Market Expansion Strategy - Geo Expansion
Project scope
Categories
Market research Competitive analysis Investment Market expansion Product or service launchSkills
strategic decision making punjabi language english language urdu language gujarati language transliteration customer service research multilingualism scriptingOur mission
Our company was created over a year ago with a specific goal to create products and services that make it easier for children of South Asian descent in the West to learn their native languages. So far, our focus has been on a single language - Urdu. We wanted to become excellent in a single language, and then extend our offerings to other languages (e.g. Hindi, Punjabi, Gujarati, etc.). South Asians are the fastest growing and wealthiest demographic in the US and we believe there is a huge opportunity in this space.
What we do
As a 1.5 person startup, we took a staged approach to test product/market fit.
Phase 1 - complete - published a series of bilingual books in Urdu. We are the first ones to include English transliteration, in addition to English translations besides the Urdu script. We have received excellent feedback over the last year having sold thousands of books around the globe, with a significant presence in Canada, the US and the UK.
Phase 2 - in progress - prove out product/market fit on multiple products
- Relaunch under a new name with a new set of products that take into account customer feedback we have received
- Launch a new service line of online tutoring specifically catered and designed for kids in the West
- Explore expansion opportunities - this is what we need help with
Phase 3 - future - scale!
The Project
We have some key strategic decisions ahead of us that need to be assessed. One of them is geographic expansion. Our current focus is in Canada, the US and the UK. We want to understand the opportunity outside those geographics and determine whether it would be worth the investment of time and resources to expand into those regions. As part of students, students would have to consider:
- The products we currently carry and the services we plan to expand into
- Market research - languages, culture, demographics of various regions
- Distribution - distribution channels we can use, partners, etc to expand
- Launch strategies in the recommended markets
- Other risks and considerations
About the company
South Asians living abroad are struggling to transfer their native languages to their children. Our children are exposed mostly to English and resources available in native languages are too complex for children in the West. Plus, the parents themselves often struggle with reading the language even if they are able to speak it to varying degrees.
Our vision is to help preserve the use of South Asian languages. We aspire to become a leading bilingual edutainment brand for children of South Asian descent through a mix of high-quality physical and digital resources, with a focus on transliteration, e.g. Urdu written using the English alphabet.
We launched our first versions of Urdu-English books in September ’20 and now offer 12 books across 4 reading levels. We are expanding our product lines in January, have transformational improvements planned for next year, and a much more exciting vision ahead of us to offer multiple languages.