Indian Dance Classes: Promoting Indian Culture In New Zealand

Business Plan and Objectives

Indian Dance classes can be a great idea to start in Auckland, New Zealand because of the increasing migration and increasing love for Indian traditional dance in New Zealand. This led to a creation of great business idea of starting Indian Dance Classes, which is a type of Classical and Folk Dance Classes. A program will help the Indian population in New Zealand to maintain their culture and tradition in other country as well. The business will focus at offering the best Classical Dance Classes to the Indian residents in New Zealand such as Bharatnatyam, Odissi, Folk dances.

The estimated expenses of the business offering Dance classes will include investments like dance class location, the interior of the class, the equipments needed for dancing, coach to teach dance and others. For the purpose, the business will invest its own money and will secure some loan from the bank if required to find the business. The overall expenses of the new start up will include assets, investment in tangible and non-tangible goods and interest on loans.

Start-up Expenses	Amount
Rental expenses Save Time On Research and Writing Hire a Pro to Write You a 100% Plagiarism-Free Paper. Get My Paper	$1000
Brochures	$200
Dance equipments	$10,000
Dance Coach	$500
Maintenance and electricity	$500
Advertisements	$2000
Total Expense	$14200

These are some of the expenses that the company will cover from its own assets and from the loans it will take from the bank

Some of the top dancers and Indians will own the dance class that has huge experience in classical Dances. They will be the sole owners of the company and will start the business in a partnership basis. One of the partners of the business will also be a financial manager, which is essential for managing the financials and operation of the business. These three will create a partnership and commence with the new start-up.

The mission of the business is to start a cultural class for promoting Indian Culture in New Zealand for the Indians staying in that region. Everyone can take part in the class from young to old. The class will consist of different sections to allow every age group to indulge themselves in the dancing activity of their culture.

The business is being started with certain objectives such as:

1. To fill at least 80 percent of the seat in the first two month of the class
2. Retain some of the best Indian dancers in New Zealand’s next cultural programs

• Increase the number of candidates taking admission in the class by 15 percent every year for at least three years of business

1. To send more candidates every year in cultural events of the country representing India
2. To incorporate new type of online dancing institute

The above objectives are set by the business to be successful with the plan and strategies they are formulating for the new business.

Services that the business will be offering to the customers will include dancing trainings, pre dance yoga, specialized dance techniques and some other dance forms. There will be different classes for young children, teenagers and adults. This will be done to teach the participants according to their ability and capabilities. Along with the dancing session, the class will also offer some fun sessions to the students to have some relaxation time. Some of the dancing styles that the class will offer include Bharatnatyam, Odissi, Folk dances and others (Kumar, & Kishore, 2017).

Services Offered

Indian classical dance classes will conduct three separate dance form each day for each age group. Children belonging to the age group of four to fifteen will get a chance to join the young age group class, which will offer them to learn dance from the scratch. Teachers teaching the young age group will help children learn and indulge themselves to new dance styles, which they can learn easily at that age. A different group will be formed for students belong to the age group between sixteen to twenty-five. The students belonging to the age group above twenty-five will get to join the adult group. However, each group will be taught different dance forms depending on their abilities and skills they have at that age (Kumar, & Kishore, 2017). Slowly they will move to difficult dance forms.

All the dance classes will be of two hours each day and some more time will be devoted for fun sessions as well. Morning classes will be held for the adults in two different batches from morning eight to twelve. Children will get the chance to attend the class from two in the afternoon until four in the evening. Classes for the teenagers will be held from evening five till nine in the night and in two batches. Thus, the joiners will get the chance to choose among the timings offered to them according to the age.

Moreover, the dancing class will also arrange for cultural programs for the learners in which they can take part and show their skills and learning during the course. The course will be offered for one year to each candidate and they can extend their course in case they feel they need to learn more. Competitions will also be held from time to time both intra class and with other dance troops from outside. This will also give them the chance to judge their skills from time to time. Some of the different names offered to different group in the class are:

1. Maddham Moves group will be given to the group belonging to the age group of four years to fifteen years of age
2. Jhankar moves group will be given to the group belonging to the age group of sixteen to twenty five years of age

• Thinakta moves group will be given to the group of age group above twenty-five as they will consist of all adult candidates and will learn some of the most difficult and complicated dance steps.

The market for traditional and folk cultural dance has been increasing with the increasing number of Indians in New Zealand. This is due to the increasing immigration of Indians in that country and their aim of maintaining the Indian culture wherever they go. Until date, many cultures have developed their own dancing classes for maintaining their tradition even in the foreign country. Currently there is no such dancing class for Indian Core Classical Dance in Auckland and starting a Indian Dance class is a great idea to attract Indian population in the region. Due to lack of competition from Indian Folk dance, such classes will prove to be a successful business plan. Indian Dance Classes will be offered both to children as well as the adult to capture a wide range of market.

Market Analysis

Market segmentation is an important aspect of any business as it helps the business to decide the type of segmentation it wants to design for its business and the way it wants to penetrate in the market. A company to capture most of the market with its services uses various types of segmentation such as geographic segmentation, demographic segmentation, psychographic segmentation, behavioral segmentation and others (Mokaya, M’Nchebere, & Kanyagia, 2017). The type of segmentation that it chooses depends on the type of business it is involved in. Each type of segmentation has its importance according to the service or product that the company is offering.

The business for Indian Dance Classes will launch itself in the market with two types of market segmentation such as demographic segmentation and psychographic segmentation.

Psychographic segmentation is done by targeting the lifestyle, interest, liking and dislikes of the customers. It aims at one of the most crucial aspect of the customers to attract them to use the product or services. It also takes into account the using behavior of the customer of the services they are offering. Indian Dance classes will target the interest of the Indian participants and their religious sentiments attach to it in order to attract not only Indian customers, also the non-Indian customers residing in Auckland. It will also target the folk dance lovers of the city both Indians and foreigners to learn the India’s most famous classical dance forms. Thus, by this the business will be able to attract most of the participants to take part in the classes and meet their estimated goals.

Demographic Segmentation

Demographic segmentation on the other hand aims at attracting customers according to the age group. It divides the population of region in different age group and targets the most interested age group population that will be most interest on their service. Indian Dance classes will aim at offering dance trainings to candidates of all age group. However, the dance forms and the difficulty level of dance steps will differ according to the age. This is done because the type of service they are offering that is population of all age group loves dance. Class timings will differ according to the age group in order to give equal attention to everyone in the class. Dance class will be offered in three different age group such as from age group four to fifteen, sixteen to twenty-five and above twenty-five years of age.

POLITICAL	ECONOMIC	SOCIAL	TECHNOLOGICAL
· Ruled by a monarchy · Highly stable economy · Good international relations · Democratic country offering high business freedom	· Globalised economy · Highly active in international trade · Ranks 53rd in world’s largest GDP · Highly market economy · Service sector with maximum GDP for services (Newzealandnow,  2017)	· High power distance shows good cultural values and importance to equality in the economy · Love for tradition and ancient cultures · People of New Zealand are fun loving (Country Comparison – Hofstede Insights, 2017).	· Highly digital economy · Technological sector is the fastest growing sector · High growth in information technology (About the Sector, 2017)

PEST Analysis

Table 1: PEST Analysis

Source: (Newzealandnow, 2017)

		Year 1	Year 2	Year 3	Year 4	Year 5
Potential Customers	Growth
Dance Lovers	15 %	500	575	661	760	874
Indians	15%	400	460	529	608	700
Non-Indians	15%	200	230	264	303	348

Table 1: Market Growth for Five years

Source: Author’s creation

The market analysis forecasts the targeted customer for the next five years for three groups of customers such as Dance lovers, Indians and non-Indians in Auckland and some regions of New Zealand. The targeted growth each year is fifteen percent with initial customer range of 500 dance lovers, 400 Indians and 200 non-Indians populations.

Target marketing is yet another measure to be taken by the business to earn maximum income within a short period. This is done with the aim of streamlining the mass market into different segmentation to get better hold of the needs and demand of the customers. For this particular business of Indian Dance Classes, the market can be targeted based of two different groups such as targeting according to service usage and targeting according to decision process.

Targeting according to service usage

Indian Classical Dance Academy can target customers according to the dance service that they offer. The dance academy can use the festival programs and other situational targeting process to target the customers for their business. Their main targets are the candidates that will join the class and they can be targeted in these dance programs. The company can use its promotional strategy in these programs so that the dance lovers attending the program get to know about it. Another targeting can be done by aiming at candidates that will use the service as professional learners to grow their career in the same field.

Targeting based on decision process can also be done by the business by making decision slowly as the business proceeds. This can be done by analyzing the condition and needs of the business and when necessary. For example, if in some situation the company realizes that they are having less number of young participants in the dance academy, they can target the young customers and do their marketing strategies accordingly. Thus, decision process play a crucial role in forming the targeting process for the new business.

Competitive Analysis

The business might also face competition from other dancing academy that exists in Auckland that teaches other dance forms such as JAZZ, salsa and others. There are also Indian dancing academy teaching Indian dances other than classical forms that will offer tough competition to the business. Thus, the Indian Dance Academy needs to offer best dancing service to help the business fight all types of competition. 

Market Growth for Five Years

The Indian Dance class will also spend a good quantity of money in its marketing activity to promote their new dance academy business. The academy can start its marketing work by using direct marketing strategy. This is because direct marketing is one of the less costly and easiest way to market especially by a new business. The dance academy will use mailing system to send invitation mails directly to the schools and colleges and few candidates directly. This will help them offer direct invitation and allow them to visit the class at the day of inauguration. In addition, the business will offer certain discounts to the first twenty students that join the class on that day. For the marketing purpose, the academy should form sales, promotion, and pricing and distribution strategy (Keegan, & Green, 2015).

Sales strategy of the business will aim at offering maximum satisfaction to the customers. The sales strategy of dance academy ill focus at offering discounts to the students on their joining fees to the first twenty students (Baker, 2014). Thereafter it will continue the discounts at a low rate for giving opportunities to the student that wants to learn dancing. It will also offer free dancing demo classes to students as their sales strategy for the first fifteen days after the academy opens.

The company forecast that the first two months of the class would offer fewer sales to the business as initially the business would take time to grow. However, it is estimated the student enrollment rate will increase after two to three months, as more people will be aware of the class. Estimated Growth in the student enrolment rate can be seen in table 1.

Promotional strategy is yet another marketing strategy in which the dance academy will market its service to the students and their families to influence them to join the academy (Huang & Sarigöllü, 2014). As stated above, the academy will initially use direct marketing strategy such as direct mailing to schools and colleges. For attracting students of more than twenty-five years of age, the company will use advertising, as they are the maximum viewers of normal television advertisements. Social media will also be used by the business, as it is one of the most useful and cost effective tool to promote the service. It can create a page stating about the academy with dance forms and pictures. This will help them attract teenage students, as they are the active people in the social media (Ukpabi, et. al., 2017).

Target Marketing

Pricing is one of the crucial factors that attract customers and candidates to join the classes. There are students that will join the class irrespective of the prices because of their love for dance; however, their proportion is very low (Ryan, 2016)). Pricing strategy that the Indian Dance academy will use will be economy pricing. This is because the students of the dance class will consist maximum students or teenagers that does not earn any living. Thus, economy pricing will help the company to attract maximum customers. Along with this, it will also offer discounts to the joiners at initial period. It will be beneficial for the business to use skimming prices once the business has attained some growth and value in the market.

Distribution channel includes the place from where the services will be offered to the participants (Hanssens, et al., 2014). Indian Dance Academy will open its academy in Auckland region taking a wide area. The academy will offer different space for different age groups so that they can practice and learn freely. They will mainly offer the service through this academy class that they will set. They will also make videos of the learning sessions after two or three months of the business and post in students’ social media accounts. This will help the students to get the learning video for the days they are missing the class for any reason.

Indian Dance class will have various employees in the management team to carry out the management of the company. The management team of the company will consist of the operations manager, marketing manager, professional dancers, sales team and others. Each of these members will have good experience in their respective fields such as advertising personnel, web experts, dancers knowing different styles of Indian classical dance and others. This is because management is one of the important aspects of a business to help to attain fast growth. The most crucial person for the academy is the dancers that will train the students in various dance forms according to their age.

Financial plan is important for the business to analyze its growth prospects and the future of the business that it is starting. It help the personnel of the academy to know the total cost the business will need in all its departments and the total sales for the next three years. This will help the owners of the business to decide whether it will be profitable to maintain improvement in the business or not (Ittner, & Michels, 2017).

Break- Even Analysis	Financials
Monthly Revenue	$26,000
Monthly Fixed cost	$ 20,500
Average percent of Variable Cost	5 %

Table 2: Break-even Analysis

Source: Author’s creation

VARIABLES	YEAR 1	YEAR 2	YEAR 3
sales	$200,000	$250,000	$290,000
Sales cost	$5000	$4000	$3200
Salary	$20,000	$20,000	$20,000
Marketing expenses	$15,000	$14,000	$13,700
Rent	$20,000	$20,000	$20,000
Profit	$140,000	$192,000	$233,100

Table 3: Financial estimates

Source: Author’s creation

References 

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Huang, R., & Sarigöllü, E. (2014). How brand awareness relates to market outcome, brand equity, and the marketing mix. In Fashion Branding and Consumer Behaviors (pp. 113-132). Springer New York.

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Keegan, W. J., & Green, M. C. (2015). Global marketing. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson.

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Mokaya, S. O., M’Nchebere, G. M., & Kanyagia, P. (2017). The effect of market positioning on organizational performance in the airlines industry in Kenya; case of Kenya airways.

Newzealandnow.govt.nz. (2017). Economic Overview | Invest in New Zealand | NZ Now.  Retrieved 31 October 2017, from https://www.newzealandnow.govt.nz/investing-in-nz/economic-overview

Ryan, D. (2016). Understanding digital marketing: marketing strategies for engaging the digital generation. Kogan Page Publishers.

Ukpabi, D., Karjaluoto, H., Ikaba, V., Wali, K., & Kpunee, H. (2017). The role of Social Media on Sales strategy: A Conceptual Explication in a High-context Culture. In Re-Inventing of Wheel of Nigeria’s Economic Growth through Marketing: Where Are We Now? Proceedings of the 1st Annual RSU Marketing Academic Conference in Collaboration with the National Institute of Marketing of Nigeria, 3-4 May, 2017. Rivers State University.