BRAND WAR IN TELECOM INDUSTRY IN NGIERIA

It has been an open secret that the relationship among the telecommunications companies in Nigeria has been less than chummy in recent times. With current events in the industry, notably the SIM registration debacle and resultant fines meted out to the erring parties, it is safe to say the telecommunications industry in Nigeria is experiencing turbulent times.
Worst hit in this period is industry juggernaut- MTN. Asides being expected to help Nigeria balance its fiscal budget, with a record breaking fine; the company is plagued with several legal issues, which in itself should cripple any regular organization. However, these challenges are not peculiar to MTN, as other service providers are also being fined in different capacities. However, the bigger they are the harder they fall right? Interestingly enough, some players in the industry have seized this period as an opportunity to land several shots on a wounded beast. It seems right a time to hit your competition whilst he’s struggling. And when I say hit, I don’t mean sucker punches like the ‘I don port o’ campaign; but direct blows like the suit filed by Etisalat against MTN for anti-competitive practices in relation to the latter’s impending takeover of a smaller service provider.
Still trying to respond to this assault, Airtel launched its own attack albeit from a brand and products perspective, this week. Airtel has rolled out a new service tagged ‘Welcome Home’. The service is for new SIM registrants or those coming on to the Airtel platform for the first time. I wouldn’t go into the details of the product, as I’ve not been paid to do that. However, the most curious thing about this service is that to have access to the SIM and its many bounties, you must dial *555*PIN#. Okay, am I the only one who thought hang on a minute, isn’t that MTN’s USSD code? To further add salt to injury, to check your balance on the package, you dial *556#. Now at this point, I’m literally blown away. I begin clapping slowly and nodding my head, saying well done, well done.
I know some may argue MTN threw the first blow when they changed the length of their recharge PIN from 12 to 16- fair enough. However, given my mathematical background, the odds of repeating the same PIN randomly is over a Googol to 1 (i.e. over 10100 even the best gamblers will tell you that is impossible). Furthermore, since naturally, the numbers are cycled and returned to the pool constantly, the probability further increases and the time a particular number string can be used is even longer. So I doubt MTN changed the string length because the numbers have been exhausted.
Now coming from a Brand Management Consultant’s perspective, your brand goes beyond your logos and communication collateral. The entire identity or representation of your company contributes to your brand. Therefore, the way you relate with customers, your office locations or even your choice of official vehicles can all be attributed to your brand identity. I would assume that there aren’t any patents on USSD codes because if there were, this wouldn’t happen in the first place. But I put it up for contesting, if anyone can prove to me that the USSD codes are not part of the service providers brand identities. Given the way mobile services were introduced to Nigeria, certain aspects of the customer’s interaction with the brand have come to be identified as part of the brand. Many first generation mobile phone users will attest to this statement because back then, you could identify the network by its number prefix, respective USSD codes or recharge PIN length. These days, one cannot tell if a number is MTN or Glo by simply differentiating from 0803 and 0805. The recent trends in the industry have brought more improvement and at the same time blurred some clear identity lines. However, Airtel’s move completely blows the lid off things and it brings me to the question, “Are we about to experience a brand war in the telecommunications industry?”
One must appreciate the ingenuity behind this simple, yet bold strategy in the sense that Airtel has been able to achieve three things in one move. 1) They’ve been able to take the playground bully’s lunch money without him noticing. 2) Went to his house and beat him on his own game console; and 3) Got away without as much as a scratch.

As a sales strategist and enthusiast, it is absolutely thrilling to be witnessing such clever tactics in our business landscape. It is refreshing to see competition go beyond pricing and sales for a change and I welcome more of such developments.