Synopsis: Educational Software – Positioning and Branding
A major test publishing firm’s commitment to providing educators with tools that increase instructional efficiency and promote learning led to the development of software based testing and assessment platform that was revolutionary in the industry. The key element of the system was its ability to closely link assessments with instruction.
The fact that this product was entering a new market space meant that there were no existing branding or positioning paradigms led the client to reach out for help to develop its branding and product communications.
The challenge was to first learn how to talk about the system and what it does from the customer’s perspective. As such, QDI’s team conducted research with educators and district curriculum and assessment directors across a mix of school districts – from affluent to poor – from large to small.
QDI used an open-ended discover discussion that started by asking, “What is your district’s vision of linking computers with the teaching process?” This conversation led to conversations about what people were doing today, what they saw others doing and what they were reading about in the press and educational journals. From this discussion our consultants then moved to the question, “What initiatives are you making to tie assessments with instruction?” This was followed up with probes to understand why they were or were not making efforts in this area and if they saw potential benefits from doing so.
This conversation led to a whole vocabulary people were using to talk about this space and their goals and desires. Our team followed this up with the question, “What words would you use to try to describe what you are trying to do / are doing in linking assessments with instructions. This answers to this question, which were closely related to the discussion about what people were trying to achieve created several powerful branding and positioning ideas.
After reviewing these ideas with the client we conducted a final round of discussion with new respondents who were of the same profile as our original research groups. This time we were able to provide them with a structured discussion of the offering our client was considering in the area of assessments directly linked to learning. We used the language that we had learned in the first round of research and also tested the product names and positioning statements that came out of the first phase of the research.
The result for our client was both a branding and positioning strategy but also an understanding of market adoption and how they could impact the rate of adoption. Our client went on to successfully launch the leading assessment tool in the education market.