as high technology software, with great potential, but with high prices that other competing products and with a less user-friendly interface

Blackboard uses Java programming language, and imports API packages into each other, instead of importing the packages into classes, the general procedure used by developers. The technologies used allow clients to host their applications on the company's servers or on their own servers. The main purpose of the technologies used by Blackboard is to improve the e-learning process. The technologies developed by the producer include: the Blackboard Learning System (TM), the WebCT Vista (TM) and the WebCT Campus Edition (TM). Other technologies used by Blackboard include.NET, Datatel, Macromedia, Oracle, Sun Microsystems

In the ten years since its foundation, Blackboard has gathered significant expertise in the e-learning and programming processes and has successfully managed to combine the two into the Blackboard Academic Suite

Blackboard is committed to its stakeholders and combines their personal goals with the company's organizational goals through actions that promote diversity, satisfaction and high ethics standards

Blackboard's main goals are those of expansion and growth through product improvement and increase of customer… READ MORE

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Quoted Instructions for "Blackboard, Inc. Marketing Plan" Assignment:

“

Report specifications:

Table of Contents

1. Executive Summary

2. Company Description

3. Strategic Focus and plan

Mission/Vision

Goals

Core Competency and Sustainable Competitive Advantage

4. Situation Analysis

SWOT Analysis

Internal Strengths and Weaknesses

Management

Offerings

Marketing

Personnel

Finance

Manufacturing

Research and Development (R & D)

External Opportunities and Threats

Consumer/Social

Competitive

Technological

Economic

Legal/Regulatory

Industry Analysis

Competitor Analysis

Company Analysis

Customer Analysis

5. Market-Product Focus

Marketing and Product Objectives

Target Markets

Points of Difference

Positioning

6. Marketing Program

Product Strategy

Price Strategy

Promotion Strategy

Place (Distribution Strategy)

7. Financial Data and Projections

Past Sales Revenues

Five-Year Projections

8. Organization

9. Implementation

10. Evaluation and Control

1. Executive Summary

The Executive Summary *****sells***** the marketing plan to readers through its clarity and brevity. The summary should present a description of the product/service, its target market, and its need within the market. The summary should also provide an overview of the main points of the plan and should emphasize an action orientation.

2. Company Description

The company description should highlight the recent history and successes of the company or organization.

3. Strategic Focus and Plan

While not included in all marketing plans, the Strategic Focus and Plan sets the strategic direction for the entire organization.

One approach to crafting a strategic focus is Porter*****s four generic business strategy model.

Mission/Vision

The Mission/Vision statement is a qualitative statement that specifies the markets and product lines in which a business will compete. A mission statement can dramatically affect the range of a firm*****s marketing activities by narrowing or broadening the competitive playing field. An effective mission statement must be clear and direct.

Goals

The Goals section of a marketing plan sets both financial and non-financial targets. Goals should be in quantitative terms, where possible, to facilitate measuring the company*****s future performance.

An example of a non-financial goal: *****It is recommended that Philip Morris diversify its product lines to achieve 50 percent of sales revenue in non-tobacco products in the next five years.*****

An example of a financial goal (note it is specific and measurable): *****It is suggested that XYZ Inc. increase sales from $10 million in 2000 to $15 million in 2001.*****

Core Competency and Sustainable Competitive Advantage

Whereas the mission defines the scope of a business or business unit and the goals define its strategic performance dimensions, its business unit competencies determine the means for achieving success.

An example of a competitive advantage: *****McDonalds***** competitive advantage is its large number of restaurants, more than double its competitors, making it more convenient for customers than any other fast food restaurant in the world.*****

4. Situation Analysis

The essence of the situation analysis is taking stock of where the firm or product has been recently, where it is now, and where it is headed. The situation analysis is the first of three steps in the planning stage.

SWOT Analysis

The SWOT analysis is an effective short-hand summary of the situation analysis. The acronym is used to describe an organization*****s internal Strengths and Weaknesses and its external Opportunities and Threats. This analysis provides a solid foundation as a springboard to identify subsequent actions in the marketing plan. The SWOT analysis can be effectively presented in a tabular format followed by a text discussion that elaborates on the information in the table.

An analysis to identify internal strengths and weaknesses usually includes the following areas in an organization:

When analyzing: Consider:

Management experience level, management style, size

Offerings uniqueness, quality, price,

Marketing type and scope of marketing plan

Personnel quality and experience of workforce

Finance sales revenues

Manufacturing quality and dependability of suppliers

R & D plans for continual product improvement, R & D budget

An analysis to identify external opportunities and threats usually includes the following factors:

When analyzing these factors: Consider:

Consumer/Social size and stability of market

Competitive number and size of competitors

Technological the effect of technology on any facet of the business

Economic current and projected economic situation of market

Legal/Regulatory the effect of legal and regulatory factors on any facet of the business

Industry Analysis

The industry analysis section should provide the backdrop for a more detailed analysis of the competition, the company, and the customer. An in-depth analysis will give both internal and external readers of the plan confidence in the company*****s ability to understand its own industry.

Competitor Analysis

An effective analysis of the competition should demonstrate that the company has a realistic understanding of its major competitors and their marketing strategies. As in with the industry analysis, a realistic assessment makes readers feel confident that the marketing actions in the plan are well grounded.

Company Analysis

The company analysis provides details of a company*****s strengths and marketing strategies that will enable it to achieve its marketing goals.

Customer Analysis

A thorough customer analysis answers the question: *****Who are our customers?***** Understanding your customers and what they want is critical in satisfying them and providing genuine value.

5. Market-Product Focus

Marketing and Product Objectives

Setting product objectives and identifying target market segments significantly increases the chance that a product will be successful. The objectives and goals should be stated in measurable terms so that they can be measured during the program implementation and control phases of the marketing plan.

Target Markets

Because an organization cannot satisfy the needs of all consumers, it must concentrate its marketing efforts on the needs of specific niches or target markets. In describing the target markets, consider why a particular target market was selected and how the product or service meets the needs of the target market.

Points of Difference

Points of Difference are those characteristics of a product that make it superior to competitive substitutes. The greatest single factor in a new product*****s failure is the lack of significant points of difference.

Positioning

A product*****s unique points of difference are communicated by way of a positioning strategy.

6. Marketing Program

Everything that has gone before in the marketing plan sets the stage for the marketing mix actions---the 4 Ps----covered in the marketing plan. Product, price, promotion, and place (distribution) strategies are all detailed in the Marketing Program section of the plan.

When describing these strategies: Include these elements:

Product Features, brand name, packaging, service, warranty

Price List price, discounts, allowances, credit terms, payment period

Promotion Advertising, personal selling, sales promotion, publicity

Place Outlets, channels, coverage, transportation, stock level

7. Financial Data and Projections

All the marketing mix decisions covered in the marketing program have both revenue and expense effects. In this section of the marketing plan, both past and projected financial data is included. A key indicator of what future sales will be is to examine past sales.

8. Organization

A marketing program needs a marketing organization to implement it. This section of the marketing plan may include an organizational chart with both current and projected positions represented.

9. Implementation Plan

The implementation plan shows how a company will turn plans into results. To implement a marketing program successfully, hundreds of detailed decisions are often required. These marketing tactics are detailed operational decisions essential to the overall success of marketing strategies. Unlike marketing strategies, marketing tactics involve actions that must be taken immediately.

For each strategy describe what has to be performed to carry it out. For example, if the plan calls for adding television advertising, implementation might involve contacting an ad agency and arranging a meeting, agreeing on objectives, targeting audiences, and scheduling a flight of advertisements. If the plan calls for increasing the price, a breakeven schedule of alternative prices might be performed.

10. Evaluation and Control

The purpose of the control phase of the strategic marketing process is to keep the marketing program moving in the direction set for it. In the control phase, the marketing manager compares the results of the marketing program with the goals in the written plans to identify deviations. The marketing manager then acts on the deviations to correct the negative and exploit the positive ones.

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useful website: blackboard.com

Blackboard SWOT

Strength:

- number of awards

- 60% market share. Industry leader.

- Merged with WEBCT

- Partnership with U.S military

- Partnership with Microsoft

- Feedbacks from strong universities such as *****University of British Columbia, Illinois Chicago, San Francisco, Texas, Princeton*****

- The backbone programming of Blackboard is in Java and what makes it different is importing API packages into each other instead of importing packages into just classes which is what normally programmers do. This gives the Enterprise system the ability to grow very large and easier to maintain.

- Blackboard *****Building block***** feature allows external programs to integrate with in blackboard easy. This would turn into memory saving advantage where blackboard server limit will not be pushed

Weakness:

- Not user friendly. Too many clicks to get tasks done. Not easy to find your way in there. Complicated.

- Have been growing in terms of functionality very aggressively with out thinking about ease of the end user

- Uncontrollable purchasing codes from out side have been making the sytem chaotic

- There is not though for overall design. No consistency

- Poor customer service

- Blackboard inc. tries to be the host server for it*****s client which make them focus on server management rather than their design which is their core competency. In addition, traveling users***** confidentiality is not secure. For example a university student information in Canada would have to travel all the way to Washington DC, where blackboard server is hosting and come back.

- Blackboard servers seats in different cities of US and the head office does not do a good job in managing them all. That makes them slow to responding their clients

Opportunities:

- To incorporate what users like best with other systems (Competitors of blackboard) such as WEBCT

- Use new programming technology *****A***** will help to be more user friendly and interactive and timely

- Use their partners most advanced technology. US military always has the most advanced technology.

- Opportunity of grow in Europe an Asia. The language of blackboard system could easily transfer by just loading different language packages. If I am teaching

French then I can load French language in my blackboard course easily. There is no need of computer or technology knowledge and there is no need for extra programming with in the system

Threads:

- Fully open source systems such as: angels, Moodle, Skai which are cheaper. Since blackboard target its academic institutions and academic institutes like the idea of open source since it fit into their political model.

- Blackboard law suits

- There must be more

For this marketing plan we target Academic institutes. Using A***** programming language for the next version of blackboard which would be 7.8.

To do this the front interface of Blackboard needs a complete rewrite. Means some of the API will be closed.

Since A***** is new there are not many expert programmers in this area. Blackboard incorporate needs to conduct programs to help their developer be an expert with A*****. It needs to make resources available to them. On the other hand, institutions who are their clients need to upgrade their developers to support new version. (Note: sometimes universities would purchase the license and would be their own host instead of fully outsourcing it. This is because they want to have a better control over the system).

Blackboard pricing factor:

Since this is B2B price is negotiable and therefore, no clients would get the same price

For the version 7.8 that we are creating price depends on if:

New client

Existing client

Hosted

Hosting

In addition, there is a core price for blackboard basic package and in addition to that there are the following functions:

- Content: Is and area belong to each user. A virtual hard drive. User may upload documents and share them with other users

- Community: for example a philosophy department of a university can form a community of all the philosophy students and faculties with in all campuses. To share ideas, events. networking tool

Institution may choose to purchase these additional features.

Promotion:

Blackboard usually promote through:

-its website

- Behind black board: is a community of all external blackboard developers. (Developers who are hired by institutions not by blackboard Inc itself)

- Conferences

*****

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