GRL power for you, mobile chick

Tag : Brand New Mobile Phones


Crazy John's is too "naff", "blue collar" and "male-skewed" toattract women so its parent has launched a new mobile network,GRLmobile, dubbed "Australia's mobile phone service 4 chicks".



Meshing fashion and phones, the network - already labelled amarketing ploy by feminists - will sell handsets on prepaid plansas well as phone accessories and clothing for women, such as agarter belt phone holster.

Michele Hamdorf, GRLmobile's managing director, said women werefickle, opinionated and very intrepid shoppers but were not beingcatered for by existing mobile networks and retailers.

Women saw phones as an accessory rather than just a phone, Hamdorfsaid, and according to her research "women talk 10,000 words more aday than guys".

"80 per cent of the chicks in the focus groups that I did said theywould rather lose their boyfriend than their phone," Hamdorf, whopreviously worked as a fashion retailer, said.

But feminist commentator Eva Cox did not think the new networkwould be received any differently by girls. "I don't know that alot of girls will really care one way or another [about a mobilenetwork for girls]," she said.

Through its website, GRLmobile sells a range of mobile phones fromNokia, Sony Ericsson, Motorola and LG, including Motorola's newMOTO U9, which the operator stocks exclusively. It is aprepaid-only network.

But that is only one plank of the service. GRLmobile has designedits own range of mobile accessories including T-shirts, hoodies andmini skirts with phone pockets. It also retails Swarovski-encrustedUSB keys, girl-targeted iPod accessories, sunglasses and phonecases.

And for $49.95, women can buy an Angelina Jolie-inspired "gunholster garter belt". Hamdorf said women could use it in place of abag to carry a phone, house key and money when they went to anightclub.

"Women love to keep buying all the time and you're not going to buya phone every month," Hamdorf said.

In an effort to build a community around the GRLmobile site,Hamdorf has recruited Napoleon Perdis and Vicious Threads designerIvan Gomez to write fashion tips. There are also six competitionsrunning with prizes such as the Zagliani Puffy Bag - made of pythonskin but injected with botox.

GRLmobile, which has the same parent company as Crazy John's,operates on Vodafone's network. Crazy John's already runs its ownmobile network but has struggled to attract women.

"They realised that Crazy John's positioning as a naff, relativelyblue collar male-skewed environment was never going to be able topenetrate the market of women," Hamdorf explained.

As part of its marketing campaign, GRLmobile is reaching out toprospective customers over Facebook, MySpace, Bebo and YouTube. Itwill also sell its merchandise in the youth fashion sections of 100Target stores from August.

Hamdorf said she also intended to give the brand a presence atmusic festivals and, in 2009, GRLmobile would have its own retailshops complete with a "boyfriend parking bay" equipped with Xboxconsoles.

GRLmobile's Facebook profile already has 163 fans, 40 per cent ofwhich Hamdorf said were guys.

"I call it the nightclub theory - get the chicks there and the guyscome," she said.

Ms Cox said her first impression was that GRLmobile was little morethan a marketing strategy, but she was not opposed to technologycompanies being more girl-friendly.

"They'll do anything to sell things ... it's just a marketingstrategy, it's not something to get one's knickers in a knotabout," she said.

"I suppose they'll be bringing out one called Boy [mobile] whichhas got pictures of cars or condoms on them or something."