{"id":41799,"date":"2017-10-02T10:00:23","date_gmt":"2017-10-02T14:00:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.portada-online.com\/?p=41799"},"modified":"2017-10-05T11:35:30","modified_gmt":"2017-10-05T15:35:30","slug":"how-a-t-mobile-sprint-merger-could-affect-battle-for-hispanic-mobile-market","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.portada-online.com\/latest-news\/how-a-t-mobile-sprint-merger-could-affect-battle-for-hispanic-mobile-market\/","title":{"rendered":"How A T-Mobile-Sprint Merger Could Affect the Battle for the Hispanic Mobile Market"},"content":{"rendered":"

What:<\/strong> Sprint\u00a0<\/strong>and T-Mobile<\/strong> continue to drop hints that they will indeed merge, with the latest rumors asserting that T-Mobile majority owner Deutsche Telekom<\/strong> would be the primary owner of the new company, with Sprint\u2019s SoftBank Group Corp<\/strong> controlling 40 to 50 percent.
\nWhy It Matters:<\/strong> Aside from reshaping the mobile landscape through combining two of its largest players, how would the merger affect major (and minor) carriers’ ongoing battle for the loyalty of Hispanic consumers?<\/p>\n

Rumors about a possible merger between third-largest US wireless carrier T-Mobile<\/strong> and fourth-largest Sprint<\/strong> have intensified as unnamed sources come out to drop hints about how the deal would look.<\/p>\n

On Friday, Reuters cited unnamed sources that claimed that while T-Mobile majority owner Deutsche Telekom<\/strong> would be the primary owner of the new company, SoftBank Group Corp<\/strong>, which controls Sprint, would come out with 40 to 50 percent ownership.<\/p>\n

A brand shaped by its focus on innovation and offering new kinds of value through mobile technology, T-Mobile has been targeted for merger deals by both Verizon<\/strong> and AT&T<\/strong>, the first and second-largest carriers in the country, in the past. With its focus on offering flexible, low-cost plans that appeal to Hispanics, Sprint could offer T-Mobile a deeper reach into this key growth market while the new company chips away<\/a> at Verizon’s pricing advantage.<\/p>\n

For Mobile Carriers, Hispanics Are Key to Growth<\/h2>\n

The numbers don’t lie: According to Nielsen<\/strong>, there are 56 million Hispanics (and counting) in the United States, and 72% of them own a smartphone (10 percent higher than the national average).<\/p>\n

And so it is no surprise that both T-Mobile and Sprint have made Hispanic marketing a priority in their own way. According to Ad Age,<\/strong>\u00a0as recently as 2013, T-Mobile ranked seventh among the top 10 advertisers to Hispanics, with $98.7 million spent on Hispanic marketing alone in 2013 compared to Sprint, which came in at #18 on the list spending $68.6 million.<\/p>\n

But when Bolivian Marcelo Claure<\/strong> took over as CEO of Sprint in 2014, things began to change. It started with him\u00a0\u00a0starring in a Spanish-language Sprint commercial<\/span><\/a>\u00a0on\u00a0Univision<\/span><\/strong>\u00a0during the Latin Grammys broadcast that November that opened with him saying “Hola, soy Marcelo Claure.”<\/p>\n

From there, Claure\u00a0went on a hiring spree to create a team capable of leading Sprint’s battle for the\u00a0Hispanic market. He started by hiring Manuel Campos<\/strong>, the T-Mobile account director at Hispanic agency\u00a0Conill<\/strong>, as Hispanic marketing director for the company, and a few months later, Claure hired current marketing chief, Spaniard\u00a0Roger Sol\u00e9<\/strong>, who came to Sprint from TIM Brasil, Telecom Italia’s<\/strong> mobile operator in Brazil, where he was CMO.<\/p>\n

Sprint’s Hispanic marketing strategy was to give the demographic an option that was built for their preferences and behavior:\u00a0For just $100 a month, a Sprint family plan included 20 gigabytes of data.\u00a0Sprint\u2019s Boost Mobile division\u00a0also released rate packages custom-designed for Hispanics: one combined calling and unlimited messaging from the U.S. to Cuba\u00a0and was offered exclusively at Boost Mobile dealers in the Miami area.<\/p>\n

In the meantime, T-Mobile launched Univision Mobile<\/strong>, which offered customers monthly plans that include 100 minutes of international calling to countries in Latin America and unlimited text messaging to phone numbers in more than 200 countries around the world. The service has since been absorbed<\/a> into the Ultra Mobile\u00a0<\/strong>service\u00a0but was the first in a number of ambitious moves by the brand to capture this key demographic.<\/p>\n

Merger Will ‘Coalesce Their Hispanic Efforts’<\/h2>\n

Tru Multicultural’s founder and CEO Yousef Kattan,<\/strong> whose past clients include T-Mobile,\u00a0added that the mere amount of data they will be combining will \u201ccreate an environment of intelligence\u201d that will allow the combined company to be \u201csmarter, efficient and ultimately more effective will be sizable.\u201d<\/p>\n

[comillas]We\u2019ve seen AT&T and Verizon be very aggressive in the tech environment and I would imagine this merger would allow TMO and Sprint to play in a very similar space.[\/comillas]<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve seen AT&T and Verizon be very aggressive in the tech environment and I would imagine this merger would allow TMO and Sprint to play in a very similar space,” Kattan added.<\/p>\n

Mario Carrasco, Co-Founder and Principal of\u00a0ThinkNow\u00a0Research<\/strong>, highlighted that \u201cSprint has been focusing on targeting the Hispanic market seriously since\u00a02015,” and that \u201ctheir main rival in this space has been T-Mobile.\u201d As the Hispanic demographic has been key to their battle for the third spot, Carrasco asserted that their unique strengths will complement each other with regard to Multicultural. \u201cThis merger will coalesce their Hispanic efforts by combining Sprint\u2019s low-cost plans with T-Mobile\u2019s branding will lead to a more effective Hispanic targeting effort overall,\u201d Carrasco said.<\/p>\n

Merger Will Make Space for Minor Carriers, Unconventional Services Popular Among Hispanics<\/h2>\n

One of the biggest questions surrounding the merger is how reducing the number of major carriers will affect the mobile landscape. With regard to the Hispanic market, experts seem to agree that the merger would create a unique window of opportunity for prepay segment, minor carriers, and unconventional mobile services, all of which are popular among Hispanic consumers.<\/p>\n

Carrasco of ThinkNow predicted an increase in the adoption of simple mobile and TracFone<\/strong>, options that are particularly appealing to the Hispanic market. \u201cAdoption of Wi-Fi phones is increasing, and unconventional services such as Google Fi<\/strong> will begin to take more of the market share,\u201d Carrasco said.<\/p>\n

Kattan added that prepay will likely continue to evolve and become a focus for major carriers trying to reach growing numbers of Multicultural consumers who prefer non-traditional mobile plans. \u201cThis merger will definitely give them a tight hold on the prepay segment and could create an environment where their focus in prepay is wholly focused on growing and owning multicultural targets, specifically Hispanic,\u201d Kattan said.<\/p>\n

[comillas]This merger will definitely give them a tight hold on the prepay segment and could create an environment where their focus in prepay is wholly focused on growing and owning multicultural targets, specifically Hispanic.[\/comillas]<\/p>\n

Carrasco echoed that sentiment: \u201cI believe these nontraditional services and carriers have more appeal to Hispanics who tend to adopt emerging technologies at a faster rate than the general population.\u201d<\/p>\n

With so few major carriers in the event that the merger occurs and is approved by US regulatory bodies, data and pricing wars would intensify as the \u201cbig three would fight even harder for these gross adds,\u201d Kattan said. \u201cDevice offers will also get more competitive to help entice consumers to leave their current carriers.\u201d<\/p>\n

In the End, T-Mobile and Sprint ‘Are Going After Very Similar Segments’<\/h2>\n

Aligning the strategies of two large and complex operations with unique branding and identities like T-Mobile and Sprint is never a simple endeavor. \u201cComing out of the merger with a new set of core values will be critical in aligning their marketing efforts overall and with the Hispanic market,\u201d Carrasco said.<\/p>\n

[comillas]Coming out of the merger with a new set of core values will be critical in aligning their marketing efforts overall and with the Hispanic market.[\/comillas]<\/p>\n

But their core values may be more aligned than we think. \u201cBoth T-Mobile and Sprint and their prepay services MetroPCS<\/strong> and Boost<\/strong> respectfully are going after very similar segments that value price first, but don’t want to sacrifice quality and flexibility,\u201d Kattan explained. Aligning Verizon and T-Mobile\u2019s core values? That would be more complicated, Kattan admitted.<\/p>\n

In the end, both brands have unique advantages that should serve each other well as they grow. T-Mobile is a \u201cgame changer and innovator in the space; a brand truly built around the consumers\u2019 needs that can provide value,\u201d Kattan said. On the other hand, Kattan pointed to price, devices, and distribution as Sprint\u2019s key claims.<\/p>\n

If the deal goes through, an already evolving mobile market will be shaken up yet again, and Hispanic consumers will be key as carriers build strategies to adapt to the demographic\u2019s quick adoption of new, alternative mobile technology and preference for flexible, price-conscious mobile plans.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Aside from reshaping the mobile landscape through combining two of its largest players, how would the merger affect major (and minor) carriers’ ongoing battle for the loyalty of Hispanic consumers?\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":41801,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[174],"tags":[881,3068,5684,10996,5313,490,282,11254,11253,416,335],"yoast_head":"\nHow A T-Mobile-Sprint Merger Could Affect the Battle for the Hispanic Mobile Market<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.portada-online.com\/latest-news\/how-a-t-mobile-sprint-merger-could-affect-battle-for-hispanic-mobile-market\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" 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