Why the Turkish community has favoured MVNO Ay Yildiz

There have been some significant developments in the MVNO business in Germany. The main being the ability of MVNO Ay Yildiz to appeal to the Turkish community. At first sight an MVNO for a community offering cheap intra-mobile calls, a Turkish portal and cheap calls back home sounds like a winner. But with the failure of other MVNO’s in the market it seems that cheap might not be enough to win big in critical segmented mobile markets.

I personally commend Ay Yildiz in Germany as the MVNO has a measured media campaign and is not afraid to publicise or promote ethnic festivals. I fear that even though Germany is a modern economy, evidence remains for some ethnic stereotyping. Therefore I believe that rejoicing in the culture of Turks in Germany is the real reason why the community is embracing the MVNO.

Today, Ay Yildiz has announced a slap in the back Ramadan promotion that offers up to 50 minutes of free calls to the fixed line in Germany from August 21 to September 22 2009. Users that top-up:
EUR 15 to EUR 30– will get 20 minutes of bonus calls to Turkey
EUR 30 or more – will get 50 minutes of bonus calls to Turkey.

On top of that there are marketing campaigns in Turkish-rich communities such as Stuttgart, Dortmund, Nurnberg, Munich, Frankfurt, Wiesbaden, Mannheim, Berlin, Hamburg, Hannover, Duisburg, Cologne and local promotions in Turkish supermarkets.

Penetration into the local Turkish supermarkets is also a vital factor for success. The community culture of this spreads virally, and one mention of the special offer for free calls back home can spread like wild fire in densely Turkish areas.

Remembering festivals, cultural offers and time line promotions works at Christmas, and marketing these to foreign communities is a recipe for success. Without these promotions Ay Yildiz would just be fighting tooth and nail with VoIP providers and bucket basement call rate companies.