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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.
/vnd/media/post_attachments/0cced7e9ee3c94c320a60a826d3b75d4e32ea00bdf1a1d3a5c53c19213ef0f7f.gif)
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.
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" color="#FFFFFF">Target Groups |
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| 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 |
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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 |
hspace="20"> /vnd/media/post_attachments/76d184e5501cf54b629567c8e8fd4cca8097fe361107e986605c3076e573372d.gif)
alt="https://img-cdn.thepublive.com/filters:format(webp)/vnd/media/post_attachments/76d184e5501cf54b629567c8e8fd4cca8097fe361107e986605c3076e573372d.gif (16262 bytes)" align="right" hspace="60">/vnd/media/post_attachments/19cb2049346ec76974f5e0b4b93e3de67d97b49029c8bf69e911636219a68d94.gif)
height="217" alt="https://img-cdn.thepublive.com/filters:format(webp)/vnd/media/post_attachments/19cb2049346ec76974f5e0b4b93e3de67d97b49029c8bf69e911636219a68d94.gif (13401 bytes)" align="right" hspace="20">/vnd/media/post_attachments/3229a1c877d1088d2e6ab4858ae52cb2b1773ec3ee0be46bde42f205fbf69d38.gif)
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"> |
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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.
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.
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
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".