The Random Noise of Telecom: Umair Naeem

Anyone who knows me would be well aware that I get truly annoyed when marketers look for the easy way out to market the products. Rather than understanding true insights coming from the consumers, they look towards existing trends and easy solutions for trying to grab the consumer’s attention and trying to get their brand to stay Top Of Mind. Our beloved Telecom Industry too by and large falls for the pitfall of taking the easy way out. My mind immediately goes to the somewhat raunchy “Baat Ban Jaye/ Public Deman” Ufone campaign of a couple of years ago. As is the case with most instances of taking the easy way out, the ad is just attention grabbing noise, and nothing more.

More recently, the telecom industry seems to have been taken over by the song and dance formula, and sees Telenor and Mobilink competing with each other to see who can get more mileage out of it. In all honesty, even though the formula has little to do with the brand or the product, the concept made some sense initially because it was unique and attention grabbing. Lately though, it has become synonymous with what I like to call Random Noise Generation. Why not just shoot a video with a bunch of guys and girls screaming and then have the “Jazz” tagline at the end? The concept of thinking before launching any campaign seems to have fizzled away. I seem to remember the Jazz High Octane campaign sometime back, which at lease seemed to have some sense and reason behind it. The only thing that seems slightly amusing in the latest High Budget Random Noise to come from Jazz is the sight of Wasim Akram dancing around, and oh yes… there is further addition to the growing plethora of Jazz Brand Ambassadors / Endorsers / Models / Celebrities / Famous People! What exactly are they?! Do they actually use Jazz or do they only sing (or dance) about the brand?

But what really got me was the latest ad from Mobilink which I saw yesterday. A 15 second (or so) spot called ‘G.I.60 Seconds’ to the theme of Mission Impossible. I wonder where I’ve heard that theme before and kudos to the creative team for thinking of a unique original never before used term of Gone in 60 Seconds. But don’t get me wrong, I’m not criticizing the ad this time (not really), I am criticising the Reason for the Ad. Something we marketers like to call the ‘Discriminator’ for the Brand. Something that is unique… the Unique Selling Point and what not… this time round, the so called USP is a ‘value’ added service through which you can have your SMS disappear from the receiver’s set in 60 seconds, a-la Mission Impossible. Why oh why would you want that? Can’t you just simply delete the text? Why do people save old text messages? Is there anyone home at the Mobilink Consumer Research Centre?

Come forth dear readers, for this GI60 service is the perfect example of Gold Plating, whereby companies add services to the product that the consumer don’t need or want, and then market them as if the service was a God Send. The wonderful service of hearing songs when you call a telecom number is another one of those Gold Plated Value additions.

I sincerely hope someone in these Telecom companies sees sense and at least tries to be creative with their messages and concepts. A quick look at Indian Telecoms Advertising can certainly be productive!

Till next week. Be safe and beLIEve.

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All aboard Alltop and a Zong of a Dissapointment:Umair Naeem

A while back, Guy Kawasaki, a former Apple Fellow, launched Alltop.com, an online news aggregator. Kawasaki himself, describes Alltop as an online Magazine Rack on various topics, and that is essentially what the theme of the website is. It’s easy to use information on whatever topic you want, without hassle. Not convinced, well, imagine you want to know the latest news on politics, sports and weather to name a few; along with your daily dose of views on your various hobbies (photography) or your favorite industry or on marketing or maybe you just want to know about various oddities. Anyway, rather than going here and there, you have it all aggregated in one page: Alltop. It’s in a way akin to rss feeds, but somewhat easier to use for newbies. As all good ideas go, this one is simple and easy to use; but the better thing, and also the reason why it finds its way into my column on e-Pakistan, is that a week ago, Alltop Pakistan went live. We are now the fifth country (yes, India is already there) to have our own Alltop page in the Geo section. The efforts of Atif Khan in this regards have to be lauded.

Now apart from the usual “Pakistan is now part of the world community” pride, Alltop Pakistan actually will be quite useful. For a long time, I and a number of other people have felt that a central depository of information regarding Pakistan is something that the Web is missing. Yes, we have a number of other aggregators, Wikipedia’s definition of Pakistan and CIA’s fact book (I might also mention our Tourism Website), but the truth is that if someone sitting in Australia wants to know about Pakistan, its culture, its people and how the thinking is over here, he would be in a bit of a quandary. He (or she) may find a number of blogs or websites that mention Pakistanis in less than a glorious light, and come away with the generic (and largely untrue) perception of Pakistan as a backward nation. But with Alltop Pakistan, he (or she), may read about Pakistan from the perspective of Pakistanis, through their blogs, websites, newspapers and so on. At least he will have a first person account of what we are all about. So on behalf of all Pakistanis, Welcome to Pakistan, Alltop!!

A few weeks ago I wrote a piece on Zong and its functional, different, creative, unique and personal ad campaign; and lauded its Print and TV campaign. Having said all that I recently discovered this, the British Ad on which the Zong TVC was based on. So I will retract a bit of what I said earlier. Whereas the print campaign still stands just as unique and admirable, and whereas there launch TV Ad was ‘nice’ if not outstanding; their rather blatant copy of the British Ad left a bit of a bad taste in the mouth. I keep harping about the creativity that we have in Pakistan, and then when you have a good example of it, you are left with a Zong shaped disappointment. What really amused me was that they showed people playing soccer at one point in the Ad, why not Cricket or Hockey? But having said all that, I still laud Zong for at least having the decency and the intelligence that they need something more than just Random Noise that the Telecom Media is generating through elaborate song and dance routines. So at least, Zong remains unique in the Telecom Clutter. On a further note, the production values of the Zong Ad (sound quality for one thing) left a bit to be desired.

On that bombshell of a note (thank you Jeremy Clarkson), I shall bid you all adieu!

Till next week, Watch More TV and beLIEve!

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Manning Technology: Umair Naeem

When we talk about technology augmenting day to day life and making things easier and more convenient for people from various walks of life, the ball often falls onto technology itself for being unreliable, particularly in a country like Pakistan where state of the art facilities are rare. This can often be a very unfair statement, as it is the very facilitators of the technology who are responsible for ensuring its effectiveness in doing what it was supposed to be doing.

What often happens is that technology and facilities are in place, but the people who are supposed to be manning them and people who are supposed to maintain them end up being the unreliable ones. On a recent trip to Lahore, I had the misfortune of trying to connect to a Wireless internet network at the Karachi Airport. A few minutes of trying, and I looked for someone to help me out, but none of the airport personnel knew what was going on. I gave up, as my flight was about to board. On the way back, I found myself waiting at the Islamabad Airport, and spotted the free Wateen Internet Kiosks. There were two on one side, and two on the centre of the hall. From the two on the side, one was being used, while the other was free, so I tried to access my email from it, but lo and behold, there was no connection. Of the other two kiosks, one was off and the other was not working as well. Out of 4 possible kiosks, only one was working.

Whether Wateen is to blame, or the Airport authorities, it hardly matters. What matters is that technology should be a smooth and easy to use facility, not something that you would end up tearing your hair out over. And this is the responsibility of those who have put up the technology in question and those who are supposed to maintain it.

Let’s move to another example. Colgate Palmolive has a number for Consumer Affairs, on the back of its products (most specifically detergents), and when recently I needed some information regarding its products, I figured I’d give their consumer affairs a try. Unfortunately when I called, no one answered, and that’s been the case for the past few days. It’s truly insane when you have put out a number and you have no one manning it. Unilever’s Raabta Service is much better in this regard, even though their operators need to ensure that they have more detailed information regarding their products.

I have mentioned time and time again before about how important I feel it is to have Consumer Awareness in order for big businesses to feel continually responsible for the services that they offer. The encouraging thing is that Pakistan is moving towards that direction, but until and unless we, as consumers do not stand up for what we is our right, we shall remain static.

This week’s Rant goes out to the wonderfully original people behind the Mobilink Jazz Ad Campaigns. Did I mention how creative I think they are? Of course they must be! How else can they come up with a another Jazzy Tableau Theme with a song and dance routine with guys and girls jumping around and singing about how wonderful Jazz is? And of course, the height of creativity, having Wasim Akram join in and sing as well. It’s truly brilliant! How can it fail?! It has people singing and dancing about Jazz?!

It’s time like these that its true when people say there’s no creativity in Pakistan. I still don’t think that’s the case, but the ‘creative’ are certainly proving their point. What’s more ironic is that I thought the Mobilink ‘Join Us’ campaign was actually nice. Anyway, till next time, stay safe and Believe.

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Zong-ing the Telecoms: Umair Naeem

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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A Neutral Media: Umair Naeem

A while back I got into an interesting discussion with a friend, regarding the inadvertent bias that a reporter or a newscaster can have. The basis of the discussion revolved around the style of delivery of newscasters, and their facial expressions while reporting breaking news. It’s quite normal that good news is delivered with a cheery tone, and tragic news is often delivered in a somber serious manner. These mannerisms and tones often have the effect of transmitting the emotion that the newscaster is trying to portray to the viewers or listeners. Imagine this power of the media, when viewers can be made to feel the frenzy of anger, or the fervor of a celebration, all by the way in which the news is delivered.

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The Blogs are Here: Umair Naeem

The advent of the Internet and digital media as an information gathering tool is something that has been mentioned time and time again; and their importance only increases as Pakistanis move forward and become more internet savvy. I wrote about Viral Marketing and its implication as a marketing tool in an earlier column, and this week I’ll focus on how Blogs can be a powerful tool for external communication and marketing a brand. On the surface, Blogs are simply Web Logs, or online diaries that help a person project his or her ideas and wishes to the global community through the Internet.

Dig a little deeper, and you will be amazed to find a world where popular Blogs are read and referred to as if they were opinion pieces from the New York Times. Users access Blogs for reviews of gadgets, brands, books, websites and what not! It can be argued that Blogs are not that much of a phenomenon in Pakistan, but that is a misconception.

Firstly, in this age of global brands and international marketing, if a popular Blog is written in Australia lambasting a technology that is being brought into Pakistan, then the company bringing in that technology is already on the back foot.

All consumers making an investment more often than not scour the internet to gain a better understanding of the service or technology that they are investing on, and that is where popular opinion Blogs come into their own. Secondly, Pakistan is not as far behind the world in Blogging as you may consider; on the contrary, it is active and growing at a rapid rate. [Read more]

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Media for the People: This Week in e-Pakistan

It seems like an age ago when the burgeoning reach of the Pakistani media seemed like a distant dream; but now, with access to more TV channels and Radio channels than you can shake your remote at; it has become an obvious reality. It is within this reality, that the Pakistan media has begun to find its feet and evolve itself into a position of further strength by looking to eventually gain the ability to be trusted in terms of the information that it internally communicate to us, and to also be able to externally brand Pakistan. [Read more]

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Adding the e into Elections:Umair Naeem

Finally, the much awaited Elections have come and gone. Fortunately for Pakistan, they went by without any major incident, although the political aftermath is something that we shall continue to face for a while. But leaving aside the political repercussions, elections are always an event that is driven by numbers; both pre and post polls. [Read more]

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Virally Gunning for your Attention: Umair Naeem

There is a huge battle going on for gaining the attention of consumers, especially when there is so much clutter around and with so many ‘brands’ harping their bandwagons. Within this scenario, a little thing called Viral Marketing can come in handy and be converged into that thing marketers like to call as ‘360 degree’ communication. Now before all of you switch off and start wondering what I am on about, here’s a quick refresher on what I’m referring to.360 degree communication refers to an integrative marketing/communication campaign that uses many touch points originating from different media to deliver a consistent message to the consumer regarding the particular Brand. And in today’s world, everything is branded; from products that we use, to countries, states, governments and even news or propaganda (or people running in elections).

And the battle that I referred to in the beginning is not just going on in the developed world, it’s part and parcel of the e-Pakistan that you and I are a part of. This is where Viral Marketing comes in and can be hugely exploited in Pakistan. The said term can be best explained if you think about how Word of Mouth can cause news to travel, or how it can be the major reason why a Brand is successful. Now think of a virtual ‘e-Word of Mouth’ that replicates and spreads using various Internet social networks, blogs or popular websites. That is Viral Marketing, and it can be made a huge part of a 360 degree campaign. [Read more]

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