ertising, brand management, and product development) and consider how their missions can be modified to support our more customer focused churn preventing view of the world. eXcellence in Telecommunications The Telco Churn Handbook PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT AND CHURN As we have already established in Chapters 21 and 22, the real underlying problem with churn management can best be diagnosed as a problem with the way telcos define and market the products and services. By trying to "productize" what is primarily a service business, telcos have inadvertently created an environment guaranteed to commoditize their own business model. In other words, the current approach pushes competitors, consumers, and regulators faster and faster in the direction of non-differentiation by anything but a price parameter. Alas, resolving this problem is dependent upon the industry itself. The argument could be made that one lone telco attempting to decommoditize the market by itself could end up driving itself out of business. Equally viable arguments exist stating that the company that responds to this opportunity the soonest and the best will gain an unbeatable market advantage in both the short and long term. Developing Churn Proof Products Another way of looking at this problem is to say that the consumer products created by telcos are inherent churn attracters. In other words, telcos make products that encourage churn. It then follows that telcos should be creating products that resist churn and are, by their very nature, churn-proof. What are the ingredients of the product development formula that can accomplish this objective? There are three. Developing Products that Morph with the Market Telco products of the future must be able to change dynamically and automatically with shifts in the marketplace. In the new telecommunications marketplace, consumers need protection from the vagaries, risks, and constant changes that this never-ending stream of new technologies represents. At the same time, these consumers will want a reasonable 