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1. THE BEGINNING
This innovation came to life when…
Our founder, a speech pathologist, was asked by a client to put some tutorials together as they were moving interstate. These received some amazing feedback. After providing them, Georgie realised that through the use of video, audio and recordings there was an opportunity to help people all over Australia with their English pronunciation. Since the launch the feedback has been outstanding, with engineers on mine sites, office workers in the city, doctors in the country and professionals all over Australia enrolling.
2. WHAT & HOW
The purpose of this innovation is to…
Help people speaking English as a second language speak more clearly, by giving them a snapshot of spoken English / pronunciation areas that need improvement. Our online courses then allow them to focus on and improve those areas.
It does this by…
The student sending us a recording of their speech made on their phone or on our online recording tool. We provide the script which tests all of the sounds in English and areas that impact on pronunciation. Our speech pathologists then listen to the recording and provide spoken recorded and written feedback.
3. PURPOSE & BENEFITS
This innovation improves on what came before because…
Assessments have only been provided face to face. By using widely available tools like a mobile phone, the student can now get a detailed written report and feedback without seeing someone face to face. In terms of the courses themselves, they are based on language background (Mandarin, Japanese etc.) meaning the student only focusses on areas relevant to their first language.
The benefits to the customer/end-user include…
- Available Australia-wide –previous training confined to cities.
- Saves time — language assessments identify areas for improvement vs those that are satisfactory.
- Convenience — user just needs phone/web access.
- Cost — training equates to 25% of the cost of previous model.
4. COMPETITIVE LANDSCAPE
In the past, this problem was solved by…
Face-to-face training by a small number of speech pathologists/linguists, generally confined to the cities. Training can now be accessed all over the nation/world. In the past, scale delivery was achieved through classes of ESL students and nationalities mixed together; this wastes time as people from Russia need to focus on different areas than people from China etc.
Its predecessors/competitors include…
Face-to-face training called accent reduction or accent modification. This involves a student having 6 to 10 sessions with a pronunciation expert which can cost anything from $80 to $150 per hour.
5. TARGET MARKET
This innovation is made for…
People whose first language is one other than English who have a good vocabulary and a good knowledge of English but have trouble being understood. This will be because the sounds, sentence and word stress, rate we speak and many other areas will be different to their first language and English pronunciation is not often taught when people are studying English. We work with companies in IT, engineering, sales, medical professionals, finance and help desk.
6. DISTRIBUTION STRATEGY
It is available for sale through…
Via online video, audio, written notes supported by free phone help desk support manned by one of our speech pathologists.
Our marketing strategy is to…
Build on our strong relationships with educational institutions, partner with a number of service industry providers, use online advertising a generate PR to create awareness and drive people to our websites.
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FINE PRINT
This SMART 100 profile and the information it contains is a duplication of content submitted by the applicant during the entry process. As a function of entry, applicants were required to declare that all details are factually correct, do not infringe on another’s intellectual property and are not unlawful, threatening, defamatory, invasive of privacy, obscene, or otherwise objectionable. Some profiles have been edited for reasons of space and clarity.
