Safaricom has been announced to be the strongest brand amongst mobile telecommunications providers. This was announced today by Prasun Basu, Managing Director Millward Brown East Africa, at a seminar on solutions to help companies better manage the key pillars of business growth – brand, communication and media. The seminar was held today morning at Crowne Plaza hotel in Nairobi and attracted more than 100 participants drawn from various firms.

Based on a sample of four hundred and six people carried out in 2010, Safaricom scored highly across the board on brand bonding, advantage, performance, relevance and presence. In terms of brand presence, both Safricom and Zain Kenya (now Airtel) had 100% presence, with the Orange brand having 96%, Yu 95% and Telkom Kenya having the lowest at 75%. Both the Orange and Telkom Kenya brands are owned by Orange Kenya which has been phasing off the Telkom Kenya in favour of the other.
Safaricom’s relevance stood at 90% compared to Zain Kenya at 75%, Orange at 59%, Yu Kenya at 54% and Telkom Kenya at 35%. However, when it comes to performance Zain Kenya emerged top at 57% followed by Safaricom at 47%, Orange at 35%, Yu Kenya at 28% and Telkom Kenya at 15%. Zain Kenya also had the best advantage at 51% followed by Safaricom at 47%, Yu Kenya at 28%, Orange at 20% and Telkom Kenya at 4%.
Brand bonding with the customers had the biggest disparities with Safaricom leading at 45%, Zain Kenya at 11% and Yu Kenya at 1%. Orange and Telkom Kenya did not have any bonding with their customers at the time the survey was conducted.
For comparison, Millward Brown presented a comparative analysis of other brands in the United States of America like Nike, Coca Cola and Apple iPhone. For presence, relevance, performance, advantage, bonding Nike scored 97 %, 84 %, 82%, 78% and 41% respectively; Coca Cole scored 92%, 80 %, 73 %, 62% and 18% while Apple iPhone scored 54% , 33%, 28%, 27% and 15%.
Millward Brown says that despite competition, Safaricom’s bonding remains as high as 45%. “While Airtel is seen as a consumer champion owing to the dramatic reduction in network charges, the stability of the organization is in question. Consumers just aren’t willing to risk the loss of a cell phone line because it represents so much more than just a phone number. It represents financial security and stability,” Brown says.
“Combine the stability of Safaricom with the high levels of accessibility relative to Airtel, and you have a winning combination,” he adds.