Equal access comes to Ontario and Quebec July 1, and while other telephone companies prepare to battle Bell Canada for a piece of the $7-billion long-distance market in Canada, the giant has also been sharpening its knives.

Under equal access, consumers will be able to choose what company will carry and bill their long-distance calls and Bell Canada will be required to process those calls.

As well, customers with Bell rivals will no longer have to punch in lengthy dialling access and authorization codes, removing the competitive advantage Bell has had over Unitel Communications, TelRoute Communications and Sprint Canada.

Nick Marrone, director of advertising and promotion for Bell Canada, says:

‘The long-distance competitive marketplace has been around for a few years through resellers and sanctioned competitors, but, with equal access coming July 1, that’s the beginning of a new phase in long-distance competition.

‘It’s not one of those things where all customers make a decision on July 1,’ Marrone says.

‘Ongoing competition’

‘As in the u.s., this is going to be an ongoing competitive market for customers’ dollars and share-of-mind, and, to some extent, a competitive battle as companies try to win customers from Bell,’ he says.

Bell has just launched a direct mail campaign targetted to heavy long-distance users called ‘Twenty Questions’ to inform customers about equal access and choosing Bell versus competitors.

Customers with questions about equal access are encouraged to call or order by mail a free brochure of 20 questions to consider when making long-distance decisions.

At the same time, Marrone says Bell is trying to come up with new and innovative products that meet customers’ demands and the competitive offers of long-distance savings.

One new savings plan approved by the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission for Oct. 1, pending some conditions that must be met, will offer 15% off every long-distance call made, with an automatic 20% off the top three numbers called in North America.

A summer promotion awaiting approval would give customers successive discounts of 5% off all long-distance calling in July, 10% in August, and, in September, 15%.

Over the past few years, Bell has made an effort to solidify its position in the market with loyalty programs.

The Bell Rewards program, for example, gives customers points for long-distance calls made which are redeemable for reward certificates that can be used to pay the telephone bill.

Air Miles

Bell is also part of the Air Miles loyalty program and the newest member of the General Motors Visa Card program.

Marrone says new tv advertising is in the works right now for late June or early July which will be a mix of competitive promotional offerings and Bell competitive superiority ads dealing with issues such as network reliability.

The advertising will come from McKim Baker Lovick/ BBDO, Bell’s agency for consumer advertising. Leo Burnett handles the business side. Both are of Toronto.

For the past several months, Bell’s tv advertising has concentrated on reasons why customers may want to stay with Bell, such as the quality of its overseas long-distance savings plans.

One spot features a woman on a telemarketing call from a long-distance competitor and asking numerous questions about the program.

Says Marrone:

‘Some competitors have done advertising that compares their savings plan rates, tiered savings plan rates, with our non-savings plan rate and what we’ve tried to do with our comparative type advertising is set the record straight on a couple of issues.

‘We know what’s important to our customers based on customer research,’ he says.

‘When that woman takes the phone call, those questions are all issues our customers have said are of concern to them if they were to go to a competitor.’

Heather MacPherson, director of advertising for Unitel, says the Bell spot with the woman getting a telemarketing call from a long-distance provider other than Bell is ‘implicitly derogatory’ about Bell’s competitors.

Unitel is the company running a commercial comparing a Bell bill with a Unitel bill, which MacPherson says adheres to the Competition Act as does all of the company’s advertising.

The commercial shows a Bell bill and Unitel bill side by side, with Unitel’s long-distance savings detailed in a handy savings box while the announcer points out the other bill does not have a savings box.

A freestanding insert with the same theme went out nationally in daily newspapers last week.

Over the past few months, two-year-old Unitel has been trying to build its customer base by rolling out a string of products and price offers.

Most well-known

With the approach of July 1, it has begun to go head-to-head with the major player, Bell, because, MacPherson says, from a positioning and awareness standpoint, Unitel is the most well-known alternative long-distance company.

Unitel’s comparison spot is part of an overall pool of commercials created by Ogilvy & Mather, Toronto and running in major Ontario markets, Montreal and Vancouver.

Advertising activity will continue to heat up later this month, and although MacPherson would not be more specific, she says ‘telecommunications companies will own the airwaves for the next little while.’

Last month, TelRoute Communications, which entered the long-distance market last September, put $2 million into the launch of its first tv campaign in Ontario and Quebec.

The campaign created by Toronto ad agency LA Ads takes a two-week hiatus mid-month before picking up again to coincide with the July 1 start date for equal access.

Direct mail

Paul Nagy, TelRoute director of communications, says the company plans on supplementing the existing campaign with direct mail pieces and consumer contests.

Nagy says cost is only part of TelRoute’s strategy. Product and service is the other component.

‘We’d like to take it beyond price because it seems that everybody is out there now saying, `I’m 50% cheaper, 60% cheaper, 90% cheaper,’ and it’s all probably very confusing to the consumer,’ he says.

Based on his experience with deregulation in the u.s. while working with at&t and mci, Nagy says the message that needs to be communicated is that while consumers now have a choice, they should question carriers about basics such as minimum monthly fees, call duration and billing.

‘Many customers will not be interested in an alternate carrier other than the carrier they’ve had for years,’ he says.

‘Explaining benefits’

‘Our campaign will be geared toward explaining what equal access is, what the benefits are. It’s really meant to alleviate the fear factor. `If I switch from Bell, will I ever be able to go back to Bell? Will I be losing certain aspects of my service?’

‘Everything I’ve seen has `July 1’ emblazoned as the drop-dead date.

‘This is the date you make your choice. In our estimation, this is something that’s going to be an ongoing process and procedure, well into the summer and even into the fall.

‘There’s also a little bit of an unknown or X-factor here, to the extent that it’s a little uncertain how many customers are going to be able to be converted during certain time-frames,’ Nagy says.

‘Winding up with a backlog of an unbelievable amount of orders that need to be co-ordinated and processed between various carriers, the resellers and Bell could, in effect, serve to really alienate some people who were willing to make a change,’ he says.

The new kid on the block, Sprint Canada, will be rolling out its residential service the first week of July.

Up to now the core business of the company, which started as Call-Net Communications in 1986, has been small-to-medium sized businesses.

Last year, u.s.-based Sprint bought 25% of the company, and English- and French-language advertising for the residential service will have u.s. spokesperson actress Candice Bergen as the primary focus.

The campaign includes tv, direct mail and telemarketing efforts, and will be spearheaded by Sprint’s creative agency, Grey Canada, with media placement handled by Harrison Young Pesonen & Newell.

First major campaign

This is the first major advertising campaign for Sprint, which in addition to a small amount of print advertising, ran one tv spot last fall during the federal election.

Juri Koor, Sprint Canada chief executive officer, says the company’s advertising focus will be on customer benefits, such as savings, but would not reveal the percentage of savings Sprint would offer over Bell.

While Bell Canada territory, Ontario and Quebec, will have equal access availability July 1, rollout to other provinces will follow late this year and early 1995, with b.c. and BCTel the next target in September.

The Stentor Alliance, the alliance of the nine major Canadian telephone companies, also includes agt in Alberta, SaskTel, Manitoba Telephone System, NBTel, Maritime Telephone & Telegraph, Island Telephone and Newfoundland Telephone.