Tarifica Global Insights Series

The pace of change in the mobile services industry is constantly accelerating. This means new opportunities will arrive faster than ever before and are likely to play out more quickly as well. Operators must watch carefully for these ‘waves of opportunities’ and quickly take advantage of them before they either become mainstream (and no longer have special value) or become obsolete as new disruptions impact the market.

The Tarifica Global Insights Series analyzes and reports on innovative practices in the development and marketing of consumer mobile plans. Each report describes a significant opportunity in mobile plan development and how operators are creating new plans in response to that opportunity. The series provides comprehensive, in-depth information that identifies best practices across more than 25 countries representing every region in the world, and enables operators to quickly and successfully take advantage of new strategies in plan development and marketing. The reports include case studies in multiple regions that describe best plan implementation and marketing practices that have enabled operators to quickly and successfully take advantage of new opportunities through innovative mobile plan development and marketing.

This series of reports is an important resource for operators that are searching for new and better ways to increase revenue and profits, desire to be perceived as leading edge ‘first movers,’ or need to defend their market share against disruptive offers from competitors. These reports enable operators to take advantage of Tarifica’s unique global vantage point to more quickly bring leading edge offers to market that capture new revenue opportunities.

The Tarifica Global Insights Series is an annual program comprised of four quarterly reports as shown below.

2016 Report Series 

QUARTER 1 (FEBRUARY 2016): Designed for Success – Developing Plans for the Youth and Student Demographic
 Globally, over half the world’s population is under the age of 30. While this percentage varies from country to country, the youth/student market segment has unique needs that must be understood in order to take advantage of this revenue opportunity. Moreover, when young people transition into adulthood and begin to make independent financial decisions, incumbency presents a unique opportunity for mobile operators to win long-term customers. This report will focus on the plans, promotions and other initiatives undertaken by operators to win and hold this key demographic.

QUARTER 2 (MAY 2016): Adapting to Changing Expectations – New Strategies for Pricing Smartphones and Pairing Them with Mobile Plans 
The practice of offering heavily subsidized devices tied to long-term plans no longer meets users’ needs for faster upgrades and shorter or more flexible contracts. As a result, operators are experimenting with numerous other models for selling high-end smartphones to their subscribers. This report will examine financing options, new phone replacement programs and other strategies aimed at helping consumers obtain smartphones and ramping up customers’ monthly mobile spend.

QUARTER 3 (AUGUST 2016): New Frontiers of Mobile Offerings –Partnerships with Streaming Audio and Video Services 
Operators around the world are exploring new revenue sources beyond mobile data. One approach is to partner with streaming media companies such as Spotify and Netflix. Mobile operators are increasingly offering plans with these services included or available as add-ons. This report will focus on the demographics and unique needs of this target market and their impact on plan structures, promotions, marketing practices and pricing. It will also analyze the differences among the various streaming services in terms of consumer perceptions.

QUARTER 4 (NOVEMBER 2016): Avoiding the ‘Dumb Pipe’ Trap – Innovative Approaches to Packaging and Pricing Data 
The decline in calling and messaging revenue has made many operators ever more dependent on data. This has made it difficult for operators to differentiate their offerings without lowering their per-GB price. Many mobile operators have been experimenting with new pricing models for their data to overcome this challenge. Among the many initiatives employed are offering time-limited data, having zero rated or dedicated data allowances for specific services/apps, offering rollover data, etc. This report will identify and analyze all of these tactics, with particular focus on their impact on consumer satisfaction, churn reduction and ARPU.

Analyst Support 

Every subscription comes with five hours of analyst support. Subscribers also receive one-on-one briefing sessions with Tarifica’s Analysts each quarter. Sessions, which include a Q&A format, are designed to help subscribers gain a further understanding of the strategies, innovations, trends and opportunities occurring worldwide in mobile plan development. A subscriber’s colleagues are welcome to attend these briefings.

Subscriber Benefits

The Tarifica Global Insights Series provides subscribers with two distinct layers of analysis:

First, the reports analyze how each service/strategy was deployed, branded and marketed. The reports dive deeply into every element of these plans (their included service volumes, one-time costs, recurring charges, restrictions, marketing campaigns, and more) to provide a comprehensive look at precisely how these plans are being designed and launched. This level of specificity is critical for operators seeking to create successful programs in their own market.

Second, these reports bring to bear worldwide examples and case studies analyzing the factors behind the success or failure of these new strategies. Subscribers to The Tarifica Global Insights Series will be able to learn from operators at the forefront of innovative practices and strategies. Subscribers will be able to view and compare many different versions of these strategies and understand the regional factors involved.

The Tarifica Global Insights Series provides meaningful business intelligence that can be used to design plans that decrease churn and win new customers. Each report evaluates the success/failure of strategies based on key performance indicators, assesses the ease/difficulty of replicating each approach and provides detailed sets of best practices for adapting the program to other markets.

The Tarifica Global Insights Series will facilitate subscribers’ efforts to increase revenue and profitability, gain market share, demonstrate innovative leadership and rapidly take advantage of new market opportunities.

Subscription Fee
The price for an annual subscription that includes all four quarterly reports, five hours of enquiry support and quarterly one-on-one briefings is US $15,000. The subscription fee will be reduced to US $10,000 for orders placed by 15 February 2016, representing a 33% early purchase discount.

About Tarifica
Tarifica is uniquely qualified to provide this series based on its singular focus on researching and analyzing mobile plans around the world. In maintaining the Tarifica Mobile Database, Tarifica’s research team tracks and catalogs every mobile plan, rate and offer from over 250 MNOs and MVNOs in 66 countries in every region of the globe. This effort enables Tarifica’s analysts to gain a broad understanding of the latest innovations in plan development occurring worldwide. With this new report series, Tarifica leverages this focus to highlight and analyze the most impactful strategies on a global level.

sales@tarifica.com

Tarifica

Airtel Ghana Deploys Mobile Advertising Services

Mobile operator Airtel Ghana has launched a mobile advertising service that includes offers that have been tailored locally to provide advertisers with targeted ways to engage with customers. Airtel subscribers will receive promotional offers as well as content and event advertisements regarding local programs and services. Airtel has launched the service in partnership with Integrat Africa, a wireless application service provider, which will enable the operator to better analyze customer information, and as a result, allow advertisers to create ad campaigns for products in which users have an interest. Manu Rajan, Marketing Director of Airtel Ghana, has said that the service gives advertisers and ad agencies exactly what they need—direct, targeted dialogue with customers.

Airtel Ghana is the country’s fourth-largest mobile operator among six competing players. The mobile phone market in Ghana is one of the most developed in Africa. Several MNOs, including Airtel, reported increases in their subscriber base at the end of September 2014. However, subscriber growth has been attained at the expense of ARPU, making it necessary for operators to explore new sources of revenue. Providing value-added services such as promotional offers to subscribers is an innovative way for Airtel to increase revenue from fees it receives from advertisers as well as from data connectivity charges that customers incur when viewing and accessing the ads. Additionally, if mobile users view the promotional offers as value-added services, the operator may be able to attract new customers as well as retain its existing ones.

The above item appeared in a recent issue of The Tarifica Alert, a weekly resource that analyzes noteworthy developments in the telecoms industry from around the world. To access all of the latest articles and issues or to speak with the research team: http://www.tarifica.com/contactus.aspx

Airtel Ghana Introduces Multifaceted Data Use Campaign

Mobile operator Airtel Ghana has introduced Browse Chaw, a campaign to promote the MNO’s data offerings. Customers can subscribe to a range of data allowance tariffs including a Pay as You Go option and a variety of postpaid bundles. Marketing Director Manu Rajan said that with the Browse Chaw campaign, the operator is offering a variety of data products—which he refers to as “customer centered data services”—that have been designed to meet its customers’ needs. In addition, Airtel is offering Data Rollover, an option which allows customers to roll over unexpired data amounts when they top up their bundles; DataKredit, a service in which subscribers can get data on credit from Airtel and pay for it with their next recharge; and a Single Recharge Option that allows users to recharge their voice and data services at the same time.

As early as 1992, Ghana was one of the first countries in sub-Saharan Africa to launch mobile services, and although the growth of the mobile market has outpaced the fixed market in the country—as is common in emerging markets—it has grown at a very slow pace, mainly due to poor signal strength. At the end of 2013, Ghana had a mobile phone penetration rate of about 110 percent. This growth, particularly in the voice market came at the expense of monthly ARPU, which had fallen below US $5.00 for some of the country’s operators. However, the potential for new growth has arisen with the availability of 3G service.

Airtel Ghana plans to invest GHC 200 million (US $65.9 million) in a nationwide network expansion, of which GHC 150 million (US $49.4 million) will go toward improved data services. We believe it is wise for the operator to improve and promote data services, as in many parts of the world data is becoming the prime revenue driver, rather than voice services. Whether in developed countries with 4G/LTE services or in emerging nations such as Ghana, customer-friendly data packages such as those being offered by Airtel can give operators an upper hand in attracting and retaining subscribers.

“Emerging markets, as well as technologically advanced ones, are data hungry. As we mention in two of this issue’s articles (about Airtel Ghana and Tesco Mobile), mobile operators tailor their data offerings accordingly to their markets’ needs and try to make data widely available. Whether they promote mobile data as part of a specific campaign or create innovative packages to fulfill their customers’ expectations, operators around the world are aware of mobile data’s value and its positive impact on revenue.”

Edyta Krzton, Senior Analyst at Tarifica