Marketing strategies in the industry

the landscape of marketing in the telecommunications industry is changing rapidly as technology has enabled more start up companies to enter the market. Although the telecommunication industry is in many ways very similar to political campaigns in the fact that there are actually only a handful of meaningful, competitive candidates, marketing in the industry is changing as the big old established companies try to reach different segments of the population and attract new clients that have different needs.

For example, Verizon has started to heavily market and attend the need of racially diverse communities. This is because Verizon estimated that 35% of the market it serves is multicultural and because the purchasing power of Hispanics, African American and Asians is going to reach $2.5 trillion by the end of 2010. In order to effectively market to a multicultural audience, Verizon has employed culturally, racially diverse employees in its marketing teams.

While At&t currently only offers assistance in English and Spanish, Verizon has also tried to differentiate itself by offering assistance in 10 other languages such as Vietnamese and Korean.

As America becomes a more multicultural and diverse country it is expected that more companies will provide services directed to the needs of multicultural clients. It seems that the battlefield of marketing will not only be present in the services and technology telecommunication companies offer but also in the quality of customer service.

Information from:

http://newscenter.verizon.com/kit/diversity/marketing.html

http://www.scribd.com/doc/12778357/Consumer-Behaviour-towards-Telecom-Products

Telecommunications Prices Decrease

There is good news for consumers of telecommunications; broadband and mobile prices continue to decrease worldwide (Whitney, 2010, p.1). The International Telecommunication Union reports that in 2009 the cost of broadband services decreased approximately 42%, on average, in 161 nations (Whitney, 2010, p.2). Broadband and mobile telecommunications were not the only ones to see their prices fall. The International Telecommunications Union also stated that there was a 20% decrease, overall, in the cost of landline telephone telecommunications (Whitney, 2010, p.2). Despite the worldwide decrease in price for broadband internet, the service still proves to be expensive to people in many poor nations (Whitney, 2010, p.2).

Sami Al Basheer Al Morshid, of the International Telecommunication Union, pointed out that worldwide internet and phone usage have grown despite poor economic times (Whitney, 2010, p.2). He attributes this, in part, to mobile cellular technology (Whitney, 2010, p.2).

I believe that the information provided by Lance Whitney, though encouraging for the industry, is not that surprising. Historically, as time progresses, various types of technology decrease in price as they become more readily available or as newer versions come out. It should be expected that broadband internet remains expensive to people living in poor nations (Whitney, 2010, p.2). There are not enough consumers in poor nations to stimulate the competition that is needed to bring down prices to levels where the majority of people in these poor nations can afford to purchase broadband internet.

Informational Interview: Polycom

Mr. Tim Sheehan – Polycom Major Account Manager

            Tim Sheehan is a vital member of Polycom as a Major Account Manager. Mr. Sheehan is the channel development for the company. He stays in close contact with many of their customers and potential customers. These companies will be able to learn of new products and Tim gives them the chance to buy some of the Polycom’s products.

            Polycom is a company that sells a variety of telecommunication software that are meant to work universally, further connecting people. Polycom lets companies access each other easier because of their easy ability to share. Mr. Sheehan was selected for this job largely because of his background in telecommunications. He had worked with Polycom in the past and following his work with Polycom were other experiences that opened doors for him.

            Tim looks for many of the same traits he had when he originally applied to work at Polycom. Tim wants to see experience with video and voice products, along with experience in the government and having education. Some skills that are sought is a sales rep with previous selling experience. If the candidate has any specific selling experience in relation to the business then there is more of a desire to higher them.

            Polycom has been doing very well recently. They have hired over 200 people in the last eighteen months. Even though the company has been hiring, stock prices rising, and all signs are good, Mr. Sheehan still fears that the company must move forward to ensure they stay on top. He mentions how in technology there is always the chance to be “gobbled” up by another company. Some of the reasons why I see Polycom moving forward and not being gobbled up is because of their uniqueness.

            Polycom as the leading independent provider is an ambassador of open collaboration. They will work with anyone which does not limit their clients. Their ability to work freely with companies is also an incentive for other companies to join those who use the products of Polycom. Polycom’s freeness to do as it pleases allow it to succeed in many ways other companies cannot. 

Marketing strategies of at&t

March 21^st– Marketing

  
    AT&T is nation’s most dominant company in telecommunication sector, and they are broadening perspective to worldwide now. Well-equipped with infrastructure and wireless technology make them as leading company in the world. . As AT&T noted(2009)  in their official home page att.com, "In 2009, AT&T again ranked No. 1 in the telecommunications industry on FORTUNE® magazine’s list of the World’s Most Admired Companies"

   "The iPhone has helped AT&T appear more youthful", as said Jeff Kagan(cited in Jon Van's 2007 article), an Atlanta-based telecom industry analyst, but getting a cutting edge customer image meanwhile continuing to attract to stakeholders are hard working . Jon van(2007) said,"This is about putting on a new youthful coat for the consumer market. It's follow-on to what they did last year with their logo when they went from using AT&T in capital letters to using at&t in lower case."

   As Jon Van(2007) noted, "This time, AT&T will shift from using blue as its predominant color to using orange, which had been the theme for Cingular." At&t is struggling to expand market share and change brand image with releasing Apple series. They want to grasp young customer, sensitive to hottest trends, and has purchasing power. Also, they want to be a symbol of professional working people such as businessman, lawyer, and accountants. Their market segment is precise and heading for clear aim. In this sense, I am looking forward to next step of at&t for marketing view.

reference

AT&T official site, 2010,About AT&T, http://www.att.com/Common/thebridge/releases/ray_wilkins_top_100_3-16-10.html


Jon Van, 2007, AT&T marketing plan to project innovative, hip image, http://globaltechforum.eiu.com/

Informational Interview with Telecommunication Industry

Informational Interview with Telecommunication Industry

- Interviewer: Youngsoo Park

- Interviewee: Name: Kim, Hee Young, E-mail: candys7@gmail.com / hykim@gatech.edu, Cell Phone: 404-663-   477, Class: PHD, Research Area: Statistics, Address: 2916 Clairmont Rd #2208, Atlanta GA 30329       

1.      What is your job at company?  What are your responsibilities?

   Research scientist & Statistical research in AT&T Labs. I usually research datas for developing Speech   mashup (Web app + speech) project. To be specific, Speech mashups provide an easy way for web developers to incorporate a speech interface into their web apps so their users can use voice commands and receive back spoken responses. All speech and language processing, from automatic speech recognition, text-to-speech conversion, and natural language processing, is performed on AT&T servers so web apps get the advantage of AT&T's expertise in speech and language processing.

2.      Could you explain why you are attracted by your job, what did you decide to study this territory?

   I was excited about applying expertize (applied statistics) to solve business problems. Since my university, I was attracted by statistics in terms of functional organization.

3.      What skills sets do you look for in potential candidates?

   Proven technical skills in statistics, data mining, predictive modeling techniques, and analytical tools such as  S+, R and SAS in analyzing large data sets.

4.      To get your position, what was your educational background, and which level is required?

   I majored in Industrial engineering - specialization in statistics, PhD. Also, it is deeply related to the SCM, which try to find to optimal process for managing industrial lines.

5.        Are there particular jobs in your company where you have seen an increase and/or decline in recent years? What was the cause?

   Managing data is one of the hot issues in industry. For example, Vcodex is a platform of data transforms. A transform may encompass: different ways to compress data, different ways to encrypt data, translating data from ASCII to EBCDIC, etc. The uniqueness of Vcodex is that it provides an architecture that allows all of these different transforms to be programmable in a uniform manner and to be composed with one another to make up new transforms. It will bring about new phase in the sectors.

6.      What employment trends to you see in your industry over the next five years?

   AT&T Labs Research is a premier industrial research facility. We are dedicated to solving real problems in networking, data mining, large-scale systems, and in speech, language, and video processing and to designing and deploying innovative services. We explore fundamental research topics related to these goals. In upcoming few years, it is creating qualified jobs for high-educated candidates.

7.      How do companies in your industry differentiate themselves?

   No one can deny that invention and innovation are core objectives in Research, and our researchers and developers are continually strengthening AT&T's patent portfolio with patented technological advances.  AT&T receives approximately three issued patents per business day, and Research has contributed key patents in areas from network infrastructure to advanced IP communications services. It makes differences among other companies, standing out AT&T as the leader of industry.

8.      How do you think future expectation of your industry?

   The pipeline for new technology starts with fundamental research into areas on which AT&T's business is built, from the physics of optical transmission to foundational topics in computing and communications. Research on machine learning has improved algorithms for speech recognition, leading to better automated voice services. Research on "Steiner Trees" led to improved network design algorithms, helping make our access network more cost effective, and advances in fundamental data structures made it possible to handle massive data sets in speech processing and Internet traffic analysis.

9.       Could you give some advices future workers who want to get a job in your area?

   Above all, I want to recommend you to join the internship program of AT&T. Each summer, research interns from universities all over the U.S. come to AT&T Labs Research to work with individual technical staff members on research projects for 10 weeks. It will give you practical experiences of real workplace, and chance to make a career path for the future. 

Informational Interview with Eric Kierstead of EarthLink Business

How do companies in Telecommunications differentiate themselves?

Telecommunications providers try to standout from one another by offering different prices. The price telecommunications companies charge is an especially important factor when the economy is down. EarthLink business focuses on making sales to businesses. Companies interested in buying telecommunications services take into account not just at price, but also at products and product bundling. Businesses are interested telecommunication providers that can bundle services such as voice, cellphones, and virtual private networks all into one package.

Investment opportunities in telecommunications

Wireless telecommunications remain an excellent area to find investment opportunities. Specifically, Companies to watch are ones that are beginning to develop 4.5G and 5G technology. Opportunity also exists in the development of secure “fat pipes” over wireless networks. “Fat pipes” are communications lines with plenty of capacity to carry voice, data, and video. Investors should also keep an eye on businesses that are pursuing technological improvements in roaming software.

Employment trends in telecommunications over the next five years

There will be a growth in the number of engineers over the next five years. Continuing network build out is reason behind this expected growth. In addition to network build out, more engineers will be required to fill positions vacated by people who will retire. It is expected that the telecommunications industry will have fewer sales people. The principle reason behind this expected trend is that more and more people can buy telecommunication services online.

Types of entry-level jobs offered by EarthLink Business

Entry-level positions offered by EarthLink Business include database administration and dot net development.

Skill sets sought after in potential candidates

Mr. Kierstead seeks people to join the EarthLink Business team who have a commitment to quality, the right team skills, pride in their work, and great technical skills.