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Building a Kickass Strategy for a Global Enterprise to Break into the ANZ Market
Arming the Coursera for Business team with a brand and content strategy fit for ANZ’s current situation was key.
Strategy / Brand Positioning Workshop / Content Strategy / Content Workshop / Content Recommendations
Content Marketing
CASE STUDY OVERVIEW
When internationally-recognised ‘Coursera for Business’ tried to enter the Australian and New Zealand (ANZ) market to be the go-to learning platform for enterprise businesses, they came up against some challenges. Firstly, they were entering the market at a tumultuous time and secondly, the Aussies and Kiwis are sceptical when it comes to large corporations coming on the scene expecting traction from their global reputation. So, Coursera turned to BlueMelon for expert advice and guidance. We developed a Brand Strategy and Positioning Statement specific to the ANZ market to set them apart from their new competitors. We also created a full-funnel, always-on Content Strategy that took a multi-campaign approach to tackle head-on the specific local challenges we identified through research and workshops. This resulted in Coursera for Business partnering with BlueMelon to execute our content strategy and recommendations.
The SITUATION
Coursera – A Global Success Story
Coursera is one of the largest learning platforms in the world with over 113M learners registered as at the end of September, 2022. The B2B arm, Coursera for Business, has achieved global success and brand recognition around the globe. With locations in the US, India, Europe and the UK, Coursera for Business partners with enterprises to up-skill and re-skill their employees.
Entering the Tough ANZ Market
In 2021, Coursera entered the ANZ market, but were met with certain challenges. As we all know, the ANZ situation in 2021 was quite challenging for everybody. And using Starbucks as a dire example, Aussies and Kiwis are some of the toughest critics in the world, especially if you come to them with a highly-Americanised product or service that hasn’t been strategically localised to our unique culture or ‘way’.
How to Become Top-of-Mind in a New Playing Field
Armed with the goal of being the go-to for employee skilling in ANZ enterprise businesses, Coursera for Business’s challenge was to become top-of-mind amongst the competitors in this new region. They brought with them their overarching global branding and C-suite personas that were more relevant to the US market than down here in the southern hemisphere.
Knowing they couldn’t achieve this goal without help from experts, they approached BlueMelon needing a unique positioning statement based on the current ANZ situation and requiring localised content for the unique way we conduct business here in Australia and New Zealand.
The SOLUTION
BlueMelon – Adopting Agility was Key
From when Coursera for Business entered the ANZ market in 2021 to when they approached us in May 2022, there had been massive changes to the employment and skilled workforce landscape due to the pandemic – and it was changing on a daily basis. We couldn’t trust any of the data or research that had occurred more than 3 months prior. In fact, even as we worked with Coursera for Business over a few months, we had to be agile, continually iterating our findings, and therefore our recommendations, based on the current employment climate and the most-recent government legislation around migrant workers.
The Research – New Discoveries and Old Ways
Through competitor and market research, the team here at BlueMelon uncovered many new findings and confirmed many of the things we already knew. Through SEO research, we discovered that Coursera is perceived as a content provider rather than the ‘learning platform’ they want to be recognised as. We also discovered the extent of the ‘skills shortage’ which was currently occurring from Australian and New Zealand border closures resulting in a lack of skilled migrants, and the huge opportunity this presented for Coursera.
The research confirmed our understanding that the ANZ enterprise market is much smaller than the US, and conducting B2B here is unique from anywhere else in the world. Decision-making in ANZ enterprise businesses doesn’t occur from the top-down, as it does in the hierarchical US. Here we have more of an egalitarian approach. The thoughts of the wider team bear a lot of weight in the decision-making process, so the C-suite executive takes more of a leadership role amongst a ‘buyer-decision committee’. This research was the key to recommending Coursera for Business localise their personas and even reconsider their target audiences for ANZ.
The research confirmed our understanding that the ANZ enterprise market is much smaller than the US, and conducting B2B here is unique from anywhere else in the world. Decision-making in ANZ enterprise businesses doesn’t occur from the top-down, as it does in the hierarchical US. Here we have more of an egalitarian approach. The thoughts of the wider team bear a lot of weight in the decision-making process, so the C-suite executive takes more of a leadership role amongst a ‘buyer-decision committee’. This research was the key to recommending Coursera for Business localise their personas and even reconsider their target audiences for ANZ.
The Brand Strategy Workshop – Aligning Regional Stakeholders
To help Coursera for Business achieve their goals, it was imperative to have stakeholder alignment across the entire APAC region, so we conducted a Brand Strategy Workshop. In this workshop, we facilitated several activities to define:
- What was working
- What wasn’t working
- What they believed they should be doing
- What the pain points were coming into the ANZ market
The Content Workshop – Bringing it all Together
Once again, we collaborated with key stakeholders from Coursera’s APAC region and held a Content Workshop. We facilitated activities to determine Coursera for Business ANZ’s…
- Overall content goal
- Explore the personas’ needs and pain points (considering the need for localisation)
- Define themes and topics
- Explore content types, channels and flavours
The results
Through the research, the Brand Strategy Workshop and the Content Workshop conducted by the BlueMelon crew, we created a full-funnel, always-on Content Strategy. We recommended a multi-campaign approach to tackle the ‘Skills Shortage’ and position Coursera for Business as both the expert thought-leader AND the solution provider. With Coursera for Business taking this stand against the crisis and delivering creative content to the right user at the right time, this unique approach would achieve category cut-through and differentiation, positioning them ahead and apart from their competitors.
Our content recommendations were presented using the Hum, Sing, Shout model to prioritise the campaign (and underlying challenge) which needed to be addressed urgently. So, we were able to present Coursera for Business as the expert on the topic that was already top-of-mind for their ANZ enterprise audience, and then presented the solution to the crisis – Coursera for Business as the go-to learning platform to tackle the skills gap without new hires. BlueMelon armed them with a complete content strategy, content recommendations, and messaging hierarchy to achieve their goals in this new market.
Our content recommendations were presented using the Hum, Sing, Shout model to prioritise the campaign (and underlying challenge) which needed to be addressed urgently. So, we were able to present Coursera for Business as the expert on the topic that was already top-of-mind for their ANZ enterprise audience, and then presented the solution to the crisis – Coursera for Business as the go-to learning platform to tackle the skills gap without new hires. BlueMelon armed them with a complete content strategy, content recommendations, and messaging hierarchy to achieve their goals in this new market.
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