This is a presentation about implementing a social media plan by figuring out your target market and creating buying personas to come out with key messages. The presentation uses T-Mobile's new 5G rollout as a case study and potential market for the company.
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2. Introduction
• WirelessTelecom Industry extremely competitive
• T-Mobile has successfully disrupted this market
• T-Mobile and 5G (Fifth Generation Mobile Services)
• 5G has “fiber-like” capabilities (Drubin, 2017)
• Rural America is underserved regarding broadband
• New residential and office broadband service
3. Introduction (continued)
• Rural America and Baby Boomer demographic/psycographic
• Marketing & PR PlanTemplate (Scott, 2015)
• Key messages and Sample Social Media posts
5. T-Mobile and 5G
• T-Mobile and 600MHz
• Already began deployment inWyoming with the following planned:
• Northwest Oregon
• WestTexas
• Southwest Kansas
• Oklahoma Panhandle
• Western North Dakota
• Maine
• Coast North Carolina, and more!
6. Fixed Broadband Market
• AT &TVerizon and Fixed
Broadband
• To approach 150 million
subscribes by 2021
• Rural America is still
underserved – New
Opportunity
Figure Source: United States Telecommunications Report (2017)
7. Target Market
• Rural America – 25% Baby Boomers
• What are their psychographics?
• Community attachment and community involvement
• Prefer local companies
• Support local activities
9. Marketing and PR Strategy Template (cont.)
Figure Sources: Scott (2015)
10. Buying Persona
• The buying persona for ruralAmericans:
• What Problem are we solving?
• What actions would we like the customer to take?
• Why are we the best to offer this service?
11. Buying Persona (Continued)
• Which social media
platforms?
• 18.4% Online Newspapers
• 10.6% Facebook
• 7.5% Political blogs
Table Source: Towner (2016)
12. Buying Persona (Cont.)
• What type of content?
• Videos are a great way to attract this demographic.
Video Source: YouTube.com
13. Key Messages
• Don’t Patronize senior citizens
• Stress community and belongingness
• Availability, quick installation, Fiber speeds
16. Conclusion
• T-Mobile has proved itself a formidable competitor
• Rural America is underserved
• 5G bridges the gap
• Baby Boomers are the target market
• An opportunity to be utilized
17. References
• Beeswaxdyson.com. Image retrieved from:
http://www.beeswaxdyson.com/uploads/work-with-us-1400x525.jpg
• Drubin, C. (2017).Worldwide fixed wireless households to surge past
150 million.Microwave Journal, 60(4), 55. Retrieved from
https://search-proquest-
com.contentproxy.phoenix.edu/docview/1889347103?accountid=3581
2
• Forbes.com. (2017). Image retrieved from: https://b-
i.forbesimg.com/edfenergyexchange/files/2013/08/Midwest-Farm-
Community-1024x682.jpg
18. References (Cont.)
• Miller, N. J., & Kim, S. (1999).The importance of older consumers to small
business survival: Evidence from rural iowa. Journal of Small Business
Management, 37(4), 1-15. Retrieved from https://search-proquest-
com.contentproxy.phoenix.edu/docview/220998975?accountid=35812
• Schadelbauer, R. (2017). BROADBANDTRENDS show progress for rural
america.RuralTelecommunications, 36(1), 28-30,32. Retrieved from
https://search-proquest-
com.contentproxy.phoenix.edu/docview/1862028439?accountid=35812
• Scott, David M.The New Rules of Marketing and PR: How to Use Social
Media, OnlineVideo, Mobile Applications, Blogs, News Releases, andViral
Marketing to Reach Buyers Directly, 5th Edition. JohnWiley & Sons P&T,
2015-09-28.VitalBook file.
19. References (Cont.)
• T-mobile just picked up the 600MHz spectrum mother lode to bring their
network everywhere. (2017, Apr 17). ICT Monitor Worldwide Retrieved from
https://search-proquest-
com.contentproxy.phoenix.edu/docview/1888623206?accountid=35812
• T-Mobile. (August 7, 2017). Get ready for #Unlimited55! Anyone 55+ can
grab 2 lines ofT-Mobile ONE for $60!.YouTube.com. Retrieved from:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bMtAagKW_q4
• T-mobile has started deploying 600MHz LTE, phones coming later this year.
(2017, Aug 17). ICT Monitor Worldwide Retrieved from https://search-
proquest-
com.contentproxy.phoenix.edu/docview/1929383888?accountid=35812
20. References (Cont.)
• Towner,T., & Munoz, C. L. (2016). Boomers versus millennials: Online
media influence on media performance and candidate
evaluations. Social Sciences, 5(4), 56-n/a.
doi:http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/socsci5040056
• United states telecommunications report - Q3 2017. (2017). (). London:
Business Monitor International. Retrieved from https://search-
proquest-
com.contentproxy.phoenix.edu/docview/1914326054?accountid=358
12
Hinweis der Redaktion
The US wireless market is extremely competitive with a predicted steady increase into 2021 with a total of 406.6 million subscribers (United states telecommunications report - Q3 2017, 2017)
The “Un-carrier” has been able to capture significant market share, while AT&T and Verizon have had a net loss of subscribers. It has even decreased the Average Return Per User (ARPU) across the industry, forcing all operators to offer unlimited services (United states telecommunications report - Q3 2017, 2017)
According to T-mobile just picked up the 600MHz spectrum mother lode to bring their network everywhere (2017), T-Mobile spent $8 billion to purchase 45% of what the FCC put up for auction
A new opportunity exists to serve the underserved Rural American markets, which is comprised of mostly Baby Boomers (Miller, 1999). We will discuss their psychographics, key messages, and some sample media posts.
A new opportunity exists to serve the underserved Rural American markets, which is comprised of mostly Baby Boomers (Miller, 1999). We will discuss their psychographics, key messages, and some sample media posts in more detail later in this presentation.
We will also look at how to create buyer personas through the Marketing & PR template developed by Scott (2015)
According to United states telecommunications report - Q3 2017 (2017), AT&T and Verizon have lost subscribers every quarter since Q1 ’15, while T-Mobile gained subscribers.
T-Mobile’s Un-carrier packages such as Unlimited have lowered the ARPU (average return per user) for the industry while AT&T and Verizon try to offer similar packages (United states telecommunications report - Q3 2017 , 2017).
According to Drubin (2017), "Superior capacity offered by 5G technology will benefit operators to deploy fixed wireless access in densely populated areas," concludes Lynn. "This will enable fiber-like broadband service to support bandwidth-hungry applications without the need to install fiber-optic cables to each premise“ (Drubin, paragraph 6).
T-Mobile has spent $8 billion on 600Mhz frequency to implement 5G services and has already began deploying in rural America (T-mobile has started deploying 600MHz LTE, phones coming later this year, 2017).
The listed areas to be covered could be considered rural areas, so is T-Mobile planning on implementing this strategy?
AT&T and Verizon have a long standing foothold in the Fixed Broadband Market, with subscriptions increasing. (United States Telecommunications Report, 2017).
According to Schadelbauer (2017), even though there has been progress regarding broadband in rural America, it still remains underserved because 79% of operators citing cost as the biggest hurdle.
T-Mobile should provide these services with their 5G deployment that can give “fiber-like” speeds and service (Drubin, 2017).
Rural American comprises of 25% of Baby Boomers, or senior citizens (Miller, 1999).
According to Miller (1999), “Community Attachment. Four community attachment measures were identified in the rural sociology literature: sentiment, belongingnes, formal involvement, and informal involvement (Goudy, 1990; O'Brien, Hassinger, and Dershem, 1994; Stinner et al. 1990)” (Miller, Page 6)…” Miller's (1997) finding that rural consumers with higher levels of attachment to their community are more likely to inshop is further supported by this study” (Miller, Page 12)…” In general, the research indicates that older community members who are actively involved in their community are strong supporters of the local independent retailer”(Miller, Page 12).
According to Scott (2015), one must develop buyer personas when devising an online marketing strategy. Questions to answer are:
What problem can you solve for the customer?
What actions would you like the customer to take?
Why is this organization the best one to solve the problem for the customer, and how can you prove it?
Which social media platforms do you believe will be most appropriate for your company based upon the usage patterns of the target customers?
According to Scott (2015), once the buyer personas have been identified, we can begin to create the content and drive action through our social media channels.
The buying persona for Rural America will need to answer the following questions:
What problem can you solve for the customer?
Reliable, fast broadband that is only attainable through expensive satellite and fiber. 5G can reach these areas with “fiber-like” speeds (Drubin, 2017).
What actions would you like the customer to take?
Subscribe to our household and business broadband service. Easy to installation and no waiting time. Fiber-like speeds, wirelessly.
Why is this organization the best one to solve the problem for the customer, and how can you prove it?
Being the un-carrier, TMobile has already disrupted the mobile market. Combined with their new frequency
According to Towner (2016), Baby Boomers total 74.9 million individuals, and have different attitudes and behavior.
They use the following social media channels
- 18.4% online Newspapers
- 10.6% Facebook
- 7.5% Political Blogs
Online marketing efforts to focus on advertising and disseminating content at the above mediums.
Content should be about community and belongingness based on the psychographics studied by Miller (1999), which suggest a focus on sentiment, belongingnes, formal involvement, and informal involvement.
T-mobile has already begun targeting the 55+ demographic through their charismatic CEO, John Legere. This is a great way to introduce them to the brand before launching 5G/broadband services to rural America (T-Mobile, 2017)
Senior citizens are just as technology savvy, and use data and social media (T-Mobile, 2017)
Messages need to include community and belongingness (Miller, 1999)
Fiber-like speeds for individuals and companies without any wait times.
A post depicting rural America and the message of connecting to the local community, followed by an action to subscribe.
The link should take them to a page that explains the benefits of 5G and it’s technical capabilities.
5G will bring in the realization of the Internet of Things (IoT), whereby sensors and devices will all be connected to the same network. This allows farmers to completely automate and streamline their businesses by having sensors that sense temperatures, water moisture, etc, turning their operations into data driven businesses –making them more profitable.
The link should take them to a page that explains the benefits of 5G and it’s technical capabilities.
T-Mobile, utilizing the Un-carrier strategy, has disrupted the industry as shown before. AT&T and Verizon already have a fixed broadband department/segment. T-Mobile already began targeting the baby boomer demographic, which represent 25% of rural America. Cost is the main reason that operators do not extend fixed broadband infrastructure into rural America. However, 5G bridges that gap.
T-Mobile should take advantage of this opportunity to add a whole new demographic and business unit to its operation, which will increase revenues are profits.