A Change of Positioning?

With the gaining popularity of AT&T, especially with the addition of the iPhone to its family, Verizon felt the need to step up their "game" in order to keep a competitive edge in the cellular phone industry. In an attack against AT&T and Apple's iPhone, Verizon changed their positioning to focus first off on their competitors, then on the benefits they offered.

Verizon's first "Can you hear me now?" campaign proved extremely successful in highlighting the benefit provided by holding an account with Verizon. In 2001, Verizon positioned itself not as the low cost leader but higher quality cellular phone service. According to USAToday.com, in the first 2 years of the launch of the positioning Net Customers increased 15% and market share was gained (USAToday.com).

Now that AT&T is gaining popularity once again with the help of the iPhone, Verizon felt the need to change it's positioning once again, but this time the focus was on its competition - AT&T. This new campaign plays on AT&T's recent tag line "We've Got an App for That," with Verizon claiming "There's a Map for That." This new positioning statement suggests to the consumers, yes AT&T may have an App for everything, but how about their coverage? Within the new commercial, Verizon slams the available coverage for its new 3G service that goes along with the iPhone. But to me this makes sense, why buy a phone regardless how many apps you can get if you never get reception?

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