Finally, talk 7 hours straight again
Written by Verne on September 8th, 2007In light of this year’s wireless number portability hoopla, I found Fido’s latest approach sort of interesting.
Thank god! I was growing tired of my 7-hour conversations having to be cut off because my phone battery wouldn’t keep up.
Wait, do the phones come with 7 hours of free minutes too?
Isn’t it a bit weird that such a competitive service industry has one major player showcasing their products on the frontline (especially since 7-hour mobile batteries aren’t exactly unique to Fido)? Unless Fido expects wireless consumers to naively rack up their phone bills by making use of their “new-found” 7-hour batter life…
Oversight or strategy? What do you think?
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This entry was posted on Saturday, September 8th, 2007 at 11:39 am and is filed under strategy... or lack thereof. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
Garry
September 8th, 2007 at 3:26 pmI kinda had the same thought when I read that as well.
I think I attribute that to knowing about cellphones and how we’re able to unlock it and use it on other networks. Yes, I know about cell phones. That’s why I have my 8890 ;P
I think It really depends who you’re talking to. It would be strategy if you’re talking to someone who has the need for batteries and isn’t that aware of the cell phone industry. Their need combined with their lack of knowledge would make this a strategic move. A segment like this would be ‘Old school professionals’; Senior professionals that talk on the phone alot and just takes the plan the company gives them.
If they were directed towards young technophiles, wasted budget might be a better description.
Verne
September 9th, 2007 at 3:07 pmHey Garry – it’s true that the relevancy of the promotion depends on who they’re targeting. But somehow it seems like those who aren’t aware of the technological advancements of the mobile market are also those that probably wouldn’t expect to have 7 hour conversations on their cell phones. And if it is the corporate ‘old school professionals’ they’re targeting, as you suggested, the public mass promotion still boggles my mind.
It’s funny to see how the different telco’s continue to try to push for differentiation. If every service provider claims to offer the best coverage and the most up-time in the world, maybe 7-hour batteries are the only aspects left unmentioned.
…it still seems absurd to me.
Rami
September 11th, 2007 at 2:11 pmThing is with advertisements is that if you find no relevancy in it to yourself then people tend to dismiss it as ‘ineffective’ form of promotion. If that’s your case, then the advertisement is not for you (generally speaking). You’d be surprised just how many people complain that their phone battery doesn’t last and that usually just frustrates. I think the ‘7 hour long battery time’ FIDO advert is not to promote the whole ‘come and talk for 7 hours’ but is telling those ‘frustrated’ customers that at FIDO, you can get a phone that LETS you talk 7 hours. This does the following: 1. Attract those users to the prospect of possibly switching to FIDO (though that’s usually very difficult) and 2. Address an issue that current FIDO customers have, because after all, we know that it’s cheaper and more profitable in the long run to keep our customers than to have to find new ones.