(photo: Rudy Zijlstra)
CTAM EuroSummit ’11. “Emotion is the only thing that matters with marketing,” said UPC Broadband’s Doron Hacmon during the opening keynote. “You need to wow your customers and do it with love. Horizon our first step in the journey of love.”
In an inspired speech about the way cable operators should address the challenges of today’s market, Hacmon, managing director products and online media at UPC Broadband, explained that logical arguments do not convince customers.
Citing examples such as Starbucks, Apple and Harley Davidson, Hacmon showed that customers are willing to pay a premium if they feel right with the product they buy. At Starbucks they feel “at home, while paying a hefty premium”
As an example of how not to do it, he pointed at the 88 buttons the Google TV remote control has – not exactly an elegant, user friendly product, “Software can be written in the right way to anticipate the next move of the user, so the burden of interpretation is not on the user, but on the software.”
Instead, operators should ask themselves: “Are we creating that home feeling? Do we give our customers freedom? Until now, digital TV, that is what we are selling, a closed system. And the result is competing just on price, based on logical arguments.”
The industry was never in love. “We were monopolistic and technology driven. Take for instance the first cable telephony services. There was this big modem that needed to be installed… it worked alright, but was it a surprise the first telephony was not a success.”
In the past, cable operators had a relatively easy ride selling their products. “There was a growing demand – even if you were stupid, demand for broadband and digital television overtook everything. You did not have to excel, but now is the time to put love in the brand.”
Harmon went on to tell what’s next for our industry. “I’ll save you at least half a million. Sure, you can hire McKinsey, but it will come to the same conclusions. There are three things ahead of us in the industry. One is product integration, our products converge into each other, as well as into services and products of others (ubiquity). For instance people use Picasa or social networks like Facebook.”
Second, there is device indifference. “We need to exploit all IP devices to bring our products to our customers on the devices and screens of their own choice in an independent way.”
Thirdly, all will be network agnostic. “We need to remove the structural inefficiency and offer open growth opportunities. Take Netflix, they have no network, they ride on any network.”
