The analysis which follows will first detail the specific marketing, advertising, and promotion campaigns for the most important products and services of BT. The description of these marketing and advertising initiatives will be in chronological order focusing primarily on the period between 1996 and the present. The report will conclude with an overview of BT's marketing and advertising options both nationally and internationally with or without MCI and WorldCom.

 Residential Telephone Marketing and Advertising

The telecommunications services industry in Britain was privatized in 1984 (Moor, 1996). Up until that time if you lived in Great Britain and were unlucky enough to need a new telephone, you would have faced a wait of up to six months. And once BT arrived at your door you could have had the phone anywhere you wanted as long as it was in the hallway (Lynch, 1966).

When BT went private, a second company, called Mercury was formed. A government review of telecommunication policy in 1991 led to the end of this BT and Mercury Communications duopoly of fixed line domestic

Black, G. (1997, September 10). Growth of the Internet. Financial Times, 1X.

Taken this new competitive domestic environment BT had to rethink its domestic market. With 20 million residential customers and 7 million businesses BT still controlled about 80% of the combined business and residential market in the UK. Yet cable companies were gradually winning about 35% of the homes their lines passed, equalling about 4% of the domestic market or, to state it another way, a loss of about 70,000 residential customers a month for BT. In addition telecommunication firms like Cable and Wireless were going after BT's business customers. By late 1996 BT's market share in London's financial district was just 30% (Lynch, 1996).

Hatfield, S. (1996, November 14). It's good to win. Financial Times, 13.

services in the UK. In that same year, cable television companies--mostly funded by money from the regional Baby Bells in the United States and Canada--began laying telephone lines along with coaxial television wires to British homes. The floodgates were thrown open by this action and by 1995 some 75 licenses had been issued for alternative public telecommunication operators. Presently the figure is in excess of 190 carriers licensed to provide phone service in competition with BT (Mills, 1996).

Two advertising promotions were launched simultaneously. The first focused on a campaign to reduce the perception gap between the actual cost of a phone call and the real cost. The second, more famous, advertising campaign used the catchphrase "its good to talk" and featured the actor Bob Hoskins with his Cockney accent. He would cajole me