Miles Kronby is Chief Product Officer at Merriam-Webster and Encyclopaedia Britannica. He began his career at Condé Nast where he helped launch Concierge.com, the CondéNet travel site. Prior to his current role at Merriam-Webster, Miles held leadership positions at Time Inc., Bonnier Corporation, and Constructive Media LLC.
In our conversation, Miles talks about how to evaluate opportunities for brand extensions and shares examples from his time at Merriam-Webster, such as the company’s foray into quizzes and games. He also discusses the importance of not only serving the brand’s identity today but also helping shape its future.
The decisions you make depend on the brands you’re involved with, but there are basic questions that apply across companies. I’m lucky enough to work with Merriam-Webster and Britannica, and to me, evaluating a brand extension starts with not only having a sense of what the brand is now but how you can embody that in the future using new channels, platforms, and technologies.
In the case of Merriam-Webster, we’ve been around since 1828. Until the 1990s, the company was mainly focused on dictionary reference content. Merriam-Webster went online in the early days of the web, and over time expanded into other areas. Merriam-Webster has tremendous heritage, and the goal is to maintain its heritage and authority while continually evolving its products to keep them relevant, valuable, and exciting.
Our brand is all about being a trusted source of knowledge – about helping people communicate better and appreciate language more. Historically, that’s involved publishing reference books like dictionaries and thesauruses. So that reference content is a foundation on which we can build all sorts of new products. Britannica has a similar mission — to inspire curiosity and help people answer their questions and understand the world. Just like with Merriam-Webster, Britannica has a huge foundation of reference content on which we can build new products.
When we’re considering new products we ask the usual questions, like “Is there a place in the market for us? Are there gaps that we think we could fill? What would it take for us to be competitive in that area?” There’s a wide range of services we could offer that would make business sense and help people use language better, communicate better, and appreciate words more.
We’ve evolved to be much more than a place to get the best definition of a word. For example, we have lots of articles and videos on our site about using the English language. Some are very practical, such as how to use a semicolon. Others are similarly instructive but are more focused on the nuts and bolts of language, like the difference between the word “affect” with an A and “effect” with an E. These are frequently searched topics, and we want to be clear and helpful.
There’s a wide range of other content we can offer. This is very different from definitions and synonyms — we can open up the world of language to delight people in ways that are less instructive. For example, we have hundreds of feature articles and videos — like one about Charming Words for Nasty People, which includes words, like “rapscallion” — that people find interesting.
We also create content around the origins of words. For example, the word “muscle” almost certainly originates in Latin as the word for mouse. This is because a muscle, like a bicep, was thought to resemble a mouse moving under the skin. Suddenly, knowing that, you view the word “muscle” differently. You might even see an actual muscle differently. We find this sort of content interesting, and we know from our data that a lot of other people do too.
Of course, we’ve long been known for our dictionaries and other books. Online, however, we can leverage many other types of media. On social, we have millions of followers across our channels who look to us for a playful interaction with language and knowledge, and to be a part of a community of like-minded people. Building that community, through social and other channels, is a big part of what we do.
Quizzes and games are another area of growth. Fifteen years ago, when we didn’t have games, entering that space might have seemed a little odd. We’re a reference brand, so could it seem frivolous to introduce games? But we made sure that the games suited our brands, and we quickly learned that our audience really enjoys them. As long as we create quizzes and games that inform, educate, and entertain, then it’s an extension that makes sense.
Yes — on social media the voice of our brands can be quite different than what people might traditionally expect. In our reference content, we try to be as clear, engaging, and helpful as possible. But on social, in addition to being interesting and useful, we can be more playful in a brand-appropriate way. We know that it works from how people respond on our social channels.
There are different ways to learn what customers want and need, as well as what they’ll respond to. First, there’s passive information. We spend a lot of time looking at our analytics. For example, we can see that features about frequently asked questions involving grammar perform well. So, we try to identify patterns there so we can create more of what resonates and less of what doesn’t.
There’s also active feedback, and we have various feedback forms on our site that we pay attention to. We have a couple of different ways of testing products as well. For example, focus groups before and after we launch a product, and A/B testing when a product is live.
It’s both. Some products are evolutions of what already exists, and other products try to solve a problem that hasn’t really been addressed.
One product that addresses a problem in a new way is a feature we’re testing in our thesaurus that lets people generate custom synonyms. Users can enter their own text and immediately receive synonyms, using AI, that fit that particular text. After all, when someone is using a thesaurus, they’re probably producing language — so the specifics of what they’re writing matters a lot.
For example, if you want to find a synonym for “great,” a synonym in the context of “That was a great meal,” or “That was a great idea” are going to be pretty different. This custom synonym feature isn’t something we’ve seen and wanted to duplicate, but something we had a sense our users need.
There are other times where we see opportunities based on what’s in the market. The success of Wordle a few years ago revealed the appetite for daily word games. Crosswords have been around for a long time, but Wordle helped demonstrate the power of other kinds of daily games. And that was a natural fit for us.
Disagreement can be productive and fruitful. It’s helpful to have many different opinions, of course, but you don’t want it to reach a point where you’re paralyzed by conflict or people aren’t working together. In the early stages of projects, we try to be open to as many perspectives within the group as possible. Really good ideas come from a wide range of people, whether it’s marketers or engineers. We keep channels of communication open to bring in perspectives from people across the organization.
One way to reduce conflict over ideas is to have a clear shared vision for the brand. Another is to emphasize testing and data. Sometimes, we say, “OK, there are two different ways of doing this. Let’s try both and see which performs better.” Ideally you test inexpensively by getting MVPs out and seeing what works. Then you don’t have to spend a lot of time wondering who’s right and wrong.
We create products that serve our business in different ways. We have free products that are supported by advertising, and also premium subscription products. Different values are associated with different products. Overall, we want to inspire people to visit us more often and stay longer, and to find high value and satisfaction in those visits, because that’s where our revenue comes from.
Almost anything that deepens our relationship with our audience is valuable to us. After you identify the value, then you make ROI decisions. For example, it’s hard to measure direct value from social, but the different channels deepen and extend our relationship with many people, who then want to come visit us when they have, let’s say, a reference question.
Make sure that what you’re doing is serving the brand as it stands today, and where you want it to be in the future. Test quickly and inexpensively, and pay attention to what you learn from your data. And launch quickly to start learning what the real-world data says. Continue to get qualitative feedback as well.
It’s best not to follow a dream just because you love an idea. Pursue ideas you love, definitely, but also confirm that your audience will love them too.
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