Bell Mobility aims for customer interaction with marketing program

Fun is not a word one would automatically associate with Bell Mobility, the stalwart wireless service provider attached to Canada’s largest wireline carrier. But Bell Mobility’s marketing leaders are trying to change the company’s image with a summer program designed to raise the firm’s fun factor and increase interactions with customers. As if attempting to throw off a stodgy persona, Bell Mobility is cranking up a street-wise marketing plan that includes fake cops, plastic handcuffs, mock traffic tickets and a real chance for people to win a trip to New York City. "It’s about interacting one-to-one with our customers in a fun way," says Darren Yaphe, Bell Mobility’s director of marketing. In Toronto, Montreal, and other Ontario and Quebec cities, Bell Mobility is unleashing teams of "street patrollers" with handcuffs, a portable "jail cell" and tickets. The patrollers will stop people on the street and ask to see their cell phones. If a stopped pedestrian’s phone isn’t a Bell Mobility model running on the service provider’s latest network – EvDO for wireless data – the patrollers will hand out a ticket and throw the mobile miscreant into "jail." The patrollers will explain to the wayward walker all of the features available on the EvDO network: mobile TV and music downloaded to the cell phone, for instance. The patrollers will also give the pedestrian a ticket for carrying an out-of-date handset. The ticket sports a scratch-and-save section that people can redeem at Bell World stores. And the ticket provides an opportunity to win a trip to New York City – accommodation in an upscale Manhattan hotel and travel via private jet included. The promotions carry through to mid-September. Bell Mobility is trying to project a new, fun image with this scheme, but that’s not to say it’s turning its back on the past. "I wouldn’t say there’s anything necessarily wrong with our old image," Yaphe says. "Bell is just trying to connect with customers in a different way. Typically we’d do a lot of mass advertising – billboards or television. We don’t really interact one-on-one with our customers." But industry observers wonder if the company is on the right track, indicating that focusing on customer experience and target markets might be a more appropriate approach to take. Analysts raises questions about BCE directionLawrence Surtees, a telecom analyst at IDC Canada Ltd., says Bell Mobility and its sister firm Bell Canada should focus on service provisioning. "Bell has been more synonymous with hell than fun – service outages, the nightmare of trying to get simple bills….Last summer with the strike problems – does this sound like fun? Maybe consumers sometimes feel like putting on the police outfit and giving Bell the ticket." Brian Sharwood, an analyst at the SeaBoard Group, figures Bell Mobility is missing the mark with this newfound youthful exuberance. Bell partner Virgin Mobile Canada already tackles the youth market. "That angle’s covered," Sharwood notes. "Why not go after the professional crowd and focus on the business market? Focus on families. Establish the security message: ‘Bell will be with you forever.’" Yaphe says Bell Mobility’s summer of fun might seem youthful, but that doesn’t mean the firm is chasing Virgin’s customers – people aged 12 to 18 years old. "Bell would be a slightly older demographic, he says." Bell Mobility is also beefing up its community involvement this summer. The company has launched a "neighbourhood enhancement program." In some "tier two" cities such as Kingston ON and Sherbrooke QC, Bell Mobility worked with municipal officials to identify projects requiring completion – women’s shelters, school painting and park upgrades, for example. Over the coming weeks, people living in these cities can vote online at http://network.bell.ca or at local Bell World stores for the project they think needs the most attention. Bell Mobility will apply financial support and manpower to the winning project. "We’d like to be relevant to customers as well," Yaphe says. "We’re not only improving our network, we’re also working to improve your community." BCE Inc.’s telecommunications operations are also bolstering their presence in the West as a way to combat competitive troubles in its incumbent territory of Ontario and Quebec. Most recently, the company announced that it had completed a fibre optic network deployment from Whistler to Vancouver in preparation of the 2010 Winter Olympics. Late last year, Bell Mobility unveiled its CDMA-based EvDO network, which provides data download speeds up to 2 Mbps. But rival Rogers Communications Inc. might soon launch its GSM-based HSDPA network, which could provide download speeds of more than 10 Mbps. It’s a game of data-rate leapfrog, but it might end before the decade’s done. "They’re all going to converge at HSDPA," Surtees says of differing network types. "The distinction will become almost meaningless." Meanwhile, on July 5, Bell announced that Robert Odendaal, president of Bell Mobility and Bell Distribution Inc., would leave the position (see article on page 3 for more information). It’s unclear at this point what the impact of the departure of the three-year Bell veteran will be, but Yaphe won’t speculate. "That’s not something I can comment on," he says.

Bell Mobility aims for customer interaction with marketing program

News | July 14, 2006

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