Mobile operator aims for younger demographic

Mobilink joins the race, incentives geared towards youth with limited financial resources.

KARACHI: Pakistan’s youth is a battleground for mobile service providers and Mobilink has joined the fray by launching a package aimed at capitalising on the burgeoning younger demographic of Pakistan with limited financial resources. Up until now, the segment had been slightly ignored by the country’s largest mobile operator.

There had been online reports which predicted that Mobilink would launch a brand to cope with this demographic given that Jazz was the closest thing it had to cater to this segment. Jazz, according to an independent industry analyst, was unable to compete due to the fact that it charges line rent and its pricing and advertising are not up to the standards set by other mobile service providers.

Highlighting the importance of the demographic this package is aimed at, Mobilink’s vice-president of marketing, Bilal Munir Sheikh said, “the launch of this package signifies the importance of the segment.”

He also emphasised that the package realised the limited buying power of the segment.

Interestingly, all the other service providers have fairly recognisable brands that target a younger demographic. However, this seems to be Mobilink’s first foray into this genre of customers, said analysts. “There is tremendous excitement about the offer that we have introduced for people in the 18-25 age group,” said Mobilink’s official spokesperson, Omar Manzoor.

A press release sent by Mobilink says that the new ‘Jazba’ package, which costs Re1 per day, subsidises call rates to Mobilink users and users of other mobile service providers.

On-net calls will cost Rs0.70 per 30 seconds and off-net calls will cost Rs0.80 for half a minute.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 7^th, 2010.