“5GE” is shortsighted marketing at its worst
Why AT&T’s false 5G claim hurts far more than it helps
It’s widely understood that the next generation of wireless connectivity, 5G, is going to change the world. 5G is capable of wireless speeds up to 1GB per second, enabling ubiquitous connectivity through its activation of the Internet of Things, and allowing for advanced, data-intensive entities like virtual reality or self-driving cars to reach their full potential. For a more complete explanation, you can read through this.
As a result, consumers may have been quite thrilled when AT&T began advertising their 5GE offering. AT&T has launched a nationwide advertising campaign around 5GE, and a number of their customers who had not upgraded their devices or their network are currently seeing a 5GE symbol on their phones. Instant 5G revolution, right?
There’s just one problem with 5GE, though. It isn’t 5G. Not even close.
On a website touting their services, AT&T explains that 5GE — which stands for 5G Evolution — is “our first step on the road to 5G. We’ve made changes that are already bringing faster speeds to the latest devices on our LTE network.” In plain English, this means that the speeds offered on 5GE are less than half those promised by 5G, and that the underlying revolutionary technology of 5G is not present.
In AT&T’s mind, outlining the disappointing details of 5GE as a small part of a much larger campaign clears them of any legal action or claims of false advertising. Last week, Sprint demonstrated that they disagreed with AT&T on this point, filing a lawsuit that claimed AT&T’s language gave them an “unfair advantage” and that “the significance of AT&T’s deception cannot be overstated”. Well then!
Whether or not Sprint is able to win the suit, however, is beside the point. The larger issue lies in AT&T’s marketing strategy. In an effort to appear as though they are ahead of the industry, AT&T is being disingenuous with their customers. What they’re doing might not be considered an outright lie, but it is certainly misleading.
Wireless technology and the network specifications that power it are incredibly complex. This isn’t the first time that a company in the space has used this to their advantage to insinuate that they are ahead of the game or offering more than they really are. Sean Kinney at RCR Wireless explains this well in a piece that highlights the numerous fibs and half-truths that Verizon, T-Mobile, and even the plaintiff in the AT&T suit, Sprint, have proliferated in years past.
But the fact that this has been rampant in the industry doesn’t make it right, and it certainly doesn’t make it an intelligent marketing decision. By selling customers on 5G before it’s a reality, AT&T has harmed itself going forward.
For one, they’re going to lower the expectation for what 5G can really do, disengaging consumers and limiting their ability to sell 5G when it has actually launched.
Much of the media and more advanced tech consumers will understand that AT&T has not, in fact, launched their new service and as a result will still be awaiting 5G phones and networks with great anticipation. However, many consumers who are somewhat aware of the next generation of technology — or at least will be when they see the enormous “5” in an ad or on their phone screen — are going to be quite excited about 5GE without giving the intricacies of AT&T’s marketing plan a second thought.
These customers will fall for this campaign, notice a very limited improvement, and be much more blasé toward 5G from that point forward. Customers who are somewhat interested in the technology and either upgrade or switch to AT&T, which may indeed provide the company with a short term bump in revenue, will soon be disappointed and less likely to spend money on such products in the future. Deceiving customers by giving what is at its best a modest upgrade a revolutionary title will greatly diminish AT&T’s opportunity for returns with those customers in the long run.
Secondly, AT&T will diminish trust in their brand. Other carriers, eager to avoid the mess AT&T has created for themselves, will continue to point out their deception. Customers AT&T does sign up with their 5GE plan who eventually realize — once 5G actually launches — that they’ve been fooled will be much less likely to both stay with the company or recommend it to others. Imagine signing a contract and purchasing a new phone under the premise that it would perform drastically better, only to find yourself locked into a very disappointing arrangement. It’s likely to lower AT&T’s ability to both acquire customers and retain their own base.
In the age of transparency, this is a move towards the past. Obfuscating what your product truly does, over-promising and under-delivering, is not going to provide organizations an advantage in the current marketplace. 5G has been in development for a long time. It must be frustrating to have worked on and invested in 5G for years, only to have the technical realities of the product delay its launch.
However, that’s no excuse. Today’s consumers are more educated than ever before, with more choices, better information, and higher expectations of the companies they interact with. For AT&T to execute such a stunt, much less just months away from being able to deliver customers the real thing, is unfortunate. Not only will their deceptive marketing confuse consumers, causing them pain in the near term — it will hurt the company and diminish their value in the long term.
