By Dan Berne on 10/27/2008 4:44 PM

Boost Mobile, a unit of Sprint best known for its teen positioning ("Where you at?" campaign) is changing its positioning to a value message, according to Tood Wasserman in BrandWeek. Facing strong pricing competition from the likes of Cricket and Tracfone, Boost is reducing its rates from 20 cents to 10 cents a minute. The new pricing is centered around an all-you-can-talk-for-one-dollar plan, which applies to in-network calls. The campaign user a "Dollars a Day Chat Plan," with George Washington as the metaphor figure. It's a definitive shift from lifestyle positioning to price positioning.

Which begs the question: Given the current economic climate, is this the time to put all your brand eggs in the price-value basket? It's tempting to do so, especially when your boss is lookin ... Read More »

By Mark Cavender on 10/10/2008 10:37 PM

Yes, this economy is tough. It is probably the toughest I've seen in my working lifetime, and that's getting to be quite some time. So what do you do about it you your company is in the business of developing and marketing disruptive innovations? There are a few things to keep in mind in these tough times.

First, during times like this most prospective customers aren't interested in buying much of anything, much less something that is hugely disruptive. So you need to do what you can to remove as much of the perceived disruption as is possible, especially when you are selling to the pragmatist customer. What do I mean by removing the disruption? Think of providing everything required to fulfill th compelling reason to by for your target customer.

Second ... Read More »

By Mark Cavender on 9/30/2008 11:02 PM

 The recent news of Google's "Android" operating system adds even more questions to the adoption of smartphones. As late as this summer, Apple released its new iPhone 3G, only to have it butchered in the press due to problems with AT&T's "3G" network. As for me, I happily own a Verizon Wireless WorldPhone. Perfect, no. Practical, yes. It always works.

Which leads me to the question of why have smartphones not yet reached the "Tornado" of market demand? I have a hypothesis. There is not yet a gorilla. Because there's no standard operating system. Hardware could also be an issue, given that most operating systems are designed for specific hardware platforms.

If you're talking about hardware, Gartner would tell you Nokia first, ... Read More »