Telecom Strategies

BBA 7th & 8th

 Successful telecom marketing strategies
• The broad majority of consumers and companies use telecommunications
products every day, and that’s why creating marketing strategies that capitalize
on this fact is a matter of survival
• Consider the market penetration of cellphones, and smartphones in particular:

• 95% own a cellphone.

• 77% own a smartphone.
• 100% of consumers aged 18 to 29 have cellphones (94% have smartphones).
• Given the growing usage, and even dependence, of telecom services, these
companies’ target audiences are wide-reaching and quite diverse
• Telecom companies are tasked with creating marketing strategies that appeal to
many potential consumers and solve a a lot of challenges.
Analytical Marketing
• There are an enormous number of solutions telecommunications
companies can provide, but most customers are only interested in a select
few
• Analytical marketing is the practice of using customer data to identify
which consumers will most likely benefit from which products
• This involves using consumer information to create microsegments, or
personas that describe smaller sets of customers rather than large, big-
picture details
• It also includes detecting specific behaviors that prompt a new product
offer, such as suggesting an international data plan to a customer who
frequently sends texts to friends in other countries
What is Customer Micro-Segmentation?
• Customer micro-segmentation is the practice of dividing a company’s
customers into groups relevant to a particular business
• The goal of segmenting customers is to decide how to relate to customers
in each segment in order to maximize the value of each customer to the
business.

• Micro-Segmentation is a more advanced form of segmentation which

groups small numbers of customers into extremely precise segments,
based on various factors, including behavioral predictions
• Marketers can then direct specific marketing actions to each micro-
segment to maximize the effectiveness of every contact with each
customer.
Using Micro-Segments to Optimize Marketing
Actions
• Micro-segments typically contain very few customers each, allowing
for highly personalized predictive analysis and marketing action
optimization
• By tracking and carefully analyzing how different marketing actions
affect the spending behavior of different micro-segments, it becomes
possible to predict the varying effectiveness levels of different
marketing actions on different micro-segments.

• The goal of this process is to determine, in advance, which marketing

actions will have the most desirable impact on each group of
customers.
Data mining
• Companies need to strike a balance between obtaining high-quality,
comprehensive information and maintaining trust with the consumer
• With the increasing capabilities for data mining, consumers have
become protective of their personal information
• Ironically, consumers also become frustrated when they perceive
companies to not have a good understanding of their needs or offer
random products rather than relevant ones
• This complex dynamic means telecom businesses must gather high-
quality information, but use it in a responsible, transparent way
Customer experience
• One of the biggest hurdles telecommunications marketing
departments must clear is the industry’s reputation for poor
customer service and user experience
• If the customer doesn’t believe they’ll have a positive experience,
the consumer engagement process is much more difficult
• As such, many telecom companies are beginning to invest in an
improved customer experience
• One way to provide a better experience is to anticipate problems such
as network outages
• The telecom space is increasingly becoming more competitive, which
means consumers have options
• Consider Verizon, for example; this big-name provider admitted in
early 2017 that, for the first time ever, it was losing customers faster
than it was bringing people in
• Reintroducing the popular unlimited data plan helped keep customers
to some degree, but the company, like many others in the telecom
space, will have to think outside the box for customer retention and
acquisition
• Companies that strive to improve the overall consumer experience will
likely find it much easier to retain loyal customers.
Content marketing
• Providing the type of content that a target audience actually wants to
read is a great way to stoke customer engagement
• That was Virgin Mobile’s idea when they partnered with BuzzFeed,
which frequently produces popular content aimed at a young
demographic
• In an effort to capture consumers in the 18- to 24-year-old age range,
the telecom company created its own news hub called
VirginMobileFeed and staffed it with a BuzzFeed-trained editorial
team
• The hub frequently features content, video and links to Virgin’s social
channels to entertain this younger demographic
Video marketing
• Verizon chose to invest in video for its product pages, the company
saw an increase in viewer conversions in addition to reduced call
center volumes
• videos helped consumers understand the product better and created
a more intuitive and seamless experience
• Samsung has also embraced video, but focuses their efforts on
creating memorable commercials that highlight the differentiating
features of its phones compared to its main competitor, Apple
• https://youtu.be/HeqD7v4f8Jk (jump off the fence)
• Product promotion and explanation aren’t the only ways video can
serve to entice consumers
• Telecom companies that create their own video services can also bring
in new customers and engage existing ones
• That’s just what China Telecom did with the launch of a video
streaming service in 2014
• The service included a library of movies and other content, and
focused on the user experience through sharp picture quality, high
video-coding standards and updated technology
• Within two years, the company gained 2 million new subscribers, and
today holds claim to about one-fifth of the video subscription market
share
Product/service differentiation
• Product complexity and dissatisfaction are key issues for many
telecommunications companies
• Vague and somewhat meaningless product names like “turbo” and
“ultra” don’t provide clarity, either
• Tackling this issue can help improve satisfaction because customers
may begin to view the telecom company they use as being more
transparent and honest about services
• Confusing products and titles can be a detriment to the consumer
experience, but so can products that don’t meet expectations
Understanding consumer needs can help brands create offerings that
satisfy their customers
Mix and match marketing activities to achieve
success
• Marketing in the telecommunications industry must be an all-
inclusive effort that begins with a sound understanding of who your
target customers are (and there likely will be many categories here),
what they need and how they get their information
• For example, your analytical marketing can help inform methods like
product differentiation, and video marketing can improve the overall
customer experience
• Establishing feelings of trust and reliability will help to generate happy
customers who are more likely to be loyal to your brand
Digital Presence of Samsung
• Moreover, Samsung has several profiles
on each platform. For instance, Instagram
has Samsung, Samsung India, Samsung
UK, Samsung UA, Samsung Mobile and
more.

• The company adheres to the best digital

marketing practices like SEO and quality
content creation that solves customer
problems.
DATA MINING APPLICATIONS

• The telecommunications industry was an early adopter of data mining

technology and therefore many data mining applications exists
• These applications are divided into three application areas: fraud
detection, marketing/customer profiling and network fault isolation
Fraud Detection
• Fraud is a serious problem for telecommunication companies, leading
to billions of dollars in lost revenue each year
• Fraud can be divided into two categories: subscription fraud and
superimposition fraud
• Subscription fraud occurs when a customer opens an account with
the intention of never paying for the account charges
• Superimposition fraud involves a legitimate account with some
legitimate activity, but also includes some “superimposed”
illegitimate activity by a person other than the account holder
Marketing/Customer Profiling
• Telecommunication companies maintain a great deal of data about
their customers
• Telecommunication companies also store call detail records, which
precisely describe the calling behavior of each customer
• This information can be used to profile the customers and these
profiles can then be used for marketing and/or forecasting purposes
Network Fault isolation
• Telecommunication networks are extremely complex configurations
of hardware and software
• Most of the network elements are capable of at least limited self-
diagnosis, and these elements may collectively generate millions of
status and alarm messages each month
• In order to effectively manage the network, alarms must be analyzed
automatically in order to identify network faults in a timely manner—
or before they occur and degrade network performance
• A proactive response is essential to maintaining the reliability of the
network