Ring, ring, ring. No that could not possibly be your Virgin Mobile phone ringing. Virgin Mobile has decided to enter the U.S. market, but in that decision lies numerous challenges that must be considered. The cellphone industry has been plagued with high fixed costs, and hidden fees. Despite market oversaturation, the market has failed to penetrate the age group of 15-29. However, Virgin Mobile has the strength of their infrastructure and previous experience to make a reach for the U.S. market share. Although there exist many threats to their goal, for successful globalization to occur, Virgin must meticulously plan out their pricing and marketing efforts. While all three pricing strategies have advantages and disadvantages, Virgin Mobile should implement the third pricing strategy. As Richard Branson says, “A business has to be involving, it has to be fun, and it has to exercise your creative instincts” (Branson). First, to determine Virgin Mobile’s strategy it is important to look at the industry. The cellphone market in U.S. seems to have 50 percentage with 130 million mobile subscribers. The age group from 15-29 years are currently less penetrated than other global markets. Expected growth from this group in the next 5 years (Mcgovern 2,10). The needs of this segment has not been met yet, due to their savvy nature, and the vast hidden fees represented in common carriers. Additionally, due to nature of cell phones as a necessity good, the younger generation will
Telstra segment their residential customer based upon customer usage and lifestyle patterns and for small business customers according to the type of business they operate and the way they interact with their customers. Telstra enable customers to interact with them online, through door-to-door sales representatives and telephone sales channels and face-to-face via Telstra Shops.
Virgin Mobile targets the 14 to 24-year-olds market. The case lays out three pricing options. Which option would you choose and why?
Virgin Atlantic is clearly the cash cow of the Virgin Empire but we have undertaken a
There are three options to price the new Virgin Mobile line in the US. The first option involves setting prices at the same level as the competition. The benefit of this option is the ease of implementation, but the drawback is the lack of differentiation. Virgin Mobile will not be setting itself apart from other companies, by
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.
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
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
In order to provide potential access to a wide variety of markets, a company should attract customer using a number of different services for example multimedia so they are not just focused on the mobile telecommunications, they are broadening their product line. Vodafone customer base ranges from the young to the corporate user to the more mature market.
Virgin Mobile, a MVNO is planning to launch its services in USA. It’s target is underserved Demographics of 15-29 years as this age group is underserved by the regular telecom operators due to their low credit score ( Under 18 demographic cannot go for contract). They are planning to launch their product with service offerings that focuses on value added services.
Through this idea of “growth” and collaboration with other industries to provide optimal service, Verizon has expanded its products and services in the following areas:
Verizon Communications formed by the merger of two big and successful companies, Atlantic Corp. and GTE Corp., is the largest telecommunication company. The company serves large part of the market in United States. However the company faces certain strengths and weaknesses which affect the way company formulate its strategies.
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
Virgin Australia was established in early 2000, with operations comprising of two aircrafts flying one route and 200 employees. Since this, the company has greatly expanded its operations embracing a true national domestic network and then further expansion into the international flights by 2009 (Virgin Australia, 2012). Today Virgin Australia operates under the chairman of the Virgin group Sir Richard Branson and is owned by Virgin Blue Holdings, formally Virgin Blue Airlines. Under the brand name is V Australia and Pacific Blue, from which Virgin Australia flies its main aircraft
My involvement was in the following three phases of the project as a Quality and Reporting Manager of the project.