In 2004 Safaricom had 918,779 subscribers while Kencell had 1,627,378 and the REST is HISTORY. At what what point did they start eating their lunch?
Lunch time presumably
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Kencell ni maringo iliwamaliza. They thought they were doing their subscribers a favor. My uncle had that Kencell line and every time he loaded the 300 shs voucher, he would receive 250 shs. Yaani they just took 50 bob for no apparent reason…can you imagine?
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Per second billing ndiyo ilipatia Safcom a head-start.
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I recall back in the day Kencell was sh!t. they used to do full page ads and billboards everywhere with the “The answer is yes” slogan. 10 years later they were struggling to get subscribers. Where did they lose it I also ask.
Per second billing
Kencell ignored the “peasants”…The same story is replicated in the Banking sector, Equity bank emerged from “nowhere”. and became a giant when Barclays was busy saying minimum deposit is 50K.
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Alafu the two companies had remarkably different approaches to the market. Kencell targeted birrionaires while Safcom believed in the peasants. Safcom has always marketed itself to wanjiku, even while seducing the corporates. They took a long term bet (forgo profits in the short term while investing heavily in network coverage). Kencell on the other hand would invest in urban areas first, where people could “afford” their services. You can imagine being on Kencell in Nairobi while most of your relatives are on Safcon. This is how most people were forced to switch networks.
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I remember Kencell rushed to snap up corporate customers because it was (wrongly) assumed that’s where the money is. How wrong they were.
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I have a friend who works with Airtel. I am tired of saving his name as Mike wa Kencell/Celtel/Zain/Airtel…
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Kencell is the one that made peasants get mobile phones, SIM card ksh 2500 , handset ksh 9000
By 2004, Safaricom already was way ahead of Kencell /Celtel. Those figures can’t be for 2004.Maybe 2002.
I dont give a hoot.I have several friends and relas working with safcom but not even one with zain(or whatever the name is).Pesa ya aafaricom wananchi wanakula hiyo ingine hapan tambua
Kencell just never knew the power of “The people”. They also forgot that the customer comes first.
Same case with Baclays vs Equity. Pesa iko na average mwananchi
The birth of mpesa made Airtels life even harder! my official line is airtel but i have a safcon line for mpesa (mostly), which is always on…lazma niwe na simu mbili or dual phone! They do all those airtel money ads but they are not getting more agents. There used to be an agent next to my place, asked him whats up he told those maafakaz dont pay good commissions, he sed they pay like a quater of what safcon pays them, akaona ni ufala aka abandon! Now if i need an agentvi must go to my nearest supermarket which is 20bob kwenda 20bob kurudi by mat!
the other day, i put forward a theory about the relationship between a name and the probability of success.
In the corporate world, Brand Color is the king. If you don’t have green anywhere, you are unlikely to make it. Green is the color of growth, fertility, reproduction, etc. Red, on the other hand, is the color for danger, blood, death, fire, etc. If I bought kencell/Zain/whatever, the immediate thing would be to rebrand.
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How about Equity with their really boring brown, brand colors don’t really matter, it’s what the brand represents
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Hio ni outlier. Plus their success can be attributed to absence of red.
Woi no body told Kingdom Sacco ya Githurai they rebranded and changed their colours from green to red and black