In Las Vegas, where CES 2024 is held, cable TV and broadband provider Cox Communications said it plans to expand its marketing efforts behind its year-old Cox Mobile business.
Cox didn’t provide subscriber numbers for its mobile business, which relies on Verizon’s network, but Mark Lawson, executive VP and chief marketing and sales officer at Cox, told Multichannel News the company has been hitting its targets.
“We have great reason to be optimistic as we move into ‘24 with our mobile product,” Lawson said.
“Operationally, the product’s been really sound,” Tony Krueck, senior VP of Cox Mobile, added. “Obviously, you run into little hurdles here and there but for the most part it’s been real stable.”
As with many new products, a key hurdle has been creating awareness.
“Quite frankly, it takes time,“ Lawson said. “The market has seen us deliver broadband, video and phone services for 20-plus years and now we’re introducing a new mainstream product and it takes time to educate customers that we’re in the business.
“Operationally, we’re ready to scale and run, so you will see a large part of our efforts in ‘24 is to drive awareness with our current customers and new customers that we’re in the mobile business and we’re here to stay,” he added.
Six years ago other cable companies, including Comcast and Charter Communications, jumped into the mobile phone business, with calls going over both Verizon’s network and where possible over cable wifi.
Also Read: Cable Wireless Grows Up
Krueck said Cox has seen a growth pattern similar to what other cable companies have seen in the first year of a mobile launch. “As we head into year two, we’re going to see and drive a similar type of growth trajectory,” he said.
While cable companies jump into mobile, mobile companies are providing wireless competition for cable’s high-margin broadband business.
Cox expects its mobile business to see a growth profile similar to other cable companies, and help it retain its broadband customer base in the face of cord-cutting in the cable TV business.
“We have seen in our data that when we bundle products and services, customers stay with us longer,” Lawson said. “We’ve seen adding mobile into that mix is driving the highest retentative benefit of any product in our portfolio.”
Cox has been selling its mobile services with what it calls simple, flexible pricing, offering value to subscribers. Cox Mobile offers a choice between paying $15 per gigabyte of data per month, or an unlimited plan for $45 a month. There are no annual contracts, users can change plans anytime and have phones on different plans under the same account.
The notion of having a choice of providers is symbolized by Cox mobile’s mascot Annie the sheep, who appears in commercials using the slogan, “We’re different because you're different.”
“When you actually sell them a bundle that has a discount on both internet and mobile together, that has an incremental churn benefit,” Krueck said.
Close to 50% of customers buying Cox Mobile are taking a converged offer, Krueck said. The vast majority of Cox Mobile signups come from Cox subscribers, and about 10% of the new mobile customers are new to Cox.
Still, only a small percentage of Cox’s customer base has added mobile. “It will take time to build a base where the percentage is meaningful,” he said.
Big Marketing Push Ahead
“We will hit the marketing gas pedal strong in ’24 to drive awareness,” Lawson added. “Tony and his team have built a significant promotional calendar,” that includes both device promotion and service promotion.
Cox Mobile offers devices from Samsung, Apple, TCL and Google Pixel. “We will be introducing new OEM lines in 2024,” Krueck said. Cox is also looking to get into the wearable space, such as watches, this year.
Another part of promoting Cox Mobile is getting Cox employees to use the product.
“We’ve launched employee pricing, so our own employees use the product and service and get familiar with it,” Lawson said. “As customers are talking to any one of our employees, we see that as an opportunity for us to mention the fact that we’re in the business, and so that will help drive awareness.”
Cox will also invest in its sales teams and add new retail locations from its current base of about 100 Cox stores, Lawson said.
“Our goal is to provide connectivity to our customers at home and on the go,” Lawson said. “We think we can drive great value for the customer and that’s what we’re in the market for.”
