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OCEAN:
CUSTOMER ACQUISITION STRATEGY - Download
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Historical
Development
Established
in 1991, Esat is a wholly owned subsidiary of Telecom plc
(BT) offering a full range of telecoms solutions to the
Irish market through its data, Internet and Voice products.
In
January 2000 Esat was purchased by BT and was merged with
BT-owned telecoms company, OCEAN.
ESAT
Business, a division of the Esat Group has built its business
based on the core values of trust, insight, innovation and
simplicity.
Since
the acquisition of the company by BT, Esat has continued
to grow significantly in all sectors. They have acquired
138,000 internet customers, over 800,000 mobile customers,
16,000 corporate customers and 82,000 residential customers.
The company has developed a completely new sales organization
to offer dedicated account management to all customers
Background
The
Irish telecommunications market was deregulated from December
1 1998. Eircom was the only telecommunications service provider
and was a state owned monopoly. Deregulation opened the
market to a number of competitors. British Telecom and the
Irish Electricity Supply board formed OCEAN to enter the
Irish Telecommunications market. When OCEAN entered the
Irish market, it was not as well known as its major competitor,
Eircom.
OCEAN
provided telecom solutions, including voice and data transfer
through its world- wide network to both business and consumer
markets in Ireland. Call centres account for a significant
volume of telecom usage in Ireland and OCEAN wished to offer
a telecommunications solution to these call centres.
One
contract with a call centre can be worth millions in revenue
to a telecommunications company.
In
addition, call centre managers who make the final decision
are very busy and the added challenge was to capture their
attention. The issue of inertia had to be considered as
there was the expected resistance of existing Eircom customers
to changing to a new telecommunications company.
Marketing
Program Objectives
Ocean
wanted to generate meetings with 20% of the call centre
market.
They
wanted to develop new business with total expected revenue
of Index 100.
Target
Market
In
advance of their entry to the Irish market, Ocean wished
to profile senior decision makers in the call centre market.
The company wished to tailor their communications solutions
to the individual needs of call centres.
OCEAN
targeted 200 managers of major call centres based in Ireland
using a direct mail campaign.
Campaign
Strategy
Communications
Strategy
Between
July and August 1999 OCEAN initiated another direct mail
campaign. The personalised letter was the call to action
and a brochure was also included. The mailing was phased
over a seven week period to allow each lead to be followed
up with a personal sales call.
Creative
strategy
Because
of the difficulty of gaining the attention of call centre
managers, OCEAN had to communicate to the prospects in an
impactful way and to prepare the way for follow-up meetings.
A box
containing a hand carved African drum, a personalised letter
and a brochure was sent to each potential customer (See
fig. 1). The drum was selected to represent the original
form of communications as well as demonstrating how communications
and telecommunications have evolved.
Each
drum was hand crafted and unique, reflecting OCEAN's strategy
of providing individual communications solutions to each
company. The size of the drum, the method of delivery (courier)
and the uniqueness of content succeeded in gaining the attention
of the call centre managers.
Results
50%
of the target market responded requesting follow up meetings.
7 orders
were achieved at a cost-per-order of $3,714 providing a
return on investment of 1269%
OCEAN
expected to achieve business worth index 100. The actual
business gained was worth index 350.
Teaching
Objectives
- To
illustrate the need to profile your target market in order
to customise your offer to individual requirements.
- To
demonstrate the importance of the communication medium
and the power of creativity in direct mail when communicating
to corporate customers.
Questions
- How
important was information and the profiling of the target
market in this campaign?
- What
do you consider to be the key factors underlying the success
of OCEAN’s direct mail campaign?
- Do
you consider the target market/list and creativity in
a campaign to be of equal importance?
By Mary
Lawlor, Lecturer in Marketing, Dublin Institute of Technology,
& Mark Cassin, Managing, Direct Marketing Associates.
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