Access Kenya realigns marketing strategies to tap into the youthful Internet market

By Dan Muhuni

Access Kenya Group has announced a realignment of its marketing strategies to upscale interactivity with youthful internet users through targeted media campaigns in a renewed bid to encourage fixed-price internet connectivity and further increase their customer numbers in the next financial year.

Access Kenya MD Mr Jonathan

AccessKenya Group Managing Director Jonathan Somen said the realignment, which will be driven mainly through digital media platforms and radio, is informed by the increasing need to reach out to the young internet users - who are key in driving digital content - and improve subscriptions to faster broadband internet.

The realignment is centered upon a campaign introducing a lifestyle aspect to internet usage – away from a straight business inclination - through chic messaging and has  seen the company adopt catchy phrases around the term “IT”.

“We want to reach out to the young people and encourage them to generate and share content. We are happy that the high speed internet is fast changing the way that young people share knowledge and information and this is integral to the development of ICT in Kenya,” said Mr. Somen.

He said the company will not change focus from its core business but is looking to develop avenues to encourage connectivity so that the industry can accelerate subscription numbers, which will in turn impact on the overall growth of the sector.

“Since the arrival of the fibre optic cable, internet connectivity has become significantly cheaper but over time with more customers and more content, we will be able to offer more to customers. Costs improvements will only take place once internet usage has reached a threshold where all ISPs can now leverage on the customer numbers to achieve more economies of scale and ultimately lead to better offerings in the market, said Mr. Somen.”

According to Mr. Somen, the realignment – which will constitute the majority of the company’s marketing budget for 2012 - will be key in solidifying the company’s market leadership position and upscale its corporate image and branding.

“We don’t want to remain a “suit and tie heavy corporate entity, we want to speak to all people more easily across the board while at the same time continue to be the best provider of Corporate and high end residential connectivity and value added services in the market,” he explained.

AccessKenya is the leading corporate internet service provider with a 40 % market share and has since diversified its service offering to incorporate managed IT services including Disaster Recovery, remote assistance, and network solutions among others.

The realignment is expected to further the company’s both interim and long-term strategies in the wake of increased competition in the internet and data market.

“We are still keeping ahead of the competition and we realize that we also need to speak more to the young people even as we remain the preferred business solutions partner to the larger and midsized corporate companies,” said Mr. Kevin Keya, AccessKenya Corporate Communications Manager.

We want to be as dynamic as the market is as well as easier to talk to,” noted Mr. Keya adding that more activities to support this realignment will be unveiled next year so as to encourage participation and on-board sharing of IT knowledge.

The announcement comes in the wake of recent statistics from CCK showing that mobile phone service providers represent the majority platform through which people are accessing internet. Mr. Somen however believes that this does not negatively impact on ISPs but instead drives the need for faster and more reliable internet.

“Most of our new customers especially on residential broadband come from using a mobile modem at home  and are then looking to upgrade to faster, more consistent , more reliable as well as a fixed price internet service that we provide,” said Mr. Somen.