E*Trade Group Inc. launched a promotion
offering new customers 1,000 free long-distance minutes from Sprint Corp. while Sprint will pay E*Trade
customers $50 to start using its phone service.
Through Sept. 3, investors can get the free minutes when they open an account
with a minimum investment of $1,000. Sprint will tell its
customers about the E*Trade offer via monthly customer statements while
E*Trade will advertise the offer in banner ads on its Web site.
E*Trade spent $59.9 million on advertising and marketing in the first three
months of the year, according to Bloomberg News. Morgan Stanley, Dean
Witter & Co.’s Discover Brokerage Direct is now offering
$75 to customers who switch from another online brokerage.
E*Trade’s senior vice president of marketing, Jerry Gramaglia, joined the
firm in June 1998 from Sprint, where he was vice president of marketing for
the consumer division, responsible for its Internet promotional efforts.
