Imagine a concentrated market where three companies have the monopoly for long time, without any threat. Suddenly, a new competitor appeared, maybe another naïve company trying to break a monopoly guarded by high barriers of entry. The difference: after only one month in operations, the new actor led the exchange of customers between companies, capturing 22 thousands of clients who left the other three companies. Just in one month.
That happened three years ago in the mobile market in Chile when WOM, an English company, arrived to the country to threaten the leading companies (Entel, Movistar and Claro.) What happened? Quick answer: a remarkable marketing campaign. In a conservative country, the disruptive communication WOM used was the key to success.
First, WOM took the contingency and the corruption scandals the country was facing at the time to place the company in the “citizens’ side,” as they said. With phrases like “When the law is not at your side, WOM gets on your side” or “When they present you a joke (showing a politician discussing a new law initiative), we are in your side” the new company caught people attention…and people gave their support.
WOM presented itself as an irreverent company, a transparent one which said the things nobody wanted to say, and an inclusive firm which included sexual minorities in its ads. Even the CEO of the company appeared in TV spots like anyone else. Such a big difference in Chile. But it was another marketing strategy the most notorious one to the competitors: the challenging brand strategy.
Besides laughing about politicians and TV celebrities, WOM mocked the products of the competitors. Ans its ads as well. One of the most memorable spots was one in which WOM took an old TV spot from Entel (the biggest competitor) and reedited it to push a clients migration from Entel to WOM. In the original spot, there were three models dancing a song who said “1, 2, 3 Entel.” Fifteen years after that remembered video, WOM contracted the same models but this time they appeared wearing the color of Entel (blue) to switch their clothes to purple (WOM’s color) and dance “1, 2, 3, change to WOM (all after receiving a very bad service from Entel.) Entel was furious but the campaign was a big success.
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“The spot makes a difference because for the first time a brand
appropriates clearly, obviously and explicitly the icons of another company. In Chile, this strategy is not very common, I would say that the only ones that have used are WOM and in its minute, Virgin,” said a national marketing expert at the time. Today, WOM is still growing and a recent national report showed the company led clients portability in 2018, which means that it received the biggest number of clients who left other companies.
In a recent interview, the chief of the brand marketing, explained the success. “Everything is born from a way of understanding the market and understanding customers and the offer as a whole; what there is more is the consistency between that identity and the campaigns that one sees, the offers, the ways of communicating them, the prices that we have and the integral experience that is offered to the clients ,” said Romina Galatzan.
The marketer concluded that “the communication of the brand has a lot to do with its strategy, which goes through commercial issues but also by the values in which the brand believes and basically advertising is a reflection of our identity.”
When asked about the creative process, she told: “It is a super organic process because in reality there are always issues that are on the table and one is taking, based on creativity as the script that may occur, at the times, but it is a process that never stops. That is, within our work dynamics, we are being attentive to the contingency and seeing how that can be adapted to something that generates interesting content for the audience we have. ”
Now, before our midterms are due, and after reviewing the Dove case this week and the WOM disruptive strategy described, let’s ask ourselves: What we can do to be perceived as different?
Good luck!
References:
https://bienpensado.com/wom-chile-y-su-publicidad-radical/