Mkt Policy Of Grameen Phone

In: Business and Management

Mkt Policy Of Grameen Phone

Cellular phone has become such a vital necessity if our day to day life that we can not spend
a single day without it. In the current scenario of today’s telecom sector, we find some names
everywhere and their activities are touching our lives. The name of the cellular operators like
GrameenPhone, AKTel, Banglalink, and Citycell & Teletalk is expanding with their activities
to gain their respective goals.

To execute their goals accurately, they adopt several marketing strategies. In our report we
have focused the vital business strategies from different viewpoints of GrameenPhone. From
this analysis we have able to identify their process of capturing different generations and the
key factors of their market acceptance.

From this study we are able to know about market segmentations, positions, marketing mix,
SWOT analysis and various special features of GrameenPhone.

Then we have discussed about the competitive advantage of the company. From our
discussion we have found that grameen phone is the market leader, banglalink is the market
challenger, AKTEL is the market follower and Citycell is the market nicher.

Then last of all we have analyzed the SWOT analysis. In our SWOT analysis we have tried to
discuss about the strength weakness opportunities and treats as broadly as possible. Then we
have discussed about the marketing mix strategies. Marketing strategies are the strategies of
each company with 4ps that is product, price, place and promotion. We have tried to discuss
broadly the the company’s marketing mix strategy.

From our overall activities, we can say that cellular phone sector is the most crucial for the
growth of our economy and to survive in global market.

We have tried to made our report as comparable as possible. We have tried to input as much
data as possible. Last of all we have tries utmost to make it effective and interesting.

Overview of GrameenPhone

The big player GrameenPhone (GP) obtained its cellular license in November 28, 1996 and
launched its operation in March 26, 1997 and never looked back. GrameenPhone (GP) is the
single largest cell-phone operator in Bangladesh. GP is best known for its service rather than
its low tariff and value added services. GP believes in service, a service that leads to good
business and good development.

Their important features are given below:

Ownership Structure

GrameenPhone is owned by Telenor As and Grameen Telecom of Bangladesh.

Telenor: Telenor as is the leading telecommunication company of Norway which owns 62%
shares of Grameen Phone LTD.

Grameen Telecom: Grameen Telecom, a non-profit company owns the rest 38% of the shares
of Grameen phone LTD. It works collaboratively with Grameen Bank.

Technology: High quality GSM cellular service

Subscribers: more than 10,00,00,000

Company Mission

Grameen Phone Ltd. aims to provide reliable, widespread, conveniently mobile and cost
effective telephone services to the people in Bangladesh irrespective of where they live. Such
services will also help Bangladesh keep space with other countries including those in South
Asia region and reduce her existing disparity in telecom services between urban and rural
areas.

Company Vision

To be the leading provider of telecommunication services all over Bangladesh with satisfied
customers, shareholders and enthusiastic employees.

Company Objective

The main objective of GrameenPhone is to cover both urban and rural areas, whole of
Bangladesh. For this to happen the company has a dual strategy of good business and at the
same time good development of the country. With this objective in mind GrameenPhone
plans to achieve economies of scale as well as healthy profit and at the same time serve the
people of the country with good connectivity and other economic development.

GP’s Management

P’s management and distribution system is quite similar to the other players in the industry.
The following list is the management section of GP, but the functions of the managers are not
explained in detail. Since this report focuses on the Sales and Distribution of GP, the
functions of those managers are explained later in the report.

Figure: Organogram of GP

Overview of the Telecom Market

Telecommunication is both an industry and an infrastructure, which helps other

infrastructures to grow. Absence of good telecommunication facilities deters investments in
other sectors of the economy. In order to enhance the investment in the telecommunication
sector, the government has been pursuing the policy of raising the public sector allocation
and attracting private sector investment by privatizing certain services e.g. rural
telecommunication, cellular mobile service, paging and radio trunking services etc.
Current Scenario

The most prospective and booming mobile telephone has brought about many positive
changes in the country's economy and socio-economic sectors and has been successful by
attracting a huge some of Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) by big telecom giants like
Telenor, Telekom Malaysia (TM), Orascom and SingTel in rural network expansion in
Bangladesh. The foreign operators in collaboration with their local partners is working on
with the infrastructure to widen the very base of mobile subscribers by removing the entry
barrier and make the mobile telephone affordable even to rural masses.

The following graph will depict the current market scenario of the major operators in
Bangladesh.

Figure 1: Major operators and their market share

It is quite clear that GrameenPhone is the market leader in this field with a subscriber base of
more than ten million (10,000,000) which is around 58% of the total market share. The
second highest market share belongs to AKTel, which captures 21% of the mobile telephone
market and numbers for more than three million (3,000,000). Within a very short time,
Banglalink has been managed to capture a 14% market share from the existing two cellular
giant and currently celebrating their reaching two million (2,000,000) subscribers. With its
unique CDMA technology in Bangladesh, Citycell, though operating for a long time, so far,
has been able to capture a 5% market share, which is a more than half a million (800,000) in
number. The recently launched Teletalk has gained only 300,000 subscribers in the mobile
market, which is very small amount of the total market share.

The cell phone service is now at a stage of maturity. Most of the affordable person has
obtained a cell phone. In such stage of this service a new operator is not capable enough to
capture a huge amount of subscriber.

User of Grameen Phone:

Here in the graph we see the increasing rate of mobile user.We see in 2006Gp’suser is
10million.Its shows the GP’s strength.

Different user of Grameen Phone:

Segmentation process of Grameen phone

Grameen phone (GP) has segmented its market depending on different factors. They are
social class, income level, and geographic location. Depending on social class it segments its
market into upper class, upper middle class middle class and lower class. Depending on
income it segments its market into high-income level (such as business persons) and low or
fixed income level persons. Depending on geographic location GP divides its market into
urban area and rural area.

Targeting strategy of Grameen phone

Grameen Phone’s basic strategy is coverage of both urban and rural areas. In contrast to the
“island” strategy followed by some companies, which involves connecting isolated islands of
urban coverage through transmission links. GrameenPhone builds continuous coverage, cell
after cell. While the intensity of coverage may vary from area to area depending on market
conditions, the basic strategy of cell-to-cell coverage is applied throughout GrameenPhone’s
network.

Service for the Rural Poor

Establishing a nation wide network gives fair access to all geographical areas. From a
business point of view, this strategy serves both the long distances as well as the rural
markets. This emphasis on rural coverage brings a much-needed infrastructure in the
underdeveloped rural areas. In collaboration with Grameen Bank, which provides micro-
credit only to the rural poor, GP utilizes the bank borrowers to retail telecom services in the
rural areas.

Leveraging on Grameen Bank borrowers reduces the distribution cost of Grameen Phone's
rural services, contributing to the profitability of this segment.

By bringing electronic connectivity to rural Bangladesh, GrameenPhone is bringing the

digital revolution to the doorsteps of the rural poor and unconnected.

Village Phone Program

The Village Phone program is GrameenPhone's unique method of bringing connectivity to

the rural areas of Bangladesh. This program enables Grameen Bank's borrowers to retail
telephone service in their respective villages, and has the potential to penetrate the rural areas
rapidly and effectively.

A typical Grameen Bank borrower takes a loan of Tk 6000 without collateral from the Bank
to purchase, say, a cow. The cow would then produce milk that the borrower could sell to her
neighbors enabling her to make a living and pay off the loan. The process allows the poorest
of the poor to stand up on their feet. In the case of Village Phone, a telephone also acts as an
income generating mechanism for a borrower; a telephone serves as another "cow." A woman
borrows about Tk 20,000 from the Bank and purchases a handset and sells telephone services
to the villagers, making a living and thus paying off her loan. It creates a self-employment
opportunity in each village and provides access to telephone stall.

Grameen Telecom, Grameen Bank's arm for administering the Village Phone operators,
typically selects women by considering past borrowing records with the Bank. There are
2144 Village Phones in operation today and soon thousands of Village Phones around the
country are expected across rural Bangladesh.

Corporate Offers

GrameenPhone Ltd. was the first telecommunications company in the country to offer a
Corporate Sales Package initiative, recognizing the importance of the special needs of the
corporate customers.

The Corporate Sales Section (CSS) of GP handles all sales and other related services
provided to the corporate subscribers. It delivers a total telecom solution under a Corporate
Sales Package agreement. Many leading local and multi-national companies, international
organizations and banks have corporate agreements with GP. Under such contracts, CSS adds
more value propositions to the clients’ mobile communication package and forms a reliable
and long-term partnership with the client as its main telecom service provider.

Young persons

Grameen phone has targeted especially the young persons to make its customer. By
introducing djuice package GP is attracting young persons.

The telecom industry is comprised of approximately 15 million subscribers and the market is
growing at a rate more than 100%. The subscribers belong to both urban and rural areas. The
increasing popularity of mobile phone in the community at large has led to the formations of
niche. The two important niches of the cell phone operators are the young generation and the
older generation of total subscribers. The immediate focus is towards the booming younger
generation followed by the older generation.

Each company targets a specific market to run their business successfully as following:

|Cell phone operators |Target Market |

|[pic] |Corporate/ |

| |Individual |

| |Corporate/SME/ Individual |

|[pic] |Corporate/SME/ Individual |

| |Corporate/ |

| |SME/ |

| |Individual |

|[pic] |Individual |

Table : Target market of Cell phone operators

Positioning strategy of grameen phone

By adopting different positioning strategies grameen phone is trying to make position in the
market. They are discussed bellow:-

Functional Level Strategy: GP’s focus is on efficiency, quality, innovation, and customer
responsiveness. This enables GP to earn competitive advantage over the competitors.

Business Level Strategy: GrameenPhone mainly applies cost leadership strategy. In addition,
they also apply differentiation strategy as their business level strategy.
Corporate Level Strategy: Grameen Phone follows related diversification as their corporate
level strategy. It enables them to keep the cost low and earn better expertise.

Positioning by means of customer Satisfaction

Customer satisfaction is the extent to which a product or service’s perceived performance

matches a buyer’s expectations. If the product or service’s performance falls short of
expectations, the buyer is dissatisfied. If performance matches or exceeds expectations, the
buyer is satisfied or delighted.

Expectations are based on customers’ past buying experiences, the opinion of friends and
associates, and marketer and competitor information and promises. Marketer must be careful
to set the right level of expectations. If they set expectations too low, they may satisfy those
who buy but fail to attract enough buyers. In contrast, if they raise expectations too high
buyers are likely to be disappointed. Dissatisfaction can arise either from a decrease in
product and service quality or from an increase in customer expectations. In either case, it
presents an opportunity for companies that can deliver superior customer value and
satisfaction.

Today’s most successful companies are rising expectations—and delivering performance to

match. Such companies track their customers’ expectations, perceived company performance,
and customer satisfaction. Highly satisfied customers produce several benefits for the
company. Satisfied customers are fewer prices sensitive, remain customers for a longer
period, and talk favorably to others about the company and its products & services.

Although the customer-centered firm seeks to deliver high customer satisfaction relative to its
competitors, it does not attempt to maximize customer satisfaction. A company can always
increase customer satisfaction by lowering its price increasing its services, but it may result in
lower profits. Thus, the purpose of marketing is to generate customer value profitably. This
requires a very delicate balance: The marketer must continue to generate more customer
value and satisfaction but not “give away house.”

Now, we have a very good idea regarding the importance of customer satisfaction. So, it is
also important for the company to know about the satisfaction level of the customers. When
any problem is identified, it becomes easier to solve the problem. In the next part of my paper
I have focused on the ‘Customer Satisfaction Factors’ of GrameenPhone. That has been
followed by primary research a survey to find out the ‘customer satisfaction level’ of
GrameenPhone.

Customer Satisfaction Factors of GP

GrameenPhone is a highly growing mobile company. In mobile telecommunication industry,

there are direct and indirect factors that influence customer satisfaction. I tried to focus on the
most important factors that influence customer satisfaction at GrameenPhone

1. Airtime

Airtime is the core offering of GrameenPhone. So, quality of communication, network

availability etc. are the most important customer satisfaction factors. Quality of airtime
depends on the ratio of subscribers and transmission base stations. If the numbers of
subscribers are increased without developing the network, quality of airtime goes down.

2. after Sales Services

After sales service is very important in the mobile telecommunication industry. GP has
extensive after sales customer care tools. I would like to focus on these tools one by one:

3. Help line

GP is the first company who introduce 24-hour help line in Bangladesh. In this part of my
paper I tried to focus on the existing operations of the help line service of GP, which will
enable us to understand the importance of the help line service.

A GP subscriber needs to dial 122 to reach GrameenPhone Help line. It is computer aided
information base to afford immediate access to the information about the subscribers. But the
operations are done manually.

After dialing 122 the subscriber is first welcomed by an automated and standardized process.
Then s/he needs to wait for few seconds. After that the subscriber reaches the Customer
Relations Officer (CRO). The CRO starts the conversation with a greeting. The subscriber
explains his/her problems to the CRO (Some Basic Queries are enclosed in The APPENDIX).

If the inquiry is regarding general information, the customer relation’s officer does not need
to take help of information system. S/he just provides the information and the subscriber
keeps the phone.

There are some queries that are very much more personalized and the CRO needs to get into
the account of that particular subscriber and provide the service. In some cases the subscriber
just keeps the complaint/request and later action is needed to be taken.Customers need to pay
TK 4 per minute to take the service from help line.

4. Interactive Voice Response (IVR)

This is a newly introduced service by GrameenPhone. This is an automated help line service.
A GP subscriber needs to dial 123 to reach this service. After that s/he can get information
regarding bill, usage, credit policy, bank name that receives GP’s bill, and so on by choosing
different options. It is free of charge for the first minute, from the second minute the
subscriber needs to pay TK 2 per minute.

5. Information Centers

Most of the problems of the subscribers are solved by the help line service. But there are
some problems that cannot be solved there. Subscribers need to come physically to deal with
those problems. GrameenPhone has five information centers that are popularly known as
‘Info Centers’.

These info centers are situated in the prime divisional headquarters like Dhaka, Chittagong,
Sylhet, Rajshahi, and Khulna. In these information centers, the subscribers can come directly
with their problems like billing (wrong bill, detailed bill etc.), address change, SIM change,
handset problems etc.

These after sales services are very crucial to keep the subscribers satisfied regarding
GrameenPhone.

Other positioning strategies

By introducing djuice GP is trying to position in the market especially because of its

characteristics of different interesting ring tone, which attracts the customers especially the
young generation. There are ring tones of different song of Bangla, English, and Hindi that
attracts the young generation.

Good relationship with regularity authority is strength of some of the other mobile operators
while GP has achieved it to some extent by abiding by laws and showing positive results
Introduction of Airtime Bundling & Loyalty Bonus will set apart GP from its competitor.

To survive in an oligopoly market like telecom sector, every operator has to bit a tough inter-
operator competition. To make a distinctive, clear and desirable place in market each operator
considers following factors:

|Cell phone operators |Price & Tariff |Quality |Technology |Strategy |

|Citycell |Low |Deteriorating services |CDMA |Network expansion & attractive |

| | | | |products |

|AKTel |Competitive |High quality service but |GSM |Increase coverage and market |

| | |limited coverage | |share |

|Banglalink |Very affordable |Medium quality and wide |GSM |Increase coverage and Market
|

| | |coverage | |share |

|Grameen |Competitive |Good network with wider |GSM |To maintain the no. 1 position |

|Phone | |coverage | |as a cell phone operator |

|Teletalk |Affordable |Medium quality & limited |GSM |Network expansion & low tariff |

| | |coverage | | |

Table 2: Market Positioning

GrameenPhone offers subscription of two categories:

➢ Pre-Paid Subscription
➢ Post-Paid Subscription.

Pre-Paid subscriptions are sub-divided into three plans:

• Smile: previously known as Easy (mobile to mobile connectivity within Bangladesh),

• Smile PSTN :previously known as Easy Gold (nationwide and international mobile and land
line connectivity)

• Djuice: a youth based mobile to mobile connectivity within Bangladesh.

Post-Paid subscription is sub-divided into two plans:

X-Plore Package 1: nationwide and international mobile and landline connectivity

X-Plore Package 2: nationwide and international mobile and landline connectivity

As the telecom business is booming in Bangladesh, every operator wants to lead the market.
But according to the technologies, strategies, opportunities and market acceptance each
company belongs to different positions.

After observing strategic implementation and market acceptance, we can depict the following
positions-

Figure 3: Competitive advantages of cell phone companies

Market Leader Strategies

GP is the market leader in the tele communication sector in Bangladesh. GP has the largest
market share and usually leads the others firms in new product introductions, network
coverage, promotion spending and quality service. Competitors focus on the GP as a
company to challenge, imitate or avoid. To maintain as a market leader is not easy. It is
maintaining a constant watch. Other companies keep challenging its strengths or trying to
take advantage of its weakness. A product innovation may come along and hurt them. They
might grow arrogant or complacent and misjudge the competition.

To remain number one GP is taking following actions. First of all they are expending the total
demand. Then they are protecting their current market share through good defensive and
offensive actions and last of all they are trying to expand their market share further.

Identifying the total Market Demand

GP is a leading firm normally gains the most when the total market expends. If GP can
convince more Bangladeshi to use mobile it will benefit GP greatly, because they sells more
than ---- percent countries mobile. They are expanding the market by developing new users,
new technology and new offers. They are expanding the markets by discovering and
promoting new uses for the product. To attract young people, GP launched a new product “
Djuice”. Which offers less call charge, extra khatir card facilities, free SMS service, etc. GP
gets a tremendous feedback from this product. For this reason their markets are also
expanding rapidly. Finally they convincing to use their product more often.
Protecting Market Share

While trying to expand total market size, GP also have to protect its current business against
competitors’ attacks. To protect the position GP is doing the following things. First it
prevents or fix weakness that provides opportunities for competitors. It always works
tirelessly to keep strong relationships to valued customers. GP refuses to be content with the
way things are and leads the industry in new products, customer services, and distribution
effectiveness. It keeps increasing its competitive effectiveness and value to customers.

Expanding Market Share

GP also grow by increasing their market shares further. On average profitability rises with
increasing market share. Because they have sought expanded market shares to improve
profitability and it increases as a business gains share relative to competitors in its served
market.

Banglalink

(Market Challenger Strategies)

Banglalink is the runner up company in telecommunication section. They are challenging the
leader and other competitors in an aggressive bid for more market share. They first define the
market leader and their strategies and then attack the market leader. This is a high risk but
potentially high gain strategy that makes good sense if the leader is not serving the market
well. To succeed with such an attack, they have some competitive advantage over the leader.
This is providing the service in a less rate than market leader. They choose their opponents
carefully and have a clearly defined and attainable objective. Banglalink launches a full
frontal attack on advertising. It attacks the market leader strength that is wide area network
coverage; within one year they cover 61 districts of Bangladesh. They are also challenging
the market leader on its weakness that is call price. They offer less call price than any other
firm. Before entering the market, the price of sim was too high. Firstly, they have offered
1,500 TK package for the subscriber. They have also given 1,000 sims free for their clients.
They are trying to take more care to their subscribers than any other firm.

AKTEL

(Market Follower)

AKTEL is the market follower in the mobile sector. They are challenging the competitors by
lower prices, improved services and innovative features. AKTEL can gain advantage as a
market follower. The market leader often bears the huge expense of developing new products
and other innovative things. By contrast, AKTEL is just following the leaders’ experience.
They are trying to hold the current customers and win a fare share of new ones. They are
trying to bring distinct advantage to its target market- location, services, financing etc. They
are trying to provide the service at lower price.

City-cell

Market Nicher Strategies

City-cell is the market niche. Instead of pursuing the whole market or even large market
segments; they are targeting sub segments. They have the lower shares of the local market
and are highly profitable through smart niching. Even though they are market niche; they are
profitable because they end up target customer group so well that it meets there needs better
than other firms that casually sell to the city cell. As a result they are charging a substantial
mark-up over caste because of the added value whereas other company achieves high
volume, the niche achieves high margins. City cell are trying to find one or more market that
are safe and profitable. They are big enough to be profitable and have growth potential. The
most important thing is that they have little interest over major competitors. They are
building the skills and customer goodwill to defend itself against major competitors as they
grow and become more attractive. They are focuses on one or a few specific customer. City
cell, mainly focuses on business people, Ex-Operating as a market niche also carries some
major risk. Sometimes the major competitors come to the specialized area of city cell, which
is the major threat of their business.

Strength

Being the largest player in the market, GP has a considerable amount of hold in the market.
This is one of the biggest strengths of GP. GP doesn’t only have strength for their product
quality but also their sales and distribution system. We have covered a bit of its marketing
and sales system and its strengths are given below.

➢ Largest GSM operator in mobile market.

➢ Lowest call charge ever offered to the Mobil market of Bangladesh.

➢ Biggest subscriber holding mobile phone company (more than 8.5 million) in Bangladesh.

➢ GP has 310 international roaming partners which include all major and significant
destination of traffic to and from Bangladesh.

➢ GP has the highest operating revenue (997 million) in the second quarter of 2006.

➢ GP is currently offering the most attractive offer such as ‘Thank you crown’; GP world;
EDGE connectivity etc.

➢ Top tax payer (Tk. 350 core) among competitive mobile Co.

Weakness

No matter how strong a firm may be. It will always have some weaknesses. The points given
below best describe the weakness of GP. Most of its weakness lies in its distribution system,
as GP offers its services at roughly the same price, as its competitors and the quality of all the
firms in the industry are homogeneous.

➢ GP is good at following suit rather than innovation. The proof of this can be seen now, as
its rivals reduce tariffs & increase the increased validity of the prepaid servicing immediately
followed suit. In fact it came up with a whole new package called DJUICE, consisting of
reduced call rates. This attitude of is a very big weakness as a new subscribers are
immediately attendant to the price cut of GP’s rivals and by the time GP follows suit, it
would have lost the potential subscribers to the rivals.

➢ Lack of working capital for outlet and individual agents. This is a major setback for GP, as
most of the retailers can’t provide optimum services & thereby hurting GP’s image to same
extent.

➢ Because of increasing competition, profit of GP is going down day by day & this might
effect the smooth functioning of the entire sales & distribution system.

➢ High overhead cost for stock carrying, resulting in reduced profit.

Opportunities

Opportunities for GP are endless. They have the money and experience to diversify. So
opportunities for GP are given below

➢ Court declaration as void of NBR’S fixation of tariff on SIM\RIM cards has created new
opportunities particularly for GP.

➢ Increasing demand for Cellular Phone. The market for cellular phone is growing at an
enormous rate. Many potential users are being added to the market.

➢ Growing competition in telecom market.

➢ Marketing support provided by GP. The sales and distribution channel is supported by GP,
which gives the channel a wider opportunity

➢ Brand Value of GP. GP products are well known for its services and quality. Because of
this goodwill many potential subscribers might be attracted to GP

➢ Helpful attitude from GP personnel. People want pampering.

➢ Availability of concern contact point of GP. No matter what the time is, there is always
someone at GP to answer all the subscribers’ queries.

➢ Stock return facility. Many retailers are attracted to sell GP products as GP has a policy to
take back unsold stock

➢ Stock receiving facility on credit. Retailers also appreciate this facility to getting stock on
credit and pay later

➢ Hand set and Kit lifting from the same point. As mentioned earlier, GP sells all cellular
related products at the same place. So it is convenient for the consumer to get every thing
under one roof

Threats

No matter how big or small, companies will always have threats that question their very
existence. However some threats remains within the company itself rather than from its rivals
or the anticipated new comers. These threats could arise from the strategies adopted by the
company, in this case GP, which prohibit GP to function smoothly. Some of these threats are
listed below.

➢ Public demand for discount on price. Everyday consumers are demanding lower tariffs and
better quality. This might pose a threat to GP.

➢ The GP managing director is anticipating a possible threat from the new entrant BTTB.
The state owned fixed-line monopoly BTTB has entered the market with extremely low
tariffs. It is thought that the competitive environment that prevails today might be
destabilized as BTTB starts operating at full potential. Currently BTTB poses very little
threat to GP as they have just started their operation and it will take quite sometime before
GP is in trouble.

➢ The GP managing director further identifies fluctuations in the foreign exchange market as
another area of concern while possible changes in fiscal policies like the tax regime may also
have a negative growth of the mobile phone sector. The import duty on Handsets has been re-
fixed at BDT 3000 for a handset costing over BDT 10000 and BDT 4000 for a handset
costing over BDT 10000. This would replace the existing BDT 2500 flat rate of import duty
on handsets.

➢ According to recent study, even the existing cost of doing cellular telecom business in
Bangladesh is relatively much higher than that of the neighboring countries because of the
higher cost of leasing infrastructure, regulatory hindrances, high import duty on handsets, and
high cost of interconnection. For example, the infrastructure leasing cost from BTTB per E-1
PCM in Bangladesh is about 10 times higher compared to that in other countries of the south
Asian Region.

➢ Split sale. Day by day consumers are spread out to many other competitors in the market.

➢ Inadequate information flow regarding future planning of GP. If the consumer knows the
future packages or the coverage expansion of GP in the future, then many subscribers can
make decision in buying GP before they even think about other cellular companies.

➢ Tremendous sales pressure from. GP. The sales and distribution system of GP is under
severe pressure all the time to increase the sales figure. We all know that pressure doesn’t
always achieve the desired level of sales, but it might disrupt it.

➢ Imposing sudden decision. The sales and distribution network has to cope with sudden
decisions at times. This hampers the smooth functioning of the entire system

➢ Decision making without prior consultation. Some decisions are made with out consulting
the sales personnel

➢ Higher commission provided by the competitor cellular phone providers. This discourages
the various sales agent selling GP products

➢ Reduced call rate of “Swedeshi phone” launched by Rangtel appear as a threat for GP.

➢ “Alap offer” of critical has also created threat for GP.

Financial Objective

irst and foremost is its profit objective. Its aim is to receive an economic return on its
investments and to contribute to the economic development of Bangladesh where
telecommunications can play a critical role.

Marketing Objectives

Grameen Phone’s Marketing objectives are:

• Increase the number of user from 10 million to 12 million within the year 2007.

• Increase market share with an impressive growth rate.

• Grameen Phone wants to launch new product with new offer and privilege to customers.

• Want to maintain the market leadership.

• Provide product with new packages.

Once a company has decided on its overall competitive marketing strategy, it is ready to
begin planning the details of the marketing mix. Developing the marketing mix is one of the
major concepts in modern marketing. The marketing mix is the set of controllable, tactical
marketing tools that the firm blends to produce the response it wants in the target market.

The marketing mix consists of everything the firm the firm can do to influence the demand
for its product. The many possibilities can be collected into 4 groups of variable

1. Product

2. Price

3. Place

4. Promotion

Product Strategy____________________________________

GrameenPhone offers subscription of two categories:

➢ Pre-Paid Subscription

➢ Post-Paid Subscription.

Services Provided by Post Paid Packages:

Benefits at a glance
• Post-paid product with BTTB (Local, NWD, ISD and Economy ISD) connectivity

• Enjoy free incoming call from BTTB.

• Attractive Start-up Offer with Free VAS

• No on-net/off net, simple flat and low Tariff

• Reduced rate on three F&F numbers

• Economy ISD (012 )

• SMS Roaming

• Breakfast News

• Pre activated EDGE Service

• GSM features (Caller ID, Call divert, Call barring, Call Hold, and Call waiting)

• Wide collection of value added service (SMS, EDGE, Welcome Tune, Voice Mail, Voice
SMS)

• International Roaming facility

• Flexible credit policy

• Pay your bills from anywhere using FlexiLoad

• Monthly 6-12% ThankYou discount on airtime & Crown Membership

Product Development

The strive to develop a better product will be a continuous process. Conducting of Market
research will be in every three months. They will use the input to develop new product based
on data they will get from survey. Thus the product will be designed to meet the customers
need.

• Continuous improvement of quality.

• Reposition of slow moving products to different target markets.

• Always branding GP with all packages with a GSM service

Pricing Strategy____________________________________

Attractive pricing of the Grameen Phone has made it possible to be the market leader in
several products.

Pricing Objectives:
➢ To reach to the largest proportion of the population

➢ To minimize the price by maximizing the market thus by capturing new consumers.

Pricing Method:

• Competitor indexing: try to keep lower than the competitors,

• Following the market trend

Special Offers:

Some time GP provide special offers on different occasion to the customer to capture the
market. Offer often to capture the potential and occasional market (Eid festivals, Bangla new
year etc.) discounts or especial price is offered to the market.

Place_______________________________________

Since mobile telephony is about connecting people, basic expectations among the users are to
be reachable wherever he or she is. Thus GrameenPhone is the leader since it has the
countrywide network coverage which helps its packages to be more competitive than others. `

One of the GP’s employees said that 90% of their total subscribers are of Pre-paid holders.
And the strength of GP’s success is in the rural market. So network coverage along with the
strong distributive facility make this company the market leader.

It has around 5000 outlets & sales centers, all over the country. The consumer care centers
are 24-hour open for consumer. GP has placed its outlets in convenient public places.

Grameen Phone is famous for its powerful and extended network. It innovatedto1800 MHz
frequency through which services are done completely. It extends its network in 380 Upazilas
of 61 Districts.

|Sl no |GPC |Address |

|1 |GPC Motijheel |103, Motijheel C/A, City Center, Dhaka – 1000 |

|2 |GPC Mirpur |Rabiul plaza, Plot no. Shee-1/kha, Section-1, Mirpur, dhaka-1216 |

|3 |GPC Uttara |NR Tower, Sector-4, Uttara |

|4 |GPC Gulshan |H# 1A, R# 113, Gulshan-1, Dhaka-1212 |

|5 |GPC Farmgate |71, Kazi Nazrul Islam Avenue, Farmgate, Dhaka. |

|6 |GPC Dhanmondi |H# 38/2, R# 27(old), Dhanmondi R/A, Dhaka-1205 |

|7 |GPC Agrabad |Aktaruzzaman Center, 21/22 Agrabad C/A, Chittagong |

|8 |GPC GEC |1012/A, CAD Avenue, East Nasirabad, Chittagong |

|9 |GPC Rajshahi |Dainik Barta Complex, Alu Patti, Natore Road, Rajshahi |

|10 |GPC Rangpur |Central Point, Central Road, Paira Chottor, Rangpur |

|11 |GPC Bogra |Kabi Nazrul Islam Road, Jahautala, Bogra |

|12 |GPC Dinajpur |Goneshtala, Dinajpur Town, Opposite fire service, Dinajpur. |

|13 |GPC Khulna |181, Khan-A-Sabur Road, khulna |

|14 |GPC Jessore |RN Road, Holding No.6D, RS Tower, Jessore |

|15 |GPC Barisal |L L Tower, 119, Sadar Road, Barisal |

|16 |GPC Comilla |Holding No. 1043/946, Kandirpar, Kotowali, Comilla |

|17 |GPC Mymensingh |11, C. K. Ghosh Road, Mymensingh |

|18 |GPC Maijdi |Mahfuza mansion, Maijdi Bazar, Maijdi court, Noakhali |

|19 |GPC Khulna Shibbari |32/1, KDA Avenue, Royal Chattar |

|20 |GPC Satkhira |Abul Kashem Road, Satkhira |

|21 |GPC Chittagong Bahaddarhat |205, CDA Avenue, Rahman Mansion, Solakbahar,
Chittagong |

|22 |GPC Chittagong Agrabad |Moitri Bhaban, G. floor, Momin road, Andarkilla, Chittagong |

|23 |GPC Comilla |Holding # 27/29, Chawk Bazar, Comilla |

|24 |GPC Chowmuhoni |BOC Market, Karimpur road, Chowmuhoni |

|25 |GPC Gazipur |Chandana Plaza, Chandana Chowrasta, Gazipur |

|26 |GPC Dhanmondi |Eastern Elite Center, Shop # G-1, H # 50, R # 9/A, Dhanmondi, Dhaka
|

|27 |GPC Uttara |Shop # 02, 107, North Tower, Mymenshing road, Uttara, Dhaka |

|28 |GPC Wari |8/1, Rankin street, Wari, Dhaka |

|29 |GPC Badda |43, Nodda Bus Stand, Biswa Road |

|30 |GPC Purana Paltan |Shop # 8 & 9, G. Floor, Ibrahim Mansion, 11, Purana Paltan, Dhaka |

Promotional Strategy________________________________

Promotional Goals:
• to communicate the products to all consumers,

• to build a brand image,

Promotional Mix:

Advertising _____________________

• TV and other electronic media,

• Press ,

• Billboard.

GP’s promotional activities are very strong. In TV channels & newspapers. GP provides
many advertisements. GP spends a lot for TV & newspaper advertisements.

GP has developed personal selling process of promotion. Now it is a big weapon.

GP offer discounts and bonus talk time as a part of sales promotion.

Thank you: under this program, customers will receive discounts & bonus talk time.

Current promotions

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Slice 1 Objective: Increase the number of customers.

Activity: The existing number of present customer is 10 million and the plan regarding it is to
increase the subscribers up to 12 million.

Slice 2

Objective: Profit Maximization.

Activity: Increase 10% profit by the year 2007.

Slice 3

Objective: Reducing the call price.

Activity: GP wants to reduce the call price according to the customers demand

Slice 4

Objective: Maintaining Market Leadership.

Activity: GP’s present position in the market is one and they want to continue this position by
expanding their features and market share.

rom the survey that we have conducted, it is clear that many a subscribers expect reduced call
tariff, and free SMS.

GP should have more back up servers as we see that on special occasions GP’s network stop
responding and sending a message and calling becomes a nightmare.

They should be more flexible in terms of credit limit and call barring services to the post-paid
users.

So, we have some sorts of recommendations, such as:-

• From the observation we have conducted; it is clear that many a subscribers expect reduced
call tariff and free SMS.

• GP should have more back up servers as we see that on special occasions GP’s network stop
responding and sending a message and calling becomes a nightmare.

• They should be more flexible in terms of credit limit and call barring services to the post-
paid users.

• It should have consistence between its offerings and services of those offerings.

The cutthroat competition of cell phone companies has reached in such a position that from a
business tycoon to a farmer of a remote area now also use cell phone. It is providing dynamic
facilities to make lifestyle more easy and comfortable. Considering the importance and
profitability of cell phone business, more and more foreign and private companies are getting
curious to enter the market. If such trend exists for a few years and in a morning the cell
phone of a maid rings with the call of her mistress, would not be surprising for us.

Bibliography

1. Principles of Marketing, Kotler, Armstrong.

2. Annual Report 2003-2004

Website References

1. www.Grameenphone.com

2. www.Banglalinkgsm.com

3. www.Citycell.com

4. www.AKTel.com

5. www.Teletalk.com

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Billboard is one of the most exclusive advertising media & GP holding the number one
position

Press is the innovative and ever advertising media

Challenger

Leader

Competitive Advantages

Follower

Nicher

Grameen

Phone

Citycell

Teletalk

AKTel &

Banglalink

TV & other Electronic media is most famous and well known advertising media & in this
media GP is number one

Company Profile

Current Marketing Situation

Objectives

Managing director

GP

Director

Finance

Director

GRIP

Director

Regulatory and legal

Director

Administration

Director

Information

Director

Technical Division

Director

Sales and Distribution

Director

Customer Relation

Products Offered BY Grameen Phone

Executive Summary

Competitive Advantages

SWOT Analysis of Grameen Phone

Marketing Mix

Commercialization
Action Program

Conclusion