Promotional Strategies in Telecom Sector of EE

This case study highlights the promotional strategies used by EE, a leading telecom company in the UK, to connect with customers and generate revenues. It discusses the use of customer touchpoints, external spaces, digital platforms, and third parties for promotion. The effectiveness of these strategies on the company's growth and outcomes on financial and social media platforms are also analyzed.

Principles and Practices of
Marketing

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
Task 1...........................................................................................................................................3
Task 2...............................................................................................................................................9
Application of Promotional Theories..........................................................................................9
Evaluation of effectiveness on financial and social outcome of EE..........................................14
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................15
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................1

INTRODUCTION
This case study aims at the marketing strategy in telecom sector of EE , a UK telecom company
founded in 2010 and a leading British mobile network provider and internet service provider. It
is among the first telecom to launch 4G in mobile handset. The promotional strategies viz.
Customer touchpoints, external spaces,digital platforms and through third parties aim to connect
with UK customers to promote the brand and generate revenues with cost optimization. The use
of theories which have been implemented as promotional tactics by EE and its outcomes on the
growth achieved by the company have been highlighted. The financial and social media
outcomes using the marketing strategies have been discussed.
Company background
EE is a mobile operator based in UK and also an internet service provider. This is a brand within
BT Group. The company was founded in April 2010 and has become the largest mobile network
operator with 27.5 million subscribers speaking of October,2020. The network reaches to more
than 99% of the UK population. EE owns and operates 2G, 3G, 4G mobile phone networks in the
UK and has around 700 retail outlets across the nation.
Task 1
Promotional Activities that occurs in EE -
Customer Facing Touchpoints – Customer Facing Touchpoint is interaction of prospective
customer with the brand while purchasing something from the brand. In general terms, it is the
point of interaction between brand and the customer (Ju, 2018). EE identifies every the
touchpoints so that it can influence customer to buy its product. Interaction with the product can
be during purchase, pre purchase and Post purchase. Identifying such key touch points in order to
retain customers and bring back to its brand is crucial. EE focuses on its promotional activities
through the help of customer facing touchpoints through three stages -
Pre-Purchase -
All the interaction that EE has with the customer before selling it services. EE having the largest
market share in UK identifies the various pre-purchase touchpoints such as social media, online
advertisement, store, office, company events, referral etc. EE uses social media in order to target

young generation in cost effective way. People these days are more alert on the internet so to
advertise itself company chooses online platform as Google Ads, digital marketing content. EE
marketing team identifies company events as the touchpoint as it the chance where business
leaders connects and discover strategies which can help EE to grow more.
During Purchase -
While selling its services, EE keeps its customer representative team ready, so that customers can
have face to face conversation and any queries regarding product can be solved at immediate
moment (Waqas and et.al., 2020). Reviews related to the company and its services are shown on
Google and its own website whenever any person visits. It accumulates the feedbacks of the
customers using its services to gain more customers. Point of Sale is the key and the last point of
interaction between customers and company, EE's sales representatives by giving each and every
detail of its services are able to influence customer to take their service.
Post-Purchase -
This is the point when the customers interact after the sales happen. EE builds customer rapport
by providing them thanks message for providing their product through emails and messages.
Company also collects feedback after the customer use their service that help them to know their
area of improvement and can advertise through it. Some customers have additional needs, to

solve that EE introduced touchpoint where they can contact them through their app and cross
email.
External Spaces – It can also be referred as Outdoor Marketing and till today, one of the most
prominent Brand EE uses it. EE uses all the ways to target its customers and increase its
customer base. The motive behind the using External Space to market its services was that large
part of population, spend their day outside their homes (Hoque, 2018). At that time, the most
efficient way to grab the people’s attention and reach the audience can be done through external
Space. EE believes that choosing outdoor advertising is inevitable, by advertising its company
through various sources of external spaces it constantly reminds people about your brand,
visibility nurtures familiarity and familiarity builds up trust within the customer.
Generally, advertising or doing promotional activity with the help of billboard required large
amount of revenue and steady growth, EE being one of the largest telecom company in UK can
afford this method. To have strong impact on local public, developing creative billboard ads is
one of the company’s strategies. With the technological advancement, billboard shows more
creative form of content, company use digital billboards to have great impression with their
visual and graphic effects on passengers.
Analysis:
EE came up with the new trend of advertising itself through external space is by Guerilla
Marketing, this marketing strategy low-cost tactic and unique which attract customers. EE
wanted to try and experiment something new and innovative idea to yield maximum result. So
they advertise their brand with displaying its ads on wall, benches and even on vehicles at public
spaces.

Company across various porch cities in UK carry out Transit Advertising where ads and posters
of EE is displayed on various public transport, transportation areas where generally lot of public
visits, the idea behind choosing this source of external space was to advertise company brand
wherever people are waiting, there’s potential for advertising (Vinerean, 2017).
Analysis:
EE ensures that its company marketing strategies are out of the box, to them successful it always
chooses external spaces that are high traffic areas so that more people get conscious about its
brand, come up with creative content on digital billboard that people capture and share them to
other audience and it also ensures that its advertising overpowers the competition, so after doing
complete research about the existing competition within the industry, EE come up with unique
strategies.
Digital Platform – Refers to the digital space that issue facilities for users to cooperate,
interconnect or transact digitally. It is any electronic tool for communication includes desktop,
email, mobile softwares this covers websites and social media – Twitter, Facebook, Amazon etc.
Now-a- days digital platforms are reshaping market competition in all industries across the world
and online presence of business help get more leads and conversion. EE influence the perception
of audience about its brand, by being present on different digital platforms, which helps it to gain
more customers and sales. The customers now check reviews about the services and products
online which help the in making right decision (Szymanski, 2020).
EE prefers digital platform because it provides company large reach of audience with
just single click. For the younger generation these platforms are the communication channel
where company can connect to them. Digital platforms like Google analytics, Facebook Insights
and Twitter Analytics helps company to measure its performance. Doing promotional activity
through the help of digital platform is very low cost as compared to conventional methods of
marketing and promotion.

Website - EE have its presence through its own website ee.co.uk through which customers can
view details about the company, different services that it provides such as Mobile phones, and
latest electronic gadgets with internet services like 4g,5g, broadband shop for them online by
registering on their website. EE also provide various options for payments by collaborating with
different payment companies in order to make checkout procedure easier. it also provides
services such as store finder, coverage checker and contact us and help option for the ease and
comfort of its customer.
Social media – There are different Social Media websites through which EE advertise and
market it to target audience because these websites provide company with wide reach and better

return. EE uses major social media platform Facebook for organic marketing as with amazing
content on its page on which many people visits share and subscribe it to know the latest
information from the company (Waheed and et.al., 2017). EE use paid features like Facebook
Ads and Facebook Network which gives better options to get in touch for target customers. EE
also has its presence on micro blogging websites Twitter where there is large traffic, it digitally
brand itself through contents, blogs and by sharing information about business. To build the
professional network and personal brand it has its presence on LinkedIn where it connects with
the professionals.
Through Third Parties – Third-party technique is generally used by public relations companies
that utilise media, journalists, reporter and industry trade group to promote company’s products
and services, to propagate positive message, to create content that portrays company in positive
manner (Hanif and Rodrigues, 2018 ). Third party technique basically relies on the public’s
insight being trustworthy and the autonomous source, public believes that the parties presenting
the message are authentic and in their best interest. EE limited has a large market sector in UK
with its success and growth company started to expand its operations in different cities.
Newspapers, Magazines are also the sources through which promotional activities can be done.
Company to target different age groups use different medium for its promotion. Many citizens of
corporate generally read analyst reports to know about company’s position. EE limited collects
the feedbacks from its customers and show them in their contents with the help of reports which
portrays the positive image about the company, to inform people about the new launch of its
service it takes help of the journalists to promote through news coverage. Third party technique
can become manipulative sometimes, but EE limited takes care and monitor its activities to
ensure that nothing goes right and the content is sensible and truthful because if anything wrong
happens it can damage company’s image.
Analysis:
EE limited uses the above explained promotional activities through various sources to stimulate
demand of its services in the UK market, for this to happen they come up with the various offers
and discounts. The information about what company will do in the upcoming period and what
service it is about to launch is shown on its website and on other websites on the company pages,
which develops curiosity in the customers and benefits the company.

Task 2
Application of Promotional Theories
AIDA Model
This is a funnel shaped model in which the process of motivating the customers to buy the
product at various stages is emphasized and thus moving them to make the final purchase. Social
media has added to the extension of this model. The model goes as follows:
a) Attention: Creation of brand awareness among customers by creating attention through
advertising in unexpected locations, placing big banners which give out a message to the targeted
segment and coming up with a unique idea in advertisements to catch attention (Arora , 2018).
For instance,EE has used the concept to promote its products in launch mode by placing
huge banners and boardings where people gather in large numbers such as restaurants, cinema
halls, highways etc. to catch attention of public. EE was the first to launch 4G network in
mobiles and advertised in such a way to catch the public attention.

b) Interest: After creating awareness, next stage is of creating a liking or interest for the product
in the minds of customers. The outlook and benefits associated with the product such as its
branding, associated accessories with the product can motivate people to further research about
the product (Stojanov, 2016).
For instance, EE creates interest value for its products by launching a second advertising
campaign of products having a combo policy viz. Handsets with free headphones, discount
coupon on every purchase etc. This generates more research from customers to buy the product.
c) Desire: Creation of desire now is the next motive. The creation of 'need' mindset in customers
has to be generated for the product. Branding and packaging can generate initial desire but what
will finally connect is an emotional connect development between the business and the
customers (Raharja and Sukoco, 2018).
For instance, EE apart from selling brand products has an emotional connect with the
customers through personalized messages via newspapers and other print media catching
attention of needs of youth. Online chat on portals and websites where interested customers
come seeking about the product has delved an emotional connect with them. Replying to e-mail
queries and on social posts has worked for EE.
d) Action: Customers want to make purchase and settle for the product now. It is now up to the
marketing channel to provide a place for convenience for customer to buy the product which
may be online or offline (Arora , 2018). Some methods used to initiate action for buying is luring
with discounts, free shipping and free trial of products etc.
For instance, EE has a number of stores located in UK from where customers have the
convenience to walk in and buy the products easily. There are big as well as small retail outlets
which are designed to suit the comfort factor of different customers for making the purchase. EE
has its own website as well as other e-commerce portals to sell its products online with online
delivery at certain locations.

Above the line/ Below the line marketing
Above the line marketing means mass marketing which does not have a specific target of
customers to market upon. It is a marketing means to initially reach out to everyone to create
awareness about the brand.
Means of above the line marketing
Television: To have a wide reach, this means is the best to promote a product initially. People of
varied age groups watch TV commercials and some brands of interest may catch attention.
For example, EE has a number of commercials of its handsets, tablets and other
electronic accessories who showcase famous celebrities thus catching everyone's attention.
People identify with EE products through these commercials.
Radio: The evening radio is widely listened for its programmes on songs and celebrities which
gathers attention of general public. Commercials are presented in a unique way appealing to the
masses (Stojanov, 2016).
For example, EE uses radio commercials whenever it is launching a new product or
giving discounts on festive seasons etc. which catches customer attention prompting them to buy
the products.

Print advertising: The most common form of advertising reaching to the customers is through
local newspapers. It is again read by masses and can go a long way in product marketing.
For example, EE spreads its advertisements through this local channel at the launching
of a new mobile handset and distribution of pamphlets along with papers to catch attention has
motivated customers to make an in store purchase.
Outdoor advertising: It is in the form of banners, on public locations or using a mascot for the
company for widespread promotion (Raharja and Sukoco, 2018).
For example, EE has its banners seen at places of public gathering like cinema halls,
high ways etc. where these hoardings can be seen majorly. Banner advertising has carved a
separate niche for EE for its method of advertising.
Online promotion: Promotion of products where people generally surf online become the
marketing avenues for product promotion. It may grab someone's attention while surfing online
and generate attention.

For example, EE has its own website to promote its products although it uses other
portals for product promotion to reach to masses.
Below the line promotion
It is on a specified target of customers by direct marketing methods to generate sales now as
awareness has already been created.
Means of below the line promotion
Direct mail marketing: Personalized mail is the most appropriate way to catch attention of
customers. This can be about the offers or festive discount on the products.
For example, EE takes the customer database when they make a purchase of their brand
and sends messages on phone and e-mail about the new offers. This has kept in touch old
customers and also prompted to make sales.
Targeted online marketing: This is based on market segmentation as to whom are interested in
buying the product. The age group is chalked out and specific advertisements are shown online
with other search engines (Constantinovits and Zhang, 2018).

For example, EE has uploaded advertisements based on the demography of youngsters
within the age group of 18-34 years buying the tablets and handsets and have got great response
from it. Referrals online and publicity through social posts have garnered publicity for the
product.
Trade shows and presentations: Road shows and trade fairs are beneficial to interact with the
customers, take their feedback and simultaneously promote the product.
For example, EE conducts road shows and trade fairs after some duration of product
launch has passed by, to take the customer feedback and promote other offerings as accessories
to the product. People are influenced by marketing executives talking to them in person and thus
development of an emotional connect has taken place.
Evaluation of effectiveness on financial and social outcome of EE
As these factors have promoted growth for the company, the company has seen increase in the
financial growth since its launch of 4G in handsets and the growth has been a remarkable one
considering the timeline. The finance spent on advertising has generated benefits by achieving
greater sales with this decade becoming of using net services on mobile. Below the line
advertising on online platforms have minimized advertising budget and use the capital for
product innovation (Constantinovits and Zhang, 2018). The profitability and sales of the
company have registered growth using application of theories.
The social media has registered growth through online sales, online promotion and
online posts of its products. People are spreading word of mouth publicity through their online
feedback and likes registered for its products. Youth using handsets and tablets have increased
over the decade and thus in a way have become ambassadors of their products. Road shows have
increased the number of people connecting via social media platforms thus increasing the social
capital.

CONCLUSION
The marketing strategies considering the practical and theoretical aspects of EE have been
successful in creating a strong customer base in UK. Advertising done on a large scale both
online as well as online with creative methods at apt places has reaped dividends to catch
customers' attention and motivated them to generate sales. Theoretical use for marketing has
again revealed substantial benefits in creation of a huge customer base which have added to the
social capital as well. Traditional and of age methods of advertisements viz. Print and electronic
media have been optimally used to gather mass attention. Financial outcomes for the company
have been tremendous since the past decade with EE going for product innovation. The company
is going for personalized ways to maintain emotional connect with their customers benefitting
them in long run.

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