The Festival Call

The 40th plenary of GSM MoU was held in

New Delhi–the days following Diwali–in a jubilant mood. Besides the festival,

there was another good reason to be jubilant. World-wide, the GSM subscriber base had

reached 100-million mark in July 1998, three months earlier than expected. It implied that

GSM operators around the world were signing up a new subscriber every two seconds.

alt="One Touch View: Interactive communications like telebanking, reservations, and directory enquiries are going to demand extra large screens and built-in Internet microbrowser."

align="right" hspace="6" vspace="6">As the global pace

continues, GSM MoU Association expects more than 120 million subscribers by the end

1998–almost double of 70 million at the end of 1997–and 300 million by the end

of year 2000. It is believed that like previous forecasts, this would be exceeded too. SIZE="4" COLOR="#016077">

Role of Mobile Phones COLOR="#000000">

These figures pose more than a challenge

for mobile phone manufacturers, not only in terms of sheer volume, but also in conceiving

and positioning the right product in the market at the right time to meet the ever

changing customer requirements as the market widens to encompass new segments and

applications.

Mobile phones play a critical role in

reaching the target segments and creating new markets. They form the key component of the

packaging or bundling by the operators–the mix of cellular subscription (i.e., SIM

card, sometimes a pre-paid), the phone, and, if not a pre-paid, some free airtime and

services mostly in a giftable carton. In a developing market, it becomes critical to

ensure not only "availability" of mobile phones but also

"affordability" for acceptance of the service. This throws enormous challenge

for operators to devise smart bundling strategies all the time.

The information age is heralding new range

of mobile phones as data, fax, and E-mail are emerging as the norm for a mobile phone. GSM

Phase 2 and 2+ are going to implement even more value-added services requiring Smart

Phones.

The mobile phone manufacturers have to

anticipate market shifts several months in advance to ensure that their products fit the

needs of the desired segments.

face="Arial" size="3" color="#FFFFFF">Exhibit: Micro-segmentation

face="Arial" color="#FFFFFF">Target Groups
	SIZE="1" face="Arial" color="#FFFFFF">Yuppies	SIZE="1" face="Arial" color="#FFFFFF">Upwardly Mobile	SIZE="1" face="Arial" color="#FFFFFF">The Arrived	SIZE="1" face="Arial" color="#FFFFFF">Techno-Whiz Kids
size="1" color="#000000">User Profile	face="ZapDingbats">n Mass market/ teenagers/students n size="1" color="#000000"> Trendy: casual flashy/ colourful and stylish	face="ZapDingbats">n Urban, mobile, professionals n size="1" color="#000000"> Trendy: fashion-oriented (design sensitive)	face="ZapDingbats">n Demand services: n size="1" color="#000000"> Enhanced GSM services n size="1" color="#000000"> Internet-based services	face="ZapDingbats">n Technology aware/savvy: spends on technology marvels n size="1" color="#000000"> Early Adoptors
size="1" color="#000000">Usage	face="ZapDingbats">n Personal use n size="1" color="#000000"> Medium usage n size="1" color="#000000"> First time purchase	face="ZapDingbats">n Official use n size="1" color="#000000"> High usage n size="1" color="#000000"> Maybe first time purchase	face="ZapDingbats">n Official use n size="1" color="#000000"> High usage n size="1" color="#000000"> Second or third time purchase	face="ZapDingbats">n Personal/official use n size="1" color="#000000"> Very high usage n size="1" color="#000000"> Change phone often
size="1" color="#000000">User Needs for the Mobile Phone	face="ZapDingbats">n Convenience: Simple to use n size="1" color="#000000"> Flashy design/colours	face="ZapDingbats">n Simple to use, but features rich n size="1" color="#000000"> Trendy-yet-sobre	face="ZapDingbats">n Compactness (pocket size) with large display n size="1" color="#000000"> PC connectivity (without PC card, i.e., with built-in modem) to browse Internet or access E-mail	face="ZapDingbats">n Smart Phones (GSM Phase 2 and 2+) n size="1" color="#000000"> Internet/E-mail on phone (big screen) n size="1" color="#000000"> Organizer functions Touch-screen technology
src="fmc-2.gif" width="100" height="206" alt="fmc-2.gif (14564 bytes)" align="right" hspace="20"> alt="https://img-cdn.thepublive.com/filters:format(webp)/vnd/media/post_attachments/76d184e5501cf54b629567c8e8fd4cca8097fe361107e986605c3076e573372d.gif (16262 bytes)" align="right" hspace="60"> height="217" alt="https://img-cdn.thepublive.com/filters:format(webp)/vnd/media/post_attachments/19cb2049346ec76974f5e0b4b93e3de67d97b49029c8bf69e911636219a68d94.gif (13401 bytes)" align="right" hspace="20"> width="100" height="217" alt="https://img-cdn.thepublive.com/filters:format(webp)/vnd/media/post_attachments/3229a1c877d1088d2e6ab4858ae52cb2b1773ec3ee0be46bde42f205fbf69d38.gif (10395 bytes)" align="right" hspace="40">

Micro-segmentation COLOR="#000000">

The discerning market today necessitates

careful segmentation of the market—and to be more precise micro-segmentation—to

go deeper into consumer needs and address each of them with the right products and

packages. The mobile phone becomes an important element in such an exercise and the

operators look towards phone manufacturers to come out with the best fit which obviously

needs enormous advanced market research, planning, and investments. SIZE="4" COLOR="#016077">

The Festival Times COLOR="#000000">

Diwali brings exciting times for consumer

market with demand for new products and services. The focus is on young and trendy, and a

package for gifting away. Two festive packages were launched in Mumbai as well as Delhi,

using one such offering—the "One Touch Club" from Alcatel. SIZE="2">

Max Touch Diwali Bonanza

Max Touch had a

bumper promotion in the month of October 1998. Subscribers enrolling between 1 October and

31 October were eligible to participate in the "Max Touch Diwali Bonanza"

contest which offered two free international return air tickets from Air India every day.

Bound to fly!

AirTel’s Diwali Gift Scheme src="fmc-5.gif" width="200" height="120" alt="fmc-5.gif (16993 bytes)" align="right"

hspace="6" vspace="6">

AirTel too

announced "gift a service/phone" scheme to rope in more subscribers during

Diwali with an objective to enter newer segments—the young and the trendy—as

well as channelize the enormous money spent by people on the gifts during the festival

season. Gift to win!

The success of

these packages once again establishes the importance of segmentation as well as the role

of mobile phone in the packaging or bundling.

Indian Customer Gets the Best

Another advantage

of choosing GSM, the largest used digital cellular technology now, for the Indian

subscriber is that he is able to get the latest and the best of the GSM phones as used by

the subscribers elsewhere in the world.

For instance, the

One Touch Club, which is called as Safar in the UAE, has already captured about 25 percent

of the market there, besides selling one million pieces with SFR in France. Its flashy

cousin, One Touch Easy—a hot favourite with Bangloreans too—with 30 percent

marketshare has sold two million pieces as part of the "OLA" package of France

Telecom. It is extremely popular with the Malaysians too. Both models are very much in

vogue in South Africa also.

A product

correctly positioned is bound to have a successful "safar". SIZE="1" COLOR="#ff0000">