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For a number of years, Mobilink and Ufone were the sole window that Pakistan had to quality telecom, but that window has recently been further extended by Warid, Telenor and more recently by Zong. Whereas Warid came in quietly and then made to take off through advertising, Telenor came out with a bang, and it’s marketing has not looked back since. I will not talk about the multitude of confused positioning that Telecom advertising has produced (in a later edition of my column), rather, I will concentrate on Zong and its marketing this week. Zong bounced out from China mobile, and has been pretty active as far as TV and print advertising is concerned. The name is quite a curiosity and an eccentricity, but the marketing campaign has been a breath of fresh air in a telecom cluttered advertising front where all comers have a song and dance routine to sell sims. As far as Zong is concerned, two aspects particularly gained my attention. The first was a an amusing TV Ad which sees a guy walking and talking about Zong and different telecoms. The Ad looks to poke fun at competitors and at the same time establish Zong as a more affordable and more flexible service. Talking to consumers, the most popular of Zong’s services so far remains the one number that you can call for free for a lifetime, and that resulted in Zong sims being run within a few weeks of its launch. One feature of the TV ad lingo that also brings out the affordibility of Zong is the use of “12 Anna” for a text message to any number, rather than using Paisas.

The other aspect of their marketing that I particularly liked was their use of print ads, and one in particular, reproduced below, which shows a wall full of graffiti, which again pokes fun at different telecoms and their taglines. Once again, humorous, and unique in style and presentation, and that is something that Zong needs to be lauded for. They haven’t fallen into the trap of easy advertising by getting a big name endorsement or having a song, but rather have tried to flank the competitors with their campaign. But as I always say, the more competitive Telecoms get, the more the consumer wins.

This week’s “Rant” goes to ABN AMRO and their sales network (soon to be known as RSB). It appears as if the sales team for the various ABN products have no central connecting points to compare notes about whether a certain person wants services or not. This is a story that has been reported time and time again: one applied for a certain service, that is accepted, and the same day the flow of calls begin. Caller one congratulates you and then offers a service that is being offered ‘free of cost’. When YOU convince THEM that you don’t want/need the service, they close the phone, and 5 minutes later another person calls with another service. A colleague received as many as 40 calls in one day, and that is much more than a nuisance. The tragedy is that ABN is a quality brand, but if this keeps up, ABN are killing their brand’s equity for short term gains. Even more tragic is that not only do they not seem to have a central information connect, they don’t really seem to care about needing one. I can’t believe for an instance that those running the bank are not aware of the nuisance this is causing their consumers. Our services industry needs to stand up and be counted. Till next week, be safe and believe.

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