3 key MVNO Success factors over 20+ years of doing MVNOs and every one launched still being in business…
So many people ask what is the best type of MVNO to back either as an investor, a brand or working with MNOs, and MVNEs and MVNEs to define their strategy: At the end of the day backing an MVNO is like backing any business and a lot comes down to the team, product and market, but even then even a good team with the right product in the right market can not be successful for many reasons we cannot go into in a #shorts however there are three critical sucecss factors I have seen all successful MVNOS have over 2 decades of launching MVNOs (and every one we have launched still being in business!) Loyalty – if your MVNO is driving loyalty for your main business it will work, an example here is Tesco Mobile; people who have tesco mobile spend more of the grocery spend with that supermarket. These are business that have launched everything from banks, to video services, to insurance and more of the loyalty tie-ins but nothing is like Mobile for loyalty. Stickiness – Virgin media reported in a recent conference paper that 50% of their Mobile Capex was amortised alone in longer Broadband lifecycles… MVNO or bust – if your core business is or was dying, e.g. calling cards, some mobile first services, mobile app services, without an MVNO then… that is what you need to do. We will see everything from dating sites to social networks at least trying this before falling from favour / to competition.
See the long form video of this short below:
Keep it Simple Short form video
There are two very simple reasons to keep it simple in Mobile, MVNO, IoT and even MVNE, MVNA, MVNx: 1) Simple sells; 2) your competitors think it won’t! (never underestimate how much your competitors will try and thwart what they see as a “competitive” service / tariff)… (or how they won’t see a simple tariff overtaking the market until its too late).
MVNOs need a hard launch date to be successful
Have a Hard Launch Date, as early as an MVP possible and Stick to it – MVNO Gold Rules
Keep it Simple – The seemingly hardest rule in Mobile to follow!
This is the most ignored rule of all and one of the biggest culprit of failed MVNOs, and by that I mean not the launched MVNOs that fail, but moreover the huge amount that never make it to launch due to over complication, which in turn creates delays and cost which moreover lead to uncertainty and uncontrolled risk in the eyes of many – the killer of all things new and venturous!
