Smart Communication Incorporated: An advertising plan

• Main Authors: Aprecio, Mary Aileen D., Baviera, Eric Von, Romero, Joanna Maria Sarah, Xerez-Burgos, Jose Antonio S.
• Format: text
• Language: English
• Published: Animo Repository 1995
• Online Access: https://animorepository.dlsu.edu.ph/etd_bachelors/16761
• Institution: De La Salle University

The Philippines has a teledensity rate of 2.3 telephones per 100 persons as of the end of 1994. This rate is one of the lowest among its ASEAN counterparts. This may be attributed to the fact that there is a low level of investment in the basic telecommunications infrastructure. In the country, there is only one telecommunication giant that provides telecommunications services which is Philippine Long Distance telephone Company. The low level of investment is due to a host of factors which includes, archipelagic and volcanic nature of the topography, the predominantly agricultural nature of the economy and low income areas. But despite these difficulties, the fact remains, however, that telecommunications is highly indispensable in economic development. The Philippines cannot raise itself from its poor economic state to achieve the goal of Philippines 2000, much less aspire to be one of the new economic tigers in Asia, without dramatically improving the availability and quality of telecommunications. Recognizing this need, the government called for the improvement of telecommunications services as well as encouraged more private investment in the industry. Among those companies that heeded this call was SMART Communications, Inc. SMART took off with its Price Buster Campaign to allow the market access to cellular technology at a highly affordable price. To this day, SMART continues to bank on this as their Unique Selling Proposition. Competition became stiff as new players began entering the market offering feature-laden cellular phones. SMART, being the fastest growing network in the industry, could not just sit back and watch the competition. It has to consistently be at par, if not, surpass its competitors in whatever way possible, as the market is constantly growing and their demand becoming sophisticated. it is no longer enough that a cellular phone is affordable, it has to be differentiated in terms of its features. This advertising campaign aims at expanding SMART's USP The campaign is called SMART's Nationwide Campaign. Now, how did the idea of pursuing a Nationwide Campaign came about? Before answering this question, first you must bear in mind that the CMTS industry has an advertising development cycle. This cycle starts with the company focusing their efforts to prove that they are stable and firm. The next step is to show their product features. After this would be showing product advantages. Last of the cycle would be its coverage. SMART Communications is at the stage of showing coverage. The reason why this campaign was conceived was because the Pilipino Telephone Corporation (PILTEL), which is the first and largest CMTS company in the Philippines, had launched their Widest Reach campaign. Because of the launch, SMART Communications Inc. had to give a reaction so that it would not be left behind. So a review of the services and advertising campaigns that SMART Com. has was done. In the review of past advertising campaigns the verdict that came out was that SMART has not fully launched their nationwide capabilities. They have presented it usually at the end of their TV and radio advertisements, and was never visually dominant in their print advertisements. Since they are already at the cycle stage of showing coverage, then this advertising campaign shall aim to show just that. The general objective of the campaign is to create 75% awareness to help the company achieve its goal of having 120,000 subscribers by the end of 1995. The target market is composed of either employed or self-employed males and females of the AB and Broad C markets. The objective is to inform the target market that SMART Celfone has a nationwide coverage and still offered at price buster plans. SMART is able to offer this because of its rapid growth not just in terms of subscribership but more importantly, the number of its cell sites all over the country from Baguio to General Santos. The manner in which this will be shown is through a combination of a larger than life and personality symbol modes of execution. The media forms to be used would be composed of the three traditional media--television, radio and print. This is following the itinerary of the target person who is exposed everyday to these three. In the same manner, the choice of television and radio sports would highly depend on the itinerary of the target person as well as the TARP.