But there's a rule of thumb in western marketing that dictates "if it looks corporate, scrap it". See I kinda liked Vodafone's copywriting on their website. Kinda being the keyword. It tried to be all carefree and stuff, but it was a little pretentious too. But what makes me stick to a Q-Tel I have no love of is the viral marketing strategy, the, "let's send one of our reps into an online community to vainly pretend they're part of the community while they're basically indulging in unsolicited spam". Come on Voda, we're not THAT dumb. And the Facebook group... now that's plain hilarious but I guess everything has a Facebook group (part of the reason I don't have an FB account anymore).
I understand the need for an upstart to promote itself in every way possible, but the iPhone fallout will not be easy to correct, Q-Tel dealt you guys quite the underhand but it clearly isn't their fault you tossed them a free steak with your pricing. In the end, people get really sick of aggressive marketing and start refusing your services out of spite. You might convert the phoneaholics to your cause but the vast majority of the market which thrives on 10 QR. prepaid cards will stick with your well established competitor. It's kind of like Qatar Airways/Emirates vs. Bahrain Air/FlyDubai. The majority of the population of the Gulf is always going to be low skill/low pay expat labour. They have no money, and frankly no interest in 5 star transportation. A solid business model beats any marketing trickery in the long run.
But there's a rule of thumb in western marketing that dictates "if it looks corporate, scrap it". See I kinda liked Vodafone's copywriting on their website. Kinda being the keyword. It tried to be all carefree and stuff, but it was a little pretentious too. But what makes me stick to a Q-Tel I have no love of is the viral marketing strategy, the, "let's send one of our reps into an online community to vainly pretend they're part of the community while they're basically indulging in unsolicited spam". Come on Voda, we're not THAT dumb. And the Facebook group... now that's plain hilarious but I guess everything has a Facebook group (part of the reason I don't have an FB account anymore).
I understand the need for an upstart to promote itself in every way possible, but the iPhone fallout will not be easy to correct, Q-Tel dealt you guys quite the underhand but it clearly isn't their fault you tossed them a free steak with your pricing. In the end, people get really sick of aggressive marketing and start refusing your services out of spite. You might convert the phoneaholics to your cause but the vast majority of the market which thrives on 10 QR. prepaid cards will stick with your well established competitor. It's kind of like Qatar Airways/Emirates vs. Bahrain Air/FlyDubai. The majority of the population of the Gulf is always going to be low skill/low pay expat labour. They have no money, and frankly no interest in 5 star transportation. A solid business model beats any marketing trickery in the long run.