Today while working on a mobile virtual network operator website (or MVNO website for short), we got on to discussing about how marketing, products and services need to support each other (i.e. there’s no point having a great marketing campaign if your product sucks, and no point having great product and marketing if your service sucks…)

It reminded us of a curious phenomenon that most brands experience on the web, but that MVNO websites – a type of site that Reedus Design has a lot of experience developing – can live or die on.

MVNO’s, for the uninitiated, provide mobile phone services but do not have their own licensed frequency allocation (hence mobile VIRTUAL network operator). That means in short they “piggyback” other company’s networks, selling service and brand. So MVNO websites really are classic Web 2.0 stuff, as these companies build some or even all of their business model around online service.

In the case of the client we were working with yesterday – Nomi-mobile – they depend on explaining their value proposition, signing up clients, selling SIMs and delivering client services online.

For mobile virtual network operators, then – and the countless other businesses that serve most or all of their clients on the web – the product and service to a large extent ARE the marketing.

Put it another way – whether you’re an MVNO or any other type of company that has the ability to offer add-on services to your clients via your website, there is a real chance to “wow” your customers with great service while you are marketing to them.

It puts a real onus on web companies such as us to understand the business model and dynamics of such companies when partnering with them to provide web services. It’s a far cry from the “brochureware” era of only a few years back, and to us why full-service web agencies, with proper consultation and a wide range of development and marketing skills in-house, are the way things are going.