Marketing Strategy of Grameenphone Ltd.

Mr. Kamrul HasanAssistant Professor

Dept. of Business StudiesState University of Bangladesh

Fazlay Hossain Chowdhury UG 01-21-09-013 BBA, 21th Batch

Dept. of Business Studies State University of Bangladesh

Marketing Strategy of Grameenphone SegmentationTargetingPositioningProductsPricing StrategyPlacePromotionThe advertising tools that Grameenphone uses

OVERVIEW OF THE COMPANYMarketing and Sales Division of GrameenphoneProduct & Market Planning of GrameenPhoneSelling procedure of GrameenPhone

Grameenphone Industry analysis with Porters five forces

Survey Findings

Recommendations

Conclusion

On the Independence Day of Bangladesh in the year 1997, Grameenphone Ltd launched itself with the mission of “leading the industry and exceed customer expectations by providing the best wireless services, making life and business easier.”

The values of the Grameenphone Is “make it easy”, “keep promises”, “be inspiring” and “be respectful”.

The brand promise of the organization is “stay close”.Customer loyalty, competent workforce and consistent

strategy are the core components that have helped Grameenphone reach this highest position in Bangladesh

Product & Market Planning Department (P & MP) is a vital part of Grameenphone in terms of its importance and role The central innovative department of Grameenphone is the P & MP department.

P & MP is responsible for communication with different departments about existing products

P & MP gets feedback from Sales, Customer Management and Market Communication departments regarding Customer needs and Market requirements. Feedback helps in redefining an existing product.

P & MP gives shape and form to berg ideas in the process of developing a new product

P & MP facilitates launch of the products within Grameenphone

Training and support for a product to all departments.

P & MP is responsible to co-ordinate with Operation & Maintenance, Information System and Billing departments to get solutions check the functionality of Product features and prices.

To build management with the clients, to make a good relationship with them, to acknowledge them about the GP service, its advantages, coverage area, and above all to provide information about GP in a convincing manner.

All the necessary arrangements to sale the product which includes handout GP application form & brochures

Help the customer to fill up the application form including the agreement.Tell & help the customer to pay the amount for subscription including govt. fee

and security deposit in the designated banks in cash.Receive the completed application form with bank deposit slip and all the

documents, check carefully and ensure the signature with date.Make a photocopy of the SIM card with its number, mobile number and ID

number. Inform the subscriber to contact Customer Care Department on 121 for further

inquiry.Thanks the customer for choosing GPForward the subscriber’s file to the Billing department for activation.

Strategy is a high level plan to achieve one or more goals under conditions of uncertainty. Innovative marketing strategy reach them to highest position. In marketing strategy Grameenphone focus area areSegmentation

TargetingPositioningProductsPricing StrategyPlacePromotionThe advertising tools

GP has targeted the Premium, upper middle class and middle class people

The motto behind this only those segments should be targeted who have value time and have the paying capacity.

Gp Offers Djuice for students, Business solution for business people and also Smile has been offered for thouse who are like to communicate with there friends and family member.

A well-defined target market is the first element to a marketing strategy The target market and the marketing mix variable of product, distribution, promotion and price. the major elements of  a marketing mix strategy that determine the success of a product in the market place.

Grameenphone influenced his target market by his advertisement.

For different types of target market Grameenphone launched different types of product and different types of advertisement.

Grameenphone has planned their strategy as below while positioning:

DJuice, Targeted the youth extremely well.Smile Pre-Paid & PSTN, because of Low flat tariff and nationwide

mobility, it’s a Pre-paid service, no monthly rent required and instant use due to pre-activation, no hassles of bill payment.

Xplore because of low flat tariff, nationwide mobility, connectivity to other operator’s mobiles in different zones.

EDGE Service through mobile because of easy access, interesting theme, and reasonable rate and for being new and innovative.

There are six products currently being offered by Grameenphone. The products are: Nishchinto, Bondhu, Amontron, Shohoj, Spondon, Aapon, Smile, djuice, My Zone . In addition, Grameenphone offers a number of Value-added Services (VAS) to its subscribers. These include Text Messaging (SMS), Voice Mail, Fax/Data service and Wireless Application Protocol (WAP), Internet

Gp Product

Consumer Prepaid

Consumer Postpaid

Business Solution

P.C.O

Business Solution PrepaidBusiness Solution Postpaid

Xplore GPPPVillage Phone

Nishchinto

Bondhu

Amontron

Shohoj

Spondon

Aapon

Smile

djuice

My Zone

GP currently has three packages in the market. When the company started out, government regulations had prevented it and other telecom companies from selling SIM cards alone, but rather had to bundle them with a handsets.

In fact, according to customer feedbacks, GP packages are all attractive, since the connections would have attracted a lot more customers, if only the Price could be improved.

Here comes the distribution channel of Grameenphone. They has a strong network of distribution channel. The motto of GP in establishing distribution channels is to be the nearest of the customers. And exactly their motto is realistic. GP is the nearest company of the customers. It has opened all the doors to serve their customers most conveniently. They maintain their distribution channel like follows :

Grameenphone maintain the strongest promotional strategy among the telecom companies of our country. Basically Grameenphone uses advertising as a promotional tool to make a communication task to be accomplished with a specific target audience during a specific period of time.

Informative advertisingTelling the market about a new productSuggesting new uses for a productInforming the market of a price changeExplain how the product worksDescribing available servicesBuilding a company image

Persuasive AdvertisingBuilding brand preferenceEncouraging switching to GrameenphoneChanging customer’s perception of product attributesPersuading customer to purchase nowPersuading customer to receive a sales call

Reminder AdvertisingReminding consumer that the product may be needed in the near futureReminding consumer where to buy it

There are several media Grameenphone use for there advertising

NewspapersTelevision

RadioMagazines

NewslettersInternet

Porter’s five forces Model is a key Analytical Tool for Diagnosing the Competitive Environment. It has used five forces to reveal the state of competition. It has become an important tool for analyzing an organizations industry structure in strategic processes. It allows the strategic thinkers to formulate appropriate strategy for a particular entity through systematic and structured analysis of market structure and competitive situation, and helps improve the position of the organization. The model is presented through five competing forces which are given below.

The degree of rivalry within the industry Currently, there are 6 competitive companies (Grameenphone,

Robi, Citycell, Banglalink, Teletalk & Airtel) in the market Out of which, 47% share of the market belongs to GP, 7% to CityCell, 19% to Robi, 20% to Banglalink, 4% to Teltalk and the rest 3% belongs to Airtel Telecom. GP holding the major share maintains a ‘market leader’ strategy to all other players in the market. The telecom market intends to grow at penetration rate of more than 1.33%; where GP has already penetrated at 1.56%. Number of competitors is low but the competitors are powerful and highly competitive. That’s why the degree of rivalry within the industry is very high.

Threat of new and potential entrants As Grameenphone is having the highest number of subscriber and

there is a high demand for their service, customer pulling is also high. So, they are on the way to achieve economies of scale. Grameenphone became popular within short period of time through their effective promotions. Company made lot of press releases, TV, radio Ad, which made the name “Grameenphone” familiar to the customers. High switching cost for post paid subscription is a barrier for the potential entrants in this industry. As the technology, expertise, capital needed for this sector is not easily obtainable that’s why switching cost is higher.

Threat of substitute products: BTTB has already reduced the NWD and ISD call charge.

Furthermore, around 50 private companies get the license to provide wireless phone and lane phone service. Rankstel, North Bengal Phone Company One Tel has already started their operation. Rankstel provides wireless phone service and it covers Dhaka, Gajipur. The growing number of substitute products indicates that the existing players have to face threat from these products. But again, in other sense I can say that mobile phone service gives the freedom of mobility which its substitute cannot give. Hence, the threat of substitute is moderately is low.

Supplier’s bargaining power Grameenphone has been maintaining good relation with its

suppliers. The company has strategic coordination with its suppliers; hence its suppliers bargaining power is moderately low. GSM technology give the advantage to the company and its subscribers to change mobile set any time they want. Again, the industry has lots of suppliers, as a result Grameenphone has possible alternative to change suitable supplier.

Buyer’s bargaining powerThere are many players in the market, which gives the

customers alternative and power to choose different brand according to their preference. That’s why buyer concentration is high. The competition in the market makes the customer more powerful and the companies more competitive among each other’s.

The degree of rivalry

within the industryHIGH

Industry attractiveness is

low

Threat of new and

potential entrants Moderately low

Industry attractiveness is

moderately high

Threat of substitute

productsModerately low

Industry attractiveness is

Moderately high

Supplier’s bargaining

power Moderately low

Industry attractiveness is

moderately high

Buyer’s bargaining power Moderately HighIndustry attractiveness is

moderately low

In order to measure the market position of Grameenphone a series of questions were asked to the customers with the help of a questionnaireI asked total sixten closed end question to thirty subscribers. In the basis of strongly agree to strongly disagree. So the point of strongly agree is 5, and strongly disagree is 1. So the highest point for a question is 150 (30*5) and the lowest point is 30 (30*1). Here I find out the total point for each question and also find out the average point of each question.

  Average point subscribers status 1. Do you satisfied with the network coverage of the provider? 4.33 Satisfied 2. When you call to GP helpline you always get the service? 3.47 Moderate3. When you buy a new service does it activated quickly? 4.13 Satisfied 4. Do you provider fulfill your need with the current product and service? 4.43 Satisfied

5. The EDGE service of Grameenphone is very good? 3.53 Moderate

6. Price of GrameenPhone’s different package is

affordable? 3.43 Moderate

7. .Call rate of GP hotline Grameenphone is

reasonable? 3.20Moderate

9. GP helpline is very helpful in meeting my queries and other needs? 3.53 Moderate10. Does your provider contacts you to ensure that complain have been fixed? 2.47 Moderate11. Does your provider contacts you when a new product or service will come to market? 2.97 Moderate

12. Does your provider follow-up when you need? 2.07 not satisfied 13. Different packages offered by Grameenphone match with your preference? 2.70 not satisfied

14. Call rate of Grameenphone is reasonable? 1.57 not satisfied 15. Do you regular watch television add of Grameenphone? 4.50 Satisfied 16. If another company comes up with the similar offers, would you still be loyal to GP? 3.23 Moderate

Service learning hot lineTelemarketingField campaignPublishing Service application manualPromotion daysIncrease subscribers’ numberDevelop networkStrategic collaboration with the other companies Patents, protection of intellectual property Maintain Brand image

As the research finding show the poor service awareness status of Grameenphone subscribers, hence obviously GP has to increase awareness of subscribers. Increased service awareness status will raise the service value of GP, increase subscribers usages rate result increase revenue for GP. If continuous development of new product and service cannot simultaneously aware subscribers then it will neither worth much to subscribers nor add value to the company. Hence, it is clearly observed there is gap between services provided and services awareness. Now GP has to consider this gap minimization and maintain alignment with service offering and service awareness. Otherwise, in the long run new services innovation will not give its ultimate success.

Thank you everyone for

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