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Keep existing customers and revenue
∑ Increase efficiency
∑ Cut cost in non-core functions
∑ Increase ARPU with proven solutions
∑ Look for new revenue streams

Almost certainly operators will be looking to reduce expenditure on network
and IT costs but spending on areas such as marketing and advertising next
year is less easy to predict. If handled cleverly, innovations in marketing
can offer the best return on investment for operators in this economy.

Xtract, provider of the most innovative 3D profiling techniques on the
market to analyse subscribers' demographic and behavioural data, as well as
social networking behaviours, has produced a five-point action plan for
operators in 2009:

1. Keep subscribers through innovative churn management.
Churn is such an endemic issue, most operators view it as 'business as
usual' - but those that can reduce churn through the recession will
invariably win out. Clever churn management involves viewing churn as the
viral, 'social' problem that it is, using analytics to identify customers
most likely to churn, and those most likely to influence others in their
network to leave with them. By focusing viral churn management marketing
campaigns on keeping these highly influential churners, operators can beat
this cycle.

2. Increase efficiency with more effective marketing campaigns
If ARPU remains stagnant operators must find ways of reducing cost to
maintain profitability levels. By introducing more effective, targeted
marketing, operators can find cost savings from within. This means getting
to know the subscriber better through 3D profiling techniques and having a
more complete picture of whom they are selling to.

3. Cut cost in non-core areas
In 2009 operators will need to demonstrate to investors the ability to cut
cost in non-core functions. Reducing both capital and operating expenditure
on data mining and analysis will be critical; this may be achieved through
using more innovative software-as-a-service analytics tools rather than less
cutting-edge internal IT functions.

4. Increase ARPU with proven solutions
If consumers will be less likely to try out new services, solutions pushed
to them in 2009 must be highly compelling, viral and likely to generate
word-of-mouth interest. Operators need to review cash cows of the past and
decide which services to market to which micro-segments for improved
campaign pick-up.

5. Look for new revenue streams
Operators are sitting on the largest social networks in the world often
without realising it. By engaging in analytical subscriber profiling,
operators can mine data from their subscribers for market research that
marketing and advertising agencies need and want, selling this data on and
in turn creating more compelling, personal, relevant propositions for
subscribers.

"In conclusion, although it will be tough out there, operators could do
worse than to shake up their marketing techniques in 2009," said Jouko
Ahvenainen, co-founder and chief strategy officer at Xtract. "With
expenditure focused on areas of the business that provide real ROI, the
operators who come out on top from this recession will be those that utilise
advanced marketing technologies in new, innovative ways