Case Study

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Mobilink – A Case Study on Different aspects of Marketing

Executive Summary

Telecom sector is growing in Pakistan. New entrants are acquiring the licenses to operate and
competition is getting tough, but for the customers, it is good both in quality and price. The
subscribers of Mobilink sector are more than 15million and this sector is contributing a huge
revenue to the government of Pakistan.
Mobilink is a subsidiary of ORASCOM telecom. It 1
st
began under the umbrella of Motorola and
Saif group that later on was sold to ORASCOM(Egyptian based) telecom company. Mobilink is
the pioneer in providing GSM services to the customers and has biggest market share in telecom
sector by having more than 31million customers. More recently, a Russian based telecom
company vimplecom has purchased 52% shares of Mobilink and is making some strategic
changes in the organization.
Mobilink has a well established marketing department that ensures the continuation of
Mobilink’s public goodwill and creates a strategy that is in line with the overall business strategy
of Mobilink.
Mobilink has a mechanized system of marketing that comes up with customer satisfaction, not
only to the individuals but the corporate and government as well. The segmentation of Mobilink
embodies government customers, corporate customers, youth, ladies etc. The marketing strategy
of Mobilink emphasize on the management of cost and quality services. To address these both
factors, Mobilink came up with two themes “No Samjhota” and “Pura Signal, Pura Pakistan”.
Both of them imply that there will be no compromise on the quality and it will be ensured that
Mobilink network is available across Pakistan which can be done through cost management.
Cost management is also done through a liaison with other networks via site sharing.
Mobilink is offering a range of different products, they ensure quality, promotes them via
advertisement on TV, news papers, bill boards etc. Mobilink has spent a lot on their brand
ambassadors and sponsorship of different awards to attract the people towards Mobilink’s
products. Placement is yet another very important feature that is under the focus of Mobilink
marketing department. Being pioneer and the pro-claimer of best quality, Mobilink has
established infrastructure that covers about all of Pakistan and the marketing department
highlight this competitive edge over others in the promotions.
Mobilink has many strengths and weakness. Mobilink has to maintain the competitive advantage
and has to capitalize on the opportunity of growth available in market before other cellular
services.

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Mobilink – A Case Study on Different aspects of Marketing

CASE STUDY

1.History of Mobilink.

It all began with the joint venture initiative taken between Motorola and Said Group in 1990.
Motorola 1
st
started it’s operations in 1928 and was known as Galvin Manufacturing corporation.
Through it’s lifetime Motorala has come up with a range of technologies and products including
cellular services and cellphones. Saif Group of Companies is one of the leading group of
companies in Pakistan that has subsidaries in oil and gas, power generation, information
technology services etc. Later on, in 1992, mobilink was issued a license to launch and operate
cellular services in Pakistan and with it, Mobilink became 1
st
ever telecom company operating in
Pakistan with GSM 900 technology. Mobilink started to provide it’s services in 1994 after
completing all legal and infrastructural requirements.
Afterwards, Mobilink was sold to an egyptian based cellular service provider known as Orascom
Telecom. Orascom was found in 1950 by Mr. Onsi Sawiris. Orascom telecom is one branch of
Orascom group of companies. The concept behind the inception of this group was to enhance the
lives of the people of the emerging markets. The operations of Orascom telecom embodies 18
subsidaries and 19 GSM networks. In the middle and near east, it operates in Egypt, Jordan,
Syria and Pakistan. The license issued to Mobilink in 1992 had a maturity period of 15years.
Considering the maturity period, Mobilink was entitled to renew the license in 2007 for further
15years of operations in Pakistan.
Mobilink offers pre-paid (Jazz) and post-paid (Indigo) services. It was in 2004 that Mobilink
took the initiative of introducing post-paid services in the market with a brand name of Indigo.
Mobilink went into an agreement with Motorola in 2005 for the deployment of WiMax. WiMax
is a technology that has advanced the services of mobilink from cellular and data offering to high
speed broadbank and VoIP services, both for home and business users, on fixed line.
Following is the list of Mobilink services.
Indigo Jazz
Mobilink Black Berry Mobilink Wi MAX
Mobilink PCO Mobilink TV
Mobilink Game Mobilink Cricket Sim
Conference Bridge PCO Cards
PIA Reservations Stock Watch
Fax Mail Corporate SMS

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Mobilink – A Case Study on Different aspects of Marketing
SMS Advertiser

Mobilink’s market share and number of users are different according to different source. In line
with generally common calculations, in Pakistan, Mobilink is at the top in market share i-e
31.5% and customers over 35million. The coverage area of Mobilink is spread in more than
10,000 cities, towns and villages across Pakistan and provides international roaming services in
130countries.
In 2010, Orascom went into an agreement with a Russian based telecom company named
Vimplecon. According to the agreement, 52% of Mobilink’s shares are now held by Vimplecon
and 48% by Orascom.

2.Mobilink's Vision
"To be the leading Telecommunication Services Provider in Pakistan by offering innovative
Communication solutions for our Customers while exceeding Shareholder value & Employee
Expectations".
3.Mobilink's Mission
“To be the unmatchable mobile system of communication in Pakistan that provides the best
value to it’s customers, employees, business partners and shareholders.”
4.Objectives
1. To satisfy the customer in whatever way possible.
2. To achieve business excellence and deliver quality services to not only the customers but
every stake holder.
3. To develop a level of trust among it’s customers.
4. To fulfill it’s social responsibility to the country via different projects meant for the
betterment of the society.
5.Objectives (Marketing):
Mobilink has two basic services that it provides to it’s customers. Jazz is promoted with a tag
line “Apna hai” and the Indigo is promoted with a tag line “Brings people together”. Now the
overall marketing strategy of mobilink is to tell the customers that their services are the best for
them and it gives them a sense of belongingness with quality services.
On a detail level, with Indigo, Mobilink is trying to capture the high level managers and business
class. The purpose is to provide post paid quality services on reasonable rates for them. It is
promoted in that way that gives their customers a feeling to be a part of elite class.

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Mobilink – A Case Study on Different aspects of Marketing
Jazz is marketed in a way that it attracts students and common people. This prepaid connection is
depicted to be fun filled with added features that no other competitor has.
5.Controllable Environmental Factors.
5.1 Relationship of Marketing department with others:
The relationship of marketing department with other departments is based on the fundamental
requirement of the organization. Mobilink is technology as well as marketing oriented
organization. Marketing department has been integrated with other departments. The overall
marketing strategy and the new promotions are communication to the employees of all the
departments much earlier than it comes out to the market. The employees receives the emails
containing all of the material regarding marketing even the new promotions on television and
newspapers.
5.2 Who are the customers
Mobilink has both external and internal customers.
i. External Customers;
These are Mobilink’s primary customers. From Government, business class to
common, Moblink provides it’s services to all.
ii. Internal Customers.
Mobilink has internal customers in shape of their employees. They have a large
pool of employees and to retain the subscription of it’s employees, Mobilink
offers very attractive packages to their employees.
5.3 Co-suppliers.
Mobilink has two main co-suppliers. One is ZTE and the other is HUAWEI.

5.4 Relationship with competitors through Technology;
In Pakistan, Mobilink was the pioneer of providing GSM telecom services. Mobilink had
developed a large pool of customers much before the entrance of new telecom companies.
Following are the competitors for Mobilink in Pakistan;
i. Telenor
ii. Ufone
iii. Zong
iv. Warid
Telenor is a Norwegian multi-national telecom company. Since it’s inception in Pakistan,
Telenor has proved to be close in competition with Mobilink. Telenor is growing quickly but it
will take Telenor more efforts to stand parallel to Mobilink. According to Pakistan Telecom
Authority (PTA) reports, the market share of Telenor is second to that of Mobilink i-e 21.6%.

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Mobilink – A Case Study on Different aspects of Marketing
Ufone is a Pakistan based cellular service that was initiated by PTCL. It received a lot of
appreciation in the beginning because of being local telecom service providers. The market share
according to PTA reports is 21.5% and it remains at third position to Mobilink.
Warid is an initiative take by Etesalat, the number of customers in the past have increased very
rapidly but due to the late entry into the market Warid has still a lot to cover. The market share
according to PTA reports is 18.96% and holds 4
th
position in the overall telecom market of
Pakistan.
Zong is a Chinese based telecom service providers. Zong acquired Paktel telecom service
provider to start it’s operations in Pakistan. According to PTA reports the market share of Zong
is 6.77% and remains at the bottom of overall market share positioning.
The above data proves the supremacy of Mobilink in Pakistan’s telecom services. The new
entrants brought new technology with them. According to the management of Mobilink, they are
always flexible to make abrupt technological changes into their organization. So, any new
technology that was introduced by any competitor was abruptly reciprocated by Mobilink. All of
the companies for the expansion rely on each other at times. They share their sites with others on
charging the fee. It not only helps the companies to expand their operations but also a lower price
is offered to the customers via sharing.
5.5 Government agencies and Mobilink, Their relationship;
The relationship of government agencies and Mobilink has been greatly enhanced by the use of
technology. For instance, the tax payment to Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) is done through
the NTN (National Tax Number). NTN provides the ease of tracking the tax payer but it also
gives ease to the tax payer in order to follow the liabilities of tax payment.
Salaries payment and transferring funds are done online. Salaries are sent online to the accounts
of the employees that could be retrieved either by check or by ATM cards. It gives the benefit of
flexibility to the employees in collection of their salaries and also it provides the timely mode of
transfer.
6.Uncontrollable Environmental Factors.
6.1 Demographics;
Either in developed world or underdeveloped, demographics play a vital role in the use of
technology. In our country, age and gender are the main demographic factors that affects the use
of technology. In Pakistan, most of the population is settles in rural areas that have strong

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Mobilink – A Case Study on Different aspects of Marketing
cultural values. The young one’s and the females especially are restricted to use the mobile
services. However, in the urban areas, it’s not the case. According to surveys, youth comprise a
big portion of the overall population. Youth is making the cellular companies to come up with
newest technologies. To attract that big portion of our population, cellular companies are forced
to introduce value addition into the base services. For Instance, youth are more interested in
MMS, mobile internet etc. and to attract the youth Mobilink is offering these services and not
just that but more.
To attract the females, Mobilink has introduced many packages that gives long air time on low
rates. Mobilink has also developed a portal that addresses the dimensions that are associated with
the females.
For the business class and middle aged people, Mobilink and other cellular services had to come
up with expanding their network coverage area by introducing new technology to their sites.
Like the use of Microwave antennas.
6.2 Economic Factors;
The economic factors both on micro and macro level are responsible for the application of
technology. In Pakistan, the macro and micro economic conditions are at the developing stage.
The volatile political situation has also made it difficult for the economy to grow in the past.
Mobilink could only invest to a level where it could make the profit via their investment. The
tariff and other taxes, due to the low performing economy limits Mobilink to install modern and
sophisticated systems, because of a high price. On micro level, people’s purchasing power is not
high enough, Mobilink and other service providers have to curtail their prices on low levels and
come up with low rates packages. The taxes on the air time for the customers is also playing it’s
role in demand for cheap rates. Due to the said fact, economy is putting limitations on the
installation of the modern expensive systems.
6.3 Technological Factors;
Mobilink is entirely dependent on the technology. Any technological change in the external
environment put Mobilink in a position of reciprocation. Whether it be the technological change
within the organization of competitors or outside, Mobilink has to make changes. The changes
are often welcomed but sometimes a few technological changes that are needed to be made are
resisted not only within the organization but without as well.


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Mobilink – A Case Study on Different aspects of Marketing
6.4 Political Facilitation;
Mobile services are helping the political forces by providing them the flexibility of spreading
their word directly into the ears of people. Political forces are making use of programmed direct
calls of their leaders to the general public to gain their support. They have also established SMS
numbers with which general public can assure their support to any specific political party. This
service has helped political forces to have information of their support and the number of people
listed. This system has helped in creating a more realistic voter list and recently the judgment of
supreme court of Pakistan was made because of the technological support of the telecom
companies.
6.5 Cultural Change, Country and Organizational;
Technology specific to the telecom sector is having a great impact on the cultural change. It has
made things quicker, has made the public more vigilant and aware. Technology at 1
st
was a want
of the public but now it has changed that cultural and is the need of the people. Cellular contacts
and the use of internet via cellphone has made the attitude prompt. It also has made people to
work at distance and late in the night for the reason that they could be contacted at any point of
time with the help of technology.
Organizations have also been influenced. The procedures have become well defined, the
processes have become more efficient and productivity has increased. The sophistication of
automation has resulted in downsizing but at the same time it has provided other sources of
earning to the people.
7.Market Segmentation
Following are the different segments of Mobilink
 Government Sector
Many government organizations have subscribed to Mobilink. Mobilink has provided them
with small units for best quality and network availability at the buildings of the offices.
 Business class
Business class doesn’t represent the individuals but the organizations as we that have
subscribed to the services of Mobilink, and again in the same manner, Mobilink has provided
those organizations with equipment for flawless network availability.


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Mobilink – A Case Study on Different aspects of Marketing
 Ladies
Mobilink has established a portal for females known as women portal.
 SME sector
 Sports
 Flight Roaming
 Youth


8.Product, Price, Placement, Promotion(4Ps)
Product;
“Mobilink is mainly focusing on the quality of the product rather than providing variety”. But
still, Mobilink a strategy to come up with new products/services in order to meet with the
demands of the customers.
Pricing strategy

By following the price rates of Mobilink, it could be noticed that Mobilink is employing market
skimming strategy. Having the largest coverage area and being one of the most high quality
service provider, Mobilink is charging a higher price compared to other cellular services.
Mobilink is high passive strategy for their quality and otherwise, on the low active strategy.

Placement

Mobilink is providing services about all over Pakistan. They have left no stone unturned to
provide coverage at all places in Pakistan. Their theme of placement is “Pura Signal, Pura
Pakistan” which implies that Mobilink wants to ensure to have maximum area under their
coverage.

Promotional Startegy:

Mobilink has a big promotional expenditure. Through observation and the statements of
Mobilink officials, it could be comprehended that Mobilink is spending millions on promotional
activities on TV channels, news papers, brushes, bill boards etc. In the past and present,
Mobilink has hired famous celebrities for their advertising. For Instance, Film actor Shan,
“String” a musical band, Wasim Akram and Ali Zafar.



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Mobilink – A Case Study on Different aspects of Marketing
9.SWOT Analysis

9.1 Strengths
9.1.1 Competitive advantage:
 Mobilink has garnered strength in establishing a well calculated and fundamentally
strong longer term business plan that has resulted in sustaining challenges of economy in
the country.
 Mobilink has made great improvements in the infrastructure in 2012. It has expanded it’s
coverage area and has enhanced customer relationship management.
 Mobilink’s subscribers enjoy the pride of having the best services in Pakistan in their
reach.
 Like it’s early endeavors, Mobilink is the Pioneer in providing services on the motorway
M2 phase.
 Footprint enhancement, voice quality, data network and operationalization of cutting
edge technology, this all has been done through the investment of USD 393M by
Mobilink in Pakistan.
 Connecting 20,000 villages, towns and cities throughout Pakistan is an achievement.
 Mobilink is leading the market by having 34.70 million subscribers.
 In Pakistan, highest market share of above 30 % remains under Mobilink’s belt.
 Mobilink is the 1
st
telecom company in Pakistan that started to provide GSM service in
Pakistan.
 A great number of corporate customers have subscribed to Mobilink post paid
connection and Mobilink’s Blackberry handsets.
 In the pursuit of customer ease and satisfaction Mobilink and Muslim Commercial Bank
have put a joint effort so that their customers could have access to all banking services
via their cellphones.
 Mobilink has the distinction of being the only cellular service provider in Pakistan that
has introduced corporate packages.

9.1.2 Resources, Assets and People:
 In terms of capital resources, Mobilink has a large pool as it is a subsidiary
of multi-national company.
 Mobilink has the ability and capability of invest billions in different projects.
 The offices of Mobilink are upto international standards loaded to facilitate their
employees.

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Mobilink – A Case Study on Different aspects of Marketing
 The recruiting and selections of Mobilink could be understood by the phrase “choosing
the best among all”. It has resulted in qualified staff both from local and abroad well
reputed universities.

9.1.3 Innovative aspect:
 In 2012, Mobilink achieved yet another milestone by implementing a state of the art
system “Intelligent Network(IN)”.
 Through innovation, previously old technology of interphone was replaced with “First
GSM Network Connections”.
 The inception of the concept of post-paid and prepaid was done by Mobilink.
 Being the pioneer in other aspects, Mobilink is also the 1
st
one to introduce Mobile
Commerce Services.

9.1.4 Location and geographical coverage:
 In Pakistan, it is Mobiilink again to provide coverage in the northern and other remote
areas, such as Muzaffarabad, Chitral, Kaghan, Naraan and Kilaash.

 The present theme line for provision of coverage is “Pura Signal, Pura Pakistan”. It is
because Mobilink is again the 1
st
one to cover area across Pakistant.

 It’s very rare/negligible to find “No Service” message on the network of Mobilink.

9.1.5 Government dealing:
 Mobilink plays an important role in revenue generation for the government of Pakistan
by paying a large amount of tax.
 Mobilink abides to every rule and regulation in line with the constitution of Pakistan.

9.2 Weaknesses

 Regardless of the fact that Mobilink is the market leader, there has been a decline in the
market share of Mobilink over the period of past 5years.
 Advertisement has been on the low, specially for indigo.
 Mobilink is providing services at a higher price that all other companies.
 Expensive packages are making it hard for Mobilink to retain it’s customers.


9.2.1 Quality of network:


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Mobilink – A Case Study on Different aspects of Marketing
 Due to some technological shifts and new projects, the quality has been compromised for
some time now. For Instance, the network shift from 900Mhz to 1800Mhz.

Mobilink has been fined twice by Pakistan telecommunication Authority over its bad service. Once it
happened when the MSC of Mobilink was burnt to ashes and the other time due to some quality lagging
due to “handover Takeover” project.

9.3 Opportunities
9.3.1 Development:
 There is a gap that Mobilink can fill by providing attractive packages to elderly people,
teenagers, working class and ladies.
 There is an opportunity for Mobilink to further expand their market share by more
advertisements and promotional strategies.
 The rates could be lowered of calls, SIM, Mobitunes, GPRS to capture the low income
class.
 Before new entrants arrive, Mobilink can target new customers.
 Mobilink is providing fasted internet by EDGE technology but it can also work on 3G to
further enhance it’s internet services.
9.4 Threats
 Entry of new telecom companies is expected in the future.
 There could be a betterment in services to corporate customers by new entrants.
 Other companies are going into price wars that can decrease the customers of Mobilink.
 Brand local customers are sensitive, they could be lost due to negligence.

9.4.1 Price Wars:
 At present, among the companies, the price war is moving into a direction where brand
name will be the only survivor.

9.4.2 Unreasonably Restrictive Trade Practice
 MRTPO 1970, under those provisions, Mobilink could face a legal proceeding by not
giving it’s blackberry customers the liberty to use any other service provider.
Marketing Strategy
Besides other basic strategies, Mobilink has indulged into marketing strategy as well. There are
two dominant factors in the marketing strategy of Mobilink.

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Mobilink – A Case Study on Different aspects of Marketing
1. Cost Management
2. Quality Services
It is the achievement of Mobilink to have developed good relationship with customers both
corporate and consumers. Mobilink is emphasizing on the provision of the needs and demands of
the customers. For Instance, Mobilink has the edge to have the largest customer care center.
There are three main customer care centers of Mobilink, the statistics for them are given as
under;
100,000 call a day.
20,000 customers connect to the representative in care centers.
250-300 calls are received by each CSR in total duration of 8hrs.
http://www.scribd.com/doc/55466988/Mobilink-Marketing-Plan-2011