As a just-needed field, K12 education has always been a must for institutions. In the case of frequent black swans, the mainstream education models are attacking each other for students. For example, large class institutions will say that there are no famous teachers in small classes and 1:1, while small classes will complain about the lack of services in large classes, and 1:1 emphasizes that their user experience is unmatched by large and small classes. Carefully speaking, all the arguments are reasonable, and there are indeed pros and cons between the various models.
In recent years, under the fierce market impact, various institutions have begun to seek a balance between commercial interests and user experience. In this case, the mutual reference between various models has become more and more frequent. As a result, each model that has its own shortcomings and shortcomings provides convenience for the industry's model innovation.
1. Large classes are stuck in acquiring customers
In the current K12 field, the core service models mainly include large-class classes, small-class classes, and one-to-one classes. Among the three models, the large class has won the favor of many institutions with its higher gross profit margin. However, under the conditions of increasingly fierce market competition, the growth problem faced by large classes has become increasingly prominent.
As we all know, the reason why the big class can be profitable mainly depends on its scale advantage, and this scale advantage needs to be supported by a good customer acquisition ability. In recent years, with the influx of a large number of online education companies into the K12 track, the industry competition has further intensified, which has prompted many institutions to start spending money on marketing in order to compete for students. As a result, the country email list cost of customer acquisition in the K12 industry has also begun to rise sharply.
According to institutional statistics, in the field of K12 education this summer, only a few leading institutions have burned 4 billion to 5 billion marketing expenses in one summer vacation. This is not counting the money burned by other small and medium-sized institutions. The money-burning war is evident from this. Large-scale money-burning and fierce battles have led to an “increase in customer acquisition costs” in the entire industry, and even some leading institutions such as New Oriental and TAL have not been spared.
According to the financial report data previously disclosed by New Oriental, as of October this year, New Oriental's customer acquisition cost has been raised to about 400-500 yuan, and the customer acquisition cost on external platforms is approaching 3,000 yuan. The high cost of customer acquisition is due to This is evident. Marketing was meant to keep growing, but the intense marketing wars didn't do that.
On the one hand, the war between the leading agencies has invisibly raised the customer acquisition cost of the entire industry, but the conversion rate is difficult to guarantee. According to statistics, the industry-wide money-burning fund this summer has reached 6 billion, which is twice that of last summer (2.5 billion-3 billion). However, many institutions report that the traffic obtained at high prices has a low conversion rate.
On the other hand, the money-burning war between head agencies has not had the effect of widening the gap. For example, although some leading institutions such as Jobbang and Yuanfudao have gained more users, they have not opened up too many gaps with other enterprises, and the trend of chasing each other between institutions is still the same.
In the long run, due to the anxiety of growth, there will be many marketing battles like this summer vacation, but it is still unclear whether it can solve the problem.
2. Small classes just "look good"
Compared with large classes, small classes have significantly improved in terms of interactivity. As a new class model between online large classes and one-to-one classes, small class classes have become popular in the entire industry in recent years.
Beginning in 2018, New Oriental, VIPKID, 51talk, Ruisi, Leap, etc., have entered the small class track. Among these participants, there are both online 1-to-1 unicorns and traditional offline education and training giants , its popularity is evident.
This model with a class size of 2-10 students dilutes the cost of teachers to a certain extent because of the configuration of one teacher and multiple students. At the same time, due to the small number of students, the small class class features student companions as the main feature. It is hoped that students can become study companions through small class classes, so as to form a better learning atmosphere and classroom experience.
However, the small class model is still at the stage of "looking good", and there are many factors as to why this result occurs.