Industry insiders are predicting a full launch by the end of February, but TA Orange is keeping its cards close to its chest. Says its corporate affairs manager, Duke Theerathada: "Internally we have a focus, but externally we are aiming for the end of Q1. Right now we have tens of thousands of people on our network so this gives us an opportunity to get everything right. We are a promise that delivers, and this is key to our brand."
Getting it right starts with value-for-money propositions such as consumers making a call at peak periods without worrying that the call will be cut, and perfecting a friendly customer service link.
News about TA Orange's entry a year ago had incumbent operators concerned that the newcomer would launch, raise the bar with all the vital ingredients for success and erode their market share.
"There is so much paranoia,
says one industry observer of the cloak and daggers climate of the highest-spending advertising category in the country. That TA Orange chose to delay its launch to perfect its offering is doing nothing to quell the anxiety as the first salvos in what is set to be the most expensive battle in Thai advertising history are fired.
DTAC has come out with cannons blazing, blitzing the airwaves with its 'Sam Num, Sam Mum' (Three men, three angels) campaign this month at a cost understood to total 100 million baht (US$2.3 million). The campaign features three characters from a former hit drama that mesmerised viewers for almost a decade. Aired on all channels after the 8pm news, the primetime 30-second spot features a different location every day for 27 consecutive days, ending January 31. "Everybody in Thailand knows the series and it fits with all DTAC target groups,
says a source in the DTAC camp. "The eldest of the three men represents a business group, the middle works for a travel magazine and the third has just finished a bachelor degree and is travelling for fun."
The primary aim of the TVC is to emphasise DTAC's recently completed expanded network coverage capability across the entire country. However, according to the source, the campaign is timed to also emphasise TA Orange's limited initial network coverage.
At launch, TA Orange's network will cover only Greater Bangkok and key provincial cities, although it claims that 90 per cent coverage of the country will be possible by the end of 2002.
With an advertising war chest of 1.3 billion baht this year and an additional budget to improve its all-round product offering, DTAC is clearly on an aggressive drive to grow the subscriber base from the current 2.7 million.
Not to be outdone, AIS, the leading operator with four million subscribers, has waded in with an even bigger budget announcement, committing a total of 17.6 billion baht to network expansion, software improvements, advertising and other technology services. However, TA Orange says it isn't fazed.
"Our budgets will be very competitive, but our spend will be more effective because we have one brand,
says Duke.
With a mere 10-11 per cent mobile phone total market penetration, or seven million people, there is a lot of room for growth.
This has not gone unnoticed, with other industry players, Hutchison-CAT Wireless Multimedia and the 1900-Megahertz mobile phone, poised to enter the market this year.
