T-Mobile's Marketing Communications

Marketing Communications deals with:

• Advertising
• Personal Selling
• Public Relations
• Sales Promotions
• & Direct Marketing

T-Mobile USA utilizes each of these 5 marketing communication tools to a point, diversifying their outlets and avenues available to both target markets and exclusive retailers.

Advertising:

T-Mobile USA has proven time and again their creativity when it comes to successfully blending their services/products with their company image. Three perfect examples of this are:

T-Mobile USA actually created a website geared specifically for their newest service - T-Mobile @Home. It is a completely interactive website - click on the couch and you receive information about annual savings by switching to this landline alternative; click on the picture frame and meet more talking @Home advocates. In fact, it feels as if you have literally walked into these individuals' conversations - they even continue to talk on the phone to their "mother" after they rattle off informative information to you about the @Home to make the whole thing seem relaxed and make you feel "at home." This website can actually be found from the main T-mobile website, however during the launching of the new @Home service (and even currently), fliers at the retail stores were handed out to consumers with the link to check out this interactive website for "more information."

Another perfect example? T-Mobile's eye-catching, humorous Myfaves commercials. They reach out to the diverse target markets T-Mobile attracts, both amusing and informing the consumers. They also help reinforce T-Mobile as both a family-oriented, yet "hip" service provider. Here are a few of the most popular commercials:



This one successfully combines both the "stick together" motto and also keeping it humorous, leaving the viewer not only with information about Myfaves, but also giving the viewer a memorable scene to apply to Myfaves. This raises the chances of the viewer remembering T-Mobile and their service much longer and over other commercials they may see after it.



This one I have actually seen definitely work. Many of my friends (T-Mobile and non-T-Mobile users alike) have referenced this commercial. They love this butt dialing reference. It has happened to all of us at one point or another - sometimes nearly every day. This commercial makes it humorous and fun - not only positioning and recommending an excellent new Blackberry for consumers, but also stating "bust chops together" - once again incorporating this idea of togetherness and family. Instead of a father and daughter (and scared boyfriend), we have a young couple. Different target markets and images of family types.

Overall, T-Mobile does a great job with their advertising. They always have and I do not see any real area of improvement. They know what image they want to display and they know how to do it. They do it well and they do not falter from it, which is very important for consumer respect and loyalty.

Personal Selling:

T-Mobile USA depends on their front-line sales force to not only reach out and capture new customers, but also to retain loyal customers as well. They use both corporate and authorized indirect dealers to represent them "in-person" to the consumer. For authorized indirect dealers, T-Mobile does send them the proper advertisements for their building, such as signage, cut-outs, etc. T-Mobile keeps track of the performances of both of these different front-line avenues to the consumers through something called "Voice of the Customer." Susan Campbell, TMCnet Contributing Editor discusses further the details of VOC, listing how T-Mobile rates thus far as providing the service expected by its consumers in her article titled "Customers Seek a Voice to Improve Customer Service." No surprise for a company who has won the J.D. Power award time and time again in customer service, however this VOC survey really drills the consumer about a month after their purchase. This really keeps track of how the front-line employees are doing, assuring they are not only treating consumers properly and with T-Mobile ethics, but also mentioning the right services and offers. Very in depth and keeps businesses on their toes.

Although T-Mobile has successfully provided customer service to their customer base, I feel they should provide more corporate front-line employees/stores, cutting down on indirect retailers. Unlike corporate direct dealers, most indirect dealers at these retailers work solely on commission sales, leading to temptation of corruption and less-than-satisfactory customer service. In the end, the unsatisfied customer goes to a corporate store upset and confused. They did not know they went to an "indirect" and felt deceived, cheated, and want the corporate location to fix it. Unfortunately, the corporate stores do not interact with the indirect retailers. Either cooperation and unity must occur between the diverse front-lines, or a more corporate base must come about for a happier consumer and a more recognizable T-Mobile sales representative face.

Public Relations:

T-Mobile USA gets very involved with the community, running a program called T-Mobile Huddle Up. T-Mobile employees all over the country get involved in their neighboring communities during organized events and work on a project - either fixing up a school, after school programs, etc. They have an ongoing recycling program - the proceeds also go to the T-Mobile Huddle Up program. T-Mobile USA gets very involved with environmental issues and recycling, recently offering to plant a tree in the name of each customer that donates an old phone/charger/phone electronic accessory to their recycling program. They also recently publicized and released their first completely recycled Moto Renew phone. An environmentally-safe phone, marketing it as the company caring for the environment and their environment-caring consumers one step further.

Sales Promotion:

T-Mobile USA does participate in Sales Promotion - either in conjunction with the manufacturers of the devices they sell or simply on their own. For example, they currently have a "Buy one blackberry, get up to 4 phones free." This means if you purchase any blackberry (either with a new activation or full discount upgrade, you can get up to 4 phones free (out of the selection they disclose to you) if you chose to activate 4 more lines or have full discounts on 4 more lines). However, they do offer sales promotions via specific phone manufacturers. For example, when Nokia released their Nokia Xpress music phones with T-Mobile USA, they gave customers coupons inside their new phone's box to download music, which also led them to sales contests to Nokia and other Nokia gear. Motorola did this with their release of their Motozine phone for T-Mobile, including a free trial of Kodak, giving free prints to customers purchasing the phone, giving them this sales promotion in hopes to transform them into Kodak services consumers.

T-Mobile also runs Customer Appreciation Weekends, where they have short-term discounts (no activation fees, free month of service, BOGO (buy one, get one free), double referral bonus) for customers once a month, or once every other month. This helps drive in traffic and keep up relationships with direct dealers and the consumers.


Direct Marketing:

T-Mobile USA utilizes this tactic, especially for their front-line employees. Direct dealers participate in follow-up calls, mailers, and make sure to keep up a strong connection with their own personal customer base, making the customers feel they truly have a personalized experience at their local T-Mobile store. T-Mobile took the concept of the "telemarketing" call and has converted it to truly touching base with the customer - an effective tool in keeping the customer feel more than simply a dollar figure to not only the dealer that sold them on the activation, but especially the company. Also, by keeping uptodate with the consumers, it allows more personalized mailers and much higher customer satisfaction, for the sales representatives are able to truly recognize the needs and wants of the consumer.


Overall, I feel T-Mobile USA very effectively markets and penetrates their target markets and consumers. However, I feel they can improve on the personal selling segment, as noted previously. I feel T-Mobile USA's strongest point is definitely their advertising. Their commercials overshadow their competitors hands-down.

Here's one of their newest commercial receiving buzz lately:



Although this occured in Liverpool, London, T-Mobile USA consumers have seen this commercial courtesy of the awesome power of Youtube and the internet.

The concept behind this commercial?

"Lysa Hardy, head of brand and communications at T-Mobile, said: “‘Dance’ brings to life the fact that there are often unexpected, wonderful, exciting things that happen that you want to be able to share with your friends and family." - Theinspirationroom.com

Once again, Stick Together, family, and have fun.

T-Mobile's distribution and pricing strategies

A little about T-Mobile's distribution and pricing strategies!

T-Mobile's distribution strategy appears to aim simply at getting their services and products to the consumer as quick and as accessible as possible. They give customers the ability to sign up for service via online, customer care, direct corporate retail stores, indirect retail stores (premium retail stores, kiosks), and business dealers (for business accounts). Many choices for the busy consumer. In fact, a T-Mobile customer never has to step into a store if they choose not to. Everything can be done via customer care or online now. This allows T-Mobile to satisfy customer needs and wants faster and more efficiently, while also cutting down on how many locations and staffing needed (able to use more indirect dealers vs corporate direct, also utilize Internet and customer care for all-in-one). It also gives T-Mobile the ability to reach out to many different consumer markets (kiosks at malls reach a range of different age groups and demographics, while corporate stores focus more on family head/business consumers). By creating such a versatile way to reach out to consumers, T-Mobile has managed to attain the J.D.Power award 8 times in the past 9 years for customer service, as well as earning the J.D.Power award for Retail. Their ability to reach out to their colorful makeup of consumers shows in this great achievement in consumer happiness.

The downfall to all of these distribution channels? Confusion and miscommunication. A customer care representative may send a consumer to a retail store to get a product faster and quicker, only to send them to a disappointing "sorry, we cannot override such things in-store. Only customer care can." This wastes the customer's time, while also making T-Mobile appear fragmented and separated into almost competing units. Direct dealers versus indirect dealers, customer care versus retail, business versus retail - it really can prove messy, time-consuming, and worst of all, damaging to the consumer experience.

The concept of giving the customer many different channels to acquire T-Mobile products and services is a great one - however, T-Mobile should work on refining it down. Corporate direct dealers go through routine training, abide by stricter guidelines, follow T-Mobile ethics and culture, and also have a base pay plus commission salary. Indirects primarily depend, if not solely depend, on commissions. They also do not work in a corporate style environment with T-Mobile culture, creating a "I sell T-Mobile," rather than a "I am T-Mobile" attitude. By depending more on corporate direct dealers and less on indirects, T-Mobile can raise customer satisfaction retail-wise, which in turn will also help the customer care vs retail scenario. Both the customer care and retail end will come from T-Mobile corporate culture and life, creating a greater familiarity with policies and procedures between the two. This will lead to less conflict and more harmony overall, which benefits everyone involved - customers, employees, and T-Mobile.


Pricing...it is T-Mobile's trustworthy sword battling against its fellow competitors, even wielding price penetration tactics to capture more customers (thus - more wireless market share). T-Mobile bluntly advertises costing an average of 28 dollars cheaper than their top competitors (Verizon and AT&T). They know they cost much less while providing equally, if not a little more for your buck, to customers. They do this very well. One of the best examples of this is the powerful mixture of the T-Mobile Hotspot, T-Mobile @Home, and the cheaper T-Mobile plans...the T-mobile "Triple Threat," to quote Businessweek columnist Olga Kharif. Not only did T-mobile roll out first with the VoIP service wireless provider-wise, creating a nicely organized cell/home all-in-one bill feeling, but they created a deadly combination of price penetration, cheap base plans, and great new technology to attract and retain new and existing customers. The @home service is 10 dollars a month, undercutting Vonage's 20/month and its fellow competitors. T-mobile managed to step into a new playing field and dominate it price wise - and what is even strategically nicer is the requirement of having T-mobile service wireless before being able to take advantage of the cheap VoIP service. Excellent strategy. Makes the existing customers feel they are getting a great deal, only them, while also attracting new customers from top competitors due to the fact they want to join in on saving a great deal of money on their monthly home phone bill.

Price definitely works for T-Mobile. The one worry right now is the economy. Kharif brings up the fact of a price slashing war causing great issues and complications for the wireless companies, T-Mobile most certainly being one of them. Right now, T-mobile has slashed their prices down from 99.99 usually for an unlimited plan to 50 for selected "tenure" customers to compete with MetroPCS and smaller competitors. No longer must T-mobile simply worry about the top competitors, but also the smaller and regional ones. They are growing and with the economy suffering, pre-paid plans and deals are what attracts and retains customers nowadays. T-Mobile has also rid of their handset upgrade fee, an $18 dollar renewal fee for existing customers. This proved a big move, especially since fellow competitors have not stepped that far yet into the pricing cutting. Although T-Mobile definitely has acquired the ability to attract new customers, while also satisfying existing customers, they must know when to implement the final stage of price penetration - the true money making part, raising the price after "hooking" the customers. They successfully did this with their Internet packages, raising it from their low rate of 19.99 a month for Blackberry and PDA devices to 24.99 recently. Hopefully, they will have equally successful outcomes when attempting to reap the benefits of all the new and returning customers.

T-Mobile offers a multi-range of products, from hotspot capable devices to @Home VoIP services, to wifi for laptops and, obviously great plans for cheap. They need to realize they do not have to go too far with their price slashing - they want to separate themselves from the "second rate" providers, not associate themselves as eye-to-eye competitors. It is smart of them to keep a mindful watch of them, but lowering too far will also lower T-Mobile's positioning in consumer's view, which would prove detrimental overall to T-Mobile's business and image. Top wireless provider for less, consumer-focused and technologically "there" - not a cheap, second-rate service provider.

To read more about Kharif's articles in Businessweek:

T-Mobile's Triple Threat

Prepaid Wireless Takes Off