Our Recent Work

XYZ Textbooks

Change one variable and change the whole equation

High quality materials that don’t break the bank.

Since 2009, XYZ Textbooks has been supplying economical, expertly written, integrated texts and online tools that help all students achieve success in higher education math classrooms. With the goal of mastering the fundamentals, XYZ’s materials are designed to build critical thinking skills and enhance students’ perception of themselves as problem solvers. XYZ is the wallet friendly choice that never sacrifices the quality of their content.

Challenge

Disruptions in the market made the space more crowded.

From the beginning, XYZ Textbooks has relied on their passion for delivering high-quality educational tools and textbooks at prices lower than other educational publishers to distinguish themselves in the marketplace. With the rise of Open Educational Resources (OER) available at low to no cost to students, they were no longer the sole owner of that market position and needed to reinvigorate their messaging in order to better communicate their unique value so as to continue to grow sales.

Goals

What do you do when your story is no longer unique?

XYZ Textbooks recognized that they needed to better understand the unique value they offered both their instructor and student audiences so that they could update their messaging to better compete against OER as well as new subscription models from the traditional publishers. New messaging would require updates to their website, their primary marketing asset, as well as the creation of a marketing campaign to launch their new messaging. Because they are a small, independent publisher whose team had to be dedicated to achieving sales and editorial goals, XYZ Textbooks turned to Honeycomb Collaborative to accomplish these goals.

Market Research & Key Messaging

Finding the right message to stand out.

We began by conducting research interviews with current and former instructor customers to inform the creation of a SWOT analysis. This was followed by a survey of over 300 instructors to validate the findings and inform future messaging and positioning. Based on findings of the instructor survey, an additional survey of nearly 1,000 student users was launched, in order to capture and include the student voice as part of the messaging and campaign strategy. We developed messaging frameworks to speak to both instructors and students, including elements such as tone of voice, the value of their offering and how it solves the audience’s problems, brand pillars, key benefits, supporting examples, select quotes from research participants, and an elevator pitch. Lastly, we provided new website copy to reinforce the unique value proposition and pillars that were uncovered by the research.

7 out of 10 students prefer XYZ to other college math materials

Visual Brand Identity & Marketing Campaign

Breaking through the noise in an impactful way.

We applied the newly created brand voice and messaging to XYZ’s website. Utilizing insights from our research, we also revamped the user experience to better reflect the user journey and built a more consistent visual language that better spoke to XYZ’s audience and helped visitors navigate the hierarchy of information contained within the site. Using these same elements, we created a series of clean, yet provocative email campaigns intended to stand out amongst the multitude of emails that most lecturers receive on a daily basis.

The research we conducted was not only used for a new digital campaign, but also enabled XYZ to refresh their existing print advertising efforts to focus on what customers seek and value.

Outcome

A new path for XYZ.

More than any other marketing activity that XYZ has done, this exercise drove awareness and attracted more customers to quickly engage with their product. The campaign itself achieved its participation goal and increased web traffic. The XYZ sales team continues to work with customers to convert that interest to sales. Additionally, XYZ Textbooks continues to use insights gained from research in additional campaigns and advertisements.