[Keywords:] Unicom; 3G； Disadvantages; threaten
On April 28th, 2009, China Unicom released a brand-new business brand "Wo" in Beijing. Its slogan "Wonderful in Wo Wo" leads the coming of 3G era of China Unicom. 3G is the third generation mobile communication technology, and it is a new generation mobile communication system that combines wireless communication with multimedia communication such as the Internet. China Unicom's 3G commercial network adopts W-CDMA standard, namely WidebandCDMA, namely wideband code division multiple access. At present, W-CDMA accounts for 69.5% of the global 3G commercial network. W-CDMA is the network standard with the strongest roaming ability, the most mature technology and the most stable network in the world.
At present, China Unicom 3G is committed to the construction of network base stations, with high equipment integration, rapid engineering installation, energy saving and environmental protection. Unicom's fixed and mobile network resources are balanced, which is suitable for "full service operation". Moreover, China Unicom is cooperating with the top three terminal sales manufacturers in China to vigorously expand the domestic and foreign markets. In addition, China Unicom joined open handset alliance, which has a positive role in promoting the development of 3G services of China Unicom. At present, China Unicom has also provided preferential policies in terms of business access and income settlement, and has established cooperative relations with the license unit of the Internet Broadcasting Audio-visual Program License supported by the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television.
Analysis on Marketing Disadvantages of 1 Unicom 3G Services
(1) brand image promotion is not sufficient. Before the 3G era, there were some weaknesses and deficiencies in Unicom's business promotion and brand promotion. For example, when building Unicom's unique brand, sub-packages were launched at random in various places, and the brand was messy, which led to the low recognition of the whole brand among consumers. After entering the 3G era, China Unicom still has problems in marketing, which first leads to the brand being difficult to be recognized by early potential customers.
Vrethem. Rogers, a professor of communication and journalism at the University of Mexico in the United States, proposed in his book "Innovation in Communication" that the process of innovation technology dissemination presents an "S" curve (pictured). The book describes that people's understanding of new things and technologies is unfamiliar, and their adoption speed is very slow. However, with the passage of time, technology is fully understood and popularized, so the adoption rate of technology is accelerated until the market is saturated. As shown in the curve, the "cumulative expansion" finally reaches a flat level, and the U value tends to be constant.
In the analysis of Professor Vrethem. Rogers, we can fit the diffusion degree of 3G services in the initial stage of promotion. However, in the initial stage of promotion, that is, before point A in the figure, Unicom's brand promotion was not sufficient, which directly led to fewer early adopters and affected the early promotion of most users.
Dissemination process of innovative technology
In the 2G era, China Unicom's powerful competitor, Mobile Company, launched a complete and coherent series of three brands: GSM, Shenzhouxing and M-Zone for different types of customers, with obvious advantages. In the domestic market, Unicom only accounts for 18% of the market share, and mobile accounts for 70%.
(2) Unicom failed to seize market opportunities. After the government issued the third generation mobile communication license (3G license), major operators began to compete for brands. China Telecom launched Tianyi brand, positioning the market among young consumers who like to pursue novelty and pleasure, and put forward the concept of "mobile Internet". This first established an image among young consumers. As the first adopters of modern new technologies, young consumers will inevitably influence and promote this product business invisibly. Therefore, the image advantage of telecom "Tianyi" is very obvious. By the time China Unicom completed the first phase of the project-W-CDMA network construction in 285 cities, the telecommunications network had covered more than 500 cities, and the mobile network had covered all provincial capitals and cities with separate plans.
In addition, the policy is tilted. TD-CDMA launched by China Mobile has its own intellectual property rights, and the domestic government has a favorable policy towards it. As mobile TD-CDMA is listed as the "863" plan of the Ministry of Science and Technology, the technological innovation project of the former State Economic and Trade Commission, the "Tenth Five-Year Plan" industrialization project of the National Development and Reform Commission, and the major scientific and technological public relations project of the Ministry of Information Industry, the policy threshold of mobile in China has been lowered, and China Unicom's market has increasingly missed market opportunities.
The lag of product promotion and insufficient care of government policies directly lead to the insufficient occupation of Unicom 3G in market opportunities, which constitutes its business shortcomings. It is unfavorable to brand promotion and business extension in the future. This is a big disadvantage of Unicom 3G in marketing.
(3) Selling 3)CDMA network will reduce Unicom's customer base and affect brand promotion. Unicom devoted itself to the exploration and development of CDMA network in the 2G era, but later W-CDMA was sold to telecom, so Unicom lost a large number of customers, especially government and enterprise customers, which directly affected the promotion of 3G. According to the data of 2009, in the reorganized mobile communication market, New Mobile, New Unicom and New Telecom accounted for 69%, 23% and 8% respectively. Meanwhile, in terms of fixed telephone and Internet, China Telecom occupies 60% market share, China Unicom accounts for 30%, and other operators * * * account for 10%. The mobile market adds 70 million customers every year. It is estimated that in 20 10, the total number of users will rise to 840 million, the penetration rate will reach 60%, and the mobile business income will reach 590 billion yuan. By encouraging the existing 58 million PHS users to use CDMA network, the short-term performance of telecommunications may exceed expectations by 30%. From this point of view, China Telecom actually has the strength to cut into this market quickly, thus making huge profits. Conversely, this is a great market loss for China Unicom.
(4)WCDMA is the first time to build a network in China, with high cost and low coverage. In China, WCDMA is the first time to build a network. It turns out that Unicom uses GSM network, and there is a certain gap between GSM network and WCDMA network. However, the smooth evolution from GSM to WCDMA is still difficult to achieve.
First of all, the cost is high. Unicom's existing GSM resources can't be fully utilized, so in order to promote WCDMA network technology, Unicom first needs to establish new base stations in various places, and huge funds bring high investment. According to the survey data of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, since the third quarter of 2009, the three major telecom operators have invested 966,543.8 billion yuan in 3G, of which China Unicom has invested nearly 60 billion yuan. Such a high cost investment will inevitably lead to very difficult cost recovery. Moreover, too much investment in technology will lead to less investment in other fields. This uneven distribution of resources will bury many hidden dangers for future development. This development is not the most complete.
Secondly, the current WCDMA network coverage is not very high. Data survey shows that only large and medium-sized cities in China have begun to cover Unicom's 3G network. According to the data at the end of 2009, there are 2 1 city in the provinces with the most WCDMA coverage, and 16 in the provinces with more than 10. This is a big disadvantage compared with moving.
2 Unicom 3G business marketing threat analysis
(1) The threat from the lack and loss of professionals. One of the major threats that Unicom is facing at present is the instability of internal construction caused by the lack of talents. In recent years, the development and deployment of China Unicom has been disrupted, and the transfer of posts at the upper and lower levels is very frequent and unscientific, resulting in excessive job mobility, and the long-term strategic objectives of enterprises cannot be implemented. The poor internal construction of the organization directly affects the formulation and implementation of the strategy in the development of Unicom's new business.
Because China Unicom has not completed the medium and long-term strategy, the hired technicians can't get real actual combat drills and improve their technical level. The recent brain drain in China Unicom is due to the unreasonable and ineffective internal organization construction. A large number of brain drain is a huge loss for China Unicom's organizational construction and technical construction, and it is very likely to pay a painful price.
(2) The threat from virtual operator. At present, there are many virtual operator that may bring risks and hidden dangers to Unicom's 3G business development. For example, virtual game operators such as Shanda Network have a great influence on the telecom industry, including China Unicom. For Unicom, which has just launched a new 3G service, virtual operator is attached to the telecom business and develops its own business through the channel of telecom. This is a threat to Unicom's new 3G service. If China Unicom can't handle it well, of course, it will be used as a medium to attract money from virtual operator, not as a dominant means of communication.
(3) The threat of adverse word-of-mouth effect. At present, due to the 2G era, the working bandwidth of China Unicom in GSM900 band is 6MHz, while that of China Mobile is 19MHz, which directly leads to the signal of China Unicom is much worse than that of China Mobile. Even if Unicom continues to reduce the technical difficulty of GSM network, the impression of "Unicom's poor signal" is directly a hidden danger in the development of Unicom's 3G market. In the long-term impression of consumers, Unicom is an enterprise with insufficient technology. This "word-of-mouth effect" has directly brought great barriers to the promotion of Unicom 3G. Since China Unicom 3G entered the market, the pressure of public opinion is much greater than that of China Mobile G3 and China Telecom "Tianyi". Under this impression, the turnover of Unicom 3G may not reach its peak for a long time.
3 Conclusion
Based on the above analysis, combined with the analysis of the disadvantages of 3G services of China Unicom at present and the threats it may face in the future, the following suggestions are put forward for China Unicom:
(1) actively engaged in advertising marketing, trying to open the product market. Good advertising effect can bring new customers to China Unicom. China Unicom should do a good job in product promotion at the initial stage of market development. Although the current market share of China Unicom is not high at the initial stage, the follow-up advertising marketing is also very important. Only by opening the market and occupying the market, the prospect of China Unicom's 3G business will be brighter and broader.
(2) Rational allocation of resources to maximize the benefits of resources. The problem of slightly uncoordinated resource allocation of China Unicom needs to be solved urgently. Correct investment decision is beneficial to the healthy development of 3G services of China Unicom. Whether it is marginalized or mainstream depends in part on the allocation and utilization of its resources. Reasonable investment planning can make the development of China Unicom more comprehensive, and also promote the further development of 3G services.
(3) Control brain drain and recruit talents extensively. Brain drain is a great threat to China Unicom. Excellent management and marketing talents directly determine the future of 3G and even Unicom. Only with young and energetic blood will Unicom, a behemoth, run hard in the storm of shopping malls and turn the tide.