Franchises and Subscribers – Zong At Top?
The chart below shows the number of franchises for mobile network operators (source: PTA report 2008). If you divide the total number of subscribers at the end of 2008 by the number of franchises shown here at the end of 2008, it shows that Zong has one franchise for approximately 33600 subscribers. Telenor on the other hand has one franchise per 81000 customers. Mobilink has 63400 per franchise, Ufone 53500 and Warid 59400. So apparently Zong is at top in terms of offering more franchises for its subscriber base - but is that simple?
Of course more franchises do not equate to better service or higher sales. However it does raise some questions. Does it mean that Zong did an aggressive franchise rollout to gain market share? How does Telenor maintain its subscriber gain with the least density of franchises? There are some interesting comments about which franchise is best from a business owner point of view at this TGP thread.
This post does not address many important points such as the partner model followed by each company varies (the franchises counted by PTA are not the only ones). The the geographical distribution of franchises can be quite different when it comes to urban and rural areas and from one province to another.
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I dont think we can relate franchise and subscribers with complete authority…… cos franchises are meant to expand company’s customer care/sales network so if a company has less no. of franchises but a better geographical distribution of those franchises, i think that wud be a good effort by that company…
Patay Khan – my comment was regarding some of the new Zong franchises that I noticed and the expansion to AJK and NA areas. The question mark at the end of the title means exactly what you pointed out.
However the customer base has a relationship with the number of franchises as it represents the ability to service the customers. As you said, more the better.
What was “Zong at top” means in the title??? I see it at bottom :)
I don’t think having 150 franchises, which is least count, bring Zong at top by any means. Please realize franchise per customer doesn’t mean anything. More franchise means more accessibility to customers. Zong at the moment has lowest customers and lowest franchise accessibility. By not any means “At top”.
Also you talked about “aggressive franchise rollout” by Zong. Did you know Zong is actually a rebranding of Paktel and all Paktel franchises are converted to Zong and these franchises count include those paktel franchises as well? I’m not sure if Zong followed any “aggressive franchise rollout”.
[...] This cup of tea was served by: State of Telecom Industry in Pakistan [...]
1. It’s been some time since I worked for TMCD function. But more franchise depicts more brand awareness, more brand awareness does not nesseraily translate into more sales. Everyone knows Zong does not mean everyone uses Zong.
2. In Pakistan we don’t see any Franchise programs that may take up consumer interest to visit the Franchise. Like 1st Five Consumer to visit the Franchise on 6th of every month will get some special benefit etc.
3. Franchise other main role is to build brand consistency, which happens through the one of the many programs that I suggested above.