Telenor Pakistan

Telenor Pakistan is 100% owned by Telenor ASA and adds on to its operations in Asia
together with Thailand, Malaysia and Bangladesh.
Telenor Pakistan launched its operations in March 2005 as the single largest direct European
investment in Pakistan, setting precedence for further foreign investments in the telecom
sector. The company has crossed many milestones and grown in a number of directions,
making Telenor Pakistan a leading telecom operator of the country.
They are the fastest growing mobile network in the country, with coverage reaching deep into
many of the remotest areas of Pakistan. In the most difficult terrains of the country, from the
hilly northern areas to the sprawling deserts in the south, at times we are the only operator
connecting the previously unconnected.
They are keeping ahead by investing heavily in infrastructure expansion. With USD2 billion
already invested, they have extended agreements with our vendors for network expansion and
services until 2009. The agreements, with a potential to result in USD750 million worth of
orders from Telenor Pakistan, are some of the biggest of their kind in the industry.
They are spread across Pakistan, creating 2,500 direct and 25,000-plus indirect employment
opportunities. They have a network of 23 company-owned sales and service centers, more
than 200 franchisees and some 100,000 retail outlets.

Telenor ASA is an international provider of high quality

telecommunications, data and media communication
services. It ranks as world’s 6th largest mobile operator
above 170 million subscribers in its mobile operations.
Telenor Pakistan is 100% owned by Telenor ASA and
adds on to its operations in Asia together with Thailand,
Malaysia and Bangladesh.

nor exists to help customers get the full benefit of communications services in their dai
e in quality and valued added service in both prepaid and postpaid categories through s

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PRODUCTS & SERVICES
Products:
Telenor provide products of two types
Prepaid
Postpaid
Prepaid packages are
Dejuice
Talkshawk
Postpaid offers are
Persona individual
Persona karobar

Services:
The Telenor Group provides a wide range of innovative services that are available throughout
the world. Here is a selection.
Mobile Fun
Following are the mobile fun service of Telenor.
Mobile Sports
And he scores!!! You just got a text message alerting you about a
sportive highlight. Luckily you don’t have to wait until you get
home to watch that winning moment – you can watch it directly on
your mobile.
Mobile Music
Right now there are 1 million songs ready to download to your mobile.
You can share these digital rights management-free songs with your
friends and family or transfer them to your mobile phone, mp3 player
and PC. Share that funky music!
Mobile TV
Keep your favorite TV shows available in your pocket and watch them
anytime, anywhere. You can easily access live TV channels on the move

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so you don’t have to miss out on any of the action. Keep yourself updated on news, sports,
entertainment and more, directly on your own mobile phone.
Mobile Communities
Get out and about, and stay connected and in touch with your friends.
With Telenor you can access communities such as Windows Live
MSN and Facebook on your mobile and keep your friends close
anytime, anywhere.
Mobile Commerce
Mobile commerce services of Telenor are as follow:
Easy Paisa
Easy paisa is a unique service offered by telenor.by easy paisa you can
send your mony nationwide to your lovedones.you can send your money
by easy paisa either you are a telenor customer or not.i.e this service is for
all the only requirment is that you shoud have a valid nation id card.
CellBazaar - Marketplace in Your Pocket
Using CellBazaar, buyers and sellers in Pakistan can trade basic goods
from their mobile phones, bringing the benefits of information
exchange, community networking and one-to-many trading to a
previously unwired rural population.
BillPay - Pay by Phone
BillPay is an innovative service, the first of its kind in Pakistan. It
provides an electronic bill payment service for utilities services and for
other companies. Customers can pay their utility bills and other bills
through this service regardless of whether they own a mobile
connection or not.

Research-products in near future

Working with academic and industrial partners worldwide, Telenor is constantly developing,
testing and demonstrating new mobile services and technology solutions.
The Telenor Research & Innovation unit is an innovation hub for the Telenor Group. With
three locations in Norway and a satellite in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, Telenor R&I employ
236 people from 23 countries.

Our main research areas are:

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Wireless Broadband FutureSIM

Connected Objects Content and Service

CORE VALUES
Core values in Telenor Pakistan.
CULTURE IN TELENOR

Telenor has an Adaptability Culture, with flexibility being the need of the organization and
strategic focus being external. The organization has a clear vision, with the goal of increasing
growth, profitability, and market share. The employees are paid for performance. The individual
employees are made responsible for contributing in gaining the organization's goal, and in return
they are rewarded with incentives thus keeping the employees motivated. The organization has
Award Functions, as a part of the organization's culture.

PEOPLE
Telenor Pakistan consists of energetic, youthful and dedicated employees aged 27 to 28 on
average. An appropriate match is required between the culture and employees at recruitment
and hiring. If People Excellence (Human Resource Department) feels that a person will not
be unable to adjust into the organization’s environment, even if he/she is performing
functionally well, the person is rejected. The dynamic group of people, sharing similar mind-
sets, love being with each other and meet on other occasions if unable to meet during work-
hours. They even stay back late, employees can be seen roaming around till 9 at night.

Primarily the culture comes from the top management. CEO of Telenor Pakistan is humble
and cooperative. The employees get the message that if the top management is so
accommodating then the employees should behave similarly. What is important to the CEO
becomes important for employees to identify completely with the organization. There are
four foreigners in the top management but this does not create communication barriers. They
are extra humble to others while individuals of a local origin are extra sensitive to them so no
one feels alienated. The values of humbleness and free interaction in putting forth ideas lead
to a harmonious culture and efficient communication. The management is easily accessible to
discuss various issues. It is difficult to distinguish between them as the culture is so
homogeneous that it keeps every one at par with others.

BUSINESS OBJECTIVES
Objectives 2006-07 2015

Market Share in terms of 10% 40%

Subscribers

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Market Penetration 9% 30%

Market Share in terms of 7% 30%

Revenue

Unprompted Brand 20% 90%

Awareness

MARKET SEGMENTATION AND POSITIONING

Segmentation is the process of dividing the total market for a good or service into several
smaller, internally homogenous groups. Since Telenor is a customer oriented and quality
driven company, it segments its market on the basis of various different dimensions.
Market dominated by low-end, low-ARPU customers (largely Untapped)
Relatively large emerging middle class segment (Basic in Telenor Terminology)
Strong youth culture with needs similar to other markets.
Private postpaid almost non-existent.
Small but profitable (high ARPU) Corporate/SME segment.
Women a largely untapped segment.
Segmentation is the process of dividing the total market for a good or service into several
smaller, internally homogenous groups. Since Telenor is a customer oriented and quality
driven company, it segments its market on the basis of various different dimensions.
Market Segmentation & Product Positioning Analysis
Market Segment Today Future 4 years Existing Profitability
Estimate Products %

Youth/ students 25% 27% Djuice, 29%

Talkshawk

Women 10% 20% TalkShawk 21%

Financially 40% 23% TalkShawk, 20%

Constraint Telenor Azadi

Corporate/ SME 25% 30% Post Paid 30%

-Packages

Segmentation Strategy

Telenor is using multiple segmentation strategy and developing separate marketing program
for each segment because different customers are looking for different benefits from different

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services they purchase. Estimating the market potential of each segment includes asking how
many prospects with how much purchase power there is for each particular want.

Market to Segment

Regarding Pakistan different markets are segmented by Telenor on the basis of:

1. Geographic

2. Demographic

3. Psychographic

4. Behavioural

Geographic (Area wise)

In Pakistan Telenor is segmenting the whole country region wise. There are different regions
in Pakistan. Telenor is providing service specially in Northern Areas and in Rural areas of
Sindh, Balochistan and Punjab where others are not providing services.

Demographic (Life style)

Age:

Telenor knows that needs and wants of customers changes as they go through life. So, with
change in age Telenor introduces different services. The main segmented market is the young
people of age 15-30.

Pre paid-mostly Students, youngsters and middle class

Post paid-Business Class, Industrialists

Pre paid packages segments W.R.T Age:

Talkshawk

Talkshawk Her Second For 15-22 yrs

Talkshawk 30 Second For 20-27 yrs

Talkshawk Her Minute From 25- onward

Djuice

Djuice From 15-24

Djuice Jaagtay raho From 18-24

night

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Post packages segments W.R.T Age:
Persona

This Post paid service targets the Business Class mainly. There are four different plans
which varies with the amount of monthly line rent.

Persona From 32-55

Income:

Telenor also segments the customers on the basis of income level. Different packages are
there for people of different income level

Pre paid packages segments W.R.T Income:

Talkshawk

Talkshawk Her Second For Students

Talkshawk 30 Second For Students and Job people (low income)

Talkshawk Her Minute For Job people

Djuice

Djuice For SMS lovers Students

Djuice Jaagtay raho For SMS lovers & who like to talk them in night

Psycho graphically (Personality)

Psychographic segmentation goes beyond demographic. Telenor doing segmentation on the

basis of customers mind set. Telenor is segmenting the customers as they are giving different
packages for different personality. There are seven packages of Telenor on the basis of
different call & sms rates.

Behavioral

Telenor is segmenting the customers according to their behavior, mind set and thinking.
Different people have different behavior, different mindset different thinking Telenor is
segmenting behaviorally by offering different package in pre paid and different plans in post
paid. Singers are liked by people the singing culture is being promoted in our country so they
hire singers for their promotions to hit customer’s mind.

ENVIRONMENT
EXTERNAL ENVIRONMENT

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Environmental Domain

Telenor Pakistan is an open system and operating in a competitive environment. External

environmental variables like telecommunication industry competitors, government rules and
regulations, customers, and other stakeholders etc do affect the Telenor domain.

TASK ENVIRONMENT

Telenor's task environment includes Industry Sector,, Market Sector, Human Resource and
these sectors have a direct impact on the ability of Telenor to achieve its goals.

Industry Sector

The major competitors of Telenor Pakistan are Mobilink, Ufone, and Warid While Paktel and
Instafone are also competitors of Telenor but right now they are not in position of being the
headache of Telenor.

Market Sector

Market sector or the customer sector is the main sector that influences all the
telecommunication companies. For a telecommunication company it is very important to
satisfy its customer and to make long term relations with them.

Marketing department has the responsibility of establishing long term relationship with the
customers through public relation. Marketing department also has the responsibility of
advertisement which is very important to grasp the attention of its customers.

Human Resource Sector

Telenor Pakistan has been very successful in obtaining Human Resources; hence the
organization is very successful in this sector. There is a separate human resource department
to hire new employees, to retain them with the organization and satisfy them.

GENERAL ENVIRONMENT

Financial Sector

Telenor has no issues obtaining the finances. The organization has no debts; hence it is pretty
stable in this sector. Teienor Pakistan is the subsidiary of Teienor International that is among
the world largest telecommunication firms therefore, Teienor is having to financial problems.

Socio-Cultural Sector

This is the sector that so far has influenced Teienor Pakistan more than any other factor.
Telenor's parent company, which is Teienor international, is mainly owned by Norway and
Denmark. As Pakistan is an Islamic country, so after the publication of cartoon in the
newspapers of Norway and Denmark related to Holy Prophet S.A.W influenced Teienor
Pakistan. The offices of Teienor were burnt down in Pakistan. After that mishap, Teienor
built its goodwill with great hard work and consistency.

Technology

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Telecommunication industry is influenced heavily by the technology introduced and being
used in the market by the company and its competitors. So far Telenor is dealing well with
this factor and it is far ahead as compared to its competitors.Mobile TV is one example and
Edge service in another one. GPRS and WAP is more fast as compared to other networks. So,
Telenor is having no problems related to technologies.

ENVIRONMENT UNCERTAINTY

The environment of Telenor is Complex and Unstable, with high uncertainty. There are only
many external elements to compete with, and they all are dynamically active.

Adapting to Environmental Uncertainty

The structure of Telenor suggests that it is adapting to environmental uncertainty. For this it
has increased the number of its departments and positions, and also pays emphasis on
communication and coordination between these departments.

Framework for Organizational Responses to Environmental Uncertainty

The Environment for the organization is Complex. The organization has many competitors,
like Mobilink, Warid, Ufone etc., and the competition is high with its competitors. Due to this
reason the environmental changes become unstable. To counteract the changes in the
environment the organization has organized into Cross-functional Teams. The Uncertainty is
high, and hence the organization has an Organic Structure.

‘SWOT’ ANALYSIS
Strengths

First one to bring the concept of "Mobile TV" in Pakistan.

Customized packages available for every market segment e.g djuice for price
conscious class, smart calls for routine users, telenor persona for upper middle and
ellite class.

State of art technology e.g they are up with the latest networking underground fiber
optical network.

Widest network coverage after Mobilink.

The first ones to provide free roaming facility during hajj program.

Telenor is operating in more than 200 destinations with more than 1.7 subscribers all
over the Pakistan.

Weaknesses

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Pakistan has no institute that provides formal education in this field regarding
networking and other core technical competencies so they are required to have a
major chunk of their employees trained from foreign institutions.

Poor call center performance. Customer service center is not up to the commitment
and most of the customers' calls are not served.

Comparatively high prices in Telenor persona (postpaid) as compared to Warid and

Ufone.

Poor visual quality of Telenor mobile TV, as there is a buffering problem and stills
are received instead of the proper videos Franchise distribution system is not up to the
mark. This is the problem with almost every telecom company in Pakistan. Lack
quality in record keeping at franchises and other distribution networks.

Opportunities

Participation within the growing industry.

Ample opportunities are available in the telecom sector and still many of the areas are
not being covered.

Increasing market share.

Product line expansion.

Cost discount strategies.

Product innovation.

To become customer size specialist.

Constant repositioning.

Threats

Monopoly of PTA, at any time PTA can alter the facilities of telecom sector.

Immense cut-throat competition operating in kinked demand oligopoly.

Implementation of WTO will result in open & competitive pricing even in the service
sector exclusively in telecom.

There is an imbalance between prices of inputs & outputs.

COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE

In order to gain a competitive advantage one has to align competences and strategies. Highly
motivated employees and flexible culture enables them to achieve an edge over competitors.

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STRATEGIC MANAGEMENT
A mix of differentiation and low cost strategy is followed by Telenor Pakistan.
Differentiation and innovation exist at the core of Telenor, be it culture, compensation
packages or value added services.

Market Penetration

Diversification in new directions and regions

Focus on mobile internet

Acquiring a microfinance bank

Global expansion (Telenor has also entered the Indian market by taking a stake in
Unitech Wireless)

Mix of differentiation and low cost

Lower capital expense investment due to recession/ slow market growth

Utilize 3G technology opportunity

COMPETITION
Mobilink was the largest cellular mobile operator in Pakistan with a market share of
approximately 37%, Ufone had a market share of approximately 20%, Warid had a market
share of approximately 17%, Zong had a market share of approximately 4%.

Major Competitor

Parameters Mobilink Telenor

Product Life Cycle Maturity Growth

Market share % 37% 20%

Coverage 900 cities 1100 cities

Product Portfolio Jazz Octane, TalkShawk,

Mobilink Telenor

Indigo, Ladies Azadi, Djuice

First,

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Customer Base 17.2 million 3.6 million

Marketing Operations Excellent Good

BCG MATRIX
Boston Consulting Group is used to help corporations with analyzing their business units
or product lines. This helps the company allocate resources and is used as an analytical tool
in brand marketing, product management, strategic management, and portfolio analysis.

This BCG matrix is with respect to the competition that exists for Telenor in the telecom
industry. This includes the following mobile operators:

• Mobilink
• Ufone
• Warid
• Zong

Role of Telenor Pakistan in the Economy

Overall business environment of Pakistan remained negative during FY 2008‐09. High
inflationary pressures and reduction in buying power of consumer has directly impacted all
industries including telecom. On other hand factors like energy crises, currency devaluation,

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liquidity crises coupled with increase in borrowing cost, industry price war has adversely
affected the net worth of the companies.
Based on PTA reported numbers telecom growth for FY 2008‐09 was 17% (FY 2007‐08:
37%). CAGR (Compound Annual Growth Rate) for last four years stands at 33% CAGR. It
signifies that overall industry’s growth has slowed down.

Revenues of Mobile Phone Companies

Telenor Pakistan posted a strong quarter, in local currency. Total YoY revenues increased by
17%, while 9 % increase when compared to Q3 – thanks to subscription growth of more than
3 million compared to last year. However, depreciating value of Pakistani Rupee reflected
decreased revenues on Group balance sheets.
EBITDA margins grew to an all time high of 28.4% with 28% growth over Q3.
ARPU showed a negative growth, due to extremely low tariffs and reduced interconnect rates
from 1 January 2009.
The number of Mobile Users on Telenor Pakistan increased by 842,000, during the quarter –
resulting in an increase in subscription market share to 23%.
EBITDA increased mainly due to higher revenues. The EBITDA margin of 29% was the
highest quarterly EBITDA margin reported so far by Telenor Pakistan. EBITDA was
positively affected by decommissioning of leased lines and reduced energy cost.
Capital expenditure continued to be aligned with current development in subscription base
and traffic volumes.
CEO Telenor Pakistan, Jon Eddy Abdullah praised Telenor Pakistan employees and
attributed the company’s success to their unrelenting dedication. He said, “Telenor Pakistan
has been recognized by Telenor Group for the highest revenue growth rate throughout the
group. This, in the face of current business environment challenges, demonstrates a stellar
performance.”
During this quarter, Telenor Pakistan launched their suite of financial services under the
brand name easypaisa. Within 4 months, more than 300,000 Bill Payment and more than
50,000 Money Transfer transactions have already been recorded.

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Issues and Recommendations

Deceptive marketing giving rise to ethical issues

Telecom companies are being increasingly involved in deceptive marketing strategies and
charging hidden prices and tariffs to customers, which are not being disclosed properly.

Deceptive marketing by telecom companies is creating frustration in customers as they are

being fooled by advertisement campaigns of telecom companies which says that lowest rates
are being offered, but instead when the customers actually uses that service he has to bear a
load of other hidden costs that makes the service much expensive or equal to the rates charges
by the competitors offering similar services.

PTA has taken a serious notice of these activities of the telecom companies and they are
planning to revise their policies regarding the deceptive marketing campaigns. They have
imposed limits on the hidden charges to prevent deceptive marketing.

In an interview taken by Ms Khadija, Asst brand manager Telenor she mentions that
deceptive marketing has been clearly visible and is becoming evident to customers. She also
mentions that PTA has taken serious notice of this act and now policies are being revised by
PTA. And advertisements are being monitored and should be approved and cleared by PTA,
before it is to be displayed on television or other media. She said that after PTA imposed
regulation for disclosure of hidden charges and request mobile service provider to show all
conditions in their advertisements, Telenor started showing liners in their advertisements
which were not shown previously. According to her, PTA is playing a major role in
eliminating deceptive marketing activities by telecom companies and is getting involved with
the marketing divisions of telecom companies for the purpose.

Customers are more prices conscious which makes telecom companies to adopt price based
marketing strategies. These price based marketing strategies has given rise to deceptive
marketing.

The advertisements involved in deceptive marketing stresses on lowest possible tariffs just to
attract potential customers, but in fact there are many hidden charges and conditions that are
either not shown or is shown in a very print, that viewers are normally unable to catch. Which
this is unfair to the customers and we need to characterize this trend which some may
characterize as deceptive marketing.

The advertisements involved in deceptive marketing stress on lowest possible tariffs just to
attract potential customers, but in a very fine print that viewers are normally unable to catch.

Advertisements by many cellular service provider such as 3 paisa per second of Telenor
talkshawk have conditions and hidden charges written on anyone side of these advertisements
in a very fine manner, which is not visible to a normal viewer. Our media is full of these
kinds of deceptive advertisements by telecom companies. Mobile packages are not more
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complicated with advertisements usually having certain time and other limits. It seems that
mobile companies are making unfair use of the stressful and busy schedule of a people that
makes them unable to interpret the advertisements completely.

Bloggers hired but not paid well

Blogs are basically abbreviation of the word “word log” it provides a forum where people can
provide their opinions and can comment on other personal topics. For marketer, it is an
effective way to market their product/service. It is a way to attract clients and customers and
can be used as an organized marketing campaign. These bloggers are also hired by companies
for marketing their product/ services. But the issue over here is that bloggers hired in Pakistan
are often not paid well and are also not hire permanently, which results in bloggers
performing far less that what is expected.

We have a lot of examples in front of is showing the importance of blogging in marketing.

Recently, two women of UK who are just normal UK citizens have used blogging to market
the newly launched Hollywood movie. The movie managed to generate the revenue worth of
about 100 million dollars, after which the producer of that movie admitted during his formal
address to public that 25% of the total revenue generated by the movie are because of the
efforts of those two UK ladies and awarded there share in revenue.

So this example highlights the importance of blogging in marketing and its possible impact
on the corporate world.

It is the major problem in the entire Pakistan which needs to be solved. Blogger are important
contribution to the marketing activities, as blogging is the next generation marketing strategy
and a medium for marketing campaigns that are more interactive, instantaneous and
attractive.

Profiting from a paid blogging is rewarding not only for a blogger but for advertise as well.
Say Daniel Mc Gonagle in his article “paid Blogging; is this a scam” therefore, the marketing
and sales manager need to understand the importance of blogging and the bloggers should be
given compensation and hob security upon their contribution, so that they show their full
interest in blogging and produce expected results.

Measures to stop illegal SIM usage

Illegal sim usage have alerted concerned authorities when it was found most the terrorist
activities going in the country are being supported by a huge amount of unregistered SIMs
that are found in the possession of these terrorists. After this government has revised all of its
policies regarding prevention against illegal use of SIMs and has strictly instructed all service
provides to follow regulations.

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Telenor, biggest issue faced by service provides these days are dealing with the problem of
illegal SIM usage. Heavy investment is made by Telenor to counter the problem of illegal
SIM usage.

1. Stopping the sales of pre activated SIMs

2. Multiple SIM owner verification

Youth: Highly price conscious rather than brand conscious

They youth today in Pakistan is more of a price conscious youth who buys and values the
product/Service with the lowest price. There is no such thing find in today’s youth by the
name of brand loyalty. They are just concerned about the content and price. That is why
major brands in Pakistan are shifting towards “Branded House” from “house of brands: and
competing based on purely price factors.

Telenor is successfully using its “House of Brands” strategy and has no issues with it. They
seem to have satisfied with this strategy of Telenor, although it is against the values of
today’s youth of Pakistan. Its overall profitability is low relative to that of Ufone, which has a
“branded House’ strategy and focuses more on price rather than brands. This low profitability
is likely to be linked to the “House of Brands” strategy that Telenor follows which is against
the values of today’s youth and that they ignores. Part of today’s consumer’s indifference to
the brand and being more price conscious can be attributable to the major recession that the
world has faced in past two years. Therefore, the youth today are more price focused and will
tend to buy things with lower process. They are hardly value the brand today.

Market research’: Biased towards price response

As it is already been pointed out in this report that the Pakistani youth today are more price
conscious, they tend to rate things based on just price factor. This is a serious issue for
Marketing researchers because the response that they get are often just price biased and
ignore other factors that customers might value after price.

Consumerism in Pakistan is not yet on the maturity level. Although the consumer’s values
price based factors apparently, but still there are other factors that they might value in their
unconsciousness (such as standard, cultural values) and are not ready to disclose that. The
major reason behind this is that consumers concern about factor far outweighs their concern
about the other factors. These factors may not be very important for the consumers and
survey respondents, but they are of very much value to the marketing researches and analysts
as they want to know each and every factor that affects the buying patterns of the respondents
and their real behavioral insights no matter they have a very low magnitude of contribution to
the behavioral patterns of respondents with respect to the product/services.

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Unethical Wars between companies
There has been growing concerns amount the industry experts who claims that many
companies are behaving unethical ways. Their operations sometimes are highly unethical. For
example Ali Zafar was brand ambassador for Telenor but when Mobilink hired Ali Zafar as
their brand ambassador, they started airing ads which were intended to daunt Telenor image.
In the Ad Ali zafar said “Main to ek behtak conncetion ki taraf shif hogaya hu, ab aap bhi aik
behtar connection use kare” This was a direct hit against telenor.

In this regard PTA has to take some urgent steps as such unethical activities not only create
problems and confusion for user but also for the telecom operators. They shift their focus
from creating health and competitive environment, providing cheap and quality services to
the customers towards engaging themselves leg pulling of their competitors. In such a way
companies aren’t willing to expand by improving their services rather they want to expand by
showing their competitors as worse than themselves.

Other unethical activities carried out by telecom companies are that they are being deceptive
in advertisements. There is a whole list of deception (prepay/ post pay, friends and family, 1
min rates/ 30 sec rates). Tariffs and conditions rates that are vertically published. This is very
unfair to consumers because our consumers are not very educated.

High End branding issues

Lack of branding is considered to be a big weakness in the successful marketing in Pakistan
and identification of brands target market is one essential part. For a successful brand it is
necessary to know who the target market is, it will face problems in the long run. Even if the
brand is successfully launched but the target market is unidentified then the brand will
eventually fail and all the efforts will go into vain. So the company has to make sure that its
positioning is based on its target market and viewers. And if you want to save your brand you
cannot sell it to everyone. Also the real objective i.e. revenue generation must be the top
priority in whatever steps the brand manager may take. The balance must be maintained
between volumes and price in order to generate sufficient revenues from the brand.

A company must know the target audience can not only be a limited number of people nor
the target audience can be every individual in the population, because in both the cases the
revenues of the company may be badly hit. Mobilink Indigo and Telenor Personna faced such
problems; Mobilink Indigo showed a corporate image of its brand which targeted the high
end of the market. They invested a lot in their ad campaign and build a nice image of its
brand. But the problem it faces was that it was unable to generate volumes which in turn
affected it volumes. Although the personality of the brand was rich but due to its inability of
capturing high number of people its revenue was quite low as compared to its investment.
The ROI was low.

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On the other hand the problem with Telenor Personna faced was that although the brand
positioning was right and it gave a nice soft image of the brand, it was available everywhere.

The brand was thrown away everywhere which made it a “ sadak chhap brand: and the
audience faced problem in relating the brand, eventually creating confusion in the customers’
mind and hence quitting the brand. Although it generated volumes in the beginning but since
target audience was not well defined, the brand became everyone’s. It was available in every
area for all categories of people. So all the efforts that gave a positive image of the brand
went into vain and the brand eventually lost its share in the market.

Limited innovation, Fruitless so far.

According to the ex- ABM Mobilink Jazz, Ahmed Mustafa Mobilink was the first one to
practically come up with telecom innovations. The first to be mentioned is a BTL activity in
which they developed JAZZ zones in one of the business schools in Lahore, entering which
will automatically lower the charges of the JAZZ users operation within the territory. This
was a new innovative idea to go in terms of BTL but could not cover masses of the target
audience because of the infrastructural problems accompanied by the lack of consumer
behavioral understanding of the activity.

Innovation has been the core of Mobilink since the beginning, but the market maturity and
the related acceptability has been the issues. The same story is reborn with the ‘Easy –Paisa’
brand of the Telenor which provides about the same services as of ‘Genie’. The 2 months old
brand has already started facing acceptability and usage issues in the market. Not only by the
customers but the retailers and the utility providers. Such issues related to the failures of
innovation have also been the favor responsible for lack of innovation in terms of services,
and thus has left the pricing as the only differentiation factor.

The value based differentiation is a positive sign towards a better industry future. This is yet
to be marketed and correspondingly to be supported by the target market t encourage. The
future, if the price war situation remains will put a bar to the lower pricing as there is a limit
of doing so. After the glass ceiling effect of the price war in the near future, the companies
with in- depth branding and innovative solution for service differentiation will reap profits at
a much higher scale.

Advertising issues
The most dominant and expensive advertising medium used within Pakistan is television.
Even though most of the telecom giants within our country are making loses yet they are
inclined towards using this media rather than cutting costs. Newspapers and radio even
though have lost their importance, they still are vital as cheap and successful mediums of
advertisements. At the present about 70%of the television and print ads are of telecom
companies which show the extent these mobile companies spend on wasteful advertisement.
The mediums such as television and print have become cluttered which has led to reduced
effectiveness of advertisements. A recent research by burst media has proven that clutter not
only reduces effectiveness but also can be a cause to annoy customers. As the time available

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to the country most of the people prefer downloading programs and watching then rather than
watching them on TV.

Internet had recently emerged as an effective and measureable medium for advertisement.
The number of clicks is usually used as a measure to pay advertisement this in measuring
how successful or unsuccessful an ad campaign have been on a particular webpage. The
increased use of internet and improvement in IT has increased in the number of people who
are audiences to ads on the internet.

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• The telecom sector has evolved a lot but there still is a long way to go. The
technologies such as 3G and 4G that will completely revolutionize the whole market
scenario. The company that would be quick to take up change would have a
competitive edge and would be able to survive in the long run.
• Recently the concept of customer relationship management has come up. Companies
are trying more and more to create long term relationship with the customer. For this
purpose they have given the relationship manager’s authority to uses the budget freely
and take necessary steps and create lasting relationships. As Pakistani market is more
of price conscious the concept of brand loyalty is rare in order to create a more brand
loyal customer base customer relationship building is necessary.
• Research and development needs to be made an in-house activity rather than
outsourced. Research can help to predict the future trends which are not visible. The
companies need innovation to keep the competitive edge they have and in order to
bring innovation research is the key factor. Research methods need to be developed
and such methods should be developed so that the price bias that exists is removed.
• Companies need to change their focus from only print and TV marketing to internet
marketing. According to BBC the internet marketing has shown a growth of approx 9
percent while traditional marketing has shown a decline of 23 percent.
• Internet has recently sprung as a media to advertising with the greatest presentation.
More and more people are becoming internet users with the IT revolution that has
come in. Many companies have already started using the concept of viral marketing
on the internet. Ufone has already made some Ads that were only shown on the
internet and they have been quite successful in delivering messages.

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