Although it officially launched its $50 Unlimited service plan with no hidden charges last month, Boost Mobile is kicking off a new marketing campaign and brand new image this week. Once known for its irreverent, out-there commercials targeting young, hip wireless users, Boost is now going after an increasingly large group of consumers who feel wronged by their wireless provider and are suspicious of offerings that seem too good to be true. With a lineup of commercials showing some awkwardly wrong situations (pigs eating ham, a coroner dropping a burrito in his subject, excessive armpit hair – you get the idea), Boost wants to show that wrong as it may seem, it’s not worse than wireless operators hiding cumbersome charges in their so-called unlimited plans. Boost’s new offering boasts no hidden charges – no telecom taxes, overage or roaming charges and no activation fees.
Boost is moving away from urban teens to any value-conscious, communication-centric consumer – driven by voice and text, not data. Within this strategy is a focus on the Hispanic market, in which Sprint Nextel’s push-to-talk handsets have proven popular.
Sprint’s value brand, Boost, was reinvigorated on Sprint Nextel’s iDEN network about the same time the economy started to go to shambles. The company has had its ups and downs, as Neil Lindsay, vice president of marketing, readily admits. Its customer base declined from 4.2 million prepaid customers in September 2007 to fewer than 3 million just one year later. It finished out the third quarter of 2008 with 3.9 million customers. President Matt Carter said take-up of the $50 Unlimited plan has exceeded expectations so far. While the company lost some momentum in 2008 as it revamped its image, he said they are ready for a turnaround and have already had their stores and phone lines flooded with interest.
“Prepaid is growing at a faster rate than postpaid now and is coming of age as people struggle with commitment and look for brands they trust,” Lindsay added. That being said, while Boost may be known as a cool brand, the image has so far trumped the service. When youth were the target, Lindsay said that the company focused on distinct commercials and the brand, but not the service itself. With Boost’s new image, it will be all about the service, the network and the devices, which Lindsay said are getting a makeover as well with new, sleeker handsets coming from Motorola.
Boost will roll out more commercials and advertisements this month, all with a focus on ‘un-wronging’ consumers, a strict no BS policy and some images you might not be able to forget even if you want to.
Now that they have some extra capacity, it is time to bring the customers back.
I THINK THAT THE SERVICE IS AWESOME. I GET LOTS OF SERVICE AND CAN GO IN AND OUT OF SURROUNDING STATES WITHOUT MY SERVICE GETTING INTERRUPTED. BOOST MOBILE ROCKS. KEEP UP THE GOOD WORK!!!!!!!!
BOOST MOBILE ROCKS. EVERYTHING ABOUT THE SERVICE IS FANTASTIC. KEEP UP THE GOOD WORK BOOST MOBILE
I was with AT&T for several years before the customer service and extra fees just killed me – I decided to shop around. I took my mom and brother’s advice and gave Boost a try – and I’m so happy I did.
The service has been great so far. I love not having to worry about a contract and their $50 unlimited plan is a real money saver over my $110+ previous bills – no worry about overage fees from texting anymore.
The phone selection is much better than I expected and still pretty affordable. The Spring powered calling network is giving me pretty dependable coverage with the ocassional dead zone. The internet can be a little slow depending on the area and the downloads are a bit pricy, but nothing I haven’t seen before.
But there is an option being offered by Boost’s sister company, Virgin Mobile via Sprint, that has real potential to help a lot of people and should be getting more coverage.
Their “Assurance Wireless” program is being in offered in five states and exclusively to low income, qualifying families and its an amazing deal. Qualifers can get both a phone and 200 minutes, with no fees or contract, for free with the potential to expand their program at. 10 a minute. While the program is new, I can only hope it will expand to more states and people who could also use a plan like this.
I might not be low-income, but the savings would totally help me. While free is a bit much to ask of already loyal customers, maybe Sprint and its parents companies could offer something like this for $10 for everyone – new and old customers alike. Times are tough and having a cell phone is a must so click here for Sprint president’s email address: http://assurancewireless.webs.com and let him know that everyone could use these savings.
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My husband and I really enjoy not having to pay extra fee, hidden charges. We alway’s would have our phones turned off not by choice, because we couldn’t afford to pay our bill. Were very pleased to have one bill that stay’s the same so when we budget our money we know that our phone bills with boost is alway’s the same. Thanks Boost mobile.
Boost mobile does have hidden fees and they are taxes! In all of their advertisement it states that it does not have any hidden fees and there is a payment of 50.00 but when I called to make my payment today, they wanted to charge me an extra $4.90 plus tax. If that is not a hidden fee then I currently live on Mars!
You can not go wrong by getting or switching over to Boost Mobile.. Definitely the best Cell Phone plan out there. With the Samsung Galaxy Prevail and the other expected android phones this year you can not go wrong….