Consumer Behavior (Marketing Case Study)

Question Using your understanding of consumer motivation:

i) Analyse Duolingo’s efforts to appeal to its customers. 650 words

ii) Explain why consumers might choose Duolingo instead of Rosetta Stone. 350 words

Please consider the following aspects of Consumer Behavior

Consumer Motivation

Perception

Personality and the self

Market Segmentation

Duolingo Case Study

Duolingo is an award-winning free online language-learning platform that has grown to over 300 million users. It promotes fun, personalised and accessible education. According to the website, ‘Our free, bite-size lessons feel more like a game than a textbook.’ Learners lose a life when they get something wrong, and earn points when they complete a lesson. Rewards include virtual coins, new levels and fluency scores. The experience has been described as ‘addictive’. The idea is that learning is easier when it is enjoyable. Various learning experiences are offered, including face-to-face local meetings, interactive stories and podcasts. Duolingo adapts to individual learning styles and tailors exercises accordingly. Lessons focus on ‘real-life goals’, in other words, what users want to do with a language, such as be able to order from a restaurant. And because lessons are bite-sized, learners can take part any time on the go, for example on a commute or while waiting in line. Duolingo claims, ‘There are over 1.2 billion people learning a language and the majority are doing so to gain access to better opportunities. Unfortunately, learning a language is expensive and inaccessible to most. We created Duolingo so that everyone could have a chance.’ In a recent magazine review of the best language-learning software, Duolingo enjoyed first place, followed by Rosetta Stone, a relatively expensive subscription-based package. A pioneer in language-learning packages, Rosetta Stone has been used by well-known companies for over 25 years; one calls it ‘the gold standard of computer-based language learning’.