That Branson guy is crazy. Yeah, that same old, boisterous, flamboyant Chairman of the Virgin Group, Sir Richard Branson. First he sends a telescope in the JAM office inviting us to the launch of Virgin Mobile in India. Then he goes right up Hilton Towers and does a bungee jump (like his bones are not more than 30 years old) on the unsuspecting Mumbai masses. Once thats out of the way, he comes into the press conference dressed as though he is out for a walk on the beach. White shirt, plain light brown pant and floaters. May I warn you, Sir, Paani Poori on the Mumbai beach, will put you in hospital for the remainder of your trip.
I was all excited when he came in the conference hall (which was literally bursting at the seams, the media love someone quotable and flamboyant). Why, you ask? Because, dahling, I thought some sexy Virgin Atlantic air-hostesses might be hanging around. There were none. Like, damn.
Branson seems to have apparently rung Ratan Tata and told them, “Hey big man, we want to do something in India. Anything!”. So Tata sets up Virgin Mobile as a service available under the Tata Tele banner which allows Virgin to escape all the legal hassles and use someone else’s existing network too. Elementary business branding, pumpkin.
Virgin seem to have done extensive homework and all this is targeted at the youth, which everybody and the press kit were hell bent on reminding us. Nevertheless, their homework deserved an A grade from me, so to speak. They seem to have studied the pattern of the youth quite smartly. And I couldn’t quite deny their research. I’ll tell you one outrageous thing. You receive talktime for receiving calls from any network. Also, the person who handles your complaint at the call center will continue to do so till you cling on to Virgin Mobile. That’s outrageous!
And with all that they have bring their expertise of handling Virgin Mobile all across the globe too. Vodafone and Airtlel, be scared. Be very scared.
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4 Responses to “Virgin Mobile India Launch”
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March 9th, 2008 at 5:05 am
This 10 paise thing was around for quite long.. I think this strategy
was also used for idea cellular for interior Maharashtra rural people..
it can be proved that it kinda worked but I argue that since there were
just 2 service providers for gsm i.e. BSNL and Idea and since the
private guys are always good, Idea made up real high numbers of
subscribers. Officially the 10 paisa thing was a dud.. but since people
are so much after offers and ‘Bling’ type things without applying
thought, they may generate some market recognition for Virgin..
After all its all about money honey.. but this is whats gonna happen: A
guy like me for instance, if I have a very low balance in my phone, I
will use my office phone which is free and try to increase the
balance… just for that increment of 1 rupee, I will gave to make 10
mins calls from a landline and end up paying (my company in this case)
100 times more to the landline service provider.
In the end, if you are smart enough to realise this, you wont go for
this one.. As far as getting new excitement like 3G , better GPRS, yah,
dream about it.. virgin is not exactly launching a brand new line of
service but, they are just borrowing form the TATA’s present
infrastructure so, what was there is going to be the same.. a’la
Vodaphone..
The only thing DIFFERENT you will see about it is new logos and another addition to endless mind numbing ads on TV and radio..
Virgin or any commercial provider for that matter is doing nothing
other than fooling the ‘Bholi Junta’ into huge expectations and peanuts
in return…
My idea, stick to your own service provider.. if you change, its gonna suck a lot.
March 10th, 2008 at 2:13 pm
Do not worry at all. Its a good strategy & will surely work as all the female population is definitely after this kindda of deal
March 20th, 2008 at 9:06 pm
You have got a great blog. I also wrote a blog on Virgin Mobile and was checking other blogs when I stumbled onto yours.It was also good to know that you are aiming to get into a software company. I have a software company of my own but its not big now. I am looking for people who can help me make it big though. Let me know if you will be interested?
April 2nd, 2008 at 6:05 pm
Too much hype about virgin mobile let’s see how successful it can be in India. I read a nice piece on virgin mobile in SiliconIndia.com, guess you guys can also have a look at it may be it will help you to decide whether to go for it or not:)