The BACKGROUND: Competition is intense
The number of mobile operators and MVNOs in the world implies a high intensity of competition, regardless of the country in which you are located. In addition, domestic markets on the African and South American continents are facing rapid growth in Smartphones and mobile and fixed Internet (see in French “Digital against poverty“, Le Monde 2019) and we can affirm that these markets are subject to extremely intense competition.
This raises the question of how the operator can differentiate itself from other competing operators in a highly competitive environment. Since the challenges of customer acquisition and revenue growth are the main objectives of operators, how can we achieve becoming the preferred choice of customers? What can you do when your competitor operator wants to achieve exactly the same objectives?
The SOLUTION: differentiate yourself from other operators
Let us quickly recall the theoretical foundations. With regard to development strategies, two parameters must be taken into account by the operator: the target (its segment(s)) and its competitive advantage (quality or price). We thus obtain several types of strategies as theorized by M. Porter, including the one that interests us most: the differentiation strategy.
In our case, it is a question of allowing the operator to differentiate itself (in other words, to distinguish itself) on the market from its competitors, in several possible ways:
- Provide quality services and products: for example, with an extremely reliable and fast Internet network
- Provide innovative services and products: for example, the implementation of cloud storage solutions
- Offer services and products related to the customer experience in-store: with a personalized, fast and efficient welcome
- Offer a unique know-how: for example, premium quality customer service
The real question that operators must answer is which products and services can create customer preference in relation to what they are or wish to become. To do this, it is necessary to identify what they offer that is best, more or different from their competitors?
Differentiating: with voice and Mobile Voice Services
To create customer preference, we believe that we must act on two axes: the positioning of the operator and the additional services that generate value for customers.
1. Differentiate yourself by positioning
In order to be effective, we believe that any differentiation strategy must be accompanied by a clear and rewarding positioning for the customer. At The Mobile Concept, we believe that Mobile Voice Services help the operator to have a differentiating positioning through its image for several reasons:
- First, to help people excluded from digital to become potential customers of operators, in addition to increasing the ARPU of these low-value customers.
- Then, it means putting yourself forward with innovative services through a new voice experience, a first step towards the voice assistants of tomorrow (see our article on “How to build the use of voice“)
These two aspects are marketing consequences of the implementation of our Mobile Voice Services. They contribute to promoting the operator’s brand image in order to make it an operator that
- speaks to all clients (thus embodying an inclusive social role),
- that makes all its services easily accessible,
- which modernizes uses with an offer that anticipates the future,
2. Differentiate yourself by services
Differentiating to create preference also implies having a quality offer, whether it consists of services or products. At The Mobile Concept, we are convinced that our Mobile Voice Services create a preference thanks in particular to the tailor-made services we publish for our partner operators with a double benefit:
- Tailor-made: we have created services that make it possible to transpose a web-only service onto a voice channel. This is the case, for example, of our weather or directory information service, which makes it possible to do without an Internet connection to consume them and increase the ARPU of low-value customers.
- Voice-only: our strength lies in the fact that we offer services that are only available via voice, such as answering machine customization or a waiting tone. These products without application competition have the strength to be in contact with the entire population without requiring any marketing effort: all you have to do is call someone to hear their waiting tone or to find their personalized answering machine message.
With Voice Services, we are convinced that creating customer preference is much easier, whether to adopt innovative uses or benefit from services that would otherwise be impossible to obtain and that they contribute to promoting a positive and differentiating brand image for the operator (see our success story with an operator in a complex market here)
