Five “easy” things that won the hearts of 20 million people for Etisalat

“When beggars die, there are no comets seen. The heavens themselves blaze forth the birth of princes.” This quote from William Shakespeare tells the story of Etisalat Nigeria which hit 20 million subscribers in a market it entered pretty late. But What has been responsible for this exponential growth?

As recently as August, 2014, Etisalat Nigeria bragged about it being the fastest growing mobile communications company in Nigeria. In a market where everyone can search and find its own bragging right with so much ease, it was convenient to gloss over the outstanding achievement o this telco.

0809ja: A street lingo that has taken Etisalat to great heights

Truth be told, new entrants in any market, industry or product category usually suffer. This is because as much as people clamour for change almost every day of their lives, they are also very reluctant to make the enabling shift, either in attitude, change in demand pattern or just about any other thing that would make the change possible.

In a country notorious for poor service, only a negligibly insignificant percentage of the grumbling population have ever taken steps to abandon one offending brand and move to a new one. Nigerians for, example complain about the poor services from banks all the time but only a few have closed accounts for this reason.

It is even more difficult in telecom. If you have a telephone number that you have used over a period, chances are you will likely not be too willing to throw it away even in the face of poor service. There is a strong equity attached to it that would cost heavy if you abandon it. Your friends, business associates and family would have to take a long time to get used to the new number. Although Mobile Number Portability(MNP) has tried to help by enabling people to switch networks without losing their phone lines, people are still reluctant to port for the same reason that people seldom change.

But in the face of all these, Etisalat Nigeria, a late entrant in the Nigerian mobile communications market has been able to defy convention, ramping up an impressive subscriber numbers that just hit 20 million this October. Interestingly, it was only in January 2013 that the brand announced it had 15 million subscribers on its network. What this means is that in the 21 months that intervened, Etisalat has been adding an equivalent 240,000 subscribers every month.

For a market thought to have saturated, this is quite impressive. When this brand launched in Nigeria some six years ago, the market was thought to have been taken but this brand has proven everyone wrong. Although, management of the company still says they were yet to become profitable, the numbers on its network suggest fortunes would change pretty quicker than ever imagined.

To achieve such a phenomenal success, there a few things the brand preached and practiced and somehow, it worked for them

Matthew Wilsher: CEO, Etisalat Nigeria

Banking on the Youth: Etisalat came into Nigeria as the brand for the young. It did not pretend it was a telecom network that was there to make a difference for everybody. It carefully identified the youth segment and took full ownership. How was this done?

At launch, it identified the hip hop sensation that had great influence on the young. Banky W (Bankole Wellington) was on the rise at the time and was hired by the brand for the now very popular 0809ja sound track. This song is still the signoff for all radio and television commercials by Etisalat. At launch, the network code the brand was allocated was 0809. This fitted perfectly into the “Naija) renaissance taking place among the youth segment then. Even now that the brand has a number of other prefixes, the 0809ja is still there, driving the brand and making it appear younger as the years wore on.

Etisalat did not profess the youth segment as its core space, it lived it. In the company, most of the senior management positions, especially the customer-facing sides of the business are populated by young people. This made room for the brand to look as young as it wanted and enabled bonding with the market.

The “Easy” Way to Sell Products:

Have you thought of just how a name can help endear products to people? If you have not, think of these examples. Google, the world’s most valuable brand was to be named BackRub. But as Larry Page and Sergey Brin thought over this after their meeting in Stanford University, another name, Googol came up. Googol represented the number “1” followed by a hundred “0s” just like a million is represented by the number “1” followed by six “0s”. They wanted to use this to reflect their “mission to organize a seemingly infinite amount of information on the web.” But somehow, someone misspelled Googol and wrote Google. That was it. The name was easier to remember and it became the name of the world’s biggest search engine.

When Etisalat came, it knew that youths like it techie but “techie-ly smooth. No one wants to crack his head just to remember the name of a product. So they chose to brand almost all their products with the prefix, “Easy.” This created the impression of products that are easy to understand and use. Perception is everything in marketing and as a result, products like, EasyStarter, EasyLife, EasyCliq etcetera.

Enriching the Data space:

Everyone in the market knows that Nigerian data space had always been decrepit. It still is to very large extents. The challenge of buffering, slow networks, etc is still clear and present.

But Etisalat has invested heavily in improving data service. It has significantly bettered other networks in terms of speed, spread and consistency of service. After the launch of its vastly improved, EasyBlaze, its numbers soared. Across many user channels, from individuals to corporate, there are evidences that its data services are top notch and beat those of competition.

Communication:

You see, you do not play in a highly commoditized environment like telecom without communicating. You just have to scream and shout about virtually everything. As a young entrant in need to have its voice heard, Etisalat is easily one of the most vibrant in the communications space. Its events are usually well organized. Its advertising has always been great. This has helped reinforce its value as the brand next door, easy to reach, easy to engage, easy to respond to subscriber issues and challenges.

Quality of Network:

As far back as March 2009, Etsalat had already started winning laurels in Network quality. According to the report from the Nigerian Communications Commission during the period, Etisalat Nigeria came 1st in 4 out of the 5 key Quality of Service performance indicators and narrowly missed being number one in only one indicator. In QoS indicators like TCH Congestion (Without Handover Rate), TCH Congestion (With Handover Rate), Call Setup Success Rate and SDCCH Congestion Rate, Etisalat Nigeria was adjudged the best service provider for the month of March by an appreciably wide margin. It came a close second by a slim margin in terms of the indicator known as the Drop Call Rate. This, according to experts, is to be expected as the innovative network is still actively rolling out its world class network across Nigeria.

In the Quality of Service report released recently in Abuja, Etisalat recorded the highest call set up rate of 98.09 percent. The call set up rate measures the ease with which calls are established or set up. A higher value implies that over 98% of attempted calls on the Etisalat network are successful.

Ever since then, the brand has continued winning in this area. This is enough to stand it out in a market where poor network quality, call drops and other failures are the rules and not the exception.

Culled from Brandish