By Russel Singomat (Via Facebook)
Let us go back to history and study the trend to establish an answer. When we talk competition, let us talk competition in the sense Bemobile- Vodafone must make its presence felt by determining its own price range of products and services.
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When Digicel entered the country, a sim was selling at K125 by then bemobile, a subsidiary arm of Telikom then and still is even after the re-branding 6 years ago.Digicel started selling its sim at K25, that forced bemobile to quickly remove a big chunk in figures, we are talking 150% mark up on its mobile sims.
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Digicel automatically stole the market off bemobile 7 years ago, and despite Bemobile opting re-branding, it sadly never bought in with the expensive exercise because of the experience Papua New Guineans had, bemobile cheated us during its monopoly era.Bemobile has downgraded its service platforms to undercut Digicel with its special price calls however; loyalty is what the bulk of Papua New Guineans standby.Today bemobile has paid the price for trying to under-cut Digicel, it can never recoup through its losses. Whether we like it or not, the mobile industry in Papua New Guinea is dominated by Digicel on the main playing field in third world countries DIGICEL has set foot in. DIGICEL did its home work right by studying the geopolitical landscape of third world countries and developed the winning formula;
“PUT A MOBILE PHONE IN ORDINARY PAPUA NEW GUINEANS HAND AND THEY WILL NEVER LEAVE YOU.”
Vodafone must now come up with something better. Despite Vodafone’s world-wide brand presence, Digicel’s presence rule in third world countries.
Vodafone’s market base customer platforms targets the affluent that represents 1/3 of the population in this country.
You can try and be different but when your reputation supersedes you, you need to overhaul your image.
A Leopard will always have spots unless it mix-breeds with a lion to produce a hybrid offspring, not a lion nor a leopard but something different that defines a unique look that appeals. And how can Vodafone do this? Replicate what Digicel did in Papua New Guinea and go one step better.
I don’t need to explain because Vodafone can figure that out.
Tags:
Mobile