Distributing and promoting telecoms solutions

Launching and sustaining profitable services, products and solutions offers unique challenges to the marketer – not least because of the unpredictable nature of the offering and customer take-up. This session looks at the key elements of distribution and promotion – and how they can be optimised within the overall marketing effort, and in line with the overall segmentation strategy.

• Reaching customers effectively
• Six Main Retail Distribution Channels
• Who Buys What, Where and When?
• Choice of Distribution Channel(s)
• Online Distribution
• MVNOs as a Distribution Channel
• Distribution to Business Customers
• “Everywhere” – But Not at Any Price
• From Advertising to Promotion and Engagement
• Engagement During Decision-Making
• Engagement During the Business Buying Cycle
• What to Communicate, and When?
• Routes to Customer Engagement
• Effective Promotional Channels
• Differentiated Promotion
• Engaging Customers With Data Services
• Customer Engagement Examples
• Promotion Effectiveness and Engagement
• SMS Advertising
• Internet Marketing

Trends and challenges for telecoms marketers

Evolving systems and services, convergence, access to media, as well as market saturation in different markets throughout the world are presenting new challenging for marketers within the Telecoms Industry. This session identifies some of the trends that will impact most on the way we do business, and what they mean in terms of marketing our products and services in the future.

• 21^st century opportunities and threats
• Anticipating and Meeting Customer Expectations Profitably
• The Challenges for Telecoms Marketers
• Maintaining Profitability
• New Business Models
• Dealing with Complexity
• Dealing with Competitors
• Developing Partnerships
• User Choice, Control and Personalisation
• Customer Proximity
• Keeping Marketing Aligned

Telecoms Technologies

With telecom technologies changing rapidly, there is a need to thoroughly understand the capabilities, limitations, and implications as each new system is adopted. This module sets out the emerging picture logically – tackling the building blocks first, before looking at the different access and core network systems in more detail.

The picture is built up from the basics to include the way in which the different technologies and elements interact to provide the overall user experience. For the mobile technologies, we concentrate on the 3GPP family, and the evolutionary path through GSM, GPRS, EDGE, 3G W-CDMA and HSxPA, and onto LTE and also including WiMAX. Interoperability, compatibility, and roaming scenarios are all illustrated

• Network Building Blocks
• Network Architectures
• Connecting it all together
• Mobile
• 3GPP (GSM) Family
• 3GPP2 Family
• 3G and Beyond
• Alternative Access (incl. WiFi)
• Fixed
• Access Schemes
• DSL Technology
• Cable
• Fibre
• Convergence
• Technologies
• NGN and IMS
• WiMAX
• Capabilities
• Technology
• Implementation

Service Delivery and Supporting Systems

As the service mix becomes increasingly complex (and IP-centric), effective service delivery and support systems become increasingly important. This module looks at the issues of service implementation, provision, control, and billing.

Both the Operational Support System (OSS), and Business Support System (BSS) are examined, including the evolving techniques used in modern Billing systems and CRM platforms. Finally, we focus on simplifying the provision of OSS and BSS systems through initiatives such as NGOSS.

• The Service Mix
• Fixed
• Mobile
• Convergent
• Delivering the service
• IN and CAMEL
• Service delivery platforms
• IMS for service delivery
• Delivering TV services
• Location Based Services
• Supporting service provision
• OSS
• Scope of OSS
• Operations and Maintenance
• BSS
• Scope of BSS
• Billing
• CRM
• NGOSS

Creative Thinking

This is an interactive session exploring different aspects of marketing, positioning and branding within the Telecoms industry. Analysis of both successful and unsuccessful campaigns / brands and the possible reasons for each are analysed by the participants.

Participants are also asked to think creatively as they tackle various positioning and branding exercises, designed to provide a range of ideas and thoughts that will be useful later in the Island Telco exercise, and once back within their own organisation.