Lebara mobile may not be a brand you don't know. Its already a £0.5 billion brand. Last year it grew by 52% and its on track to break the £billion mark this year. The company specialises in low cost mobile calls for immigrants. An interview in the Times with founder and CEO Yoganthan Ratheesan give some insight into this incredible success story.
1. Business ideas are in front of your eyes
Ratheesan saw an opportunity for better low-cost international calling when working for another company part-time after university. The company sold calling cards and operated phone booths, and he thought he could deliver better service at a higher price.
2. Stamina is key to success
Most new businesses don't take off straight away. And the path to success is not linear - many entrepreneurs experiment before finding the right formula. In Lebara's case the company only moved into mobile phone calling (as opposed to calling from landlines with a calling card) in 2007, six years after starting out.
3. Street marketing as the route to consumer
Lebara is another example of a brand innnovating via the "route to consumer". uses good old fashioned face-to-face selling to target the immigrant population. UK readers may have seen the blue shirted Lebara sales people flogging SIM cards outside Eurostar arrivals or in the street.
4. Stay close to customers
One of my favourite bits of the Lebara story is the way Ratheesan keeps his team close to the customer. He doesn't just say, like every company under the sun, that customers are important. He proves it with actions:
- All new staff start with 2 days in the street selling direct
- All staff, including himself, spend 1 day every 3 weeks back on the street
What a great way to keep managers real and close to the customer. It goes even beyond the best example I'd seen before, which was the TWIST programme at Tesco, where all managers spend a week in a store. The Lebara approach is better, as its an ongoing programme, rather than a once a year blast.
5. Superior service sausage
You guessed it. Lebara has a great "sausage" (product/service quality). The company won an industry award for customer service, beating bigger brands like Orange and Vodafone. And Ratheesan puts this down to keeping all call centre staff in the UK, not off-shore, delivering an impressive 90% of calls being answered in under 30 seconds.
7. And even a bit of sizzle
The brand has also started to add a bit of emotional sizzle, with sponsorships that connect well with the target audience: Mobo music awards and Test Match cricket.
8. Distinctive brand properties
Finally, Lebara have been smart in their consistent use of their pale blue colour. It stands out really well versus the other mobile brand in the UK, and they use it across the board - even in the colour of the chair the CEO was photographed in for the Times interview!
The one thing I found disappointing when researching this post is the boring, bog standard corporate video. A string of Lebara people talking about how the company is built on integrity, trust and "leading together" (as opposed to leading in opposite directions?). They all talk about how exciting the company is, whilst being shot in a way which is totally un-exciting. Such a fast-growing, entrepreneurial company could do much better at telling its story.
In conclusion, Lebara is a brilliant example of spotting a need, "feeling" not just knowing the consumer and then executing with a distinctive mix that combines good sausage and a bit of sizzle. Its also a great reminder of the role route to consumer can play in a business model.
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Posted by: cheap jerseys | July 11, 2011 at 04:57 AM