Learning Conversations

How often do I hear that? Whether it's in invitations to tender, or meetings with clients, the key thing is always the "product" - the learning materials, the book, the website, the discussion forum, etc, etc...

When given the chance, I always try to respond with some questions:

• Who is going to use this "product"?
• Why are they going to use it?
• What is going to motivate them to use it?
• What will a set of web pages offer over and above a document that people could print out to read at their leisure?
• If it's going to be assessed, then who will see the assessment? What will users be able to do (or not do) dependant on the results of the assessment?
• If it's down to the managers to make people use it, then how will the managers a) know about it, and b) be encouraged to promote it?
• How will users find out about the "product"?

There's one word that describes this - marketing. And it's the one, absolutely essential thing that most people leave out when they are designing learning programmes or resources.

Here's a scenario:

Imagine I've been asked to write a book. It's going to have fantastic content, brilliantly laid out, and very engaging! I write it, the publishers approve it and it goes out to all the bookshops in the country. Yet all the metrics (ie. royalties coming in) indicate that take up has been pitiful. I go into a couple of the bookshops to try to find out why. The assistants are very helpful - they find my book on their systems and point me to it, sitting at the back of the shop, along with hundreds of other books on the same subject. I watch, and maybe a couple of students of the subject wander into that section during the day. One of them even takes down the book to have a quick look... But no-one buys.

Let's try the alternative:

I write the same book. It gets approved, but the publisher has also put in place a marketing plan, that looked something like this:

1. Launch day - 4 months: The cover of the book and the blurb is designed, based on the initial draft of the book;
2. Launch day - 3 months: Bookshop staff are introduced to the new book via the publisher's newsletter;
3. Launch day - 2 months: Posters and point of sale marketing collateral materials are commissioned;
4. Launch day - 1 month: Key contacts, such as bookshop staff, trusted reviewers and recommenders (eg. managers) are sent preview copies of the book;
5. Launch day - 1 week: Marketing collateral arrives in the bookshops, reviewers and authors are invited to talk about the book on the media channels used by potential readers;
6. Launch day: The book arrives in the bookshops. The target audience is aware of the book. Their managers are aware of the book - and why their staff should read it.
7. Launch day + 1 week: The book has lived up to expectations and is attracting a wider audience.

Of these, only the last point is in the control of the author - the rest has been addressed by the publisher. But how many organisations procuring learning materials put this amount of effort into ensuring they are going to be used? How much money is wasted simply because people are a) not aware of the materials or b) not engaged enough to seek them out?

Elliot Masie wrote about this in a 1999 Special Report from a CBT Conference: "Marketing must be an integral and continuous core component of implementation!"

Yet, we're still in the situation where, usually, by the time the materials suppliers are brought in, it's already too late to put much marketing effort together...