知道为什么中国私立教育产业一直存在诸多问题么？仔细看看标题，这就是答案：优质教育不在于输赢。在中国，教育同其它产品一样，被市场化、品牌化了，这也是困扰我的源头——有时我自认为竭尽全力为客户找到了教育孩子的最优方案，但往往不被采纳，石沉大海。所以当再有客户要求我为他们建立合理的教学方案时，他们则要明白除非他们拥有明星代言人或是“星导”，不然我们根本没有谈的必要。
明星代言在中国广告业的初期就已经涉及，我记得《中国日报》曾经入木三分地指出，古往今来中国和中国人向来有着强烈的集体观念和排斥风险的本性，这也就在一定程度上导致公众人物给商品带来可信度变得超级强。在我之前的“只用1对1学习?别在被坑了”中我也曾写道：“我注意到不论是大街小巷还是车站商场，有关教育的大横幅广告比比皆是，更有意思的是，无论哪个广告上基本都有一位高人气明星代言人，可是这些中的许多看上去都是满满的违和感，令人不禁质疑——讲道理，这真的合理吗？”
我敲出上面那段话的时候每个字都发自肺腑，但不要误解我，我并不是想批判明星代言本身，毕竟许多客户还是很愿意向明星代言的方向去发展的。只是想想，打个比方，身为演员的明星去演绎英语情景化学习的广告，讲道理我根本无法想象这个打开方式，而且这也让我开始质疑广告的可信度。中国人对明星代言如此陶醉的唯一原因在于他们认为只要明星愿意用某样产品，无论他们是否真的使用还是摆拍，那么其产品势必是相对安全可信的。当然啦，明星们的高颜值和人气在某种程度上确实会抵消他们的非专业性，有时候甚至可以将明星们的“颜”直接转化为某一种类商品的权威性及品牌所属性。信任战乃中国商圈之根本，尤其是在消费者们四处被坑被宰的时候，如此一来通过明星取得消费者信任便成为各大企业工作的重中之重。
另一种现象对于东亚来说也很独特，尤其像香港一类的地区，补习天王、天后们的出现衍生出了一种全新的教育形式，英国BBC曾对此称：“光鲜的外表下，明星家教们在别致发型和各种设计元素的衬托下享受偶像般的待遇，并带着粉丝加入到自己的行列。” 逐渐，高级教育公司意识到只要是以人为中心的教育需求，没有能离得开人物包装，整个教育产业都应该遵循此原则，不然就会落伍脱节。
我从不是一个追名逐利的人，也从不认为简单地和大家或是客户分享人生经验我就能出名。同样的，我许多客户们也是这么认为的，但是总有那么些时候，当你看着优秀产品退居二线慢慢被埋没，shitty产品却莫名大卖的时候，当你看着shitty产品用“强势”公关团队来冲淡客户差评的时候，你会感到厌恶。简单地说，半数shitty产品没什么实际功效，但消费者总是不断地接着买，只因真正的好产品未能得到足够的曝光。俗话说，外貌和金钱都重要，如果你想引起消费者的注意，就按本文说的做吧。
希望这篇文章对于从事教育工作的读者们和作为家长及学生的读者们都能有所帮助。我在此不得不说我是通过“血的教训”才得来这一番经验之谈的，所以请读者朋友们相信我，如果能参与帮助到大家那我一定在所不辞，尽力帮助大家攻克难关。不幸的是， 有时在适当的时候，你可能不得不接受一些粉墨修饰的的概念，比如超级明星之类的元素，那你的教育产品应该还有很长一段路要走。
——————————以下为Andy老师英文原稿——————————
The best education product does not always win
Do you guys know why there are a multitude of problems with the private sector education market in China? Because the best educational method/product does not always win. It's like any product really,you need the marketing and branding For people like myself that have been frustrated by this for years, when you help clients try really hard to build a product that really optimizes students’ learning, only to be drowned there. These days, I have ensured all my clients understand that if they are trying to build a proper teaching product, they either need celebrity endorsements or build up their own star instructors.
Celebrity endorsements for years have been involved in China’s nascent advertising industry, and as China Daily quite rightly puts it, the Chinese have a history of risk-aversion and collectivism, which means to see a public figure endorsing a product automatically gives it more trust than usual. As I even mentioned recently in my article titledIf you only use 1 on 1 learning, you are getting scammed!- “I’ve noticed a phenomenon lately, there are tons of online education banners across numerous bus stations, subway stations, malls etc and a lot of them also feature a very well-known celebrity but whose presence on there makes you question, huh? Why XXXX is advertising for this?!”
The above is absolutely true, I’m not trying to bash on celebrity endorsements because I also have clients that are exploring such advertising opportunities, but think about it - if you need a celebrity Tang Wei to endorse situational learning of the English language, whom by the way I think is a phenomenal actress, but I really don’t understand why she is even relevant, then it really makes you question source credibility concerns. The only reason why Chinese people fall for this is because many seem to think that there is more trust and it is safer if a celebrity is willing to use the particular product (whether or not he or she actually uses the product in reality...go figure). Of course, physical appearances can neuter any doubts about the celebrity’s expertise, to the point where attractiveness alone can transmit authority over a particular category of products and brand ownership. Trust is the essence of business in China, especially when people get scammed and ripped off everywhere, so having that celebrity back your product up is why companies believe is all-so-important.
Another phenomenon that is quite unique to East Asia, and in places especially like Hong Kong, there is the advent of tutor kings and queens. As BBC News once mentioned about this trend, “looks sell. Celebrity tutors in their sophisticated hair-dos and designer trappings are treated like idols by their young fans who flock to their classes.” The top educational companies are beginning to realize that any people-centered education needs proper branding(人物包装), and the entire educational sector needs to start playing catchup if they haven’t already done so.
Look, I’ve never been one to chase fame nor am I craving it, and I certainly don’t think fame will arrive on the sole basis of sharing with you guys and my existing corporate clients my real-life experiences. Likewise, most of my clients feel the same way as I do, but there comes a time when you get sick of awesome products get shoved in the background and watch all these shitty products get so much traction that they can afford to hire kickass PR teams to drown out customer complaints. I mean, half of these products don’t work yet customers keep coming back for more because the better products never get any sort of proper exposure. As the old saying goes, money and looks matter! If you want to make sure people even pay attention to your product, then you need to treat this article of mine as a doctrine!
For all those of you honest educators and school administrators out there that are trying to reach my other group of readers - parents and students, I hope this is good food for thought. Trust me, I learned the hard way so don’t fall for this trap. I’d be happy to get involved and help you out on your mission, because I’ve certainly made it mine to assist those that fight an uphill battle. Unfortunately, sometimes when appropriate, you may just have to embrace that concept of adding a bit of gold dust, i.e. a superstar element, will go a long way in pushing your educational product.
Translations Guide:
If you only use 1 on 1 learning, you are getting scammed!
Andy老师简介：
- Multicultural and multilingual: Grew up and lived in a number of countries, American-born Chinese and Third Culture Kid (TCK)
多文化和多语言:在多个国家成长和居住；美籍华人， 典型第三文化人士(TCK)
- Leader in empowering corporate training and recruitment professionals with assessment methodologies and project-based learning andragogy
为企业培训和招聘人士提供领先评估体系和游戏化的项目式学习的职场教学法领袖
- Decade of experience in education and training, and expert in China
十年以上的学生教育和企业培训的经验:并被很多本土和国外人士称为“中国通”
- UC Berkeley Alumni Club Ex-Leader and Recruitment Ambassador
毕业于世界名校加州伯克利大学并担任校友俱乐部前任负责人和前任招生大使
- Third-party Interviewer for College Admissions
美国第三方面试官(很多大学现在需要学生在提交申请书与第三方机构进行面试)
- Helped build a number of college admissions counseling departments
负责搭建多个海外升学指导中心
- Unlike most “education experts”, personally attended more than a dozen schools growing up and personally went through the AP, IB, British, Singaporean and Hong Kong education systems
相比其他所谓的“教育专家”，从小上过十几所学校，亲自体验过AP、IB、英国、新加坡和香港的教育制度
欢迎大家关注其自媒体平台Andy Z老师。