MELBOURNE, Australia-Hutchison Telecommunications (Australia) had more than 18 months to sweat on its marketing. That is how long it took the wireless carrier, with Samsung, to develop a “revolutionary” wireless local loop (WLL) technology using CDMA mobile-phone infrastructure.
Claimed by the carrier as a world-first, the new mobile-phone service charges local call prices when the handset is used within a nominated “local zone,” such as the home or office, and at timed rates when it is used as a mobile, outside the local zone. In Australia, local-call charges for wireline phones are fixed.
The new service is primarily aimed at providing additional lines to households and small businesses, particularly where there is a high demand for the Internet, a home office, shared accommodation, or older children who use the phone frequently. Hutchison said its research shows the penetration of second phone lines into homes is pegged at 9 percent for Australia.
Hutchison is also a paging and messaging provider in the Australian market, in addition to a wireless, Internet and long-distance services reseller. Hutchison’s first major marketing initiative was to re-badge itself last August as Orange, a brand originally devised in Britain but now universally recognized.
With the home-phone component available in a small number of areas last December, Orange began selling limited service through a contracted door-to-door sales team.
Melina Reed, Orange’s national manager for public affairs, explained the effort enabled the company to begin building a customer base, monitor feedback and fine tune its marketing.
The service, called Orange One, was launched to existing limited- service customers at the start of June, prior to a full commercial launch toward the end of July, which also signalled the start of its marketing campaign.
Orange has mainly used the Internet, television and sponsorship-all for the first time-to sell its Orange One service. Its sponsorship of an Australian Rules football match, which involved one team changing the blue in its team uniform to orange, in particular, gained high awareness for the brand. Although the tactic is not new to Australia-another football team changed its jumper last year to promote new blue M&Ms chocolate candy-Orange doesn’t rule out trying similar sponsorships in the future.
Orange’s TV campaign, The Home Phone that Goes Mobile, features orange hot-air balloons taking to the skies to suggest the “freedom this service gives you; to liberate you from a fixed location and be able to communicate wherever you may be,” said Reed.
Other marketing activities include direct marketing and outdoor advertising. Orange is also running a series of road shows in shopping centers, called Orange Centrals. The mini-stores feature performing artists, ball pits for kids, and product and video displays.
“It’s important to get out into the suburbs along with our sales people to explain the product face to face,” Reed said.
Orange has invested A$500 million (US$291 million) in the last year to build the network. About A$7 million (US$4 million) was set aside in 1999 to introduce the Orange brand to the market, with a greater amount earmarked this year.
