Mobile Number Portability - Impact on Marketing

As PM Manmohan Singh flags off nation wide roll out of Mobile Number Portability in India, there are two set of hypotheses that emerge.

1) The rich get richer and poor get poorer

2) Equal division (of subscribers)

It has been speculated by many that those operators who came in early like Airtel and acquired the top end of the pyramid will loose out due to MNP, since the barrier of change in number no longer exists and those operating at the lower end of the pyramid like TATA and Reliance will benefit due to cheaper call rates. It seems quite logical, but there are another set of analysts that say strong players will get stronger. This is based on test results. Assuming that there will be a high degree of churn, who will benefit ?

In my opinion, the operator's brand equity is no longer an issue. Telecom services have reached a commodity stage in India. So for differentiating their services operators should ideally increase their marketing spend. But I don't think so. Operators will eventually have to cut Marketing budgets, which means no Zoo Zoo campaigns, no Docomos and even no SRK, Rahman campaigns. Here is why.

In the long run, its the operator with better network that will win. For instance there have been quite a few connectivity issues with Airtel network in Lucknow. If Vodafone provides me with better coverage, reduced call drops, I'll switch. And if this happens i.e. if both the above propositions are rejected better quality operators will benefit. In an environment of reducing ARPUs, and increasing customer churn (thanks to MNP), operators will have to divert budgets to handling the network i.e. increase their capex and opex and thus cut marketing expenses. Influence of quality on churn will also be amplified due to high penetration. A higher penetration means that if my network is faulty, the negative word of mouth and reduced switching costs will mean more churn. In the long run this will lead to a reduced tolerance of customers to poor quality.

A proof of this happening comes from this Airtel message I got today.

"Airtel always provides superior customer services to you,through 24X7 anytime,anywhere service. Thanks for being on India's network!"

Giving the finger to a scripted life!

It's crazy to take jobs just because they look good on your resume. That's like saving sex for your old age. ~ Warren Buffet. You have plans for your life, career etc. You've built an entire script but what is this based on? Scott at Ted talks about how almost 80% of the people around the world don't like the job they do. In his career, he found one day that most of the job he did was automated by his competitors. Building the resume was clearly not way forward. It was during that time he he heard the quote by warren buffet, " It's crazy to take jobs just because they look good on your resume. That's like saving sex for your old age ". This was when he left his job. While there are know universities, which talk about finding your passion, Scott talks about a lens that can help in finding the job we love.

Twitter and the world of hate - Delhi Gang Rape

Common wisdom says that venting out reduces frustration. Twitter, Facebook, and blogs help us achieve the same. While what normally starts as a "venting out" experience, I suspect is turning out to be an anguish enhancer. When I look at trending topics on twitter all what I see is a world of "Hate". Small pieces of hate messages turn out to be a big collective bunch of hate. Take the case of Delhi gang rape and some ill-minded comments of politicians and spiritual gurus. What started as scattered bickering remarks against a comment made by "Asaram" has now become a full fledged ball of rage. This rage was "non-directional", had no agenda and was oriented towards sarcasm and wit. While Delhi gang rape highlights poor governance, societal problems and problems of law and order, venting out on a forum that accumulates the frustration by many such people only adds to the low well-being. It is time we use some discretion and post messages that...

Twitter vs. News - Effectiveness in building relations

Social Media has been termed as an effective way to build relationships. Brands are trying to harness this capability by building social presence on this new media. Celebrities today account for the maximum amount of followers on the web with twitter being a fine example for this. But is this new media effective in creating relationships with this vast list of followers, which celebrities often tend to have? In an interesting research by Lee and Jang , they explore the effectiveness of celebrities in building social presence on new media. They compare twitter and a news website to check the relative effectiveness of enhancing social presence. While the traditional PR machinery used by celebrities might give them news coverage, they contend that their tweets can reduce the barrier of relational development as compared to a news website. Their findings are counter-intuitive and very interesting.

Economy of Social - Social Media Tips, Marketing and Business

Search This Blog