Talk time: Cell players in brand game to snare users

Lalitha Srinivasan in Mumbai

In a bid to gain a competitive edge over rivals, leading Indian cellular service providers are now stepping up their brand-building exercises to woo mobile phone users. And the sharp focus of their communication strategy is now on: how to connect with customers emotionally.

For starters, MTNL is currently focusing on outdoor media advertising to promote its recently-launched cellular service “Dolphin” in Mumbai. Incidentally, the company is all set to paint select BEST buses with Dolphin’s ad proposition within a week.

As part of its communication strategy, MTNL is also planning to set up a new panel of advertising agencies in Mumbai, very soon. “We have received applications from over 24 leading advertising agencies till now. We plan to display strip advertising (slides) in local television channels In Mumbai, very soon,” informs Mr Gopal, general manager (marketing), MTNL.

At present, MTNL’s advertising panel includes ad agencies such as RK Swamy/BBDO, Canco Advertising, Mode, Adfactors, Maa Bozell, Mudra Communications and Sobhagya Advertising.

With the adline, ‘Dolphin- the affordable mobile service’ MTNL has already put up its outdoor media campaign in Mumbai.” We had plans to paint the suburban trains with Dolphin’s brand messages first. But, that plan is slightly delayed now. Very soon, you will see suburban trains painted with Dolphin messages.”

MTNL has earmarked Rs 7 crore as adspend to promote its new launch ‘Dolphin’ informs Mr Gopal. MTNL forayed into the cellular service provider market with the launch of ‘Dolphin’ on February 27 this year. According to Mr Gopal, MTNL has already got 33,000 customers for its pre-paid card services.

Yet another lead player in this segment, Orange, Hutchison Max Telecom’s cellular service has literally painted the city orange with its aggressive outdoor media campaigns over the last few months. And to announce its new rental rates, Orange is now in the process of rolling out an aggressive print campaign.

On the company’s brand-building strategy, Mr Sanjeev Vohra, vice-president, marketing & sales, Orange, informs that the basic principle of Orange advertising is to portray ‘tangible benefits’ in a simple, refreshing and interesting manner. “The advertising and communication will gel with the Orange vision of — wirefree future.
There’s synergy across all media vehicles which include, press, outdoor, below-the-line in terms of communications and imagery,” explains Mr Vohra.

As part of its marketing strategy, the company recently tied-up with Yahoo! to provide Yahoo! messenger service to Orange subscribers on their cellphones. “This alliance with Yahoo extends to all spheres of marketing. We are jointly marketing this services to our respective consumer bases. We are also present in the Yahoo! Website. Apart from this, there are messages on Yahoo! Mail and ground-level promotions at cybercafes,” adds Mr Vohra.

Mr Vohra firmly believes that cellphone is a mass utility service and should be made as affordable as possible. So, what are Orange’s new marketing initiatives to promote its services? Mr Vohra informs that the company’s recent objectives have been focussed on giving another thrust to expanding the market. Adds Mr Vohra: “We have now devoted our energies to factors that impact purchase-decisions and encourage retention: price and value-added services.”

Across the road, BPL Mobile is charting out a new brand communication strategy to take on rival brands in the mobile world. Says BP Singh, chief operating officer, BPL Mobile Communications Ltd: “Our new brand communication is human, tangible as it aims at having a dialogue with our customers. To communicate the customer benefits, we have now adopted a friendly approach. This new mode is reflected on our current ad campaign.”

With the tagline “Put a smile in your voice” the company has recently launched a series of press advertisements across the country. Mr Singh recalls that in the past, the brand communication from BPL Mobile was rational, logical and showcased technology and innovations with minimal ‘build-up’ value. “While BPL
Mobile continued to be the most preferred brand with the customer, we felt the need for an emotive connect — a blend of customer
intimacy and technology innovator in its brand promise,” he adds.

Mr Singh observes that India is now witnessing a paradigm shift in the concept of selling — with an increase in consumer spend and plethora of retail brands vying for the consumers’ mind space. “Hence, it’s critical to adopt a completely different approach to attract customers and build the value of brands by sharing an experience with the customer than focussing on increasing sales volumes,” elaborates Mr Singh.

Hence, at BPL Mobile, the brand communication strategy involves the following steps now:
* To avoid technical jargons.
* The tone and style carries human warmth and encourages interpersonal contact.
* Each communication imprints in the consumer’s mind ‘yet another smart new benefit in BPL’.

“In short technology innovation is portrayed by actual customer’s benefit in our brand communications now,’ sums up Mr Singh.