As a cell phone user I find myself drawn to the advertising of the various cell phone vendors. What's been interesting lately is the positioning of Cingular and Verizon. Cingular claims to have the fewest dropped calls. Verizon claims to have the largest network. The question is: which one of these is really a benefit to the customer, and which is more important? I think these are relatively valid points of differentiation, but Cingular wins this head to head competition in my opinion.
Why? No matter where I am, at home, on the road or traveling far from home, one of the most frustrating facts of life about cell phones is the predominance even today of dropped calls. My friends in Europe simply cannot believe the patchwork network we have here in the states. Cingular is positioning itself as the leader with the fewest dropped calls. Verizon has taken a different tack with a similar message. Verizon claims to have the largest network. If that is the case, the reasonable assumption is that: 1) I'll never have roaming charges 2) I'll rarely be outside the Verizon network 3) Verizon probably has few dropped calls as well.
The problem with this approach is that many people use their cell phones predominantly in their home cities, so a "big" network isn't really a selling point. Also, Verizon forces the user to jump to conclusions about the benefits of the network, rather than spelling them out for the prospect or customer.
Here's a case where two firms are competing on basically the same ground, but one has a much better position than the other. Now if only we can get the kind of cell phone coverage we really deserve.
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