Strengthen Your Brand with Online Learning

When learning professionals think about the power of e-learning, they usually focus on how growing skills improves job performance.  But in this increasingly competitive, services-oriented market, there are few operational elements that differentiate one organization from another.
Today, it is the company brand — both internal and external — that sets a company apart.  And there are a growing number of corporate leaders who see learning as the key to creating winning value propositions for customers and prospects.
Beyond skill development, learning is also seen as a key differentiator in how companies go to market, create breakthrough products and establish positive buyer relationships. This paradigm shift in learning is largely the result of the Internet and the development and use of online learning technologies.

The Role of Learning in Establishing and Growing Brand Value
Classically, a brand was limited to the visual expression of a value proposition. The American Marketing Association defines a brand as “a name, term, sign, symbol or design, or a combination of them, intended to identify the goods or services of one seller or group of sellers and to differentiate them from those of the competitors.”

What exactly is a brand? It’s not a company’s logo or advertising. Those are controlled by the company. Instead, a brand is a customer’s gut feeling about a product, service or company.

A Brand then is what people think of you — it’s the sum of every experience ever had by anyone who has come in contact with it. The Brand must be owned by everyone – and the message must be consistent at every point of contact. A Brand’s core idea expresses the essential truth of a Brand in ways that are relevant and compelling to the target audience - the customer - while at the same time it differentiates from competitors.

Online learning offers one of the best ways to support the mission of the organization and can be a vital catalyst to help deliver on the organization’s brand promise and to reach out to customers.

Why Learning or Online Learning?  Trust
The world still holds a great deal of respect for the personal authenticity and commitment of good teachers. Most people have a story of how an exceptional teacher influenced them and expanded the possibilities of their lives. This leads to a valued commodity - trust.

Because few things build trust faster, online learning can support one of the most powerful brand-building tools available: employee and customer education. Today, marketers and buyers value learning because it is perceived to have greater buyer rewards than many traditional marketing efforts such as direct mail, advertising or some new-breed tactics. Online learning systems provide a way to engage all stakeholders to maximize brand and market value.

How to Increase Brand Strength and Market Value Through Learning

Here are four thinks you can take to increase your company’s market value through your online learning programs.

1. Brand Your Learning Offerings
Learners want a high quality experience, so make sure what you offer enhances your brand.

2. Offer Your Learning Programs to Customers and Partners
If your company has exceptionally high quality online courseware, create opportunities for customers and partners to participate.
Consider offering your online learning opportunities to your key customers and partners. You get the added benefit of creating a peer-networking environment. When people learn something together, they forge long term relationships with one another and your brand.

3. Use Learning to Create and Support Community
Next generation organizations are taking online learning activities into the community, creating broader communities of interest and impermeable webs of buyer brand loyalty. Creating common and relevant experiences helps incorporate new behaviours faster, and increases brand engagement.

4. Expand the Frontier of Learning with Marketing
Take a broad view of learning and development. Ask, “Where is learning happening in our employee, client and community systems? Where could it be?” Find the market-savvy employees in your organization and team with them to leverage capabilities to create and market outstanding online learning programs.

5. Develop Brand Leaders
The fastest way to increase learning’s ability to influence brand value is by developing your leaders at all levels of the organization. These leaders are the most likely to speak with clients, prospects, analysts and the community about your organization’s brand.

Beyond improving individual and organizational performance within the enterprise, online learning is now a powerful way to ensure an organization’s brand, and market value is maximized internally with employees and externally with partners, customers, prospects and market influencers.