Service Industry in Context - T-Mobile - Research Paper Example

? Service Industry in Context - T-Mobile Table of Contents a) 3 Overview of the Company 3 Competitors 5 b) 6 Intangibility factor 6 Perishability factor 7 Variability factor 7 Inseparability factor 8 c) 9 Product 9 Place 10 Promotion 10 Price 10 d) 11 People 11 Process 12 Physical Evidence 12 e) 13 Reference 14 a) Overview of the Company T-mobile USA, Inc is the US based wireless wing of the reputed Deutsche Telekom AG, which is one of the largest telecommunication company in the globe, along with a significant global customer base of over 130 million (t-mobile.com - a, 2012). The vision of the company is to attain a sustainable growth rate in the global telecom arena while providing high quality services to its customers all over the world. The brand promise of the company is the belief of the company that life’s happiness depends on sharing with others. As of the recent times, the company has generated revenue of around 14.8 billion by the process of handling its operations with an employee strength of over 34,500 employees (Deutsche Telecom, 2012, p. 18). The company’s planning and strategy based operations are initiated from the US based headquarters which is located in the Bellevue area in Washington. Talking in terms of customer statistics, it can be said that the company offers it product and service offerings to around 33.3 million customers in the US, by using technology platforms like the GSM, UMTS etc (t- mobile.com – b, 2012). The well known and highly reputed global telecom company has a wide array of products and services that appeal to customers around the world. Talking in regards to the product portfolio offered by the globally reputed telecom company, the company manufactures and markets telecommunication devices of latest technology like the Smart phones, Windows phones as well as the smart phones of various well known global mobile companies. The company’s product offerings also comprises of various other technological devices like the tablets, headsets, mobile chargers etc (t- mobile.com – c, 2012). In the US, the company is a national level service provider whose service offerings for the US market comprises of various essential and useful telecommunication services like voice, wireless messaging as well as high speed data service. (t-mobile.com – d, 2012). The company’s service portfolio comprises of data communication plans for mobiles and computers, which are highly segmented to suit the individual needs of the customers on the basis of their consumption usage. The company also provides high speed data connectivity services like the Broadband services as well as 4G services to the customers located in the United States. In an attempt to provide a significant amount of value to the customers, it can be said that the company has also focused on the process of eliminating the charges of the mobile devices with regards to the data plans and thereby providing and promoting more transparency in the pricing plans of their services to the customers. Talking in terms of financial performance of the company in the recent times, it can be said that the company generated a revenue total of around $4.9 billion in the sales of telecommunication equipments in the third quarter of this year, which is an increase of around 6.4% while calculated on a year on year basis. The company also recorded revenue of around $4.3 billion in terms of total service revenue for the third quarter of this year. Talking in line with the average revenue per user (ARPU), it can be said that the company generated $27.35, which is an increase of over 12% on a year on year basis. The average revenue per user recorded an increase because of the significant rise in monthly 4G subscriptions by the customers. The company apart from providing a stellar performance in terms of revenue generation in the third quarter of this year has focused on the process of developing the customer base of the company in a move to achieve significant operational efficiency of the company. As a result, the company has recorded over 160,000 new additions in the current quarter. The company has also focused on launching the newest unlimited data subscription plan in the month of September, which helped it in a large way to distinguish its service offerings in the marketplace of the United States (t-mobile.com – e, 2012). Competitors It can be said that the globally present reputed telecom company T-mobile has two significant business portfolios like the service segment and the product segment. While analyzing the competition faced by the company in the UK market, it can be said that the competitor analysis for the company has to be done separately for both the service and product segments of the company. Now talking in line with the competition faced by the company in the service segment in the UK market, it can be said that there are a series of prominent service providers like the British Telecom, Virgin Media, Vodafone UK, Three UK, O2 UK, Giffgaff and a couple of medium sized telecom service providing companies that are present in the UK region (Giffgenie.co.uk, 2012). The service and network offerings of these rival companies provide a significant amount of competition to the service offerings of T-mobile (Ofcom.org.uk, 2012). Now talking about the competition faced by the company in regards to its product offerings in the UK region, it can be said that the mobile and communication devices market in the UK is highly fragmented and an extremely competitive one. It can be said that the major and prominent players in the UK market in the telecommunication device sector are globally popular mobile brands like Apple, Samsung, LG, Sony, HTC etc. So, naturally it can be said that the company’s mobile devices faces a tremendous amount of competition from various globally popular mobile brands (t-mobile.co.uk – a, 2012). b) Service marketing of a company can be defined and explained as the process of value generation, value communication, value distribution and value capture for a particular service in a particular market. The critical difference that exists between the processes related to product marketing and service marketing is the fact while in product marketing the entire focus is revolving around the product, in case of service marketing, apart from convincing the customer regarding the value and usage benefits of the service, the focus also needs to be given to the converting the intangible angles and points of the service in to tangible arenas. So, it can be said that in the process of service marketing, the commercial and financial benefits of the service has to be highlighted to the customers. In a way, it can be said that in an attempt to increase the level of connect of the service with the target audience; the marketing of the service has to revolve around the product related factors that can be used to describe the nature or kind of the service. It can be said that the service marketing is highly dependent on four important factors like the intangibility, perishability, variability as well as inseparability. Intangibility factor While going for marketing of a service, it has to be remembered that the services often provide experiences to the customers and target audience. Since experience cannot be portrayed to any extent through the process of branding and promotion campaigns, so the service marketing activities should try to relate the customers with the previous pleasant experience that they or their friends and relatives might have experienced in the process of previous consumption of the service (Kapoor, Paul and Halder, 2011, p.12). Now, in case of T mobile, in an effort to make the service tangible to the customers, the company has gone for the process of separation of products and service prices. This move has helped the company to make the customers realize the amount of value they are providing in their service plans as compared to the others. Perishability factor It can be said that the perishability factor is very much associated with most service that are available today. Since service is for one time consumption, the customer wants to avail the maximum benefit that he or she can derive from the consumption of the service (Kapoor, Paul and Halder, 2011, p. 13). T mobile in an attempt to provide more value to the customers in regards to the perishable nature of their data related service plans, has initiated an unlimited 4G data plan in the month of September of this year, thereby providing the opportunity to the customers to significantly extract the maximum amount of value from the company’s high speed 4G service. Variability factor It can be said that services are highly variable in nature, and it is highly dependent with the amount of value and utility that the customers and the target audience perceives from the process of consumption of a particular service. It can be said that no two experiences for consuming a particular service is similar in nature. It can be said the experience factor is dependent on the level of consumer knowledge, behvaiour, attitude and mood of the customers (Rao, 2011, p. 10). However, it can be said that the variability factor can be used by the service providing companies to their advantage by the process of introducing innovation and new ideas for the purpose of achieving betterment and perfection of the service. T- Mobile in an attempt to provide an innovative angle to its service offerings has focused on the process fragmenting its value based service plans in an attempt to generate an idea of providing more value to the customers. Inseparability factor It can be said that while concentrating on the process of marketing a particular service, considerable amount of attention has to be provided on the point related to the inseparability nature of the service. Talking in this line, it can be said that in most cases of service today, the service has to be consumed as soon as it has been produced. It cannot be preserved for future consumption. Also, while going for value communication of the service, in regards to this particular point, it has to be constantly kept in mind that the process of service delivery needs both the deliverer and the intended consumer to be present at the same time in the same platform or interface of delivery (Srinivasan, 2004, p. 3). However, talking in regards to this particular factor of inseparability of service, it can be said that the globally reputed telecom company has successfully identified the need of a common web based platform which will enable online delivery of various web based software and other related business services. As a matter of fact, the company has focused on the process of building an advantage out of the inseparability factor of the service, and has as a result led to the process of the marketing of various data related communication services to the individuals as well as the various businesses,. This process enables the consumers as well as the dedicated online business providers to be connected on the same technology based platform due to the convergence of data communication plans catered by a globally reputed telecom service provider at both ends of the communication spectrum. c) The proper tweaking and effective management and implementations of the marketing mix can provide the company with a significant amount of benefits in regards to staying competitive in the market, develop a significant amount of customer base as well as generating higher sales of its products or services (Kotler and Keller, 2007, p. 360). The four P’s of the marketing mix talks about product, place, promotion and price. It can be said that these basic factors of the marketing mix are applicable in the cases of both product as well as service marketing, since both products and services in an attempt to stay competitive and sustain in the market of tremendous competition, needs to focus on the process of the generating revenue through the process of achieving significant growth of sales. Product The product or service offering is the value creation effort of the company for the target customers. In case of T – mobile, the main offering is the service offerings of the company. The company attempts to serve its customers by providing the customers with various flexible data and voice plans on a monthly, quarterly or annual basis. The company also has a product portfolio which mainly comprises of mobile phones and tablets of various reputed global brands. In an effort to provide more value to the customers, the company also provides bundled offerings by combining their data and voice plans with various products that are sold through their store and online interfaces. Place The place factor of the marketing mix talks highlights the areas of value distribution. Talking on that note, it can be said that the telecom company with global presence has focused on the process of value distribution in mostly the central areas of UK by opening of multiple t-mobile store in various locations, where the traffic and customer footfall is high (t-mobile.co.uk – b, 2012). Promotion Promotion efforts are conducted by the companies in an effort to increase awareness about the product or service to the consumers. T-mobile in an effort to communicate the value of its wide range of product and service based offerings to customers located in the UK market employs a wide range of promotion strategies. The company’s promotion strategies includes providing discounts to the consumers, offerings bundled offerings of products and services at highly attractive rates and even distribution of freebies with the purchase of particular range or model of products for a limited time period (t-mobile.co.uk – c, 2012). Price The price factor of the marketing mix focuses on value capture by the company by providing value to the customers. In an attempt to gain a competitive edge in the market over the product and service offerings by various competitor companies, t mobile focuses on aggressive and competitive pricing for its standalone as well as bundled products and services. For the purpose of providing value to customers for its telecom services, the company promotes highly customized monthly plans for its customers that best suits their usage needs (t-mobile.co.uk – d, 2012). The company also provide on the go pricing plans for its services (t-mobile.co.uk – e, 2012). The company also provides discount pricing on its mobile products of various brand as well as bundled product offerings (T-Mobileaccessories.co.uk, 2012). d) In case of services marketing mix, apart from the application of the 4Ps, there are an application of another 3P’s which talks about the factors related to process, people and physical evidence. These 3P’s effectively comes into play since the process of value generation through services combines the factors of intangibility, inseparability along with the factor of experience. People The people factor of the marketing mix that is applicable in the case of service marketing talks about the employees of the company, who will be responsible for the delivery of the service to the consumers and target audience of the company and thereby will be responsible for the generation of experience among the customers. In an effort to provide a superior quality of experience to the customers in regards to the consumption of the service, various companies focus on the process of conducting training sessions for the employees of the company in an effort to raise the skills standards of the employees and thereby attain a significant raise in terms of service delivery standards to the consumers (Shanker, 2002, p. 74). In case of T-mobile, it can be said that the company has focused on increasing the quality of customer experience by setting up a dedicated help line for the purpose of handling customer queries as well as customer complaints and feedback in regards to the quality of their service and product offerings. Process The process factor is critical in the case of service marketing as the delivery and consumption of the service happens at the same time. Hence, the service providing companies has to arrange for specific platform for proper alignment of the service delivery to the customers. In this case, T-Mobile has focused on providing high quality telecom services to its customers in UK Physical Evidence The factor of physical evidence is present in the case of service marketing as it is the only way of providing the consumers and target audience with tangible clues in regards to the quality and nature of the service. Hence, it can be said that the service providing companies focuses on promoting a healthy and high quality ambience to the customers by the process of using bright colors as well as high levels of interior decoration in their stores, retail outlets as well as offices. By exploiting this particular factor, the service providing companies focuses on promoting the high quality service that is available in all its stores and retail outlets, that may be present in various locations and markets around the globe. This factor also helps in the process of creating a distinguishing factor for its service offerings as compared to its rivals. T- Mobile has exploited this factor by the process of opening of retail stores in various locations all over UK that provides quality shopping ambience to the customers. e) The 7Ps of the service marketing mix which essentially talks about the factors of product, place, promotion, price, process, people and physical evidence helps the service providing companies to communicate the values of their services to their intended target market. However, it can be said that the demands and expectations of the consumers keeps on emerging from time to time in regards to their experience and satisfaction from the service. This evolution of demands and customer satisfaction is highly dependent on the product, service offering as well as bundled offerings of products and services offered by the competitors. As a matter of fact, it can be said that the service providing companies needs to continuously revise the 7P’s of their service marketing mix in an attempt to gain significant competitive advantage over their competitors. Talking about the modification of 7Ps of service offering of T-Mobile, it can recommended that the company needs to focus on the people and physical evidence factor of the company’s store outlets. The company needs to focus on the process of increasing manpower in the store outlets as well as changing the layout of the store for the purpose of building a highly dedicated area for customer service. The company should also concentrate on the process of conducting training sessions for the new employees in an attempt to align them with high quality customer care processes and standards. These changes will help the company to provide a high amount of customer satisfaction to the consumers. Reference Shanker, R., 2002. Services Marketing: The Indian Perspective. 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