Chegg 2015 Annual Report Download - page 47

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generated by student bloggers, syndicated through partners, around key student concerns and interests such as admissions,
resume preparation, transition to college and picking a major.
Through our campus activation programs, we partner with brands to bring entertainment events, such as concerts, trial
promotions, on campus ambassadors and product giveaways to students. We also engage students on campus to help them
elevate their voice behind timely social issues beyond academics, such as the “It’s On Us” campaign relating to the prevention
of on-campus sexual violence. The Chegg for Good program connects students and employees with partners to engage them in
causes related to education and the environment. We work with the nonprofit conservation organization American Forest to
plant trees around the world and our funding has enabled the planting of more than six million trees to date. In May 2013, we
formed the Chegg Foundation, a California nonprofit public benefit corporation, to engage in charitable and education-related
activities. As part of our College Admissions and Scholarship Services marketing efforts, we identify select partner
organizations who offer complementary content and services that support students in exploring colleges. We enable these
partner organizations to use our college match service through their websites to enable students to request information about
colleges that may be of interest to them.
Colleges and Brands
We secure contracts with colleges and brands through direct sales by our field sales organization, which sells
enrollment marketing services to college admissions offices and brand advertising services to large brand advertisers and
advertising agencies seeking to reach and engage college and high school students. This sales organization is comprised of two
teams, one focused on colleges and universities, the other on brand marketers and their corresponding advertising agencies.
Both teams have field sales people and inside client success managers and share operations and marketing support.
Student Advocacy
We are committed to providing a high level of customer service to our students. We trust our students, understand the
critical role our products and services have in their education and strive to resolve all problems quickly and thoroughly. Our
student advocacy team can be reached directly through phone, email and online chat during business hours. We also proactively
monitor social media to identify and solve problems before we are otherwise informed of their existence. We endeavor to
respond to students’ concerns within five minutes.
Competition
While we do not have any competitors that compete with us across our business in its entirety, we face significant
competition in each aspect of our business, and we expect such competition to increase. The actual and potential competition in
each of our primary areas of operations is described below.
Products and Services for Students. The market for textbooks and supplemental materials is intensely
competitive and subject to rapid change. We face competition from college bookstores, some of which are
operated by Follett and Barnes & Noble Education, online marketplaces such as Amazon.com, eBay.com and
Half.com and providers of eTextbooks such as Apple iTunes, CourseSmart, Blackboard and Google, as well as
various private textbook rental websites. Many students purchase from multiple textbook providers, are highly
price sensitive and can easily shift spending from one provider or format to another. As a consequence, our
Required Materials product line, which includes eTextbooks, competes primarily on price and further on selection
and functionality and compatibility of our eTextbook Reader across a wide variety of desktop and mobile devices.
With respect to our Chegg Services, our competitors include companies that offer students study materials and
educational content such as publishers, online instructional systems such as Web Assign and other tutorial
services, job boards, and other online career guidance services.
Enrollment Marketing Services. With respect to our enrollment marketing services, we compete against
traditional methods of student recruitment, including student data providers such as standardized test providers,
radio, television and Internet advertising and print mail marketing programs. In this area, we compete primarily
on the basis of the number of high-quality connections between prospective students and institutions of higher
learning we are able to provide as well as on price. We are able to create these connections by providing
prospective students with an easy-to-use platform to input their academic information and aspirations, learn about
colleges, locate scholarships and financial aid and facilitate and streamline the application process.