March 22, 2010
Your Customer’s Bandwidth Invitation So, we’re just about through the harshest winter in the UK for 30 years. And when the quarterly fuel bills arrive, there will be one final shiver to endure. Combined with the rising cost of energy, the price of domestic gas and electricity for the average UK household is now over £1300 per year. Yet, there’s another set of monthly household charges that gets far less attention, but are just as dramatic - let’s call them ‘bandwidth costs’. If you add together fixed line telephone, mobile phone, broadband and any satellite/cable TV fees, you’ll start to see this figure emerging. Such a combined cost is no longer about early adopters - developments such as the BBC’s hugely successful iPlayer have seen to that. Now, add in wireless devices like sat nav and Blackberries (even iPads before long, if we believe the hype from Apple) and you’ll arrive at your bandwidth cost. If it wasn’t for the cost of petrol, millions of middle-class families would already be spending more on bandwidth than their energy. So what ? Well - all this bandwidth cost adds up to the fact that today’s consumer is getting serious about staying connected. Much of this is about personal communication - calls, emails, texts, photos and alike. But it also includes a desire to stay in touch in brands who they relate to and trust. For a company’s loyal customers, think of it as an open invitation from them, an opportunity to interact, but only provided both parties understand the social graces of networking and digital marketing. So what does your company’s bandwidth invite say, and how good are your digital media manners ?

Your Customer’s Bandwidth Invitation

So, we’re just about through the harshest winter in the UK for 30 years. And when the quarterly fuel bills arrive, there will be one final shiver to endure. Combined with the rising cost of energy, the price of domestic gas and electricity for the average UK household is now over £1300 per year.

Yet, there’s another set of monthly household charges that gets far less attention, but are just as dramatic - let’s call them ‘bandwidth costs’.

If you add together fixed line telephone, mobile phone, broadband and any satellite/cable TV fees, you’ll start to see this figure emerging. Such a combined cost is no longer about early adopters - developments such as the BBC’s hugely successful iPlayer have seen to that. Now, add in wireless devices like sat nav and Blackberries (even iPads before long, if we believe the hype from Apple) and you’ll arrive at your bandwidth cost.

If it wasn’t for the cost of petrol, millions of middle-class families would already be spending more on bandwidth than their energy.

So what ? Well - all this bandwidth cost adds up to the fact that today’s consumer is getting serious about staying connected. Much of this is about personal communication - calls, emails, texts, photos and alike. But it also includes a desire to stay in touch in brands who they relate to and trust.

For a company’s loyal customers, think of it as an open invitation from them, an opportunity to interact, but only provided both parties understand the social graces of networking and digital marketing.

So what does your company’s bandwidth invite say, and how good are your digital media manners ?

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