Project report for Lession Builder 2.0. Final project for Integrated Marketing Communications at UCLA Extension, Spring 2010.

1. By Home Education Networks
Grace Cheung
Alex Chyu
Márcio Jucá
Bartek Malecki
I. Abstract
In today’s online space, there are dozens of websites that offer free, useful, educational content that is
meant to be utilized by teachers and students. What doesn’t exist, however, is a simple-to-navigate
destination that aggregates and organizes all this information together in one website. This is where
Lesson Builder 2.0 serves a need for the public. We take what is available and make it easy to operate,

2. whether you’re using it to teach or using it to learn. Lesson Builder 2.0 is the only place you need to
remember.
II. Executive Summary
Home Education Networks is proud to introduce Lesson Builder 2.0, an online resource for
educational content. The newest feature incorporated into the second version of Lesson Builder will
allow educators to create lesson plans and sell them in our online marketplace. How that works will
be explained in further detail later.
The area of the educational market where we see the greatest need for our product is with home
educators (homeschoolers). Over one million children across the country are homeschooled each
year; a number that is on a steady rise. This number may be even higher if parents have better tools
and resources to teach with. We provide the opportunity to “Teach. Learn. Your Way.”
What we wish to achieve in this market is a 1% share and $1MM in company revenue after the first
year. To hit this goal, our integrated marketing plan will keep the needs of our target market in mind
on every phase of the business planning process.
III. Stakeholders Analysis
Company Analysis
Mission Statement
To help parents be the best teachers they can be.
Vision Statement
To provide the most comprehensive, flexible and rewarding lesson planning resource on the market
using the latest internet technology.
Description of Brand
Home Educational Networks is a small, progressive, technology-driven start-up. Our goal is to
develop a community around our product, and we provide the most comprehensive and easy-to-use
lesson builder around. By integrating the Internet and Web 2.0 technology, we put the power to teach
back into the hands of parents.
Positioning
We chose "quality of resources" and "choice of curriculum" as the two most important attributes of
our product, because we found those to be the two key factors in a couple's decision to homeschool
their child(ren). Public school, on average, is placed lower on both the "quality of resources" scale and
the "choice of curriculum" scale. In public school, students do not have much of a choice in what they
learn. Private schools and charter schools are on the high end of the quality scale, but in these
schools, students still do not have a choice in choosing their curriculum. ReadWriteThink.org,
Scholastic, and EducationWorld.com are medium quality lesson planning tools for teachers, not
parents. Time4Learning and Homeschool.com are homeschooling resources for parents and students,
but these services are not perceived as high quality. Underground homeschoolers, those that do not
follow any set curriculum, fall on the lowest rung of the quality ladder, while falling high on the choice
scale. K12.com, Lesson Builder 2.0's closest direct competitor is the highest quality educational
resource on the list, since these courses are created by "course experts and curriculum designers," but

3. given that much of the material is scanned from textbooks, it falls somewhere in the middle in terms
of a flexible curriculum. Finally, while Lesson Builder 2.0 is not the highest quality product on the
market, it is the most flexible, serving these needs of our primary target market, the "educational
homeschoolers."
Company Integration
Since our company is a start-up, not much needs to be done in terms of integrating company
operations with the company mission. However, we will also be maintaining a company blog that will
provide lessons and tutorials that help parents refine their teaching skills, publish news related to the
homeschooling community, etc., consistent with our mission to help parents be the best teachers they
can be. Parents will be able to ask questions and communicate with one another by commenting on
blog posts.
SWOT Analysis
Strengths:
• Sense of community
Weaknesses:
• Comprehensive
• New company, unknown brand
• Flexible
• Unlike other homeschool resources, we
• Accessible (free to join)
do not provide original content
• Financially rewarding (for those that
participate)
Opportunities:
Threats:
• Homeschooled students are growing
• Perception of homeschoolers as "weird"
15-20% per year (U.S. Census), so
and "anti-social"
there's a lot of growth within this market
• Government is currently trying to
• We can also work with the government
regulate homeschooling
to help set standards for homeschooling
Customer Analysis
According to the 2003 National Household Education Survey, there are about 1.1 million
homeschooled students in the United States (Isenberg, 387). In "What Have We Learned About
Homeschooling?" Eric J. Isenberg groups them into four distinct categories:

4. • Educational homeschoolers (48% of the market): Those that homeschool because they
are unhappy with the school environment or academic instruction. Educational
homeschoolers will be our primary target market for this particular campaign.
• Religious homeschoolers (30% of the market): Those that want to incorporate religious/
moral instruction into children's education.
• Mental health/behavioral problems or other special needs (14%): Those that
homeschool due to mental health or behavior problems, like autism.
• Other (9%): Those that homeschool for any other reason not already listed.
Demographic Information
Of the 1.1 million homeschooled students in the U.S., most tend to be non-Hispanic White, live in
households headed by a married couple, with one parent not working (i.e. stay at home mom). These
families tend to be moderately to very well educated and reside within the middle to high end of the
income scale. It is important to note that 60% of these families have one stay at home parent - which
appears to be the most important factor in determining whether or not to homeschool a child. Most
families that homeschool live in suburban and rural areas of the West and East coasts.
(Bauman, Kurt J., 2001)
Market Value
Assuming that each student is worth about $200/year to our company, then the total market value
equals $220 million.
Qualitative Information
Parents of educational homeschoolers want a better academic experience for their children than
what's available to them in their current market (Green, 278). Since many of these family live in rural
areas, they don't have access to a high quality education available near large metropolitan cities.
These families also want to actively participate in educating their children and stay involved in their
children's growth (Green, 278). In "Why Do Parents Homeschool? A Systematic Examination of
Parental Involvement," Green and Hoover-Dempsey concluded that these parents "believe that they
are personally responsible for their child's education and they are capable of educating their children
well in ways consistent with their priorities." (278).
According to Homeschool.com, common problems that parents run into when homeschooling their
children include: organization (difficult to stay organized), planning (planning lessons can take
anywhere from 3-10 hours a week), choosing the right curriculum, and adapting to their children's
learning style. We built Lesson Builder 2.0 to be a solution to these problems.
Competitor Analysis

5. Our closest direct competitor is an online learning program called k12.com. This company develops
their own curriculum and distributes the materials via the Internet. Courses are "developed by
curriculum experts and course designers individualized for each student." Their mission? "To develop
each child's potential with engaging, individualized learning." Their curriculum is available through
full-time public and private school programs, and it is also available worldwide via their online private
school. K12.com is perceived to be top notch curriculum geared towards academic excellence.
K12.com's current marketing program includes online marketing, affiliate marketing, and sales
representatives. While they offer a comprehensive, high-quality curriculum, their courses are among
the most expensive of online learning programs. This program is not accessible to most people. Our
goal for Lesson Builder 2.0 is to increase accessibility of high quality learning materials to everybody
and to build a community for people that use our product.
Pricing for K12.com curriculum:

6. Other Competition
Other Direct Competitors
Indirect Competitors
Homeschool.com Public Schools
Time 4 Learning Private Schools
ReadWriteThink.org Charter Schools
Scholastic Online Schools
EducationWorld.com No School
Other online homeschool courses Work (16 and over)
Community & Climate Analysis
Currently there is a misconception that homeschooled children are "weird" and "anti-social." We
hope to change this perception by providing a forum for discussion and collaboration with our Lesson
Builder community, education seminars, company blog, forums, and so on. Potential collaborators
are discussed below in the distribution channels section.
One obstacle our company is facing right now is that the government, especially in California (where
there is a large homeschool population), is attempting to regulate homeschooling (see discussion at
'Home Schooling Movement' on PBS.org). To work around this, our company will work with
government officials to create a set of standards for home-based educators and eventually create an
official homeschool association (with a governing board run by former and current home-based
educators). Short term goals will be to include highly experienced and credentialed educators on our
staff to evaluate the quality of content on Lesson Builder 2.0.
We d0 offer seminars, tutorials on our blog, and many other resources to help parents improve their
teaching abilities. Therefore, should parents eventually need to pass exams or earn credentials in
order to homeschool their children, we are confident that our users will be well equipped to handle
that challenge.
III. Marketing Mix
Product

7. Lesson Builder 2.0 is an online program that allows parents to build lesson plans, quicker and easier
than with the tools available on the market today. The website allows users to create lesson plans,
with the option of sharing the lesson plans. A calendar tool is embedded within the program to help
parents organize their lesson plans. On the Lesson Builder 2.0 marketplace, parents will be able to
share their lesson plans, make money from selling their lesson plans, rate other lessons that they've
bought, and share their experiences with other parents.

8. Unique Selling Proposition
The unique selling proposition of the Lesson Builder 2.0 tool is that users can share their lessons on
the marketplace and make 50% back on every sale. This is the key feature of our service that will
encourage more people to participate and create high quality lessons. The lesson develop will make
50% of the sale, regardless of the price the lesson was sold. For example, if a developer created/sold 4
high quality lesson plans at $20/lesson, and sells 20 each in a month (80 plans total), he will make
$800 that month. This can be a viable source of supplemental income for teachers and other
educators that are under-employed.
Key Features of Lesson Builder 2.0
•Free to use for registered users
•User-friendly interface with drag and drop functionality
•Calendar embedded with planning tool
•Instant alerts and updates
•Provides curriculum templates and suggestions (allows for easier planning or for lengthy
lessons). These suggestions are based on a special algorithm that factors in search history,
previous lessons, student's learning preferences, etc. Returns suggestions for most relevant
course materials.
• Assessment tools that help parents assess their children's learning
• Lesson Builder 2.0 marketplace allows users to share and sell their lesson plans. Users make
50% on each sale.
Key Benefits
• Better organization
• Easier lesson planning
• Saves parents time

9. • Allows parents to adapt learning materials to each child's learning style
• Allows parents to choose the curriculum based on what they feel is best for their child
• Extremely flexible
• Gives parents total control
• Building lessons can be financially rewarding
Price
The website is free to use for registered users. The user can access and use all the tools for lesson
building completely free of charge. Users will need to pay for lessons should they choose to purchase
them on the marketplace.
Pay-per-lesson Pricing Model
Users can put their lessons up for sale or purchase lessons in the Lesson Builder 2.0 market place.
The prices for lessons depends on the content and length of lesson. Users can set their own prices, but
we will also have a pricing suggestion tool (again, based on a secret algorithm) to help users price their
lessons. We expect that lessons will average around $20/quarter. To compare, our top direct
competitor k12.com's courses start at $22/course per month. 50% of each sale goes back to the lesson
developer and 50% goes to Home Educational Networks.
Revenue Objective
Our revenue objective is roughly $1.1 million, to be reached by the end of the first year. This objective
is based on the assumption that we reach our goal of 1% market share.
Calculation
• 1% of 1.1 million students = 11,000 students x $200 (average value of each student, per year)
• Total Revenue = $2,200,000
• Home Educational Networks share is 50%, so our revenue objective = $1,100,000
Place
Home Educational Networks is located in Los Angeles, California. The service can be found online at
LessonBuilder.com. Users can access all content online on our website.
In order to increase awareness of our service, we will be forming partnerships with book publishers,
educational organizations, other homeschooling resources, and so on. In return for promoting our
website, we will integrate content and resources from those organizations into our website, expanding
access to those materials to more people.
Sample of organizations we will form partnerships with (furthering our mission of providing the most
choice in developing a curriculum):

10. Promotion
Content & Messaging
Although the homeschooling movement began largely with the help of religious Protestants which
believed that "local schools teach a curriculum objectionable to their fundamental religion" (Isenberg,
2007), the majority of modern homeschooling is performed by self-motivated parents with the belief
that they can offer a better education at home.
As public opinion turns in favor of homeschooling (with 41% reporting that homeschooling is a viable
choice for educating children; Rose & Gallup, 2001) it is important that we build on the momentum
and recognize that people are receptive and excited about the to the idea of adopting homeschooling
with the imagery and content used in our promotional campaign.
Our promotional products reflect this new-found optimism by adopting a positive and inspiring
message that is also reflected in the imagery with clean lines and bright, bleached colors. Our research
shows that homeschooling is motivated not by the distrust or disappointment in local schools, or even
disagreement with parts of the curriculum. Rather, today's home based educators "believe that they
are personally responsible for their child's education and they are capable of educating their children
well in ways consistent with their priorities" (Green and Hoover-Dempsey K., 2007).
It is no surprise that the parents that are most successful with this positive, optimistic approach are,
on average, more affluent, and our messaging will appeal to this demographic by presenting imagery
consistent with middle-class American values. We will address their motivation for a self-actualized,
ideal learning environment by promoting the idea that with LessonBuilder, they are able to make the
complex job of homeschooling a reality without the obstacles that stood in the their way before

11. Internet technology allowed for global sharing of ideas and resources. Our tag-lines will inspire the
customer to believe in their own ability to provide a superior education, and that our product will
make it feasible: "You can do it, we make it easy!"
Because our target audience is primarily female, we will use female models and imagery that's familiar
and comfortable to middle-aged females. The messaging will embody a nurturing, child-focused
mentality, but also list the benefits that all mothers will appreciate: saving time and saving money or
earning extra income by sharing lessons with other. Although our initial integrated campaign focuses
on homeschooling, many of these same principles can be used to pursue future markets, although
emphasis may be taken off the child's welfare and focused more on the opportunity to raise money
(something that teachers from all areas can get behind).
Here is a sample ad designed for print in homeschooling publications, but which could be repeated in
varying media touch-points with minor editing:

12. Media
Being an online business, our website is our primary destination, and all of our marketing
communications will lead our customers to LessonBuilder.com.
The site's imagery and messaging will have a professional and academic feel similar to major
university sites, with clean lines and an intuitive interface (see http://www.stanford.com/ where we

13. hope many of the beneficiaries of our product will attend). By identifying with higher education, we
are putting ourselves in the same category as other organizations which make quality instruction their
top priority. However, there is room for a hint of hip and creative appeal, which will integrate the arts
and crafts nature of some stay at home moms and make the site more fun (see http://www.k12.com).
Lesson Builder's promotional strategy will be directed primarily at print advertising, direct mail, and
banner ads, in an effort to establish our brand with experienced homeschool teachers.
Our print campaign will adapt a long-tail strategy, placing emphasis on periodicals focused on
homeschooling exclusively in order to attract an audience that will be best suited for creating quality
lessons during the launch period. This will also help stretch our budget, as even the most popular
homeschooling magazines offer relatively low ad rates.
We will target the following publications, both religious and secular in order to encourage lesson
creation with large appeal which emphasize the flexible nature of the software:
The oldest, most respected, and
Home Education Magazine most informative $68 to $1275 per monthly issue
homeschooling magazine.
non-religious magazine that
reflects the diversity of the
homeschooling community. Its
readers and writers are
Secular Homeschooling Full Page, 1x=$210, quarterly
committed to the idea that
religious belief is a personal
matter rather than a
prerequisite of homeschooling.
200 pages per issue and a
quarterly circulation
The Old Schoolhouse Magazine of 30,000 we’re one of the Full Page, 1x=$2,300, monthly
largest Christian homeschool
magazines on the market
Online Advertising will focus on established blogs, forums, and message boards focused on
collaboration:
Rotating Main Pages
largest online homeschooling
homeschoolblogger.com Top and Bottom, 468 x 60
resource, 1M monthly visitors
$1,800
homeschooling e-newsletter, Top Banner Ad 468 x 60, $1000,
The Homeschool Minute
recipients an average of 46,000 weekly
homeschooling e-newsletter, Side Button, 140x140, $150,
Teacher's Toolbox
20,000 average recipients monthly
message board, "the #1 Side Button, 120x90, $200,
homeschool.com
homeschooling community weekly
Rounding out our online promotions is an SEO (Search Engine Optimization) strategy that includes
link building with popular homeschooling sites (in order to boost our organic listing in search engine
results) and, continuing the log-tail approach, Google paid listings for less competitive and lower-
priced keywords such as "homeschool plan" and "homeschool software."

14. Additional promotional strategies include direct mail sent to lists in our target locations, which will
include invitations to the Educators 2.0 Conference. This gathering will be sponsored entirely by
Lesson Builder, and will take place in areas with a high number of homeschools. Homeschooling
parents will be invited to attend free classes designed to introduce our software and encourage early
adoption and accelerated database development.
A micro-site at EducatorsConference.com will be the destination for direct-mail and online
advertising focused at experienced homeschoolers, and eventually, professional teachers such as
college professors. The micro-site format will help gauge our success in the developmental period
because only our target audience will have a direct link. We will use Google Analytics software to
analyze the efficacy of the campaign and also to track traffic to LessonBuilder.com, which will also
promote the free resources offered at the conferences.
Timing
We will increase marketing expenditures leading up to Fall season (back to school). Promotions will
begin in early Summer 2011, starting with the Educators 2.0 Conferences in order to populate the
lesson database before additional promotions kick in and encourage more typical users from
reviewing our software capabilities.
Following the initial growth period, we will expand our promotional strategy to include all
experienced teachers to join our lesson building force. This will include public and private K-12
teachers, college professors and teacher assistants, and any other experienced professionals seeking
additional income. In order to keep our marketing strategy integrated and easily accessible, we will
exclude these groups from our initial, developmental phase. This will also help build our brand around
our primary clientele, homeschoolers, but we are open to our resource being used by everyone from
traditional students seeking additional help, to out-of-school adults brushing up on subjects that
spark their interests.
Location
According to the U.S. Census Bureau, " Home schoolers are more likely to be located geographically in
places that have been destinations for internal migration" (Bauman K., 2001). Because our home
state, California, with it's steady influx and exodus of residents, fits this description, we will stay local
in order to maximize our existing resources.
Our only other consideration is State legislation that regulates homeschooling in most of the country.
The following graphic shows the current landscape of homeschooling laws:

15. States shown in white have no homeschooling laws that force parents to make any contact. Yellow and
orange states have more strict regulations, and red states require that homeschooling parents report
achievement test scores and in some cases a professional evaluation is required.
Luckily, although there is an ongoing movement to restrict homeschooling in California, our home
state is still open-minded enough not to restrict our ability to grow our software here.
Objectives
Although Lesson Builder utilizes new technology, in the pioneering stage, the objective of the
promotion would be to increase awareness and knowledge of the brand. This will be measured by
survey using verticalresponse.com, sent to Conference participants and early adopters. We will also
look at increases in click-through rates from our online promotions where the same ads have been
placed for longer periods.
Because sales are needed to meet the expectations of our investors, we will be asking our clients and
potential clients to check our software, visit the website, and participate in the conferences. We will
measure any changes in behavior by monitoring the traffic to our site that is not consistent with
changes in the promotional scheme or content.
Although we have no plans to create artificial buzz through tactics such as viral YouTube video for fear
of backlash from conservative and religious groups, we will monitor organically generated buzz using
Google Buzz. Any negative press or public sentiment will be countered using in-house PR strategies
such as Linked-In group news and Business Week.
Integration
In order to keep our marketing communication consistent, we will stress that our mission is reflected
in every media touch-point.

16. Promotions directed at homeschooling will be integrated between all print, web, and mail campaigns
with strict standards for consistent logo, tag-line, and image treatment. The same messaging will
appear between any ask and destination, in order not to confuse our client and put up any hurdles
between them and our product.
Our company has an integrated marketing approach that understands the needs of the homeschooling
parent and focuses on addressing those needs in every phase of our planning. While incorporating
teachers into our marketplace is a special feature of our product, providing the best educational
resources for our parent teachers is always our primary goal.
IV. Budget
The attached chart shows the projected earnings and expenditures for 2011 and 2012 following the
first year and half after the launch of Lesson Builder 2.0. Two assumptions were made: 1) Each new
user would sign on for just one course initially, to test our service out, and 2) Each quarter we would
retain 80% of users from the previous quarter to start a full curriculum.
We will break even in September of 2012, coinciding with the start of academic year #2.
Earnings: Every lesson purchased earns us $10 in our unique marketplace revenue-sharing model. A
full curriculum of five courses earns us $50.
Total Promotional Expenditures for 2011
Print
3 Months in Summer:
3x Home Education Magazine (@ 1275)
1x Secular Homeschooling (@ 210)
3x The Old Schoolhouse Magazine (@ 2300)
Online
E-newsletters:
6 Months May-Oct
6x Teacher's Toolbox (@ 150)
6x The Homeschool Minute (@ 1000)
Display ads:
6,000 impressions in 6 months
6x homeschoolblogger.com (@ 1800)
Paid Search: Start at $250 a month, increase incrementally in 2012
Educators 2.0
Direct Mail: Purchase two lists, one for teachers and one for homeschool parents to send out
invitations for our two conferences.
Conferences: One national informational conference for teachers, multiple regional conferences for
homeschooling parents
Total: $300,000
Earnings Sept. 2012: $956,000
Expenses Sept. 2012: $880,800

17. V. Reference Notes and Bibliography
Michael K. Barbour and Thomas C Reeves (2009) 'The reality of virtual schools: A review of the
literature.' Computers & Education, 52, 402-416
Bauman, Kurt J. (2001) 'Homeschooling in the United States: Trends and Characteristics' (URL:
http://www.census.gov/population/www/documentation/twps0053/twps0053.html)
Christa L. Green and Kathleen V. Hoover-Dempsey (2007) 'Why Do Parents Homeschool? A
Systematic Examination of Parental Involvement.' Education and Urban Society 2007, 39:2, 264-285
Isenberg, Eric J. (2007) 'What Have We Learned About Homeschooling?', Peabody Journal of
Education, 82: 2, 387-409
Religion & Ethics NewsWeekly. 'Home Schooling Movement.' January, 2007. (URL:
http://www.pbs.org/wnet/religionandethics/week1020/cover.html)