Telkom Kenya Launches Orange Mobile. What Next for Us?

“You don’t buy a bike. You buy the right to scare yourself to death.”

- Bill Buxton

On September 17, Telkom Kenya launched Orange Mobile at the KICC. The event had the usual pomp and color most product launches do have. It was even covered live on one of Kenya's leading TV stations. Finally, "Mobile calling rates are just about to plummet." So I thought.

As I watched Prime Time News that evening, the not-more-than-30-seconds clip the Telkom CEO was accorded nearly dashed my hopes. He mentioned that their approach as a national integrated service provider would be in his words "offering simple but useful solutions. Orange would not be a cheaper provider, but a fairly priced high quality services provider."

ORANGE mobile has this nice marketing campaign, that uses one of Eric Wainaina's songs. The corporate colors are very appealing and the Orange Kenya web site is both informative and interesting. We can only wait and see whether they have the ability to "Think Different". I do wish them well.

Looking back at Safaricom's advertising campaign in 2000, I remember very clearly that Safaricom had these billboards screaming "072: Mobility" and stuff like that. The same message was repeated again and again on radio as Safaricom sponsored nearly all the News updates on major stations. My point is that we got to know about the brand SAFARICOM at the same time they told us what it would do to meet our communication needs. No wonder they are number One. Smart Marketing that is predicated on the user.

ZAIN's marketing is still wanting. I do love their rates for both voice calls and internet services. But then, they do not communicate that very effectively. Many people still believe Safaricom is more affordable, largely because Zain has not spent time telling them otherwise.

By now, we already know they have changed from Celtel to Zain. We are still wondering how Zain can help solve our communication problems and meet our needs. Someone at Zain marketing should read this article.

Brief excerpt:
"Before you can solve a user’s problems, you must see them as that user sees them. Once you understand what drives people’s behavior, not only do new ideas flow freely, but the ideas that flow are appropriate and useful. Indi Young tells how to get out of your own way and hear what your users are telling you."

I cannot predict who will emerge victorious. This is because I do not care. All I care about is who will offer me good value for the calls I make, the text messages I send and the time I spend online. In short, who will see my communications problems as I see them?

Orange begins selling the iPhone in Kenya next month. Safaricom might still be blazing the trail with yet another "first from Safaricom". I pray and hope that Zain will now go beyond telling us about a 'Wonderful World'. There should be more than just color ands smiles in a Wonderful World. I also hope that Econet Wireless will not delay their services launch any further.

All in all, we asked for choice and we now have it. Better services, affordable tariffs, wider network coverage, cross-network calling, no congestion, faster internet access and better customer care is just but a small part of what we really need.
The icing on the cake will be the day CCK enforces number portability (a pipe dream?).

The more I think about the exciting times the Kenyan ICT sector has ahead, I am reminded that God gave us free will, and with it the burden of choice.
I strongly believe that our best days are still ahead of us.

What do you think?