T-Mobile: Becoming The Un-carrier Case Study Application and Teaching Note
Research Mentor(s)
Keller, Jennifer; Nielsen, Carolyn
Description
T-Mobile had been losing customers for years, and as the fourth-largest mobile-carrier in the United States, its growth had stagnated. Its parent company, Deutshe Telekom, had completely stopped investing in the company from 2011 to 2012 during an unsuccessful merger with AT&T, causing customer satisfaction to sink even lower. T-Mobile knew it could not compete with Verizon, Sprint or AT&T in terms of service coverage or prices while continuing to play by the conventional rules set up within the mobile-carrier industry (strict contracts, overage fees and expensive upgrades). In late 2012, T-Mobile and newly appointed CEO John Legere found a new way to play the game, and set out to change T-Mobile’s reputation as a second-rate phone carrier and become the Un-Carrier. This meant no service contracts, inexpensive upgrades and flexible plans. I thoroughly studied this campaign through interviews with Rob Brust, a director supporting CEO communications at T-Mobile, as well as extensive secondary research, and created a comprehensive case study and teaching note in relation to the campaign. In addition to this, I took the findings from this case study and applied them to JcPenney in the form of a hypothetical memo to its CEO, Myron E. Ullman. My findings indicated that simplicity, consistency, research and two-way communication were all detrimental to the success of the Un-carrier campaign, and all of these attributes could hypothetically have the same level of success if applied to JcPenney.
Document Type
Event
Start Date
15-5-2015 10:00 AM
End Date
15-5-2015 2:00 PM
Department
Journalism
Genre/Form
student projects; posters
Subjects – Topical (LCSH)
Wireless communication systems--United States; Cell phone services industry--United States; Consolidation and merger of corporations--Case studies
Subjects – Names (LCNAF)
T-Mobile USA; AT & T (Firm); Deutsche Telekom
Geographic Coverage
United States
Type
Image
Rights
Copying of this document in whole or in part is allowable only for scholarly purposes. It is understood, however, that any copying or publication of this documentation for commercial purposes, or for financial gain, shall not be allowed without the author's written permission.
Language
English
Format
application/pdf
T-Mobile: Becoming The Un-carrier Case Study Application and Teaching Note
T-Mobile had been losing customers for years, and as the fourth-largest mobile-carrier in the United States, its growth had stagnated. Its parent company, Deutshe Telekom, had completely stopped investing in the company from 2011 to 2012 during an unsuccessful merger with AT&T, causing customer satisfaction to sink even lower. T-Mobile knew it could not compete with Verizon, Sprint or AT&T in terms of service coverage or prices while continuing to play by the conventional rules set up within the mobile-carrier industry (strict contracts, overage fees and expensive upgrades). In late 2012, T-Mobile and newly appointed CEO John Legere found a new way to play the game, and set out to change T-Mobile’s reputation as a second-rate phone carrier and become the Un-Carrier. This meant no service contracts, inexpensive upgrades and flexible plans. I thoroughly studied this campaign through interviews with Rob Brust, a director supporting CEO communications at T-Mobile, as well as extensive secondary research, and created a comprehensive case study and teaching note in relation to the campaign. In addition to this, I took the findings from this case study and applied them to JcPenney in the form of a hypothetical memo to its CEO, Myron E. Ullman. My findings indicated that simplicity, consistency, research and two-way communication were all detrimental to the success of the Un-carrier campaign, and all of these attributes could hypothetically have the same level of success if applied to JcPenney.