1) T-Mobile conducted an ethnographic study of their "inspirational consumers" - highly engaged customers who advocate for the brand - to understand how they integrate mobile technology into their lives. 2) The study involved in-depth interviews and observations of three consumer groups over three months to understand their mobile usage behaviors and how these change during life transitions. 3) T-Mobile was able to gain valuable insights into these consumers and identify opportunities to better meet their changing mobile needs, particularly around mobile internet services, which helped reduce customer churn.

1. Case study
T­Mobile
How does mobile technology get
integrated into the life projects of T
T-
Mobile's "inspirational consumers"
3.3.2010 www.idealisti.eu 1

2. T­Mobile's "inspirational consumers"
There are changes over time and
Challenge especially during the
consumers and They can inspire a company to "transformative" periods of
then there are bring better innovation to the their lives, and how they use
y
market, to serve their
k h i specific services like mobile
Consumers. All customers better, to have more web browsing, roaming and
of them are meaningful conversations and others.
sources of relationships with all their
stakeholders. T‐Mobile decided
stakeholders T Mobile decided Solution
revenue for a to zero down on just this kind We devised a rich ethnographic
company but the of customers and to find out study involving three distinct
latter can do more about the way they consumer groups (one group
"consume" technology, what
consume technology what per each competitive brand in
per each competitive brand in
much much exactly sets them apart from the Czech market), each group
more. the "regular" customers in being a "community" before we
terms of their level of recruited them. The reason for
engagement with the brand,
g g , this was the need to obtain
this was the need to obtain
how their mobile real‐life narratives from the
communication behavior research rather than
Continued on the next page >
16.4.2008 www.idealisti.eu 2

3. T­Mobile's "inspirational consumers"
“T­Mobile was laboratory‐like "verbatims" Methodologically, the study was
which standard qualitative a patchwork of different
able to marketing research yields with approaches: from in‐depth
"interrogate"
g heterogeneous groups in focus‐
g g p interviewing, through auto‐
g g
the stories group discussions. We spent ethnography and photo‐
roughly three months with each ethnography, to creative
pretty much of the group observing, workshops and personal
like if it was documenting, and discussing diaries
talking to the their lives with mobile
technology. The "lebenswelt
physical people narratives" which emerged
The Result
themselves.” from the study were the basis The benefits of the study were
for further data mining and
for further data mining and manifold: some of them
manifold: some of them
interpretation. In the end of the predictable, some unexpected.
day, T‐Mobile was able to First and foremost, the notion
"interrogate" the stories pretty of "inspirational consumer" has
much like if it was talking to the
much like if it was talking to the been confirmed, albeit in a
,
physical people themselves. quite different outline that the
original concept suggested.
Continued on the next page >
16.4.2008 www.idealisti.eu 3

4. T­Mobile's "inspirational consumers"
“thanks to the Inspirational consumers come As for specific services, thanks
in many shapes and flavors, the to the study further
study further most benign (in terms of brand improvements could be made
improvements
p advocacy/criticism) aren't the
y/ ) in providing mobile internet
p g
could be made most valuable. Segmenting services to T‐Mobile customers.
inspirational consumers into a
in providing finer typology shed some light
mobile internet on how to work with each of
services to T­ the groups in the future ‐ in the
f
process of product innovations
Mobile and brand advocacy. Further,
customers” mapping the role mobile
technology plays in the
technology plays in the
transitional periods of
consumers' lives allowed T‐
Mobile to better address the
channging needs in those
needs in those
periods and to minimize
related. churn.
Continued on the next page >
16.4.2008 www.idealisti.eu 4

5. T­Mobile's "inspirational consumers"
About Idealisti
Today's ideas will become
tomorrow's world
Not only we (still) have ideals but also we
Not only we (still) have ideals but also we
believe that most of what we experience
today and what makes up our world has
been here yesterday in a form of an idea.
We believe in the transformative power
of thoughts (in the form of brands, for
example), in their power to move also
l ) h l
very material and sometimes heavy
things like pianos, buildings, cars, jars of
face care lotions or even people.
We help create and steer brands – ideas
which have the ability to animate
which have the ability to animate
organizations, infuse consumption with
meaning and bring about good things to
life. We always do it in dialogue with
those in charge of brands (which is just
about anyone who has ever heard of the
)
brand) and with the notion that all the
ideas­brands will have to compete for
their existence in the free arena.
16.4.2008 www.idealisti.eu 5