Repositioning Pearson for
growth beyond certification
OVERVIEW
Brand Architecture
Brand Strategy
Content Strategy
Creative Campaign
Partner Marketing
Sales Enablement
Few challenges are more difficult than turning a strong brand legacy into a scalable growth engine. For Pearson, that moment had arrived. Unlocking their next phase of growth required more than new products or services. It demanded a bold shift in how the company organized, positioned and brought its expanding portfolio to market.
OPPORTUNITY
Pearson had long been the global standard in IT testing and certification. But as the $2B IT training market rapidly expanded and demand for career-enhancing skilling surged, they recognized there was a much larger opportunity ahead.
The challenge was that Pearson’s existing portfolio of skilling products lacked a cohesive market-facing strategy. Their brand and solution architecture were creating more confusion than confidence, both in the market and across their internal teams.
Without a clearer structure, Pearson risked underperforming in a market they were uniquely positioned to lead. They needed a clearer understanding of how buyers evaluated skilling solutions and how their skilling portfolio should be structured, positioned, and activated to unlock a scalable path to growth. This required more than competing within an expanding category. To unlock growth, Pearson needed to help buyers understand and evaluate skilling in a new way, positioning the company to make its market across the full spectrum of skilling.
APPROACH
Partnering with Pearson, we helped translate their growth ambition into a clear go-to-market strategy grounded in insight, not internal assumptions. Through a global research initiative, we uncovered how buyers define skilling, evaluate providers and determine where Pearson had permission to lead. Those insights became the foundation for how we organized, positioned, and activated Pearson’s portfolio to support skilling adoption and scale.
When buyers wanted one partner, Pearson looked like many
Buyers told us they wanted a single, trusted source for the full spectrum of skilling solutions. We helped Pearson align its portfolio to the way buyers actually evaluate and purchase solutions. The result was a simplified solution architecture, clearer product naming, and a more cohesive market-facing story. Together, they gave product, marketing and sales teams a common language for bringing Pearson’s skilling vision to market.
Portfolio architecture
Turning untapped demand into strategic advantage
Our research uncovered an unexpected growth opportunity: training and testing centers were eager for a trusted partner to help them grow their business, but didn’t believe one existed. We used that insight to help Pearson design and launch a new partner program built to support skilling at scale. What began as an overlooked market need became the foundation for a significant new growth opportunity.
Sales playbook
Campaign video
LinkedIn posts
Program guide
Landing page
Sales enablement
IMPACT
Pearson emerged with a stronger market presence and a clearer growth pathway.
Set the stage for millions in annual revenue
by developing and launching a global Skilling Partner Program for training and testing centers.
Developed a scalable GTM strategy
grounded in global buyer insight — not internal assumptions — enabling consistent execution across teams and regions.
Elevated awareness and credibility
across segments by establishing a cohesive, trusted, buyer-led portfolio strategy.
Reorganized Pearson’s portfolio
around buyer needs, creating a more intuitive path across the full spectrum of skilling.
Created greater market clarity
by introducing a standardized product naming structure, replacing proprietary brand names that caused confusion.
Perhaps most importantly, Pearson’s internal teams gained alignment around a strategy and brand story they could confidently bring to market.
We were floating on assumptions — resistant stakeholders, shifting priorities, and no solid footing. Schermer grounded us with research, helped us organize chaos into clarity and built a structure we could finally align around.
Nancy Jerdee
Senior Vice President, Global Marketing, Pearson
