Airtel was launched in Sri Lanka today (12th Jan 2008). The launch was delayed due to various reasons. The Indian company will have to deliver their best in order to capture the Sri Lankan market and also to maintain their share of the Indian market.
If we look at their entrance to the Sri Lankan market, it seems like they are going to some marketing strategies to win the Sri Lnkan consumer. As the first step they have to attract both the new and users of other netwrks.
- Lower rates for outside networks - In Sri Lanka, normally we experience the lowest rates within the same network. But at the start up the number of Airtel users are almost zero. So the stretgy is to give the lowest rates for both Airtel and non Airtel numbers and attract the customers.
- Allowing the customer to choose their own number - Many people like to have an easy to remember or else a "taxi service" kind of a phone number (ex : 07xx 248 248). So it prompt the customer to use the new connectioin. Also they can choose a number that is matching with the existing number they use (ex : 07++ 137512 and 07** 137512). So provided lowest call rates, the customer is encouraged to switch to the new connection.
- Building a good brand image by providing a good quality service - If the rates are similar, the companies are going to be tested based on their quality of service. Currently, it is said that some mobile service providers do not provide a quality service with regard to billing, data connections and customer services. So if Airtel can provide a better quality service, they have a good chance.
As consumers what we can do is just wait and see. Finally we are the ones who's going to be benefited from the competitiveness. The mobile service providers will have to deliver the best, to be in the race.
Otherwise!!!?
Deeps
14 January 2009 at 07:11
but it seems that AirTel is going to revise the price after 31st of march or something. then, the rates will be similar to the present ones offered by the other mobile service providers in SL. do you think that will make a change?? i dont think AirTel will have a success story to tell
Akila
14 January 2009 at 11:43
@deepa Still it's not confirmed. We'll have to wait and see. With my little marketing knowledge it seems like they are following a Penetration pricing strategy. (You can find a good article about it in Wikipedia). So hope they'll not charge more than their competitors.
All the other companies also trying their best to maintain and increase their share.
Ex: Dialog's "Hello Sri Lanka" campaign, Tigo's totally incoming free facility and reaching 2M cusstomers, Mobitel's new smart package with lower charges etc.
As i said "We'll have to wait and see, who's going to succeed and who's going to lose". After all the consumer will be benefited.
Anonymous
14 January 2009 at 15:36
Competitiveness only will not deliver a better service for the customers. There should be government regulations to govern their operation. Not much of us are knowledgeable about the mobile technology, its hazards to health, security and privacy etc..
Akila
14 January 2009 at 18:12
@Uthpala In my opinion, competiveness deliver better results in most instances.
In mobile sector also competitiveness has delivered many better results, there are plenty of examples.
But at the same time quality of some services has been reduced, such as customer services, network traffic etc. But as time goes by service providers will have to improve these in order to gain a competitive advantage over their competitors.
Currently also Sri Lankan government is regulating their operations through Telecommunications Regulatory Commission of SL
One instance is regarding the
Interconnection Charge.
Yes I agree regarding health, security and privacy issue.
But the thing is "We can't say no to Mobile Communication".
It has almost become a need of our lives.
නදුන් උයන
18 January 2009 at 13:35
එයාර් ටෙල් - සම්ප්‍රාප්තිය.....
කන්දක් විලි ලා .. මී පැටියෙකු ජනිත කළේය..
මේ මී පැටියාගේ කල දවස ගැන අපි බලා සිටින්නෙමු.
එහෙත් ඔවුන් මෙහි සිය සේවාවන් අරඹන්නට මත්තෙන් සිදුකළ සමහර ක්‍රියා ව්‍යාපාරික ආචාර ධර්ම උල්ලංගනය කිරීමකැයි මට සිතේ.
Akila
31 January 2009 at 12:37
ඔව් ඈත්තෙන්ම අපට කළ හෑක්කේ හොඳ අවධානයෙන් බල සිටීමයි.
ව්‍යාපාරික ආචාර ධර්ම සම්බන්ධ දෙය අර වෙළඳ දැන්වීම ද? එම වෙලන්ද දෙන්වීම්වෙළඳ දැන්වීම නම් මතබේදකාරියි. ඊට අමතර දෙයක් නම් එය දැන ගැනීමට කැමැත්තෙමි.
දැනට සිටින ආයතනත් සමහර වෙළඳ දැන්වීම් අනුකරණය කිරීම සම්බන්ධ චෝදනා තිබේ, නමුත් ඇත්ත කුමක්දැයි නොදනිමි.
ප්‍රතිචාරය ප්‍රමාද වීම ගැන සමාවෙන්න.