What the marketing campaigns say about ad agencies and marketers of Robi, GP, Airtel and Banglalink?

Are the mobile operators of Bangladesh spending too much on their marketing campaigns? Frequent campaigns by the mobile operators are in many cases not inter-related and in some cases lack creativity. Some TV commercials in fact have nothing to do with a service of a company; it seems ads are created and shown just to be in the mind of existing users. Are the mobile operators and their advertising agencies spending it right? Or they are just spending it for the sake of carrying out marketing campaigns?

A business school instructor of North South University, who worked for a leading advertising agency in the past, Galib Mohiuddin, had this on his Facebook wall last week: The telco campaigns in Bangladesh only tell me that they now have too much marketing budget to allow such creative to pass. I guess an FMCG would be much more cautious in spending every penny even with rocketing revenues. Telcos in Bangladesh used to do the same a couple of years back when they had less marketing budget. Exposure frequency is not the only thing in marketing. It doesn't say a lot about our telco marketers.

Shabab Din Shareq, who is working in an advertising agency and actively looking after a telco account participated in the discussion and said "I know we (telco and agency) have bombarded the mass media with frequent campaigns. Sometimes the creatives are not up to the mark. But surprisingly, the Brand Health Study report we get shows overwhelming results which probably pushes the telcos to go for more. The competition is too tight. Head-to-head products. Absence of ads (a particular product) reflects on the revenue figures. I don't know how it happens but this is the truth.

Galib Mohiuddin responded to Shabab's point by saying "Nothing wrong with media bombardment, telcos look for memorability and emotional attachment. Media bombardment will definitely reflect positively on brand studies with a three-month window.  Further, it is the job of a brand management professional in the client side to ensure quality of a particular TVC. Agencies tend to do what clients like. And research agencies twitch to please clients and get future businesses. A lot of them present flowery picture to all competitor clients from the same industry."

Shabab Din Shareq pointed out that the market is almost saturated. He added "The positioning is almost clear to the mass. Loyal customers remains loyal. At this moment telcos fight for the floating customers -  who only look for benefits not anything else. Customers whose phone number is not their identity. Each carry more than one SIM and keep on changing depending on the product offered by the telcos. It is quite risky to go for more of thematic campaigns where competitors will be vigorously promoting their products and offers."

Galib Mohiuddin said in response that the marketers’ job is to increase loyalty, to shift less loyal to more loyal, and to give additional reasons to consumers to switch to a brand beyond functionality. He said "Take the toothpaste market or cola market for example. These have been there for ages. The cola product is only water, sugar, coloring, flavour and carbonation; differentiated only by image, and has been there for more than 100 years as a branded product."

Shabab Din Shareq in his last response said that "As I was saying, the floating customers are price seekers. Loyalty campaigns would have been logical if there were service seekers. Isn’t it? On the other hand Cola or Toothpaste customers are almost never price seekers. Image building communications are justified for them.”

Aziz Hakim, who is working for a leading telco for nine years had some points to share to the discussion. He said "Just a random comment on telecom industry reality check - I know many people who spend 60,000tk + on new mobile phones, but when it comes to call rate they start hishabing poisha. If you care , kichu awareness er bapar ache for mobile industry consumers."

Hakim added that "Europe , America , Australia or Japan , meaning the 1st world countries… okhane je dame telecom hardware & software kena hoy from IBM or Mircosoft or SAP or Oracle , amader BD te telecom operator rao eki dame or aro beshi dame kine due to high taxes or immature market conditions. But when it comes to selling of service, with the same or more cost than 1st world carriers , BD mobile operator der revenue is 30/40 times less per consumer, resulting BD being one of the most cheapest mobile service rates country in the WHOLE WORLD. Same cost as the west, lowest revenue per subscribers in the world. But bd telecoms don’t get a very encouraging gesture from the educated consumers side.

There are many people I know who don’t mind to spend 60,000 + tk on the latest model handset but call rate er bepare poishar hisab kore , regardless of inflation and price hike of all the commodities imaginable, from generator fuels to run the BTS to tax+ btrc jaw which eats out close to 60 % of revenue ( not profit ).

Bangladesh is one of the few countries of the world where network coverage is more than 95% of population and call rate is one of the cheapest in the world. No other industry in the country gives so much and takes so little, no other industry is as transparent and highest tax paying as telecom."

Then Hakim suggested a lethal scenario, which was nevertheless, pointed to all the mobile users of the country "Think yourself without a mobile for an hour and then judge the price of NOT having a mobile service".

Galib Mohiuddin said "Aziz, I am not arguing the merit of telco products or rates. Consumer insights like the ones you mentioned are important in devising telco products. I am pointing to the fact that "If you are going to spend money on marketing, spend it right."

Aziz Hakim said in return that "I totally agree on the ill/in effective spending on the marketing, in the mean time so called marketing agencies are earning millions $. I would rather put the budget on loyalty programs and lifestyle benefit offerings for consumers and business customers.”

Tousif Jamal, a management employee of Unilever, participated in the discussion and said that "Telco companies in Bangladesh do not have a solid brand proposition and they tend to swindle around with trends. Take GP for example, a campaign during Eid on missed calls with Ishana, then a campaign with Ananta, then an ad with unknown faces on the double recharge. None of these campaigns are linked to the core theme/essence of Cholo Bohodur. How is Ananta even associated with GP? Just because he is the talk of the town (and when town I mean the metro cities, is Ananta also popular to a farmer in Gaibandha?). The same goes for Robi, who recently launched a football predictor game on facebook. How is that even relevant to their core theme/essence of 'Jole Uthun Apon Shoktite'? I came to know that it’s a six months campaign. So you have a company talking about football for six months, cricket for the next (T20 WC 14), then what next? Kabadi?"

Tousif Jamal further commented that “Just bringing in an example from FMCG since you made the comparison. Take Dove for example. Dove has been speaking about Real Beauty for years now and it will continue to do. It's an unbeatable proposition, a strong differentiation, and you see that in each and every communication of Dove. Our Telcos, unfortunately, haven’t been able to crack it.”

Galib Mohiuddin agreed with Tousif Jamal and said “Telco marketers need to move beyond understanding generic brand management to more specialized industry brand management where they depend more on consumer understanding above surface level. Statistics/metrics may prove a point; but the consumer market is not statistics/metrics."

Galib Mohiuddin cautioned that if marketers start believing that marketing is a money game, then market shares would never change. He said in concluding paragraph that "Such a person should quit marketing. End of the day, all consumers are price seekers." He ended the discussion by saying that "If you don't have a solution to a problem, it doesn't mean there is no solution. It only means you don't have the solution right now."