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Monday, November 30, 2009

Where is Warid? What's that GLOW?





Lately we have seen Warid advertisements missing on TV. Where have they gone? Why aren't they as aggressively conducting their marketing campaigns as some of their rivals i.e. Ufone, Moblink, Zong? Its one question that we at Telecom Branding in Pakistan have been pondering over for a long time.
We came up with a number of possible reasons but there is one that I deem far more plausible than others. When Warid entered the market a few years ago, its marketing campaign was as energetic as any other. But over the years we have seen a steady decline in its branding aggression. I personally think that it may be due primarily to the fact that once Warid was done promoting itself so energetically, it had its loyal customer base created and they no longer needed to attract more customers. Instead they were probably more inclined towards the qualitative element of 'providing the best' to their current market share instead of poorly serving a very large rather unmanageable customer base.
However at the same time in order to retain these customers they kept on providing offers such as lower rates and SMS bundles and late night cheap call rates in a steady manner. This in technical terms is what they call 'market penetration' in which you try and make more sales to existing customers. And this is apparently Warid's plan for now.
Another interesting aspect to this situation is the introduction of GLOW, however. Previously Warid had two main dishes on its menu- ZEM & ZAHI. While the former dealt in pre-paid service, the latter had its name amongst post-paid numbers. GLOW is the recent addition to the pre-paid service family of Warid. I think the way they have promoted themselves this time is more inclined towards youth and youngsters than Zem was. Zem with its basic red and white colors while GLOW employs the entire spectrum of colors. By word of mouth, I have heard that GLOW is offering the cheapest SMS rates these days with some of them being as low-priced at 'unlimited number of text messages for 7 Rs. a WEEK!' I mean what else could today's young people of Pakistan ask for who are constantly glued to their phone sets sending texts. But even GLOW isn't being as actively marketed as its Telenor djuice and Mobilink Jazz counterparts. The question is WHY? Is the answer market penetration or is it something else?
Feel free to share your opinion with us by commenting on this post.