Mark Evans

Ethnic Marketing of Telecom Services

In-Stat has a report suggesting carriers are taking a more aggressive marketing approach to ethnic groups. The company cites Qwest's low-cost LD calling plans for Mexico, and Sprint's launch of Movida Communications, which also targets the large Hispanic community. The report is intriguing as carriers try to penetrate new niches while protecting their existing customer base from cablecos. I'm a firm believer VOIP is the ideal service to be sold into ethnic and special interest groups. This can be done by large service providers such as Vonage or Cablevision, as well as small niche players looking to establish a viable and profitable market foothold. The big challenge facing large companies is ethnic marketing requires particular focus and may not be worth it if the audience isn't big enough. This, in theory, leaves room for small and nimble rivals to jump into unserved or under-served markets.