Pakistan is a highly competitive market because consumers are not bound by long-

term contracts to cellular service companies. Rather, the consumer simply needs an
ID card photocopy to set up a connection, or switch to another provider. The
consumer has the option of a post-paid monthly billing connection, which is preferred
in the professional segment, or the popular-among-the-masses pre-paid connection,
through which the consumer can recharge the connection whenever and by any
amount. To add to the consumer’s benefit, mobile phone portability is also available,
which allows one to retain the same phone number regardless of changes in cellular
service.

The major brand in Pakistan is Orascom’s Mobilink, which as of April 2008 had a
market share of 37 percent. Mobilink initiated operations in 1994, and for the longest
time reaped the reward of being a first-mover in the country using GSM technology.
Mobilink has remained innovative, and continues to be a pioneer in branding with its
packages: the Jazz Prepaid and the Indigo Postpaid connection.

“Mobilink has tried to communicate an image of modernity and newness over the
years,” says Rabia Garib, editor-in-chief of Netexpress Online, one of Pakistan’s
leading IT/Telecom Webzines. “The company was the first to experiment with a
female model as a brand ambassador on its ATL campaign, thus initiating the Jazz
Girl concept, which became something of a trend for the other brands to follow,”
recalls Rabia.

Mobilink’s greatest competition came in the form of Ufone, a cellular service brand
introduced by the then state owned PTCL in 2001. The brand immediately began by
focusing on the customers, launching a campaign that culminated in consumers
designing the brand’s initial logo. Ufone further refined its strategy by 2005 when,
under the new ownership of Etisalat, it was re-launched with a new logo and a
colorful campaign that targeted teenagers and the youth with its pre-pay package.
This was also a reflection of the increasing competition from the likes of the
Norwegian-based Telenor, and the UAE-based Warid Telecom.

Telenor began operations in Pakistan in 2005, and started with a pre-launch

nationwide teaser campaign that revolved around "something exciting" making its
way to Pakistan. Upon launch, Telenor targeted consumers’ dissatisfaction with
existing cellular service brands, and claimed that Telenor was the "Smart Call" for
consumers. In only three years, Telenor had claimed 20 percent of the market share,
almost on par with Ufone’s 21 percent. “Telenor has been one of the biggest winners
over the last few years,” agrees Rabia. “It has not only eaten away at Mobilink’s
subscriber base, but has also been somewhat successful in establishing itself as a
definitive cellular solution brand,” she adds.

Warid Telecom, with a current market share of 17 percent, launched in the same
year with a beautifully shot "slice-of-life" TV ad. Warid positioned itself around
simplicity and subtlety, and attracted subscribers more through word of mouth about
its service quality than with advertising. Unfortunately, Warid wasn’t able to
capitalize on its great start, and hasn’t been able to position itself as a premium
brand in the industry; rather, its attempt to characterize itself as a service provider
that offers the best rates has led Warid to be associated with cheap affordability.

Mobilink’s sub-brand Indigo relied heavily on two factors toward establishing its
brand equity: brand ambassadors that exuded style and sophistication, and a unique
classy look that permeate all forms of its Indigo brand communication. Indigo used
models such as Zainab Qayum, movie stars like Shaan, and popular musicians such
as Strings to infuse style into its branding. It also played on the aspirations of young
business professionals through the atmosphere and the locales of Indigo’s ads. For
instance, one ad showed Zainab Qayum communicating with Shaan on her
BlackBerry while she played a round of golf. “For me, Indigo has always meant a
brand that is both reliable and chic,” says Sana Rashid, a fashion designer and an
Indigo user.

Telenor’s sub-brand Persona relied more on the power of creating a brand name that
conveyed "premium." Its campaign featured a group of fictional jet setting
executives, all of whom used Persona and represented the demographic the brand
was trying to reach. Bilal Salahuddin, a business development manager at ICI
Pakistan and a potential target consumer for Persona, says, “If you talk about
postpaid brands, Telenor’s Persona is the first one that comes to mind.” Bilal adds,
“The brand is all about exclusivity and image, and that is what appeals to me.”

Whereas Mobilink and Telenor have looked to create postpaid brands, the other
companies have concentrated more on the prepaid segment. Ufone’s PrePay
campaign, with funky colors and a catchy jingle, was brilliant and ensured the
soaring popularity of the brand among the youth and the teenage market.
Unfortunately, Ufone could not effectively create sub-brands. The cardinal mistake:
blandly naming its postpaid connection PostPay and its prepaid connection PrePay.
Still, PrePay remains one of the more popular prepaid connections, if only because of
the low rates.

Mobilink’s Jazz and Telenor’s Djuice and Talkshawk have been far more successful in
creating a personality for their prepaid service packages. Jazz has continued the love
affair of Mobilink with brand ambassadors, the latest being the star cricketer Wasim
Akram, while Djuice relied on a creative and at times even gothic campaign.
Talkshawk, on the other hand, took a page out of Mobilink’s book by using model-
turned-singer Ali Zafar and the popular model/actress Sonya Jehan in its campaign.

“The competition in the industry and the massive budgets that the brands can call
upon have led to an immense clutter of noise in the media,” says Rabia.

The result has been an increase in random noise advertising, as brands launch
campaigns with elaborate song and dance TV ads that have nothing to do with the
brand's personality, or emotional and functional attributes. “Telecom brands have
really lost their way in terms of advertising ideas in recent years,” says Hamid
Hussain, group account director with Manhattan International. “All they are doing is
just screaming and shouting, and you can’t really tell one brand apart from another.”
Jazz has been the biggest culprit. “With Jazz it’s all about having a show and tell
tableau, followed by its name at the end,” says Rabia. “Do it twice a year with new
models, new locales and a new song, bombard the media with it, and voila! Another
Jazz campaign unfolds."

Zong, formerly known as Paktel but re-launched this year under China Mobile, took a
different approach. Zong stepped into the fray with an expansive launch TV ad and
followed it up with a campaign that took on the other telecom brands' marketing
strategies. “The print ad for Zong was particularly creative,” says Rabia. “It was a
wall with graffiti slogans on it, mimicking and ridiculing tag lines from rival brands;
the indication being for the consumers to be able to express themselves in whichever
way they choose,” she adds.

With so much potential still in the Pakistan telecom industry, it will be difficult for
telecom brands to refrain from taking the easy way and simply screaming their way
into consumers’ consciousness rather than building timeless and unforgettable
brands.

“It’s a temptation to go for short term gains rather than long term benefits,” agrees
Hamid. The fact remains that until the consumer can take home something from the
personality or the lifestyle of the service, he/she will not remain a loyal user and
defender of the brand. “I feel it’s a bit about evolution,” says Rabia. “The media
industry in Pakistan is growing as well, and brands are just clamoring to have the
most noise out there,” she adds.

[16-Jun-2008]