An IMC Plan for Teletalk

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IMC PLAN For Teletalk Bangladesh Limited

IMC plan for Teletalk Bangladesh Ltd 1

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A REPORT ON

IMC PLAN FORTELETALK BANGLADESH LIMITED

Prepared For:

Prepared By:

Stamford University Bangladesh

14th June, 2007

To

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SUBJECT: SUBMISSION OF TERM PAPER ON "IMC PLAN FOR TELETALK BANGLADESH LIMITED".

Dear Sir,

This is a great pleasure for me to submit the term paper "IMC PLAN FOR TELETALK BANGLADESH LIMITED" on, which is a partial requirement for completion of the course. It is, indeed, your splendid effort to simulate a situation, on which we are to write the term paper. I have chosen to write on "IMC PLAN FOR TELETALK BANGLADESH LIMITED ".

I believe evaluation of any thing is not very easy. Specially, evaluation of IMC plan, an intangible matter is, of course, a quite difficult job. This preparation of term paper has given me the opportunity to rewind and recollect the facts and situations of the services; to study some books and to consult with some knowledgeable personalities. This effort obviously increased my knowledge and experience on business in the 21st century.

Sir, I also believe, the knowledge and experience that I achieved through preparing this paper will remain in my filter and be exploited in near future for my own prosperity and development of our nation through my better business activities.

We are really fortunate in getting a teacher like you, taking so much pain to teach us and to sew maximum knowledge through examples and better and better practices. We agree with you that the knowledge and experience gathered through practice, troubles and hardship are perfect and remain longer in the memory.

I sincerely hope that you will enjoy reading this term paper and can have at least some idea regarding the plan approaches adopted in my current services. I would be pleased and happy to clarify any part of this report whenever necessary. I appreciate this opportunity to show my profound gratitude to you for sparing your valuable time, guidance, constant effort and prompt attention as and when required for accomplishing the paper.

Yours Sincerely

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

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The successful accomplishment of this term paper on the "IMC PLAN FOR TELETALK BANGLADESH LIMITED" is the outcome of the contribution of a number of people, especially those who took the time and effort to share their thoughts and suggestions to improve the paper. At the beginning, I would like to pay out humble gratitude to the Almighty Allah for giving us the ability to work hard under pressure.

I humble pay my deepest gratitude and appreciation to Md. Rajib Alom, Assistant Professor of the Department of Marketing, Dhaka University. Without his guidance and assistance, this paper would not have seen the light of day.

Finally, my sincere gratitude goes to all employees of marketing department and external coordination department of Teletalk Bangladesh Ltd., my friends, and family members for supporting me, sharing their thoughts and giving me the moral support during the preparation of this paper.

Executive Summary

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The long awaited launching of a mobile telecom network by a state-run

enterprise had finally materialized on 31 March 2005. It also fulfilled a cherished

dream of people who continuously demanded to the government for such an

enterprise. The government started the "Mobile Telephone Project" and

Bangladesh Telegraph & Telephone Board (BTTB) was entrusted with the

responsibility for implementing the same. The Project work started in June 2004

and the network was soft launched on 29 December 2004. I am happy that BTTB

had been able to keep its promise and deliver in time.

Teletalk Bangladesh Ltd. was formed to operate the network installed by BTTB

and it has been successful in operating a standard network and give proper

service to the people of Bangladesh. Teletalk has introduced many attractive

packages and all of them have been welcomed by the market. From the very

beginning of its launching, Teletalk got huge popularity as it triggered the true

competition in the market.

People have high expectation from Teletalk. They expect continuous network

coverage all over the country, prompt customer service, and more value added

services, data services of high band-width etc. from Teletalk. Teletalk must honor

its customers by improving its services day-by-day so that people can realize that

even in a competitive scenario, the public sector organization can achieve

remarkable development if they get opportunity.

Two long year has passed since Teletalk started its commercial operation.

Considering the time of operation of other existing operators in this field, this

period might seem to be small, but considering the second year of operation of

an operator it's pretty significant a time. Probably it's the right times to asses the

achievements it has made - compare them with what it could have achieved and

also to scrutinize the opportunities and threats which are looming over.

IMC plan for Teletalk Bangladesh Ltd 5

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The most remarkable success of Teletalk is the slump in Tariff Structure. As

soon as Teletalk announced its tariff the long-lasting oligopoly between other

private mobile operators were shattered. Healthy competition came into the

mobile I market causing almost 50%, if not more, reduction in price both in terms

of SIM price and usage rate. The slump in price made mobile phone affordable

even for the low-income group of people. Using a mobile phone soon became a

necessity; it's no more a luxury.

Teletalk hasn’t done any special program regarding the promotional activities

compare to other mobile phone operator of Bangladesh. Though the company

has good image, but weak promotional activities might not present the all the

capabilities of the Teletalk mobile phone services in front of the new mobile

phone seeker or mobile switcher or even the existing customers. So promotional

activities are very important. For this reason now Teletalk has taken several

billboards and bus, car branding as a part of outdoor advertisement.

Promotional strategy of Teletalk can be defined as the sales motivation and

supervision strategy. Though, according to the marketing officials of Teletalk, the

customers are influencing the dealers to arrange more SIMs for them. Teletalk

has a great success of road show program without any advertisement and

promotion. However, there are some printed adds can be found in the

newspapers. Moreover, quite interestingly enough, Teletalk have involved some

type of promotional activities weather enormous public support towards the

Teletalk Company. They recently have launched TV commercial for the target

market and to inform and persuade the customer.

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

1. Letter of transmitter

2. Acknowledgement

3. Executive Summary ... ... ... ...

4. Introduction

4.1 TELETALK and its business analysis

4.2 Current offerings of TELETALK ... ... ... ... ... 2

4.3 TELETALK’s target to enter into PCO ( Public Call Office ) market

3. The New Proposal at a glance ... ... ... ... 2

3.1 Earning projection

3.2 Features of the proposal

4. Objectives of the proposal ... ... ... ... 3

5. Features of the proposal ... ... ... ... 4

6. Scope of the proposal ... ... ... ... 5

7. Marketing plan ... ... ... ... 7

8. SWOT analysis of this plan ... ... ... ... 16

9. Conclusion ... ... ... ... 21

10. Recommendation ... ... ... ... 21

Appendix A Bibliography ... ... ... ... ... 22

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LIST OF FIGURES

Figure 1. Submission Category wise ... ... ... ... 3

Figure 2. Allocation Category wise ... ... ... ... 4

Figure 3. SIM Distribution Plan . .. ... ... 10

Figure 4. SIM Withdrawal Rate ... ... ..

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Introduction

In less than fifteen years, mobile phones in Bangladesh have gone from being rare and

expensive pieces of equipment used by businesses to a pervasive low-cost personal item.

Now a days, mobile phones is approaching to outnumber land-line telephones, with most

adults and even school and college going young people now owning mobile phones. It is

not uncommon for young adults to simply own a mobile phone instead of a land-line for

their residence. In a developing country like Bangladesh, where there is little existing fixed-

line infrastructure, the mobile phone has become widespread. With high levels of mobile

telephone penetration, a mobile culture has evolved, where the phone becomes a key

social tool, and people rely on their mobile phone address book to keep in touch with their

friends.

Most current mobile phones connect to the network using a wireless radio wave

transmission technology. These mobile phones communicate via a cellular network of

base stations (cell sites), which is in turn linked to the conventional telephone network and

were first introduced in the early to mid 1980s (the 1G generation). Prior mobile phones

operating without a cellular network (the so-called 0G generation), such as Mobile

Telephone Service, date back to 1946. Until the mid to late 1980s, most mobile phones

were sufficiently large that they were often permanently installed in vehicles as car phones.

With the advance of miniaturization, currently the vast majority of mobile phones are

handheld.

People have high expectation from Teletalk. They expect continuous network coverage all

over the country, prompt customer service, and more value added services, data services

of high band-width etc. from Teletalk. Teletalk must honor its customers by improving its

services day-by-day so that people can realize that even in a competitive scenario, the

public sector organization can achieve remarkable development if they get opportunity.

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1.1 Origin of the Report:

As a part of MBA program at Stamford University requires prepare term paper to introduce

the students with the real life business administration. As an employee of Teletalk it is very

much easy for me to find out the real situation and existing problems. The topic was set

after discussion with the course teacher. This term paper on "IMC PLAN FOR TELETALK

BANGLADESH LIMITED" is submitted on June 14, 2007 to the course teacher of

Marketing Communication, Stamford University Bangladesh.

1.2 Objectives of the Study:

The broad objective was defined at first. This broad objective was fragmented into some

smaller, clearer, specific objectives.

A) Broad Objective:

The broad objective of this study is to know about the IMC plan of Teletalk Bangladesh

Ltd. This report is focuses on promotional activities and sales related activities. To

identify the promotion strategy of Teletalk which will implemented by Teletalk. Before

making IMC plan we have to emphasize on the followings

To focus on the competitive advantages enjoyed by the Teletalk over its competitors.

To understand the need gap of mobile services in different regions of Bangladesh.

To know subscribers’ perception of the current mobile services offered by existing

providers in Bangladesh

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B) Specific objectives:

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To Inform Launching a new Teletalk product and package Informing the market of a price change Suggesting new uses for our product & services. Describing Teletalk available services. Building Teletalk Company image.

To Persuade Building Teletalk brand preferences Persuading customers to purchase Teletalk now Encouraging to switch to our brand Changing customer's perception of product attributes.

To Remind Reminding customers where to buy Teletalk Keeping us in customer's minds during off season Maintaining top-of-mind awareness.

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Branding & Action Plan :

Media Action Plan

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For each Product Package & launching new Product & Services. 6 insertions in Bangla dailies & 4 insertions in English

dailies. Ad. Color: Black & White; Size: 40 cil.-inches.

International Event - Sports/Seminar//Workshop//Summit Available Trade Show & Exhibition. Organize road show program as a part of door to door

sales program.

TV Commercial (TVC) On Air: July 2007; Duration : 1.20 sec & 50 sec. Show Time: Fixed Prime Time (FPT) Specially night

news and sports time. Channel Selection: BTV, Channel i, ATN, Ntv, Ekhushay

TV

Billboard: 100 no. billboard for Dhaka, Ctg, Sylhet, Rajshahi, Khulna and Barisal for other new cities

Plastic Display: 10 no. for Domestic & International Airport for international roaming.

Neo Sign: 5 Neon signs for Dhaka & Ctg. Outlet Sign: 500 no. pre-paid box sign for every dealer &

outlet.

Brochures, leaflets and user guide for Corporate, VASs & package details.

Banner, Flag lines, bunting, posters for new package & VASs.

Press Media

Electronic Media

Outdoor Media

POP Media

Event Mgt.

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1.3 Methodology:

At first I collect the primary and secondary data from various source of information. These

data will be following by several steps in given below:

a) Questionnaire survey: I survey on subscribers and retailers and business market. My

sample size is 40. But I consider the best 30 samples for implementing the information. It

helps me to collect the information about the IMC Plan of Teletalk Bangladesh Ltd. and the

market position of the company.

b) Interview collection from Management: I cover up the face-to-face and telephone

interview among the interviewee for getting the vital information.

c) Conversation to the others: I have done the conversation among each other in the

group and also discuses with my course teacher to institute the formation of report.

1.4 Secondary Study:

A monthly business magazine on Mobile phone technology named “GSM Technology”

published in the Bangladesh was extremely helpful for the study. This study could be more

informative if more issues of the magazine could be collected. The magazine focuses on

the Mobile phone technology all over the world. The prime secondary source was

“Teletalk website”, Google website, monthly magazine; some information was collected

from the Internet from various web sites.

1.10 Limitations:

Limitation, which I have faced while doing my report are discussed below:

Since the Teletalk at its early stage in Bangladesh, not all even are well-known with

the service of the mobile company. One of the major limitations faced while

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conducting the study was to communicate with the selected respondents because

they were very busy with their regular jobs.

As, I had more dependence on the primary sources, so there might be some level of

inaccuracy with those collected information. Though, adequate verification and

cross checking was used, to minimize the error level.

Confidential information regarding past marketing and sales information was not

accurately obtained. Alike all other business holders also very conservative and

strict in providing those information. Still I had tried my best in obtaining that

sensitive information, as much as possible.

Many of the analysis on the obtained data are based upon my sole interpretation.

This in result might bring some biases, as lack of knowledge and depth of

understanding might hinder me to produce an absolute authentic and meaningful

report.

Time constraint was another limitation restricting this report from being more

detailed or analytical. The relationship managers at the operation or strategic level

of the concerned department are terrible busy with meeting their targets. So, it was

very difficult for me to get them free and obtain some practical ideas regarding their

expectation and opportunities regarding my topic.

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Literature Review:

Integrated marketing communications is the coordination and integration of all marketing

communication tools, avenues and sources within a company into seamless program

which maximizes the impact on consumers and other end users at a minimal cost. The

IMC includes all business-to-business, channel, customer, external communications and

internal communications.

Integrated marketing begins with the development of master marketing plan. The

marketing plan is the basis of the total integrated communication design. The purpose of

the plan is to achieve harmony in relaying messages to customers and other publics.

Planning also should integrate all key promotional efforts, which in turn keeps the

company's total communication in synch.

The first step is a situation analysis which is the process of examining factors from the

organization's internal and external environments. The analysis identifies external

environmentally generated marketing problems and opportunities. The second step

marketing objectives which are spelled out in the areas of sales, market share, competitive

position and desired customer actions. Based on these marketing objectives , a marketing

budget is prepared and marketing strategies are finalized. The marketing strategies

includes ingredients of the marketing mix plus all positioning, differentiation, and brand

strategies the firm wants to use. Marketing tactics emerge to guide the day by day steps

necessary to support marketing strategies. The final step in the marketing plan is the

evaluation of performance. These six steps are similar to those prescribed by management

strategies attempting to to integrate all company activities into one consistent effort.

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An IMC program consists of careful consideration of the company's image as well as the

buyers to be served and the markets in which they are located. Advertising programs build

on this foundation, as do the other elements of the promotional mix.

Findings of the study:

History of the Mobile phone in Bangladesh

The number of mobile phone users in Bangladesh grew by 144 per cent in 2005, to 9.4

million in December from 3.85 million a year earlier, market officials said yesterday. The

gains raised the mobile phone penetration rate among Bangladesh’s 140 million people to

6.7 per cent from 2.75 per cent. The fast-growing mobile phone market is expected to have

18 million users by next year. The business has grown day by day.

Bangladesh Telecom Limited (BTL) has obtained the license as the first company of the

country to operate cellular, paging, and other wireless communication networks in 1989

and it turned into Hutchison Bangladesh Telecom Limited and launched Bangladesh's first

cellular operation in August, 1993.

And in February 1996, HBTL was renamed Pacific Bangladesh Limited (PBTL) and

launched 'CityCell Digital' to market its cellular products.

Ending CityCell's monopoly business, TM International (Bangladesh) Limited, a joint

venture company of Telecom Malaysia Berhad and A.K. Khan & Co. Limited was

established in the year 1996 and the company launched its operation in 1997 under the

brand name 'Aktel'.

The big player GrameenPhone obtained its cellular license in November 28, 1996 and

launched its operation in March 26, 1997 and never looked back.

And after that another Malaysia-Bangladesh joint venture Sheba Telecom (Pvt) Limited

launched its operation in 1998. But failing to come of the competitive edge, Sheba

Telecom formally sold its cent percent shares to Egyptian telecom giant Orascom and

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Orascom formally launched its operation under new brand name Banglalink in February

10, 2005 and shook the market with its inaugural package.

Though the much-talked about state owned company Teletalk Bangladesh Limited (TBL),

the mobile unit of BTTB was formed on December 26, 2004 and Prime Minister Begum

Khaleda Zia inaugurated Teletalk Mobile Service on December 29, 2004, but it formally

launched its mobile telecom service on commercial basis on March 31, 2005. Recently

another GSM mobile operator Warid Telecom has launched its operation and service on

April, 2007.

4Ps’ of Teletalk:

Product

The product of the Teletalk Bangladesh ltd. is the both prepaid and post paid sim cards.

Services on the other hand, include the network coverage’s and other value added

services. In this case, the product strategy of Teletalk can be called as the values

marketing strategy. The slogan of the Teletalk is “connect always” which defines that a

customer will always be connected no matter where ever he is. More over, as a

government institution, it is quite obvious that customers are expecting Teletalk to the

cheapest among the mobile phone companies. And no wonder, Teletalk has the ability to

fulfill the needs of the customers. This value marketing strategy includes -

Quality strategy:

Teletalk is incorporated with the siemens networking technology. Now days, this German

based company is the worlds leading company regarding the technological support of the

telecommunication business. Moreover, Teletalk have been with siemens from the

beginning. Thus, Teletalk can provide desired services to the customers. Moreover, the

company is arranging meetings in every Mondays to improve the quality of the service.

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Introduction Growth Maturity decline

Customer service

Teletalk has 10 (Ten) customer service centre for the customer. Every day from 9 am to 8

pm the office is there to serve the customers. In compare to the other government

organizations, the customer service department is very fast. Such as, if a customer

somehow, lost his or her sim card, s/he has to write an application for a new sim, and with

in 5 minutes the customers are given a new sim, after receiving the application.

Price

Pricing strategy of Teletalk is the penetration pricing strategy, because Teletalk is a new

company but the product is not new, rather there are many established players in the

market. The low price of Teletalk is obviously in the most competitive advantages that a

company can achieve. The price of the sim is comparatively higher compare to the other

mobile companies. But the call charges are very low compare to the other service

providers. Moreover, the incoming charge is 0, means there will be no incoming charges

no matters from where the call is from.

IMC plan for Teletalk Bangladesh Ltd 18

Teletalk

Bangladesh

Ltd

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Promotions

Promotional strategy of Teletalk can be defined as the sales motivation and supervision

strategy. Though, according to the marketing officials of Teletalk, the customers are

influencing the dealers to arrange more sims for them. However, there are some printed

adds can be found in the newspapers. Moreover, quite interestingly enough, Teletalk

haven’t involved any type of promotional activities, because of the enormous public

support towards the Teletalk Company. They recently don’t have any plan to launch any

promotional program.

Places/Distribution

At present, Teletalk is using the direct distribution strategies for placing the Teletalk

products. For every area, there are some selected dealers, who control that particular area

in both sim selling and recharge card selling. Moreover, Teletalk sells its sims through

some banks recommended by the Teletalk company. So till now, Teletalk is maintaining

the direct distribution strategies.

Customer Focus

Around the world, telecommunications business faces constant challenges to their

business model - from the economy, competitors, and regulators. At the same time,

customers are demanding new service offerings and personalized customer care at a

competitive price. In order to meet this demand, leading providers are reevaluating their

customer relationship management strategies: the winning companies will be those that

leverage experience, technology, and best-practice processes to deliver a cost

efficient customer experience that increases customer loyalty without breaking the bottom

line.

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Competitors Analysis

At presents, there are around 6 companies that are now in the mobile phone

business. They are –

1. Grameen phone

2. Aktel

3. Bangla link

4. City cell

5. Teletalk

6. Warid Telecom

Lets take a look at the services of the Teletalk’s competitors and their service

charges.

Services Companies

Gram

een

City cell AkTel Bangla

Link

Teletalk

Voice SMS yes yes yes yes No

SMS (Short

Message

Service)

Yes Yes yes Yes Yes

Email Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes

Different SMS

services

( cricket info,

horoscope,

etc)

Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes

Bangla SMS Yes Yes Yes Yes No

International

Roaming

Yes No Yes Yes No

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There are also many other services, however, these are services that a

subscriber mainly looks in his or her mobile phone.

SWOT analysis of the plan

Now let’s take a close look to the strengths,

weaknesses, opportunities and threats that Teletalk

has.

A government Organization

Low cost Service

Public Support

Technological support of

Siemens

A combination energy and

experience in the work force

Highly Bureaucratic organization

More time in Taking decision

Taxes imposed by government

S W

O T Late Decisions can

cause trouble

No Promotional

Activities

Vulnerability on

Recharge card facility

of the other company

Less number of

Employees.

Increasing Marketing share

Public Image

Price competitiveness

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CONCLUSION

Teletalk is the first government owned cellular operator in Bangladesh. Teletalk

has a goal to receive an economic return on its investments and to contribute to

the economic development of Bangladesh where telecommunications can play a

critical role. Teletalk believes in service, a service that leads to good business

and good development. Telephony helps people work together, raising their

productivity. This gain in productivity is development, which in turn enables them

to afford a telephone service, generating a good business. Thus development

and business go together.

The main goal of Teletalk is to deliver SIM kits to the subscriber at a cheap rate

and make a competitive market . All the categories of subscribers had collected

their SIM kits through banks. This is very satisfactory of SIM collection rate.

When the Subscriber received their SIM kits, the innocent smile of them shows

recessive support to Teletalk. This is the great achievement of Teletalk.

Ours Phone, is the theme of the Teletalk mobile service. Since its launching it

has been working harder and harder to improve the service quality. Thanks to

some of the dedicating employees in Teletalk. As a government organization,

Teletalk has created new dimensions of service quality. People who believe that

government organization is place where lengthy process in every single job;

might find Teletalk a new role model for Services Company.

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10. RECOMMENDATION

There are some problems in the promotional development. I would like to recommend some means to improve the program of promotion, sales promotion and advertisement.

1. Teletalk should improve its service quality.

2. Need to increase more customer care centers throughout the country.

3. Need to a creative team for idea building.

4. Develop good communication with print media and visual media

5. Improve co-ordination among all the departments.

6. Employ skill manpower to run the organization successfully so that Teletalk

can compete with other mobile operators.

7. More emphasize on post paid package immediately.

Appendix A Bibliography

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1. Business for the 21st Century, 2003 by Steven J Skinner, John M.

Ivancevich.

2. Jeffrey A Timmons, New Venture Creation : Entrepreneurship in the 1990s.

3. “ Masters of Innovation,” Business Week, April 10, 1989, p.27

4. Rosenberg and Redell, Profits, p.12

5. Adapted from Kevin McLaughlin and Scott Matulis, Entrepreneur, January 1989.

6. George Matusky, “ The Competitive Edge,” Success, September 1990.

IMC plan for Teletalk Bangladesh Ltd 24