Orange: We had to make a change, the market had reached a dead end

Orange, the largest mobile telephony operator on the Romanian market, has scrapped its strategy of offering hundreds of minutes to clients to have them join the network, and decided to break down its tariff plans into three main categories, which include different service packages based on clients’ consumption habits. This is the biggest strategic move on an over 3 billion-euro market, where competition between the six providers of mobile communications services has intensified over the past few years. “We could not continue like that, the market had reached a dead end, and the only question was how many minutes we would offer our clients next time,” explains Julien Ducarroz, who took over as Orange’s Chief Commercial Officer this year, and has one of his office’s walls “adorned” with Orange rivals’ latest adverts, which have in common the hundreds of minutes promised to the clients if they choose one operator or the other.

Each of the three new categories has a symbol attached to it – three animals (dolphin, panther and butterfly) – a marketing concept used by Orange in the UK three years ago.

The “Dolphin” category includes plans that focus on voice services, dedicated to clients who need more minutes, and who can choose from eight different call plans, with costs ranging from 4 to 60 euros (VAT included).

“Panther” plans include a full range of services – voice, text messages, and mobile Internet, for clients who need to make full use of the phone’s functions.

The third category of plans provides access to PrePay options, plus 100 minutes within the network and 5 MB for Internet access, for 9 euros per month. Clients can recharge their account at any time, and get bonuses upon recharging.

The previous structure of Orange’s commercial offer had been launched in 2002, when France Telecom changed the brand of its Romanian subsidiary from Dialog to Orange.

“The market has changed since then: it reached saturation, and clients now have different expectations,” says Ducarroz, rejecting the notion that the change in the commercial offer comes in response to Orange’s negative progression on the market.