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In this insightful interview for the EdTech Mentor series, we sit down with Carlos Márquez, co-founder and CEO of 27zero, to delve into the essentials of building a strong EdTech brand. Carlos shares his expertise on the importance of brand differentiation, storytelling, and professional communication, offering practical advice for startups and established companies alike. He emphasizes the pivotal role of understanding customer needs and the benefits of leveraging an agency's expertise in enhancing brand perception. Get ready to uncover valuable strategies and real-world experiences that can transform your EdTech marketing approach.
I believe we must start with what branding is not in order to understand marketing because many people think branding is just the logo, colors, or the website. Branding is about what the entire community around your company thinks of you. This is built not just through communication acts but through the actions of people, customer service, delivery methods, company leaders' characteristics, and how we present ourselves at events. All these actions directed towards stakeholders result in a brand. Many authors agree that a brand is what people say about your company when you're not around. It's much more than a communication exercise. Successful companies have shown that the best investment they've made is in their brand, as it sustains them through good and bad times and creates a loyal audience.
So, branding is not just the logo or colors. It’s a matter of perception encompassing everything happening with your company. It’s not merely a communication exercise but a combination of service, product, value proposition, and articulation of all these aspects. It’s not a one-time event but a continuous, evolving process. Some essential brand elements should endure over time, but it’s normal for brands to evolve, which is why rebrandings and brand liftings occur. While the communication evolves, the core principles should remain as permanent as possible, extending beyond mere communication.
There are many strategies, such as employer branding, that leverage the brand. Great Place to Work, for example, strengthens the brand not towards a purchasing audience but towards attracting talent. Branding transcends the logo; it materializes in tangible elements. The brand, being so intangible and perception-based, requires tangible elements for unification. This is where traditional branding elements like the logo, color palette, slogan, tagline, videos, and sensory elements come into play to bring those ideas into reality for communication purposes.
Your products should reflect the essence of your brand. If you have a brand that creates products, different lines can fit within that brand, not the other way around. The brand's role is equally important for an established company as it is for a startup. It's fundamental at every stage of the company’s growth.
Now, what is the difference with marketing? Marketing is a vital function in the company that seeks to find the essence of products to communicate them effectively, attracting as many people as possible to the company’s value proposition. Marketing focuses more on what people think about the products and services offered by the company. It communicates and presents these in the best possible way. There are different disciplines within marketing, such as product marketing, which is crucial for understanding competition and product differentiation. It involves bringing the company’s brand essence into product communication and marketing efforts.
Regardless of your brand’s personality—whether playful, bold, or wise—execution quality is fundamental because the market perceives that. Brands like Red Bull, with a daring personality, or IBM, with a structured one, both achieve perfect production. Your brand personality should match your target audience and value proposition, but the execution must be of the highest quality. Poorly executed content is noticeable in the market, where users are increasingly accustomed to consuming well-made content.
A brand also serves as a guide for determining what fits and what doesn’t. For example, if your brand is traditional, you won’t fit ideas that don’t align with that identity. Pepsi, known for its rebellious image with figures like Dennis Rodman and Michael Jackson, once tried a campaign focused on being good and saving the planet, which confused its audience. Such a pivot can be disorienting if not aligned with the brand’s core identity. The brand should serve as a guide for what works and what doesn’t in the business context, being cautious even while pivoting.
B2C branding is easier to feel because we experience it every day; we use it, wear it, buy it, eat it, drink it. It's easier to pinpoint and to identify with it. In B2B, it's more difficult, but at the end of the day, the brand sells to my company. So, it's a bit harder to identify, but we all have examples of brands that make us feel confident, that we know will deliver, brands that we know are innovative, brands that connect us with results, and brands that are also affordable. In B2B, it's harder to perceive, but it is still perceivable. Now, specifically for EdTech in B2B, I would start with the words "Ed" and "tech." An EdTech brand needs to have a very clear purpose in education. It must be knowledgeable about education, of course. On the tech side, it should be able to use technology as a positive catalyst for the problems it aims to solve. So, at the end of the day, an EdTech brand for me must be strong in both "ed" and "tech."
In areas that truly serve the community and people, like health, education, or even banking, it's easy to be cliché because they help people. "We want to help more people, we want more people to achieve their dreams, we want more people to progress." But that is not the sole function of a company. Therefore, it's important not to stay in that extreme, and on the other extreme is being too tech-focused. "Our software does this and that," with technical terminology that ultimately does not connect. In the end, the users of EdTech systems are people working in education, using it to offer services to students, teachers, administrators, or some community within education. They must understand both sides. I think that is the strongest conclusion: not to lean too much towards tech or too much towards education, but to say things that are relevant.
In the case of higher education, these are institutions—by their very nature, they are institutions that have been around for hundreds of years, many of them. This structure means that the people working there, the structure of academia itself, requires a very structured and articulated approach. But in this, one must not lose the innovation and magic that technology brings.
I would say there are two main points. The first and most important is differentiation and recall.
We don't know exactly how many EdTech companies there are, but I have a very recent statistic from ASU-GSV, which stated that an average higher education institution had 620 applications for education. Software of all kinds—from corporate email, corporate calendars, curriculum solutions, academic organization, efficiency, content, to accreditation solutions. The landscape is vast. Within this landscape, how do I differentiate myself? How do I make myself understood? How do I make my value proposition clear? How do I convey the usefulness of my product? And more importantly, when I have new product lines different from EdTech, new services, or when I pivot because the market is pivoting, how do I keep people engaged with me and not lose them? This is called branding, and it's because they are engaged with my brand. So, number one is differentiation.
The second point is the accumulation of value. The brand is where I can accumulate the value of everything I am doing, all the years I've worked, all the clients I've gained, all the successful projects I've executed, all the conflicts I've resolved. It's like your bank account or ‘brand account’. In the end, every product you sold, every relationship you had, every PR appearance, everything you did accumulates in your bank account, which is the brand. There are many cases of companies that have faced huge reputational crises, either because their executives made bad decisions or for other reasons. When a crisis hits, the brand sustains them because people love the brand. People value it and want to continue consuming its services because all the good accumulated in the brand.
What happens is that when a company focuses solely on the utilitarian aspect, it destroys the brand. When a company is all about sales, sales, sales—yes, in the short term, they might achieve very good results. Many companies have had great short-term results by investing everything in marketing and sales. But in the end, they are not building a reputation or a brand. People might be happy because they got a good deal or bought something cheaper, but they are not building brand equity.
From my point of view, there are some fundamental things that you have to do professionally and others that you don't. If you have very little money, what do you need to do professionally? You need to build a well-crafted brand narrative and storytelling. If you don't have this, you won't be able to convince investors, set up a website, sell, or attract talent. The storytelling must be very well done. Just because you are very good technically or in your area of expertise, be it academia, curriculum, or whatever, doesn't mean you are an expert in creating brand stories. This is where brands become very long-winded, boring, and hard to understand.
So, if you have very little money, at least professionally build your brand storytelling, your brand personality, and visually, you need something that differentiates you. What's the issue? Attractive is not the same as interesting. You can use an AI tool to create a logo, and it might look nice. But how does that connect with your brand story, your values, and how you want to be perceived? So, going back to the first question, when you think the logo is the brand, any AI-generated logo or a $200 logo bought somewhere works, and that's fine. But then you are not building a strong brand account where you accumulate your brand story.
Another thing is if you want to reach clients who are used to established, well-positioned brands that do this exercise diligently and with purpose, and you come with something very amateurish, they definitely won't consider you. When you are small or don't have a big budget, you should do everything possible to look as good as possible to earn a place.
If you don't have a big budget, what you need to do well are your brand essentials. Try to build those well. Beyond that, PR is difficult and has its complexities but isn't an essential part of branding, for example.
The essentials are what a good website should contain. You need a logo, of course, that's basic. You need colors, of course, that's basic. You need a look and feel, perfect, that's basic.
There are many elements that make it professional, but I think most people already have that in mind. What they often don't consider is their brand storytelling. I believe that is the most important thing. How do we appropriately tell this story? What do we need to say? Where do we need to focus? How do we organize our service offerings? For this, there is product and service architecture. How do I organize my services? In which categories? How do I group them? How do I align them? But not technically, because that is a common mistake many companies make. Engineers might perfectly and technically set up the service or product architecture, but that doesn't guarantee the audience will understand it that way. Sometimes, it's better to show just one thing or divide it into parts. All of this needs to be well thought out from the audience's perspective. That's product marketing.
Another thing brands do is transmit trust or distrust. Have you ever received an email from a company that seems good, but when you visit their website, it's broken, poorly aligned, with badly cut images and broken links?
At 27zero, we believe there should be a brand manual that summarizes all the graphic aspects, the visual communication, and the tone and voice. But there should also be another manual, the message manual, which is the Content Model, as we call it. Just like a visual brand manual, there should be a content manual that compiles all your brand communication, services, ensuring it is uniform and truly tells the story you want. And where does that story come from? From how your audience understands it.
We've encountered clients who have never interviewed their own customers. So, we ask them, "Have you talked to your customers?" And they say, "No, the salespeople talk to them." Then we talk to the salespeople, and they say, "I sell to them." No, you need to listen to them, understand them, find out their pain points, and bring that information to marketing. Typically, potential customers see the marketing work first, then the sales work, and then customer success. Even though in a B2B EdTech strategy, it's all bound—everything works simultaneously. Customer success helps sales, sales helps customer success, and both support marketing. Marketing supports them as well—it's all bound. But yes, typically, the first thing people see from a brand is the marketing work.
I would start with the concept of an agency. An agency means someone who provides you with a service that you currently don't have in your company, with certain capabilities that you don't need to have as a core function within the company. That's why agencies are often in areas like advertising and marketing because it's not strategic for companies to have full-time creative writers, video people, product marketing people, etc., within the company. So, what do agencies do? We provide clients with a series of professionals who have strengths in communicative areas, whether visual, content, strategic thinking, or communication strategy, to deliver ideas clearly. The first thing an agency provides is someone who knows how to think in terms of professional communication, which is the starting point. Then, you find divergent thinking in an agency. What happens is that within the company, everyone usually thinks similarly; there might be some differences, but they are not constantly nourishing themselves with how to communicate better, new campaigns, new ideas, and how to deliver them.
It's normal for the company to focus on serving its clients, developing the best products, and services. A primary function is not how to communicate better. That's why you bring in a communication expert who helps organize your brand, how you look, how you deliver, how you convey your messages, how the market works, who leads, and who doesn't. With this information, the client's knowledge is enriched. So, going back to your question, when you hire an agency, what you gain is a professional in communication, a professionalization of your communication, divergent thinking different from that of your company, and a lot of proposals that companies usually don't have someone to prepare.
For example, in our experience, it might be different in others, but in our experience, interviewing our clients' clients makes it more objective, creating a more relaxed space where they can clearly express their pain points and solutions. This is where we look for what resonates, what problem we are truly solving, both utilitarian and sometimes emotional because B2B brands can also be very good at doing this.
You asked what to do if you have a small budget. Set up meetings with your clients and ask them: "What is your pain point? How does this really solve it? How is our product helping you? What is good about it? What isn't? How would you organize it? What is missing?" Try to convert this information not only into product improvements, which is often the case, but also to communicate it for marketing purposes. This information should go to marketing. If you don't have money, dedicate yourself to getting to know your clients.
After that, going back to the first topic, the question between marketing and branding, in integrated agencies like ours that do both, you gain a strong marketing execution arm. Why? Because marketing is a professional area, a discipline with many sub-disciplines. It has sub-disciplines in video, communication, graphics, execution, advertising, performance, email, marketing operations, analytics, PR, own events, third-party events, SEO. So, there is a large pool of sub-disciplines where you need a little bit of each. By hiring an agency, you hire a team that already has these sub-disciplines, knows how to execute them, and has the experience of doing so successfully or not with other clients, which allows them to have a more solid criterion.
Based on our experience working with different clients at various stages of brand evolution or maturity, at 27zero, we offer the Brand Essentials service package. This package focuses on the basic elements of a brand with a quick turnaround, using a methodology that involves rapid understanding, quick prototyping, and achieving a result that can change a brand's perception or take the initial steps to change a brand's perception within a matter of months. Our website showcases several such cases.
I believe it is always a good time to consider a Brand Essentials package. If you are starting out, raising capital, beginning to communicate your idea, or considering product-market fit, a better brand will give you a higher chance of success. That is guaranteed. If you have been in the market for a while and want to gain more traction, a Brand Essentials review of your brand will ensure better results. If you are at a scaling stage and transitioning from small to larger investments, a Brand Essentials package is fundamental for taking that step. If you are already established and your clients have you on their radar, but your challenge is to remain relevant, a Brand Essentials package is also an excellent choice. Finally, if you are on a downward curve, and your products and services are generating new innovations or you are changing your usual portfolio configuration, it is also a great time for a Brand Essentials package.
If you look at many big brands, they often relaunch their brands and communications because it allows them to stay in conversation with their consumers.
There are moments of transition, growth, expansion, and transformation for which you must deliberately consider what to do with your brand to support those changes or events.
