 © 2004 The McGraw-Hill Companies. All rights reserved. Any use is subject to the Terms of Use as given at the website. Regional Growth in a Specific Area Regional Growth in a Specific Area 45.2 Targeting Growth In the preceding section we determined where growth of subscriber traffic can be served at minimum cost. This is where we would like the system to add new sub- scribers. A wireless service provider is in the business of making money by selling wireless service. More subscribers buying more service should be good for business no matter where they are located. It is the job of the engineering and planning staff to ensure that the system is well engineered so that it continues to make money for its owners while it grows to meet increased demand. We certainly do not intend to turn away new subscribers because they are located in the wrong part of town. We do have the option, however, of encouraging new business in the areas where costs us the least to serve that new business. We target growth in the preferred areas by advertising, pricing, managing the mix of services, and maintaining a marketing presence. The result of the analysis in this chapter is a regional growth plan that tar- gets specific areas for new subscribers based on the economic efficiency of serving them. 45.2.1 Advertising While we like to think of ourselves as cold, rational decision makers, the decision to buy wireless service is often an impulse decision. People pass by a storefront that says "CELLULAR" or "WIRELESS" in big letters, and they decide to sign up for service. Some people have wireless service that they are just not happy with. It has high blocking, calls are noisy and get dropped, and customer service is slow. These sub- scribers often tolerate poor service until something stimulates them to change to an- other wireless service provider. While the reasons to change may have been rational, the change itself is an impulse decision. Local advertising targets local subscribers. We can use billboard advertising in areas where we w