650
Reads
Quality ki baat who bhi WARID k sath????
submitted 1 month 24 days 6 hours ago by: Enk : 22 comments
Have a look at this newspaper advertisement published on 26 September 2008 in Daily Khabrain and think for a second that what Warid tel is portraying. They are talking about quality but are unable to reckon what they have done with their ad. Going through this will raise some questions that the marketing team at Warid was unable to figure out what they were doing. When you talk about quality you talk about zero defects and by looking at this advertisement, this truly negates the idea of quality. I will call it a gaffe by the marketing team at Warid tel and would suggest that in future please pay attention to what are you doing. Next time, fix your ‘print-quality’ before you claim your ‘network-quality’ guys!
Comments
Daily Khabrain is not best medium to place yourself as Quality product. I doubt that readers of Daily Khabrain consider quality as top priority. To approach quality conscious customers one should consider higher end magazines and newspapers.
Plant a tree
Racism in PostMan's words. :)
This is pure Marketing dude. If you like I can support with related theories/Journal articles ;-P
Plant a tree
Then you better, Barbar! :p
Will be v hard to prove how it is not racism. :)
Babar! have Daily Khabrain fired you? Or you have personal grudge for them?
Never ever.
I am a Marketer, only giving my opinion based on education and general understanding on Daily Khabrain.
Plant a tree
all these newspapers are crap
Babarzm - ok? what thery do u have to present? Where is khabrain placed in terms of circulation?
what do u know abt strategy of warid marketting? who says that only english magazine readers r the quality conscious only when u talk abt quality of telecommunication?
havent u seen any other telecom company's ad in khabrain.. even in Sahafat? i have personally seen mobilink ads in these mentioned... :)
please guide?
***
Well, I would partially second Babar there. Readers of Khabrain might not be the right audience. Though there is no doubt that that they would love better quality, but this might not be their top priority. But as far as circulation is concerned, I doubt that the readership would be less.
On another note, I have a comment to make on this BUZZ to start with. I wonder how the print quality is Warid's fault. The can be held responsible for trusting this newspaper for running their ad, but the printing quality is something to be checked by the newspaper group. However, if knowing the poor quality (or to save some bucks) they went with Khabrain, then the above buzz stands valid.
Please correct me if I am wrong.
well.. did anyone know that why did warid ppl put this ad up there?? i mean on what grounds???
and it wasnt only khabrain where this ad was put.. this ad was there on every newspaper english and urdu both...if anyone wants, i can show those ads as well...
What's the point? You have to write a paper?
This is basically pulse advertising. Hope that should suffice as an answer to why.
and as far as giving ad knowing poor quality is concerned,,, i have seen certain good quality ads in khabrain as well.. however, it is the responsibility of khabrain to check its quality... :)
this ad was made after a survey result issued by PTA.. that is the answer to my question.. put in the comment above
So THEN what is the issue?
i think we should rather wait for babarzm's answer...
Babar misunderstood my first remark and I deliberately wrote a reply to further complicate matters for him so obviously I have no reason to wait for his reply. Regrets, we are not in cahoots. :)
Sorry for late reply. I have run out of my monthly internet quota and it turns dead slow once you are above quota.
---------------
Look, I have been out of touch for two years but if I remember correctly Mobilink, Warid and Telenor generally position themselves as quality (high value) brands. They charge customers a bit extra but also provide value added services and promises a better quality perception.
Marketing expenses are one of the highest cost heads in telecommunication industry. Therefore targeting the correct customers is important not just for good brand positioning but also for healthy ROI (Return on Investment). This means, If we are sending a message through mass media it will cost far more and will reach only few potential customers. Hence we are talking to less number of relevant people at much higher cost. This also means that average cost for reaching a "potential customer" is higher due to low relevance of the medium (Khabrain) being used. We are talking to everyone when we should be talking to few relevant people.
Now high quality magazines does not necessarily means "English Magazines". Any magazine with good print quality and specific readership can be categorized as quality magazine. Generally speaking, a magazine that has quality conscious readership, i.e. people who pay extra money for value added features, is best medium to advertise other high quality products, as readers of this magazine are same people who will also be wiling to spend extra on high quality products (e.g. high quality mobile services).
If Mobilink is advertising one of their mass marketing i.e. low cost - low quality products (e.g. Jazz) on Sahafat and/or Khabrain then there are no problems but if they are advertising bluebarry using this medium then Marketing Manager is not doing a good job;-) This guy is wasting company's money trying selling irrelevant products to irrelevant people.
Furthermore position is also a relevent factor in chosing advertising medium. Positioning can be explained as: How people like to see themselves and how they like other to see them? People use products to adopt a specific image. Quality image associated with a quality product can tarnish quickly if they are advertised in medium percieved to be low quality.
All these theories are a bit difficult to explain in a small writeup such as this one so I will be happy to answer any questions that you may have i.e. if something is not clear or requires further explaination.
Plant a tree
Good points Babar. I must say that you have the theory right, which obviously means you have actually been attentive throughout your marketing lectures ! But here are a few thoughts with a reverse spin.
What if I tell you that most of the people (affluent class) with good money (let me say the richest of the lot), are illliterate, especially in the case of Pakistan. One interesting phenomenon that has recently happened is the circulation of excessive money as a result of property boom. Let me give you a reality shock by sharing that I know many cases where people were milkmen or painters or with some other such blue collar jobs that struck gold during the time of property boom and are multimillionnaires now. Which class do you think they belong to now and what would be their social structure like. What newspaper do you think they would be reading .....hmmm did I hear you murmur KHABRAIN.... exactly.
What if I tell you that even the quality conscious class gets to read Khabrain and the sort. Many a times I and have seen many others on the roads, in the cars, buying these newspapers, Khabrain, Sahafat and Daily Times. Surprised, I don't think so. So does it not talk directly to the target audience. Hmmm it does.
The argument of quality (i am assuming a premium feature here) comes with the thought of extra money and mostly a huge price differential. How much do you think a cost of a low quality call (whichever brand you think it is) and a high quality call is. Must be in a few paisas in today's time. So really doesn't allow for market segmentation to extent that it should make hell of a difference.
As I mentioned before in my previous comment, I am not negating your arguments altogether, Khabrain might not be the best choice. But you cannot negate the concept of Category creation, a new segment of buyers may be. There is a chance that there might be (or may be Warid can create) another category of users who are price conscious and yet quality conscious. They always thought of quality to come with a big price tag and might just re-check the tariffs and find Warid actually cheap (which it is) and switch to Warid leaving Mobilink and/ Telenor (the premium brands). There you go, every single penny well spent on the advertising campaign !
Just for information, Mobilink and Telenor are both positioned as Premium Quality. Mobilink is positoining itself as Largest Network and Business Usage. Telenor is positioned as providing network coverage at Far Flung Areas and is very seriously marketed at Business Users. Ufone is a hip, fun and youngster brand, where is Warid is still struggling to position itself. Trying different things now and seems to be focusing on Value Added Servies. Zong on the other hand is masses` brand with CHEAPEST CALL advert they were trying to sell.
On a lighter note, the Berry is Black and not Blue ;)
Thanks for a very insightful write-up. I must be very hungry when writing my post and did not realized when blackberry turned into blueberries. Oh!!! that makes me crave for them even more.
Plant a tree
first of all, this advert was not about any "value added features"; it was about "network quality". Secondly, Warid's strategy from the start of it's business inception in Pakistan is about reaching masses (people who can afford calls at lower rates).
About positioning (the P in marketing books): this advert wasnt about any color of berry, it was simply about better network quality for which telenor had claimed while launching and we all know it was a disaster, anyways.
Moreover, it's been about two years as well that now the competition is not on call rates but on quality networks and value added services (although i dont consider value added services to be included in this discussion as this advert is only about network quality and on a quality network you can provide all services however the basic service will remain "voice"