Degree
Master of Business Administration
Faculty / School
Faculty of Business Administration (FBA)
Advisor
Salma Mirza
Project Coordinator (Internal)
Dr. Nasir Afghan, Asad Ilyas, Salma Mirza
Project Coordinator (External)
Mr.Faraz Malik
Project Type
MBA Research Project
Keywords
https://ir.iba.edu.pk/do/search/?q=Telenor%20Pakistan&start=0&context=8598587&facet=">Telenor Pakistan, Easy Paisa, Money transfer service, Utility bill payment service, Market intelligence survey report
Abstract / Summary
Telenor Pakistan launched its Easy Paisa service in the year 2007 in Pakistan. Easy Paisa is an umbrella brand for branchless banking services in the country. There are various services that Easy Paisa is offering under this umbrella brand. These services include Money Transfer service, Utility Bill Payment Service, Mobile Account and International Transfer services. At the time of launching the Money Transfer service, the target market was: i) blue collared segment which comprises of people who are working in metros but have their families living in villages or cities in the interiors of the country; ii) parents sending money to their children who are studying in universities in other cities, One and a half year after the launch, Easy Paisa wanted to find out the profiles of its users. The aim was to develop consumer profiles of the current Easy Paisa users and find out if it is the same segment that was initially targeted or is there a different set of people who are using the service. EP also wanted to find out the consumer profiles of the users of alternate service so that EP can develop a marketing plan to target these consumers in a more effective manner. The research was aimed at developing this consumer profile. Four focus group discussions were constructed as part of the qualitative phase of the research. This was followed by a quantitative phase whereby 150 respondents were asked to fill out questionnaires. The results of the research revealed that the majority of the users of the Easy Paisa Money Transfer service are blue collared workers who work as drivers, guards, cooks, shopkeepers etc. These people belong to the low income groups and the money they send to their families is usually used for household use (Ghar ka Kharcha). The major motivator for using Easy Paisa is the speed of transfer and the convenience that Easy Paisa offered for both the senders and the receivers. Competitor channels such as Post Office and/or friends were channels that were slow and it took days to transfer money through these channels. Banks are fast and convenient but the income group that uses Easy Paisa includes people who do not have bank accounts. Our recommendation for the Money Transfer service is to focus its promotion on BTL. The second research objective pertained to the Utility Bill Payment Service of Easy Paisa. The aim of the research was to identify the motivators and barriers that were present at the consumers’ end regarding the usage of the Easy Paisa Utility Bill Payment Service. The qualitative phase of the research comprised of four focus group discussions. This was followed by the quantitative phase whereby 150 respondents were asked to fill the questionnaire. The research revealed that the major motivators for using Easy Paisa were extended store timings, the service was time saving and was easy to use. The fact that the retailer offering Easy Paisa service is a friend was also an important motivator for people to use this service. The biggest barrier that resulted in people not using Easy Paisa was the lack of awareness about the service. Other barriers also included a misperception that the service was only for Telenor SIM users. The Utility bill payment service of Easy Paisa was mainly found to be suffering from low awareness levels due to which people were not sure of how the service exactly worked and they thought it was a complex process. The research findings showed that most of the people preferred paying their bills at banks because they have always paid their bills at banks. They have seen their parents do that and so it’s a norm and a habit. For them to switch to Easy Paisa, it’s a change in habit that we are targeting. And in order to do that, Easy Paisa needs to build awareness of this service using media like TV so that more and more people are reached. The communication should be designed in such a way that it educates the consumer about the bill payment process.
Recommended Citation
Ayub, A., Afzal, S., Yousuf, S., Khan, S., & Ekram, T. (2011). Market research and strategy for Easy Paisa (Unpublished graduate research project). Institute of Business Administration, Pakistan. Retrieved from https://ir.iba.edu.pk/research-projects-mba/172
