Fasi Zaka came to our university on Friday to give an interactive presentation on the Marketing Strategies of the various Mobile Companies in Pakistan, Marketing freak as he is and lover as i am of the way marketing is done i thought i won’t miss this lecture by any chance but unfortunately attended only the last half-hour of the presentation as i was in the class while it started but anyways it was still loads of fun and learning even in the last half-hour.

Before i start, Fasi Zaka had been a Senior Faculty member in IM|Sciences Peshawar in the past teaching Strategic Management and similar subjects to the Masters students and left for Telenor a year ago, though a small chat in Gtalk with him he did tell me he has plans on coming back to IM|Sciences by the end of this year or next year, he has constantly been a man in media for a good time now having shows on Indus Music and AAJ TV (News,Views and Confused) and worked as a anchor host in various awards shows as well as a part of the production and cast in various commercials as well as music videos, in short a man with skills and great humor skills yet a Marketing Freak that many people infact most of the people in Pakistan know of.

When i joined he was talking about how Warid telecom is the most profit making company according to the number of market share that they have in the country and targeting only the important parts of the country and a particular segment of people in class term,Warid as he said has no plans to expand there network further since they are getting the maximum output from the minimum input they are feeding on the other hand Telenor he said was doing well in terms of the brand and products promotion, Ufone too in a similar situation but the worst situation he said is Mobilink in because it holds the maximum market share with over 50% subscribers in the country with there main strength being the coverage but the weakness they have is there high rates but than there was a reason behind why Mobilink won’t cut the rates less and that is because if Warid or other companies reduce there tariff rates they have a less market share in the country and that means a less loss (although the reduction increases business but…) but if similarly Mobilink reduces the tariff rates, with over 50% market share in the country there loss reaches over billions of rupees a month that are not so easily going to be covered up. Further i came to know about how much pain do these companies have to go through in there marketing, TV ads production with no good and cheap facilities and locations for shooting within the country for which they choose countries like Srilanka and Thailand, the future service quality in the mobile communication which he said is more likely to be bad as the companies expand there network more and more and in the end and the best of all that a stage will come when nearly all the companies will have equal rates for calls and other things just different packages.:) Oh~ i learned a lot, and more as well but just a few things i thought i’d share with all of you and yes people did asked questions mostly silly and some were good and i had no question at that time cos half hour was too less a time to get something~but here are a few queries i have now that i want all of you to answer as well as Fasi if he sees this post(i’ll ping him about it though).

Q#1:You said Ufone has website that has tons of stuff, if you think its something catchy(which am really sure is) why won’t Telenor apply it for its funky customers, maybe you can stick to Corporate Look on the homepage but how about a funky portal within the corporate website with downloads and apps for the (below ) who i think are your maximum market.
Q#2:You said the quality of service within the country is likely to get bad with other companies expanding there network, i.e. installing towers etc, if it really is going to effect the service, what do you think is the solution? Will PTA stop giving other companies licenses?What the …?:P
Q#3:Is it true that companies like Airtel, Vodafone and Hutch are coming to Pakistan?
Q#4:You work for Telenor, but do you really use it yourself ?What is the best mobile company in Pakistan in your opinion in terms of service and tariff? ;);)lolz~
Thanks, and answers expected from all the freaks~!