SMART KIDS – SELLING EDUCATIONAL
GAMES AND RESOURCES TO THE WORLD
Smart Kids
Ltd. an Auckland company that makes educational games and resources to read and
understand math’s has won a Trade New Zealand Export Award for its success in
international markets in 2003. Established eight years ago in the family home
basement, Smart Kids is led by husband and wife team, joint chief executives
David and Sun Milne and their sons Duncan and Frase. She Milne, an ex-teacher,
says from just 30 products when it started, the company produces more than 200
produces catering for student’s activities, grammar concepts and numeracy. She
says the international appeal of Smart Kids products was highlighted recently,
when company’s SMART PHONICS was listed amongst the top five products out of
almost 100 in the education trade show in the United Kingdom. The key
requirement for every new Smart Kids products is that it stimulates student’s
minds int eh classroom, teaches them a specific concept easily, enjoyably and permanently
and enables problem solving. David Milne says Smart Kids started selling its
educational games and resources to New Zealand schools in 1995, drawings an
immediate and strong response. It quickly became apparent that the New Zealand
market was not large enough to sustain considerable investment in product
development, and secondly, that their products have done so well that they
deserved wider exposure. “Our export research came down to two options. Find
educational distributors in other countries or set-up own operations. The first
option was less risky and esy to manage but it meant that Smart Kids products
were lost in a wide range of materials. So we went for second option and over
the next few years established offices in Australia, in UK and Canada”. This
has successfully branded Smart Kids as s a leading supplier of educational
resources in these countries. Mr. Milne says the Smart Kids product catalogue
is now sent regularly to teachers in more than 50,000 schools across the UK,
Ireland, Canada and Australia. “ We also sell to schools in the US. In that
market we elected to work through a distributor e didn’t have the financial
resources to set-up an operation that could cover almost 70,000m, schools and
compete with every established educational publisher. He says annual exports
now exceed $ 2.2 million and account for more than 90% of turnover. In order to
grow the business, surplus profits are reinvested back into product
development, infrastructure – the company recently its Auckland operation into
new 20,000 square feet premises in Ellerslie. Mr. Milne says the Smart Kids
brand is now well established internationally with the company enjoying many
competitive advantages, including its New Zealand origin. New Zealand is highly
regarded overseas and we find that international teachers to get hold of
educational products in this country.
Questions :
1. What are the major contributions for
a firm in order to while deciding its markets entry strategy?
2. To what extent direct control and
ownership are critical for Smart Kids export distribution strategy?
(Answer both questions.
Word limit 150 to 200)
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