What product marketing can learn from brand strategy Product Marketing Summit • Chicago • November 2019

What we’ll cover: ● How Quizlet approached defining a brand strategy ● How we rolled out our brand to our product and design teams ● Our brand in action in the product ● If I could do it over…

Laura Oppenheimer Sr. Director of Marketing @ Quizlet

No content

“Failure was one of Jake’s biggest fears. He worried about it privately; maybe he couldn’t keep up with his peers, maybe he wouldn’t succeed in life.”

“Out of 1899 (1094 French, 268 Moldavian, 537 Rumanian) college students included in the current study. The overall prevalence of depression, anxiety and stress was 39.0%, 47.0%, 35.8% respectively.”

“According to the Education Ministry survey of schools, most of the students did not leave any explanation for why they decided to take their own lives. Of those who did, the most frequently cited reason was worries over what path to take after graduation.”

Quizlet’s role: 50M Students 130 Countries 18 Languages 90%+ Better grades

No content

What is Quizlet’s brand?

From our competitors: Source: Knewton, Udacity, Brainscape, Brainly, Anki, Duolingo, Course Hero, Khan Academy, Udemy, StudyBlue, Kahoot!, Memrise

No content

The flashcard issue... “Quizlet is basically an electronic flashcard system.” - Bruce, high school Spanish Teacher “People describe us as digital flashcards. Even people who use lots of parts of Quizlet still describe us as flashcard.” - Vickie, Design Director at Quizlet “Quizlet is a website that you can make an account but you don’t have to, and it’s flashcards.” - Catherine, MCAT prep, USA

We help students achieve outside of flashcards 1

Source: Student/Teacher interviews The more people use Quizlet the more they see the real magic of it. “I like the Quizlet learn - it’s more interactive than flashcard.” - Julia, Year 11 student, UK “it has a bunch of better features that make it faster and easier to retain the information.” - Catherine, MCAT prep, USA “ I almost always only use Quizlet because of different learning features.” - Cindy, 2nd year prep school student, France

We deliver on an emotional transformation for students, as well as an academic one 2

Edtech focused on helping students succeed in school, over-indexes on the rational and under serves the intense emotional journey that is being a student in 2019.

73% of free users said making studying more fun was extremely or very valuable to them. Disinterested “If you have to study but you don’t feel like studying you can use Quizlet. I like to do the test until I master them and then I continue to do them. I like it when I master it. Rewards work.” - Catherine, MCAT prep, USA Motivated and engaged Source: Dec 2018 Quizlet Study, n=2965, User/Teacher interviews

81% of Plus users said Quizlet Plus features help them focus. Overwhelmed I have freedom for customizations. I feel in control.” - Catherine, MCAT prep, USA “It’s great for when things feel overwhelming.” - Julia, Year 11 student, UK “It’s an app that you can control. Quizlet isn’t forced, you can practice anyway you like.” - Numair, HS Freshman, USA In control and focused Source: Dec 2018 Quizlet Study, n=1641, User/Teacher interviews

Isolated “I can look for more information. The community has different things you can find if you’re struggling,” - Numair, HS Freshman, USA “When there is a question I’m confused on I can go to Quizlet.” - Julia, Year 11 student, UK Supported Source: Student/Teacher interviews

69% of users said using Quizlet improves my confidence in class Anxious “It makes me feel proud of myself. I feel more confident and happier that I have something I can depend on.” - Numair, HS Freshman, USA “I know if I put in the time, I will know the material.” - Catherine, MCAT prep, USA “It gave me a sense of achievement.” - Julia, Year 11 student, UK Confident and proud Source: Aug 2018 Quizlet Study, n=1110, User/Teacher interviews

Quizlet transforms more than just grades. It transforms the student.

Brand OS

Actions Pursuit Purpose Belief The modern brand framework contains the building blocks of your story - think of it as the OS of your company. It’s the instructions that will drive the company and business forward.

No content

Quizlet Brand OS

Pursuit 1. Connect students with the content that’s right for them 2. Coach every student through enjoyable, efficient routines 3. Build momentum through quick wins and relentless focus Purpose Make every student unstoppable Belief With tenacity and guidance anyone can learn anything

Learn on Introducing:

Congratulations. Way to go. You just learned something. No it wasn’t easy. Because learning isn’t easy. It’s an adventure full of twists and turns, detours and bumps in the road, unexpected and delightful pit stops. But in the end, it’s worth it. Because every new thing you learn is something you’ve conquered, a secret you uncovered, a prize you get to keep. So keep going. There’s something else to learn right now. Something new to master. Something that will bring you a little bit closer to your goal. Something to celebrate. Learn on.

Product & Design Rollout

The game is rapid idea generation Break into groups of 6 or less, choose a team captain Go for breadth, not depth Aim for quick wins and longer-term initiatives If it’s not on a post-it, it doesn’t exist Interactive brainstorm

Interactive brainstorm Thought starters How can we... - Bring the brand to life through marketing? in new markets? - Use social channels to challenge and reward student progress? To build the confidence of a generation? To help them take control of their learning? To connect a community of unstoppable students? - PROVE the story of student transformation? to teachers? - Create new benefits and reasons to upgrade? (e.g. guarantees, trials, services, content/expertise) - Create a physical presence at events or on campuses? - Create programs that reward tenacious students from underserved communities?

Regroup and share ● Readout of ideas and options ● Group according to theme ● Ideate on what’s interesting ● Go forward plan on what to launch! Interactive brainstorm

Quizlet brand in action

Learn mode

Learn mode

In email

In product

In product

In product

On the product and design side... Celebrating the wins a little more Check in on emotions Create moments of fun and whimsy Be empathetic — the journey is tough

Next time... Get more product buy-in earlier Create a more concrete deliverable connected to brand work ID and execute a few quick wins to bring things to life

New homepage

Quick wins

Questions?