Marketing Plan: Telecommunication

Company [ DU]

Group members:
Nouf Al Janahi

200920194

Hessa Al Ghaith 200923012

Shamma Yousif 200921539
Noora Abdulla
Reem Fahad

200920449
200920235

Habiba

200920245

Instructor: Li Sun
Course: Bus 310-502

Date: Dec 5 2011

Table of Contents

Executive summary ..................................................................................................................................3

Current Market Situation analysis ..........................................................................................................4
SWOT Analysis ......................................................................................................................................10
Objectives and Issues ..............................................................................................................................12
Marketing Strategy ................................................................................................................................13
References ...............................................................................................................................................17

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Executive summary
Du is the second telecommunication company operating in the United Arab Emirates. Du
was first launched in 2006, starting with providing mobile services which later developed
in providing fixed telephony, broadband connectivity and IPTV services for businesses,
individuals and homes. Du also provides carrier services for business and satellite
up/downlink services for TV broadcasters. Above all that Du offer value and enhances
their services every now and then.
By October 2011 over 5 million people and over 40,000 businesses have chosen to use
Dus services and become their customers.
Dus objectives are driven and stem from the companys vision and mission, which are:
Vision: To enhance your life, anytime, anywhere.
Mission: We want to delight our customers, be the employer of choice for the best talent,
create optimal value for our shareholders through business excellence and innovation,
and proudly contribute to the transformation of our community. We work to deliver our
vision by using our talent, skills and energies to connect, inspire and reward all we touch,
every day.

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1. Market Situation Analysis

Current Marketing situation:
The telecommunication industry has widened with the strong potential, and determined
marketing strategy and services that are more effective to attract more customers. Du is a
telecommunication industry that was founded in 2006. It offers mobile and fixed telephony,
broadband connectivity, and IPTV services to individuals, homes and businesses. Du consist of
over 2000 employees, with more than 50% locals in the seniors management teams and
customer-facing staff, and have around 4 billion revenue. It has flourished the UAE market by
acquiring around 40% mobile market share within five years of its entry, and maintaining an
annual growth rate of more than 32% in a saturated market. A statistic that was done in October
2011 shows that over 40,000 businesses have chosen to use du services and become a regular
customers (Du, 2011). The high care in enhancing the life of the customers with all honesty and
creating innovations that pleases them has made the competition intense.
Price strategies are made by keeping the competitor price strategies in mind to provide
the consumers with a competitive price. Comparing the pricing strategies of competitors is very
important topic for marketers. The UAE telecommunication market consists only of two cellular
companies, which are Du and etisalat. A few years ago, Du entered a 100 % penetration market,
taking the risk to compete with etisalat, a pioneer and leading company in this region. Etisalat
offers a good quality of service with high pricing whereas, du offers low prices that has attracted
many customers.

Market description:
The Telecommunication company Du considers the target audience as a priority, and they
consist of residential and business customers. Those audience have different preferences, such
as products and services that enable communication and entertainment of a high quality and at
good prices. Du's creations focus on providing the target market segment innovative and new

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services to assure a better experience to the categories that range both socially and
professionally. Du has the broad target segments that are : Consumers, Businesses, and carriers.
The patrons of du have a variety of products and services to choose between. Du provides
packages that are more convenient for local and international communication, such as using
landline benefits, as payment is by seconds, simplified tariff on international calls, and around
the clock off-peak international rates . Moreover, Du offers a unique entertainment experience
through du TV+ with a selection of features; such as instinctive channel browsing, pause,
rewind and record of live TV. Also, theres no missing out on HD and 3-D television plus
Movies on Demand and On Demand Club with your desired TV shows while at the
comfort of your own home. The customers of du can enjoy the vast handset products, including
blackberries, iPhones , Nokia, and Samsung galaxy with many exclusive offers. Du performs at
high consideration of the targeted market, and improve alongside the technology to assure their
comfort and satisfaction.
The emergence of a new Telecommunication company that targeted both the nationals and the
emergent citizens has indeed increased the competitive power. The different offers and lower
prices provided for messaging, phone calls, Wi-Fi, and different entertainment systems are
major factors that increased competition. The key, and only competitor of du in the United
Arab Emirates, is Etisalat.

Targeted segments

Customer Need

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Corresponding
feature/Benefit

Consumers :
Households

Individuals

To have improved
entertainment technology

to stay in contact with the

world in cheaper prices

to carry less devices rather

than many

Express individualism
through new technologies

Business:
Small and medium
business

search for ease, support,

simplified solution where all
their telecommunication
requirements are met at one
stop shop

present mobile and fixed

voice calling, Internet, data
services and television.
Provide internet services that
are more convenient such as
the Mobile Broadband Data
Card that provides with
internet everywhere. moreover,
the television services that
assures movies on demand,
controlling with forward pause
and record of live TV, and high
definition of many packages.

business voice that allows

users to benefit from inbound
and outbound services to ease
your communication needs

business mobile that

provides flexible mobile
strategies and mobility
products to outfit the business
needs.

business managed services

help enhance the business IT
investment value

o business access is committed

Enterprise and
Government

Carriers:
Blue color workers

Aim for growth

enhance relations

Develop business analytics an

product

Product Review:
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to secure and reliable pointto-point connection for

offices countrywide or
globally that are there when
needed.

Provide international data

networks and wholesale
services to international
operators, multinational
corporation and
telecommunication carriers.

Our company provides products and services for businesses such as:

Business mobile are flexible mobile plans and mobility products that suits the business
needs

Business voice allow businesses to gain advantage of inbound and outbound services to
fulfill their communication needs.

Business broadband is an internet service that allows companies to communicate with

their customers and provide reliable source of information with a lower cost that helps
drives the overall business productivity.
-

Symmetric high speed/ redundancy/ highly reliable

Unlimited internet up to 1Gbps with attractive prices

Our company provides different mobiles products and services:

Handsets: gives the customers the chance to choose the mobile phone that suits them.
-

Blackberries: provides email service that automatically delivers email

message/manage multiple accounts/ get online/ view documents

Nokia phones with du: offers 1 GB data free per month for 1 year

Samsung phones with du: offers 1 GB data free per month for 1 year with elite super
plans

XPERIA arc with du: buying new Xperia arc with any of dus elite plan allows the
customer to get 1 GB free data every month for a whole year.

Mobile broadband: enables consumers to enjoy faster mobile internet browsing, music
downloading, and other applications that require high speed mobile broadband access.
-

internet key: supported by dus state-of-the-art HSPA+ data network/ high speed data
connectivity/ managing contacts and sending and receiving SMS laptop/

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Micro Data SIM: high-speed data connectivity/ provides variety of attractive and
unbeatable data bundle rates, tailored to individual needs.

data bundles: surf the internet, watch videos, chat and many other entertainment using
mobile device more reasonably by subscribing to the data bundles.

Traveling abroad: du has tied up with over 430 telecom operators worldwide to ensure for
their customers to stay in touch and enjoy a full ranch of services
-

Passport: calls within the GCC be charged at only 90 fils per minute that allows
customers to enjoy talking longer for less.

One world one rate: offers an attractive and unified price of AED 1.25/ minute for all
incoming calls while roaming abroad.

Our company provides different home products and services:

Landline: pay by the second/ flat rates for national destinations/ off-peak international
rates around the clock to all countries

Broadband: easily connect to the internet by just plugging the computer into the socket
without the use of modem or a passwords and usernames. Several packages from 24
Mbps to 256 Kbps with various speed is available to chose from.

TV: contains advanced features such as simplified search and display, superior channel
browsing, instant channel change capability, high definition TV, and the option of
pausing, rewinding and recording live programs.

Real broadband packages: offers premium home services at an attractive price with fast
speed.
-

Talk: call the world with 1 fils per second using the home landline.

Surf: offers up to 16 times more broadband

Watch: offers intuitive channel browsing, pause, rewind, record live TV, and 3-D
movies on demand and TV shows.
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The service that we are focusing on in this paper is the On world one rate:

Offers one unified and attractive rate of AED 150 per 50 KB for mobile internet and 1,25
per minute for all incoming calls while roaming abroad.

Charges for outgoing calls and SMS are set based on areas of the world.

Calls to any number of the visited countries starts from AED 1,25 per minute in GCC up
to AED 5 per minute according to the rest of the world.

Calls back to the UAE begins from AED 3 per minute in GCC up to AED 9 per minute
according to the rest of the world.

SMS charges are AED 1 per SMS in GCC and up to AED 2 per SMS according to the
rest of the world.

Data roaming is AED 1 per 50 KB in anyplace in the world.

Outgoing and incoming calls are charged on a 60 seconds unit basis.

Competitive Review:
The emergence of a new Telecommunication company that targeted both the nationals and the
emergent citizens, has certainly increased the competitive power. The different offers and lower
prices provided for text messaging, phone calls, Wi-Fi, and different entertainment systems are
major factors that increased competitiveness. The foremost, and only competitor of du in the
United Arab Emirates, is Etisalat.

Etisalat: is the leading telecommunication organization in the UAE market, etisalat offers
a good quality of service using allowance, promotion, and segmented strategy. It uses
promotional strategies rather than reducing the prices. Their packages are more complex
and a bit tricky for a normal customer, and are overall more expensive than du. Moreover,
Etisalat has invested in 17 countries worldwide and caters around 94.7 million customers.
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Thus, the telecom will grow in the competitive market according to the increase in profits
and revenues (Naeem, 2010).
Despite this strong competition, Du can carve out a definite image and gain
recognition among the targeted segments. In the Bond Prospectus at the London Stock
Exchange, etisalat stated that the introduction of Du in 2007 led to significant changes in
Etisalats mobile tariff structure, including segment-targeted promotions and tariffs. In
addition, the significant number of new promotional offers introduced by Du and Etisalat
during the period from 2007 to 2009 and through 30 September 2010 led to a decline in
effective tariffs (Naeem, 2010). Additionally, du has attracted over 159,800 customers in
the last quarter and a total mobile market of 37 percent. Du is the economical service
provider, it attracts its customers by providing lower prices than etisalat, but
unfortunately provide lower quality. Du offers bundle, allowance and discount, and
segmented strategy. It offer per second pricing, thus a majority of user prefer to call from
du.

2.

SWOT analysis
Strengths

Du has three important strengths:

Talk, Surf and Watch package. This package offers premium home services at an attractive
price. The benefits of this package are users can call the world for as low as 1 fils per
second from their home landline, where they pay by the second. Users can also enjoy up to 16
times more broadband and get free 5 e-mail accounts with 1 GBmailbox each plus free antivirus
and anti spyware software. Users can watch whatever they want, whenever they want.
Du TV+. This feature that can be experienced with an array of advanced features such as
intuitive channel browsing, pause, rewind and record live TV. Users can enjoy HD and 3D television plusMovies on Demand and On Demand Club with their favourite TV shows from
the comfort of their homes.

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Loyal customers because of fair prices. Du charges local and international calls by the
second. Therefore, people are more interested in Du and trust it more than Etisalat. Du
has a large number of loyal customers. Unlike Etisalat, Du is more customer-oriented and
80% of Etisalat customers shifted to Du because of their prices.
Weakness:
Since Du is a new telecommunication company, it has learned from the mistakes of
Etisalat, which was the only telecommunication company in the UAE. However, it still
has some weaknesses:
Lack of signal. Dus signal is still not available everywhere in the UAE.
Services not used by everyone. Not a lot of people use Dus services because it is still new
to the market, and the public doesnt really know the products and services that Du is
offering.
Opportunities
Increasing demand for cheaper telecom services. There are only two telecommunication
companies in the UAE, which makes the market have an oligopolistic competition
between Du and Etisalat. There is an increased demand for the cheapest telecom
company. Du is trying to keep ahead with the fair prices by creating packages and
services that are cheaper than the other telecommunication company.
Better technology. Being in the 21st century a wide range of technologies have evolved
with lower cost. Therefore Du can bring better services with the advanced technology at a
lower cost and therefore offer value-added prices.

Threats
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Downward pressure on pricing: increased competition between Du and Etisalat has lead
Etisalat to use some of the same pricing strategies du is following, causing a downward
pressure on pricing. For example, Du follows the pay by second theory while Etisalat
used to use the pay by minute. But after Dus success Etisalat started using the pay by
second theory.
Future competition threats. Competition in the market for telecommunications systems is
highly competitive and the company expects this competition to increase. It is expected
that continued growth and competition in the telecommunications industry, and new
competitors will enter the market.
Alternative pricing arrangements. Alternative pricing arrangements may be required to
cultivate relationships with new market entrants, and to a lesser degree with established
companies. Even though Dus prices are reasonable, they still need to have alternative
prices to stay ahead of the telecommunication company.

3.

Objective
First-year Objective
The market of telecommunications was a monopolistic market which was controlled by
Etisalat. Dus aim is to be stable in the market, to have a strong and professional relationship
with customers.
Second-year Objective
To increase Emiratization, which is by employing UAE nationals in the company, develop
training programs for UAE nationals, supporting projects of UAE nationals, and advertising
for the company du throughout the UAE cultural places around the UAE.

Third-year Objective
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Dus third objective is to go globally, to open du branch in the Middle East countries such as
Egypt, KSA, Bahrain, Algeria, and other countries too.

Issues in general
Since the company is entering a monopolistic market, du needs to spend a lot on the marketing
procedure. Also, another issue is to form a confident relationship between customers and the
company, since the company is new and needs a lot of support.

4.

Marketing strategy
Dus marketing strategy stems from first analyzing the current market, and later
developing marketing objectives which influences the products design offered, and dus
overall marketing approach.
Dus marketing strategy is based on a positioning of product differentiation. Their
primary consumers are both women and men from age 18 and above who need good
telecom products and services at good prices. Dus secondary consumers are expats who
are from the lower level that come work in the UAE and need cheaper prices to contact
their family and friends back home.
the UAE telecommunication industry in the past has always been product oriented,
meaning Etisalat being the sole telecom provider will provide the customers with one
product, catering to the whole entire mass of people in the UAE. For example for mobile
services etisalat use to offer two kinds of mobile plans either prepaid or monthly plan
with no rewards or special offers. One product that is not custom made catering to the
entire country. With no competition in the market, and no options for the consumer, lead
to the lack of creativity in the product offered.

Positioning
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Du is positioning their market as the most up to date, convenient and value-added

telecommunication company in the UAE. Their marketing strategy is to focus on the
consumers need rather than just launching a product in the marketing. This could be
established by segmenting and later designing a product or an offer which this segment
require or would be interested in. Du continually hunts for new and innovative plans that
sends importance and value to all their customers and build a long lasting relationship
meeting their expectations and needs. Since most of the customers travel between their
work area and home , du looks for great solutions by offering voice, messaging, data and
increasingly fixed line services to meet consumers needs..
Product Strategy
Du recognized how much the internet and phone calls is increasing in everyones daily
lives and decided to create a new international roaming offer. This offer is called One
World One Rate which is a flat data pricing rate for its subscribers who are able to use
mobile internet while travelling anywhere in the world. It provides unified prices for all
incoming calls while roaming abroad, anytime, anywhere. Plus instead of charging you
for outgoing calls and SMS depending on the country youre visiting Du have made
things simple by setting up charges based on areas of the world instead. One World One
rate will enable customers to enjoy more value, simplicity and convenience than ever
before.
Pricing strategy
One World One Rate costs AED 1.25 per minute for all incoming calls and AED 1 per 50
KB for data. Du will introduce a more affordable service in the upcoming years if this type
of service became highly demanded. Their prices reflects Dus strategy of attracting new
customers as well as maintaining their loyal customers. This offer provides customers with
peace of mind, rather than having to worry about hidden international costs.

Distribution strategy
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Dus distribution strategy will be using both direct channel and indirect channel. The One World
One Rate services can be obtained from a variety of ways such as retail locations, by telephone
or through our website online. During the first months of providing this service, du will advertise
in promote areas where large numbers of expats and other individuals who will be interested in
this service. These areas will be in Airports and malls across the UAE. Advertisements in tourism
and booking websites will also be part of distributing this service since the internet is an
important key channel to promote services.
A third party service provider and distributors will be part of the indirect distribution. This will
allow the service to expand and offer top quality and uncomplicated roaming services to cater the
needs of both national and international customers.
This is the advertisement that will be distributed:

Marketing Research
Since Du is committed to providing elite, affordable and, simple roaming services, marketing
research will take place to support development and evaluate The One World One Rate service. It
will start by creating surveys and focus groups to analyze the consumers opinions and attitude
towards the service. This will help in developing The One World One Rate service. The second
step will be researching the awareness of this service. This will be done by analyzing the
effectiveness of the advertisements. Throughout this research du will be able to know the degree
of satisfaction of their consumers

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Marketing Organization
Dus senior president of marketing and customer experience is responsible for all the marketing
activities in the company. The figure below shows the top level employees whom are in charge
of different aspects of the marketing department in Du.
Subhra Das
Senior
President
Marketing and
Customer
experience

Mark Briers

Souhail Haddji

Ashok Israni

John Lincoln

Saleem
Mohbani

Vice president

Vice president

Vice president

Vice president

Vice president

Strategic
Marketing

Marketing
Fixed

Consumer
Segment

Enterprise
Marketing

Digital
Marketing &
Entertainment

References
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http://www.newzglobe.com/article/20101123/du-crushes-etisalat
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