Prepaid wireless has a perception problem.
It tends to get treated as one big, undifferentiated category, with the lingering stigma that it’s the only option for people shut out of traditional plans.
But prepaid customers run the gamut from families watching every dollar to people who could easily go postpaid but simply prefer not to be on a contract – a varied customer base that calls for smarter segmentation, says David “DK” Kim, president of Verizon Value.
Verizon Value is Verizon’s prepaid arm, with eight brands in its portfolio – including Straight Talk, Visible, Total Wireless, TracFone and Verizon Prepaid – serving roughly 20 million subscribers and sold through 100,000 points of distribution in the US.
Kim’s starting point is a simple distinction: “prepaid by need” versus “prepaid by choice.” The latter is a customer “who’s just really savvy,” he says, “and they know that they can get a great deal under a prepaid brand.”
That way of thinking shows up in how Verizon positions its brands.
For instance, a budget-conscious family is more likely to run into Straight Talk at Walmart in the prepaid section next to a row of cheaper devices. A more tech‑savvy shopper, meanwhile, is likelier to come across Verizon’s app‑based prepaid brand Visible online and bring their own existing device over to the service.
But then there’s the question of what happens from a messaging perspective after someone signs up.
Kim’s team uses social and Reddit as a kind of daily focus group to surface problems and complaints, spot patterns and even pick up ideas for new products. Visible’s home internet offer, for example, was inspired by fans of the brand asking for fixed wireless access.
Retention is another constant pressure. In prepaid, people must actively choose to come back every month and what they do during the first few cycles is often indicative of future behavior.
“If customers stay with you for the first three or four months, they’re likely to stay with you for the long term,” Kim says. That’s why his team pays close attention to signals like payment patterns, customer service calls and port‑out requests (which is when someone wants to move their number to another carrier), and uses loyalty programs, flexible bill‑pay options and brand partnerships to keep people from churning.
“When you do that, you drive incredible loyalty and trust in your brand,” Kim says. “With so much competition in the wireless space, there are very few ways that you can differentiate yourself.”
Also in this episode: Why Total Wireless became the UFC’s official wireless partner, how Verizon Value measures the impact of its brand partnerships, the importance of distribution in the prepaid market and how an early job selling phones at RadioShack eventually led Kim to a career marketing telecoms.
