AT&T’s aggressive attempt to poach current and potential T-Mobile customers appears well targeted. T-Mobile has either passed AT&T or closed the gap on several of YouGov BrandIndex’s key consumer perception or sales measurements, including Buzz, Value, Purchase Consideration and Customer Satisfaction.
This week’s latest T-Mobile’s product announcement may make AT&T’s task even tougher: T-Mobile just launched Mobile Money, a free checking account service available to anyone with a T-Mobile phone number.
Even though earlier this month, AT&T offered T-Mobile customers money to switch to AT&T, so far it does not seem to have impacted T-Mobile’s momentum.
Of particular concern to the bottom line: the slowly closing gap between the two carriers in Purchase Consideration score, YouGov BrandIndex’s centerpiece metric for potential sales. Purchase Consideration asks respondents: "When you are in the market next to purchase items in this particular category, from which of the following brands would you consider purchasing?” The Purchase Consideration scale ranges from 0 to 100%. Since the beginning of 2013, AT&T slipped from 25% to 23% while T-Mobile gained from 10% to 13%, closing the gap by five percentage points.
Three other metrics indicate a similar story:
Value ("Does it give good value for what you pay?"): Since early spring of 2013, when T-Mobile announced it would sell the Apple iPhone cheaper than rivals and not require a contract, T-Mobile has consistently scored higher than AT&T in value perception. T-Mobile’s current Value score is 2 while AT&T is minus 1.
Satisfaction ("Are you a satisfied customer?"): Although AT&T leads on this measure with a score of 7, T-Mobile has steadily improved it Satisfaction levels over the last 13 months, increasing from 3 to 5.
Buzz ("If you've heard anything about the brand in the last two weeks, through advertising, news or word of mouth, was it positive or negative?"): The two brands have been more comparable with each other over the past 13 months on this measure, but T-Mobile experienced a bump up in December, and is currently at 13 versus 10 for AT&T.
Value, Satisfaction and Buzz scores can range from 100 to -100 and are compiled by subtracting negative feedback from positive. A zero score means equal positive and negative feedback. All respondents were adults age 18 and over.
Buzz: AT&T, T-Mobile
Value: AT&T, T-Mobile
Satisfaction: AT&T, T-Mobile
Purchase Consideration: AT&T, T-Mobile
