Why is Apple seeing such phenomenal success with its products of late? One theory is that as a company, Apple is targeting people, not a so called “market.” There’s a great post over at GigaOm by Matt Assay titled “Apple Doesn’t Target Markets. It Targets People.” It’s a great essay about the importance of understanding, ultimately who are your customers. They’re not markets, they are individuals.
Apple understands this and their product development is laser focused on the individual. “This is how great companies are built: they focus on individuals and build exceptional products for them, and let these individuals determine how best to make use of the technology,” says Assay.
On the surface it seems like a rather simple concept. But all too often companies and their marketers try to build products to a so called ‘market,’ and lose sight of the fact that markets are made up of individuals. If people embrace your product, the ‘market’ will take care of itself.
This is a message we try to convey to our clients. We help telecom vendors and suppliers grow their business with the tier 2 and 3 service provider segment. All too often we see clients trying to lump all of these carriers together into one market and then develop tactics targeted at this market. Our advice is, there are people within those service providers and you have to engage them, not engage the entire market.
We always say business is really about relationships. Long term success depends on whether companies can build relationships with individuals, not with markets. Apple has managed to build individual relationships with its customers. And they are seeing fabulous success as a result. We could all learn from their experience.
Two core services in two separate industries are losing favor with customers, leading some analysts to compare the once former cash cow’s of their respective businesses into melting ice cubes. I’m referring to voice service for the telco industry and video service for the cable industry.
If you’ve been in telecom, you’ve heard for years that voice is a dying business, and telcos need to diversify beyond their dependency on voice services. Don’t diversify at your own peril, some will argue. This same rhetoric now makes it into the cable industry, where traditional video services are now seen by some as a ‘dying on the vine’ service.
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As the national broadband plan begins in earnest, it’s a good time to think about the future. The broadband ecosystem has some planning to do, especially the tier 2/3 telco sector. Most in the industry are on board with the concept of the future of the business revolving around broadband. Strategic planning involves figuring out how to thrive in that broadband future. Early indications suggest that the broadband service providers who plan on surviving over the long term need to develop a strategy that takes the attitude of ‘being the last man standing.’
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The FCC released its national broadband plan today. Needless to say, interesting times are ahead of us. The plan outlines a variety of objectives and could have serious implications on the marketplace. The plan will be delivered to Congress on March 17th and then it’s expected that the FCC will begin a long series of rulemaking proceedings to begin to implement elements of this plan.
Without a doubt, there will be some very contentious fights on some very important issues Read more »
Over on our other industry blog, Telecompetitor, we feature a post on access revenue and the growing trend of ‘phantom traffic.’ This is an issue that many are already familiar with – the trend of growing traffic on an ILEC’s switch that cannot be billed back to the originating carrier for any number of reasons. For ILECs, it means lost revenue – revenue which they covet.
As I read the post (and its comments), I’m reminded of just how complicated this issue is. 
On the one hand, the current access regime has been built into a rate base that helps determine the amount of investment a telco can make. Much of those dollars have already been invested, based on the existing structure. So if you ‘pull the rug out’ on access, you will materially damage the companies that have made those investments.
On the other hand, there are those that argue that access has become too much of a crutch, and is based on a system that is on its way out, like it or not. They argue that telcos should spend equal energy on trying to remove the crutch, not perpetuate it. Broadband and IP will simply overwhelm TDM traffic and its access legacy, so better to be proactive, they argue.
As is the case with most arguments, there are valid points on both sides. I don’t envy the regulators who have to sort all of this out. There will be winners and losers and there is no way to please everyone in the eventual outcome.
It’s been a long time coming, but we have a new look at Pivot. New logo, new website, and a new outlook! We’re excited and hope you like the new look. Please feel free to offer some comments, feedback, etc.
A little background. Read more »
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