Introduction
Hawaiian Telcom Corporation is a local exchange carrier specifically dealing with telephone services to the state of Hawaii. The corporation was founded in the year 2005 by the Carlyle Group but currently owned by Hawaiian Telcom Holdco Corporation. The company is a succession of Verizon Communication that sold its assets to the Carlyle Group.
Hawaiian Telcom Corporation serves the larger Hawaiian market by telecommunication services. It provides a wide range of customers, business entities and sometimes engaged in wholesale communications services to the Hawaii state. The company specializes on the internet series through its Fiber Optics, DSL and Dial-Up services. It also provides local phone and long distance phone services to Hawaii consumers. Moreover, the firm is active about the television services provision. Moreover, Hawaiian Telcom also provides wireless services. However, in this case it acts as the mobile Virtual network operator in cooperation with Verizon Wireless's CDMA and Sprint. It outsources the capacity to provide this service to the consumers from the two network providers (Carlyle's Hawaiian Telecom Bet Goes Belly Up").
Hawaiian Telcom has competitors in the provision of its services to the consumers. The Verizon Wireless act both as a co-partner as well as a competitor. During the sale of Verizon Communication to the Carlyle Group Verizon Wireless was not included in the package. Since then it has remained a key a competitor to Hawaiian Telcom in the provision of wireless services. The company is quite competent in offering full range Internet Protocol services that include cloud-based services, high-bandwidth data services, managed internet services and Ethernet. In addition, Hawaiian Telcom faces strong competition from Sprint and other telecommunication service providers in the state. Even though, Hawaiian Telcom plays a crucial role in the Hawaiian telecommunication market, due to competition there is a need to segment its market so as to position itself well in this hyper-competitive market. As such, this particular paper objectively scrutinizes its segmentation into this market as well as examines its positioning statement. This can enable the company improves its market share as well as improve on the provision of its services to the Hawaiian consumers.
Hawaiian Telcom and Demographic Segmentation
Demographics plays a crucial role when it comes to market segmentations. Dove (2013) notes that, though it can be considered common to various business markets, demographic market segmentation is an important parameter in marketing. It plays a crucial role as a strategy in an intense competitive market. According to Dove (2013), demographic segmentation strategy enables the company to simply integrate the larger market into specific consumer traits. This division is done based on age, gender, race, income, education, occupation, and marital status. Dove (2013) argues that, when all these traits are reflected on the market segments the larger market is covered. In the telecommunication industry, the consumers can be divided using such traits. However, the business entities can be divided based on the line of products that they deal in.
More importantly, demographic information can be extracted from the Census Bureau reports as well as other companies' profiles in the case of telecommunication industry. Why demographic information? Hawaiian Telcom can sufficiently utilize the information to decide on how distribute its services to consumers as well as other target business entities. The efficient provision of services is a major concern of any company. Ideally, demographic information is a strategic tool that may be employed to manipulate the market to the advantage of the organization. Justified to argue that, demographics provides a general idea on the company's customer or consumer base, their location, as well as their interests.
Hawaiian Telcom's demographic segmentation relates to the telecommunication market in that they classify two major market segments that are again subdivided to reflect on the provision of its services. The company relies on both the consumer segments and the business entities segments. Hawaiian Telcom has usually focused on dividing its customer base to smaller unit segments reflecting the demographics of Hawaii State. More importantly, the market is segmented to tap the age 20-40 age groups that are commonly active in the use of telecommunication services (Carlyle's Hawaiian Telecom Bet Goes Belly Up"). This and the channeled services to other business entities form the primary market segment to the Hawaiian Telcom. The driving ideology behind this customer base strategy is the fact that most competitors in this market are interested majorly on business entities as the primary market to their telecommunication and internet services.
With this highly segmented market base, the company directly deals with their customers to add value to their services. In fact, the Hawaiian demographics depict or suit the company's customers' base. The region is rich with a diverse group with different occupations and education level. However, the Hawaiian Telcom targets all the demographic market segments in order to ensure it covers the entire telecommunication industry.
Hawaiian Telcom and Psychographic Segmentation
Even though, Hawaiian Telcom is determined by segmenting its customer base depending on the demographics of the Hawaii State, the consumers purchase power for its services is influenced by different perception they owe to the company. The consumer’s perception in the telecommunication industry is based on the value and efficiency of communication services that the company provides. As such, improving the efficiency of the internet services, communication services and the phone networks can change the perception of the Hawaiian Telcom customers or consumers to utilize its services and not those of the competitors. In this regard, the services of the company motivate the customers to regularly use its services.
Hawaiian Telecom knows the psychographics of the telecommunication industry, as such they manipulates the customers’ perception to love its line of servicers. In their database, the company has integrated an individualized customer system that profiles the customer based on customers’ believes. The individual consumer information is continuously obtained by the company to assist in determining on how they will decide on which company service to use frequently. As indicated by Dove (2013), psychographics entails profiling customers based on their beliefs. The information pertaining to the beliefs of the customers are important in essence that they determine customers' purchasing trend. Most line services provided by Hawaiian Telcom are brands that strong perception of the consumers that live in Hawaii state. The Hawaiian Telcom database specialist designs most of the products based on the influencers of the consumer purchase decisions.
Even though, Hawaiian Telcom seemingly remain neutral towards a particular psychographic segment, the company’s team is very wise in the way they design their brand services to suit all psychographic segments in Hawaii (Consillio, 2008). With so many competitors in this market, Hawaiian Telcom usually adjusts its prices while maintaining the value of its services to the consumers. This has made the company very attractive in the eyes of the consumers. In addition, the team of telecommunication experts has eased the accessibility of its services to most users. This in the real sense has shifted the entire Hawaii market to embrace its line brand services.
Hawaiian Telcom and Geographic Segmentation
According to Dove (2013), geographic segmentation is the division of market into geographic units that ensure the products suits the geographic targets. This may include states, countries, region, neighborhoods and counties. Even though, geographic segmentation are usually considered by multinationals, the Hawaii state can as well be integrated into different location to achieve the company's target. Hawaiian Telcom uses geographical segmentation to target consumers who stay in different parts of Hawaii State. The internet and wireless services are distributed by fiber optic to a different region within the Hawaii estate to meet its customer needs. The main primary objective behind this strategy is to ensure all the consumers are connected across the state as well internationally. The company incorporation with other communication companies in the United States enables their consumers to be interconnected virtually in sharing information. Though the communication may be seen to be restricted in Hawaii State, the company projects to expand its internet services to the neighborhood geographic locations.
Hawaiian Telcom and Behavioral segmentation
Marketing segmentation entails a lot of perspectives that must be managed by marketing team to realize the overall marketing goal of any organization. According to Dove (2013), behavioral segmentation of the market entails division of market segment units based on the attitude, knowledge, use and the response of the product to the consumers. In regard to Hawaiian Telcom, the company usually determines the benefit of its line services to the customers in order to ensure they are in line with the consumer expected outcome. The essence of this is to achieve its services user loyalty, as well as expansion of the number of its target customers.
Hawaiian Telcom Positioning Statement
Hawaiian Telcom positioning statement is a clear, attractive customer luring strategy that boosts its market. The "Hawaiian Telcom provides an Always OnSM customer experience" is a positioning statement used by this company to capture the attention of customers. With the employees of the company committed towards innovation and passion for delivering superior internet and telecommunication service, Hawaiian Telcom positions itself well in the telecommunication industry within the region (Consillio, 2008). The company choice for the use of this attractive phrase depends on its team's determination to create brand awareness, as well as service differentiation from those of the other service providers. This ideally helps Hawaiian Telcom to strategically gain the competitive advantage necessary in the intense competitive telecommunication industry.
Marketing Segmentation and Positioning
With the improvement or change in mind, Hawaiian Telcom can lead in the Hawaiian telecommunication market since it is all not that tense. By just being realistic towards the target market the majority of the now viewed as competitors will become noncompetitors. Even though, the other companies may focus on price point as a way of manipulating customers, just segmenting the market to suit the needs of Hawaiian consumers can realize tremendous success to the Hawaiian Telcom. According to Dove (2013), marketing segmentation is a useful strategy that can be used to increase the market share to an aggressive company. It is all about rebranding to suit the market segments in a specific location (Grewal & Levy, 2010). In addition, the company positions itself around the pricing strategy. It charges slightly lower prices compared to those competitors to manipulate the customer perception.
Conclusion
In conclusion, Hawaiian Telcom has been responsive to the changing Hawaii telecommunication industry. The company usually bases its strategies in the four segmentation tools to require and retain its customers (Consillio, 2008). Arguably, the company has found a balancing ground to provide the entire Hawaii market with the telecommunication services based on geographic, demographic, behavioral, and psychographic considerations. Despite the current competition in the telecommunication in the Hawaii state, Hawaiian Telcom has been considered as a superior company that is immune to competition. Advantageously, the strategy of Hawaiian Telcom is effective in maintaining the consumer base as well as pulling the customers to ensure they gain from the company services.
References
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"Carlyle's Hawaiian Telecom Bet Goes Belly Up." Washington Post. 2008-12-01. Retrieved 2008-12-02
Consillio, K. (2008). "Hawaiian Telcom ousts CEO." Honolulu Star-Bulletin. Retrieved 2008-02-05
Dove, M. (2013). "Cultural Segmentation - Customer Segmentation". OriginsInfo.com.au. Retrieved 6 October 2014.Cultural Segmentation
Grewal, D., & Levy, M. (2010). Marketing. Boston: McGraw-Hill Irwin.
Telcom, H. (2006). Traveling Outside the U.S.
