Marketing before research

Private TV Belcom intensifies the sale of TeleZüri Belcom is dissolving its research department as of December 1. Gina Sessa and Michael Bongard, who share 180 full-time positions there, will have to leave the company. This was confirmed by Tarkan Özküp, Head of Marketing and Sales at Belcom/Tele Züri, on request. In future, the relevant work will be outsourced or carried out by the Tamedia research department. Instead, Belcom wants to strengthen sales in the future: With part of the money that will be freed up by outsourcing research and development, it will increase its staff by one additional position as of December 1, 2003, which will expand Tele Züri marketing to 700 full-time positions. According to Özküp, TeleZüri's net income has already increased by 58 percent this year compared to the previous year and viewer performance has improved by 40 percent. The new measure should now help to ensure that the break-even planned for the end of 2005 can be achieved.
(mk)