Now that finally the work is ready to be presented, the moment has arrived to thank the people who we, from our hearts, think that made our task easier.
So, we could not do other than thank the help provided by Dr. Margarida Alfieri, Executive Director, and Dr. Jorge Mendes, TELECEL Account Director, from the renowned advertising agency Young & Rubicam.
We would like to thank as well our families for their support, for the times we said we were going to work, but that instead we went partying. To thank also our friends, for the times we were invited to party, but that we had to decline because of the work.
Last, but definitely not the least, a deep thanking to Dr. Vicente Rodrigues and our colleague Sílvia, for the information provided, and the help on structuring the work.
| Group 8 - ISCTINHOS |
|---|
| André Filipe Marques Serranho |
| Celso Adónis Lages |
| Hugo Miguel Oliveira Gama |
| Nuno Alexandre Duarte Baixinho |
| Pedro Miguel S. A. R. de Proença |
| Class GD3 - 1997/98 |
In this case we are not referring to a campaign for a physical product, but more precisely of a corporate campaign that aims, above all, to communicate the image of the TELECEL company.
TELECEL deals with a telephony system based in radio waves. The product, as it is a service, is neither autonomous nor tangible, but needs a visible face, the mobile phone. The big difference between these and the fixed ones is their versatility (from its own definition of mobile phone it is understood the easiness of transportation), and use in whatever place, as long as the network that serves it gets there.
The main features of this market are Coverage, Contactability/Productivity, and Client Support service. There is interest in explaining each one of them: Coverage is the capacity of picking up the operator's signal; Contactability/Productivity is the possibility of being contacted anytime anywhere. Last, client support service, which consists on clarifying doubts, resolving problems, and so on, is the most visible side of the operator to their clients, and it is here that TELECEL has advantage relatively to the competition, because their service is quick and efficient.
The TELECEL network works by means of hertzian waves, emitted in a given frequency so that it does not create conflict with others already working. It covers almost all of the Portuguese population, this is, it is available in almost 100% of the country's population centres.
TELECEL arrived in Portugal in 1992/93 and started to position as top product. In those times it was needed to explain to the potential buyer what was cellular telephony, in such a simple way so not only managers (professional sector) would understand the need of a cellular phone.
TELECEL started doing it in such a way that people started thinking that the mobile phone itself was a "TELECEL", or better, when buying a mobile phone they were buying a TELECEL, and the truth is that it is only the network with which the phone works
There was a concern, in the launching phase, of addressing to those who needed a mobile phone, showing that it was a working tool, against the competition who identified the mobile phone as a symbol of status.
In the beginning the phrase that substantiated TELECEL's communication was "TELECEL - Communication without limits", and from 1993 it started to be "Where you are, it is there", slogan that was kept since.
Later, in 1995, also due to the fact that the professional sector was entirely covered, TELECEL started to enlarge its target for the personal level, where you had to show mobile phone as commodity, a tool useful not only to work, but also to make your personal life easier and funnier (being in touch with family and friends).
The product is in the development phase of its life cycle, because it continues to have more and more consumers, thus it hasn't reached the maturity phase.
It is not possible to speak really about a product family, because we are facing a service with unique features. It can however be spoken about the product families that permitted the access and full fruition of the service at the time made available by TELECEL:
As referred earlier, this product consists on the corporate image. Therefore the trademark is the company's name - TELECEL.
After initially being positioned by coverage, due to its competitor lack in doing it (and retaining the advantage of being the first to communicate the concept), they got hold of that image (reason why many people thought that TELECEL coverage was better than TMN's). TELECEL could pass to positioning by excellency of service quality, aiming to the client's total satisfaction.
Two big Marketing targets can be individuated: buyers and users. This difference arises from the fact that in many cases the buyer is not the user, but other entity. This usually happens in companies that buy on wholesale and cede the phone to their employees.
On criteria definition one is talking about the mobile phones themselves, because they are the necessary tool to access TELECEL's service.
About social and demographic criteria, it can be said, due to the fact that it is a wide service, that they can't really be used, because the users are from both sexes, any age (there are mobile phones done for children). Neither it can be distinguished by level of home place, because the service covers all the country, and any professional category. So, the only factor that can be used to differentiate would be the income level, because, besides all, there are still people unable to acquire, and most of all, maintain a mobile phone.
Speaking of psychographic and life style criteria, in the beginning they were widely used, because the mobile phone was messaged as status value. Nowadays that has lost importance, the mobile phone is a work (as well as a life) tool.
Mobile phones are lasting products, as they are not bought frequently. One buys membership serve once (many times the only one), however, there are cases in which the consumer is not satisfied with the operator, reason why he decides to change, making a second buy. In this case, two situations may arise: whether he gets more satisfied with the new operator and sticks with it, or he finds out that the first was better, and buys for the third time to get back to the first operator.
Note: This situation was caused by the fact that at the time the only possibility of acquiring the service was by subscribing. This has radically changed with pre-paid cards with no initial fee, where the client became more of a grasshopper, all the time changing for the operator that suits him best.
What pushes people to buy a mobile phone is the fact that it is a useful tool for everyday life, both at professional level where much time (therefore money) can be saved, as at family level, because it permits bigger commodity and easiness.
This way this service satisfies people's need to communicate, including communicating with clients, suppliers, family, friends, and so on.
The market presented in 1995 a dimension of 350.000 subscribers, equivalent to monthly 5.600.000.000 PTE (ca. 28.000 €).
The market is in an oligopoly situation, with only 2 companies, which is not the same as saying that the competition is not fierce. On the contrary. The constant cut on the price of calls, and of the mobile phones themselves (mostly is the operator who sells the phones) since the period in analysis is a proof of that.
Note: Since then, and contrary to the experts opinions at the time, a third operator (Optimus) has started and succeeded, really shaking the market with extremely low prices and a really energetic strategy, translated in competition in favour of the consumer.
In the market of cell telephony networks there are only two segments: the professional and the personal.
The professional segment is still the most important, because it generates more income, although it is widely covered by operators, so there is a need to diversify, transferring efforts to the personal segment, where the mobile as a commodity must be shown. There are those who use both for work and for personal reasons. Others do not see the need of it in their professional life but buy for private use. It does not create so much income but it is bigger in number. "If the professional segment generates the value, the personal segment generates the volume. Altogether, it is an interesting market".
Working with cutting edge technologies and digital systems implies investing huge amounts of money if you want to improve continuously, not only the coverage, but also the quality. So the investment of the two companies was 6.060.000.000 PTE for TMN and 11.300.000.000 PTE for TELECEL, for an overall of 17.360.000.000 PTE (ca. 86.800.000 €).
Investment in 1995
Source: Exame
It is to mention however that TELECEL had to build their coverage network from scratch (in plus, a digital one), so it is natural that the investment was bigger, while TMN tried to use the existing structures (from the mother company, Portugal Telecom). Besides this, TMN's investment accounted for approximately 77% of its own capitals.
According to experts, this amount of investment should even be higher, for the market demands so.
The future prospective for this market was shiny, it was predicted a substantial increase of clients (specially privates), which turned out true with a growth rate of 60%.
The professional market was expected not to grow so much because, as mentioned largely, it was already well explored.
This is a market that presented a peculiarity: only one competitor, TMN.
TMN, company from the Portugal Telecom group, was characterised for having a bit heavy and immobile structure, even conservative.
When they started (and they were the first to operate in this market), mobile phones where synonymous of luxury, with rather big and heavy equipment, costing 500.000 PTE (2.500 €) each (or more). They did not promote the trademark, and the only action was at corporate level to the product mobile phone, where the name TMN was marginal data.
A strategic error was using for the digital network the same methods as for the analog network which, although meant some optimisation of costs, affected the quality of the service in most cases.
Country-wide coverage strategy was favouring the digital network for urban centres and the analog for interconnections. In practice this concept did not thrive. Meanwhile TELECEL, that worked always in the digital network, gained market share, due to its system not having so many conflicts.
Besides that, their communication never showed clearly its coverage, so it was understood as inferior to the TELECEL's. In a market where this is one of the most important buying reason, this revealed to be a bad policy.
Indeed, the lack of clarity was one of the weak points of TMN. For instance, their outdoor with a man in a convertible setting a table on a restaurant was not explicit of its target (could range from an engineer to a playboy). Also they never kept with the same agency which, in truth, never permitted a message continuity and so it contributed to damage its image.
In sight of this, in mid 1994, TMN suffered a great change, with big restructuring on problem areas, namely, network development methodology, distribution policy, billing and collecting system, and client support service.
The advertising campaigns themselves were limited, mainly because, as there was no quality of service, it would be dangerous to attract clients.
In September 1995, at the same time that TELECEL's campaign was launched, came out TMN's "MIMO", with the innovative concept of "ready to talk", product that for the first time called directly upon the personal segment, being this a true turning point in this market. Indeed, this innovative concept spread rapidly to other parts of the world, starting with Brazil.
As future prospective it was expected also a big growth in the market, as well as the entry of a new operator. The first fact came to occur, the second it was concluded that there was no market to sustain a third company.
Note: Well, to say the least, nobody is perfect, and even market research and experts can go wrong sometimes
TELECEL's advertising history starts in 1992, when it entered the telecommunication market in Portugal.
In 1992, the main goal was based on :
By this time, the slogan used was "Communication without limits" which wanted to express, whether the idea of freedom from the "immobility" of the fixed network, or, in a less immediate level, the coverage, giving the idea that was vast.
In 1993/94 the reporter is used on the three fronts of TELECEL communication in television:
The slogan is also altered to "Where you are, it is there" that once more emphasises the contactability and coverage idea. As one can see, what was really maintained along the period was the message's coherence, communicating always, beyond this two, productivity and client support service.
An important fact for the success of TELECEL communication was also never having separated the targets: it was always supported on generality and simplicity of themes which permitted easiness of interpreting, leading quickly to the perception of the content.
The Marketing objectives were still, at the time, earning notoriety and differentiate from the competition (TMN). Also was an objective the continuous raise of market share, based both on new clients, and on the competitor's if possible
The communication targets of the 1995 corporate campaign were decision makers (and in a certain way advisers) who would be, first of all, managers. At the same time, due to the simplicity of the message, the door was open to make that some of the decision makers would be private.
As it was referred in Young & Rubicam, TELECEL's target "was enlarged from top managers to mothers".
These targets are characterised by being informed people, efficient, concerned with their career. Informed as they are, they not only know that if they do their homework, they get profit out of a mobile phone, also they can contact/be contacted where and when it is more convenient by clients, suppliers, their company, family and friends.
This campaign had as main objectives, in short:
This is a new market, with a big growth potential. So, TELECEL strategy passed by trying to ensure the biggest possible number of clients, starting from a creative, funny communication, where advertising assumed a leading role. This way it was concluded that a development strategy of extensive nature towards new market segments was followed, in this case, private users.
From its own name "95 Corporate Campaign" it is easy to understand at which level the communication was made.
In this phase the Below the Line fraction of the communication-mix passed by the presence of the TELECEL symbol in vans that crossed the most remote regions of the country, and in beach tents. Once more it was all about transmitting coverage.
These promotional activities were not under the jurisdiction of Y&R, which was concerned essentially with the Above the Line communication.
As there was insignificant Below the Line communication the advertising targets are necessarily the same as the communication ones, this is, professional and private users.
The communication axis is without doubt rational, once there are presented objective reasons for the buy. In effect, are shown:
The promised benefit to the consumer has three sides, and the slogan used "Where you are, it is there" reflects the promise of coverage.
The tone used was always funny and good humoured, using a nice hyperbolising of the figure of a shepherd (this hyperbolising developed towards a significant personifying in future commercials - Euro'96 campaign)
TELECEL gave white letter to Y&R creativity, as long as this would follow some guidelines, which can be resumed in respect for deadlines and legislation, and criteria of honesty and frontality towards the consumer (as we'll see, there were consequences), as well as not confronting directly the competitor (once more is to remember that this was an oligopoly) but "battling" in the service provided.
The lettering was also imposed by the announcer, using the agency the same type face as TELECEL.
The earlier mentioned slogan was always used since it substituted the first one in 1993, and the trademark TELECEL was to be well explicit in all commercials.
The Little Noise spot puts us in a working meeting, where the managers are contacted on the spot by clients, remaining only one in the conference room (who, by the way, doesn't have a mobile phone) under the reproving eye of his superior (until he drops a pen and fakes the phone noise when bent). Clearly the spot is associated to the utility of the mobile phone as fundamental to each one's professional activity.
The Sheep spot was associated with the idea of coverage and ease of use. In effect, several rabbits were killed with one stroke, because it showed at the same time that it reached the more remote regions of the country, as well as demystified the idea of complexity of use (it is so simple even a shepherd can use it), and also the utility behind it, considering it is one of the loneliest professions existing.
Analysing the campaign according to the Theories of Communication, we see that, on the level of attention, it is a product in which the consumer is strongly implied, for he gives great importance to buying the product, this is, he doesn't buy by impulse. On the other hand, the product/service itself doesn't give way to continuous network change, consequently the decision making process is well thought.
The consumer has a great interest for information, so he starts with very precise ideas about the trademarks and to change it is needed to convince them beyond any reasonable doubt.
As so, the campaign developed by Y&R worked perfectly in the accomplishment of these objectives. Not only it created a very positive attitude towards the TELECEL trademark, but also created a memorisation so strong it is still remembered nowadays.
Note: And this nowadays is really nowadays, already in the 3.rd Millennium!
The physical risk associated to this product is small, except in some conditions such as using when driving, or when the user has a pacemaker, for the microwaves' frequency affect its performance.
The financial risk was high, because the price of calls was rather high, as well as the equipment per se, and the profitability gains could not compensate the necessary investment.
The psychological risk was still for the perception some have that the mobile phone is synonymous of status (it was frequent comments in that sense when someone was seen with a mobile phone)
Note: This situation has changed radically, so now it is a surprise when someone does not have a mobile phone.
The experience risk still subsists, in a way that the first buy is always something new for the user, which provokes some anxiety and even a greater attention from these towards advertising.
At persuasion level, since we are before a rational consumer that makes buying a thought act, and veracity as source of information, since it tries to get to him by means of rational arguments connected to knowledge.
Reporting to the used media, press was prioritised, an also the radio was used in large scale. Apart from that were used outdoors and, of course, television - with two spots.
The criteria for partition were defined in function of the specific necessities relatively to the aimed target. The division was done after establishing the objectives, allocating according to them, in a perspective of profitability, which is achieving maximum effect with the available resources, in all media simultaneously.
The press supports chosen were newspapers and magazines, with a target identical to the product - managers, classes A/B. In terms of television and radio, the supports were chosen in function of their audience, in prime time hours (early morning and late afternoon for radio; between 20:00 and 23:00 for television).
There was not a specific briefing for this campaign [is there ever?]. In effect, TELECEL always trusted that Y&R knew what was wanted. So the briefing proper is done by the agency only in the beginning of each year, a reunion is held where it is accounted for what went on in the previous year, the available information, what was right and wrong, referring the basic objectives for the year that is beginning.
The reason for this to happen is that is more common to have briefings for new services/products (like faxes) which require much specific information (implied technical complexity) so the agency knows how to manage and communicate the concepts, than in a big corporate campaign that keeps developing along the years, such as in this case. The subjects to deal are basically the same, speaking from the same thing but in different ways.
Speaking now from the most significant commercial, the one with greater impact (national and internationally with several prizes), it has the mark of Edson Athayde.
The production process started with a reunion for pre-selection of the actor, the herd and the dog. As it was referred by the Account Director [1998], Dr. Jorge Mendes, "we were really lucky when choosing the actor. Came up a person just like we wanted, with a, well… comic face".
There were some problems while shooting, because the herd, though indigenous (Belmonte municipality), not always reacted to the mobile phone beeps (one from the two: either they had hard ears, or the use of mobile phones by the shepherds of the area wasn't that unusual).
Young & Rubicam presented TELECEL several proposals (precisely ten films), from which were chosen two - "Sheep" and "Little Noise", in a basis of co-operation and empathy with the agency, based on target objectives to aim. This means that, although the final decision is from TELECEL, Y&R refers the ones thought to be more effective
In which concerns the budget, nothing was specified but its amount, which was 150.000.000 PTE (750.000 €).
In the press, the campaign spread for the whole year, only slowing during vacation months, situation which also applied for radio for obvious reasons.
On TV, the "Little Noise" was the first to be broadcast, during the first semester of the year, and the "Sheep" followed. It was scheduled for May, but due to the fact that two weeks before that TELECEL had some technical problems in the network coverage, for ethical reasons they "froze" the broadcast until those problem were solved. Then the problem was timing, because Summer was coming, which means an overall less efficacy of television advertising. It was decided to launch it in September, during one and a half months.
Only a detail: as the commercial was considered so good, for a question of precaution, and before someone came up with similar idea (rumours always leak), it was broadcast once on July 9th., way in night hours, during the break of the program "24 Horas" [24 Hours] in Channel 1.
None of the components of the campaign were submitted, either to pre or post-tests
It speaks for itself.
If anything else was enough, the Shepherd commercial only catapulted the success of all the campaign, hence it is usual to mistake this spot with the whole campaign. This contributed to maintain the trademark apogee, as well as the natural market domination
The level of notoriety and the enthusiastic reactions from both public and critics granted such reputation to the "Sheep" creative, starting a true Athaydomania that still persists, making him a distinguished character in the Portuguese advertising world.
© ® 1997, 2001 ISCTINHOS,Super Pinga Produções - All rights reserved - Todos os direitos reservados -
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