Banglalink

EEXECUTIVEXECUTIVE S SUMMARYUMMARY

Just as marketing is not selling, neither is branding just advertising any more, if it ever was.

Branding - and the study of it - is continuing to increase in complexity, though a good deal of the

language is still product-bound. Managers or all sorts of organizations are now instructed to

think as if they are handling a branded product. Over the years, Journal of Product & Brand

Management articles increasingly illustrate that the range of branding concepts continues to

expand: composite equity, naming, cause-related branding, tourism branding, brand extensions,

brand attitude, piracy, brand familiarity, brand congruency are all discussed in recent issues.

Students, practitioners and possibly even academics find the plethora of concepts and definitions

confusing to the extent of being unhelpful. There is a multiplicity of adjectives used in industry

in particular, with meanings that often are neither discrete nor clear. At its worst, this reflects

widespread confusion in the field; at best, exciting innovation and development.

The bottom-line question that is often unasked is whether our understanding of what brands are,

and what branding does, much clearer as a result of all the research that has been published and

all the industry developments that have occurred in recent years. More important, does the

expanded use of the term "brand" help more people in business or not-for-profit organizations

make management decisions.

Keeping these issues in mind, this study is solely based upon exploring the brand image of

Banglalink comparing to other mobile phone companies. Currently Banglalink is facing intense

competition from its major competitors like GP, Aktel & City Cell. To keep updated in this

strong competitive industry of mobile phone sector, the researcher has chosen the following

statement as his study’s problem statement, “Banglalink wants to know the impact of its

branding & communication on subscriber perception, and based on the findings from the survey,

intends to find out the position of Banglalink’s brand image comparing to the brand image of its

competitors.

Origin of the study

The report is done as a part of the research of the course MKT 416 (Brand Management). The

report focuses on Banglalink as we found much interest in the flourishing telecom industry.

The research paper is prepared for Mr. Shobod Deba Nath, lecturer of Business Administration

Dept. at East West University. This research is prepared during the semester Fall-2011 and

would be submitted in the same semester.

There is a lot of speculation regarding the future of the telecom industry, in general. With the

little bit of healthy competition that the industry had been lacking till now, it is no doubt that the

consumers would soon begin feel its affect in the form of lower prices and more packages to

choose from. However, it remains a doubt as to which companies would just survive and which

companies would thrive and prosper. Hence, we chose to carry out a comparative analysis of the

telecom companies in Bangladesh, with particular emphasis on the future prospects of

Banglalink™.

Scope

The report analyzes the current market condition (i.e. during the attachment period) & product

offerings of the respective companies in Bangladesh Telecom industries.

The report ignores information available to the author which are confidential and not for public

dissemination.

Research Method

The research paper is made focused on the data collected from different sources. Data was

mainly obtained from internet and marketing department of Banglalink.

1. Introduction

Much of the world has, at best, limited access to basic telephone service. Bangladesh is no

exception to this rule. A brief survey of the telecommunications sector in Bangladesh (PBC)

shows that in Bangladesh, which ranks among the most densely populated countries on the

globe, one telephone serves 275 people, equating to one of the lowest teledensity measures

worldwide. Of the total telephone count in Bangladesh, approximately 20 percent serve the rural

areas. The need for telecommunications sector investment and growth is obvious. This is

especially so if Bangladesh intends to participate and coexist economically and socially in a

larger information-intensive world.

There were only 3,000 users when mobile phone was an expensive personal gadget of the

society's affluent segment. Competition was introduced in 1996. Since then mobile phone

gradually became a general-purpose communication tool and today it boasts of 6.25 million users

representing a 132 percent compound annual growth rate. It is predicted that there will be around

10 million mobile subscribers in the country by 2006.Middle to higher income citizens has been

dominating the mobile customers. Lately the lower income group started joining the club. It was

fuelled after Banglalink rocked the market by bundling subscription and handset at Tk1, 500

only. Later people became more excited after the launching of Teletalk.

AKTEL stunned the market introducing one-second pulse. GP made history with launching

EDGE, the very first step towards third generation mobile phone. City Cell's free handset offer

coincided with Sing Tel's acquiring this CDMA operator last week. Graph of our mobile phone

market's growth was to take the shape of a "Hockey-stick" by this year.

Banglalink was the last addition to the GSM family of OTH. In September 2004, OTH acquired

a mobile services company, Shebatel in Bangladesh with a nationwide GSM license valid until

2011. Since then, OTH has installed new management, upgraded the network and re-branded the

company as Banglalink. Banglalink has rapidly deployed new network infrastructure, set up a

distribution network and points of sale, and designed complete commercial plans to offer high

quality voice and data telecommunications services at competitive prices to the people of

Bangladesh. It is also worth mentioning that an unprecedented success of sales results followed

the Commercial launch of Banglalink on the 10th of Feb 05.

The mobile phone market is a part of the consumer service industry. Banglalink, like any other

successful company dealing with consumer commodity, has to keep a continual tap with the

prevailing and potential subscribers. Due to this reason, Banglalink has to undertake intensive

branding activities to facilitate the attainment of short-term organizational goals and long-term

objectives.

2. Objectives of the Research

i. To explore the perception of subscribers regarding Banglalink’s brand positioning and

competitors Brand positioning.

ii. To explore the effectiveness of Banglalink’s print & TV advertisement and competitor’s

print & TV advertisement in terms of aided recall and unaided recall and likeability

iii. To explore the effectiveness of Banglalink’s Outdoor activities and competitor’s Outdoor

activities in terms of aided recall and unaided recall and likeability

iv. To explore the likeliness of Banglalink’s products and services comparing to its

competitors according to the subscribers point of view.

3. Company Background

Orascom Telecom Bangladesh Ltd.

Type Subsidiary

Founded 1999

Headquarters

Tiger House, House # SW(H)04,

Gulshan Avenue, Gulshan Model

Town, Dhaka, Bangladesh

Area served 62 districts and 447 thanas

Key people Rashid Khan, CEO

Industry Telecommunication

Products Telephony

Revenue Tk.1300 million

Parent Orascom Telecom S.E. Egypt

Sloganmaking a difference

onuvutir network

Website http://www.Banglalinkgsm.com

Orascom Telecom Holding S.A.E. ("Orascom Telecom") or ("OTH") was established in 1998

and has grown to become a major player in the telecommunication market.

OTH is considered among the largest and most diversified network operators in the Middle East,

Africa, and South Asia, and has acquired in early 2008 a license to operate mobile services in

North Korea. Orascom Telecom is a leading mobile telecommunications company operating in

six emerging markets having a population under license of 430 million with an average

penetration of mobile telephony across all markets of approximately 44%. OTH operates GSM

networks in Algeria (Djezzy), Pakistan (Mobilink), Egypt (Mobinil), Tunisia (Tunisiana),

Bangladesh (Banglalink) and Zimbabwe (Telecel Zimbabwe). OTH had exceeded 77 million

subscribers as of June 2008.

Orascom Telecom Bangladesh Ltd. was granted license in 1989 to operate in the rural areas of

199 upazilas and later they were also allowed to extend to cellular mobile radio-telephone

services. In July, 2004 it was reported that Orascom Telecom is set to purchase through a hush-

hush deal the Malaysian stakes in Sheba Telecom, as it had failed to tap the business potentials in

Bangladesh mainly due to a chronic feud between its Malaysian and Bangladeshi partners. An

agreement was reached with Orascom worth $25 million was finalized in secret. The pact has

been kept secret for legal reasons, considering financial fallout and because of the feud.

The main reason for the undercover dealing was because the existing joint venture agreement

between the Bangladeshi and the Malaysian partners dictates that if any party sells its Sheba

shares, the other party will enjoy the first right to buy that. Integrated Services Ltd (ISL), the

Bangladeshi partner, was being 'officially' shown as purchasing the shares held by Technology

Resources Industries (TRI) of Malaysia for $15 million. ISL then paid another $10 million to

Standard Chartered Bank to settle Sheba's liabilities. Sheba had a base 59,000 users, of whom

49,000 were regular when it was sold.

In September, 2004 Orascom Telecom Holdings purchased 100% of the shares of Sheba

Telecom (Pvt.) Limited (“Sheba”). It was acquired for US$ 60 million and re-branded and

launched its services under “Banglalink” in February, 2005. Banglalink’s license is a nationwide

15-year GSM license and will expire in November, 2011.

Banglalink is the second largest cellular service provider in Bangladesh. As of February, 2008,

Banglalink has a subscriber base of 7.88 million. It is a wholly owned subsidiary of Orascom

Telecom. Banglalink had 1.03 million connections until December, 2005. The number of

Banglalink users increased by more than 253 per cent and stood at 3.64 million at the end of

2006 and ended 2007 at 7.1 million subscribers’ base, making it one of the fastest growing

operators in the world.

Mission

Banglalink understands customer needs best and will create and deliver appropriate

communication services to improve people’s lives and make them easier.

Vision

To become one of the worlds’s leading telecom operators providing the best quality services to

our customers.

Core values

All employees of Banglalink demonstrate the following values in their day-to-day activities to

ensure “making a difference” in every area of operations:

Straightforward

We say what we do & we do what we say

Reliable

A promise made is a promise kept

Innovative

Whatever we do will be useful and useable

Passionate

We always deliver with honesty and passion

4. Brand Profile

Orascom telecom Bangladesh limited ("Banglalink") is fully owned by Orascom telecom holding

s.a.e, Egypt, ("oth"); the ultimate parent company of the group is vimpelcom, the 6th largest

mobile phone operator in the world. Banglalink was acquired by oth in 2004, and after a

complete overhaul and the deployment of a new gsm network, its telecommunication services

were re-launched under the brand name Banglalink. When Banglalink began operations in

Bangladesh in February 2005, its impact was felt immediately, overnight mobile telephony

became an affordable option for customers across a wide range of market segment. Banglalink’s

success was based on a simple mission: "bringing mobile telephony to the masses" which was

the cornerstone of its strategy. Banglalink changed the mobile phone status from luxury to a

necessity and brought mobile telephone to the general people of Bangladesh and made a place in

their hearts. The mobile phone has become the symbol for the positive change in Bangladesh.

This positive change that is quite correctly attributed to banglalink has become the corporate

positioning of banglalink and is translated in their slogan "making a difference" or "din bodol".

"Making a difference" not only in the telecom industry, but also through its products and

services, to the lives of its customers. This corporate stance of "making a difference" has been

reflected in the Banglalink does.

Banglalink attained 1 million subscribers by December 2005 and 3 million subscribers in

October 2006. In less than two years which is by December 2007, banglalink overtook Aktel to

become the second largest operator in Bangladesh with more than 7.1 million customers.

Banglalink currently has 20.05million subscribers as of April 2011, representing a market share

of 27.03% growth over the last years have been fuelled with innovative products and services

targeting different market segments, aggressive improvement of network quality and dedicated

customer care, creating an extensive distribution network across the country, and establishing a

strong brand that emotionally connected customers with Banglalink.

5. Target Customers

Banglalink’s marketing strategy focused on targeting different consumer segments

With specially designed products and services that are tailored to the needs of these segments.

Banglalink’s prepaid brand, ‘banglalink desh’, is perceived as the best prepaid package in the

country with innovative, value for money features and a very strong brand image. ‘Banglalink

business’ and ‘banglalink SME’ cater to the needs of the business segment including the thriving

SME sector, where Banglalink has been the pioneer in the country. In 2009, Banglalink set

another benchmark in the industry as it started offering value propositions catering to the needs

of different ‘micro-segments’ through below-the-line promotions. Banglalink provides its

subscribers with a wide range of innovative value-added services including caller ring-back tone,

music station, song dedication, voice portal, voice chat, voice-SMS, etc. to name a few. In 2009,

Banglalink also launched call block, friend finder, and field force locator, vehicle tracking and

call-center based information services ‘banglalink krishi jigyasha 7676’ and ‘banglalink babsha

jigyasha 7677’, which provide advisory service regarding agriculture and SME business queries

respectively. ‘Banglalink jigyasha’ services won the Asia Mobile Awards 2009 under the

category of Best Mobile Enterprise Application Product or Service. Banglalink has already

established a nationwide EDGE/GPRS network serving both postpaid and prepaid subscribers.

Banglalink’s international roaming network comprises of 250 operators across 95 countries, and

EDGE/GPRS connectivity is available to roaming customers as well. Banglalink’s customer care

services are regarded as the best in the mobile industry of Bangladesh. A state-of-the art call

center with highly trained agents provides round the clock service to customers. Banglalink is

also the pioneer in taking customer service closer to its subscribers by introducing ‘banglalink

service points’ in over 1,000 locations across the country – by far the widest in the industry. A

dedicated team of relationship managers provides exclusive services to business customers

6. Competitors AnalysisCompetitor Information

Web

address

Empl

Oye

es

Annu-

al

Sales

Reve-

nue

Net

Inco-

me

Asset Liabili

ties

Busin

ess

Value

Stoc

k

Value

My Company www.

Banglalink

.com

2500 140

million

140

million

50

million

560

million

200

million

800

million

N/A

Competitor

one (Grameen

Phone)

www.

grameen

Phone.

com

5000 310

million

310

million

110

Millio

n

900

million

300

million

1400

million

N/A

Competitor

Two (Warid

Telecom)

www.

waridtel.

com. bd

1500 70

million

70

million

20

million

250

million

150

million

200

million

N/A

Competitor

Three (Aktel)

www.

aktel.

com

2000 110

million

110

million

40

million

400

million

200

million

500

million

N/A

7. Identification Of Brand elements

Brand names

Like any brand element, “banglalink” brand name is chosen with the six general criteria of

memorability, meaningfulness, likability, transferability, adaptability, and protectability in

mind.

URLs

URLs (uniform resource locators) specify locations of pages on the web and are also

commonly referred to as domain names. www.banglalinkgsm.com

Logos and symbols

Characters

Slogans

“Makings a difference”

Jingles

Banglalink jingles are musical messages written around the brand ; typically composed by

professional songwriters, they often have enough catchy hooks and choruses to become

almost permanently registered in the minds of listeners—sometimes whether they want them

to or not!

7.1 Packaging

From the perspective of both the firm and consumers, Banglalink packaging has achieved a

number of objectives:

Identify the brand

Convey descriptive and persuasive information

Facilitate product transportation and protection

Assist at-home storage

Aid product consumption

8. Criteria for choosing Brand elements

Banglalink’s offensive strategy and build brand equity

Memorability

Brand elements should inherently be memorable and attention-getting, and therefore

facilitate recall or recognition. Banglaink has perfectly able to do so.

For example, a package of banglalink named Ladies First featuring the women empowerment

with a distinctive orange dressed woman is likely to stick in the minds of consumers.

Meaningfulness

Brand elements of banglalink takes on all kinds of meaning, with either descriptive or

persuasive content; for example, Desh package of banglalink contains a lots of features; such

as: different call rates at pick and off-pick hours, F&F , bonus etc.

Likability

Descriptive and persuasive elements reduce the burden on marketing communications to

build awareness of banglalink.

For example, festivities outlook showed in TV commercials making it more fun and

interesting especially in “Desh Rong Package”.

Defensive role for leveraging and maintaining brand equity

Transferability

Banglalink has used useful brand element for line or category extensions. For example,

within and across product category: “Making a Difference”.

Adaptability

The more adaptable and flexible the brand element, the easier it is to update it to changes in

consumer values and opinions.

For example, Banglalink has given logos and characters a new looked or a new design to

make them appear more modern and relevant.

Protectability

Banglalink Has:

1. Chosen brand elements that is legally protected internationally.

2. Formally register chosen brand elements with the appropriate legal bodies.

3. Vigorously defended trademarks from unauthorized competitive infringement.

9. Brand Hierarchy

Telecom Industry

CDMA GSM

Post-paid

DeshNew DeshDesh Ek RateRongdhonu

Pre-paid

Banglalink BusinessBanglalink InspireBanglalink SME

10. Marketing Mix Strategy

10.1 Product and Services

Banglalink offers a number of products and value added services to its valued subscribers. These

attractive products and services are designed to cater to the needs of the individual subscribers.

We can divide all of these products into two categories; these are-

Pre-Paid

Post-Paid

Pre-paid packages

Prepaid is a system where you pay for your phone calls in advance. Prepaid gives you the

freedom to use your mobile within your budget. It is an excellent way to control your

expenditure. The products banglalink prepaid has network mobility feature which helps

subscriber to move around where banglalink has its coverage.

Key features of banglalink pre-paid:

No monthly subscription fee lifetime validity for all the prepaid customers who recharged after February 23rd 2007 Banglalink advance: advance credit feature in case of low balance

Banglalink offers you the following prepaid products to suit your usage pattern:

Banglalink desh Banglalink desh ek rate Banglalink desh ekrate darun Banglalink desh rangdhanu Banglalink desh 7fnf

banglalink desh:

banglalink entered the market with a promise of making mobile telephony affordable for

people.

banglalink "desh" was launched in September 2006.

banglalink desh is the best prepaid package for making calls to any network in any time.

banglalink desh ek rate

As the package name suggests - through this offer, customers can enjoy a single rate of tk.

0.89/min to any number 24 hours a day. This offer is specially targeted towards those customers

who want flat call rate throughout the day. When customers buy a new banglalink prepaid

connection they will be automatically enjoying the benefits of banglalink desh ek rate package.

banglalink desh ek rate darun

banglalink brings ek rate darun which has a highly competitive tariff option of tk. 0.99/min in 1st

min and from 2nd min onwards tk. 0.69/min

banglalink desh rangdhanu

banglalink has once again hit the market with another exciting offer rangdhonu! With this

package, banglalink customers will be able to talk for half an hour by paying for only 5 minutes!

Some key features/benefits of banglalink desh rangdhanu

banglalink New Desh (7fnf)

banglalink launches a new package with 7 fnf numbers to any operator.

all the other prepaid packages will remain the same

60 seconds pulse will be applicable

Bonus on incoming

Now customers can enjoy 20% bonus by having minimum 50 incoming minutes from other

operator’s mobile in a month. the bonus will be given in the form of sms and minutes equally.

The 20% bonus will be awarded based on previous month’s incoming calls from other mobile

operators

Lifetime validity

Lifetime validity on prepaid account gives a customer the benefit of receiving incoming calls

and staying connected forever. To get lifetime validity, a customer has to recharge his/her pre-

paid account with a minimum amount of tk. 10/= or above (via scratch card or i- top up). If any

lifetime validity customer does not have any incoming or outgoing call/sms for three months, the

connection will be permanently disconnected

Post-paid packages

At banglalink, we understand that your needs and usage patterns are unique. this is why we

believe in giving you choices so you can pick what you need. rather than offering you the same

solution as everyone else, our banglalink postpaid packages are tailored to serve your exact

purposes and give you the best value for money.

banglalink offers four post-paid packages

banglalink post-paid

banglalink inspire

banglalink business

banglalink sme

banglalink post-paid

banglalink postpaid packages offer you some of the best benefits that you need. take a look at

some of the features of banglalink postpaid packages:

Benefits of postpaid packages

lowest call charges

1 second pulse

20% bonus on incoming calls

up to 15% monthly loyalty discount on airtime

low monthly line rent, which is waived based on usage

gprs and mms service

international roaming

10.2 Price:

Pre-paid sim price is same for all package which is 149 taka. And post-paid sim price is based on

the name of post-paid packages.

Pricing Strategies

People from different areas contribute their expertise to set the most strategic price for a product.

Accountants, financial managers and sales representatives provide relevant cost data.

Designers, engineers contribute important data as well.

Prices are determined by the basic ways:

By applying the concepts of supply and demand.

Completing cost-oriented analyses.

Economic theory assumes that a market price will be set at the point where the amount

demanded and the amounts supplied are equal.

Cost based Pricing: Practice of adding a percentage of specific amounts to the base cost of a

product to cover overhead costs and generate profits.

Cost based Pricing totals all costs associated with offering a product in the market, including

research and development, production, transportation and marketing expenses.

Breakeven Analysis: Pricing technique used for determining minimum sales volume a product

must generate at a certain price level to cover all costs.

Involves different types of costs and total revenues.

Helps to determine profits/losses that would result from several proposed prices.

Calculations of required sales can be compared by the Marketers.

The comparison can identify the best price, one that may exceed the breakeven point and

earn profits for the company.

Banglalink joined the cell-phone Market a year ago. According to their plans and

strategies: they have a goal of reaching the breakeven point within a few years.

Al the present, they are concentrating on increasing and holding their subscribers which

may cause a slow rate of progress in reaching the breakeven point.

Alternative Pricing Strategies

Skimming Pricing: The setting of an intentionally high price relative to the prices of completing

products. It may outline the firm’s high-end product from those of competitors as well.

Skimming pricing is often used to recover a company’s product development costs before

competitors are introduced in the market.

Among the huge market of prepaid users, the Upper-Class Post Paid competes completely in

different consumers.

This certain type of offer differentiates itself relative to the other competing products of the same

company’s market.

Penetration Pricing: Setting low prices in products and services as a major marketing weapon.

This strategy helps marketers to increase the product prices after the product earns certain

recognition among the consumers.

Banglalink introduced a Package, offering a basic Handset as well as a talk-time of 1800tk at the

company’s very starting, where the total cost of the package was less the market price of the

handset alone. The offer helped the company to make a very early impact among the consumers

because of its unique offer.

Everyday Low Pricing and Discount Pricing: Strategy devoted to maintain continuous low

prices rather short-term price-cuttings.

As the mobile phone companies run their prices on rather different ranges of time-slots,

Banglalink offers least in average pricing of their services compared to the other rival

companies. The company is also continuing its efforts on reducing prices of their current

offers until a steady, low priced strategy is achieved.

Competitive Pricing: To reduce the emphasis on price competition by matching other firm’s

prices and concentrating their own marketing efforts on the product, distribution and promotional

elements.

Banglalink is among the first mobile companies to offer a different taste in telephone

conversation by introducing voice conferencing.

Banglalink identified the deficit of a service that is neither too cheap not too expensive, and

invocated a business offer named Call & Control Standard. This particular package includes

many of the offers from the actual post-paid package to attract the customers but at a more

standard price. Another attraction of this offer is that, the SIM card never deactivates even if it’s

not used for a long time.

Price-Quality Relationships:

The consumer’s perception of product quality is closely related to the price of the item.

That is, a product may be expected to be valuable if its price is labeled in a higher price.

Extreme prices are considered as too expensive or too cheap.

One of the up-coming products of Banglalink; will be offering mobile-to-mobile cell

phone connections at only fifty taka per SIM card. The company has already planned to

pay a percentage on those connections, and also aware of making the offer short-termed.

Certain priorities of the consumers.

Banglalink has taken initiatives for developing the ideas of consumers to prefer their company

over their rivals by repetitive advertisements

Odd pricing: The strategy of setting prices in different ways, for giving a general idea of the

price to be less; where the price of the product may not actually be so.

Banglalink uses pricing charts in half minute pulse in most ads, where the general idea of pulse

still remains in minutes.

Among many of the prices set by this particular company, odd pricing can be found from text

messaging prices to call charges.

10.3 Promotion

Advertising media:

Banglalink became a leader in terms of its advertising quality and setting very high standards for

competition and others. To campaign their product most effectively. banglalink uses combination

of different media to reach the highest percentage of the customers the combination would

include :

Print media

Television

Others

i. Print media:

It is the habit of our people to go through some kind of newspapers or magazines and

Banglalink’s eye catching newspaper ads has attracted a lot of customers for the company.

ii. Television:

The corporate TV commercial of “din bodol” based on the theme “making a difference in

people’s loves”. touched everyone throughout the country and was adjudged the best TVC of the

year according to the leading dailies of the country like Prothom Alo and New Age. This TV

Commercial has become a matter of national pride for Bangladesh as it has been nominated for

the best TV Advertisement of the year with 4 other international television commercials at the

GSMA Award 2007. GSMA Award is considered to be the Oscar of mobile industry.

Billboards:

Billboards are the cheapest and easiest way to catch the attention of the moving people of the

city. The billboards of Banglalink are hung beside the busiest of roads and streets of the city.

Where people travel frequently such as Gulshan, Banani, Dhanmondi, uttara etc.

Transit Advertising:

One of the most popular ways of advertising today is transit advertising, which are the ads on

body of the big buses as majority of the people of the country uses them for traveling.

Health link:

They provide 24 hours health link service or telemedicine for Banglalink customers by dialing

789.

Promotional Activities:

Banglalink continues to play an active role in the area of corporate social responsibility.

Banglalink has given Dhaka International Airport-the gateway of Bangladesh a completely new

look. Provision of high quality passenger trolleys, phone booths, emergency charging station and

beautification of the premises is an exemplary initiative which no other multinational has taken.

Banglalink also contributed to an important tiger conservation project in the Sundarbans, and

continues to support the Cox’s bazar beach cleaning program.

11. SWOT Analysis:SWOT Comparison Sheet

Strengths My CompanyBanglalink

Competitor AGrameen Phone

Competitor BWarid

Telecom

Competitor CAktel

What are your business

advantages?

Strong market communication

& effective distribution

strategy

Network Upgrade network

VAS marketing

What are your core

competencies?

Strong market communication

& effective distribution

strategy

Network Upgrade network

VAS marketing

Where are you making most

money?

For airtime sale For airtime sale For airtime sale For airtime sale

Why are you doing well?

Effective & lowest call rate

Network capacity Lowest call rate with outgoing

bonus

Lowest call rate

Opportunities My Company Competitor A (Grameen

Phone)

Competitor B (Warid Telecom)

Competitor C (Aktel)

Niches that competitors are

missing?

Network Lower Call Rate Network Coverage

Network

New technologies?

3G 3G 3G 3G

New needs of customers?

Wi-Fi Wi-Fi Wi-Fi Wi-Fi

Weakness My Company Competitor A (Grameen Phone)

Competitor B (Warid

Telecom)

Competitor C (Aktel)

What areas are you

avoiding?

High cost related activities

Lowest call rate High cost related activities

High cost related

activitiesWhere do you lack

resources?

Network New technology Network Service

Why are you losing

money?

Less coverage By losing current subscriber

Less coverage by losing old/permanent

customersWhat are you

doing poorly?

Some admin related matters

Gaining proper customer

satisfaction

Network Service customer

What needs improvement

?

Interdepartmental

Issues

Feel the customer needs

Network coverage

Better customer service

Threats My Company Competitor 1 (GP)

Competitor 2 (Warid)

Competitor 3 (Aktel)

Obstacles to overcome?

Lower ARPU market

Aggressive competitors?

GP Banglalink Grameen Phone

Grameen Phone

Successful competitors?

GP Banglalink Grameen Phone

Grameen Phone

Negative economic condition?

Yes Yes Yes Yes

Government regulation?

YES Yes Yes Yes

Changing business climate?

YES Yes Yes Yes

Vulnerabilities? No No No No

13. Limitation of Problem encountered:

Although we have tried our best to make this term paper perfect but there were some limitations

that obstructed us from doing so. We have faced some problems while preparing this report.

Some of the limitations encountered while making this report are as follows:

The topic has so much to cover, so initially we faced some problem to choose the appropriate topic.

Collecting previous information was little bit tough.

Employees did not share the company’s secret with others which might have impeded data collection.

It was difficult to arrange a suitable time for all members.

14. Recommendations

The mobile industry in Bangladesh is still facing an oligopoly competition. In order to be

competitive in this industry in future, the only important option is to build up a strong brand

image. In this research it was observed that Banglalink is now staying in the third position in

terms of brand image among the four mobile phone companies. At the end of this research, the

researcher has come up with the following recommendation.

Product’s naming should not be based on social class: Banglalink’s has launched its new

product in August which they named “Upper Class”. Banglalink has already started to

promote this package in different media coverage. This product is basically a customized

post paid package with different added values. Whatever the product is, this kind of name

“Upper Class” poses a question towards customers mind. A product name which is based on

the differentiation of the social class is not a good idea in such a country like Bangladesh

where most of the population is still living in a lower standard. With the name “Upper

Class” Banglalink is going to divide its customers base in two parts --- Upper Class and

Lower Class. This kind of naming may prove inappropriate in future because none of the

multinationals or public and private limited companies of Bangladesh have come up with

such an unique product name yet.

Television advertisements should be understandable and better if based by focusing on

local culture: Banglalink’s some years ago launched its new package named “Upper Class”.

Many of the respondents have claimed that these types of advertisements are really confusing

for them to understand. Many television viewers became confused whether the advertisement

is about Banglalink or not. This type of advertisement proved very much less efficient

because Bangladeshi people do not see the flavor of local culture in the advertisements. Even

in the “Upper Class” advertisement, it is confusing what the advertisement would like to tell

the audience. Banglalink should not try to come up with these sorts of advertisements where

it won’t grab by the local people of Bangladesh.

Build up strong network first, then go for International Roaming: Currently

Banglalink’s network coverage is still in the preliminary stage. Even inside Dhaka City there

are huge problems to get the network connections from one zone of Dhaka to the other zone.

There are also other complains that it seems tough to get connections from Banglalink to

Aktel or City Cell. Where the network situation is still in the baby stage, Banglalink launched

a new service named “International Roaming”. Banglalink did huge promotion of this new

service. In the television advertisement of “International Roaming” it showed that people are

using this new service by staying even at Hong Kong or London and continuously saying

“Hong Kong, Banglalink”, “London, Banglalink”. Where the network situation is still

under complain, an advertisement like this is rarely acceptable to the audience. This kind of

service could be launched later. Banglalink needs to bring more attention to these sorts of

issues.

Stick into one color in order to branding: Banglalink has started all of its promotional

campaign with the orange color. In the newspaper, magazine, television, billboards

everywhere the color “orange” was extensively used. The color orange became the core

color of Banglalink. In such a situation Banglalink launched its new package “Upper Class”

with the use of purple color in all the advertisements. Many customers have claimed that the

color purple is a duplication of GP’s Flexi Load’s advertisement. Banglalink needs to be

more cautious in this color issue without which the core literature of branding will not be

fulfilled.

15. Conclusions:

Banglalink is one of the largest foreign director investments in Bangladesh. The company, after

its inception in February 2005, has grown rapidly into the leading mobile phone service of the

country.

Banglalink operates in a very fast growing and increasingly competitive in the market. The

decisions made by the company at this stage are crucial in securing its future position as the

leading mobile phone service provider in the country.

The company uses a set discount rate based on the weighted average cost of capital and adjusts it

by adding risk premiums to suit different risk characteristics of the projects. There are set

guidelines for categorizing projects based on their risk profiles. The timeframe they use is

basically based on government regulations on the estimated lifespan of the equipments and

infrastructure. The cash flow is estimated based on input from the different divisions regarding

the profitability and market potential of the project. Sensitivity analysis is conducted to evaluate

the impact of different variables on the projects outcome.

References

Websites from which Secondary Information were gathered

The Daily Star http://www.thedailystar.net/

Dainik Janakantha http://www.janakantha.com/

Online news papers http://www.onlinenewspapers.com/banglade.htm

Bangladesh Observer http://www.bangladeshobserveronline.com/

Dainik Bhorerkagoj http://www.bhorerkagoj.net/

Dainik Jugantor http://www.jugantor.com/

Websites from which Secondary Information were gathered

Daily New Age http://www.newagebd.com/

Bangla Link www.banglalinkgsm.com

Grameen Phone www.grameenphone.com

Aktel www.aktel.com

City Cell www.citycell.com