GTE Mobilnet Inc. is signing up customers in a new way, by mail order. Hello Direct Inc., which produces a catalog full of a various telecommunications and business products, will begin featuring GTE’s cellular service in its Fall ’96 catalog, along with several cellular phone models.
Though Hello Direct has marketed cellular phone accessories for some time, this is the San Jose, Calif., company’s first time selling phones and service, said spokeswoman Kelly Kumagai.
GTE’s cellular services will be featured nationwide in the catalog this fall. Hello Direct said the catalog will reach more than 6 million consumers. Future issues will use selective bindings so GTE’s services are advertised only to recipients in GTE’s service areas.
A GTE Mobilnet spokeswoman said the catalog, as a form of direct marketing, is an efficient medium of distribution. She said the company is targeting both business and consumer users, most specifically business people who tend to shop by mail.
Hello Direct said GTE selected the catalog because of its business-to-business customer base, telecommunications product content and technical support staff.
Bob Chiaffredo, cellular product marketing manager for Hello Direct, said the company aims to process customers’ orders for all its products and ship the same day. For cellular customers, the catalog promises next day delivery, complete with charged battery.
Once a customer receives their phone they must call Hello Direct, verify identity and the phone then is activated.
All of GTE Mobilnet’s rate plans will be available by calling Hello Direct. Once activated, like other reselling arrangements, the cellular customer becomes a customer of GTE. Hello Direct will field questions and handle any problems customers may have with the products, said Chiaffredo.
Phones currently featured in the catalog include Motorola Inc.’s DPC650 and MicroTAC Elite models, the AudioVox MVX850, Mitsubishi AH 129 and Nokia 232.
The catalog lists phone prices both with and without activation, and the prices for chargers and batteries. If activating service, the phones vary from free to $350, and without activation cost between $180 and $600.
However, the catalog offers to pay customers who currently own a phone and use another carrier’s service $100 to switch to GTE Mobilnet.
In conjunction with offering GTE services, Hello Direct’s catalog reads, “You’ll always have a 10 percent discount on all cellular accessories listed in our catalog.” Customers who activate GTE cellular service also become members in Hello Direct’s “Cellular Club,” which entitles them to quarterly discounts on select accessories.
As part of Hello Direct’s competitive strategy, Chiaffredo declined to comment about how the company makes its money reselling GTE’s services.
Hello Direct is seeking to market other carriers’ services as well.
Herschel Shosteck of Herschel Shosteck Associates, Wheaton, Md., said direct marketing not only is cost efficient but requires “no effort on the part of a carrier.” For the catalog company, it’s only an incremental cost to add another product, he noted.
