Finding new sources of strength. The challenge of linking a technical competitive advantage with an unmet customer need.
Challenge
As cellular phone use in North America skyrocketed during the mid-nineties, cellular service providers raced to build out nationwide cellular networks. Our client entered this competitive fray quite late, with a poorly performing technology platform built around dozens of small wireless companies that in itself, presented a sizable integration challenge. Our client—representing one of a half dozen autonomous regions within North American operations—needed a strategy that would enable it to succeed despite the significant disadvantages it faced.
Solution
Evading weaknesses. Building on strengths
While most cellular phone service providers at the time were enamored with the consumer market, we worked with our client to aim their targeting efforts at the business market. We ended up selecting several interrelated industries who had a strong compelling reason to buy the capability enabled by the unique feature that our client offered—a feature we ascertained would be difficult and/or undesirable for other service providers to develop for perhaps many years.
We provided a number of additional recommendations to help complete the market strategy including a selling and distribution model appropriate for the target market; a tactical program for generating initial demand; and a positioning strategy to guide the messaging of the unique value proposition.
Result
Strong value proposition plus a desired technical advantage = success
For several quarters after implementing the strategy our client posted stronger growth numbers than any of the other North American regions. The results were so impressive that other regional companies in the network sent representatives to subsequent strategy sessions so they could learn the success formula and bring it back to their operations. This formula spread throughout the company, enabling the company to post some of the highest Average Revenue Per User (ARPU) figures and highest retention rates in the industry for many years.
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