Case Study for Agency
03-1014989-372

SNET/Cellular One

Situation:

In April 1995, we were awarded the contract by SNET Cellular for a
market launch in Rhode Island and Bristol County, Massachusetts, to
take place three months later.

Marketing Challenge:

The new Cellular One company faced a significant competitor in this
market with an entrenched competitor who had dominant market share, and
would outspend Cellular One by a margin of 2:1.

Application of Solutions:

Research uncovered a local mistrust of national providers to give
customers the product performance and service they need. Given this
insight, we positioned Cellular One as the local specialist who
understands the unique communications needs of the people in Rhode
Island and Bristol County. The resulting tagline, -You Talk. We Listen
- leverages the key advantage that Cellular One understands the local
consumer and can be trusted to deliver what they need.

We launched Cellular One with a strategic mix of support television,
print, outdoor, direct advertising, fulfillment, and promotions. Not
only did we handle all of the marketing communications
responsibilities, but we provided a turn-key "back-end" process that
included our own call center and fulfillment operation. When the
customer responds to a campaign inviting them to call 1-800-CELLONE,
one of our agency representatives answers the phone and takes the
order. We then process all new subscribers, check credit, program their
new phones, and send the equipment via an overnight package to the new
customer, accompanied by a personalized laser letter and welcome kit.

Our database capabilities enable us to take monthly feeds of all new
customers from Cellular One's billing vendor, and provide complete
reports on channel activity, promotional results, targeted initiatives
results as well as real time campaign tracking and management.

Results:

Within nine months of the launch, our advertising achieved awareness
parity with the entrenched competitor that had had a five-fold
awareness advantage.

Today, we not only provide Cellular One of Rhode Island and Bristol
County with fully integrated marketing programs, but we are also - by
far - their most successful sales and distribution channel. The agency
has lowered the cost of customer acquisition for Cellular One to one
third the industry average.

The campaign results have far exceeded all projections, and over the
past year, we have extended our efforts to successfully lower Cellular
One's customer attrition rates to one the lowest in the industry. The
combination of lower subscriber acquisition and lower attrition has
significantly improved Cellular One's financial performance.