Team Practice 2 - Marketing Plan Summary!

By Group #2 (Cory Bartel, Jalynn Augustus, and Taylor Holtzheimer)!

In Caffarella and Daffrons 2013 edition of Program Planning for Adult Learners they define
marketing as the function of [an organization] whose goal is to plan, price, promote, and
distribute the organizations programs and products by keeping in constant touch with the
organizations various constituencies, uncovering their needs and expectations for the
organization and themselves, and building a program of communication to not only express the
organizations purpose and goals but also their mutually beneficial products (as citied in
Caffarella & Daffron, 2013, p.312). In this description, the primary actor in marketing is the
interaction and communication between the developer of a product or program and the
constituency or customers. Communication, as described, can be construed as interaction as it
offers to build tangible outcomes for both sets of parties. This interaction is key to any
successful marketing plan. !

Caffarella and Daffron go on to describe the 4 Ps of marketing - product, price, place, and
promotion (Caffarella & Daffron, 2013, p.314). However, according to the business author
Simon Sinek there may be a missing P here: People. Sinek argues that strong marketing and
strong companies such as Apple and Google start with why. They start with their culture and
personality first and deal with the how and what later (Sinek, 2009). They market a personal
story or status above the product itself. !

With the fifth P, we can look at the Swallahs venture, MathLearningSoftware.com. They are an
extremely small but successful learning software company. Mwenye and Ayo Swallah are both
software developers living in San Francisco, having moved from Ghana a few years ago. Ayo
had recently completed her Masters in Mathematics from the University of Ghana, but both of
them have been math experts for years as shown in their product. They offer software packages
that include video lessons, tutorial games, and drilling for math at levels including all of K-12.
Recently, they had begun selling their product at a very low cost as an Adult Basic Education
supplement to several two-year colleges across the United States. They had received requests
to develop STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics) and non-STEM pathway
packages of their software for students of two-year colleges. They felt comfortable making the
transition to the higher levels of math and reengineered some of their lower levels for higherlevel reading and listening. The process took about a year, and the two pathway packages were
complete. They are downloadable via multi-license purchase right from their website. Their
earlier software had been reviewed on a few websites and once on CNET. However, the quality
of their software isnt what makes them special. Its their voices, their story, and their culture.
They bring a unique story to each piece of software as every lesson shows their face and
broadcasts their own accented but eloquent voices. Even the math drilling aspect of the
software is punctuated with music and colors that relate to their Ghanian heritage but come
across more generally as a sense of multi-national pride. As software designers, programmers,
and mathematicians, many are surprised how extroverted and animated they are discussing
their product and helping to raise not only the skills of those who use the software, but also the
level of student well-being.!

That said, the product is still a simple math lesson and drilling software with levels ranging from
basic math to calculus. The use of the product itself quickly cements it as a tool in the mind of
the user, rather than a fun game or tutorial. Though it is filled with story and personality, the
math is still challenging and the drilling meant to challenge even the highest achievers. This has

been one of the technical pieces of their success. Where many math learning software
packages as delivered by the major publishers and distributors of textbooks (Cengage,
Pearson, etc.) are aiming to raise the broader success rates of students, the Swallahs offering
is a deeper challenge meant to raise the bar of that success. The level of difficulty within the
software may be a hinderance for some of the target audience, but hopefully in selling their
story, their why, they can insert themselves into the narratives of their audiences institutions.!

In summarizing a marketing plan, we can categorize their upcoming promotional tour as they
relate to the 4 Ps of Cafarella and Daffron as well as the possibly more important 5th P of Sinek. !

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Product!
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As described above, the product is a set of math learning packages that have been divided to
target STEM students or non-STEM students in 2-year colleges. Two different packages, one or
both may be useful to the potential customers, the institutions offering alternate pathways in
math. The product is available as a multi-platform product working for Windows and Apple and
is several gigabytes in size due to the inclusion of embedded, fast-playing high definition video
lessons. Within the product the Swallahs themselves offer video lessons before presenting
several audio-assisted tutorial problems and then proceed into deep drilling and leveling. Their
instruction style and types of applied problems as well as the high-level drilling make the
product stand out technically against any, if not all, of the offerings from the major textbook
publishers.!

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Price!
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Because of the increased time and level of the material covered, as well as the higher
production values they put into the product, the Swallahs had decided to increase their price
from a very affordable $2000/60 multi-license, aimed originally at K-12 schools, to a more
appropriately priced $6000/60 multi-license aimed at colleges. They understand this pricing
difference may confuse or throw off their potential customers, but they argue that it is directly
related to the quality of content and still competitive compared with the pricing of other
productivity-based software suites in most two-year college computer labs. They also note that
the pricing includes free technical updates as far as fixing any bugs, or meeting operating
system upgrades.!

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Place!
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The Swallahs are setting off to present their product as vendors at four major math-instruction
related conferences that are specifically offered for two-year college faculty and administration,
AMATYC. There is an annual AMATYC (American Mathematical Association of Two-Year
Colleges) conference and also many state AMATYC-affiliated conferences. They have chosen
to attend the primary AMATYC conference this coming year in Nashville, TN as well as the
conferences of the three of the largest AMATYC affiliates for the states of California, Texas, and
New York. The large annual conference in Nashville is first, in November, with the other
conferences following later in the winter and throughout the spring. The attendees will range in
age from early 20s to late 70s, will be predominantly white, and will most likely have Masters
Degrees or higher. The balance of males to females generally in math instruction is weighted
towards males, but its unknown how that will be represented as it relates to instructors of two-

year colleges or representative attendees. Some attendees will also be guests, meaning
husband, wives, children, and friends.!

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Promotion!
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Each event will have a supplied vendor table as paid for with registration. The Swallahs have
paid for a single table, but are bringing four laptop computers, four sets of comfortable
headphones, and three large colorful signs that were professionally designed to compliment
their message: Our product is about culture, life, and success. They will also present at the
four conferences as vendors are allowed and will host socials/breaks at two, perhaps more, of
the conferences. They have a small Twitter following that they will attempt to increase by
creating a 2-part home video journal of their journey From Ghana to Nashville: Love, Life, and
Math. They hope that this story will be shared by their followers and will resonate enough to
gain new followers. It will be posted as a linked YouTube video. There will be a countdown to the
release of the first part on their Twitter feed, so as to encourage views at the specific time of
release in order to boost the video into the trending category of YouTube, even if for a few
minutes. They will also present the video, which includes their personal story, on the home page
of their website MathLearningSoftware.com. !

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People!
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The Swallahs success will come at their own hands as they interact and share their story with
faculty and administrators in person. Interaction is key. They are aware of their accents, their
look, and the novelty of their products style. However, they are also expert programmers and
mathematicians with a very solid and challenging product. They will be competing with huge,
established corporations. Their personality and story are their major selling points. They will look
for any and every opportunity to talk about their product in person, to answer questions and to
engage the public. Mwenye will wear colorful ties and Ayo will walk the halls of the conference
locations freely, interacting spontaneously with attendees. They will also interact in a productive
and positive manner with the other vendors, knowing that a partnership or acquisition may be
welcome as well. Most importantly they have vowed to be positive, smiling, honest, and as
outgoing as possible. This plan, focused on their selling of a cultural or personal connection,
should resonate more deeply than just another product, especially since their product is at a
level equal with their competitors in terms of programming and depth. They are telling faculty
that with their product they can build bridges in students minds to things beyond just the math.
With this people-oriented approach to marketing, they should be successful.!

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References!
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Caffarella, R.S., Daffron S.R. (2013). Planning Programs for Adult Learners: A Practical Guide.
San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass!

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Sinek, Simon. (2009). Start with Why: How Great Leaders Inspire Everyone to Take Action. New
York, NY: Penguin Group