Can value added services be a point of purchase differentiator

International Journal of Management
Volume 1 • Issue 1 • May 2010 • pp.88-103 IJM
http://iaeme.com/ijm.html
©IAEME
Can Value Added Services be a Point of Purchase Differentiator?

Nitin Panwar, Mahim Sagar

INDIAN INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY DELHI

Abstract

Value Added Service (VAS) in telecommunication industry refers to non‐core services,
the core or basic services being standard voice calls and fax transmission. The lesser-
known heroes of the telecom boom, value-added service (VAS) providers, are the ray of
hope for telecom operators whose revenue from voice services is shrinking by the
day. VAS is becoming the backbone of telecom service providers, as users look beyond
voice and mobile turns PC. VAS providers, mainly small and medium enterprises
(SMEs), are riding the IT and telecom boom in the country. It has become the flywheel of
telecom growth and a large chunk of revenue for operators is likely to come from VAS
services in the years to come.

Definition as per TRAI: Value Added Services are enhanced services which add value to
the basic teleservices and bearer services for which separate license are issued
Keywords: Value added service, Third Generation Mobile communication (3G), ARPU,
MNP, Intelligent Network.

DRIVING FACTORS FOR VAS
MVAS is likely to become a tool for additional revenue, service differentiation, and
customer retention. Telecom operators are looking at MVAS as the next wave for growth
and a large part of revenue is expected to flow in from VAS in the near future.

Declining ARPU
The root cause arises due to the enormous decrease in ARPU. If we observe closely, the
mobile tariffs have come down significantly. Service providers are not earning much
revenue from users. They have a less ARPU. They are looking for an alternative solution.
With a cutthroat competition in the market, service providers have no option left to
increase their tariffs. The best option would be to earn revenues from other services like
VAS instead of voice. With the lowest ARPU in the world, the telecom operators are
looking at VAS as an alternate source of revenue. According to TRAI the ARPU4 for the
quarter April-June 2009 has been Rs 191.28.


Introduction of MNP
Very soon MNP will be implemented in India8; hence the competition among the MNO’s
will further increase. In order to attract more customers and retain current customers
MNO’s will have to rely on VAS as brand differentiator. By enhancing VAS telecom
operators will be able to attract more consumers to them since VAS will create brand
differentiation.

Figure1: Average revenue per user
Source: TRAI Quaterly report

They can target different VAS services to different segment of customers. Once operator
becomes a replaceable carrier and number portability becomes a reality two things would
come under focus:
1) Service Quality of Operators
2) Value added services provided by Operators
VAS could actually become a differentiating factor for telecom operators once number
portability comes in. Mobile Number Portability is a boon for VAS application service
providers giving them an added advantage to create differentiation for operators’
offerings.

Auctioning of 3G spectrum
The operator will transfer from “speech emphasis communication operation” into “value-
added service primarily of information operation”1. Very soon 3G spectrum will also be
auctioned in India. 3G spectrum can support more voice channels and higher data rates
for VAS services. Hence more attention will be given to VAS once 3G spectrum is
auctioned. 3rd generation mobile communication networks (3G) have given a shift that
will irreversibly change the structure of the telecommunications industry. In an ideal "3G
world", roaming users will be offered an abundance of value-added services typically
developed by independent service providers

The booming Indian economy

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India has emerged as one of the fastest growing economies in the world, with spending
on infrastructure and consumption growing at a rapid pace. Growing employment
opportunities have resulted in a significant increase in disposable income, leading to a
growing acceptance of new technologies and expenditure on communication.

Increasing user comfort with basic mobility services
The Indian mobile telephony market has attained critical mass due to the increasing
affordability of mobile services, as well as the increasing comfort with basic mobility
services. A large chunk of users are comfortable with operating their mobile phones, and
would progress into demanding more value-add beyond basic voice applications, driving
the next phase of growth.

Personalization of content and devices
For a large number of subscribers, the mobile phone has become an extension of their
persona. The success of “caller ring back tones” is evidence that users are willing to
adopt services which offer them the possibility of personalization.
DIFFERENT VAS CATEGORIES

Entertainment VAS
The Entertainment MVAS includes services such as SMS, ringtones/CRBT (Caller Ring
Back Tunes), Customized wallpapers, animations, quiz, jokes, religious chants, music on
demand, video clips. The Entertainment MVAS enjoy the major share among all MVAS
services. These provide entertainment for leisure time usage. These not only generate
heavy volume (owing to its mass appeal) but also heavy usage. This service is not only
growing fast but also witnessing less churn as compared to other MVAS. Entertainment
VAS has the potential to remain a key contributor to Mobile VAS industry. To sustain the
MVAS growth, it is the responsibility of the industry to keep innovating applications at
regular intervals that attract users.

Info VAS
These services are characterized by the useful information it provides to the end user. The
Info MVAS refers to cricket/match alerts, news, astrology, banking information and
alerts, travel alerts (details like train, flight details etc.), movies related info, stock market
info. and alerts.

m-commerce VAS
These are the services which involve some money transaction using the mobile phone.
The m-Commerce MVAS refers to mobile banking like transfer of money, payments. M-
Commerce MVAS also offer services such as buying movie tickets, travel and holiday
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booking. . These can broadly be classified into 2 types - Mobile banking and Mobile
payments. Though in a nascent stage, off late many initiative have been taken in m-
Commerce space. A number of application providers are in the market with different
business models. Some are focusing on m-Payment, some on incorporating m-Commerce
into it while others on m-Banking aspects. A big boost to m-Commerce has come from
the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) which has recently come out with some guidelines. M-
Commerce penetration continues to be small but awareness is increasing.. The current
marketing focus is primarily on mobile bill payment and m-Banking. The major issue
with m-Commerce is the security. Its penetration can be increased with increased
awareness and assured security.

VAS REVENUE CONTRIBUTIONS
According to a Report (IAMAI & eTechnology Group@IMRB, August 2009) the MVAS
industry is estimated at Rs. 57.80 billion by end June 2009. P2P SMS contributes Rs
21.40 billion to the MVAS market and this goes only to the operators (the balance Rs
36.40 billion is divided between the different stakeholders including the operators.). Rs
23.12 billion come from CRBT/RT while the balance Rs 13.29 billion is divided amongst
the other services. MVAS currently contributes around 9 % to the operator’s revenue.The
market for MVAS has grown from Rs. 28.50 billion in Dec 2007 to Rs. 46 billion in Dec
2008. It touched Rs. 57.80 billion in Jun 2009.

Figure2: Contribution of various Value added services.

From the above figure we can see that major VAS share arises from SMS and CRBT/RT

PERCEIVED AND PRACTICAL VALUE
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Entertainment VAS: Entertainment VAS has been responsible for fueling the growth of
Mobile VAS in India and continues to do so. It has been able to capture the imagination
of the end consumer and is being used not only for self entertainment but also for self
expression as in the case of forwarded P2P messages, CRBT, etc. Entertainment VAS has
a very high perceived value but scores low on practical value2.
Info VAS: The key characteristic of Information VAS is that most of it caters to specific
segments within VAS users and is seldom of mass appeal. This makes the task of
marketing these services difficult. These have a moderate practical value and low
perceived value. But it has the potential of high practical value in cases such as stock
updates, etc.M-commerce VAS: M-commerce in India is at an embryonic stage and only
a small percentage of the mobile users are even aware of availability of such services.
Though it has a low perceived value, the practical value of m-Commerce has the highest
potential among all MVAS.

Figure3: Practical and perceived value
Source: IAMAI Report VAS 2009
REVENUE AND DATA FLOW IN VAS ECOSYSTEM
The data in the VAS ecosystem flows from the content owner directly to the operator or
through a content aggregator. The operator then makes it available to the end consumer.
The revenue is generated at the consumer end and is passed on to all other entities.
As with any value chain, since each player provides some value addition, each one gets a
share of the revenues. In the Indian scenario, the lion’s share of revenue goes to the
operator. This is about 70% of the revenue. The balance is divided between the
technology partner, aggregator and the content creator. So, in essence, of every ringtone
or wallpaper or game that a consumer downloads, 7/10 Rs. goes into the operator’s
pocket. Of the remaining 30%, the deal is flexible between the technology partner,
aggregator and content creator, with the bulk of revenue going to the content. Currently,
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operators pay 12% of the revenue per VAS transaction to the Wireless and Planning Co-
ordination (WPC), which regulates spectrum allocation.
The complete opposite is true abroad. There the operator gets to keep only about 30%.
The rest of the revenue goes to the other three and again the content creator gets the
largest share of the pie. This is in line with the rest of the media and entertainment
industry, where the content creator or owner gets to keep the lion’s share of the revenue
from the content.

Revenue flow
End User End user pays
for content

MNO Operator keeps
60-70% revenue.

Data Flow Aggregator gets
Content Aggregator
approx.
20-25%
revenue

Content owner

Content owner
gets 10-15% of
total revenue.
Figure 4: Data and revenue flow

PROBLEMS/BARRIERS TO GROWTH OF VAS
Low featured handsets
Despite considerable growth in mobile subscriber base, low feature handsets continue to
remain throughout the country. There has been phenomenal growth in mobile subscriber
base but the low feature handsets continue to be in large proportion. The purchase
decision for handsets continues to be driven by basic utility for voice. According to the
India Mobile Handset Usage Satisfaction Study 2007, an integrated digital camera, FM
Radio, and speaker phone features remain the most likely upgrade drivers. Features such
as Tri-band, Bluetooth, Infrared Port, etc., are growing, but are far from developing mass
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appeal. The lack of widespread adoption of feature-rich mobile handsets is a barrier to the
growth of MVAS in India. However, in the recent past, prices of feature-rich handsets
have declined sharply owing to increasing competition among manufacturers and
technological advances. There will be a move towards advanced feature handsets in the
future even if need and lifestyle do not justify it.

Low GPRS connectivity
GPRS connectivity is relatively low due to number of reasons such as handset capability,
telecom operators network capability and consumer education i.e. user friendliness for
accessing the services. GPRS is capable of providing rich information and also online
delivery experiences. There is a large population of users who are not familiar with
accessing GPRS. This can only pick up once the penetration of feature rich handsets
grows, and operators provide free GPRS connection.

Transparency in revenue sharing arrangements
The current revenue sharing arrangements favor the operators, and are in stark contrast to
the business models in established markets such as China, Japan, and Europe. There is a
need to create a transparent framework that clearly sets out balanced revenue sharing
arrangements, with a fair system of payouts to different stakeholders across the value
chain.

High VAS tariffs
Compared to the tariffs for voice, the VAS has much higher tariffs. Customers will more
openly use VAS if their tariffs are nearly same compared to voice service, else they will
stick to their core voice service.

INTERNATIONAL VAS SCENARIO
India had past US to become the number 2 wireless market (by subscriptions) in the
world. Each month India is adding nearly 8-9 million subscribers. Overall, the world
market is at almost 50% penetration. China ranks first when the number of mobile
subscribers is taken into account5. As we can see in the figure above although China has
highest number of subscribers, its mobile data revenue is less compared to US and Japan.
NTT DoCoMo continues to dominate the wireless data service revenues rankings with
over $12.13B in service data revenues for 2008. On an average, Japan and Korea have
over 40% of their revenue coming from data applications, US around 30%, and Western
Europe around 25%. On the other hand when we see India in the global scenario India
has around 13% revenue from data applications. Hence it’s clear that Indian mobile
market have a lot of potential in the data segment.

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Figure 5: Data revenue for top 10 global telecom operators
(Source: Chetan Sharma Consulting)
RESEARCH GAP
The Mobile Value added Services contribute a significant share in the operators’
revenues. There is very less work which tries to study the role of MVAS as a point of
purchase differentiator. The customer may change his mind at point of purchase based on
the value added services provided by the operator. It needs to be researched out that how
customer behaves at point of purchase.

POINT OF PURCHASE
Point of purchase is the location where the product or service may be or has been
purchased. It is that end time and place when the customer is about to buy the product.
There are various types of point-of-purchase displays, including window displays,
counter displays, banners of any kind. Generally, these displays are created and prepared
by the manufacturer for attracting the attention of the customer.

CONSUMER BEHAVIOUR
The study of consumers helps firms and organizations improve their marketing strategies
by understanding issues such as how consumers think, feel, reason, and select between
different alternatives (e.g., brands, products), the behavior of consumers while shopping
or making other marketing decisions. Consumer behavior is the study of individuals,
groups and the processes they use to select, secure, use, and dispose of products, services,
experiences, or ideas to satisfy needs and the impacts that these processes have on the
consumer and society.
Research suggests that customers go through a five-stage decision-making process in any
purchase.
Problems recognition: Consumer identifies the needs or his own product requirements. In
this process his personality, environment, surrounding, economy may influence. For
example consumer needs some value added services on his network like web browsing.
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Information Search: In second step consumer searches for the available sources that can
offer him the desired quantity and quality of food. He keeps in mind, his status, his
economy and his physiological needs. At this stage consumer collects maximum
information necessary for making a decision. Here consumer tries to find out which
operators provide the GPRS service, who gives best data rates, charges minimum tariff
and such many other factors. Evaluation of Alternatives: Next step is processing this
collected data of various alternatives. Here a consumer compares available alternatives
with need and money he has. This process of evaluation may be influenced by various
personal, social, or psychological factors. Purchase Decision: Now customer in market is
able to make a right choice. Consumer makes a decision and purchase the type of
operator service he thinks more suitable at that situation.
Post Purchase Behavior: It is the response or reaction of consumer. Consumer will show
a positive response if product meets his perception and he feels good about the product.
Otherwise, response will be bad and consumer will not buy the services of that operator
again.

DECISION MAKING STRATEGIES
For each product, marketers need to understand the specific decision-making strategy
utilized by each consumer segment acquiring that product. If this is done, marketers can
position their product in such a manner that the decision-making strategy leads
consumers to select their product.
The first strategy is called compensatory strategies. In this strategy, consumers allow a
higher value of one attribute to compensate for a lesser value of another attribute. For
example if consumer is looking for a telecom operator service, a higher value of data
rates may compensate for lower voice quality.
The next strategy is called non compensatory strategy. In these strategies, each attribute
of a specific product is evaluated without respect to the other attributes, and even though
a product may have a very high value on one attribute, if it fails another attribute, it is
eliminated from consideration. The first of these is SATISFICING, in which the first
product evaluated to meet cutoff values for all attributes is chosen, even if it is not the
best. The second of these strategies, ELIMINATION BY ASPECTS, sets a cutoff value
for the most important attribute, and allows all competing products that meet that cutoff
value to go to the next attribute and its cutoff value.
The next is partially compensatory strategy. In this is MAJORITY OF CONFORMING
DIMENSIONS, in which the first two competing products are evaluated across all
attributes, and the one that has higher values across more dimensions, or attributes, is
retained. This winner is then evaluated against the next competitor, and the one that has
higher values across more dimensions is again retained.

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COLLECTION OF DATA
In order to find out consumer’s perception towards the different value added services the
authors carried out a survey. Questionnaire was used in the survey but it was based on a
more of an interview based way. The investigators interacted with the respondents based
on the questions listed in the questionnaire and later filled up the questionnaire based on
the responses. The disadvantage of this method was however it yields in a low response
rate and also the investigation was restricted to the Delhi NCR region only.
The questionnaire was divided into three parts. The first part consisted of consumers
rating different attributes as how much they are influenced by them at point of purchase,
on likert scale of 1 to 5 with 1 as not influenced and 5 as most influenced. In the second
part the consumer ranked those attributes and in third part the consumer selected the
attribute on the basis of which they would take on the services of a telecom operator. A
sample size of 100 was taken.
Based on the literature review different attributes considered were:
1) Entertainment services (Ringtones, Caller ring back tone, mobile games).
2) M-commerce services (mobile banking).
3) Info services (news, railways and stocks).
4) Internet surfing service (GPRS, GPS).
5) Social connectivity service (orkut, face book, twitter).
6) Data rates charged by the telecom operator.
7) Voice call rate/plans provided by the telecom operator.
8) Connectivity of the telecom operator.

DISCRIMINANT ANALYSIS
Discriminant analysis is a technique used in statistics to find a linear
combination of features which characterize or separate two or more classes of objects or
events. DA is closely related to ANOVA (analysis of variance) and regression analysis,
which also attempt to express one dependent variable as a linear combination of other
features or measurements.
Discriminant analysis basically consist of a Discriminant function which is created as a
linear combination of discriminating (independent) variables such as
Y = β1X1 + β2X2 + β3X3 + β4X4 + β5X5 + β6X6 + β7X7 + β8X8 +c
In this case Y has only two values which are either zero or one.
Zero corresponds to consumer not being affected by VAS at point of purchase while one
corresponds to consumer being affected by VAS at point of purchase.
X1 to X8 are the discriminating variable or the independent variable. For the case of VAS
X1 to X8 are the various attributes listed above.

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β1 to β8 are the discriminant coefficients which are evaluated by the Discriminant analysis
technique. Higher the value of a coefficient more influencing is that corresponding
attribute.
C is a constant while Y is the dependent variable.

RESULTS OF DISCRIMINANT ANALYSIS
Value of discriminant function coefficients

Entertainment services β1 0.195
M-commerce services β2 -0.086
Info services β3 0.142
Internet surfing service β4 -0.159
Social connectivity service β5 -0.258
Data rates charged β6 0.089
Voice call rate/plans β7 0.819
Connectivity β8 0.588
Table 1: Discriminant function coefficients
From the above table it can be seen that voice call rates and connectivity have the highest
discriminant coefficient while m-commerce have lowest. Thus m-commerce is least
influencing.

In the ANOVA(analysis of variance) table below, the smaller the Wilks's lambda,
the more important the independent variable to the discriminant function.

Wilks’ Lambda Sig.
Entertainment services 0. 929 0.007
M-commerce services 0.943 0.017
Info services 0.910 0.002
Internet surfing service 0.912 0.003
Social connectivity service 0.865 0.000
Data rates charged 0.999 0.768
Voice call rate/plans 0.512 0.000

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Connectivity 0.625 0.000
Table 2: Wilks’ Lambda for independent variables
From the table above it can be seen that the Wilks’ Lambda value for voice call
rates/plans and connectivity is among the lowest.

Mean value of attributes for customers not influenced by VAS at point of purchase.

Attribute Mean Value
Entertainment services 2.56
M-commerce services 1.74
Info services 2.24
Internet surfing service 3.39
Social connectivity service 2.71
Data rates charged 3.51
Voice call rate/plans 4.55
Connectivity 4.6
Table 3: Mean value of attributes for customers influenced by VAS at point of purchase

Mean value of attributes for customers influenced by VAS at point of purchase.

Attribute Mean Value
Entertainment services 3.23
M-commerce services 2.3
Info services 3
Internet surfing service 4.19
Social connectivity service 3.8
Data rates charged 3.42
Voice call rate/plans 3.07
Connectivity 3.46
Table 4: Mean value of attributes for customers not influenced by VAS at point of
purchase

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According to the survey it was found out that at point of purchase 35% consumer were
influenced by voice call rates offered by telecom operator while 24% were influenced by
connectivity. 15% consumers were influenced by data rates, 10% by internet (GPRS)
service, 5% by social connectivity, 4% by entertainment service, 4% by m-commerce
while mere 3% by info service.
Most of the consumers are influenced by connectivity and rate/plans offered by telecom
operator whether it be voice or data.

Figure 6: Distribution of attributes influencing consumers

From the above analysis it is clear that VAS is not a point of purchase differentiator since
• Discriminant coefficient for voice call rate/plan and connectivity are highest
hence these attributes are most dominating while m-commerce is least.
• The Wilks’ Lambda coefficient is smallest for voice rate/plan and connectivity
hence these are more important variable to the discriminant function.
• 35% consumers selected voice rates/plan while 24% selected connectivity as the
most influencing attribute at point of purchase.

CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS
Mobile VAS industry is still nascent stage in India. There is a lot of potential in VAS
market which the telecom operators still need to explore. By the survey it’s clear that at

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point of purchase consumers are mostly influenced by call rates/plans for voice and
connectivity. Like voice the cost of VAS to the consumer need to be brought down to
attract them.
Since basic voice service and connectivity proved to be the most influencing factors to
the consumers the VAS fails to create brand differentiation. Currently VAS is not a point
of purchase differentiator. Operator focus should be towards VAS promotion to create a
distinct space in consumers mind.

References:
1. WANG Chun, XIE Zhong, XU Shi-cai, ZHANG Hai-ying, School of Economics
and Management, China University of Geosciences(CUG) (Wuhan), China,
“Research of Value-Added Service Operation of Third Generation”.
2. IAMAI & eTechnology Group@IMRB (August 2009), “Mobile Value Added
Services In India”
3. Boston Analysis “A Study of the Mobile Value Added Services (MVAS) Market in
India” (October 2007)
4. TRAI available at www.trai.gov.in
5. Chetan Sharma Consulting, “Global Wireless Data market”.
6. The Economic Times “Mobile VAS players line up offerings, Aug 5, 2008”
7. The Economic Times “What makes India the fastest growing telecom market?”, 25th
October 2009
8. www.dot.gov.in
9. Sukhjinder Singh Sidhu And Manjit Kaur Sidhu, “Enhanced Services with
Intelligent Networks”.

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Annexure-1 Questions asked:
Please rate your choice at point of purchase with a scale of 1 as not influenced and 5 as
extremely influenced.

1) At point of purchase I am influenced by Entertainment services (Ringtones, Caller
ring back tone, mobile games) of the telecom operator.
1 2 3 4 5
2) At point of purchase I am influenced by m-commerce services (mobile banking)
of the telecom operator.
1 2 3 4 5

3) At point of purchase I am influenced by Info services (news, railways and stocks)
of the telecom operator.
1 2 3 4 5

4) At point of purchase I am influenced by Internet surfing service (GPRS, GPS) of
the telecom operator.
1 2 3 4 5

5) At point of purchase I am influenced by Social connectivity service (orkut, face
book, twitter) of the telecom operator.
1 2 3 4 5

6) At point of purchase I am influenced by data rates charged by the telecom
operator.
1 2 3 4 5

7) At point of purchase I am influenced by voice call rates charged by the telecom
operator.
1 2 3 4 5

8) At point of purchase I am influenced by connectivity of the telecom operator.
1 2 3 4 5

While purchasing the services of a telecom operator please rank the following attributes

1) Entertainment services (Ringtones, Caller ring back tone, mobile games)
2) m-commerce services (mobile banking)
3) Info services (news, railways and stocks)
4) Internet surfing service (GPRS, GPS)
5) service (orkut, face book, twitter)

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6) voice call rates charged
7) Data rates charged
8) Connectivity of operator

I have at point of purchase chosen _______________ on the basis of
__________________________.

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Can value added services be a point of purchase differentiator

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