Publishers learn their lesson

Johnny Webster completes his series on educational software byquizzing the publishers about their titles and the audience they aretargeting.

Having looked at the expanding educational software market from the viewpoint of the retailers (see CRN 2 September and 7 October) it's the turn of the publishers to air their views. Broderbund, Sierra, Ablac, Iona, Europress, Maxis, UK Entertainment and Dorling Kindersley responded to the questionnaire.

How important is explicit educational content when selling titles - or should education be hidden behind entertainment?

For most of the vendors this is the crux of their educational software range and getting the balance right is critical.

"It is important that titles categorised as educational are educational in content. If the educational content can be combined with fun and entertaining values, the product will have a unique selling point," says Simi Belo PR manager for Maxis.

As a way of proving a title's educational prowess, publishers often quote conformity with the National Curriculum.

"Education content is extremely important if you are selling as an education title, especially if you want parents to buy more than one product from your range," says Europress' marketing representative, Fiona Carey. "All our education titles conform to the National Curriculum. As for hiding the education content behind the entertainment value, it must be said that young children need a program to be fun otherwise it will soon end up on the shelf."

But any notions of conformity with the National Curriculum, need backing up with specific information about what the product should achieve. "At the initial stage of consumer selection instore, the entertainment aspect is most important, but it needs to be backed up immediately by a clear explanation ... of what the particular title is intended to achieve," said Peter Binns, marketing manager of Ablac. "Such claims should then be fully supported elsewhere on the packaging, with a clear explanation of what the software does and how."

To whom do you concentrate on selling titles? The children? Mum? Dad?

How does this alter the message?

None of our interviewees said that they concentrated first and foremost on selling their titles to children for the simple reason that the age group which is intended to use the software rarely has the funds with which to buy it. Although it does seem that a spoonful of sugar does indeed help the medicine go down. Ablac's Peter Binns had some interesting things to say on sugar-coating and which of the parents is the key decision maker: "Although the packaging is designed to have appeal for the children who will use the software, the marketing is aimed at the parent - usually the mother first. They traditionally are more concerned about their children's educational progress than fathers."

Not surprisingly, several companies placed equal store on ma, pa and the sprogs.

Michelle Marchand, edutainment product manager at Broderbund said her company targets all three.

"In retail we use our software characters to attract the attention of children with standees and giant boxes. For example, over the summer, we used instore promotions using Carmen Sandiego standees and free give-aways. In our advertising and with our product stands, however, we aim the message more towards the parent with the slogan: 'They see a game, you see an education.' Furthermore, this autumn, we'll be launching Parents' Guides that will ship along with all of our educational titles, to help parents use the software with their children."

For this rather complex selling process to be successful, instore activity and packaging play a key role.

"It would not work if the child picks up the box but the parent sees no reason to buy," says Fiona Carey of Europress. "Nor is it any good if the parent is convinced a piece of software's good educational value, but the child thinks it looks boring and sulks as they approach the till."

Is it possible to sell educational software through outlets traditionally dominated by games titles, eg Electronic Boutique and Game, or is it better to go through relatively untested outlets such as book or toy shops and department stores?

This is a dilemma for publishers. Conventional games retailers may not have the right customer profile for educational software; they are not obvious ports of call for families, although Game and EB are successfully working their image around to appeal to a wider audience. But the other outlets are not necessarily the first place a prospective customer would think of looking. Consequently, most publishers make sure their titles are in as many outlets as possible: "computer stores, games stores, bookshops, department stores, toy shops - wherever people shop," says Dorling Kindersley's marketing manager Diana Hogan.

While Binns reckons it's possible to sell educational software in traditionally games-oriented retail environments, he also proffers the view that retailers are not doing enough to maximise opportunity. Binns believes that resellers must let the public know they sell educational software; give educational software distinct and separate visibility instore, preferably in its own section or department (eg Bytekids); ensure staff can give guidance on product choice.

How important is price?

For some publishers, price is top of the pecking order; for others, eg Ablac and DK, quality should be the overriding factor

"Price is, of course, an issue, but the quality of the software is, I think, more important to the end-user, especially as most CD-ROMs retail for around the same figure," said Hogan.

Binns threw an interesting slant on things when he said: "Price is more an issue with the trade than it is with consumers, who genuinely seek good quality learning software for their children. Some retailers still take the illogical view that education should be cheaper than games. (I believe this is more a reflection of the profile of their traditional consumer base, which may or may not in all cases equate price with intellectual value)."

Educational titles have a longer shelf life than hit-driven games, so there is longer for the publisher to recoup development and marketing costs, which should mean a lower price.

Do you sell directly to schools?

This is where Ablac started, and it continues to sell to schools. DK has a separate business unit for school sales, as do Sierra and Europress through site licensing schemes. Broderbund Marketing and Entertainment UK sell to schools through educational distributors such as Tag Developments, Koch Media and Softline.

Which of these age groups do you cater for: pre-school (3-6 years), primary school (5-11 years), or secondary school (12 years plus)?

Broderbund, Iona, Ablac, DK and UK Entertainment claim to cover all the bases "from pre-school to GCSE". Maxis' titles cover the ranges three to six, six to 12 and eight to 12. Europress has concentrated historically on the five to 11 age range, but has launched this year a range of GCSE titles and language lab programs.

Renate Damhius, brand manager for Sierra's edutainment products, says the company caters for ages from four to 15. "As there is a very broad range of software published as edutainment in the market, we tend to categorise our ranges as: education - ie the Adi Curriculum-based software range, and edutainment - essentially comprising the Playtoons education range together with fun, puzzle-based software and adventure games for children from the Spirit of Adventure range. The Adi school support range English and Maths for seven to 11-year-olds has proven very successful throughout Europe with over a million copies sold to date. This success will be followed up with a fourth quarter release of Adi Secondary School (11-15 years) and Adiboo a pre-school discovery program aimed at four, five and six year olds."

Do you have a separate sales and marketing department for educational software?

DK and UK Entertainment amalgamate their sales and marketing departments into one division, whereas Broderbund, still less than two years old in Europe, has set up a separate marketing department for educational titles and an account manager responsible for educational distributors.

Sierra, whose product mix includes cuddly kids' titles like Adiboo as well as adult material such as Phantasmagoria, certainly does separate the marketing of these strands, but sales is still under one umbrella, although that may not be the case for much longer.

Is this side of your business expanding?

The retailers who participated in this survey were pretty coy on this point, but all the publishers proved to be remarkably bullish. At DK this is hardly surprising where multimedia provided six of the company's top revenue earning titles in the period - including the top two - The Way Things Work and Eyewitness Encyclopaedia of Science.

"Are we expanding? Yes! Yes! Yes!" said Fiona Carey of Europress. "We already hold the largest market share for education, but to keep ahead means more and better titles and catering for wider age groups; hence the introduction of the GCSE software range and language programs."

How big a percentage is educational software for your business?

Talking expansively about expansion is one thing, but when asked to put numbers on the business some balked. Iona is an educational-only software house and has no plans to move into other software genres. Ablac has only recently diversified into publishing strategy games from Blizzard Entertainment under its Zablac label, so education remains the core business.

"At the moment the edutainment side of our business is approximately 30%," said Renate Damhuis of Sierra. "However, we expect that to increase to as much as 50% over the next 18 months."

DK's multimedia business accounts for over 12% of total turnover and Europress' Fun School series accounted for just over 50% of group turnover in the 1995-96 financial year. Education accounts for 30% of Broderbund's business in the UK and at UK Entertainment it is only 5% of total turnover.

Do you think it is parents or children who lead the way to the stores?

Ablac's Peter Binns was under no doubt that the parents lead the way, with the proviso: "when, as we foresee, educational software will be retailed more generally, it will be the children who will play a more important role in this regard."

Some respondents thought it depended on the type of retailer stocking the products. "In general children are games or character-driven and readily respond to advertising stimuli; whereas the parent may have outlet loyalty but would be more motivated from an educational perspective," said David F Johnson of Entertainment UK.

"Parents who read the regional and national computer press will come because of what they've read or heard," said Michelle Marchand of Broderbund.

"Children who use and enjoy software in class will lead the way because they want to own the titles at home."

Can your range of educational software be tested instore, prior to purchase?

"They can be, as of the end of August, now we have demos for each of our educational titles," said Broderbund's Marchand. "Not all retailers offer customers the option to play instore, but for those who do have PCs, we will most definitely be supporting them with demo versions of our software. Furthermore, our autumn advertising campaign will allow consumers to send in and receive a free Broderbund educational range demo CD."

Sierra's Renate Damhuis said: "Our CD catalogue is automatically updated each quarter and over the last year has been sent to over 70,000 UK consumers.

Given individual trade requirements instore, the CD catalogue has been designed to allow the store representative to select only the demos he wishes to run instore, thus providing a more bespoke demo facility to the retail trade and the consumer."

Ablac's Peter Binns was being possibly more realistic when he replied: "In theory, yes. But in practice, it rarely happens because of the lack of staff training in educational software selling. To compensate we can supply composite running demos of our products."

Is there a money-back guarantee for the customer?

"We undertake to ensure that if any purchaser of our software finds that it does not meet their expectations, or is faulty, or was simply a wrong choice on their part, we will exchange it, give a credit, or refund if all else fails," said Peter Binns of Ablac.

But not all publishers are so generous. Broderbund, for example, wouldn't dream of refunding customers just because they did not like a title, others rely on the refund arrangements of the individual retailer.

The denouement

Having sifted through the answers from some 20 retailers and publishers, it is obvious that there is much reason for optimism for educational software.

Our otherwise stingy government is putting real money in software and hardware for primary and secondary education. The latest Department of Education Statistical Bulletin for 1995 (issue 3/95 ISSN 0142-5013) makes for heartening reading. Some 94% of schoolchildren are now receiving regular hands-on computer experience, and this is very likely to lead to more demand from them for software to use at home. If the children are not exactly beating a path to retailers' doors, then the parents very likely will, in the hope of securing their darlings an edge over their classmates.

This situation can only get better. At the recent Labour Party conference, Tony Blair declared his top three priorities were "education, education and education". Assuming he can't find the funds to provide every sprog with a free computer and endless numbers of software packages, it spells boom time for educational software.

In the meantime, there are still plenty of stories about declining standards in schools. Parents are worried. Are the teachers doing a good job? The kind of parents who can afford to buy a PC probably don't have time to spend tutoring their children themselves after hours, so they turn to the computer to do it for them.

Education, or "giving my child a head start", has become the prime motivator in buying a PC, so it is natural that educational software packages should be high on the parents' shopping lists when it comes to additional software purchases. Smart publishers have realised this and have begun to implement marketing strategies which play on parents' paranoia: "Your child can be a genius" - Europress. "Do you know how well your child is doing at school?" - 10 Out of 10 (what a great name for an educational software supplier).

Smart retailers will do the same and take Peter Binns advice and treat educational software more seriously, take advantage of the publishers' demo facilities and devote more resources to educational software.

It doesn't take a genius to see that educational software is going to go on growing.