Customer-Centered Telecommunications Services Marketing

In today’s telecommunications services industry, rapidly changing technologies and a decline in growth are creating intense competition where the customers’ quest for value is of paramount importance. Offering you a survival strategy based on customer-centered marketing, this forward-looking resource helps you assess your company’s market potential and target desirable segments successfully. You gain practical insight in evaluating your present customer base and learn the best ways to adjust your marketing strategies to eliminate unprofitable customers and attract high-value replacements. Moreover, the book helps you become attuned to customer demand and present a service portfolio with a high potential for success.

This practical volume features numerous examples ofsuccessful strategies in the telecommunications market, offering you invaluablecompetitive intelligence and direction. With an emphasis on enabling technologies,the book helps you achieve improved marketing planning and budgeting. Frommarket research, market segmentation and pricing, to customer loyalty, brandingand new technology, the book covers the essential areas you need to understandto be successful in today’s increasingly competitive telecom marketplace.Contents:

Part 1: The Customer-Centered Marketing StrategyThe State of the Telecommunications Industry - The Need forCustomer-Driven Telecommunications Marketing. The State of the TelecommunicationsMarketplace. The Customer and the Distribution Channel. The Customer and theDecision-Maker. Customers and the Regulatory Environment. Customers andTechnology.The Nature of Telecommunications Competition - MarketStructure. Marketing Telecommunications Services as a Commodity.Differentiating Telecommunications Services. Emerging Marketing Opportunitiesand Strategies of Industry Leaders.The Marketing Plan for a Customer-CenteredTelecommunications Enterprise - The Marketing Planning Process. Directing theMarketing Plan to the Customer. Differentiation Strategies.Market Research - Data Mining and Customer Profiling.Primary and Secondary Market Research. Yield Management.

Part 2: Market ManagementCustomer Demand - Capital-Intensive Industry Demand.Technology Industry Demand. Price Elasticity and the Demand Curve. ForecastingDemand. Competitive Intelligence - Developing CompetitiveIntelligence. Finding Strategic Competitors Before the Customer Does.Perceptual Mapping. Competitive Parity.Channel Management - Traditional Distribution Channels.Evolving Routes to Market. Cross-Channel Strategies. Partner RelationshipManagement Systems. E-Business Channel Management. Strategic Alliances. Scopingthe Channel as a Customer-Centered Strategy.Stakeholder Management - The Importance of Stakeholders.Customers as Stakeholders Throughout Changing Regulations. Issues Management.Crisis Management.

Part 3: Customer ManagementMarket Segmentation - Markets and Submarkets. StatisticalSegmentation Using Cluster Analysis. Market Coverage Strategies. CustomerLifetime Value Management. Making the Most of Undesirable Markets.Pricing - Avoiding Commodity Pricing. Pricing Strategies.Promotional Pricing. Bundling. Price Discrimination. Pricing for CompetitiveParity.Customer Loyalty, Retention and Churn - Predicting andLimiting Churn. Strategies for Maintaining Loyalty. Limiting the Costs ofChurn. Benefiting from Churn.The Customer Relationship Management Process - CustomerRelationship Management Systems. Using Billing Systems to Enhance CustomerRelationships. Customer Self-Service. One-to-One Marketing.

Part 4: Service ManagementBranding - The Importance of the Brand. Brand Equity.Product Positioning. Branding Commodities. Protecting the Brand.Marketing-Based Innovation - Distributed Innovation.Marketing Disruptive Technologies. Maintaining an Innovative Organization. CaseStudy-NTT DoCoMo’s i-Mode.Customer-Centered Technology Marketing - The Uniqueness ofTechnology Services Marketing. Revisiting the Diffusion of Innovation Curve.Technology Marketing Tools.Karen Strouse is the owner of Management Solutions,a telecommunications consulting firm. She previously served as director ofstrategic planning for the Bell Atlantic Corporation and consulting manager forDeloitte & Touche. She holds an M.A. in communications from TempleUniversity, and an M.B.A. from St. Joseph University. She is also the author of Strategies for Success in the NewTelecommunications Marketplace and MarketingTelecommunications Services: New Approaches for a Changing Environment(Artech House, 2001, 1999).