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Man is social being and lives in a society. They want to live in more happiness in future than previous
days. For this reason they invent some things. Cement is one of them. Cement is very much needed for
modern civilization. That civilization touched our country. The demand of cement increased day by day
from that time. After that cement industry was grown in Bangladesh.
Private enterprises dominate production and import of cement to cater to the local market. The
manufacturing of cement is based on both locally available raw materials and imported clinker. The two
cement plants of the first type, one at chhatak and the other at Ayeenpur, have a total installed capacity
of 260,000 tons a year. They produce cement from local limestone and use natural gas as fuel. The mills
that produce cement from imported clinker are located mostly around dhaka, chittagong and mongla.
There were 62 registered cement factories in the country in 1999, but only 13 of them were in
production. The total installed production capacity of these factories is about 3.8 million tons a year.
Their actual production, however, is much lower. A 50-kg bag of cement produced locally sells at Tk 250-
260, while a bag of imported cement is priced at Tk 230-250. Local raw material based cement
production depends on limestone deposits that lie in st martin’s island, joypurhat and sylhet areas. The
deposits in Sylhet support the production of Chhatak and Ayeenpur cement factories.
In 1992 Bashundhara Group introduced another enterprise Meghna Cement Mills Ltd. In January 1996
they commercially produced cement called King Brand Cement. From then this brand get a strong
position in the market with very good corporate image. The factory of King Brand Cement is situated
beside the river of Pashur at Mongla, Bagerhat. The production capacity is 15 Lac MT per year. The
weight of each marketed bag is always perfect of 50 kg due to the adoption of an automated packaging
system.
At present MCML is producing three types of cement. One is Ordinary Portland Cement (OPC) and
another two types are Portland Composite Cement (PCC) { CEM-II/B-M (S-V-L) and CEM-II/A-M(S-V-L) }.
In Bangladesh many high-rise building, road, bridge, culvert, hospital, shopping mall etc. have made by
King Brand Cement. The Company has been awarded the coveted ISO-9001-2000 Certification in the
year 2000 by the National Quality Assurance (NQA), registered by the National Accreditation of
Certificate Boards, UK. The factory’s environmental standards are high.
My major achievement is that I came to know the marketing mix analysis of King Brand Cement. As I had
continuous touch with the management, customers, dealers and other personnel in the organization
and record their sales, collection etc. I learned the total distribution and selling process of this company.
I personally very closely observed the working style and decision making process of different executives.
My internship has a very good relationship with my major field of study. The reason is that I did my
major in marketing and worked in the marketing department of King Brand Cement of Meghna Cement
Mills Limited.
Any company is not fully independent and can not 100% to their customers. Meghna Cement Mills
Limited is not different from them. They have some limitations in production, distribution, promotion
and others. But King Brand Cement has very good image in the market for their quality and already
captured 9% share of the market (3rd position). Now it can not capture more market share because of
some constraints inside and out side of the organization. They should be suited with the out side
constraints of the organization. But it can be remove the inside constraints. For this I tried to give some
recommendations to the organization.
The promotional activities must be increase and proper way like TV commercial need to moderate for
gaining attention of customers. On the other hand print media should be attractive toward customer.
Consumer scheme is more attractive other than other promotional activities. The quality of King Brand
Cement is so good but price is high. It should be price competitive and reasonable. To provide well
advantage toward the dealers for fulfilled their objectives and will be created smooth distribution
Mechanism.
Since the starting of the operation King Brand Cement confident that they are quite capable of
challenging others and positioning themselves in the highest rank by increasing the sales per day,
introduction of the consistence quality blended cement, with integrating supply and distribution chains
and logistics, securing an exclusive distribution network and buildings strong relationship all over the
country segmented on the basis of consumers use. Though King Brand Cement is in good position in the
market, it should think critically to generate new ideas for existing and potential consumers to hold the
consistent growth in the market.
1.0 INTRODUCTION
Only a lot of theoretical knowledge will be little important unless it is applicable in the practical life.
Masters of Business Administration (MBA) program is a mixture of both the theoretical and practical
knowledge. To fulfill this requirement, a student is required to obtain real life exposure in an
organization and thereby gain demonstrable skills and expertise in the field and also an understanding
of the organization. We need proper application of our academic knowledge to make it more fruitful.
Such an application is made possible through internship.
Internship is an integral part of MBA program, arranging for the students who have completed all
academic courses required for MBA. Students also have to submit an internship report on an assigned
topic. I was placed in MCML (Meghna Cement Mills Limited) to complete my internship program under
the supervision of two supervisors one is internal form the institute and another is from the
organization. By consulting with my Internship supervisor it has been selected the topic “Identification
of Market Position & Problems of Meghna Cement Mills Limited”.
Major Mohammad Danesh Bin Wali, Course Instructor, Management Division, Military Institution of
Science and Technology authorized writing of this research report on November, 2008. The report is a
part of the course for the students of Masters of Business Administration. It was submitted by me on
January 14, 2009.
To fulfill the requirement, a student is required to obtain real life exposure in an organization, under
MBA curriculum in Military Institute of Science and Technology.
1.2.2 Secondary Objective. Again secondary objective has part:
Broad Objective
To Identify the Market Position & Problems of Meghna Cement Mills Limited”.
Specific Objectives
To identify which of the two concepts, quality or price, consumers consider more important in
purchasing cement.
To identify the problems that decreases the sales of King Brand Cement.
1.4 SCOPE
The report highlights the consumers’ perception about the quality, customer service, and easy
availability of Meghna Cement. It also try to find out the problems and prospects of Meghna Cement.
The discussion is limited to an identification of market position and problems of Meghna Cement Mills
Ltd.
1.5 LIMITATIONS
The main limitation of this research might be the access to the sensitive internal information about the
organization. Organizations do not disclose the information or make it public. The other limitation of
data error, random sampling errors, administrative errors, data processing error, interviewer error, time
constraint, data integrity, cost of the research are considered and addressed with due weight.
I did not get positive attitude to conduct survey on individual information from respondents.
The Large sample size could detect the problems more accurately.
The respondents are the future decision makers so this report will light on their need.
It will help to identify the current market position & reasons for decreasing the sales.
The report starts with an organizational overview of selected organization. The brief history and current
profile of Bashundhara Group including the organizational structure, product portfolio, its operation and
SWOT analysis are discussed in brief in this part. The next section focuses on the management problem
and research problem, its limitation, scope, research objective. The subsequent section describes the
research questionnaire and hypothesis, benefit of the study. Next, the paper provides a highlight on the
research method system, data collection procedure, how to test the hypothesis and its findings. The
finding is most important part of any research. Lastly, the report concludes with few recommendations,
which shown the market position and problems of Meghna Cement Mills Limited.
Studies were carried out from various publications of Bashundhara Group including yearbook to develop
an insight about the issue in question. Though no normal studies on subject have been undertaken as
yet. The available data on sale, dealers and consumers were reviewed. Besides, the website of
Bashundhara Group provided useful information in this study.
The problem basically arises due to rise in competition and also rise in potential market for this industry.
The Meghna Cement Mills Ltd. is the largest domestic cement-producing unit in Bangladesh. But in
recent Meghna Cement lost the ground to other versatile competitors and more and more strong
competition penetrated the industry with their giant investment and kept evolving. So they are thinking
to improve the quality and increase the sales and promotion. So the management wants to know “Are
the customers satisfied with the current product in terms of quality, service, and easy availability?”
“To find out the position that company’s offer and image to occupy a distinctive place in the mind of the
target market.”
“To Identify the Market Position & Problems of Meghna Cement Mills Limited”.
For our research purpose, we tried to develop structural question. It will help us to determine the
statistical analysis.
Research objective:
Research question:
Which brand of cement you like most? Or what are the brands of cement you sell?
Justification:
The answer of this question will help us to find out brand preference for a particular brand of cement.
This question will provide information to know the popularity of the brand and the market position.
Research objective:
Research question:
Justification:
The answer of this question will help us to understand the satisfaction level in terms of quality.
Research objective:
Research question :
This question will be asked to the consumers to find out the market position.
Research objective:
Research question:
Justification:
The answer of this question will help us to understand the satisfaction level in terms of availability in the
market.
Research objective:
To identify which of the two concepts, quality or price, consumers consider more important in
purchasing cement.
Research question:
What are the consumer’s reaction and whether they give more importance price or quality?
Justification
This will be an open-ended question. Whether customers have switched to competitors’ products will be
identified with help of this question. Customer’s loyalty to the brand can also be found out with the
question.
Specific Objective 6:
Research question:
Justification:
This question will give ordinal data and analysis of this will help to know the market demand of Meghna
cement in relation to its competitors. This question will provide information to know the popularity of
the band and the market position. It will provide data that will help to know the competitors’ standing in
the market.
The hypothesis for this research will be formulated in details after doing exploratory research. For
research purpose hypothesis will be:
Hypothesis 1:
Null Hypothesis: Less or equal to 40% consumers prefer King Brand in purchasing cement.
Alternative Hypothesis: More than 40% consumers prefer King Brand in purchasing cement.
Justification: Based on exploratory research we have assumed 40% consumers prefer King Brand in
purchasing cement.
Hypothesis 2:
Null Hypothesis: More than or equal to 60% customers are satisfied regarding quality provided by
Meghna Cement Mills Ltd.
Alternative Hypothesis: Less than 60% customers are satisfied regarding quality provided by Meghna
Cement Mills Ltd.
Hypothesis 3:
Null Hypothesis: Less than or equal to 60% customers believe the price of King Brand Cement is
comparatively high.
Alternative Hypothesis:More than60% customers believe the price of King Brand Cement is
comparatively high.
Justification: Based on exploratory research 64% customers believe the price of King Brand Cement is
comparatively high.
Hypothesis 4:
Null Hypothesis: More than or equal to40% customer think that high price is the main problem for not to
buy King Brand Cement.
Alternative Hypothesis: Less than40% customer think that high price is the main problem for not to buy
King Brand Cement.
Justification: Based on exploratory research 33% customers think that price is the main problem for not
to buy King Brand Cement.
Hypothesis 5:
Justification: Based on exploratory research, most of the respondent said there is an association
between company name and quality
A research design is a framework or blueprint for conducting the marketing research projects. Although
a broad approach to the problem has already been developed, the research design specifies the details
of implementing that approach.
The target population of this research will be the dealers, retailers and ultimate consumers. Dealers are
both exclusive and nonexclusive. Exclusive dealers sell only Meghna Cement where nonexclusive dealers
sell both competitors and meghna cement. Dealers select the retailers in their own territory with certain
percentage of commission. Retailers are those who are appointed by Bashundhara and receive product
directly from factory and retailers sell in small quantity. Customers receive the product from retailers
and some times from dealers directly.
The target population has been selected basing on their knowledge and type of involvement in the field.
For research purpose three groups of population has been selected, the details of which are given
below:
Consumer: For the study, the end users are both institutional and non institutional buyers who either
purchase or use cement for construction purpose.
Dealer: They are the wholesalers who are appointed by authority of Meghna Cement to sell their
products on commission. They are both exclusive and nonexclusive dealers. Nonexclusive dealers sell
competitors products also.
Retailer: They procure items from the dealers. Their numbers are innumerable. They sell different
company products.
Consumers and retailers are many in numbers so they were sampled based on judgment and direction
of management. Judgment samplings were appropriate as management is quite experienced in aiding
the sample size. List of the customers and retailers are not exhaustive and up-to-date as such non-
probability sampling was applied here. Retailers were also sampled on judgment because of time and
resource constraints.
The basic method for the sampling will be non-probability sampling basis. Probability sampling
technique was avoided as time and resource will not permit to conduct study with such large sample
that will be generated by probability sampling technique.
In determining the sample size the following formula has been used:
Capture
D = Level of precision
Assuming that 50 percent of the respondents (p) will respond positively and 50 percent of the
respondents will not respond positively. At 95 percent confidence level (Z = 1.96). Level of precision will
13 percent, the calculated sample size becomes about 56. The assumptions are taken to meet the time
and resource constraints of the study. It is to be noted that since the sample size big and difficult to
handle with a single member resource team, the sample selected for consumers 36, dealers 6 and
retailers 14.
The size of the sample of different strata is selected based on convenience and the direction of the
experienced supervisor. The detailed distribution is given below:
Strata
Consumers
Dealers
Retailers
Remarks
Mirpur
10
0
5
Based on convenience
Rampura
14
Do
Pagla
Do
Panthopath
12
Do
Total
36
14
Do
Source: Primary
For our research purpose we need both primary and secondary data.
Survey: A coordinated and extensive survey was carried out using door to door interview techniques.
Dealers and retailers were interviewed using predetermined questionnaire. Customers were
interviewed using the same technique but different set of questionnaire. A comprehensive
questionnaire was developed to address the research objective. In the survey dealers, retailers and
customers all were interviewed physically.
Pilot study: For this study the experts particularly the veteran consumers, technicians and professionals
who possess expertise and knowledge in this field were also interviewed. In pilot study, focus group
discussion was not conducted, as the environment and expenditure did not permit to do so. So depth
interview was resorted to probe and elicit desired answer to the questions.
There is not much research work done on the subject. As such, sources of secondary data were very
much limited. However some data were available in the organization data bank, internet, brochures etc.
A thorough survey of all these were done to find out the useful information.
Subjective Analysis: Qualitative data was analyzed using judgment, guidance of the supervisors and
knowledge.
Statistical Analysis: The analysis of the data was party done by using software SPSS, while part of it was
done manually. Basing on the nature of the data appropriate test was conducted to test the hypothesis.