Catering to a digitally savvy market

ZEENAT CHAUDHARY: How would you describe OrangeFox’s core operations?
IMTIAZ MOHAMMAD: OrangeFox is a marketing technology company working with several technology platforms in order to help marketers do their jobs better, faster and with more transparency and cleaner reporting.

ZC: What kind of products and services does OrangeFox offer?
IM: We started off with WebEngage, a retention and engagement management platform for digital businesses. We have now not only graduated to outsourced services for retention and engagement strategy and management, but have also moved into developing analytics frameworks, multiplatform advertising effectiveness monitoring dashboards, recommendation engines for e-commerce platforms and conversion rate optimization through UX improvements and personalization strategies. To make all of these tools talk to each other, we are also in the Customer Data Platform (CDP) space, which essentially sits a step above CRM.

A CDP would not only serve as a bridge between tools to provide managed, structured data flow, but also to ensure consistency of data between various tools, which is usually a challenge for most businesses. The idea is not only to bring some best-of-breed technology here, but also to demonstrate concrete, quantifiable growth to businesses while making data accessible both internally and externally, making analytics scalable and putting data at the centre of everything.

ZC: Who is the company’s intended customer base/target audience?
IM: At this point, we are focused on companies that are in the digital business space, although it does not mean purely digital and we have a lot of hybrid clients. We are able to fuse offline and online data to bring forward a bigger data pool for companies to work with.

ZC: What clients has OrangeFox worked with so far?
IM: Goto.com.pk., qne.com.pk, wearego.com., allmytech.pk, tapmad.com, sastaticket.pk, hummart.com and bussr.com We have more clients in the pipeline, which we will announce soon.

ZC: Do you cater to countries other than Pakistan?
IM: We have not focused on international expansion yet, but we have worked with an international client, bussr.com, which is similar to the bus ride-hailing company SWVL or Airlift.

ZC: What the short and long-term business goals?
IM: We want to help the digital economy of Pakistan grow. Pakistan has a strong digital future and we feel there is room to help the ecosystem grow. As they say, a rising tide lifts all boats. We would like to add a few extra feet to the tide.

ZC: What drove the creation of OrangeFox?
IM: It’s a bit of a long story, but to summarise, I had too many issues and observations with the way e-commerce was being run in Pakistan and I felt that being a silent spectator would not help anyone. If we want to solve a problem, we have to get our hands dirty. So here we are. I have always been an evangelist about using analytics for growth and with this venture I have the opportunity to do so.

ZC: What is your educational and professional background?
IM: I am a qualified chartered accountant, but I have always worked in marketing and now marketing technology and analytics. I started my career in an advertising agency as a copywriter and did a couple of stints with investment companies and start-ups. Before setting up OrangeFox, I was heading the digital business division at MCB Arif Habib Savings and Investments. Before that I was head of marketing for Asia at Kaymu and handled a seven-country portfolio. Prior to that, I was country manager at Effective Measure, where I was helping the market understand the value of digital audience measurement based on international best practices.

ZC: How difficult or easy is it to convince clients to understand and then use OrangeFox’s services for their apps/websites etc?
IM: We had a good start in July 2018 by acquiring a client before we even started the company. However, the first few months were very slow after that. This is a challenge every time you have something new to bring to the market. Thankfully we have the support of some great clients who are referring us to peers in the industry and that is helping us grow.