Jonas Selén – Ericsson

Ericsson is the global leader in telecom infrastructure and was founded in Stockholm in 1876 by Lars Magnus Ericsson and his wife Hilda. From focusing merely on fixed-line telephones and switchboards in the late 19^th century, Ericsson today is a world leader in mobile networks and 5G, active in 180 countries with over 100,000 employees worldwide.

As Director of Live Marketing at Ericsson, Jonas develops the strategic aspects as well as the testing of new concepts for live marketing channels for the company. In this interview, Jonas shares his insights on media and innovation within the telecom sector as well as Ericsson’s ingredients for brand growth to become a global industry leader.

Embracing Digital Transformation

Ever since the beginning, Ericsson has been extremely focused on innovation and the creation of new ways to satisfy the basic human need for communication. As an industry leader, Ericsson not only follows the market trends but is also the one creating new opportunities for entire ecosystems and setting industry standards. From being one of the first telephone manufacturers in the late 1800s to introducing phone switches in the 1970s to being the forefront leader in 5G networks today, and already developing the 6G networks to come 5-10 years from now. Innovation has always been at the core of what Ericsson does.

Jonas joined Ericsson and their ConsumerLab amidst the big shift in the mobile phone industry in the early 2000s when mobile phones went from being a businessman’s gadget to a mass market product. After the merger with Sony in 2001, and subsequently exiting completely in 2011 Ericsson is not active in the mobile device industry anymore but instead sells the technology and infrastructure used in telecom networks and for mobile enterprise communication services.

Selling infrastructure to the telecom industry can be a slow-moving business, with sales cycles ranging from 12 to 60 months depending on product category. Ericsson’s main customers are often the very big communication service providers of the world such as Verizon, AT&T, Orange, Deutsche Telecom and NTT–Docomo. Deals are made in the size of billions of dollars and the implementation of technology can take quite some time and be very complex operations. In addition, geo-political aspects, governmental regulators and international bodies like the International Telecom Union influence technology standards and the diffusion of technology.

The impact of the new technologies that Ericsson develops and sells can often be fundamental to how people live their lives, how businesses operate and how societies function. They enable service creation among both Communication Service Providers as well as the wider eco-system such as mobile consumer apps, cloud services and industrial applications. Nevertheless, being forward-thinking and taking on the megatrends around digitalisation that society is seeing today is crucial to staying relevant. Jonas says that there is a massive structural transformation awaiting in the next 10-15 years when 5G, AI and cloud services are combined with mobility and connectivity. He explains the future of digitalisation as follows:

“Everything that can be connected will be connected and communicate with the outside world, from houses to bread loaves. Then, the phenomenon of digitalisation – everything in the corporate world and much within households is digital, leaving a digital footprint.”

This digital footprint is then transported to the cloud using various types of telecom networks and is later analysed using AI and machine learning.

When these technologies in the big digitalisation and automation of society are combined, further steps can be taken. The important part for Ericsson in this process is to predict and drive the future transformation, develop infrastructure enabling the future and develop enterprise solutions accordingly.

Strategic Market Positioning Through Market Research

With insight into market trends and consumer behaviour from market research, the ConsumerLab at Ericsson is an active part of Ericsson’s communication and marketing but also guides the Research and Product development in certain areas. Through deep consumer and market understanding, Ericsson has been able to position itself strategically responding to market needs by offering tailored solutions for several diverse industries.

Not only have Ericsson’s continuous investments in R&D made them a trusted partner capable of understanding and addressing complex business needs, but it has also enabled Ericsson’s expansion into new areas not traditionally focused on for telecom companies. The latest new big area is 5G networks and the opportunities to incorporate it into different industries and market sectors.

Jonas shares Ericsson’s fairly recent step into the enterprise sector, i.e., telecom services for business operations, where Ericsson started with something called ‚Private networks‘. Having a private network means that a company can get a licence to use 5G radio waves, this is often very strictly regulated by the government regulations, and for many governments and industries this is a big deal enabling enterprises to take the next step in digitalisation and automation by adding mobility, security and reliability in their operations. Therefore, the role of marketing and communication at Ericsson does not only mean selling your products but also involves lobbying activities and basic academic research.

“The challenge now is to connect new technology and understand what consumers will want in five years or where society will be in ten years. It’s about predicting which technology areas will become mass market and which will remain niche, assessing their potential.”

Thought Leadership and Active Engagement with Stakeholders

The realm of media is entered into when selling solutions to customers and decision-makers. In the telecom industry, you have a very small number of customers and a very, very small number of key decision-makers per customer. This means long decision processes, taking four to five years, including investigations, assessments by civil servants, buying committees and technical evaluations going over policies, potential future issues and general technical leadership. Eventually, the decisions are made at the board level.

Specifically emphasised in the interview is therefore the combination of the different channels for decision making. According to Jonas, the interesting part is how to orchestrate messages and formats between the different channels, physical channels combined with digital efforts, which must be very targeted, very tailored to decision-making. “With this spectrum, marketing often becomes a very strategic tool, the various channels become important because several people and departments make decisions along a quite complex customer journey” Jonas explains.

The strategic marketing and communication efforts also include building, engaging and maintaining relationships with decision-makers and key stakeholders. At events, innovation centres, business meetings and workshops as well as showrooms and experience centres.

Even though these decision makers and key stakeholders may not have the short attention spans of consumers on social media channels like TikTok, one has to be swift and to the point and focus on the business value of the technology to be sold. Yet, the credibility to be allowed at the table within the telecom industry is reached when a company shows thought leadership in business by being able to discuss topics in detail underpinned by being able to deliver reliable technology over time.

Webinars typically aimed at mid-level management and experts are an example of activities where Ericsson can create credibility by showing thought leadership and expertise. However, these webinars cannot be short, they should preferably be over two hours or more, as then customers know they are listening to experts, also leading to better engagement.

“In our world, if a webinar is too short, say half an hour or twenty minutes, some of our target groups find it not credible. Credibility comes if we have webinars that last two hours. Then I know I’m listening to experts who have a lot to share and there’s plenty of time for Q&A”

In addition to webinars, attending global and local industry events where Ericsson can introduce their newest innovations and have the opportunity to engage and build relationships with their customers is also a part of the strategic marketing media mix. Lastly, the digital aspects such as the website of Ericsson is not to be forgotten. People still read websites and look up information to a big extent directly on the internet, so sharing product information, features, descriptions, comparisons, business cases etc. is also very important, according to Jonas.

From an Ericsson sales and marketing perspective, social media such as LinkedIn is also used for sharing business news, success stories, product releases and thought leadership material and events. Selective, and orchestrated use of social media channels are also part of the marketing and media mix at Ericsson when it comes to Telecom infrastructure. Whilst social media channels combined with e-mail marketing are the key channels for the Enterprise part of Ericsson.

Jonas summarises it as “The media mix and channel strategy for marketing and communication all comes down to the complexity of the offering, the size or impact of the buying decision, and the number of decision-makers in the audience.”

Looking Forward

Lastly, when asked about how Ericsson’s and the telecom industry’s live marketing channels will look 10 years in the future, Jonas predicts that some face-to-face activities will still be there, but so-called “hybrid” activities will increase. This means that we will probably see an increase in artificial reality (AR) or virtual reality (VR) where the face-to-face part is supported.

As for the enterprise part of their business, Jonas sees that there will probably be even more digital channels but with dynamic channels and content experiences depending on the target group and environment, for example, what kind of device the individual owns. “As different target groups will be increasingly dispersed across various platforms and devices, more hybrid and multi-channel approaches will be needed,” Jonas says.  Additionally, the face-to-face part will here also be combined with virtual experiences and intranets, making investment decisions smoother and easier for decision-makers.

“In the future, there will be many new ways to work with marketing within B2B – The potential cost advantage that digital has had will gradually disappear with the complexity and quality required to engage B2B customers with the messages. And AI support will be needed to integrate it all.“