Etisalat is the brand name for Emirates Telecommunications Corporation, literally implying Communications. It is a UAE based telecommunications services provider, currently operating in 18 countries across Asia, the Middle East and Africa.

As of February 2012, Etisalat is the 15th largest Mobile network operator in the world, with a total customer base of more than 135 million. Etisalat was named the most powerful company in the UAE by Forbes Middle East in 2012.

Away from that, earlier in the year, the network launched a new innovative campaign meant to celebrate the essence of its brand in Nigeria.

 This campaign is to bring to fore the appreciable values of Etisalat as being more than a mobile network, but a way of life.

The campaign seeks to reinforce the brand’s core values, personality and beliefs such as innovation, uniqueness, youthfulness, confidence and more while establishing a positive and dominant connection with old and new customers.

Since the journey began, although it can not be exonerated from myriad of challenges facing telecom operators in Nigeria, but Etisalat has proven that mobile network is not just about calls, recharge and subscribe.

Highlighting this point, Steven Evans, chief executive, Etisalat Nigeria, said, “The Etisalat brand represents a company that is youthful, dynamic and innovative. We deliver good quality service and value in everything we do.

“We are unveiling a new campaign to further reinforce our uniqueness and also reinforce that Etisalat’s difference is not replicable, it is about an attitude and culture, and is simply a way of life. In just 3 years of operation, we have established a special place in the lives of Nigerians with a customer base of 12 million. We are simply the fastest growing telecoms company in Nigeria”.

The interesting aspect of the campaign remains the Etisalat’s ability to identify with various groups in the country, particularly in finding lasting solutions to multifaceted challenges before them.

 For instance, through her Cliqfest crusade, Etisalat has reached out to students in tertiary institutions.

Why Cliqfest?  Idiare Atimomo, manager, Youth Segment, Etisalat Nigeria, said it was one of the many ways the company empowers youths in the country. He described Cliqfest as a mix of entertainment, education and sports under the brand’s innovative youth package.

“Our goal is to motivate all-round development in our students. We want our youths to be balanced, connected and in touch with the ever-changing career turns, social trends and lifestyles, and Cliqfest connects with our core values of care and optimism expressed in an innovative, yet simple manner,” he said.

The telecom giant is also pursuing students’ career projects. Such career counseling scheme provides young people in secondary schools with constructive knowledge regarding various career paths in preparation for tertiary education.

At the sixth edition of Etisalat organised in partnership with Lagos Empowerment and Resource Network (L.E.A.R.N), Mrs. Adeola Idowu, director, Legal Service, identify the company’s CSR initiatives spanning education, health and the environment thus, “It is our way of providing guidance on future career paths to secondary schools, while showing our brand values of caring, optimism and simplicity to Nigerian youths”.

Within the period, the company kicked off a platform for small and growing businesses to interact with big and more established businesses, thereby fostering business opportunities for smaller businesses.

The package called “Market Access Nigeria” underscores that Small and medium scale businesses are important in all economies globally, especially in developing economies such as Nigeria, which can be achieved through networking platforms.

“SMEs remain the backbone of the development of most economies around the world. They create job opportunities at relatively low capital cost, thereby reducing the high level of unemployment. They also contribute to the economy in terms of output of goods and services for export, whilst attracting Foreign Direct Investment (FDI), resulting in foreign exchange earnings and increased contribution to Nigeria’s GDP,” the organizers said.

And having discovered that SMEs are often confronted with problems that is uncommon to the larger companies and multi-national corporations like lack of IT support, Etisalat stepped up the process with the introduction of “Easy Business”, a one-stop shop suite meant for the communication needs of SMEs through-Premium, Compact and Complete bundled with free minutes and SMS monthly within a selected Closed User Group (CUG) and a national call rate of 25k/sec to all networks in Nigeria as well as five international destinations (US, UK landline, China, India & Canada), with free data on one of the packages.

As the saying goes, what is good for the goose is also good for the gender; Etisalat went into partnership with Total, a multinational oil company, to establish retail sales/service experience centres within Total stations where Etisalat will run service operations, in addition to telecoms sites.

The company has been resilient, her unlimited access on Facebook new bundles also speaks loud abut the appreciable values of Etisalat as being more than a mobile network, but a way of life.

The new Facebook bundles allow customers to subscribe to a daily, weekly or monthly plan and based on the plan customer’s subscribe to; they can access Facebook for as long as they desire.

The Facebook SMS service on the other hand, allows subscribers receive SMS notifications on posts to their Facebook pages as well as update their Facebook status via SMS. Interesting!

Recently in Calabar, Cross River State, subscribers applauded the network’s ingenuity; Mr. Aniekpedeme Udoetor, a Calabar based businessman, describes Etisalat as having an “unrivalled customer care.”

According to Jeff Bezos, an American entrepreneur, “Because, you know, resilience – if you think of it in terms of the Gold Rush, then you’d be pretty depressed right now because the last nugget of gold would be gone. But the good thing is, with innovation, there isn’t a last nugget.

Joshua Balogun, an Analyst while speaking with Nigeria CommunicationsWeek at the recent Web Jurist award in Lagos said, “There are a lot of innovative ideas in our cupboard that you will be seeing in no distant time. Even as we appear as the last born in the group, our only smart-key is to be innovative. The era of competition in the sense of fighting for customers can be replaced with doing a better job through improved service deliver. That is our mission”.

Just like Joshua said, cutting the deficit by gutting our investments in innovation and education is like lightening an overloaded airplane by removing its engine.

It may make you feel like you’re flying high at first, but it won’t take long before you feel the impact. Imitation can never be your limitation when improved your worth.

In other words, any innovation that will make telecom subscribers heave sigh of relief is welcome. And business is a combination of marketing and innovation.