India as a country highly prioritises education. Parents make sure that their children receive a quality education even if it means they need to shell out a lot more money. However, there are two things to note here. Education is by no means cheap and in India is largely offline. This is where upGrad comes in. They offer courses at varied price points to cater to different segments so that people of all ages can learn and up-skill themselves. Learning is a life-long process and through online education, it can be easily achievable. Storyboard18 caught up with Mayank Kumar, co-founder and managing director at upGrad to understand how the company is successfully infiltrating the Indian market and how co-founder and chairperson Ronnie Screwvala’s role as a shark on Shark Tank India and as a face for upGrad, is playing out for the brand from a marketing POV.
Edited excerpts.
What are emerging trends in online education that you are hoping will catch on and are looking forward to this year? How are you preparing to leverage them?
The emerging trend we see is that the world ecosystem will be about lifelong learning. Education won’t be a one-time endeavour; but rather an ongoing process. People will continue to come and upscale and rescale and take on new skills because, in the context of the current job market, the skills are getting outdated quickly. If you are not reinvesting in yourself, there are always chances that you will get obsolete and fall behind the career track. Therefore the one big thing that we see is around upskilling, reskilling, and lifelong learning. Lifelong learning is the big theme that we are going to witness in 2024.
We will also see a strong coming up of not just individuals investing in their learning but the corporates investing in upskilling their colleagues and employees etc. We will see that in the IT sector a lot more. And we will continue to see that in other sectors also given the entire ongoing shift about companies and enterprises investing to upskill their employees. Otherwise, the productivity will start falling.
Another important aspect is the emergence of AI and gen AI. These two won’t remain as just a hard skill. Anybody and everybody needs to know the tools of AI and gen AI. Individuals coming from all sectors such as journalism, marketing, finance, and technology need to know gen AI in a meaningful manner because there’s going to be significant productivity gain and enhancement that will drive a lot more push towards upskilling and reskilling.
I also believe in the online education sector, distribution and reaching out to the audience will happen via hybrid and offline modes. We will see companies establishing offline presence and offline mediums to reach wider consumers and learners that otherwise in the digital medium they are finding challenging.
What key differentiators does upGrad offer compared to other online education platforms? How do you maintain a competitive edge in the market?
The key differentiator or the key message for upGrad is that we are always very outcome-focused. For us outcomes and results such as placements, promotions, or moving up in your job are crucial. Hence, the focus on outcome is our biggest strength. In education, unless you focus on these skills, people will not come back to you again to learn. If there is no result, people won’t invest their money and energy in your platform. Therefore focus on outcome is our biggest differentiator.
We focus largely on constant learning, constant training, and constant evolution of the delivery model. But our biggest advantage is we have a large placement team. The placement team goes out and reaches out to companies. As a part of our MNA strategy, two companies are focused on staffing and placements, and those are sort of extended placement arms, which we work towards extending our presence and providing outcomes for our learners.
How is upGrad preparing its students for the evolving demands of the future workforce? What skills and competencies are you focusing on in your programs?
The approach for us is, we need to work with our learners for constant upskilling and reskilling and that’s what we are focused on. Our focal point is what we invest in terms of content and curriculum that leads to results and outcomes.
When we work with learners, they keep coming back on an ongoing basis to work with us, engaging with us and for a lifelong learning journey. Hence, constant reskilling and constant touch help our learners to evolve and move up in their journey.
It is difficult to get an Indian consumer to pay for a product. How does pricing strategy work at upGrad and how do you get the consumer to pay?
Indian consumers are very particular about pricing when anything comes into the ecosystem. Indian consumers look for the right pricing approach. Hence in our journey, we have a wide variety of products that we offer. Our product offering starts at the lowest range of 15,000-20,000 rupees and goes up to 5-10 Lakhs. If somebody wants a quick upskilling, we have a very strong focus in terms of providing them with 15-20 thousand rupees product or if they want a slightly more advanced and deeper learning, we provide them with offerings ranging from 30 thousand to 1-2 lakh rupees product.
But to your question, the big point about price point is the context of what people see as the value of that particular product. You have an educational product where you can go to Harvard and pay 1-2 crores, and you have a great educational product in India where you pay 15-20 lakh for an MBA, or you have an MBA product at 2-3 lakh also. The reason why people pay a certain price point is because of the perceived and demonstrated value of that particular product. So in our context where a learner comes with an average cost of 2 lakh rupees, when he comes to us and says,” Hey guys, look if I’m coming and paying for a 2 lakh rupee program, and if I’m coming with a 6 lakh rupee entry salary, do I land up at around 8-9 lakh exit salary?” So if they see that type of transition, they see the value of paying that amount of money. So in education, the price point at the end of the day is a function of the value that it can bring, and that’s why outcomes matter. If outcomes are strong, then people are willing to pay that price point.
You have enough examples. You can get an MBA at 1-2 lakh rupees, 10-15 lakh, 40-50 lakh, going up to 1 crore. Why do people pay that kind of money? Only because of the kind of value that product can deliver and demonstrate. This was one part of it. The second part of it, let’s say in case the value is good, and the price point is higher, then you do need to bring in financing and support in terms of providing EMIs and EMI solutions for many people to afford that kind of education. Everybody in this country wants to invest in education, but if there is a challenge in terms of what you can afford, then potentially your approach of coming up with the right financing schemes helps in pushing the demand for those particular products.
Ed-Tech is an interesting space, especially from an advertising and marketing standpoint. Is marketing for an ed-tech product or service any different than others? What are the marketing strategies upGrad’s undertaking to increase its consumer base?
There is a difference for sure because education as such does not fit in the marketing domain because education is not supposed to be marketed. What a lot of online education companies are doing is creating behaviour that does not exist. We are used to the behaviour that we believe after our formal education, once school and college end, we don’t need to spend more on education. But if we ask this same question about how much others spend on their child’s education, the answer is going to be very high. Hence, when you are creating that behaviour then a push to ensure that people understand lifelong learning as a concept, as a skill is important.
It’s not marketing about the product, it’s marketing about the more important ecosystem. When you are looking at offering these programs what kind of marketing do people potentially look for, the only thing that works in education is outcomes. And therefore you have to demonstrate outcomes. When you are talking about outcomes, that’s the kind of pitch and message that people take very positively. Hence if you are focused on the message, you are creating the market as well as putting education in a positive light.
Education then, is an ROI-focused business, right? Quality education means you spend more.
Education is purely based on ROI and very strongly outcome-led. ROI could be in multiple ways such as salary increments, promotion or it could sometimes also be that you can lead a larger team. In my family, there was not a single person who had done a master’s education. I am the only one who has done it and it’s a matter of pride. For a father, an ROI is that I have done a great postgraduate program with a global university. At least now my son or daughter will look up to me and get inspired. Hence, ROI could be sometimes monetary or just about moving up in career, having more responsibilities, and getting acceptance in society or societal standing and your satisfaction.
A lot of reports have suggested that Ed Tech as a category has had a pretty rough 2023. What are some of the challenges faced in this category and how does one overcome them?
I would not say the entire online education because we don’t use the word ed tech overall, because of one or two providers one should not brush the entire ecosystem. If one organisation has faced challenges does not mean everybody has faced challenges. If you look at overall other numbers, many companies are consistently growing at good healthy rates. The key here is, is education in the online space here to stay? Absolutely. Will people learn online? Absolutely. Will lifelong learning be a consistent phenomenon? Absolutely. Therefore, we are all very bullish about the sector, very bullish about the ecosystem, I don’t get worried about how things are happening, I believe life-long learning is here to stay. There is no other way people can participate in life-long learning without online media. That’s my broader thought process. Are there challenges? yes there are challenges in certain sub-sectors, certain sub-sectors were doing much better.
The education sector in India is very different. It’s largely an offline world. How do online brands then keep up?
Online is picking up quite a lot and that’s why for us to go into Shark Tank is linked with that thought process also because we believe that people have to understand the efficacy of online education and its value. People have to understand the efficacy of skilling and upskilling and lifelong learning and therefore the medium in that segment is going to be online. For example, forget about schools being offline, for people like you and me, what other option do we have? You cannot leave your job and go to an offline institution. You have to constantly up-scale on your own. Therefore, for you, the only viable option is online. That is the pitch, approach, and focus of communication when we think about our future and try to be ready for the future. Shark Tank commercials are largely focused on the perspective that we have to constantly be thinking about our future – “Aage ki Socho”. You cannot simply be happy with what we have today, we cannot be happy with what we studied yesterday, in the past. If you’re thinking about your future, then that’s the core tagline for us – “Aage ki Socho”, which is constantly thinking about our future, and in the process of that invest in yourself and invest in learning.
That’s why I believe once we start promoting that message, a lot more people will take online education very seriously. In COVID-19, everybody saw their kids studying online, or their relatives studying online. So they understand that online education is possible. People have worked online. So, people have understood that even if I don’t go for a job physically, online work is possible. Now the key message is, we have to consistently work towards bringing up that online and making it ‘rock solid’, and online is ‘here to stay’.
UpGrad has recently re-associated with Shark Tank India. How do you expect Ronnie Screwvala as a shark and a face for upGrad to play out from a marketing POV?
I think Ronnie is doing it completely from his side. When Shark Tank was being conceived for season 3, they came and said Ronnie would be one of the sharks and I think this time they have brought a lot of sharks from outside of the regular set of sharks they have. What is unique about Ronnie being there is, he is one of those few multigenerational entrepreneurs. He has set up multiple ventures and companies, skilled them up and grown them in the process. When a lot of companies and entrepreneurs are coming to pitch, his being there will be a huge value addition to the individuals. From upGrad’s perspective, he is out there given that he is one of the co-founders of upGrad, and has an aura. And we believe that once people see him, they will at least start thinking about lifelong learning and learning on an ongoing basis. Putting a face to a brand helps.
Is it natural for a shark to have their company be a sponsor for Shark Tank and vice versa? We saw it with Lenskart, CarDekho, Acko and upGrad.
Not at all, I think a lot of people have come around this time and they are not sponsors. I don’t think there is a correlation between sponsoring and being a shark. A lot of people who are on Shark Tank are not sponsoring. Piyush did not sponsor for the first season, he was just the shark. Hence there is no connection between being a shark and being a sponsor.
Why do we then see their companies as sponsors?
It’s not necessary. This time Edelweiss’ CEO is there but they are not sponsoring, OYO has come, and they are also not sponsoring. Zomato has come but they are also not sponsoring. So I don’t think there is a relationship, maybe in our case there is an overlap but these two are fundamentally independent decisions out there.
UpGrad sponsored Shark Tanks in season one and now they are doing it in season three. How did season one fare for you and how do you expect season three to fare?
Season one was great and I am expecting season three to be even better. We got good traction and visibility in season one. A lot of people saw us for the first time properly on television. We believe that being out there makes a difference. In this country, “Jo dikhta hai, wahi bikta hai” Therefore, it is important for people to be visible, because you can’t expect that a good product will automatically get picked up. That is one of the biggest fallacies a lot of great companies have suffered from.
Our objective is two things: One, people should understand and accept the concept of life-long learning, constant upscaling or rescaling, etc. Two, people should understand the importance of online mediums, but most importantly come back to our tagline, “Aage ki socho”. It’s about us to ensure that people are thinking about tomorrow and what tomorrow can hold. I want to urge every individual to think about tomorrow, that’s the thought process we want to instil in the ecosystem.