Is Vonage the new AOL?

October 20, 2006
Smith on VoIP asks "Is 'Vonage' the new AOL?" by putting into context my Vonage promotion with Amazon post where a coworker of mine received a Vonage flyer along with Smith on VoIP receiving a Vonage flyer in his gas bill and his SEAR's bill. He jokes how he can't seem to escape the Vonage marketing onslaught and he is reminded of AOL's marketing onslaught by mailing millions of AOL software CDs to just about every single American household.

In my Vonage Amazon post, I wrote:
Wouldn't Vonage would be better off doing local mailings to target a broader audience? There is a huge demographic of broadband users that only use the Internet for email -- for staying in touch with friends/family and only some occasional surfing. Many parents, or those >45 years old fall into this category. A banner ad won't work on these people, since they don't surf enough, nor are they tech-savvy enough to realize the savings VoIP could bring them. So wouldn't it make sense to send a paper flyer to these folks that explains in layman terms how Vonage works and how much money could be saved? For these types of folks, I think you can do this with much more effectiveness using a paper promo flyer than a banner ad, especially considering web surfers are 1-click away from leaving a site.

Perhaps Vonage took my advice and instead of just targetting the tech-savvy Amazon.com demographic, Vonage is now targetting a much wider audience. Great, now they can pay me my $10,000 consulting fee.

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Comments to Is Vonage the new AOL?


  1. Ntwiga :
    October 20, 2006 12:20 PM

    Vonage is also the new AOL in another way - they have implemented their VoIP solution as a closed garden where you have to take what they present without any public APIs or any attempt to court the OEM and open source developer communities (think AOL with it weird browser and different surfing paradigm).

    When people realize that there is all this cool SIP/PABX etc stuff that you cant do on VOnage that you can do with the other providers, price alone will not cut it.

    We are already starting to see the beginning of this for example, to use Vonage, you must have their hardware or their softphone meaning you are limited to a specific set of machines (with the correct softphone installed) etc etc and the fax from PC issues with Vonage that have never really been resolved.

    I was an early adopter but now, I only hang on because I cannot be bothered with the hassle if losing my number. There are lots of other more appealing products out there today and I think you moved from Vonage for that very same reason.


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