Mobile Services for More Than 50 Million Subscribers
VimpelCom, the first Russian company to be listed on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE: VIP), is a leading international provider of mobile telecommunications services in Russia and the CIS countries of Kazakhstan, Ukraine, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Armenia and Georgia.
Operating under the Beeline brand, VimpelCom has a cellular license portfolio that covers territory of approximately 240 million people. As of 2006, VimpelCom’s total number of subscribers exceeded 55 million, with over 48 million in Russia and another seven million in six CIS countries.
Increasing Stickiness in a Price-Conscious Market
In a competitive market where loyalty was largely a factor of price, VimpelCom sought to increase ties to their Beeline brand, particularly with the youth segment. To overcome price consciousness and increase retention, VimpelCom took a unique and comprehensive approach by employing a strategy that leveraged multiple factors, not just price alone. This strategy included tactics to increase voice usage and stimulate the uptake of value-added services through targeted marketing and an enhanced brand image.
Act, Influence and Reward!
For competitor differentiation, VimpelCom wanted to reposition the Beeline brand to better align with subscribers’ mobile lifestyles. The challenge was to implement a marketing strategy that would encompass this vision and actualize VimpelCom’s promise of “Live on the Bright Side” slogan. Therefore, it needed to develop a deeper understanding of young subscribers’ interests, and build relevant promotions and loyalty schemes with merchandise that would increase youth identification with the new Beeline brand.
Comverse Real-Time Billing Solution
Comverse Real-Time Billing Solution provided VimpelCom with advanced market segmentation capabilities based on real-time transaction information to create relevant offers, loyalty programs and segment-based tariff plans as part of their proactive marketing strategy. VimpelCom was able to launch a series of campaigns to strengthen brand recognition and increase loyalty.
Following the introduction of the Beeline brand, Vimpelcom offered a new ruble tariff line that reinforced the brand promise and emphasized personalization and segmentation. This led to customer acquisition and supported a company strategic goal to migrate to the ruble national currency.
Hundreds of Millions of Satisfied Users Around the World
VimpleCom selected Comverse Real-Time Billing Solution based on the solution’s scalable architecture, feature-richness and Comverse’s deployment record. To date, the Real-Time Billing Solution is deployed in more than 50 countries around the world, where it serves hundreds of millions of customers daily.
VimpelCom has become a leading force in Russia with immense growth in subscriber volume with Comverse as its partner. VimpelCom has benefited from Comverse’s team of seasoned professionals, expertise drawn from global leadership and extensive knowledge of the local market that reflects a deep-rooted local presence.
Successful Marketing Campaigns & Personalized Tariff Plans
Beeline has become one of the most valuable brands in Russia, boosted by the launch of targeted marketing campaigns, such as:
No Escape from the Gift: VimpelCom’s Beeline brand logo features striking yellow and black lines and in this campaign, subscribers were awarded one “yellow stripe” for every ten minutes of voice calls, and one “black stripe” for every ten SMS messages. Subscribers could check their current balance of stripes via a free SMS request or voice call. Users could then order their prize – yellow-and-black striped merchandise – via a free voice call and pick it up at VimpelCom outlets.
Live Zero: With the launch of this campaign, subscribers were able to receive incoming voice calls or SMS messages from other VimpelCom subscribers even when their prepaid balance stood at zero. Given its positive impact on churn reduction, the campaign was reintroduced a year later under the campaign “Always stay connected with the outside world”. In this campaign, users were allowed to receive on-net and off-net calls and text messages at a zero balance.
Bonus Minutes: Designed to increase subscriber loyalty, retention and ARPU, the campaign awarded subscribers free minutes as soon as they reached a specified level of revenue activity over a one-month period for local voice and SMS traffic.
Ruble Tariffs: To support any communication style, VimpelCom introduced a ruble tariff portfolio, personalized to various market segments. Almost 50% of subscribers migrated to ruble tariffs, while key performance indicators such as ARPU, APPM and usage minutes exceeded the same ones for dollar tariffs. The five subscriber tracks of the portfolio included:
- “Easy”: Subscribers who like simplicity but crave value receive a set price for all outgoing calls, while incoming calls are free.
- “Want to Say”: Subscribers who love to talk freely can enjoy a 90% discount after using a certain amount of outgoing minutes in a day.
- “Family”: Subscribers receive a 50% discount for frequent calls to other Beeline subscribers.
- “Click”: Subscribers who use the Internet frequently receive an attractive rate.
- “City”: Subscribers receive a low rate for frequent calls to fixed lines.
With the Comverse Real-Time Billing Solution, VimpelCom achieved the following results:
- Strengthened Operator Brand: No Escape from the Gift improved brand awareness, as the extremely popular yellow-and-black striped prizes were strongly identified with the Beeline logo. The Beeline brand was named Brand of the Year of the Ukraine in 2007.
- Increased Subscriber Base: No Escape from the Gift resulted in up to a 1% increase in the active subscriber base, while the new Ruble Tariffs led to a significant increase in high ARPU subscribers.
- Improved Subscriber Loyalty: Live Zero significantly strengthened subscriber satisfaction and allegiance.
- Reduced Churn: Live Zero was so successful at reducing churn that the operator decided to re-launch the promotion again one year later; and the No Escape from the Gift campaign decreased churn from1 to 5%.
- Additional Revenues and ARPU: Bonus Minutes and No Escape from the Gift generated new revenues through increased usage by subscribers motivated to earn bonus prizes or minutes. Live Zero generated additional revenues, while No Escape from the Gift accounted for 1 to 5% increased sales and 5 to10% higher ARPU.