Sorry to sow discomfitting thoughts about Iridium, but it is true the marketing effort is a disaster. When Iridium began its campaign in the fall, with splashy ads inviting prospects to phone a toll-free number for information, I responded. The company not only failed to send me information as requested, they LOST most of the leads (there were about 100,000, they said), and hardly anyone was contacted. When I phoned the toll-free number again, I asked how many responses they'd gotten; the answer was "a few hundred". The person who gave me this information probably meant that he'd gotten a few hundred responses, not the entire call center (I hope). I know many individuals, however, who never received a packet of information, or who were contacted by company marketing people. I finally got information by prevailing on someone to bug the company management. Analysts who telephoned Iridium gateway operators around the world, however, were met with responses that indicated the gateways were unprepared to provide information on signing up for service.
This is the dilemma, and I challenge someone here to unravel it: Iridium is/has spent money on marketing (pick up the February 15 Newsweek, page 41, for example). But there doesn't seem to be a corporate "energy" behind the marketing, because no one is signing up for service. Why is this so?
I have been told by a portfolio manager friend that a recent wireless conference in Phoenix found most analysts and portfolio managers uninterested in the satcom companies. Why? I suspect they realize, with Iridium's difficulties, that time is on THEIR side; why invest a portfolio (whose performance could cost you your job) in an industry in which revenue production is still a long ways away? ANSWER: You don't.
Rocket Scientist, this IS depressing stuff. As a shareholder and user of Iridium, I am not pleased at what I've seen. I entertain the thought that, at least on the marketing side, even I could do a better job (probably not, but that's the way it is...). I'm sorry to post such ruminations, but if I see something that reflects well on this company and industry, you can be sure I'll be the first to post it.
In the meantime, I hope all who have an interest will put pressure on the industry to deliver on the promise for which so many billions have been spent.
Jack Morgan |
