The company Verizon Wireless

Verizon Wireless is the second largest wireless telecommunication network in USA. The company was founded in April 2000 as the result of a merger that took place between “Bell Atlantic” and “NYNEX” in 1995 and later on between Bell Atlantic Corp. (Verizon communications) and Vodafone Group. The company is having headquarters in New Jersey, it employees over 60,000 people with a revenue of over $32 Billion. The Vodafone group is having an ownership share of 45% in the overall company while 55% is being shared by Verizon Communications.

Marketing Strategies “Marketing is concerned with creating and sustaining mutually satisfying exchanges of value between producer/servers and their customers. It has both a managerial orientation and an organizational/social function” (Varey 4: 2001). Verizon initially positioned itself as the largest cellular network company in USA, it also brought the ease of using the cell phones to the mind of people by showing people in their advertisements using only two fingers in operating their cell phones, two fingers making a “V” sign.

The value proposition for Verizon was “Join In”, this continued in various forms once the company started operating in other areas such as “iN messaging”, “iN Calling” and even they have made their toll free number ending with “JOIN-IN”. The value proposition, however later changed from only “Join In” to “We never stop working for you”. The company in 2006, changed the scope of marketing efforts from people to its own employees, it came with a new value proposition only to motivate its employees and letting people know that its employees or internal customers are even happier, the value proposition was “Our people. Read about FHP wireless

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Our network”. This represents the concept of internal marketing in Verizon, internal marketing has been suggested as a means to develop employee awareness of their roles and help them to commit to active participation in the marketing or exchange process, i. e. to make the corporation more marketing-oriented. Not all marketing communication occurs in a planned programme, but management implies setting out a schedule of actions and resource allocations to be deployed for the accomplishment of a specified goal and objectives.

The marketing plan is an essential aspect of the communication management process. It is, however, only one aspect, and is an input to the process rather than a product of it. The design of the marketing communication system and its programmes of generation, production, and representation should be based on a knowledge-driven rationale and contributory judgments and decisions. Verizon Wireless competitors are AT&T Wireless, T-Mobile, US Cellular and couple more.

Lets now discuss the 4Ps of the Verizon Wireless. Product refers to goods and services a company offers to its potential customers. Product can be further subdivided into several elements. One of these is position, the place the product occupies in the consumer’s mind. Position is determined by marketing strategists and then communicated to the public by advertising slogans such as “Join In”, “We never stop working for you”, “Our People. Our Network” etc.

The products/Services for Verizon Wireless include the Handsets (GSM/CDMA), PDA/Smart Phones, Wireless Broadband PC cards, push to talk service, CDMA2000, SMS, MMS, Video on demand and there are other services as well for the customer benefits, entertainment has been particularly focused by Verizon such as News, games and various other channels including sports and weather, all this on for a fair pricing. According to the research the company is providing these services and products at an “Augmented” level as there are many attached benefits with the services and products, such as the customer complaint center and toll free number etc.

The product line and length is therefore competitive for Verizon, it is offering the similar services and products that are being offered by its competitors. Price can be determined in a number of ways. When introducing new products, marketers must decide to either skim (high prices) or penetrate (low prices) the market. The dream is to achieve market penetration with high prices. To skim or penetrate, or later to initiate price changes or respond to others’ actions, requires a good deal of strategizing. The same is true when planning discounts and allowances, credit terms and payment periods, and all price-related activities.

Some manufacturers/ service providers mistakenly base their prices on economics rather than on perceived value. If a product’s marketing mix variables are working in harmony, then price will be easy to determine. Psychological pricing is the only way to set prices. Marketers should simply price the product in congruence with the communicated value of the product. Consumers should receive a price message that fits into their mindset of your product compared with others. The cell phone prices including PDAs at Verizon range from $49. 99 to $400.

The services have a different range in prices such as messaging, games etc. cost $2. 99 to $11. 99. It is obvious that the company is following psychological pricing method. The pricing method followed by Verizon is fair enough to sustain the market, it is not selling something which is big in value and very unique because of which the value based pricing may be set, the communication services are common now and the psychological pricing is done in a fine manner, making the customer realize that a valuable product or service is being bought on fair for a fair amount.

Place, or distribution, refers to channels that move goods and services from manufacturer to consumer. On the surface, this may not seem much of a communication activity (at least not from organization to consumers), but it is. Kotler and Armstrong (1990: 233) say it best: “Companies must do more than simply build quality into their products; they must also communicate product quality. The product’s look and feel should communicate its quality level. Quality is also communicated through other elements of the marketing mix.

A high price usually signals a premium-quality product. The product’s brand name, packaging, distribution and promotion also announce its quality. All of these elements must work together to communicate and support the brand’s image. ” One of the good things about Verizon Wireless is the innovation, the company has brought the services and products over the Internet along with the various customer care centers across US. The website is user friendly and allows the potential customer to buy the goods and services online with an ease of online payment.

The company remains successful in placement specially if it has come up with the innovation and gave the customer an ease of availing the products and services online with even lesser charges. Promotion, the fourth variable, ties together the subtle communication efforts of the other three variables in an overt way. So marketing management (i. e. , analysis, planning, implementation, and control of the marketing mix to reach target market objectives) consists largely of coordinating people, resources, and budgets to communicate to relevant publics about an organization’s products and services.

Promotion, as the fourth P and the coordinating function that integrates and unites the other three P’s, is the heart of marketing. Verizon Wireless has been constantly moving on in its positioning, it has different positioning for both the internal and external customers. The company has invested merely $35 Billion in its advertisements and promotional efforts in the past seven years and is now serving over 60 Million customers. The company has run effective campaigns such as “Can you hear me now?

” in which the employees of Verizon used to run the special vehicles across the US and identify whether the phone network is working properly, this campaign was a hit. Further to promote the sales of products and services online, the company has put many sales promotion efforts such as discounts on online purchases, extra services free of cost. Recently on purchase of Motorola RAZR V3m, it’s a buy one get one free offer only for $49. 99. On the basis of all the results that are achieved, the promotional efforts can be considered successful.

There is yet a lot more to be done or that the company can do such as the company can associate it with other services such as providing a handset with the credit cards issued by various banks or motor vehicles purchased by customers.

References

Varey R. J. (2001), “Marketing Communication: An Introduction to Contemporary Issues”, New York: Routledge. Kotler, P. & Armstrong, G. (1990), “Marketing: An introduction”, Englewood Cliffs, N. J. : Prentice-Hall. Verizon Wireless, <www. verizonwireless. com>

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