Safaricom and the making of a Kenya brand

By Patrick GithinjiWhat is left to write about Safaricom and its outgoing CEO Michael Joseph? Well, it is certainly not the endless spin about M-Pesa, M-Kesho, Pesa Pap and all its other innovative products and services, so loved by media and a strong PR machine over the years.Perhaps, the real story is how the choice of the company’s corporate colours and motto became the foundation stones for its amazing growth and dominance, and by extension Michael Joseph’s larger than life presence.An M-Pesa agent attends to customers.Helped along, of course by a steady dose of gross miscalculations by its main rival KenCell (now Zain). The very simplicity of this secret would be astounding, were it not for its having been overshadowed by Joseph’s other accomplishments. The day the outgoing CEO and the rest of his team chose green as the firm’s corporate colours, and the motto, The Better Option, was probably the most defining moment for the company. Mr Fred Rabongo, the managing director and founder of Impulse Promotions, a marketing firm, said Safaricom’s choice of green as its corporate colour was pivotal, as was everything else built around it with such religious zeal, it personified the company."Green is not loud, but it is positive," he explained. When asked a couple of years ago by a local daily the biggest strategic decision his team ever made, Joseph said it was the choice of green as the colour with which the company was to be always identified. Instantly recognisable"We wanted a colour that would be instantly recognisable by every Kenyan, in any corner of the country…one that tugs at the heartstrings of the ordinary mwananchi, and green was perfect," he said, adding that everyone associated it with the season of plenty, with rainfall and blessings.From then on, everything seemed to fit like a glove. Safaricom’s only rival then was KenCell (now Zain), which was co-owned by the French, specifically Vivendi Telecom, with a 60 per cent shareholding, and Nausheed Merali, founder of the Sameer Africa Group. Against Safaricom’s green, KenCell’s corporate colour, a rather garish pink, looked to be inspired more by the romantic notions of then CEO Philipe Vandebrouck than anything else, and the flat motto ‘Yes’.The rest is history: Safaricom stuck with its original colour and motto, and ingrained it into the minds and hearts of its subscribers with innovation and clever marketing, while KenCell morphed as many times as it changed hands, to the extent that today, few can recall the original company or its brand.Also, by wrongly positioning itself as the provider of mobile services to the corporate sector, KenCell created a ‘state of mind’ in the industry that its successive owners have been unable to shake off.Safaricom opted to align its earthy colours and motto with the mass market and grew from there. Ironically, today the firm has the highest tariffs of all the four players in the industry, but still dominates in revenues and subscriber numbers. Having defined the direction of the local mobile phone services industry for so long, talk of "what next after Joseph" not surprisingly, seems a bit premature, given that the outgoing CEO will hang around after November in an advisory capacity for two years. After all, as he himself once said, he is Safaricom and Safaricom is him.For every dominant company, there are defining moments in its growth curve that determine whether it remains static and loses its competitive edge, or makes key investments and strategic decisions that keep rivals at bay. Michael Joseph was never keen to wait for such a moment.Top of the leagueUnder him, Safaricom has remained at the apex East Africa’s corporate heap, with the largest pre-tax profit in the region last year (Sh20.97 billion), flowing on the back of turbo-charged data services.Safaricom’s Head of Communication and Marketing, Wangari Murugu singled out prominent use of the Swahili language and its variant known as Sheng as standing out in the firm’s advertising campaigns over the years."We have buttressed Safaricom’s credentials as a true Kenyan success story," said Murugu. Examples include naming its tariffs and services with catchy words such as sambaza, skiza and bamba among others. "Our brand building initiatives are undertaken through short-term sponsorships and the Safaricom Foundation, which is the biggest and most expansive (corporate social responsibility programme) in terms of scope and impact. This has given us the biggest share of Kenyan hearts," she explained.Rabongo, said packaging Safaricom as a mass-market brand helped Joseph gain and surpass Safaricom’ closest rival, KenCell in its early years. And Mr Tom Sitati, a brand analyst, said Safaricom managed to build a believable tone and resonance as a reliable mobile phone services brand with its local subscribers. "Most firms were more into niche markets rather than into targeting the mass market," he said. Even yu (owned by the Essar group of India) has positioned itself in the low-income segment of the market.Joseph started out and stuck with The Better Option campaign, but supplemented this over the years with other landmark advertising campaigns, all grounded in showcasing Kenyan culture and natural tourist attractions.In 2008, the firm’s total advertising spend stood at Sh1.8 billion, against Sh1.6 billion in 2007, according to figures from ad-tracking agency, Synovate (formerly Steadman).Technological edgePeople love consistency, and Sitati argued that despite the changes in the mobile telecommunications sector, most notably the entry of Orange and yu, Safaricom remained consistent in its message, branding and product offering.Rabongo further attributed the Safaricom’s early success to its pricing strategy of per second billing, when its only rival KenCell was focusing on per minute billing. "Safaricom sacrificed significant revenue per call but again, it won more customers who preferred to only pay exactly for airtime they used. There was much debate about which method was superior, but ultimately Safaricom won," he noted."The truth lies somewhere in between," said another brand analyst, who sought anonymity because of business ties with Safaricom. "Safaricom has had many advantages due to its privileged market position. However, the technological and marketing savvy of its UK shareholder Vodafone has also been behind a range of Safaricom’s astute technological and marketing choices."Rabongo said outsourcing of the services has allowed Safaricom to concentrate with their business in order to ensure their target is met.

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