Only about one out of every 1,000 new products introduced to supermarkets survives for more than one year. Nearly all are highly thought out concepts their designers and developers were sure filled a need in the market. So what do the successful 0.1% have in common? Along the way some aspect of the product (price, place, or promotion) was modified or adjusted to increase consumer acceptance and/or work around obstacles.

What’s the link to learning? How many eLearning developers do you know who regard their learners as customers? How many adjust their content or delivery to make it more desirable for their audience? Maybe a few, maybe a little. For-profit educators like University of Phoenix and Kaplan, are learning the hard way that learners behave like consumers. But where consumers vote with their wallets, learners vote with their minds: choosing to open them for good products and close them for bad ones.

How would a marketer approach eLearning development? Here are six steps they would follow:

1. Commit to the concept: All of those who are part of the learning development process need to adopt a learner-centric approach. It starts by assessing and understanding the learner’s strengths, weaknesses and learning preferences, and incorporating them into the design phase. You’ll get a better idea of the full extent of the commitment, as you read through the remaining five development steps. Marketers know they don’t have a product until the market tells them they do, and they know that taking a customer-centric approach is the only way their product is going to survive.
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