I like to see corporate executives in commercials, in blogs - passionately talking about their products: Lee Iacocca, Sir Richard Branson, Jonathan Schwartz, Bill Marriott, The Busch and Coors and Ford family members.
And I am pleased to see Dan Hesse's do the same for a struggling Sprint.
His commercial is the only reason I opened a marketing piece from Sprint last week. It was about its Simplify Everything plan - $ 99.99 a month for unlimited calling, texting, GPS etc. And alongside was a mailer from Verizon also for $ 99.99 FiOS Triple Freedom - Internet, TV and Phone plan.
$ 200 for the quadruple play - not bad, I go.
Then I start adding up the "extras" I would be signing up for
- Mobile plan for other family members: with Sprint for 3 others - calling only would be $ 79.98 a month all the way to the Simplify Everything plan for 3 would be another $ 270 a month
- Equipment: New mobile phone purchases from Sprint. Verizon would charge for the DVR at $ 20 a month after the first year ( some poor senior citizens are still paying for leased land-line phones)
- Activation fees - Sprint $36 activation fee/line, Verizon $ 29.99
- Early termination fees with AT&T. And if we are not happy with Sprint it is $ 200 a line. Verizon expects $ 179.
- "Premium services" - like ringtones with Sprint and channels like HBO with Verizon and most HD channels - additional a month
- Surcharges, taxes, fees, and other charges: Here's Sprint's list. Plan on another 15% to 20% of all of the above.
And different families and businesses have other telecom/media charges
- VoIP - Vonage, Skype etc
- X-Box Live, WoW and other gaming software
- iTune downloads
- Netflix, amazon video downloads
- International calling plans
- Hot-spot charges
In the commercial, Dan talks about the Sprint initiative called Ready Now which is about "simplicity for the customer from end to end -- from helping select a device, to explaining its features, to clarifying the billing."
I wish he would also convene his fellow telecom CEOs and simplify the maze of products and pricing the industry has become addicted to.
