Bell Final Doccument - Grade: A PDF

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Bell Telecommunication Analysis...

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MGMT-5016-01 Consumer Behavior Assignment: Group Project Document Fanshawe College December 07, 2018 Fernando Pardo Tareq Alsawalma (0762764) Alaa Fahmy (0762764) Zach Langille (0795077) Michael Stec (0792173)

Abstract

The provided text helps evaluate and analyze Bell Telecommunications Canada using consumer behavior to support findings. Through the use of information gathering, as well as consumer behavior theories such as utilitarian motivation, and ABC approach theory, it is possible to aptly analyze Bell as a Company. This paper also includes a brief of bell, as well as a history of the very successful campaign “Bell Let’s Talk”. This also led to the analysis of the campaign with findings that showed the companies CSR initiative, and the effect it has on its employees (Bell Effect). Additionally, this paper will explore the brands four P’s (Price, Product, Place, Promotion), and incorporations of the marketing mix to better understand and predict consumer behavior, as well as perceptions and associations of Bell Canada. Lastly, this article will demonstrate the impact of the corporate social responsibility to support findings associated with retention, and loyalty of the acquired consumer base and the accuracy of the segmented market. Key Words: Bell Canada, corporate social responsibility, abc approach, analysis, brand extension, unitarian motivation theory

Contents Abstract....................................................................................................................................... 2 Background Information............................................................................................................... 4 Brand Analysis............................................................................................................................. 6 Evaluation.................................................................................................................................... 8 Brand Extension........................................................................................................................ 10 Associated Theories.................................................................................................................. 12 References:............................................................................................................................... 14

Background Information Bell Canada is a telecommunication company based in Canada that is classified as one of the largest communication company North America. Bell is also known to be one of the big 3 telecommunications companies to dominate the Canadian market; additionally, it has appeared on financial websites as contributing to an oligopoly of the market, along with TELUS and Rogers (NG, 2017). Since the 2000’s, bell has since built many facets to their company and has incorporated trends as it comes through its versatility as a communications company.

With more than 30 apps developed by bell and 200 websites, the company is able to reach top of mind awareness quickly. Through the use of customer centric means, they are able to define the value of their company through their service. Evidently displayed by the nationally known campaign “Bell Lets Talk”, they often incorporate corporate social responsibility to better relate to consumers on a regular basis. Currently Bell aims to acquire 100% of CTV to have a more rounded perspective of communication and media. This is even viewed as a positive transaction by David Thomson, Chairman of Woodbridge CO LTD (Smithers, 2010). The campaign originally began 2010 on September, and is aimed at talking about mental health and increasing the awareness of its impact and presence. It was instantly a success and generated over 66 million interactions, and since has increased to 138 million.

Along with mental health bell has also contributed to aid crisis and distress, youth outreach, individual support, and military families; moreover, they created grants for the indigenous, youth, and military families across Canada with more than 9 million donated to 534 communities (“Growing the global conversation and supporting Canada's mental health”, n.d.).

More than 30,000 identifiable advertising faces can be seen which contribute to increasing top of mind awareness, as well as tying in to different facets of consumer culture. This has helped bell target many segments based on individual faces of advertising (Bell Media, n.d.). Considering the services bell offer such as: voice service, voicemail service, wireless service, television service, internet access serve, business solution service, and legacy service, bell tries to convey a sense of communication to better conform to their mission statement.

“We have one goal: To be recognized by customers as Canada’s leading communications company”, this mission statement can be seen through their many initiative to increase exposure, brand awareness, social awareness, and top of mind awareness. The elements of consumer perception were used in an effort to induce exposure, attention, and comprehension of the Bell name. Following the ads of “Bell Lets Talk”, the use of the elements was apparent and produced optimal results overall for brand exposure.

Brand Analysis The analyze Bell, I’m going to be talking about their corporate social responsibility and marketing strategies, and how they relate to consumer behavior concepts and theories such as consumer relationships and marketing ethics. Back in 2013, Bell began to use user data such as internet activity and product use to generate targeted ads with the main goal of improving service and heightening protection against fraud (Krashinsky, 2013). The type of data a company uses, how they retrieve it, and how it’s used is all relevant to building up a consumer’s perception of a business.

Targeted ads can allow for personalization and create a sense of individualization in consumers that makes them feel like the business really cares about them as an individual. However, the use of personal data has come under fire in recent years, as some consumers are uncomfortable with the idea of business’ using their personal data. Bell combats this by offering users the option to opt out of having their data used, and this shows a commitment from Bell to remain transparent and show they have no intention of doing anything with customer data without first making the customers aware and giving them a choice.

When thinking of Bell, one of the first thing that comes to mind is their ‘Let’s Talk’ campaign. According to Peters (2017), the campaign is one that has invited Canadians to “break the stigma” around mental illness. “The campaign claims to donate millions to mental health initiatives, aiming to also “start a conversation” about mental health online” (Peters, 2017). This campaign ties into Bell’s corporate social responsibility, as Bell always strives to give back to the community and help in any ways that they can. Bell publishes a corporate social responsibility report each year where they analyze their corporate responsibility performance, as it describes what Bell has done to implement rules and regulations set in place the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) Standards-Core option and adhere to the principles of the United Nations Global Compact (UNGC).

The report covers key topics including Management of corporate responsibility at Bell, Key performance indicators and results, and value created in the community, economy, society, as well as the wide range of innovative programs that Bell uses to give back to the environment (Bell Corporate Responsibility Report, 2017). The Bell “Let’s Talk” campaign and the overall corporate social responsibility commitment that Bell has to the community and environment is an excellent example of good marketing ethics. By implementing and taking part in altruistic duties, Bell can effectively give back, and gain a foothold in the top spots of a consumer’s brain when it comes to brand recognition, brand loyalty, and consumer perception.

Evaluation Bell Canada is a Canadian telecommunications company that provides coverage to over 230 destinations around the world. The best place Bell promotes its products and services is through its competitive website. The website is designed to be user friendly and meet customers demand. It continues to make the online user experience better by allowing customers to easily surf the website, and filter through a variety of products to reach the most desired ones. The site’s attractiveness improves Bell’s brand image and increases its visibility. Bell Canada delivers the fastest LTE network across Canada.

Bell Canada offers a variety of competitive prices for their products and services, such as cellphones, internet services, Fibre TV and accessories. Bell always has the newest cell phones in the market offered at competitive prices. Not only that Bell offers discounts over all its products, it also allows people to trade-in their current phones to get discounts over their future purchases. Bell makes its best efforts to stay visible on social media platforms. With approximately 165 thousand likes on their Facebook page, 10 thousand subscribers on YouTube, 145 thousand followers on LinkedIn, and a very informative website, Bell makes it easy for people to navigate through their pages and find the information they need. Bell strives to make new leads and it offers its new customers additional benefits and discounts.

Bell Canada has expanded and increased online and social media presence of its “Bell Let’s Talk” program. Let’s Talk is an advocacy program by Bell Canada, it promotes awareness of mental health education and fights social stigmas around depression. “The company will also donate 5 cents for each tweet using #BellLetsTalk; each view of the Bell Let’s Talk Day video on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook or Snapchat; and each use of the Bell Let’s Talk Facebook frame or Snapchat filter.” (Forani, 2018) Bell Canada raised “$6.9 million for mental health initiatives.”

Bell’s campaign is a good example of verbal communication, giving the people an option communicates back through snapchat filters and hashtags. It has created an emotional connection with people, and increased Bell’s awareness as #BellLetsTalk was the second most used hashtag on twitter by Canadians in 2017. This is an effective way for Bell to gain positive perception from people who were exposed to Bell Let’s Talk campaign.

Yet, Bell’s employees are complaining about how toxic the workplace is. Many people quit their jobs at Bell because their jobs caused them mental distress and serious illness. Andrea Rizzo, a Bell employee described the workplace as a “non-stop nightmare”, and mentioned that managers put too much pressure on employees to upsell customers and meet sales targets. They are threatened to be terminated if they do not meet them. This goes against marketing ethics because managers aren't following right and fair practices while developing marketing strategies.

Brand Extension One year ago Bell Canada launched its new brand Lucky Mobile that is a pre-paid carrier that is aiming to eliminate surprise fees and help serve Canada’s immigrant population. Lucky Mobile is a low-cost wireless carrier that has pre-paid plans starting from as low as $20. At launch the brand started in select provinces being available in Ontario, British Columbia and Alberta. In 2018 the brand will eventually add an app that will allow customers to talk and text over WiFi.

Rogers’ chart and TELUS/ Public Mobile will be competing with Lucky that offers similar options and prices. The difference between the brands is that Lucky won’t have any surprise overages or automatic charges towards the customers that could drain their pre-paid balances. If customers are close to going over they will be notified by text or if a service isn’t covered by their current plan and be asked if they would like to continue. In previous years Bell made Solo Mobile that was discounted in 2009 following its acquisition of Virgin that competed with Roger’ Fido and TELUS Koodo. These brands operate at a mid-range price, although post-paid brands like Bell and Virgin have increased due to customer base services declining for the lower costing brands. VP for Bell’s marketing Claire Gillies state, “The Company’s return to the low-cost market was to serve customers that weren’t being served by its existing offerings (Gillies, 2017). Lucky will primarily focus on Canada’s immigrant and multicultural communities that aren’t being served by existing pre-paid carriers. Lucky will not have credit check, so it will benefit people living on a budget and help establish a credit history with Lucky. Bell chose the name Lucky because they wanted to appeal more to immigrants, as luck is very important to them when moving into a new country. They also wanted to add that the brand goes beyond credit and price elements with a happy/fun name they can play with.

Lucky’s campaign and marketing plan was heavily targeted towards multicultural communities with targeted digital play and in-language communication through newspaper and radio that is serving multicultural communities. Lucky is now available at Walmart, Wireless Wave, T-Booth wireless, Cellular Point, Visions Electronics and the Source.

Associated Theories Using the ABC approach, Lucky would fall under the cognition component of attitudes that consumers would see the brand. The brand would help immigrants and multicultural communities in Canada that are looking for a low costing pre-paid carrier that could also help build their credit if the consumer doesn’t already have a credit history. A function of consumer attitudes towards this brand would be the utilitarian function as it maximizes benefits for the consumer and minimizes punishments that post costing carriers would charge the consumer for.

Another benefit that the brand offers towards the consumers is that they don’t credit check the consumer, which means that they can build and maintain a relationship with the brand to build a credit history leading to more benefits with the brand for having loyalty. Following the hierarchy of effects approach, the experiential hierarchy would best describe consumers purchasing through Lucky because it would make consumers feel good about choosing a lower costing pre-paid mobile carrier. Advertisements towards the consumers that Lucky will be targeting could be a central route of persuasion that the message can be relevant to the consumer’s situation with central cues.

Lucky will fall under utilitarian motivation as their products and services will help immigrants and multicultural communities to accomplish their daily activities involving communications. The brand would fall under shopping involvement as utilitarian consumers would be highly involved in information on the deals and reacts to the price or deals that are considered “Lucky offers”. The discounted deals that Lucky offers could create a visceral response of outcome appraisal giving joy to the consumers. This can cause consumer affect, which Lucky could be liked more than other pre-paid carriers or even post-paid carriers.

The reason why Bell Canada wanted to create Lucky Mobile was to help serve immigrants and multicultural communities not being served by existing pre-paid carriers. Their message involves physical, environmental and message receiver characteristics relating to signal theory in consumer comprehension.

References: BCE Inc. (2017). 2017 Corporate Responsibility Report. Retrieved from http://www.bce.ca/responsibility/corporate-responsibility/2017-cr-report/2017-csrreport.pdf

Bell Canada Marketing Mix (4Ps) Strategy. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.mbaskool.com/marketing-mix/services/16900-bell-canada.html

Entertaining, Informing, Engaging, Inspiring audiences. (n.d.). Retrieved November 25, 2018, from https://www.bellmedia.ca/

Growing the global conversation and supporting Canada's mental health. (n.d.). Retrieved November 25, 2018, from https://letstalk.bell.ca/en/results-impact/

Krashinsky, S. (2013, October 22). Bell planning to use customers' data to target ads. Retrieved from https://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/industrynews/marketing/bell-customer-phone-and-internet-data-will-be-used-to-targetads/article14984876/

NG, G. (2017, October 02). Rogers, Telus and Bell Appear in Definition of 'Oligopoly' on Financial Website. Retrieved November 25, 2018, from https://www.iphoneincanada.ca /carriers/rogers-telus-bell-oligopoly/

Peters, M. (2018, February 23). How Bell Canada Capitalises on the Millennial: Affective Labour, Intersectional Identity, and Mental Health. Retrieved October 30, 2018, from https://www.degruyter.com/view/j/culture.2017.1.issue-1/culture-2017-0037/culture2017-0037.xml?format=INT

Smithers, J. (2010). Bell to acquire 100% of Canada's No.1 media company CTV. Retrieved November 25, 2018, from https://www.newswire.ca/news-releases/bell-to-acquire-100 -of-canadas-no1-media-company-ctv-545496672.html

Forani, J. (2018, January 31). Bell Let's Talk hits 138 million interactions as celebrities join in. Retrieved December 4, 2018, from https://www.ctvnews.ca/health/bell-let-s-talk-hits138-million-interactions-as-celebrities-join-in-1.3783948

Hurley, I., & Lecker, B. (2017, November 28). Toxic Workplace Culture: The “Bell” Effect. Retrieved December 4, 2018, from https://leckerslaw.com/toxic-workplace-culture/...