Cowley, M. (2015). Evaluating Broadband & Telecommunications Brand-Marketing in a Retail Context. Innovation & Management Science eJournal, vol.3, Issue 63: October 27, 2015.

Brand-Marketing: Broadband & Telecommunications

A QUANTITATIVE-QUALITATIVE RETAIL REPORT

‘Evaluating Broadband & Telecommunications Brand-Marketing in a Retail Context’

Momentum Sales & Marketing for Small & Medium Business SMES (2015)

Authors: M. Cowley

Week 6: Training for Jobs in Sales & Marketing (Miriam Rogers, Retail Knowledge)

Objective: To evaluate broadband & telecommunications brand-marketing by sending a team of marketers on a targeted retail expedition. METHOD Participants. The Stores (Six representative stores): O2 (West St), O2 (Scotch Hall), Vodafone, Meteor, 3, & Carphone-Warehouse. The Marketers: A team of six; four men and two women; approximate age range 24 to 52 years; approximate average age 35 years. The Task, Task Design, & Marketer Procedure. First, we divided ourselves into three groups of pairs to examine two stores each per pair. Second, we selected the following stores to represent Broadband & Telecommunications Brand-Marketed Stores in Drogheda Town Centre: O2 (West St & Scotch Hall), Vodafone (Town Centre), Meteor (Laurence Town Centre), 3 (Laurence Town Centre), & Carphone-Warehouse (Scotch Hall).

Cowley, M. (2015). Evaluating Broadband & Telecommunications Brand-Marketing in a Retail Context. Innovation & Management Science eJournal, vol.3, Issue 63: October 27, 2015.

Before the exercise began we devised a 5-point itemised scoring sheet to evaluate how each store conducted its visual Brand-Marketing (e.g., by using Printed Media, Visual Displays, & Store Branding). The categories evaluated whether the store maximised the following categories of visual brand-marketing strategy: 1. Less is More, 2. Brand your Stand, 3. Tell a Story, Sell a Story, 4. Where’s your Wow?, and 5. Fix your Fixtures.

Finally, each marketer evaluated each of their two stores out of marks of 10 within their pair, per five categories, per store. The marketer made evaluative category judgments based on what was visually salient to them in a qualitative way, rather than using a point-by-point quantified inventory. Then a pair composite score, for each category out of marks of 20, was totalled and an overall store evaluation score out of marks of 100 was generated. See Appendix I for our 5-point itemised scoring sheet, with some examples indicative of what to look out for within each brand-marketing strategy category. RESULTS: Overall Store Comparison. The overall result revealed that O2 West St was ranked higher (91%), than any other store (O2 Scotch Hall 64%, Vodafone Town Centre 66%, Meteor Laurence Centre 67%, 3 Laurence Centre 64%, & Carphone-Warehouse WH 39%) on the same measures of evaluation. See Figure 1 below:

Fig. 1.: Overall percentage of brand-marketing scores, where 100% represents the maximum percentage of overall score for visual brand-marketing per brand-type, per store. Overall Category Evaluation. We calculated the composite score for visual-branding strategy category per store. We compared each category percentage score within the overall percentage per store. See Figure 2 below:

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Cowley, M. (2015). Evaluating Broadband & Telecommunications Brand-Marketing in a Retail Context. Innovation & Management Science eJournal, vol.3, Issue 63: October 27, 2015.

Fig. 2.: Overall percentage score of Brand-Marketing strategy categories per store, where 100% represents the maximum percentage of overall score for visual brand-marketing per brand-type, per store. The categories differentiated from top to bottom within each store percentage score were: Less is More, Brand your Stand, Tell a Story, Where’s your Wow?, and Fix your Fixtures.

O2, either as West St or Scotch Hall, achieved the highest score percentage of their total score per category (20%, 19%, 18%, & 20%), in comparison to all other four stores, apart from in the category of Tell a Story, Sell a Story which was tied with Vodafone (16% each). The three top scores of 20/20 were awarded to o2 for the categories of Less is More, and Where’s your Wow? In fact, o2 dominated the cross-table in every category, and in particular o2 West St had a Wow factor in comparison to all other stores. That said, all stores were scored well in the Brand your Stand category (range 12-19%). In comparison to other categories all broadband and telecommunications stores tended to prioritise branding through brand-standing consistently. CONCLUSIONS The Broadband and Telecommunications retail sector consistently focuses on Brand-Marketing. The consistent results for the Brand your Stand category, regardless of retail outlet, or electronic good manufacturer brand adjacency, demonstrates clearly that Brand-Marketing is a priority visual marketing strategy for Broadband and Telecommunications retail. While o2 dominates the market for its maximal use of multiple and uniform category strategies, other brands choose to segment their market explicitly, using the Less is More strategy to target business users, and the Tell a Story strategy for everyday users (e.g., Vodafone). With o2’s tendency to focus on store brand in the foreground, and electronic product adjacency in the background, and with 3’s focus on the electronic product as foreground runner, the imminent merger of o2 and 3 may leave mid-low marketing performers (e.g., Meteor and Carphone-Warehouse) with less resistant marketing futures.

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Cowley, M. (2015). Evaluating Broadband & Telecommunications Brand-Marketing in a Retail Context. Innovation & Management Science eJournal, vol.3, Issue 63: October 27, 2015.

Appendix I M1 = Marketer 1 M2= Marketer 2 Qualitative Scoring Sheet

1. LESS IS MORE _M1 _/10 + _M2_/10 = ______/20% - Style and Simplicity - Every Prop requires a Purpose - Every Item requires a Purpose - Zero Clutter

2. BRAND YOUR STAND _M1 _/10 + _M2_/10 = ______/20%

- Business Identity Salience - Uniformity in Premises Branding (e.g., Logo) - Printed Media Branding: Posters, Catalogues, Brochures, Leaflets - Shopping Bag Branding - Staff Uniform Branding (also check for Name Tags)

3. TELL A STORY, SELL A STORY _M1 _/10 + _M2_/10 = ______/20%

- Control how a Consumer works your Brand Stand & Premises - Story Promotion: Purchase this Brand and you will be Happier - Brand Synonymy - Appeal to the Senses

4. WHERE’S YOUR WOW? _M1 _/10 + _M2_/10 = ______/20%

- Complementary Goods & Comforts - Interactive Displays - User-Friendly - Follow-up Service - Memorable Display - Experiential Retail - Specific Tailoring - Value for Money

5. FIX YOUR FIXTURES _M1 _/10 + _M2_/10 = ______/20% - Range Complementarity - All Painted and Polished - Zero Tattiness - Brand Appropriate Props - Good Lighting - Economy of Space Total Score per Store = ______/100%