There are currently four new cell phone companies about to start up in Canada. Three of them, DAVE, WIND and Public Mobile will be operating in the Toronto area. Let’s compare their marketing strategies to date.
Web sites:
DAVE is plain and boring and has no useful information. There’s no attempt at excitement and nothing whatsoever to engage the customer. The business image is “we’re cheap and boring.”
WIND is better. This company obviously knows the value of relationship building and is doing everything right in this regard. Unfortunately this site has but a couple of lousy photographs, there’s almost no useful information, and it seems to be trying too hard to be trendy. But at least these folks are thinking about customer engagement.
Public Mobile has some useful information for its customers. The site uses no photography but has some video with its executives. They do try to engage the customer through a blog where potential customers can get answers to their questions.
Even though a business might not launch for a few months, once the web site goes live that means the store lights are on. So start selling by building a relationship with customers.
Give customers as much information as they need and turn them into advocates for your business. If a business doesn’t tell their customers anything, what will those customers tell their friends? Nothing.
Certainly it’s a cliché phrase, but “customer relationship” is where it’s at. It’s up to the business to start and nourish that relationship. Don’t expect the customer to come and engage a business because that never happens.
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Media handouts:
None of these businesses use photography with their media handouts. Just dry, boring business text. Media coverage? Minimal. Impact? None.
Who is their audience: the consumer who wants to buy a cell phone or business writers who need to fill holes on a page?
All public relations, marketing, and communications agencies (should) know the value of photography. Not only is a picture worth a thousand words but a picture also demands and gets attention from editors and readers. What business wants attention?
For example: DAVE just made its first official phone call on its brand new network. Are there any pictures of the CEO making that first phone call, ideally with subtle logo placement? Nope. Any news coverage of this event? Nope.
Press releases shouldn’t be intended only for the business section of a newspaper. Less than 30% of readers touch the business section. But 100% of readers open the news section. Make news, not just a business-section sidebar.
The media loves free photos especially during a recession and budget cutbacks. But media handout photographs must be newsworthy and interesting. Photos must be editorial, not promotional, in nature. Published photographs always get viewed. Printed text rarely gets read, (average Canadian reader spends 30 seconds per page).
For your next press relase or media handout: editorial photography or invisibility? Take your pick.
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Public Relations:
WIND has made its chairman available for pictures (talking on a cell phone and also speaking in front of company logo), made its employees available (helping out at a food bank) and had some executives and employees available at press conferences. Did this company get any media coverage? Yup. Any pictures used? Every single time.
DAVE and Public Mobile are blank here. They couldn’t come up with a single PR idea. Nothing.
People love to look at photographs involving people (or cute animals, of course). Readers want real pictures of real people doing real things (as opposed to ribbon cuttings, sod turnings, talking heads, etc).
For a public relations event, set the stage and then let real life happen. Tell a story that includes your product rather than promoting a commercial about your product. The public really is smart.
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Early conclusions:
DAVE fails in every category, an “F”. No attempt to engage the customer, nothing interesting, no excitement, no information. With a brand name like “DAVE”, there are many opportunities to be had. The lights are on but no one is home.
WIND is a “C”. While they seem to know about customer involvement, there’s little effort being made. Potential customers are asking lots of questions, but no one is answering (or even listening?) to them. Some attempt at public relations. Pretty web site though.
Public Mobile is a “C”. They have put faces on their executives who “speak” to their customers via online video. Customers can get some answers to their questions. Two-way conversation = relationship. These folks are making an effort to engage potential customers. But it’s all very low budget.
These three companies are competing with each other and with the three, very large, existing cell companies. Yet none of these three newcomers are doing anything to be different from one another.
Customer service starts with a good first impression.
