How Davids Make Profits While Goliaths Fight
The consumer and Small Office Home Office (SOHO) satellite market has followed the pattern of virtually all the other communications industries:
· Initial market acceptance
· Mass adoption of the technology
· Market dominance by a few large companies
· Fierce competition and intense marketing for the remaining market
Consumer/SOHO satellite is clearly dominated now by a few large players aggressively fighting for each other’s customers or for the remaining market share. From the outside, finding opportunity in this environment might seem a daunting challenge. However, like all other communications industries, there is an opportunity for niche players to carve out a lucrative business for themselves and even take advantage of the environment created by their largest competitors.
One such company is StarBand from Spacenet. Formed in 2000, StarBand was the first to offer a two-way, always-on, high-speed satellite Internet service available for consumers across the U.S. While its largest competitors undertook massive (and expensive) mass media expansion plans, StarBand targeted a select segment of users and focused their efforts on the ones that best complimented their greater corporate strategy.
According to Glenn Katz, the President and COO of Spacenet, "Our StarBand division has benefitted tremendously from the competitive environment in the US consumer satellite market today. The increase in advertising and public awareness has removed a lot of the skepticism of satellite and made it a very widely accepted product. Within this environment we made a conscious decision to focus on the higher end of this market and not get drawn into a no-win shootout. Not only is the high end consumer and SOHO market much closer to our core competencies of serving Enterprise and SME customers, maintaining this focus has provided our Master Dealers a larger suite of Spacenet products to choose from. Ultimately our StarBand strategy leverages our core strengths and creates a win-win for StarBand, our dealers and most importantly our customers."
"One of the key components of the StarBand model is its relationship with its dealer community," added Steve D’Argenio, Vice President of Channel Sales & Management at Spacenet. "Not only have we strived to provide StarBand dealers with a more lucrative commission structure for selling StarBand service, but by maintaining our core strategic focus we tend to deliver these dealers higher end customers with more customer loyalty, lower churn, higher spending and a higher propensity to migrate to higher service levels."
Today, the company remains a niche satellite Internet service provider. However, the company is revitalizing its efforts and has found a way to expand to a broader range of customers, while at the same time remaining a profitable and viable business. With its latest product portfolio, the Nova series, StarBand offers a wide range of service levels and pricing options to customers across the U.S. with many different levels of broadband requirements.
With the introduction of StarBand’s latest more cost effective offerings, StarBand is attracting more satellite retailers who are looking for ways to expand their business opportunities and attract more customers. Interested satellite service dealers can find more information by visiting www.starband.com/dealers.
