By: Micaela Wenger
The Media Management Association invited Comcast’s Javier Garcia to discuss how marketing and branding strategies can enhance, and even reposition, assets in a fast changing technological environment. Garcia, a senior vice president of sales and marketing for the Florida region, has worked for Comcast for the last five years. Before joining the cable company, he took on various positions at Yahoo! for eight years. His presentation was especially timely as multichannel video programming distributors are facing significant decline in pay-TV subscription due to accelerated cord-cutting trends.
First, Garcia addressed the complex ways that customers choose which company they want as their video and high-speed data provider. Because of the recent changes in the way people watch television and use the internet, Comcast had to adapt to make sure they are keeping up with the newer generations of customers. By adding such streaming services as Netflix, Hulu, and Amazon Prime, Comcast has been giving customers the option to unbundle traditional services and select the services they would like to purchase. Now that fewer people are interested in cable television service, Comcast realized that using an exclusive bundling strategy could be counterproductive. The availability of individual (unbundled) services has resulted in positive purchase growth.
Through marketing, Garcia makes decisions on what customers are drawn to and produces commercials that target his audiences. These commercials advertise unique services that are only provided by Comcast, like the Xfinity Flex. The Xfinity Flex is a voice controlled system that comes included with an Xfinity internet plan that provides an easy way to browse channel and video offerings.
Working in an industry where things are constantly changing, Garcia has learned that he needs to keep changing the way things are done in order to keep up with sales. Because customers are now involved in the digital world, Garcia has created applications and services to adapt to these customers’ needs. The Xfinity application helps customers solve problems through their phones by doing everything from asking personal questions to qualified technicians, to making online payments. Customers can make purchases and pay for their subscription bills online, thereby avoiding the hassle of paper bills.
Through marketing differentiation strategies, Garcia has been able to improve customer satisfaction and maintain customer retention for Comcast services. By paying attention to the wants and needs of customers, Garcia has found different ways to succeed and kept expanding the number of subscribers who choose Comcast as their provider.
