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Lea Schindler

Brand Story Hero – Duolingo

Brands that do an exceptionally good job at telling their stories are the stars of our Brand Story Hero series. In this week’s instalment, we are featuring Duolingo, the app that revolutionised language learning.

 

Brand: Duolingo

Industry: language-learning

Products: language learning app

Founder: Luis von Ahn, Severin Hacker

Year Founded: 2011

Mission: Gamification poured into every lesson.

 

 

Founding story

 

It all started out as an academic project at Carnegie Mellon University, Pennsylvania between Luis and his PhD student Severin. They knew they wanted to work on something related to education and because demand for language learning is huge, they decided to settle on that.

Over 1.2 billion people are currently learning a new language, and 800 million of them are studying English. Their reason is often to either get a job in the first place or a better position within their company. Unfortunately, learning languages costs money and many scholars are short of that.

Luis and Severin set out to revolutionise language education by making it free. Their message was clear: they wanted their product to be accessible to everybody and to be completely free of charge. In 2011, the two designed a private beta version of their language-learning app for which people could sign up. They decided to call it Duolingo, deriving from the Latin words “duo” which means “two” and “lingua”, meaning “tongue” or “language”.

In that same year Luis was invited to give a TED talk where he spoke about massive-scale online collaboration and introduced the idea of Duolingo. Over 1 million people viewed his talk and more than 300,000 signed up for the beta as a result. In 2012, Severin and his mentor launched the app publicly as a free, science-based language education platform and since then, it has grown to be the most popular way to learn languages online. Each month, users complete over 7 billion exercises on Duolingo and the app boasts a total of over 200 million users today.

Duolingo is also the perfect blended learning companion, which is why over 100,00 classrooms are using the app to improve their language skills. Every student takes personalised Duolingo lessons and receives individual feedback and practice. Teachers can track their students’ progress through a dashboard and can design their classes according to how their students are progressing.

In 2014, Luis and Severin launched the Duolingo Test Centre, an in-app language test that came about as a direct response to customer feedback. Contrary to traditional language tests, Duolingo’s version comes at a very little cost with a fee of only $20, the test can be taken on the phone and the testee gets their score back within 48 hours.

Severin and Luis believe that the future of education is mobile, because it is the cheapest way to deliver it to nearly everyone. Their app provides access to a means of education for billions of people and because so many people are using their product, it can be constantly improved. The Duolingo team observes how their users learn and improve their exercises, lessons and courses based on the data they have collected. Their aim is to create the most effective educational system possible and to tailor it perfectly to their students.

 

Storytelling Lessons

 

#1 Recognise the need

People have been learning languages for centuries, maybe even thousands of years. Nowadays it is particularly important to be proficient in foreign languages, as globalisation continues to make our world smaller and smaller. Up until a few years ago, having limited financial resources would nearly automatically disqualify you from studying languages. All known means of acquiring language skills required money, which many don’t have in abundance. Not knowing any other languages apart from your mother tongue limits job opportunities and income. To break this cycle, Luis and Severin recognised the need for an education revolution. They realised the need for free language education and worked to make it a reality. Now millions of people reap the benefits.

 

#2 Plan ahead

Luis and Severin have a roadmap for the future. They know what their mission and their vision are and are working towards those. Their mission is to strive to be the best new way to learn a language. Their vision is where they eventually want to end up, which is to give everyone access to a private tutor experience through technology. Only when you have plans for the long run and know where you’re headed, you can check whether you’re still on track or have strayed. Correcting your course of action is then the next step, but it can’t be taken when you don’t know where you went wrong in the first place.

 

#3 Data can be your friend

Millions of people are using Duolingo every day and create nearly endless amounts of data in consequence. By analysing the exit quotes of their users, Duolingo can assess how successful their current method of teaching is and tweak it in consequence. To further improve the learning experience, Duolingo try out different structures for language courses with different user groups and examine afterwards who learnt better. The course structure of those who did better is then implemented for everyone. Taking advantage of the data created by the language students has proven to be one of the most important and effective development tools for the app.

 

Storytelling Tools

 

#1 Appoint ambassadors

Duolingo are proud to have ambassadors who help them in their mission of bringing free education to the world. Depending on the interests and areas of expertise of the user, they can be appointed as ambassadors with different functions. Some officiate as course contributors, for example, if they are bilingual, others as event hosts, educators or forum moderators. The ambassadors take a big load off the shoulders of Duolingo’s core team, making their lives a lot easier. At the same time, the ambassadors enjoy certain benefits like an official forum badge, limited edition merchandise, access to community resources or invites to Duolingo events.

 

#2 Create a manifesto

Duolingo have given their mission and vision some thought and have consequently come up with a manifesto which they have put up on their website. They know that people learn in different ways and they want to create ways of facilitating language-learning suitable for everyone. Making language education available to everyone is what they are ultimately working towards, because they believe in equality. In their manifesto, Duolingo have defined true equality as when spending more can’t buy you a better education. They have laid out their beliefs and goals for anyone to see. That way, visitors can get the measure of Duolingo, its values and goals at first glance.

 

#3 Make the experience fun

Learning languages with Duolingo is like playing a game. The exercises vary in type, from listening, speaking, translation to multiple-choice exercises. They are all illustrated or animated with Duolingo’s fun and distinctive iconography. To motivate you to stay on track, the so-called streak count takes record of how many days in a row you spend learning the language. To raise the stakes during the lessons itself, Duolingo uses hearts, which you can lose when you answer questions incorrectly and that way they use the natural competitiveness most people possess to their advantage.

All those factors combined make using Duolingo feel more like playing a game than like studying. Normally, staying motivated while learning online is very hard, but because Duolingo is so fun, people prefer it over playing simple games.

Here at All Good Tales, we believe that every brand has a story worth telling. Not yet sure how to tell yours? We’d love to help you out with a free consultation. You can call Gaye on (01) 254 1845 to organise yours today. We also run courses that give you practical information on connecting with customers. For more information or to book your place, click here. 

Brand Story Hero – The Body Shop

Today, we are back with another instalment of our Brand Story Hero series. Here, we put brands that tell their story exceptionally well in the limelight and this week, it’s The Body Shop‘s turn to be the centre of attention. The company was the first in the beauty industry to make fair trade their priority and with that, completely revolutionised the whole sector.

 

Brand: The Body Shop

Industry: Cosmetics

Products: skincare, hair care, make-up, accessories

Founder: Anita Roddick

Year Founded: 1976

Mission: Enrich, not exploit.

 

Their Story

While training to be a teacher, Anita Roddick was offered a scholarship in Israel and she happily accepted. It made her realise that the support received within communities is unparalleled by the aid any government or other institution can provide.

A little later, Anita decided to travel Europe, the South Pacific and Africa. During these travels, she became acquainted with rituals and customs as practised in many Third World countries and many of them had to do with health and body care.

Once Anita returned to England, she met Gordon, a kindred bohemian spirit; they quickly got married and opened a hotel and café together. Gordon’s life-long dream was to ride a horse from Buenos Aires to New York and to help him fulfil that dream, Anita agreed to sell their business to finance his trip.

 

The first Body Shop in Brighton

 

Because she needed to sustain herself and her daughters in the meantime, she decided to open a small shop selling cosmetics. The rituals and customs she had encountered whilst travelling fascinated her, so she chose to incorporate them into her back-to-nature products. As Anita was on a shoestring budget, concessions to aesthetics were impossible. She offered customers discounts if they brought back their empty containers to have them refilled. Anita also encouraged minimal packaging, as well as all forms of recycling and reusing. In that way, she could keep production costs low and the customers loved the sustainable approach. She also felt very strongly about animal testing and saw herself as an animal advocate. The Body Shop, therefore, positioned itself against animal testing from the very beginning.

Within one year, the business had grown so big, she opened a second shop and soon after that started selling franchises. Another milestone in the company’s history was taking it public in 1984 and just a year later, the shares had doubled in value.

To Anita, a passionate human and animal rights activist, promoting social causes always took priority over growing The Body Shop, so she didn’t think to revamp the ageing product line. Consequently, better-run imitators started eating into Anita’s customer base. In 1995, a scandal hit the media: The Body Shop’s products contained cheap, petrochemical ingredients, because their quality control was sloppy. The Body Shop allegedly donated 25% of its revenue to charities, but those claims were also revealed to be untrue. The accusations of hypocritical practice generated a wave of negative press. Sales fell and profits dulled.

In 1996, it could no longer be denied that change was inevitable, so Anita stepped back and installed a managing director. He tightened the reins and restructured the company. Anita was ambivalent about the new course of action, because she felt it squashed the entrepreneurial spirit. In the end, the new direction didn’t have the desired effect and sales continued to decline. In 2006, Anita made a very controversial move when she sold The Body Shop to L’Oréal, a company that is widely known to test on animals.

After Anita died in 2007, the company was appointed a new CEO and given a new brand look, but that couldn’t prevent the sales from sinking further and the operating profit from diving.

Because the partnership with L’Oréal was not ideal for both parties, The Body Shop was sold to the Brazilian cosmetics company Natura in 2017. The new parent company shares many values with The Body Shop, such as the human activist spirit and purpose-led philosophy. The new alliance is extremely close to The Body Shop’s DNA, so many hope the company will soon be restored to its former glory. In the end, however, only time will tell.

 

Their Storytelling Lessons

 

#1 Be a pioneer.

When Anita founded The Body Shop, fair trade in the cosmetics industry was not common practice. Because her values were of such importance to Anita, she nevertheless decided to pioneer her business concept, even if that was bound to be more difficult than following already trodden paths. Shying away from the challenge may be the safer option, but it also means never achieving anything groundbreaking.

 

#2 Admitting to a mistake is okay.

During an interview, Anita once admitted that the biggest mistake she’d made had been to take The Body Shop public. She said that in retrospect she would have preferred remaining a small giant over just being a big business. Everybody makes mistakes, it is impossible not to. Many companies would still rather have customers believe that they are exempt from committing errors than owning up to a mistake made. Anita on the other hand freely admitted to having made a wrong decision and with that has made her company approachable and relatable.

 

#3 Stay true to your roots.

In 2006, Anita Roddick sold The Body Shop to L’Oréal and was hit with a wave of negative press in response. When asked why she had decided to sell to that particular company which is known to test on animals, she said that she intended to serve as a Trojan horse. She wanted to positively influence L’Oréal’s decision-making process. Anita believed that this objective would be easier achieved from within the company. In that way, she could remain true to The Body Shop’s values.

In 2017, The Body Shop was sold to Natura and with that alliance reinforced its origins. Now, ethical production is back at the forefront of the company.

Their Storytelling Tools

 

#1 Social Activism

For a long time, The Body Shop didn’t do any marketing or PR work in the traditional sense. A few well-placed interviews and Anita’s activist campaigns were enough to promote the company. Because Anita’s values were also at the core of The Body Shop, her actions indirectly promoted her business. For PR she relied exclusively on storytelling and trying to get their message across to the media for quite a while.

Even today a big part of The Body Shop’s marketing and PR is closely linked with their social causes. In 2017, they launched the campaign Forever Against Animal Testing with the aim of gathering 8 million signatures by 31st August 2018. The petition is then to be presented to the United Nations with the ultimate goal being a ban on animal testing in the cosmetics industry globally.

 

#2 Community Trade

 

Over 30 years ago, The Body Shop set up its first Community Trade programme. Because sourcing quality ingredients and accessories from expert producers is very important to The Body Shop, they decided to start doing business with local communities. By procuring the wares from them directly, The Body Shop helps enrich and support the economically vulnerable. Today, they have 26 community trade suppliers in over 20 countries and 25,000 people benefit from it. By 2020, The Body Shop is hoping to support 40 communities all over the world with its programmes.

 

 

#3 Resourcefulness

Every business that is still in its infancy is on a tight budget. The Body Shop made a virtue of necessity by reusing, refilling and recycling. When Anita started off, she tried to keep costs as low as possible, so she offered customers discounts if they reused and refilled the empty containers. She also tried to use as little packaging as possible, again to save money.

Customers, on the other hand, appreciated the environmental friendliness of her company and identified with The Body Shop in consequence.

Here at All Good Tales, we believe every brand has a story to tell. Don’t know how to tell yours yet? We’d love to help you out with a free consultation session. Call Gaye on (01) 254 1845 to set yours up today. We also run storytelling courses that give you practical information on how to take your storytelling skills to the next level. For more information or to secure your spot, click here.

How start-ups should use storytelling

The most powerful communications tool and a very simple way to convey intention, meaning, information and emotion is through telling a story. For start-ups, this is essential.

Yes, you need a business plan, you have to work out the legal issues and you need to do your market research, but if you haven’t got a story, you’re not very likely to succeed.

When you are telling the story of your still very young brand, don’t make the mistake of only showing your ups and hiding your downs. Emotions are what resonates with people, what makes you relatable and sets you apart from the big, anonymous companies. By sweeping your troubles under a rug, you are robbing yourself of authenticity and likeability, so be honest about what’s going on with you, even if it’s not all smooth sailing.

Ultimately, you want to sell your product, but instead of hitting your customers over the head with your sales pitch, take a different route. Tell them why you are doing what you are doing, what you hope to accomplish with your start-up and what your mission and vision are.

Here are some of the practical tips of how you can tell your story well.

1. Find your Magic Slice

You need to find that sweet spot of where what you want to say and what your customers want to hear intersect. That is what we call the Magic Slice, and believe you us, it will be your key to success.

Once you’ve found it, the communication between your customers and you will be on point, effective and constructive.

How start-ups should use storytelling

2. Create a manifesto

At the beginning of your entrepreneurial career, just take a few hours to have a good think about what you want your company to ultimately achieve.

What is your mission, your purpose, the reason you exist? Take note of those, because they are the foundation of your story.

What are your values? To find out, try this: if you had to employ someone tomorrow, what would your ideal candidate be like? Describe them, and there you have your values. They are like the mortar that keeps your company whole and connects the different building blocks.

3. Keep it short and sweet

It can be very tempting when you know a lot about an issue to overwhelm your customer with technical terms. Try taking it easy; use simple language, keep the sentences reasonably short and focus on making your brand accessible.

In the end, you strive towards engaging with your audience and that’s a lot easier when you state your points clearly.

4. Embrace the storyteller within

All of us are naturals at storytelling, but for some reason, the majority of us leave stories at the door when they come in for work.

Of course you can generate sales by keeping your website minimalistic and by describing your products simply. But it’s not very appealing, is it? Why not embrace the storyteller within? Let your customers know why you are selling your product, what makes it so special, how it came to be and who built it.

Use the information you have about your users, products or producers and liven up the story of your brand.

How start-ups should use storytelling

5. Consistency is key

By now we’ve established the importance of your brand story, the only thing you have left to do is to stick with it. Live and breathe that brand voice you have created for yourself, it should be the thread running through everything you do. Take that to heart, and you can steer your start-up through any dangerous waters.

Once you have found all the elements above you can start building your successful start-up. 

Here at All Good Tales we are passionate about storytelling and its power. We are currently doing great storytelling work for brands like Kingspan, Glandore, Ancestry.com, and daa, to name just a few. We are building brand newsrooms, executing exciting PR strategies, and training key staff how to source, structure and tell great stories. For more information please click here or call Gaye on (01) 254 1845.