Building societies could be approached directly to market the product through them and to replace CATV. Direct sales to customers on location can also play a major role in overcoming the last of the purchase barriers. By specifically addressing customers on the basis of a micro-geographic segmentation, for example, or of an indication of interest submitted by customers, one could more easily overcome the individual purchase barriers. Direct contact to the customers makes it possible to consider the situational factors of the customer more closely and to clear away the final purchase barriers in each specific case.

Measures Must Be Differentiated Even More By Considering the Customer’s Concrete Situation

In conclusion, let us remark that the measures proposed here as examples in the area of the marketing mix during the various phases of the process of making a buying decision and the various “aggregate state” of the market of course require further differentiation which takes into account the particular customer situation.

Ideally, these descriptive features of the customer have a causal relationship to the buying decision for IPTV. The important descriptive features of the customer situation for the derivation of specific marketing measures to be mentioned here include in particular the provider’s existing customer relationships to the potential IPTV customers (non-customers, telephony customers, Internet customers), the TV platform situation for the customers (DVB-T, satellite, or CATV), the entertainment end device landscape for the customers (CRT, flat screen, or home network), procurement intentions, and knowledge of the classical market segmentation with respect to psychographic, socio-demographic, and geographic characteristics. An example of the combinatorics of the various dimensions for the derivation of the appropriate measures can be seen in Figure 2.

The comments in this article are intended to demonstrate that the IPTV products available on the German market will by no means sell themselves. If these products are to be led to success, it will be necessary to develop the market over the long term, step by step, and to use marketing instruments which take into account the unique features of the product, the special framework conditions related to this market, and the concrete situation of the customers.