Group I

Poulomi Dhar 1311389

Shrikant Nikade 1311123
Priyanshu Kumar 1311314
Niharika Mittal 1311179
New Product Development Case Assignment 1
PaGaLGuY


Creating the Largest Online Community
for MBA Aspirants in India
New Product Development Case Assignment 1 Group I

Porter
5 forces
Rivalry amongst existing competitors-
Moderate
Though PaGulyGuy leads the industry
with huge margin while other players
are still trying make a significant impact.
Industry is not saturated

Supplier Power
1. Technology driven: Low Supplier
Power
2.Resourses from Students, Colleges,
Faculty etc.
Buyer Power
1. Students: High as they are free users
of the service and can switch easily
2. Advertisers: High as they may switch
to other channels for advertising space
Threat of New Entrants
1. High as the website is technology
driven and any website providing the
required content and with enough reach
can be a serious challenger

Threat of Substitutes
1. High as facebook community, or any
social media community can do the job
as currently they are doing. Even
coaching centres, periodic journals and
books for aspirants forms a substitute
PAGALGUY.COM- A Success Story
Crazy guy as the hindi meaning of PaGalGuy suggests, was created for all the MBA aspirants who are
considered as doing a crazy endeavor of making multiple attempts to secure admission to the limited
seats in premier B-school in India. Initially targeting only to the MBA aspirant segment, PaGalGuy has
now established itself as a brand in all sorts of online knowledge dissemination space. With platforms
similar to its national level MBA exams preparation, PaGalGuy has successfully extended its purview to
state level exams, International MBA Programs, Civil Services exams etc. PaGalGuys competitive
advantage does not come from online materials or test papers but from the people- Human capital that
it has continuously manage to engage. Its unique model of diffusing knowledge from many to many
rather than depending on a single book or a lecture defines its implicit pedagogy. The aspirants discuss
the grueling problems and the unknown facts amongst themselves which makes the learning experience
more practical and enriching, which has helped PaGalGuy to be a leader in the space. Its different and
modern marketing strategy to engage its users as volunteers also helped and encouraged more active
participation and increased users of the forum, building a virtuous circle.
Industry Analysis:



In such a highly unattractive industry, PaGalGuy has been able to retain its leading position by leveraging
the anxiety and the knowledge asymmetry that exist amongst the entrance exam aspirants and connect
them together to promulgate the correct information. Its key success factor lies in its possession of its
unique resource-its users.


New Product Development Case Assignment 1 Group I



Thus the business model of PaGalGuy is
modeled around its users and the
discussions and knowledge sharing that
happens online. Given below are the some
of the product/ service recommendation
that uses the existing resources and can
effectively create more users, better user
experience and revenue sources for
PaGalGuy.




Recommendations
Increase in User Base Success of PaGalGuy largely depends on user base it has, as more the user base,
more attractive the website is to advertisers and more the advertising revenues. We suggest following
ways to attract new users to the website:-
1. Workshop and Seminars- PaGalGuy has a user base of 500,000+ MBA aspirants. Many of them would be
interested in attending workshops that provide them with tools to crack entrance exams. Organizing one
day workshops that provide an overview of key concepts to be remembered while writing QA, DI or
English exams or PDP sessions for call getters can be useful to aspirants. Workshops and Seminars can
be conducted at a central location in the metro-cities for a nominal enrollment fee. Past years toppers,
alumni of B-schools or experts on the subject can be called to conduct the workshop. Organizers can get
in touch with them through the PaGalGuy forum. The cost of conducting the workshops would be
covered by the enrollment fee. This initiative would help the aspirants to meet others and discuss test
strategies. It is especially beneficial to the students who have not enrolled for any coaching. This
initiative can attract users who are looking out for such facilities. Apart from that it will also help in
offline engagement with the target customers thus catering to a much larger base.
2. Social Media Coverage - Today everyone has at least one or more of Facebook, twitter and google+
accounts. Home screen on these social media platforms show posts by friends. While PaGalGuy has a
Facebook page, currently it does not provide readers an option to share posts on Facebook or other
social media platform. The discussions on forums is limited to participants reading the thread. Sharing
popular posts such as tips & tricks, question of the day, past years questions on Facebook, twitter and
google+ can pull crowd towards PaGalGuy and help increase user base. For this an up gradation of
website to add 3 buttons f, t and g+ which provides the users an option to share the post on their
Facebook, twitter or google+ account can be made. Posts will then appear on home page of users
friends and if the friend is also an MBA aspirant, he might click on the post and thus become a PaGalGuy
user.
Human
capital-users
Accurate
target
segment
Increase in
number of
internet users
Unique
online
platform for
users
Brand
formation
and
recognition
Unusual and
engaging
marketing
strategies
Key Success Factors
New Product Development Case Assignment 1 Group I

3. Other Entrance Exams - PaGalGuy has a general forum for discussions on undergrad level entrance
exams such as IIT-JEE and AIPMT. They need to focus more on these as there are more than 1300000 JEE
applicants and 600000 AIPMT applicants for the year 2014. Thus there is a scope to build user base and
engage users early on. On the home page, there can be two headers postgrad and undergrad with sub
header for each of the entrance exams JEE, AIEEE, AIPMT, CLAT, etc. Since majority of CAT aspirants are
engineers they can act as mentors for JEE aspirants. Long term association with the website can be
easily achieved with this targeting. Features like SMS updates and alerts for major entrance exams forms
release and other important events can be extended to these entrance exams also.
Increase in Revenue
1. Case Competitions and Projects - PaGalGuy can look at developing a common portal which provides
MBA students information on upcoming case competitions and their deadlines. Currently, a company
that wants to conduct a case competition has to liaise with the student bodies in different B-Schools and
hence, spend a huge sum of money marketing the competition. A common portal will provide for hassle
free information dissemination. In addition to this, live projects on challenges faced by a firm can be
assigned to students registered on the portal by inviting for applications and screening based on resume
and personal interviews. Since the portal saves much of the time and effort spent on advertising across
different B-schools, companies would be willing to pay a fee for the service and it would help increase
revenues.
2. Corporate Deals - The biggest advantage of PaGalGuy is that is provides a user base that lies in a defined
segment that is students in the age group 16-24 who are applying for higher studies. They would have
similar needs such as they would all need a laptop, they all would need to travel to test and interview
locations, they would need to relocate to their respective colleges they get admitted to, etc. Hence,
PaGalGuy can reach out to corporates to advertise on their website about relevant corporate deals
targeting the students. They can thus increase their revenue from advertisements. Companies like
Lenovo might want to roll out a deal for all students who are going for higher studies. Makemytrip can
provide travel deals for students. Additionally, companies that provide products for youngsters can also
look at advertising on PaGalGuy increasing revenues from advertising.

Retaining users after MBA One of the major issues which PaGalGuy faces is once the user gets
selected into a premiere B School, they lose interest and leave the website. We propose the following to
retain users after MBA admissions:-
Specialization Panels We propose to have discussion threads and groups on MBA specializations
Marketing, Finance and HR where MBA students interested in the respective areas of interests come up
and discuss their ideas. This thread would be an open group of the students specializing in those areas.
They can discuss new innovations, latest happenings in those fields and comment on them as well. E.g.-
marketing students might discuss an advertisement they found very interesting and discuss the thought
and the research that went behind developing it. All this would have a threefold benefit
I. Would encourage students to become interested in a particular field and understand happenings
around the world.
II. Keep students abreast of the latest happenings which will eventually help them in their placements and
preparation for their interviews.
New Product Development Case Assignment 1 Group I

III. Many students with similar areas of interests can discuss new ideas and collaboration across students of
different B schools can help them start new ventures.

New Features and Services To Be Added
1. Personalized Pages Most users on PaGalGuy have login ids. Users login to check what interests them
and be better prepared for their upcoming selection processes. It often so happen that a particular user
might find something interesting and wants to come back to it at a later time for revision just before his
interview D Day. So we propose developing personalized pages for the users. Whenever a user finds
something interesting and of utmost importance to him, he can save that link, that content to his page.
(Much like how for online shopping, we save products and add them to our cart). Next time when he
logs in and visits his personalized page, he can refer those at a glance saving him time and effort.
2. Chat Options The current functionality of PaGalGuy with the assumption of all posts being made
public. Users comment on a thread which is visible to all and garners fresh new comments from all other
users. We propose a chat options box on the right hand side bottom of the page (much like the chat
options box on Facebook). The users who are online will be shown with a green status symbol. The main
idea behind developing a chat box is that there may be some queries by some users which are personal,
which they might not wish to post on a public forum since they are apprehensive of the comments. E.g.-
a wannabe IIMB student wishes to ask a current IIMB student some specific doubts about the
application form filling procedure. On finding the senior online, he can message him and ask him his
doubts. This would help stop spamming on the original thread and at the same time provide a platform
for shy users to clarify their doubts and receive a much more personalized help and expert opinion.
3. Online Classes Often, due to the high fees charged by the coaching institutes many MBA aspirants do
not seek admission into them. But keep following the PaGalGuy threads and discussions as well as the
study material and content to get prepared. But along with this, a classroom like teaching where specific
topics are covered and different types of problems and exercises are solved would help target this set of
audience. Online classes held on an Online Web Portal like WebEx where participants can join in through
login id and access though a link can be helpful to the students. Also through the chat option, they can
message the doubts to the faculty who can then clarify their doubts during the session. This will enable
PaGalGuy to target a much larger audience and spread more through word of mouth if the sessions are
really helpful. Also PaGalGuy can generate revenue from advertisements that they can show at the sides
of the online classes video screens.
4. Mobile App Since most users are smartphone users as well, we propose Pagalguy to launch a mobile
app version of their website wherein users can access the site even on the go. An User Interface of the
same can be as shown in Exhibit 1.
5. UI on Website We also propose a change in the design of their current website as shown in exhibit 2.





New Product Development Case Assignment 1 Group I

Exhibit 1:




























New Product Development Case Assignment 1 Group I

Exhibit 2: