Virgin Mobile: Pricing Options

Virgin Mobile targets the 14 to 24-year-olds market. The case lays out three pricing options. Which option would you choose and why?

The key issue for Virgin Mobile USA is to select a pricing strategy that will both attract and retrain subscribers.

The generation of talking face-to-face is slowly fading away, and the technology era is going to keep on growing. One of the most widely used technology services known today is the cellular phone industry. According to the Pew Research Center’s website, 90% of American adults own a cell phone. Of that 90%, the smartphone ownership is at 64% (2013). Verizon Wireless, along with the other major carriers, T-Mobile, Sprint, and AT&T, have taken this data and comprised a growing industry where competition arises from all angles. These companies have battled one another on pricing, plans, and customer service for many years in order to stay on top. Unfortunately, these are major factors in whether or not a customer will choose the particular company over another.

5. An analysis of the individual customer accounts suggest that TFC’s current pricing model is ineffective. They are undercharging an alarming number of their customers thereby reducing their overall profitability. Based on this information, managers will hopefully elect to implement the services based pricing model so that customers are charged based on the services they are actually consuming. Ideally, changing the current pricing model will resolve the issue of customers reducing profit by 140% and 60% (Exhibit 8, numbers 3 and 4). If there are still profit draining customers, management should revisit and assess accordingly, either further increasing fees to those customers so their contribution is positive, or perhaps dropping these customers to increase overall profitability.

The future of the telecommunication industry is an exciting future. No longer can these companies depend on telephone service plans to maintain profit. Each company needs to find other avenues, packages and services that can be sold to existing customers while attracting new customers. The companies

We think that companies should calculate their break-even point for their goods and services and to charge the prices according to that figure. This way, they can make sure that their price covers their expenses. In case of AT&T’s text messaging they are charging much more than the cost. But because there are only four national carriers in United States and they control 90 percent of the market, and text messaging had become widely popular, they can afford high prices. They are considering the demand of the service and pricing the product according to demand and supply.

Virgin Mobile is looking to launch a new cell phone service in the US marketplace, which is already a highly saturated industry. This analysis will help select a pricing strategy that attracts and retains subscribers, while still maintaining a competitive edge within the industry. The cell phone industry has many sources of customer dissatisfaction. For instance, customers’ distrust in pricing plans due to confusing usage rates; companies’ inconvenient and inconsistent off-peak hours; service provider’s hidden fees that include taxes and higher rates after minutes are used up, universal service charges, and one-time costs; and binding contracts by the service

Verizon is a major telecommunication provider in the United States. The company is the market leader, with $110 billion revenue and $2.4 billion in profit (MSN Moneycentral, 2012). Verizon has steady revenue streams that are largely based on a subscription model. It has several business segments, including wireless (63.3% of revenues) and wireline (36.7%) (2011 Verizon Annual Report). Most of this report will therefore focus on the wireless business, not only because this is the largest business that the company operates but because it is a rapidly growing and evolving business as well, a function of the rapid pace of smartphone adoption in America.

The wireless industry is extremely competitive and customers are looking to make the best bang for their buck. This is why Cricket Wireless also has an adaptive culture. “Leaders and followers in adaptive cultures care about customers and the internal alignment of people with processes to meet external demands. They value quick and decisive responses, risk taking, creativity, and innovation, while keeping the best interests and integrity of the organization in mind” (Weiss, 2015). My company has proven to take risks and at times, we drop the prices of phones to meet customer demands before the competition does. Wireless carriers lose out on money with new customers, which is the risk they take by lowering the price of handsets. If new customers receive great service and they enjoy their experience, then they are more likely to continue service with our organization. The company will then make a profit off of

Vodafone is one of the most important players on the European telecommunications market. However, this does not mean that the company has an easy job at retaining its customers and at increasing its market share. The most important competitors of Vodafone are represented by Orange and Cosmote. The regulations in the business field determine these companies to provide similar products and services, at similar prices. Therefore, it is important that Vodafone focuses on its communications strategy in order to strengthen its position on the market.

Since Virgin Mobile is trying to create a bucket (option 2) by considering ARPU at 200 minutes, it should try to keep its price per minute at around 25 cents per minute (Exhibit 10b) for third option

Solution. Virgin Mobile USA needs to evaluate their suppliers of the mobile phones to ensure these devices are both physically appealing and have the capacity for the services that would be used

penetration pricing strategy. All indications are that sales will continue to grow. In response to a

As is known, pricing is one of the most important steps for business plan which needs good research, calculations and formulations. There are different pricing strategies to put into effect due to the market and product conditions, such as premium pricing, penetration pricing, economy pricing, price skimming(Voice Marketing, 2012). These four pricing strategies are main pricing policies. They form the bases for the exercise. However there are other important approaches to pricing. These pricing strategies are: Psychological pricing, product line

Within the first two weeks it would be necessary to gain control of cash flow. The prospects for Vodaphone’s industry are positive and cash usage should be leveraged in a manner that is proportional to market growth rate. Serpil will need to identify “non-core” business operations and outsource these operations as necessary. These “non-core” business operations might include supply chain and other