Evaluating Broadband & Telecommunications Brand-Marketing in a Retail Context

CPD - QQI - Market Research Regional Report - Telecommunications & Broadband - Point in Time Study (2015)

16 Pages Posted: 7 Sep 2015 Last revised: 6 Aug 2019

Date Written: February 27, 2015

Abstract

Objective: To evaluate and report a broadband & telecommunications brand-marketing exercise by sending a team of marketers on a targeted retail expedition (Practical Report, City & Guilds, 2015).

Design & Procedure: A team of six marketers; four men and two women; approximate age range 24 to 52 years; approximate average age 35 years; divided themselves into three groups of pairs to evaluate brand-marketing effectiveness as consumers. Two broadband providers were evaluated per pair. We selected the following stores to represent Broadband & Telecommunications Brand-Marketed Stores in Drogheda Town Centre: O2 (West St & Scotch Hall), Vodafone (Town Centre), Meteor (Laurence Town Centre), 3 (Laurence Town Centre), & Carphone-Warehouse (Scotch Hall). A 5-point itemised scoring sheet was devised to evaluate how each store conducted its visual Brand-Marketing (e.g., by using Printed Media, Visual Displays, & Store Branding). The categories evaluated whether the store maximised the following categories of visual brand-marketing strategy: 1. Less is More, 2. Brand your Stand, 3. Tell a Story, Sell a Story, 4. Where’s your Wow?, and 5. Fix your Fixtures.

Results: The Broadband and Telecommunications retail sector consistently focuses on Brand-Marketing. The consistent results for the Brand your Stand category, regardless of retail outlet, or electronic good manufacturer brand adjacency, demonstrates clearly that Brand-Marketing is a priority visual marketing strategy for Broadband and Telecommunications retail. While o2 dominates the market for its maximal use of multiple and uniform category strategies, other brands choose to segment their market explicitly, using the Less is More strategy to target business users, and the Tell a Story strategy for everyday users (e.g., Vodafone). With o2’s tendency to focus on store brand in the foreground, and electronic product adjacency in the background, and with 3’s focus on the electronic product as foreground runner, the imminent merger of o2 and 3 may leave mid-low marketing performers (e.g., Meteor and Carphone-Warehouse) with less resistant marketing futures.

Keywords: Brand-Marketing

Suggested Citation

Cowley-Cunningham, Michelle B., Evaluating Broadband & Telecommunications Brand-Marketing in a Retail Context (February 27, 2015). CPD - QQI - Market Research Regional Report - Telecommunications & Broadband - Point in Time Study (2015), Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2571312 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2571312

Michelle B. Cowley-Cunningham (Contact Author)

Royal Statistical Society ( email )

NCFB
Dublin
Ireland

University of Oxford ( email )

CSLS
Oxford
United Kingdom

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