Business and Marketing Consultancy Case Study
Creating Disruption for HRC Online
How we built an industry leading marketing approach and then left.
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Disruption is one of those words that is used like legend or entrepreneur. It’s attached to almost anything and can lead to severe disappointment on realising it’s just like everything else.
So when Underpin Consultants were approached by the founder of a pre-startup HR course provider who wanted to be disruptive, we asked a few questions before getting too excited.
And we are so glad we did.
James wanted to shake up the online learning industry. Having worked as a non-HR sales and management specialist in the industry for over a decade, he realised every provider was clinical, complicated, and uninspiring. Worse than that, they didn’t provide what the target audience needed, and the industry expected learners to bend themselves into the right shape for the course they provided.
Over the course of six months, we helped James and the HRC team build a brand, and a plan, that was truly disruptive with amazing results.
One of Underpin’s key values is collaboration. So we embedded ourselves with the HRC team and ensured that all decisions were made collectively.
Our workshops and research highlighted that the target audience for HR online courses are young, engaging, and mostly female. So we created a brand just for them. We highlighted how transparent the company was, how we can help with payment plans, and understood their busy lives.
We also understood that doing a two-year course is a big decision, and our competitor analysis showed that a huge barrier was that buying decisions were being made blind as courses were entirely hidden behind fees and credit card details.
So when launching HRC Online, the whole team decided that the best way to show transparency was to give the first module for free – no strings attached.
In addition, we wanted to deliver an experience that felt useful, interesting and caring to potential users. So during the first module we provided a multi-level, automated email campaign that guided users of the free module through the benefits of studying with HRC.
These benefits were wide.
Podcasts, personal interactions, payment plans – HRC developed an offer that was not just about learning, but thriving as well. It was designed not for what HRC could do, but for what their customers would want.
'Underpin created a fresh innovative and market disruptive strategy that really helped launch my business. You can see some images below, I would recommend partnering with Lewis if you want to stand out from the crowd.'
How disruptive? CEO James Dean was voted one of HR’s Most Influential 2023 - the first CIPD training provider to ever make the list.
And now… Well, Underpin are consultants, so when our work was done, we watched them go. Underpin keeps in touch with James and the team regularly, but we haven’t done any paid work for them for over a year.
Why?
Because they invested early and developed a plan that relied on the internal power of the team, and not the external skills of an agency or coach. Which is the way we, and they, like it. Because HRC aren’t the only ones who are disruptive.
