“There are more than 64 options currently in the cellphone market and this has been causing a lot of complexity and confusion to potential customers, so we thought we should come up with this new concept, whereby a customer will have to choose a phone, a package and the extras,” Donovan Smith, MTN SA GM for consumer marketing, told Bizcommunity.com.
For example, a 50 MTN AnyTime package means that a customer has R50 to spend any time on any service from local and international calls, to SMS or MMS or Internet services, Smith explained, adding that the new concept only applies to contract customers.
“This is in contrast with the existing packages whereby you could use the R50 only for voice, and whatever you spend on top of that will have to be paid for.”
MTN said that the low in-bundle call rate is deducted from the Inclusive Airtime Value, and an out-of bundle call rate will apply once the Inclusive Airtime Value has been used up in a month.
“But, perhaps of the biggest single benefits to our customers is the introduction of a single call rate across all the networks, at anytime of the day or night, so worrying about on-peak or off-peak tariffs is now a thing of the past,” chief marketing officer Pieter Verkade said.
“And with every package, true per second-billing is standard so that you only pay for the actual that you talk and nothing more. All these exciting new features have been introduced with one thought in mind - to enable our customers to have more conversation with less complication,” Verkade added.
The MTN AnyTime creative campaign, which is set to be launched nationally with a print and a TV commercial on Sunday 21 September, was devised by The Jupiter Drawing Room (Johannesburg), MTN said. This will be supported by radio (including a competition), online, outdoor and in-store publicity elements. The pay-off line of the creative execution is: A lifetime of conversation can start with three simple words.
• Established in 1994, the MTN Group is currently operating in 21 countries across Africa and Asia, including the Middle East, Afghanistan and Iran, and is listed on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE). As per 30 June 2008, MTN Group recorded 74.1 million subscribers across the countries it is operating. It has at least 15 million customers in South Africa, including 5.8 million pre-paid customers. For more information, go to www.mtn.com.
