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Cable & Wireless (C&W) has embarked on a $10 million marketing campaign to remind Jamaicans of the benefits of their landlines. Patrick Gillings, senior vice-president of marketing said, "The Home Fone campaign is to remind our customers that there is a phone at home. We want to bring back to the fore the residential landline. We have been focusing on the cellular market and now we want to turn our attention back to residential phone customers."
Over the years the emergence of the cellular phone, arguably led by Digicel, has eroded Cable & Wireless' landline business. Mr. Gillings admits, "While we do have a little over 300,000 active landlines, our growth rate in that segment has been flat for the last couple of years. Yes, the cellular phone has contributed to that, however, we did not actively engage in promoting the residential land line." Obviously feeling the pinch, C&W has stepped up the drive to bring back existing landline customers to the fold. Mr. Gillings tells the Financial Gleaner, "We want to remind Jamaicans that landline to landline is still the least expensive option for making calls."
However, the 'Home Fone' campaign is just the latest approach the communications giant has taken to lure the landline market. In 2003, faced with heavy landline delinquencies, a result of the surge in cellular phone popularity, management decided to give delinquent clients a second chance. In their 2003 Annual Report, C&W said, "Through the implementation of payment plan programmes we re-connected 10,266 customers whose service had been disconnected because of payment difficulties."
Yet, customers still found it more attractive to budget their talk time with a phone card on their cellular phone. Responding to this trend, in early 2004 C&W implemented dollar limits on landlines to assist their customers in monitoring their telephone expenses.
REBRANDING THE HOME PHONE
And while C&W is now embarking on "rebranding" the home phone, the campaign is not about providing additional landlines. Said Mr. Gillings, "This new focus has nothing to do with laying new cables for landlines. This marketing campaign speaks to existing landline customers." Mr. Gillings hinted that C&W will be unveiling new features for residential landlines, however, "first, we have to re-establish the brand. I can say that in a couple of months, there will be some new and exciting features added to home phones."
C&W has a formidable challenge ahead. Jamaicans have got accustomed to the ease and portability of cellular phones. Additionally, the population spends less time at home. "We lose two hours of home time because of traffic on the roads and people working longer hours. Our objective is to maximise the home landline use during the time our clients are at home. We will be targeting that time with this campaign."
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