Corporate Communications, Media Relations, Brand Management, Brand Manager, Employee Communications, Corporate Affairs, External Communications, Communications Manager, Company Spokesperson, PR Manager, Analyst Relations Manager

1. TRENDZ
ASHEESH PANDIA
BRAND MANAGEMENT
AND CORPORATE COMMU-
NICATIONS CONSULTANT
TELE-MIMETICS, TELE-
TRENDS AND FOCUS
FOR INSPIRATION!
On a global level too, most telecom markets remain overall
pulsating with focus on higher speeds, better interactivity and
customer experience.
OVER THE LAST quarter I had been very keting strategies today seems starkly different. And tunities for telecom consulting and marketing
fortunate to interview and discuss one-on-one then there remain similarities too in terms of trends organizations and analysts lie. Subscriber base
with some of the ‘who’s who’ of Canadian Telecom especially in the Social Media era. According to Mr. might have been sustained or grown but the rev-
Industry. What’s most interesting behind the suc- Gautam Nath, one of the best Canadian marketing enues seem to dip gradually. With respect to the
cess of many of these leaders and their organiza- knowledge-banks today, who I had the opportu- extremely low-margins, it’s not difficult to gauge
tions’ outstanding performance was the extremely nity to meet recently, “Multi-Cultural marketing the situation when you find analysts use Price-
simple but fundamentally a profound marketing dynamics is the most sought-after horizon here in Earnings (P/E) and Price-to-Sales (Price/Sales)
wisdom. I could easily compare their thought- Canada at the moment” . I feel essentially the rise in Ratios as measures of valuation; for some com-
patterns with the likes of Al Ries and Jack Trout, Multi-Cultural Marketing shares a similar pattern panies have little or no profits to speak of unfor-
the marketing Gurus and founders of positioning to that of the ongoing ‘Rural Penetration pursuit’ tunately, especially at this time. And now, all of a
theory. Most of these interviews were remarkably in India. And yet again, considering that Canada sudden, inadequate Spectrum poses another big
insightful not only in terms of where the Cana- wants the largest pipelines at the lowest cost which challenge in India which DoT, the telecom regu-
dian or Global Telecom Industry is headed to but definitely would demand more funds, access to latory body, proposes to address with Refarming
also in that how just about any geography could global capital market through more relaxed and the 900 megahertz (MHz) spectrum when opera-
relate to the other from the cause and effect per- free competition and more incumbents is desirable tors’ licenses come up for renewal between 2014
spective of micro & mega trends and eventually, in not much unlike how it had always been in India and 2025 by including it in the Spectrum Bill in
one way or the other, can possibly utilize the end regardless of the competition because population its recommendation. Telecom providers are of
takeaways towards their collaborative industrial and the market size is awesome. course not equally fond of such a recommenda-
betterment. From marketing standpoint this at On a global level too, most telecom markets tion by DoT because there are reasons to believe
first seems tough to assimilate though, let alone remain overall pulsating with focus on higher that it would not be appropriate at this point when
to be compared any further. More so, because we speeds, better interactivity and customer experi- you have to be moving all the subscribers to a
speak of one of the most dynamic and particularly ence. Realistically, it is easy to understand that the brand new network as a consequence while they
now, evermore stirred-up industrial segments and Churn Management is definitely a very important are on a fully functional one, already. Let alone the
also when the diversity is hugely evident, among issue still for the most part because acquiring a obvious interruption in current service and big
widely different geographies. However, if we refer new customer is much more pricey and unpre- investments that will be needed to carry out this
from the standpoint of ‘inspiration’, similar to a dictable than retaining the existing customer change in any case, at any given point in time.
Case-study, and not simply ‘adaptation’ because base. The latter, however, could also be equally Still, we cannot deny the relative growth pros-
that would be unfair indeed; theories suddenly demanding and complex but more often than pects that sound paradoxical after summing up
start making practical sense. In a way, it’s more not cost-effective to both the consumer and the all the above challenges but they are true for sure.
like cross-industrial learning, redevelopment service provider. The new generation of consum- I am going to mention the exploding Mobile
and collaboration or rather Biognosis and ‘Bio- ers is definitely not as loyal as it used to be in the Broadband Traffic below and the figures are
mimetics’. Some may want to research those terms Wireline-only era. Moreover, ‘Brand Loyalty’ itself mind-blowing. Whatever be the reason for this
in entirety to get greater insight. The biggest chal- cannot be compared at any given moment among increase in traffic, in the end, telecom service
lenges that Canada had faced since inception were a telecom service provider and a financial insti- providers have both the responsibility and the
essentially the huge geography, weather conditions tution, in the case of the former; it could be far opportunity to serve the consumer well and make
and the diversely growing consumer demography, more casual for the consumer to be flirtatious and money. There is also no denying of the fact that
for instance. As a result, the network infrastructure shop around. Another common challenge across there is a huge potential for the current generation
maintenance investments went beyond and out of economies is to maintain & strive to increase the of consultants in cross-economy trend-spotting as
proportion and hence, the anatomy of basic mar- dirt-cheap margins and that’s where the oppor- well as for telecom service providers to bootstrap
40 SME CHANNELS
OCTOBER 2011
Trendz-Asheesh Pandia of Tele-mimetics.indd 40 10/23/2011 11:56:56 PM

2. TRENDS
themselves. Most of all, ‘to find their best identity Market would surpass Apple by the third quarter of on their priority list to keep ahead of the rat-race.
in the value chain’ and ‘to be able to innovate light- 2011, with some 425,000 apps. Similarly in terms Coming back to the trends and patterns that
ening fast’ have been the top priorities of the best of Consumer Electronics and Mobile Broadband Indian telecom providers can bank upon. First of
players so far and again trend-watching gives the Traffic, iSuppli reckons global SmartPhone ship- all, focusing on that One Particular ‘Differentiat-
best food for thought in terms of both innovation ments will double by 2015 and account for more ing’ Brand Identity, that makes any brand unique
and the correct ‘Brand Positioning’. than half of all mobile phones sold. At the same – it is just too important. What we see around
For the most part, Indian telecom has been time, mobile broadband traffic volumes will see a today is everyone doing everything, everyone sell-
doing really well relatively barring the Spectrum 2600% increase in the next five years, say Nokia Sie- ing everything but the biggest brands in the world
Refarming struggle cited above; but the option mens Networks’ own figures. The Nokia Siemens are the ones that do ‘only their thing’ that reflects
of taking a look at the external and distant trends numbers are astounding — a 1000-fold mobile data them directly and uniquely; when you talk about
could also guarantee significant betterment for traffic increase by the year 2020. a particular product or service, it’s only that brand
the ‘highly innovative’ kinds. The face of telecom is To consumer, mobility is not a privilege any- that comes to the consumer’s mind and vice-versa.
changing by the hour and it is not the same simple more; it’s simply an ‘extension of access to infor- Many of the top executives and telecom profes-
voice domain anymore rather a more holistic mation’ and telecom providers only need the sionals advocate restricting the number of players
and all-embracing one – with the rising Mobile ‘super value creation’ attitude besides the compe- to 4 to 6 and the reason behind that is both intel-
Broadband Traffic, dominant Consumer Electron- tent technology to win the game. Lack of mobility ligent and plausible. However, from the perspec-
ics and a skyrocketing Ultra-Viral Social Media. is rather a polite way of saying ‘denial-of-service’ tive of brand management and positioning, more
Mobile Applications market for instance is the in today’s competition. Take m-Commerce, for intellectual bandwidth should be targeted on their
most astonishing at this moment . Back in March example, which has been considered as the game- main focus and ‘focus’ is the key to positioning.
of 2009, about 2,300 applications were available on changer especially in the developing economies. The Narrower and Unique it is, the better for
the Android Market, according to T-Mobile CTO Even in the developed ones, it is not yet ubiqui- any brand. Forget about the competition for a
Cole Brodman. And in May, 2011 alone, during tous maybe because of the security-related, tech- moment, let’s first understand what we want to
the Google I/O, Google announced that Android nological and psychological challenges but once achieve, get clarity, prioritize our things and then
Market listed 200,000 applications and had already the ice is broken and it is made easily accessible, jump in the warfare fully armed. This is one of the
clocked 4.5 Billion installed applications. By July, there’s no dearth of the wonders that efficiently key findings you instantly get a feel of when you
the figure had crossed the 250,000 milestone. run m-Commerce could do. So for the winners, look at a market such as Canada’s. Each brand has
Distimo and Germany-based research2guidance it must not just be the ‘Next Thing’. It rather ought an identity and a ‘unique personality’ and that’s
forecast that the number of apps on Android to be a current service provisioning mandate top where the learning is. And in abundance!
SME CHANNELS 41
OCTOBER 2011
Trendz-Asheesh Pandia of Tele-mimetics.indd 41 10/23/2011 11:56:59 PM