Ben NL
Parent Odido | | |
Website | www |
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Ben NL or Ben is a Dutch virtual
In order to keep its prices down, Ben has a very limited customer service offering; a Ben subscription can only be purchased online and most customer administration is in the form of online self-service.
Ben offers its voice, text and data services on the
History
On August 28, 2000,
Ben emerged on the Dutch mobile market at a time when mobile phones were still a status symbol and were primarily used by business people. Ben expressly targeted a younger group of users with its trendy, minimalistic advertising using word-play with its name. "Ben" is a common first name in the Netherlands and also, in Dutch, roughly translates into "I am". Examples of this are the slogans "Ik ben Ben" (I am Ben) and "Ben Bereikbaar" (I'm available/reachable).
The initial launch of Ben was marked with a 3-minute television ad shown simultaneously on all major TV stations in the Netherlands. The company launched several
Overall marketing for Ben in the Netherlands was considered by most to be trendy and artistic. The premieres of new Ben television ads were usually announced weeks in advance and watched with great anticipation.
On September 20, 2002, Ben was purchased by T-Mobile Netherlands, a 100% subsidiary of T-Mobile International. By 2003, T-Mobile had completed a worldwide rebranding of all its mobile telecommunications assets, and the name Ben was changed to T-Mobile Netherlands.
The name and trademark Ben vanished until 2008 when T-Mobile relaunched the brand as a virtual mobile network. The brand is intended to be a discount outlet for T-Mobile's networks in the Netherlands.
In keeping with tradition, the relaunch of Ben was heralded by a 3-minute, artistically designed television ad shown on all public TV stations in the Netherlands. Social networks like Hyves and websites such as YouTube were also used to promote the brand to a younger target group.[1]
References
- ^ "Ben vrij prepaid stopt – | Ben". 2013-06-02. Archived from the original on 2013-06-02. Retrieved 2022-06-02.