AT&T CMO: This Is How We Sold Millions More iPhones Than Verizon In 2011




One year ago, there was a lot of chatter about Verizon Wireless getting the iPhone and the effect it would have on rival carrier ATT. Now that 2011 sales have been tabulated and ATT turns out to have activated far more iPhones than Verizon did – 17.5 million units vs. 10.8 million for Verizon – ATT is eager to talk about its surprising success holding onto iPhone subscribers and recruiting new ones.

A comparison of ATT and Verizon’s iPhone sales in 2011.

ATT found itself in an awkward position last year. After four years of exclusive access to the iPhone for U.S. consumers, the carrier had to share the popular handset with Verizon starting in February 2011 and with Verizon and Sprint starting in October 2011.

Many tech industry insiders and observers predicted iPhone users would flee to Verizon, for its network reliability, or Sprint, for its unlimited data plans. “Everyone claimed ATT would really suffer once Verizon got the iPhone,” said ATT’s Chief marketing Officer, David Christopher, in an interview. “It didn’t happen.”

Instead, Christopher said ATT grew its iPhone business last year by following these three pillars:

  1. Articulating the benefits of being an iPhone customer on ATT
  2. Strengthening the rest of ATT’s handset portfolio, especially its 4G Android phone lineup
  3. Improving the overall value proposition of owning an iPhone on ATT

 

ATT emphasized those points through TV ads, print ads in newspapers and magazines, online ads, social media, direct mail, radio spots and outdoor signs. In February 2011, for example, ATT started running a commercial called “Answer” that highlighted ATT as the only network that lets iPhone users talk and browse the Internet simultaneously. In November, ATT began airing “Romantic Dinner,” a commercial that played up ATT’s faster network speeds for iPhone users. “We were loud with these messages,” said Christopher.

It was no coincidence ATT kicked off those ads soon following Verizon’s and, later, Sprint’s confirmations that they, too, would offer the iPhone. Christopher declined to detail how much ATT spent on such ads in 2011 but said the company “made a lot of tweaks over the year” in its iPhone-related marketing. (Verizon declined to respond to Christopher’s statements for this story.)

Speed was ATT’s first priority while promoting the advantages of using an iPhone on its network. “The trend over the last several years is all about mobile broadband and the mobile Internet experience,” explained Christopher. “That won’t change.” ATT was fortunate to be the only U.S. carrier to offer the speedy HSPA+ technology the iPhone 4S supported. (T-Mobile USA also has HSPA+ but has not been approved by Apple to sell the iPhone.)

ATT had been promoting its HSPA+ network, which it calls 4G, as the nation’s fastest, since 2010. After the iPhone 4S launch, ATT started saying its HSPA+ network enabled iPhone downloads three times faster than its rivals’. Christopher said the 3x figure was based on independent research.

The messaging helped ATT set a record for iPhone sales: 7.6 million units in the fourth quarter. (Verizon sold 4.3 million iPhones that quarter. Sprint, which is scheduled to report fourth-quarter earnings on Feb. 8, has yet to disclose its figures.)

The ability to talk and surf the web at the same time was another point ATT heavily emphasized in its marketing. It was another advantage ATT enjoyed for technical reasons; “GSM” networks like ATT’s support simultaneous voice and data access while “CDMA” networks like Verizon and Sprint’s do not. The talk and surf message also let ATT draw attention away from other network factors, like reliability and capacity, that ATT was weaker on and which Verizon was promoting itself.

Since talk and surf is not the kind of thing consumers often think about when buying a phone, ATT had to point out the perks to them. The company’s “Answer,” ad, for instance, depicts a man surreptitiously searching for a restaurant on his iPhone after his wife calls to remind him that their anniversary is that night. “When you don’t have [talk and surf], you don’t realize what you’re missing unless someone brings it up,” pointed out Christopher. “Our ads have to…dramatize what the benefit is.”

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Article source: http://www.forbes.com/sites/elizabethwoyke/2012/02/03/att-cmo-this-is-how-we-sold-millions-more-iphones-than-verizon-in-2011/

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