MTN Telecommunications' Brand Identity Issues

Since MTN Communications entered into the Nigerian Telecommunications industry to seek a GSM license in 2001, the industry and indeed Nigeria, has not been the same. In conjunction with the then Econet Wireless Nigeria Limited, the two companies were able to increase Nigeria’s teledensity from a dismal 500,000 at the start of the year to at least 4 Million by the end of 2002.

This radical improvement in access to communications technology has indeed had many positive effects on many sectors of the Nigerian economy, with the marketing communications industry enjoying huge expansions in revenue from the GSM service providers. MTN in particular, has surpassed old perennial big marketing spenders like the Nigerian Breweries Plc, British American Tobacco and Guinness Nigeria Plc to become the biggest spender on various aspects of marketing communications, with its expenditure well exceeding the Billion Naira mark. Ad Agencies, Public Relations Consultancies, Event Management/Experiential Marketing Companies and providers of diverse ancillary services like printers, outdoor advertising space and media owners - both print and electronic – have all benefited in varying extents from the telecoms boom.

Despite all of these positive leaps made by the Company however, I still find it difficult understand the rationale behind some of the obviously erroneous decisions taken by the management of the Company, especially with regard to the various and constant adjustments and outright changes it makes to the elements of its brand identity.

When the Company first began operations in the country, it came up with the slogan “MTN … Your Better Connection”, obviously implying that there were only two players in the market, and it (MTN) was the better of the two. However, the terms of the license the Company received clearly stated that apart from itself and Econet Wireless who were awarded the licenses, the government-owned NITEL would be also be awarded a license to operate GSM services also, bringing the number of starting players to three. When it became obvious that the government would soon allow even more players into the market, the Company realized its error and changed its tagline to a more tenable “MTN… Your Best Connection”.

Then came a rash of campaign themes, some of which ran simultaneously, probably causing some confusion among the various segments of the Company’s market. There was the “roving painter man” coverage campaign which still runs on an on and off basis. After this was the “Achieve What You Want To Achieve Campaign”, which was immediately followed by a “Life is Beautiful” campaign, which was cut short to pave way for the brand-new global brand theme anchored on the slogan “Everywhere You Go”. This campaign theme will be introduced and executed in all 6 African countries where the telecommunications giant operates.

The need for synergies in business cannot be overemphasized, especially when these synergies will result in greater efficiency and lower costs for its proponents. What I however have problems with is the fact that most of these campaigns seem to be rushed and in my humble opinion, not well thought out. Why introduce a campaign just four/five months after the launch of a major one? If this new global campaign had been in the pipeline for at least two years as I have heard, then why was the “Life is Beautiful” campaign allowed to fly in the first place? Why have there been few integrated campaigns involving the introduction of the campaign theme across all communications elements/tools? From what I see, sponsorships are doing one thing, advertising another and promotions a third. Synergy needs to go well beyond saying the same words and showing the same ads across African borders.

It is my hope that the execution errors displayed so far would be corrected with the new Pan-African Brand Strategy and direction the Company has designed for the Y’hello brand. However, I would not comment on whether the execution of the Pan-African campaign is adequate as it stands, until more elements of the campaign, especially manifestations in the other areas of marketing communications viz. sponsorships, events and public relations are exposed publicly.

For More Information See Hyperlinks Below:
http://www.africaonline.com/index.php?mode=getarticle&itemNo=9018737

http://www.marketingweb.co.za/marketing/438327.htm