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Speaking The Language Crucial For MetroPCS Advertising Campaign

October 23, 2002
Wireless Data News

Hispanic people use wireless services for the same reasons as other U.S. consumers. However, MetroPCS isn't using the same advertising strategy it uses to reach the general market to attract Hispanic customers.

"Rather than just taking our English campaign, our general market campaign, and trying to translate it into Spanish, we actually had [advertising agency Groupo Gallegos] create a unique campaign that would be meaningful to Hispanics, their culture, their tastes," says Diane McKenna, director of advertising and brand management for Dallas-based MetroPCS.

"In some ethnic mixes, they have different degrees of assimilation into the American culture," McKenna tells Wireless Data News.

"With Hispanics, for example, you have some Hispanics who are American born, but their parents are from a Latin country. You also have some people who have newly immigrated into our country. There is a variety of different ways that you have to reach them. Sometimes it's as simple as they are still becoming familiar with our culture and some of them don't speak the language as their first language. So, it really is better if you can reach them and talk to them in their own language and in their own culture."

Working with Seal Beach, Calif.-based Groupo Gallegos, the carrier in September launched Spanish-language advertising linking its flat-rate unlimited local airtime to the Hispanic culture. One ad is "a play on the fact that the Spanish language tends to use more words than English and that Hispanic people have a tendency to be more descriptive with their words and their language," McKenna says. "This spot talks about how with MetroPCS, because you can talk as much as you want for $35, you don't have to worry about being as descriptive as you want to be with the language."

MetroPCS reorganized after operating as General Wireless, which sought Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection after bidding $954 million for 14 licenses in the Federal Communications Commission's 1994 C-block auction. However, in a ruling upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court, a bankruptcy judge in 1998 revalued the 14 licenses at $166 million.

MetroPCS this month launched service in San Francisco, the fourth and final market its licenses cover. The other markets are the Atlanta area, Miami- Dade, Broward and Palm Beach counties in Florida and the Sacramento area in California. The company declined to disclose its subscriber total.

"Do we need minorities to reach our growth?" McKenna says. "I would say yes, we do. I think probably any wireless carrier would say yes to that. We have just launched this year, so we still have a tremendous amount of growth potential and will attain more growth in just the general market but we certainly consider ethnic groups as an important part of our subscriber base.

"We really believe that the unlimited usage is important to just about all wireless users except for those who travel a lot," she adds. "We offer roaming, but it's above and beyond our plan. This is really a phone that's designed for local use. I wouldn't say that having unlimited usage is more important to one segment or the other."

Another consumer segment to which MetroPCS will target ads is the Asian community in the San Francisco area. "I don't know for sure yet exactly what we'll do with regard to the Asian market," McKenna says. "I'm sure we'll do some, but we have not specifically sat down and made a decision. It definitely would be something that we'll do in 2003."

However, MetroPCS is already offering services targeted for Asian customers similar to services marketed to the Hispanic market. The company offers competitive long-distance rates for San Francisco customers' calls to Asian markets, and for Florida customers' calls to Cuba, Mexico and South America.

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