Brand Management: Case Study of Omantel

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Brand Management: Case Study of Omantel
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Brand Management: Case Study of Omantel
Brand identity
Oman Telecommunications Company also known as Omantel is reported to be one of the
largest telecommunication service provider in Oman. Any telephone call that is made in Oman,
both international and local, internet services, and SMS Messages, Omantel is the largest
provider. Omantel established its business in the year 1996 launching its first payphone
operations (Moloney 2006). A significant shift in industry and technology, dedication, and
innovation resulted to development in various business aspects with a myriad of different
services that are geared towards serving desires of the existing market (Brown 2010). Omantel
services include Cable Broadband and consequently Wireless Broadband; and Cable Television
as well as to the Video on Demand. Further, it offers LDI services in addition to fiber optic
network and the wireless local telephony. Indeed, Omantel has indeed traversed several
milestones. Omantel compromises of a myriad of services that fall under different categories that
include entertainment, data, as well as voice.
Brand is one of the effective marketing strategy that a company can employ. brand is like
a store stashed with cash which has accrued from effective marketing but has to be practically
tangible sales and profit. Regardless of the providential evidence on the effectiveness of brand, it
cannot be used for short-term measures (Damoradan 2015). Indeed, this is because of their
likening to accounting strategies, which are measured and tabulated in the form of ratios as well
as currency (Powell 2015). Moreover, while brand equity is measurable, often times than not,
they are not integrated into official evaluation frameworks. Furthermore, brand equity is costly
and takes time to develop. Consequently, this implies that products of large brand equity have
advantage over (Wreden 2015). Today, a majority of business entities that include Omantel
employ various integrated marketing strategies and plans. This is aimed at taking customers

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through awareness-creation, know-how and product association, reflection, buying and fidelity
(Grams 2011). On the other hand, there are three types of metrics namely; Performance metrics,
financial metrics and perception metrics, enables the any marketer to measure the performance of
‘brand-building’, all the way.
Brand positioning and communication: Promotion Mix
Advertising
Omantel uses billboards and print media to advertise its services in Oman market. When
one visits the company help desk for example, the company presents a great number of flyers,
booklets, and brochures. The company finds them as the great way of advertising its brand by
engaging may people through printed materials. They find the chance to interact with the
physical product more than they would through online platform.
Sales promotion
Omantel utilizes personal promotions to attract individual customers. More specifically,
marketing department applies direct-mail couponing strategy to create a strong loyalty with
customers and make them turn to Omantel when they need individualized services. Some of the
current personal promotions include messages that require customers to enjoy zero down
payment and monthly installments as low as RO 14 to get Galaxy S9/S9+. The company also
informs customers that they can continue to stay connected with their loved ones with
international call rates as low as 10 Bz per minute. Furthermore, the whole Wi-Fi requires that
families get better WiFi coverage speed in part of their rooms starting as low as 3 R0 per month
(Omantel, 2018). The company does all these to achieve customer tracking, targeted campaigns,
increase loyalty, customer retention, and brand reinforcement.
Public relations

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Omantel applies different public relations strategies in order to separate their activities
from the influence of marketing managers. For example, the company sponsors events to create
awareness of its brands (Omantel, 2017: 2016). In 2016, Omantel was the key sponsor of motor
racing. During the event, the company also announced that it was ready to conduct a new
commercial partnership with Oman racing champion Ahmad Al Harthy. The announcement was
important following two brand new personal partnerships with Aston Martin (Omantel, 2016). In
2017, the company also sponsored Swar Shuaib live performance held at Sultan Qaboos
University. The sponsorship attracted different fans to participate in a live performance. It is
through such activities that the company achieves best experience to enrich the lives of its
customers. According to the events managers – Mohammed Hassan Al Lawati, the company is
always keen to continue sponsoring several events that significant in touching the lives of a
larger segment of its society.
The company also uses roadshows to reach out to many people. In 2017 for instance, it
concluded its 4G-roadshow that had taken a period of two months. The event attracted more than
15,000 visitors who came from 13 regions such as Marbat, Duqum, Ibri, Manar, Al-Suwaiq,
Dibba, and Khasa, among others. The company uses such events to provide its customers with
opportunity to attent different recreational activities and events that target customers across all
age groups. Furthermore, customers had a chance to win several prizes and gifts. Omantel has
therefore, played a key role in positioning the country among other 20 countries to have the
fastest 4G network coverage (Omantel, 2017).
Personal selling
Omantel has succeeded in participating in trade fairs and career fairs. The first fair was
conducted in 2014 where the company participated in SQU Career & Training Opportunity Fair
2014. The event provided the company with an opportunity to participate in the exhibition to

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showcase the company value experience to both graduates and students coming undertaking
courses in different sectors. The company has also trained its sales representative to conduct
personal selling of its products.
Direction Response
Direct response remains one of the important activities that Omantel use to increase sales
volume of its telecommunication services. The marketing department depends on direct mails,
social media marketing (SMM), search engine optimization (SEO), and search engine marketing
(SEM). For example, direct mail involves sending of mails to subscribed customers that use its
products as well as those that sign up to its weekly reports. Omantel utilizes SEM through
Facebook (162,955 followers), Twitter (505,000 followers, 570 likes, and 6,193 followings),
Instagram, and LinkedIn to create, share, and receive content from customers.
Sources of Brand Equity
Brand equity has continuously become a greater area of attention for the marketing
researchers and managers due to the role it plays as an important intangible asset. The sources of
brand equity include symbols, logos, and trademarks. However, Omantel has established a
simply logo that represents the company and the services it offers. The logo represents the
company well and consequently makes the users acquainted with the company.
Keller’s Brand Equity Model that is also referred to as Customer-based brand equity
(CBBE) is the most common perspective and the one that Omantel has incorporated in coming
up with the company logo. The concept is very simple, it shows that for any company to come up
with a strong brand; it must shape how the customers are feeling and thinking about the product.
The company must establish correct experiences around its brand to ensure customers have
positive thoughts, beliefs, feelings, perceptions, and opinions about the brand. Omantel has a

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very strong brand that ensure that customers prefer it to the other brands in the market. The
customers are loyal and able to recommend others to use services of Omantel. The CBBE model
highlights four different levels that can be incorporated in the creation of a successful brand
(Kerri, Kuhn. & Ll 2008). These include brand identity, brand meaning, brand responses, and
brand resonance.
Brand identity
In this particular step, the company’s goal should be the creation of awareness or brand
resilience. Omantel has made sure that the brand it has incorporated stands out and its users are
able to recognize it easily.
Brand Meaning
Brand meaning ensures that the company is able to communicate and identify the
meaning of its brand. The two aspects of this step include imagery and performance. Imagery
shows how well Omantel brand will meet the needs of the customers while performance refers to
how well Omantel products meet the needs of the customers.
Brand Response
The brand response refers to what the customers think and subsequently feel about the
products. Omantel ensure that there is positive feeling and judgement of its brand by the intended
users.
Brand Resonance
The brand resonance is at the top of the brand equity pyramid since it is the most
desirable and most difficult. Omantel Company achieves brand resonance when the customers or
users feel deep bond with the brand.
However, if a given brand has no value or meaning to the different consumers, it
becomes meaningless to the company and other stakeholders (Reynolds & Philips 2015).

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Omantel focusses its branding strategies to the consumer, ensure that the expectations are met or
even exceeded. Omantel use the umbrella strategy to brand and update its branding through the
merger of fixed-line and mobile. The main brands of Omantel has is amalgamated under a one
corporate identity which is the Oman Mobile that is embodied as the Omantel Mobile.
Brand Salience
Brand salience of Omantel Company makes it possible for customers to notice it easily.
The size of the company has made it possible for customers to develop positive memory about
the products offered. While there are other companies that provide internet services, Omantel
ensures that customers consider its brands before making final decisions (Grams, 2011). Most
importantly, marketing department focuses on defining and communicating the differences in
cues against other common equity. Second, management also creates and owns unique
implementation memory structure. For example, the company increases the quantity and quality
of executional memory structures (Arikan, 2016). Such an executional memory structure makes
it possible for customers to remember the brand easily during the buying situation.

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Brand & Brand Life Cycle Management
Omantel Company has succeeded in extending its brand products used for
telecommunication. For example, after acquiring a 65% share in WorldCall Pakistan in the first
quarter of 2008, the company started to capitalize on brand equity in order to establish 10
submarine cables. The extension of the brand has moved from internet connectivity for fibre-to-
business to cover the fibre-to-home. For instance in 2015, the Omantel went ahead to roll out its
high-speed internet connection linking fibre-to-home technology. The objective for doing this
was to ensure the company continues to offer one of the fastest and comprehensive range of
internet applications. The brand extension has made the company to extend its popularity as well
as reputation into other market territories. Besides, brand extension has involved combining with
other companies to produce one combines products. For instance, acquisition of WorldCall
Pakistan will ensure the company produce combines network products.
Brand Management across Geographic Boundaries and Market Segments
Management of brands across the geographical boundaries and market segments is
significant. Omantel has gone across the geographical boundaries in ensuring its products reach
the intended users. The main reasons why most companies engage in other regions include the
perceived slow growth in the local market and increased competition. Further, the other markets
are likely to provide improved profit opportunities and overseas growth. Omantel operates in
several other geographical boundaries that include Pakistan and Oman.
After division of the market into different segments, a particular segment that is seen as
profitable should be selected. The last two steps are reported to be the product positioning within
the market and consequently adjusting the proper market mix. Kotler states that four criteria are

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significant in segmenting a market and include geographical, demographic, psycho graphical,
and behavior criteria. Geographical segmentation for this Omantel is significant. The major
markets include Oman and Pakistan. However, while getting into other markets, there are
limitations that are brought about by the existing legislations; this is because laws differ from a
given country to the other particularly from countries within different continents (Maila &
Stahberge 2010). Once the laws are taken care of, it is significant to look at living density or the
city size so as to reach the largest customers as could be possible.
Conclusion
Broadly speaking, the primary advantage of measuring brand metric is its usefulness in
connecting brand management and success of businesses. As a business management strategy,
brand management and measurement is significant when crafted as a long-time strategy.
Omantel has increasingly improved its brand management process and that has improved its
ranking as one of the best brands globally.

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