EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

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 studys 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 Banglalinks 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 Banglalinks brand positioning and competitors Brand positioning. ii. To explore the effectiveness of Banglalinks print & TV advertisement and competitors print & TV advertisement in terms of aided recall and unaided recall and likeability iii. To explore the effectiveness of Banglalinks Outdoor activities and competitors Outdoor activities in terms of aided recall and unaided recall and likeability iv. To explore the likeliness of Banglalinks products and services comparing to its competitors according to the subscribers point of view.

3. Company Background
Orascom Telecom Bangladesh Ltd. Type Founded Subsidiary 1999 Tiger House, House # SW(H)04, Headquarters Gulshan Avenue, Gulshan Model Town, Dhaka, Bangladesh Area served Key people Industry Products Revenue Parent Slogan Website 62 districts and 447 thanas Rashid Khan, CEO Telecommunication Telephony Tk.1300 million Orascom Telecom S.E. Egypt making a difference onuvutir network 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 hushhush 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. Banglalinks 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 peoples lives and make them easier.

Vision
To become one of the worldss 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. Banglalinks 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
Banglalinks marketing strategy focused on targeting different consumer segments With specially designed products and services that are tailored to the needs of these segments. Banglalinks 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. Banglalinks international roaming network comprises of 250 operators across 95 countries, and EDGE/GPRS connectivity is available to roaming customers as well. Banglalinks 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 Analysis
Competitor Information

Web address

Empl Oye es

Annual Sales

Revenue

Net Income

Asset

Liabili ties

Busin ess Value

Stoc k Value

My Company

www. Banglalink .com

2500

140 million

140 million

50 millio n

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

www. waridtel. com. bd

1500

70 million

70 million

20 millio n

250 million

150 million

200 million

N/A

Telecom)

Competitor Three (Aktel)

www. aktel. com

2000

110 million

110 million

40 millio n

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 listenerssometimes 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

Banglalinks 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

Pre-paid

Desh New Desh Desh Ek Rate Rongdhonu

10. Marketing Mix Strategy

Banglalink Business Banglalink Inspire Banglalink SME

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 operators 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 months 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 prepaid 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 firms high-end product from those of competitors as well. Skimming pricing is often used to recover a companys 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 companys 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 companys 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 firms 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 its not used for a long time. Price-Quality Relationships: The consumers 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 Banglalinks 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 peoples 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 Coxs bazar beach cleaning program.

11. SWOT Analysis: SWOT Comparison Sheet

Strengths

My Company Banglalink Strong market communication & effective distribution strategy Strong market communication & effective distribution strategy For airtime sale

Competitor A Grameen Phone Network

What are your business advantages?

Competitor B Warid Telecom Upgrade network

Competitor C Aktel VAS marketing

What are your core competencies?

Network

Upgrade network

VAS marketing

Where are you making most money? Why are you doing well?

For airtime sale

For airtime sale

For airtime sale

Effective & lowest call rate

Network capacity

Lowest call rate with outgoing bonus

Lowest call rate

Weakness

My Company

Competitor A (Grameen Phone)

What areas High cost Lowest call rate are you related activities avoiding? Where do Network New technology you lack resources? Why are you Less coverage By losing current losing subscriber money? What are you Some admin Gaining proper doing related matters customer poorly? satisfaction What needs Interdepartment Feel the customer improvement al needs ? Issues

Competitor B (Warid Telecom) High cost related activities Network

Competitor C (Aktel) High cost related activities Service

Less coverage

Network

by losing old/permanent customers Service customer Better customer service

Network coverage

Opportunities

My Company

Niches that competitors are missing? New technologies? New needs of customers?

Network

Competitor A (Grameen Phone) Lower Call Rate

Competitor B (Warid Telecom) Network Coverage 3G Wi-Fi

Competitor C (Aktel) Network

3G Wi-Fi

3G Wi-Fi

3G Wi-Fi

Threats Obstacles to overcome? Aggressive competitors? Successful competitors? Negative economic condition? Government regulation? Changing business climate? Vulnerabilities?

My Company Lower ARPU market GP GP Yes

Competitor 1 (GP)

Competitor 2 (Warid)

Competitor 3 (Aktel)

Banglalink Banglalink Yes

Grameen Phone Grameen Phone Yes

Grameen Phone Grameen Phone Yes

YES YES

Yes Yes

Yes Yes

Yes Yes

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 companys 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. Products naming should not be based on social class: Banglalinks 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: Banglalinks 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 wont grab by the local people of Bangladesh.

Build up strong network first, then go for International Roaming: Currently Banglalinks 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 GPs Flexi Loads 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 Dainik Janakantha Online news papers Bangladesh Observer Dainik Bhorerkagoj Dainik Jugantor Daily New Age Bangla Link http://www.thedailystar.net/ http://www.janakantha.com/ http://www.onlinenewspapers.com/banglade.htm http://www.bangladeshobserveronline.com/ http://www.bhorerkagoj.net/ http://www.jugantor.com/ http://www.newagebd.com/ www.banglalinkgsm.com

Websites from which Secondary Information were gathered Grameen Phone Aktel City Cell www.grameenphone.com www.aktel.com www.citycell.com