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Ex'pression College

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The Leadership Challenge

Intrax English Institute

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The Company
Intrax English Institute (IEI) is a thriving English language instruction school with locations in several U.S. cities and Canada. IEI targets international students who want short-term intensive English courses, usually on their way to colleges or careers in their home countries or in the U.S.

The Business Challenge
IEI's business plan included aggressive efforts to increase enrollment and add locations in more cities in the U.S., Canada, and overseas, and to take advantage of cross-selling opportunities with other companies in their parent company, World Study Group. English language instruction is a rapidly growing but highly fragmented market, with a few large global players and a myriad of smaller ones. IEI had relatively low brand recognition with new students, but a solid reputation among current students. They needed to clarify their positioning, and develop a brand strategy to guide their expansion plans.

The Solution
We provided a Positioning Sequence, based on Brand Interviews with representative students who had completed IEI courses or were in the process of doing so. Firsthand knowledge of students' motivation for choosing IEI against competing schools would be essential to positioning and brand strategy.
IEI: Becoming a Confident Communicator
The Global Student
IEI's students were typically second or third-time visitors to the U.S., and from a mid-to-upper-income demographic in their home countries. Many IEI students extend their stay in the U.S. as interns with IEI and other companies.

The Brand Interviews
We conducted Brand Interviews with a number of IEI students who represented a balanced cross section of different cultures and levels of experience.

Key Findings
• Most IEI students were transfers from competing schools. This was both a problem and an opportunity - IEI was not getting the first-time enrollments it could, because of a lack of brand recognition, but it was converting competitors' failures into their own successes.
• What really motivated IEI's students was a desire for confidence, gained by the ability to communicate well in a non-native language, English.
• Students were interested in a practical solution - they wanted to learn quickly in a "real-life" environment.
• Since many competing schools appear to be somewhat shaky, especially judging from their websites, they wanted a credible and dependable institution.
• Locations in major North American cities played a large role in their decision to choose Intrax, mainly because of the opportunities for learning English outside the classroom.
• Students were also attracted to Intrax because it was fun, hip and sensitive to their special needs.

Positioning
We recommended the following Brand Positioning: "the practical way to become a confident communicator." This accomplished several things at once: it focused on the key benefit students reported getting from IEI; it emphasized a clear differentiating brand attribute; and it repositioned the competition as impractical. Our brand strategy recommendations included using images of actual students as an expression of brand character; clearly marking all locations with distinctive signage; and reinforcing Overt Benefits with clear messaging and an appropriate tonality - practical and professional, but hip, young, and global.