Case Study: Sprint Corp. and Verizon CommunicationsInc.

From 2002 through 2011, commercials featuring the tagline “Canyou hear me now?” aired as part of Verizon’s most memorable adcampaign promoting themselves as the gold standard for networkquality. Paul Marcarelli’s character, known as “Test Man,” wouldtravel the country in the commercials, checking that the person onthe phone could hear him, even in some unusual locations.

Fast forward to 2016, and Marcarelli is appearing in anothercommercial for a mobile carrier. This time for Sprint. "I used toask if you 'can hear me now' with Verizon. Not anymore," Marcarellisays in his first Sprint commercial. "I'm with Sprint now, becauseguess what? It's 2016 and every network is great. In fact, Sprint'sreliability is now within 1% of Verizon, and Sprint saves you 50%over Verizon, AT&T and T-Mobile's rates."

Sprint’s aim with the commercial is to rebuild their reputation.For years the brand has been known for slow data speeds, droppedcalls, and spotty coverage. But after their disastrous merger withNextel in 2005, Sprint has been working to turn around its networkquality.

"We've invested billions of dollars in our network. Times havechanged. You can barely tell the difference [between networks] now," said Marcelo Claure, Sprint CEO. "We figured Paul would be thebest person to tell everyone all networks are the same, but onlySprint can give you 50 percent off. He was pretty excited."

Sprint had been targeting competition with price. The price adcampaign commercials showed customers destroying their bills withchainsaws and other equipment, claiming Sprint would “cut theirbill in half.” But Sprint faced criticism from the Better BusinessBureau for this campaign, claiming it was misleading because itdidn’t take into account activation charges, taxes, and other fees.The 50 percent off campaign concluded with the start of thecampaign featuring Marcarelli.

"Now we're emphasizing not just our price but also a greatproduct," Claure said.

Verizon did not sit quietly by as Sprint went after theircustomers. "Sprint is using our 2002 pitchman because their networkis finally catching up to our 2002 network quality," Verizonspokesman Jeffrey Nelson said, noting that Verizon is the "mostawarded wireless network ever."

Continuing to go after Sprint, Verizon then released acommercial featuring actor/singer/comedian Jamie Foxx saying, “Itain’t about if you can hear me now. It’s about if you can see menow.” Verizon followed up with another commercial starring Foxx,focusing on the network’s LTE coverage. Foxx stands in front of twomaps comparing Verizon’s and Sprint’s LTE coverage, explaining thatVerizon had three times the LTE coverage of Sprint. Then, “JamieFoxx for Sprint” enters, saying that it is mostly the same coverage“if you squint.” (“Jamie Foxx for Sprint” is shorter and lessmuscular than the real Jamie Foxx, and he is wearing an ill-fittingsuit with a less-polished appearance—another jab at Sprint.)

Claure responded to the new commercial on Twitter, posting,“This is how @verizon reacts to getting beaten by @sprint everysingle day. Lies, lies and more lies.”

Customers paying close attention will note that the commercialsare not even speaking in the same terms. Sprint commercials speakto their reliability (whether your network is working when it issupposed to), whereas Verizon commercials focus on their LTEcoverage across the country.

Verizon posted lower-than-expected second-quarter customergrowth in 2016, while Sprint reported better-than-expected customergrowth. But with mobile devices being a must-have for mostAmericans, the back and forth between mobile phone carriers is notlikely to stop soon.

Assess the marketing strategy used by both Sprint &Verizon. Which do you think was more successful andwhy?