Frontier Communications

Marketing Plan for

Frontier Communications

By: Magali Gutierrez

Christiana Herrera

Quanling Wang

Business 560

Professor Rizkallah

Executive Summary

         Frontier Communications is a leading cable, internet, and telephone provider.  Over the last few years Frontier has acquired Verizon, AT&T and other companies. The acquisitions have contributed to the strengths and weaknesses. Currently the strengths Frontier has is the size, providing services in 29 states is a strength since not everyone provides services in so many states. Frontier has faced weaknesses such as the customer's dissatisfaction with the current quality of service. There  are opportunities for Frontier such as innovation and providing better quality. There are current threats such as competitors and substitutions to cable and telephone services.

In order for Frontier to succeed we have developed goals, and a marketing strategy and tactics. The main goals for Frontier is to increase the market share, become profitable while innovating products. All this will be achieved through a strategy of differentiation. The marketing strategy will implement the use of the product, price, place, and promotion analysis.   Although we have a large market share our  target market is  to expand both the business market and the home market,  through  the changes we hope to implement. Also, there  has been market share research  done in order to grow in the industry and better control our services.

Introduction

Previously named Citizens Utilities Company, Frontier Communications Corporation was incorporated November 12, 1935.  The company offers a wide variety of voice, data, and video products and services. Headquartered in Norwalk, Connecticut under President/CEO Dan McCarthy, Frontier has become the fourth largest provider of digital subscriber line in the United States. With their recent acquisitions of Verizon and AT&T lines in multiples states, such as California, Frontier is Communications doesn’t show any signs of slowing down soon. Starting out in smaller rural communities, Frontier has already grown into several large metropolitan markets as well as across 29 states.

Situational Analysis

Macro Environment 

        Macro environmental factors that are likely to affect Frontier’s performance include demographics (mostly in rural and small to mid-sized markets, where it is the incumbent local-exchange carrier); economic issues (particularly the rise in the cost of living); technology (mainly investment in the upgrading of their core connectivity infrastructure); laws and regulations governing wireless communications; and social issues (predominantly the way people view what is shown on the internet and cable television).

Micro Environment

        Micro environmental factors that are likely to affect Frontier’s performance include suppliers (naturally, the willingness of companies wanting to become suppliers for Frontier); marketing intermediaries (particularly the company’s ability to distribute their products and services through agents, wholesalers, distributors, and retailers); competitors (especially new innovative products and/or services from their main competitors Centurylink, AT&T, and Fairpoint Communications); and customers (particularly, the need and affordability of the telecommunication services and products being offered).

SWOT Analysis

Strengths

The following outlines the key strengths of the company:

• Position in the Domestic Market – Frontier Communications is one of the frontrunners in the U.S. telecommunications market.

• Size Advantage - The company provides data, video and voice services to Commercial and Consumer customers in 29 states (Frontier.com). The company has more than 7.5 million residential and business voice subscribers. It also has 2.5 million broadband Internet customers and about 554 million video subscribers (Hoovers.com).
• Customer Loyalty - The company provides numerous services for customers to choose from. The customer loyalty is show when customers start with only having Frontier for their phone company and then move on to add cable and internet to their plan because they can count on Frontier. It is also shown with the fact that many customers remain with Frontier for many years as their telecommunications provider.

Weaknesses

The following outlines the key weaknesses of the company:

• Customer Satisfaction - Since they have acquired Verizon and At&t lines their customer satisfaction has decreased significantly due to the problems that have arised from the change over. Many customers have reported having internet and cable problems that occurred after the switch over to Frontier, the problem is that although Frontier has been working hard to get the problems worked out it has taken a significant amount of time.
• High Debt Burden - A high debt burden increases the risk that Frontier Communications Corporation goes bankrupt if they make a poor business decision.
• Declining Operational Efficiencies - Lately Frontier has shown that they can not provide products or services to their customers in a cost-effective manner while still having high quality products based on the fact that their operating income has fallen over the past three years.

Opportunities

The following outlines the key opportunities of the company:

• New Technology - One of the biggest opportunities Frontier will have in 2017 is for them to gain customers by upgrading their core connectivity infrastructure to keep up with their competitors who are starting to offer up to the 5g (5th generation) mobile networks (Deloitte.com).
• Acquisition Synergies - Frontier has the opportunity to expand their business thru mergers or acquisitions, like they did when they acquired some lines Verizon and AT&T
• Innovation - With great innovation, the company has the opportunity to produce unique products and services that meet their customer's needs.

Threats

The following outlines the key threats of the company:

• Government Regulations - Changes to government rules and regulations can negatively affect the way Frontier Communications provides services to their customers.
• Intense Competition - The company competes with  many other telecommunication companies such as T-Mobile and Comcast that offer the same types of services and also have good reputations.
• Substitute Products - Frontier faces threats on the television front from products such as the Amazon Firestick, Apple TV, and the Roku because it offers customers television options without the price of having a cable provider.

Marketing Objectives and Goal

We have various goals for Frontier Communications in order to turn the business around. The marketing goals will ultimately be to increase the market share, become profitable, and innovate the services while gaining a deep penetration of the market share.