Duolingo's Slightly Unhinged, But Personable Mascot

 As the daughter of a German immigrant, I find it essential to understand the German language to communicate with at least half of my family and connect with a part of my cultural identity. Taking a class is one way, but I have also taken another approach; having a language-learning app on the go. That is why I have used Duolingo for almost a decade, and I'm not the only one. So, what makes Duolingo such a popular app for those who want to become bilingual?

According to its website, Duolingo's value proposition is "Learn a language free. Forever." The app allows its users to take a 5—to 15-minute lesson a day in a language of their choosing. Duolingo users note that it constantly sends notifications to remind them to take their daily lessons, often in a rather persistent tone. Arguably, this rather aggressive tone signals the marketing ploy that Duolingo follows, having a personal and relatable connection to the audience.

The Inc. article, "4 Lessons From Duolingo's Marketing Playbook," written by Robin Landa, discusses how the app, with its green owl mascot, managed to join the premiere of Barbie and Squid Game. One significant aspect is engaging with its audience, whether it's through fandoms or unconventional social media posts. Additionally, Duolingo creates community ties through, as Landa says, "Host events, start social media challenges, offer customer spotlights, Q&A challenges, webinars, cultural tie-ins, shared spaces for interest-based communities, exclusive events, behind-the-scenes moments or access, collaborative design, fresh collaborations, or build loyalty programs that bring your audience together." But this is all not just for Duolingo to seem "hip with the kids," as shown when Duolingo addressed the societal conflict common in South Korea while promoting for Squid Game, showing that the company understood what it should stand for.

Link to article: 4 Lessons From Duolingo’s Marketing Playbook

It's a clever marketing strategy to make Duolingo go from an educational app to a personal teacher for its users. The language-learning app uses new media in a way you couldn't get from old media. As Author Landa mentions in her article, an example of this is Duolingo engaging in TikTok trends. Another way is its Twitter account embracing jokes about its green owl mascot, which pops up constantly in the user's notifications. It gives Duolingo a rather distinct brand.

However, as a language-learning app, Duolingo faces many challenges that make it difficult to achieve its real goal of teaching its users a new language. One challenge has been trying to help its users engage in a real-life conversation in another language rather than just knowing specific phrases. How it tries to fix that problem has been controversial, to say the least. Recently, Duolingo has used AI to make video calls that users can engage in, at least if they have Duolingo Max.

Overall, Duolingo wants to be the first in trends. That has had the strength of being one of the first companies to really take advantage of the digital landscape before others. On the other hand, Duolingo's use of AI, which has been criticized for stealing jobs from human workers and having an 80% correction rate at best, has had some rather harsh consequences. If I were Katherine Chan, the current brand strategist of Duolingo, I would listen to critics in addition to fans. Even if many of Duolingo's problems aren't related to marketing, they affect the company nonetheless.

Through my research of Duolingo, I better understand the future of social media marketing. We have reached a point where companies have almost become personalized, like actors at Disneyland. They directly communicate with potential customers through social media and hop onto trends like any influencer. Companies must realize the potential of having their own quirky and honest model for their customers.

Link to Duolingo: Duolingo - The world's best way to learn a language

Criticism of Duolingo: Duolingo Critical Review: An Honest Assessment Of Pros And Cons