Decide your marketing plan wisely
If you watch ASTRO channel regularly, you will notice that there are actually a lot of advertisements from CELCOM – some actually used other telcos “brand” like the yellow DIGI man. To be honest, what do they want to achieve by doing something like that? Is it to make their competitors look bad?
If yes, then I don’t think they’re doing a good job with those marketing things. Why? Because their package and quality are not much better than the competitors’ – maybe even worse. This, to me, is another waste of money in the realm of marketing. The one message which I get from their advertisement is that I can now use 016 and 012 but under CELCOM. Why do I want to change to CELCOM? No reason for me to do that.
And today, I came across TM Net Streamyx web site while trying to look for any Streamyx package which does not require a land line. What I found is this online promotion where you can get 1 month rebate if you register online. Online promotions are pretty good way to market your products – for example, DELL. But for this, I’m not sure whether it is actually useful. First of all, if I were to apply for a broadband line, it also means I most likely do not have an internet access. So I can either register it while at work (which is not encouraged, since it is office hour), in cybercafe (which not many people will go), or using dial up (which will be quite slow since the web site is using FLASH). In the end, most people still prefer to go to the TM center and register manually, thanks to all the troubles created by them just to encourage people to register online.
If you really want people to use the product you are selling, then make it as accessible as possible! What’s the point of having promotion when it is not easily accessible?
That’s why the next time a business decides on a marketing plan, it better be a good one. Otherwise, it’ll just be another waste of money and give a negative impression of your business on other people (possibly your customers). Plan wisely and execute it efficiently. Your company’s reputation relies on it.
As for CELCOM, a line like “the telco with the most reliable and widest coverage in Malaysia” will win hands-down. The number changing thing? Most people already know that by now.
And for TMnet Streamyx, maybe it’s easier to come out with a promotion on TV or radio or newspaper which says – free 1 month rebate to all new customers from now till December 2008. That should grab people’s attention.
p/s…. nowadays, most Secret Recipe restaurants have put up a banner saying “Winner of best restaurant 2008 – Secret Recipe Philippines”. I don’t understand what’s the purpose of that since the menu should be different, the price different and even the entire franchise (except the name) could be different. =_= Another marketing plan went wrong?
Have you ever considered going into marketing? The dynamics of the game are being changed by the economic downturn so its an exciting field to be in at this time.
@ Damien
He has pretty interesting opinions.
Marketing? No experience in that and I cannot do sales (most companies expect you to know both). But I do follow Seth Godin’s blog a lot.
Guess I’ll only be involved in marketing when I start my own biz.
Hmmm.. Celcom’s marketing plan is based on lifestyle. That’s why the Celcom ads are so disjointed as they are targeting different segments of the market.
Digi’s plan is more cohesive, 1 brand simple and straight to the point. Think yellow, think DiGi.
Have you seen Celcom’s latest ad about some woman dressed in a wedding gown asking people to marry her so that she can have discount or etc on calls? The concept was lost on me. I have absolutely no idea what that ad was all about.
Gosh… Wonder which company managed the marketing campaign for Celcom… It’s a freaking disaster…
Angie Tans last blog post..Sentimental Thursday – Lucky
@ Angie
The wedding advertisement? Hahha, yeah. I think she’s trying to convince people to start a family plan with her since the deal is quite good?
Apparently, the simpler marketing campaigns tend to be more successful.
I could be wrong but I believe Celcom is using Saatchi as their ad agency. The ad visuals are merely the execution of a greater idea called brand strategy. This is often done internally due to its dependence on financial, marketing and operational constituencies. Marketing is just a subset of branding. Anyway, if the brand strategy sucks, the marketing plan and the ad campaign will also suck.
@ Damien
Maybe that’s why DIGI pushes the branding first and then slowly goes for other ad campaigns? No point telling the world that your brand is good when everyone hates you