Verizon Expands Retail Strategy with FiOS Experience Stores

Verizon Communications Inc. has launched its new retail strategy to promote its FiOS television, telephone, and high-speed Internet service by opening stores called Verizon Experience in shopping malls. The company is following the lead of high-tech companies like Apple Computer Inc. and opening its stores to showcase its offerings to consumers. These stores provide a unique setting for customers to experience and interact with the latest gadgets and services, and Verizon believes that they are a new concept in the cable and satellite TV industry.

Key Takeaways:

• Verizon has opened its first two FiOS Experience stores, one in Fairfax, Virginia, and another in Southlake, Texas, with plans to decide on further expansion in 2007.
• The stores are located in Verizon's most developed FiOS markets and provide a 5,000-square-foot space for customers to interact with the company's products and services.
• FiOS is one of Verizon's most ambitious projects, with an estimated cost of $23 billion to rewire the company's network.
• Verizon has about 118,000 TV subscribers nationally out of more than 1 million who are able to receive the service.
• The company has launched direct mail advertisements, gone door-to-door, and even given out free ice cream to promote FiOS in neighborhoods where the service is available.
• Verizon's new retail strategy is seen as a way to create a favorable environment for customers to experience its products and services.
• Dennis Mendyk, managing director of Heavy Reading, a market research publication, believes that the spending on convincing consumers to pick FiOS over its competitors will be intense for the next three to five years.

Statistics:

• Verizon has spent an estimated $23 billion to rewire its network for FiOS.
• The company has about 118,000 TV subscribers nationally out of more than 1 million who are able to receive the service.
• Verizon has launched direct mail advertisements and gone door-to-door to promote FiOS in neighborhoods where the service is available.
• The company has opened its first two FiOS Experience stores, one in Fairfax, Virginia, and another in Southlake, Texas.
• FiOS TV is available in parts of seven states: Texas, California, Virginia, Maryland, Florida, Massachusetts, and New York.
• FiOS Internet service is available in parts of 16 states.

Sources:

• Verizon Communications Inc.
• "Fiber-Optic Wires Fade Free Cable" by John Johnson, Verizon Wireless spokesman
• "Apple's Next Big Thing: The Retail Store" by Betty Liu, Forbes
• "Heavy Reading Market Reports"
• Heavy Reading, a market research publication dedicated to the telecom industry.