UT Dallas Alumni Speaks about Customer-Driven Marketing

Students at the University of Dallas – Satish and Yasmin Gupta College of Business recently had the opportunity to learn about customer-driven marketing from an expert in the field, MBA alumnus Steve Springer.

Springer, who earned his MBA from the University of Dallas in 2004, currently serves as the Regional Director for Sales and Marketing at Verizon. In a recent visit to a UD class taught by Dr. Laura Muñoz, who teaches Marketing Theory & Practice and Value Based Marketing, Springer was able to share with students his experience in data-driven marketing at Verizon.

Through Springer’s real-life experience, students were able to better understand not just how to utilize customer-driven marketing, but also why it’s so important for certain products. As Springer explained, his division is responsible for marketing Verizon’s fiber optic cable network, Fios, to residences and businesses in parts of Texas.

Fios, however, represents an interested problem for the company . Since the product is only available in areas where fiber optic cables have already been installed, Springer’s team must be smart in their marketing approach in order to most efficiently gain new customers.

Due to the practical limitations of Fios, a traditional marketing campaign is not a cost or time effective approach for Verizon. “Television and radio ads don’t work for us. Not only are they expensive, but they generate calls to my call center from areas where I can’t provide service. So that kind of marketing is not an efficient use of our resources,” said Springer. “We focus on three specific areas. Acquisition, retention, and upsell.”

In his class visit, Springer emphasized to the students the importance of understanding the market in which you are working in order to best achieve your goals. For Verizon, it is often necessary to change the message of each advertising campaign depending on the demographic of each community. “The bottom line,” said Springer, “is that you have a limited marketing budget, so you must have the data to support any marketing decision you make.”

regions: Dallas

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