Outline of the study

Overview of the company

Marketing and Sales Division of Grameenphone
Product & Market Planning of GrameenPhone
Selling procedure of GrameenPhone
Marketing Strategy of Grameenphone

Executive Summary
Marketing Strategy process considers four factors of Strategic situation
analysis, designing market-driven strategies, Market-Driven program
development, Implementing and managing market-driven strategy. In this
assignment we choose Grameen phone (GP) which is one of the leading
telecommunication company in Bangladesh. They use different types of
marketing strategy in segmenting market to increase their sale. As well as
they have few issues (advertising, call rates, segmentation market, target
market etc.) this is really threat for them if it is compared with other leading
company.

Introduction

Grameen phone (Bengali: ), widely abbreviated as GP, is the leading

telecommunications service provider in Bangladesh. With more than 50
million subscribers (as of July 2015), Grameen phone is the largest mobile
phone operator in the country. Grameen phone was the first company to
introduce GSM technology in Bangladesh, and built the first cellular network
to cover 99% of the country. In Bangladesh, Grameen phone is one of the
largest provider of mobile telecommunication services. Having started its
operations in 1997, Grameen phone now provides voice, data and other
value added services on prepaid and contract bases. Grameen phone has
been a pioneer in bringing innovative mobile-based solutions to Bangladesh.
Notable among these is the Health line, a 24-hour medical call centre
manned by licensed physicians. Other innovations include Study line, a call
centre-based service providing education related information, Mobicash, for
electronic purchase of train and lottery tickets and Bill pay, for paying utility
bills through mobile phones and over 500 community information centres
across Bangladesh. These centers bring affordable Internet access and other
information based services to people in rural areas.

History and milestone of the Grameen Phone Company:

The idea of providing universal mobile phone access throughout Bangladesh,
including its rural areas, was originally conceived by Iqbal Quadir, He was
inspired by the Grameen Bank microcredit model and envisioned a business
model where a cell phone can serve as a source of income. After leaving his
job as an investment banker in the United States, Quadir traveled back to
Bangladesh, after meeting and successfully raising money from New Yorkbased investor and philanthropist Joshua Mailman, and worked for three
years gaining support from various organizations including Nobel Peace
Prize laureate Muhammad Yunus of Grameen Bank and the Norwegian
telephone company, Telenor. He was finally successful in forming a
consortium with Telenor and Grameen Bank to establish Grameenphone.
Quadir remained a shareholder of Grameenphone until 2004.

Product & Market Planning of GrameenPhone

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.

Selling procedure of GrameenPhone

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 GP
Forward the subscribers file to the Billing department for activation.

Marketing Strategy of Grameenphone

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 are

Segmentation
Targeting
Positioning
Products
Pricing Strategy
Place
Promotion
The advertising tools

Segmentation
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 those who are like to communicate
with their friends and family member.
Targeting
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.

Positioning

 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, its 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 operators mobiles in different zones.
EDGE Service through mobile because of easy access, interesting
theme, and reasonable rate and for being new and innovative.
Products
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.
Pricing Strategy
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 handset.
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.
Place
Here comes the distribution channel of Grameenphone. They have 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:

Promotion
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 advertising

Telling the market about a new product

Suggesting new uses for a product
Informing the market of a price change
Explain how the product works
Describing available services
Building a company image

Persuasive Advertising

Building brand preference

Encouraging switching to Grameenphone
Changing customers perception of product attributes
Persuading customer to purchase now
Persuading customer to receive a sales call

Reminder Advertising
Reminding consumer that the product may be needed in the near
future
Reminding consumer where to buy it

The advertising tools

There are several media Grameenphone use for their advertising
Newspapers
Television
Radio
Magazines
Newsletters
Internet

Conclusion
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.