Tech & Telecom

Tech & Telecom

Helping the disruptors and disrupted innovate and succeed in a complex tech landscape.

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Overview

Insights like you’ve never seen.

As digital ecosystems grow increasingly complex, companies are placing big bets on opportunities with huge growth potential, and incumbents are constantly facing new disruptive threats. Our dedicated Tech & Telecom practice combines marketing science rigor with cutting-edge analytics and a deep understanding of the most important technology trends to help industry leaders on initiatives including portfolio optimization, new product development, market segmentation for growth strategies, and purchase journey analysis for market strategy work.

Impact

Developing an online mobile phone trade-in service.

Supporting eBay’s product development.

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The Client

By 2014, many shoppers faced barriers to selling their phones online. Armed with important data, eBay saw the opportunity to develop an enhanced online mobile phone trade-in/selling program, but needed more information on the specifics of how to proceed.

The Solution

We conducted a two-part study to define, refine, and develop a cellphone trade-in and sales product. Through our work we helped eBay understand the selling/trade-in landscape, identify its target audiences and its untapped potential, and finalize its program features and overall value proposition.

The Outcome

The research helped eBay make enhancements to its cellphone selling program and launch a major marketing campaign to coincide with the launch of new cellphones by major companies in the Fall of 2014.

Establishing a strong connection between us and your success.

We’re invested in your present and future success. Here’s some user-generated examples of how we help.

  • Conducted a multi method message testing program for Comcast to understand which messages and concepts needed refinement ahead of the launch of their Home Hotspot service.
  • Assessed Charter Communications ’ customer onboarding experience to build a foundational understanding of navigation pathways and feature usage.
  • Informed the design refresh of Dell’s entire server portfolio to incorporate technological advances, respond to dramatic changes in customer needs, and react to a rapidly shifting competitive landscape.

Specialties

Knowing your business is our business.

We’re committed to staying up to date on the latest trends and opportunities to provide that value and edge you need. Look at some of the specific areas we’re particularly savvy about below.

Let's get into the meta:

Consumer Technology

The consumer tech landscape is a complex and continually evolving conundrum, permeating through every aspect of our daily lives. Technology has rapidly facilitated new forms of global connectivity and human interaction, has revolutionized how we entertain, educate, shop, and stay up to date. Tech devices continue to advance at a startling pace, with consumer needs and demands matching this pace of advancement. Keeping up with increasingly fierce competition has never been more critical for consumer tech manufacturers. Our consumer tech researchers are hugely experienced in helping tech companies navigate the complex needs of tech users of all ages, whether that is navigating the new consumer journey, or prioritizing enhanced product innovations. Our depth of tech expertise covers:

  • AR/VR
  • Consumer electronics
  • Gaming
  • Hardware and components
  • Mobile
  • Software/Apps (may need to disentangle from “platform”)
  • Smart home

B2B Technology

B2B tech is going through profound disruptions as “digital transformation” has quickly moved from a tech industry buzzword to a mainstream reality and the migration towards cloud computing and new “As-a-Service” delivery models impacts buying behaviors and use-cases like never before. CMB been guiding application, infrastructure, device, and service providers through tech disruptions for decades with a deep understanding of B2B decision-making dynamics across many types of enterprise, commercial, SMB, micro-business and ecosystem partners. Our experience adapting the latest advanced analytics and buyer psychology frameworks to these complex B2B situations has helped our client tackle disruptive innovations and evolving usage needs in many scenarios, including:

  • Migrating from selling individual infrastructure products to bundled solutions
  • Shifting from software licensing to “As-a-Service”
  • Creative bundling and pricing to expand portfolios into new areas of opportunity and growth
  • Emerging buyer/influencer audiences outside of the central IT Department (e.g., Data Scientists, Developers, DevOps, Technical C-Suite, LoB heads, etc.)
  • Emerging growth areas enabled by 5G, IoT/Edge compute, etc.
  • Channel/Ecosystem partners

Emerging Technology

Both consumer and B2B tech is consistently being challenge by new, emerging tech, bringing with it faster, cheaper, more powerful tech and more agile technology than ever seen before. These emerging tech innovations bring the promise and threat of reimagining and upheaving established incumbents. CMB has its finger on the pulse of the most disruptive technology forces currently in play. We help our clients navigate through the complex challenges and opportunities caused by these disruptive forces, including:

  • 5G
  • AR/VR
  • IoT (Internet of Things)
  • ML/AI (Machine Learning/Artificial Intelligence)
  • Edge computing
  • Spatial computing

Telecom

Telecoms companies have been long leading the charge for pushing-forward a globally connected, tech-driven society. 5G connectivity is the latest evolution for a reimaged communications infrastructure, promising unrivalled speeds, lower-latency and increased democratization of access to the internet. But telecoms companies continue to face fierce competition from the likes of cord-cutting and declining pay-tv subscriptions. CMB has deep experience helping telecom providers navigate across both sides of the spectrum, from strategies to mitigate churn to optimizing services to capture emerging monetization opportunities:

  • Wireless
  • Streaming
  • Internet and cable
  • Value-added-services and bundling
  • B2B connectivity services

Our People

Working with us means you’re matched with the best.

We match you with the best people for your unique business challenge. Here’s a sampling of the people who’ll upgrade your insights to the next level.

Brant Cruz SVP, Platforms & Audiences

Chris Neal VP, Technology & Telecom

Jillian Ehrman Insights Director

Marty Murk VP, Platforms & Technology

CMB combines the very best of advanced analytics know-how and strategic consulting. From design to implementation, CMB is a true partner that really understands our business. The team's work was critical to the success of one of our top priority projects—helping us define the target market and finalize the actual offer.

Client

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