Claro Brazil has made a different move:  it has partnered with Magazine Luiza, one of Brazil’s largest retail companies in terms of revenue and stores, to launch “Chip Luiza,”  a co-branded chip targeting prepaid customers.

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It is not an MVNO project, Claro stressed. The carrier’s goal is to sell 1 million chips within a year. It seems to be more of a marketing plan, under which customers receive benefits from buying the chip, such as free social network usage, free access to Claro and Magazine Luiza’s websites and emails at iClaro, as well as double recharge offers, purchased directly through the phone’s menu.

The chip also offers users  Magazine Luiza promotions and other customer relationship features.

Frederico Trajano, director of marketing and sales at Magazine Luiza, said that the mobile phone will be companies’ primary point of contact  with their customers in the future; thus, with Chip Luiza, the retail company institutionalized this connection and democratized access to the data network for their customers.

Fiamma Zarife, Claro’s director of value added services, said this is the first chip customized for the retail market.

Chip Luiza was designed in partnership with the agency LOV, hired by Magazine Luiza, with the goal of building an innovative platform for the relationship between the brand and its consumers.  LOV will be responsible for updating all the menu channels daily on the  SIM Card.

The technical part relies on Gemalto, which was responsible for creating the solution that transformed the SIM card into a platform for direct marketing, customer relationship management (CRM) and service delivery.

Founded in 1958, Magazine Luiza currently has about 730 stores and ten distribution centers distributed in 16 Brazilian states.  It also sells online. It is owned by Luiza Helena Trajano, who is also the company’s chair.