Last September, Durham, NC-based Principled Technologies (PT) announced its acquisition of Weejee Learning (also in Durham). Principled Technologies, a “fact-based” marketing company, began offering e-learning services a few years ago, and this component of its business has expanded with the acquisition of Weejee Learning, a custom learning design and development company.
Weejee Learning was founded in 2010 by Tracy Bissette and Ian Huckabee, both of whom now hold executive positions at Principled Technologies. It specializes in e-learning, instructional design, mobile learning, social learning and community building, with a focus on making learning fun by being “the arch-enemy of boredom and its ugly cousin dullness.” Clients include the American Cancer Society, the American Heart Association, UNC-Chapel Hill and North Carolina State University. Weejee’s portfolio will therefore help Principled Technologies expand beyond its core clientele of technology companies.
“PT and Weejee are a beautiful match,” said Mark Van Name, co-founder and co-owner of Principled Technologies. “The combined organization will let us deliver even more amazing e-learning services to all of our clients.”
For the time being, Weejee will continue to operate much as it has previously, led by Huckabee and maintaining its own brand. Specific long-term plans have not been made; “our plan is to grow together,” Van Name said. With the addition of Weejee’s nine full-time employees, Principled Technology now has 84 full-time staff members.
Ian Huckabee, CEO of Weejee, said, “PT offers the ideal resources for expanding our learning offerings while continuing to provide our clients with the solutions they need.”
Linking Marketing and Training
This acquisition follows a major industry trend of integrating customer education with marketing. In last year’s Training Industry Magazine winter issue, CEO Doug Harward wrote that “customer education has become the cornerstone of effective content marketing,” and best practices include mobile apps, online games and informational videos – tools that fit neatly in Weejee Learning’s niche.
“Customers are increasingly making buying decisions based on the quality of their experience with a vendor rather than pricing and products,” making customer education increasingly valuable,” Bill Docherty wrote for TrainingIndustry.com last year. He cited research by Aberdeen Group that found “companies that extend learning programs to customers achieve an 800 percent annual increase in revenue per full-time equivalent and a 33 percent annual increase in customer retention” over companies that do not.
Fact Funification
Beyond customer education, the acquisition of Weejee Learning and the expansion of its e-learning services is a logical strategy for Principled Technologies, which believes that “effective training is an essential part of the lifecycle of all tech products.” Principled Technologies is a company focused on “delivering the facts,” so its e-learning is really a form of fact delivery. And since much of the company’s training has focused on IT skills and products, it makes sense to use technology to deliver it.
The content developed by Weejee Learning, on the other hand, is broader in subject matter. The focus on “funification” – making sure that training is enjoyable – is based on research that indicates “fun makes intimidating, perplexing material engaging and easier to comprehend.” As Weejee puts it, the company values not “fun for fun’s sake,” but “fun for learning’s sake.” In a 2014 Training Industry Magazine article, Huckabee and Bissette wrote of the importance of “determin[ing] what information is essential to training and what can be ignored” – in other words, which facts are most relevant to learners – a direct tie-in to Principled Technologies’ niche.
Mixing marketing with education and facts with fun, Principled Technologies’ acquisition of Weejee Learning is a blending of reciprocal fields and complementary specialties.
