Connecting Classes

I'm currently taking Pricing and Product Strategy as my other marketing focused class aside from Marketing Seminar, and a light bulb flickered on today about a way in which I can connect topics explored between the two as a part of this blog.

Our first assignment in Pricing and Product Strategy was to evaluate a case study that described Richard Branson's company Virgin Mobile's options when it made the decision to enter the United States cell phone market. It was a really interesting time from a marketing standpoint because cell phones were nowhere near as popular when Virgin Mobile decided it would make the big move in 2001. The existing companies at that time focused mostly on older business professionals as a target market, and the younger generation of under 30 years old were not an area of focus due to erratic and inconsistent usage, inability to legally sign a contract until turning 18, and issues with credit card background checks. Virgin Mobile viewed this neglect as an opportunity, and decided to focus their efforts entirely on this target market that they believe had much more potential than was currently realized.

This abides perfectly to one of Drucker's principles that we discussed earlier this week. Drucker stressed the often misconstrued notion that marketing and sales are joined at the hip, and that good marketing and good sales are often simultaneous. The reason Drucker believes this isn't always true is because an amazing sales team could work incredibly hard to barely profit on a product that doesn't address a need, pain point, or problem for a specific consumer segment at a specific point in time. Working that hard to barely succeed means that the marketing was absolutely terrible in that scenario, because part of marketing is doing market research to strategize where potential opportunities are that the sales team can then maximize once the product or service gets rolled out.

Branson and his Virgin Mobile team showed a terrific understanding of Drucker's lesson because of the way in which the company approached the cell phone market in the United States. Virgin Mobile understood that rather than pricing or marketing their company in the same manner as competitors, it would provide its offerings in a completely new manner that caters to its totally new market of Under-30s in the United States. Why market your coverage in the mold of the status quo when your target market's needs aren't being addressed at that point in time? That would be falling into the exact situation Drucker warned about, pushing your sales force into a sub-optimal situation where there's essentially a glass ceiling on your success.

Virgin Mobile entertained a variety of ideas that separated them from the competition toward young people that proved their chops as marketing behemoths. At a time when this was not the norm, Virgin Mobile provided games, music, and other additional younger-oriented content through partnerships with MTV, VH1, and Nickelodeon. Text messaging became much more prominent in its marketing messages, due to research indicating kids texted a disproportionate amount during school hours even in 2001. Virgin Mobile phones were distributed mainly to places younger people shopped such as Target, Best Buy, and local music shops. They even provided more flexible pay-as-you go pricing plans to address the inconsistent cell-phone use of the youth generation (wow has that changed over time!), which made Virgin Mobile a more financially viable option than the competition and its rigid price structure and compex, hidden fees. All of this demonstrated fantastic marketing acumen and contributed to Virgin Mobile's success in the early 2000's, and I'm sure earned Peter Drucker's respect if he happened to be paying attention.

Introduction

My name is Chris Longo, and I'm a senior Marketing major at Western New England University. I'll be posting weekly about various marketing topics connected to the concepts discussed in Marketing Seminar class, through my own unique perspective.

To provide a little background about my time at WNE so far, I've become increasingly involved on campus over the last three and a half years. I joined the Marketing Association during my sophomore year, starting as a general member and later becoming Director of Public Relations and eventually Co-President. I'm a member of Student Council, and was also formerly a Marketing Assistant for Stageless Players and a Junior Representative to the Senior Class.

In addition to on-campus involvement, I've also been fortunate enough to have three marketing-related internships. I have been an intern for Overdrive Interactive (a digital marketing agency in Boston), Circles North America Group (a concierge service company in Waltham), and Envision Marketing Group (a digital marketing agency in East Longmeadow). These internships have given me a glimpse of what is to come in the working world, and I look forward to utilizing those experiences to hopefully be able to make insightful posts and connections throughout the semester on this blog.