Many Chinese students seek an international education and they are often a target for international universities. These universities utilize online platforms for advertising to reach students. Various domestic and international intermediaries join to facilitate this online informing as well. On the market combined of the universities and the intermediaries, the online education search service is one of the most popular witnesses. The purpose of this thesis is to investigate the gap between Chinese students and the existing market, and to express how international online education search services should best approach the market. Key value propositions will also be formulated to detail these international services. The research method in this thesis is qualitative, and based on a case study of an international company in Sweden. This company is active in the online education search service and interested in the Chinese market. The case study comprises a pilot launch in China, as well as qualitative semi-structured interviews with employees within the company and with sample students in China. Two additional expert interviews have been conducted external to the case company, in order to increase the reliability of the study. The analysis of this empirical material in conjunction with the literature leads to my conclusion that Chinese students favor complete resources and integrated information, as well as a combination of online and offline practices. Furthermore, the Business Model Canvas is utilized as a theoretical foundation for investigating relevant elements of the value propositions. Finally, I propose a model of approach in both theoretical and practical formats to guide how international online education search services should approach the Chinese market.

According to human nature of having a taste for beauty, advertisers heavily rely on physical attractive male and female models as the product spokespersons to enhance consumers¡¦ liking of the ad, and this is so-called ¡§What-is-beautiful-is-good stereotype.¡¨ Previous research focuses on the impact of physical attractiveness of models on consumer perceptions and advertising persuasion. However, service is different from products due to the high intangibility and interaction with consumers. Therefore, this research takes one step forward to examine how a service provider¡¦s physical attractiveness influences advertising persuasion. The present study uses experimental design to investigate the advertising effects of service provider¡¦s physical attractiveness (high vs. moderate), gender congruence between service provider and customer (congruent gender vs. incongruent gender), and type of service (search service vs. experience service). Thus, 2x2x2 factorial design is conducted. The ad effects are measured by attitudes toward the ad and purchase intention toward the ad to observe the responses under eight different and fictitious scenarios. The results indicate that, a highly attractive service provider is not necessarily more effective than a moderately attractive one. When promoting a service with search attributes, either gender congruence between service provider and consumer or service provider¡¦s physical attractiveness matters in advertising persuasion. When promoting a service with experience attributes, a moderately attractive service provider is more effective than a highly attractive one in the condition of the same gender between provider and consumer. The findings suggest that companies and marketers should take account of not only the match-up of service attributes and physical attractiveness but also the target customer gender to enhance their advertising persuasion.