Spice Telecom on the Right Track

Spice, the also-ran cellular operator in Karnataka has been trying to rebrand itself over the past few months. It doesn’t have the muscle or subscriber base of an Airtel or a Hutch, so it’s been fighting where it can: innovation in VAS.

I’m not sure how much of a market some of their stuff would have- things like keeping your organiser on a server and accessing it by SMS: the sort of people who would need a calendar regularly could probably afford a PDA anyway. Then, stuff like video ringtones is nothing really differentiated.

When I was out shopping yesterday, though, I noticed something much more interesting: the ‘2gether’ plans. (Links: 99 rupee postpaid, 250 rupee prepaid)

This is a regular potspaid plan. You get to call one other number at discounted rates, which is nothing new. What is new is that they throw in a little bit extra: the two numbers are next to each other. Spice is pitching this as a plan for young couples. The advertising is all big red hearts and cupids.

Again, this might not actually work. I don’t know how many young couples in Bangalore, leave alone the rest of Karnataka would actually want to advertise their relationship status. When Samanth calls up his mother to tell her that his number has changed, so that he can now be one number before Shilpa, sparks will fly.

Leaving that aside, Spice is still on the right track, even if this particular plan might not work. Selling connections to all the people who call each other together is a much better idea than selling to individual customers, who might use it only to receive incoming calls from landlines for all you know. This way, you’re definitely getting most of the call volume for yourself.

In fact, I’m shocked that Airtel or Reliance haven’t come up with something like this for families. Both have their own number series (99 for Airtel and 93 for Reliance) so it’s not like they have a constraint on available adjacent numbers. American cellphone operators have been doing this for years now, and in fact go a little bit extra by putting all the numbers together on one single bill. It’s not as if they have to come up with a completely new model, they just have to imitate whatever Verizon and AT&T are doing. And Airtel is usually quick to pick up whatever works overseas: they saw the Easy Charge system in the Philippines and installed it in India practically overnight.

Hmm. So maybe they’re already doing it. I think the next six months might just see one of the big three private players aggressively marketing adjacent numbers and a unified bill for families. Let’s see.

0 Responses to Spice Telecom on the Right Track

  1. “Spice, the also-ran cellular operator in Karnataka has been trying to rebrand itself over the past few months.”

    Spice, the also-ran(and also the first) cellular operator in Punjab has been trying the same thing here. But apart from getting Priyanka Chopra to be its brand ambassador, there’s been nothing of note. Almost no one takes a new Spice connection now. Airtel, Hutch and Reliance have given it a drubbing. But Spice only has itself to blame…I had my project sem training at Spice, and the atmosphere of apathy prevailing among its employees really shows why its not going anywhere. Really, it was in the game only as long as Badal was the CM.

    But maybe now with Telecom Malaysia buying a stake in Spice, things will change.
    Kind of strange, though, for a company to have one circle in Punjab and the other in Karnataka…only two, and so far apart.

    And its a great blog Aadisht, keep it up.

  2. SKimpy says:

    Given that spice has only a limited reach in Karnataka, and the fact that its signal are not in most areas, I’m not sure how well this scheme will succeed.

    However, I agree with you that this is a great scheme, and that it is very likely Airtel will piggyback on this soon enuff and cash in.

    I would also like to point out (or rather build on one of your passing remarks) that Spice has gotten its marketing all wrong. This might have been a good campaign in the US or something, but targeting young couples for this simply doesn’t make sense.

    As you’ve rightly pointed out, they should be targeting whole families instead, and also corporates. Something like every member of a particular team in a particular company will have adjacent numbers!

    Or like when Airtel offered us the IIMB scheme when we joined (which only some 3-4 people took), they should’ve dedicated a whole number series (of 1000 numbers) to IIMB! (something like 9880-IIM-your number) And publicized that. Maybe more of us would’ve gone for that scheme due to this unique branding then!

    (anyways, look who’s talking about marketing 😉 )

  3. Manas says:

    Maybe, Airtel knows this scheme wont make any big difference in the market, as most of the couples in Karnataka already have Airtel connections, given the fact that spice doesn’t have signal in many areas and buying a Reliance would make them bonded to a cellphone which won’t be easy to dump after they decide to dump their partners.

    @Chaitanya, Spice was the same in Punjab since its inception. It was making money only because Badal didnt allow any other operator to enter the state as his family had a stake in it. It was a monopolized market.

  4. Samanth says:

    Um… was that name chosen at random, or have you heard something in particular about Shilpa and me?

  5. Great Scott! You mean there is something between Shilpa and you?

  6. aman says:

    i want track my no

Leave a Reply