One Company, one Brand

Since the meeting in Denver to (further) discuss product pedagogy, which markets our products are designed best to compete in and how a school or a student would experience our products as a full learning continuum, we have been working with the Board of Directors, Marketing and Sales and Technology to achieve "Brand Unification."

Basically, Brand Unification is a recognition that our entire company and all our product are best in class and the input and involvement of the academic leadership at Middlebury has led us to a place where our entire suite of products are clearly the academically superior choice for world language students at the elementary, middle and high school level. This is consistent with the market leadership our products have striven for since their earliest days as PowerGlide.

It is thrilling that the hard work of so many over so many years has gotten us to the point where we are now able to sell our products to the education market under the exceptional brand of "Middlebury Interactive". On Friday, the entire K12 Sales team will be introduced to this exciting new development in our product positioning. So what does that mean for all of us at Middlebury Interactive?

Our products will be positioned in the market as Middlebury products which are specifically designed to meet articulated learning goals. In the elementary market, we will offer Middlebury Interactive Languages Exposure products. Sounds a lot better than some of the internal nicknaming (Old Powerspeak)! Our process for continuous development of enhancements and improvements, and full refreshes of our courses remains the same however. These products will continue to be delivered at this point on our PGLMS.

For the middle school market we will re-introduce our products as Middlebury Interactive Languages Competency products. These products (that we currently refer to as "new Powerspeak" or "BrainHoney" courses) are designed to provide middle school students with foundational knowledge in languages and cultures. We will also continue to offer these Competency Courses -- designed for similar learning outcomes to High School Students.

And, of course, we have the superior academic program for High School Students seeking language fluency -- our Middlebury Interactive Languages Fluency products -- currently in French, Spanish and next fall, Chinese. These are the products that owned the Middlebury brand exclusively until now.

And here, a pet peeve -- we all use the shorthand "MIL" and even call ourselves 'mill' and our products 'mill'. I am perhaps the most guilty. You will notice that I have been training myself to type and say the full "Middlebury Interactive" .... we have such a great brand, we should be proud to use it exhaustively. Middlebury Interactive really speaks to the unique products and programs we offer and truly to who we are -- a company where academic excellence meets technology innovation. This marriage of academic and tech has been happening in personal relationships and work products for almost two years now -- we need to celebrate it more and toot our own horn for what we have achieved which is significant in the education technology market. We are more integrated as a company than ever before -- check out our new day Academy marketing -- High School students who are not able to do our full residential program can now sign up for a half-day program which will enroll them in our on-line product for a summer of learning. After two weeks in our MIL Summer Academy program, these students will be poised to take full advantage of our terrific Fluency products. (here is the link: http://mmla.middlebury.edu/summerday)

The re-branding/product unification project gives all of us the chance to do just that. We are Middlebury Interactive and there is no one else like us or our products and programs in the market.