1.

0 Prefatory Parts

1.1 Introduction
The nature of competition varies based on the nature of market or market types. In perfect
competition market the competition comprises competition among large number of firms or sellers
not necessarily intense rather with freedom and flexibility. In monopoly market competition is
hard to find since monopolist is the only one firm or the largest market share holder in the market.
But in case of oligopoly and monopolistic competition market, the competition among the firms
or sellers often gets fierce.

The oligopoly market is characterized by few number of large sellers with almost homogeneous
products hence the competition among these sellers rises to an intense level. If the market or the
industry has continuous growth the competition may appear less severe but in a mature or slow
growth market or industry the competition tends to be aggressive and formidable as well.

The telecommunication market or industry in Bangladesh is oligopolistic in nature. It comprises

of four major players or firms. These oligopolist are Grammenphone, Robi, Banglalink and
Teletalk. Though there is another brand named Airltel, it’s associated with Robi with a formal
merger hence it is considered under the Robi. The maximum number of market shareholder in this
industry is Grameenphone followed by Robi, then Banglalink and then government owned
Teletalk. Though the industry of telecommunication is large enough for 4 oligopolists to utilize
their performance and reap benefits the competition prevails at a larger scale for gaining more
market share.

In an oligopolistic market the head to head competition is formed on the basis of price typically.
One firm cuts price, another follows and other follows too. This price cutting game is not feasible
in the long run. The long term economic profit may decline with continuous price cutting
competition that features the Price war concept. To avoid such competition, Firms in oligopoly
market looks for new grounds and aspects for competition with are not necessarily related to price.
Hence the non-price competition becomes the prominent feature of this market. Various tools are
used as means of non-price competition. As second in the oligopoly market f telecommunication,
Robi try to utilize these NPC tools to ensure their survival and growth in the competitive market.

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1.2 Objectives of the study

General objective: The main or broad objective of this study is to explore the nature and character
tics of oligopoly market and how an oligopolist (Robi in telecommunication industry) uses non
price competition tools in this market.

Specific objectives: Some specific objectives of this report comprises of:

 To know about Oligopoly market and its characteristics

 To understand the Non-price competation tools and their nature or uses
 To get some insights about telecom industry of Bangladesh as an oligopoly industry
 To know details about Robi as an oligopolist.
 To gain information on how Robi uses NPC tools as an oligopolist in the industry.

1.3 Methodology
This study is qualitative in nature, it contains information based on qualitative data collection and
few analysis from various sources. Data collection includes two methods mainly observation and
casual interview.

Observations were made on various ground to find out the non-price competition tools used by
Robi. The marketing or specifically promotional activities of Robi was observed in media
channels, outdoor areas and internet or social media sites to find and sort Robi’s NPC usage.

Also a casual Interview was taken from Shihab Anam an employee of Robi who is working as an
Assistant Manager in Compliance & Operation department of Robi. The interview included
unstructured questions regarding the promotional activities of Robi which are essentially falls
under category of NPC tools. Information gained through the interview was sorted and
documented within this study.

Finally, the study is conducted in a systematic procedure starting from selection of the topic to
final report preparation. The integral part was to identify and collect data; they were classified,
analyzed, interpreted and presented in a systematic manner to find the vital points.

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This study comprises of both sources of data collection, for instance:

Primary Sources: Primary sources include the observation or inspection and the informal
interview taken from an employee.

Secondary Sources: Various secondary sources was used including books, different websites
related to the telecom sector and online resources, company websites, newspaper articles and so
on.

1.4 Rationality of the Study

A lot of significant Industries in the national or international economy is oligopolistic in nature.
Current business era is featured by the domination of large firms in the industry that rises concern
for knowing oligopolistic behavior and issues that can bring success or sustainability in an intense
competitive market situation like oligopoly. This study with its exploratory nature tends to provide
necessary insights on oligopoly market and its characteristics as well as competition criteria or
tools of such competition. Sustaining and performing well in an oligopolistic market is crucial and
very much dependable on non-price competition tools since the economy now comprises of
oligopoly markets or industries. Hence, the present economic situation and the necessity of
exploring NPC tools to ensure optimum performance set the rationality of this study.

1.5 Limitations of the Study

The main limitation associated with this study is the time constraints. The given time to complete
the study was very short but with more time frame the study could be more clear and rich.

Data collection analysis was another limitation of this study. Data was collected mainly in an
unstructured way that leaves the question of validity and reliability as various information were
not properly evaluated.

Besides these there were various limitations which were successfully overcome with the utmost
efforts to prepare the report as flawless as possible.

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2.0 Theoretical Framework

2.1 Oligopoly Market

Oligopoly in simple words can be denoted as an imperfect competition market characterized by
only few seller with almost identical products. In other words, oligopoly can be defined as a market
model of the imperfect competition type, assuming the existence of only a few companies in a
sector or industry, from which at least some have a significant market share and can therefore
affect the production prices in the market. When behaving as an oligopoly, an offering company
influences the market demand and offer of the entire sector and therefore, while choosing an offer
in the market, it has to count – besides the demand – also with the reaction of its competitor to its
choice; at the same time, it itself reacts to the choice of its competitors.

The term “oligopoly” is derived from the Greek word oligos meaning few and polis meaning
sellers. Thus, oligopoly is said to exist when there are few sellers of homogeneous or differentiated
products. Few, in this context, (according to Samuelson) can be a number as small as 2 or as large
as 10 or 15 firms. The important feature of oligopoly is that each individual firm can affect the
market price. Oligopolistic industries are common in the current economy, especially in the
manufacturing, transportation, and communications sectors. For example, considering the U.S
market, there are only a few car makers, even though the automobile industry sells many different
models. The same is true in the market for household appliances: stores are filled with many
different models of refrigerators and dishwashers, all made by a handful of companies.

However, we can say that oligopoly is a market structure with a small number of firms, none of
which can keep the others from having significant influence. The concentration ratio measures the
market share of the largest firms. A monopoly is one firm, duopoly is two firms and oligopoly is
two or more firms. There is no precise upper limit to the number of firms in an oligopoly, but the
number must be low enough that the actions of one firm significantly influence the others. It is
often said that the Oligopoly market structure lies between the pure monopoly and monopolistic
competition, where few sellers dominate the market and have control over the price of the product.
Economic, legal, and technological factors can contribute to the formation and maintenance, or
dissolution, of oligopolies.

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2.2 Characteristics of Oligopoly Market
The definitions of oligopoly points out some distinct characteristics of oligopoly compared to the
perfect competition, monopoly or monopolistic competition market. This market features
following attributes:

Small Number of Large Firms: The most important characteristic of oligopoly is

an industry dominated by a small number of large firms, each of which is relatively large compared
to the overall size of the market. This characteristics gives each of the relatively large firms’
substantial market control. While each firm does not have as much market control as monopoly, it
definitely has more than a monopolistically competitive firm.

The total number of firms in an oligopolistic industry is not the key consideration. An oligopoly
firm actually can have a large number of firms, approaching that of any monopolistically
competitive industry. However, the distinguishing feature is that a few of the firms are relatively
large compared to the overall market. A given industry with a thousand firms, for example, is
considered oligopolistic if the top five firms produce half of the industry's total output.

Identical or Differentiate Products: Some oligopolistic industries produce identical

products, like perfect competition in this regard, while others produce differentiated products,
more like monopolistic competition. This characteristic might seem to be a bit wishy-washy, taking
both sides of product differentiation issue. In actuality it points out that oligopolistic industries
general come in two varieties.

 Identical Product Oligopoly: This type of oligopoly tends to process raw materials or
produce intermediate goods that are used as inputs by other industries. Notable examples
are petroleum, steel, and aluminum.

 Differentiate Product Oligopoly: This type of oligopoly tends to focus on goods sold for
personal consumption. The key is that people have different wants and needs and thus
enjoy variety. A few examples of differentiated oligopolistic industries include
automobiles, household detergents, and computers.

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Barriers to Entry: Firms in an oligopolistic industry attain and retain market control
through barriers to entry. The most noted entry barriers are: (1) exclusive resource ownership, (2)
patents and copyrights, (3) other government restrictions, and (4) high start-up cost.

Barriers to entry are the key characteristic that separates oligopoly from monopolistic competition
on the continuum of market structures. With few if any barriers to entry, firms can enter a
monopolistically competitive industry when existing firms receive economic profit. This
diminishes the market control of any given firm. However, with substantial entry barriers found in
oligopoly, firms cannot enter the industry as easily and thus existing firms maintain greater market
control. While a new firm could enter this oligopolistic market, such a task is significantly more
difficult than entering an industry with fewer barriers.

Interdependence: It is one of the most important features of an Oligopoly market, wherein,

the seller has to be cautious with respect to any action taken by the competing firms.
Interdependence: The distinctive feature of an oligopoly is interdependence. Oligopolies are
typically composed of a few large firms. Each firm is so large that its actions affect market
conditions. Therefore the competing firms will be aware of a firm’s market actions and will
respond appropriately. This means that in contemplating a market action, a firm must take into
consideration the possible reactions of all competing firms and the firm’s countermoves. It is very
much like a game of chess or pool in which a player must anticipate a whole sequence of moves
and countermoves in determining how to achieve his objectives. For example, an oligopoly
considering a price reduction may wish to estimate the likelihood that competing firms would also
lower their prices and possibly trigger a ruinous price war. Or if the firm is considering a price
increase, it may want to know whether other firms will also increase prices or hold existing prices
constant. This high degree of interdependence and need to be aware of what the other guy is doing
or might do is to be contrasted with lack of interdependence in other market structures. In a PC
market there is zero interdependence because no firm is large enough to affect market price. All
firms in a PC market are price takers, information which they robotically follow in maximizing
profits. In a monopoly there are no competitors to be concerned about. In a monopolistically
competitive market each firm’s effects on market conditions is so negligible as to be safely ignored
by competitors.

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Non-price Competition in the Market: In the oligopoly, the firms can easily control or
motivate the prices. But, under this, they always try to avoid this type of situation as they know
that can lead to a price war (Bauer 2013). That why they always go with the price rigidity policy.
Under the Price rigidity policy, changes in demand and supply will not affect the price of the
product and will remain constant. If one firm rises the price, maybe the other firms will not do that
as they know they can face loss. That’s why they prefer to do business with non-price competition
(Vives 2001).

Advertising: Under oligopoly a major policy change on the part of a firm is likely to have
immediate effects on other firms in the industry. Therefore, the rival firms remain all the time
vigilant about the moves of the firm which takes initiative and makes policy changes. Thus,
advertising is a powerful instrument in the hands of an oligopolist. A firm under oligopoly can
start an aggressive advertising campaign with the intention of capturing a large part of the market.
Other firms in the industry will obviously resist its defensive advertising. Under perfect
competition advertising is unnecessary while a monopolist may find some advertising to be
profitable when his product is new or when there exist a large number of potential consumers who
have never tried his product earlier. But according to Prof. Baumol, “under oligopoly, advertising
can become a life-and-death matter where a firm which fails to keep up with the advertising budget
of its competitors may find its customers drifting off to rival products.”

Group Behavior: One of the important oligopoly characteristics is group behavior. In this
situation, the firms will behave like they are a single firm even though individually they have their
independence. The reason behind this is, oligopoly leads to interdependence among firms. While
deciding product pricing and output level, one firm will consider the changes made by the other
firms. However, oligopoly companies consider group discussion, instead of developing pricing
strategy on their own. Group discussion combines the interest of all the firms to develop the price
and output level.

Collusion in Oligopoly: The degree of imperfect competition in a market is influenced not

just by the number and size of firms but by their behavior. When only a few firms operate in a
market, they see what their rivals are doing and react. For example, if there are two airlines
operating along the same route and one raises its fare, the other must decide whether to match the

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increase or to stay with the lower fare, undercutting its rival. Strategic interaction is a term that
describes how each firm’s business strategy depends upon its rivals’ business behavior. When
there are only a small number of firms in a market, they have a choice between cooperative and
non-cooperative behavior. Firms act non-cooperatively when they act on their own without any
explicit or implicit agreements with other firms. That’s what produces price wars. Firms operate
in a cooperative mode when they try to minimize competition. When firms in an oligopoly actively
cooperate with each other, they engage in collusion. This term denotes a situation in which two or
more firms jointly set their prices or outputs, divide the market among themselves, or make other
business decisions jointly. The rewards for successful collusion can be great. Consider an industry
where four firms have tired of ruinous price wars. They agree to charge the same price and share
the market. They form a collusive oligopoly and set a price which maximizes their joint profits.
By joining together, the four firms in effect become a monopolist. Cartels are the common known
collusion in oligopoly whereby Tacit is type of informal collusion in oligopoly market situation.

Competition: This leads to another feature of the oligopolistic market, the presence of
competition. Since under oligopoly, there are a few sellers, a move by one seller immediately
affects the rivals. So each seller is always on the alert and keeps a close watch over the moves of
its rivals in order to have a counter-move. This is true competition, “True competition consists of
the life of constant struggle, rival against rival, whom one can only find under oligopoly.

Existence of Price Rigidity: In oligopoly situation, each firm has to stick to its price. If any
firm tries to reduce its price, the rival firms will retaliate by a higher reduction in their prices. This
will lead to a situation of price war which benefits none. On the other hand, if any firm increases
its price with a view to increase its profits; the other rival firms will not follow the same. Hence,
no firm would like to reduce the price or to increase the price. The price rigidity will take place

Perfect Knowledge: The assumption of perfect knowledge in oligopoly is varied; however,

the knowledge of various economic actors is generally selective. Oligopolies have a perfect
knowledge about their production and cost functions; however, they possess imperfect information
on the inter-firm activities. Furthermore, buyers have an imperfect knowledge of the prices, cost,
and quality of the products.

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Lack of Uniformity: Another feature of oligopoly market is the lack of uniformity in the size
of firms. Firms differ considerably in size. Some may be small, others very large. Such a situation
is asymmetrical. This is very common in the American economy. A symmetrical situation with
firms of a uniform size is rare.

No Unique Pattern of Pricing Behavior: The rivalry arising from interdependence among
the oligopolists leads to two conflicting motives. Each wants to remain independent and to get the
maximum possible profit. Towards this end, they act and react on the price-output movements of
one another which are a continuous element of uncertainty. On the other hand, again motivated by
profit maximization each seller wishes to cooperate with his rivals to reduce or eliminate the
element of uncertainty. All rivals enter into tacit or formal agreement with regard to price-output
changes. It leads to a sort of monopoly within oligopoly. They may even recognize one seller as a
leader at whose initiative all the other sellers raise or lower the price. In this case, the individual
seller’s demand curve is a part of the industry demand curve, having the elasticity of the latter.
Given these conflicting attitudes, it is not possible to predict any unique pattern of pricing behavior
in oligopoly markets

Uncertain Demand Curve: Under oligopoly, it is quite difficult to evaluate the behavioral
pattern of the producer. That's why the demand curve of a firm is indeterminate. One slight change
in rival pattern can affect another firms’ demand curve. Here all the firms are interdependent and
can’t ignore a tiny reaction of the competitor firms. So, this oligopoly characteristics show that
under oligopoly, demand curve always shifts and it is uncertain (Bauer 2013).

Long Run Profits: Oligopolies are able to maintain abnormal profits in the long run due to the
barriers of entry in the market. Barriers of entry prevent competition, and allow the firms to earn
abnormal profits even in the long run (Mas-Colell, Whinston, and Green, 1995).

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 2.3 Types of Oligopoly Market
Based on Market players and their behavior along with the market scenario in oligopoly situation,
Oligopoly market can be 5 types like:

1. Open Vs Closed Oligopoly: This classification is made on the basis of freedom to enter into the
new industry. An open Oligopoly is the market situation wherein firm can enter into the industry
any time it wants, whereas, in the case of a closed Oligopoly, there are certain restrictions that act
as a barrier for a new firm to enter into the industry.
2. Partial Vs Full Oligopoly: This classification is done on the basis of price leadership. The partial
Oligopoly refers to the market situation, wherein one large firm dominates the market and is looked
upon as a price leader. Whereas in full Oligopoly, the price leadership is conspicuous by its
absence.
3. Perfect (Pure) Vs Imperfect (Differential) Oligopoly: This classification is made on the basis
of product differentiation. The Oligopoly is perfect or pure when the firms deal in the
homogeneous products. Whereas the Oligopoly is said to be imperfect, when the firms deal in
heterogeneous products, i.e. products that are close but are not perfect substitutes.
4. Syndicated Vs Organized Oligopoly: This classification is done on the basis of a degree of
coordination found among the firms. When the firms come together and sell their products with
the common interest is called as a Syndicate Oligopoly. Whereas, in the case of an Organized
Oligopoly, the firms have a central association for fixing the prices, outputs, and quotas.
5. Collusive Vs Non-Collusive Oligopoly: This classification is made on the basis of agreement or
understanding between the firms. In Collusive Oligopoly, instead of competing with each other,
the firms come together and with the consensus of all fixes the price and the outputs. Whereas in
the case of a non-collusive Oligopoly, there is a lack of understanding among the firms and they
compete against each other to achieve their respective targets.

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2.4 Non-Price Competition
An important characteristics of oligopoly market is Non-price competition in this market. The
competition in the oligopoly market is intense, it often becomes cut throat competition in terms of
price and the “price war” among the oligopolists is formed. This price war never really provides
any win-win scenario for the competitors in oligopoly market rather force them to reduce profit
margin by cutting price in many cases. However, to avoid this mere price based competition and
to survive well in this market the competitors try to compete with something else, compete on
some other grounds instead of price. This is how the non-price competition concept comes in
action. The firms or competitors try to compete with each other in terms of brand name, service
level, product design, advertising uniqueness, and CSR activities and so on.

Non-price competition can be defined as a marketing strategy "in which one firm tries to
distinguish its product or service from competing products on the basis of attributes like design
and workmanship" (McConnell-Brue, 2002, p. 43.7-43.8)

In other words, Non-price competition refers to competition between companies that focuses on
benefits, extra services, good workmanship, product quality – plus all other features and measures
that do not involve altering prices. It contrasts with price competition, in which rivals try to gain
market share by reducing their prices. Non-price competition is often adopted by the competing
players in a sector in order to prevent a price war, which can lead to a damaging spiral of price
cuts.

Non-price competition is a marketing strategy that typically includes promotional expenditures

such as sales staff, sales promotions, special orders, free gifts, coupons, and advertising.

Put it simply, it means marketing a firm’s brand and quality of products, rather than lowering
prices. Most companies across the world are involved in either non-price competition, price
competition, or both.

Non-Price Competition emerges in Market situation in which competitors would not lower prices
for the fear of a price war. Instead they focus on extensive promotions to highlight the distinctive
benefits or features of their products. Non price competition is an anomaly in a free market systems
based on price-quantity relationship

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Non-price competition is more common in markets where there is imperfect competition, such as
those with very few competitors like oligopolies, maybe because it can give an impression of a
very competitive market, when in fact the rivals are colluding to keep their prices high.

The Financial Times’ glossary of terms defined Non-price competition as- “Competing not on the
basis of price but by other means, such as the quality of the product, what is on offer, packaging,
customer service, etc.”

Non-price competitions emerges in market situation in which competitors would not lower prices
for fear of a price war. Instead they focus on extensive promotions to highlight the distinctive
benefits or features of their products. Non price competition is an anomaly in a free market systems
based on price-quantity relationship

2.5 Tools of Non-Price Competition

Non-price competition can include competition based on various aspects and tools often essentially
not price related. These tools may comprise of:

1. Brand name: A brand name can broadly consist of a name, sign, logo, mark etc. used to
distinguish one product from its competitors. Establishing a distinguish brand name or
brand mark can provide significant competitive edge. With a uniquely established and
popular brand name a firm or a product has better chance to be seen differently among the
competitors in the eye of customers.
2. Brand Loyalty: The brand loyalty in this context represents the customers’ prolong
attachment with a particular brand name or brand loyalty. It can apply to a single product,
an entire product range, or even a company. Brand loyalty is hugely important. The costs
of acquiring a new customer vastly outweigh the expense of selling more to existing buyers.
When brand loyalty is strong, cross-price elasticity of demand for price changes between
two substitutes weakens and fewer consumers will switch their demand when there is a
change in relative prices in the market.
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3. Product-service features: another way to compete without the price is having or
developing distinguished product or service features. Since in oligopoly market big firms
compete in terms of almost homogeneous products, they can try to maintain a level of
uniqueness of their product or services with differentiation through product quality or
features in terms of size, shape, model, perceived performance and so on.
4. Advertising: Advertising is a marketing tactic involving paying for space to promote a
product, service, or cause. In the oligopoly market advertisement can play significant role
to stand out a firm or product among the competitors. With unique and catchy
advertisement a firm can attract more customers and snatch market share off the
competitors. If persuasive advertising leads to an outward shift in demand, consumers are
willing to pay more for each unit consumed. This increases the consumer surplus that a
business might extract.
5. Physical characteristics/packaging and containers/product design: firm’s product’s
unique outlook or physical characteristics can be used as a tool of non-price marketing.
Especially, when competing with generic product, differentiation can be done on the basis
of Product’s packaging or shape of container. With differentiated and catchy packaging
and containers product may stand out among intense competition scenario. In some cases,
firms may compete by changing the design of their products to make them more appealing
without significantly changing production costs or quality levels. Such a strategy can prove
effective at stealing business from competitors, but it can also backfire, because it can cause
the company to alienate its existing consumers. They may be knowingly choosing the
existing design over other products with different designs specifically because it appeals
to their tastes.
A famous example of where this failed is the introduction of the "New Coke" by Coca-
Cola in the 1980s. The product proved unpopular with die-hard fans of the traditional
recipe.
6. Sales promotion activities: Sales promotion is the process of persuading a potential
customer to buy the product. Sales promotion is designed to be used as a short-term tactic
to boost sales – it is rarely suitable as a method of building long-term customer loyalty.
Sales promotion can also help in terms of competing without price. Sales promotion may
include contests, coupons, freebies, point of purchase displays, premiums, prizes, product

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 samples, and rebates. Company can use these and other unique techniques to push product
to both intermediaries and customers increase sales and get a positive edge in the intense
competition.
7. Corporate social Responsibilities (CSR): Never has the term win-win rang more true
than when it comes to corporate social responsibility. Commonly abbreviated as CSR, the
advantages of corporate social responsibility go far beyond the organizations, charities, and
environmental causes that these initiatives aim to support. When done properly, a CSR
strategy can have benefits for both any business and the greater good. Companies or firms
in oligopoly market can compete with CSR activities to win more market share.
8. Public relation programs: PR helps in improving the relationship of a company with the
public. In the marketing domain, PR means promoting the right thing by using publicity
and other non-paid communication tactics to inform people. Building and maintaining
good public relationship can be a effective tool to do well in a competition. PR helps in
Raising company profile in the media, Telling Company’s story, reaching new customers,
connecting with existing customers, Increasing visibility and relationship with stakeholders
that can ultimately provide powerful competitive edge.
9. Promotional Mix: Though advertising, sales promotion, public relations all are part of
promotional mix but there are other promotional tool that holds non price competition
criteria. Direct marketing, Personal selling, online marketing etc. various promotional tools
can also help to win a competition. For instance, by engaging in direct sales, firms can
appeal to prospective buyers who otherwise would not feel compelled to buy due to
advertising or other kinds of marketing.
10. Branding Image and Perception: In some cases, little possibility of quality differentiation
exists between two products. For instance, in the United States, blue jeans have little actual
quality variability from one producer to another. For this reason, a number of producers
compete by manufacturing a perception of high quality with their brands. This allows some
companies to charge higher prices for seemingly identical products because consumers see
value in the brand itself. Name brands charging more than store brands for essentially the
same grocery staples, like flour or butter, are classic examples. However, the long-term
sustainability of such an approach may be difficult because, as such brand advantages arise
through consumer trends, consumer trends may also lead to their demise. For instance, if

14
 consumers no longer see a clothing brand as fashionable, the manufacturer may not be able
to continue charging high prices for its products. With a strong Brand Image, a company
can easily dominate any intense competition in oligopoly market.
11. Product Differentiation: By differentiating the company’s product portfolio usual
competition can be avoided. Not all consumers are the same. Markets consist of men and
women from diverse age, ethnic and economic groups. Such groups tend to gravitate
toward particular products as a bloc. For this reason, firms should not expect a single
product to appeal to every consumer in a market. By offering a range of similar products
geared toward different market sectors, firms can expand their market base. However, such
product differentiation can result in significantly higher overhead costs for production.
12. Sales Service: As sales is considered as the main activity for economic prosperity and
growth service during or following a sale of a product is also essential. Unique and proper
after sale service, customer care services, complain management, customer problem
solution also provide a new ground to compete on.
13. Competition by Quality: Non price by definition means competing on something other
than simply offering cheaper goods or services. One of those things might be quality. If
consumers must choose between two products of the same price but they can see that one
is of a higher quality, they generally pick the product of higher quality. In this way, if a
firm can figure out how to produce an item at a cost comparable to what its competitor
charges but make it of higher quality, that firm may be able to steal the market from its
competitor. Consumers may even pay more for goods perceived as higher quality with
similar outward features. Apple, makers of iPhones, and producers of organic food benefit
from this phenomenon. However, a problem with this approach is that it may take some
time for consumers to realize any difference in quality.
14. Location: A good tactics of non-price competition can be taking the competition from
other places literally. Though firm compete on same level but in many cases there could
be profitable extension opportunity in terms of geographical location. Expanding business
to newer location and covering more area or increasing the market if possible through
geographical location coverage can be a competitive aspect.

15
 Beside these mentioned tools there are also various aspects of non-price competition. Such
competition can also be based on newer forms and grounds like

 Unique selling point,

 Significant access to, or control of, distribution channels in the market
 Better than average efficiency
 Longer opening hours
 Good contractual relationship with suppliers as well as intermediaries and so on.

2.6 Objectives of Non-Price Competition

The main objective of the non-price competition is to generate newer competition ground apart
from price and to stop price war an ongoing price war can significantly hamper economic profit of
the firms. Apart from this there could be various objectives associated with such competition like:
 To Increase market share, snatching market share off the competitors through various
competition criteria.
 To establish competitive advantage by focusing on a Unique Selling Proposition such as
superior quality, image, function or any other factor which differentiates Firm’s product
from its closest rivals.
 To reduce the impact of price on purchasing decisions by differentiating the firms' products
from that of the competition. This will only be possible if customers genuinely believe that
there is a difference worth paying a premium price for
 To create superior brand perception. Brands provide guidance and clarity for choices made
by firms, consumers, investors and other stakeholders.
 Generate and sustain sales level even if the demand is price inelastic and so on.

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3.0 Findings and Analysis

3.1 An Overview of Telecommunication Industry in Bangladesh

The telecoms sector in Bangladesh, as is the case in many developing countries, has seen growth
in mobile penetration that has exceeded all expectations. It has undoubtedly had a transformative
impact on the economy in terms of aggregate investment, FDI and productivity level.

The telecommunication industry contributed 6.2% or around $13 billion economic value to the
GDP of Bangladesh in 2015. This figure is inclusive of the direct economic impact of mobile
operators and the broader ecosystem as well as the indirect impact and the productivity increase
brought about by the use of mobile technologies.

The mobile ecosystem also provided both formal and informal employment to over 760,000 people
in Bangladesh. It made a significant contribution to the funding of public sector activity, exceeding
$2 billion in 2015. More than 30% of the jobs were created directly in the ecosystem, while the
rest were generated indirectly in other sectors as a result of the consumption of inputs generated
by the mobile sector.

At the end of 2017, Bangladesh became the fifth largest mobile market in the Asia Pacific and
ninth largest in the world, with 85 million unique mobile subscribers. Subscribers owned an
average 1.7 SIM cards amounting to a total 145 million connections and representing connections
penetration of 87%.

Past few years marked some major developments and reforms in local telecom industry and
implementation of some major reforms are in progress. Significant Market Power Regulation was
published in the late 2018 that might bring some control in the prevailing market competitiveness.
The country upgraded to 3G cellular network in 2013 and rolled out 4G at the beginning of 2018.
Besides, trial run of 5G has already been done. The industry experienced unprecedented growth,
especially in data segment since the launching of 3G in 2013. The regulator has published Tower
Sharing Licensing Guidelines and four companies have already been provided licenses to set up
and operate telecom towers as part of its move to separate the network business from telecom

17
services with the view to rationalizing the number of towers in the country. Telecom VAS
guideline has been initiated where telecom operators are now entitled to offer Value Added
Services (VAS). The government’s effort towards introducing MNP in Bangladesh and
introduction of uniform call rates by eliminating off-net and on-net tariff structure in 2018 is
another major incidence in the countries telecom industry.

Trends and Market scenario: Majority of subscribers in Bangladesh mainly use their
mobile phones for basic voice and SMS services. Because of this low level of engagement, the
country generates one of the lowest subscriber ARPU levels in the world, at $2.9, significantly
below the averages for Asia Pacific and the world of $10.4 and $14.6 respectively, limiting the
ability of operators to engender the required transition to mobile broadband technologies.

However, the slow transition to mobile broadband technologies such as 3G and 4G in Bangladesh
were the result of delays in timing. The 3G and 4G spectrum auctions were both subject to
numerous delays, taking place in in September 2013 and February 2018 respectively, making
Bangladesh one of the last countries in South Asia to award licenses for the technologies.

It is expected that over the next ten years, a combination of improving affordability (driven by
falling smartphone prices), greater network coverage and technology advances (through the launch
of 4G services) would enable Bangladesh’s transition to mobile broadband technologies to
accelerate out to 2025.

Nevertheless, the 3G and 4G life cycle has yet to go a long way before reaching maturity. 3G and
4G connections are expected to surpass 2G connections in 2020, reaching 46% of total connections
– which requires continued investment and maintenance on behalf of mobile operators. 4G
adoption is therefore expected to initially lag that of 3G in the years following the launch of
services, but will accelerate out to 2025, at which point 4G will represent half of total connections.
However with 5G in development the lifespan of other may be significantly short as the industry
is hungry for adapting latest technology as fast as possible.

Significant Players in the market: The mobile or telecommunication market in Bangladesh

involves four licensed mobile operators: Grameenphone, Robi (which recently merged with
Airtel), Banglalink and state-owned Teletalk. Currently, virtual network operators (MVNOs) do
18
not operate in Bangladesh, however the BTRC has been assessing the feasibility of allowing them
to enter the market.

Market Type, Share and Situation: The telecommunication in Bangladesh is oligopolistic

in nature where only few operators serve the market while nearly half of the industry subscribers
belongs to only a single operator. Due to increased competitiveness, the industry has witnessed
some major incidence in past few years. With two mobile phone operators having been merged
and another shutting down, a six-player market has turned out to be a four-player one. Robi
(Axiata) with Airtel (Bharti Airtel) got merged to attain operational efficiency in 2016, which
made them the second largest operator by number of connections. Meanwhile, Citycell, the
country’s first MNO left the battle after a long period of struggle to survive in the industry. BTRC
has suspended its operating license due to nonpayment of dues in Q4, 2016. Banglalink, another
leading operator in the industry has been operating with steady growth in the number of subscribers
but its market share is continually on the wane. Teletalk, the only state-owned operator, failed to
attract users despite having significant government support in various issues. The only operator
that has been continually outperforming the industry in terms of both subscriber acquisition as well
as profitability is ‘Grameenphone’, a concern of Norway based ‘Telenor’.

However, the mobile market of Bangladesh underwent its first major in-country consolidation in
2016, following the merger of Robi (Axiata) with Airtel (Bharti Airtel), which created the second
largest operator by number of connections. According to the latest BTRC report, the present
subscriber count in market is following:

Table: Current Subscriber numbers of operators (BTRC, 2019 June)

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This data indicates that the market leader with the most subscriber is Grameenphone ltd. Having a
market share of 46.56% the market challenger is Robi (comprises of Robi and Airtel total) with
29.63% market share and the followers Banglalink has 21.42% market share where Govt. owned
Teletalk has only 2.37% of market share.

Market Share

2.37%
21.42%

46.56%

29.63%

Grammenphone Robi Bangalalink Teletalk

Graph: Current market share scenario

Brief Overview of Key Players in the Industry

Grameenphone

Grameenphone Ltd. is the largest mobile telecommunications operator in Bangladesh in terms of

revenue, coverage and subscriber base. The company was incorporated on 10 October 1996 as a
private limited company. Grameenphone converted to a public limited company on 25 June 2007.

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The company became stock listed and started its trading at Dhaka and Chittagong Stock Exchanges
from 16 November 2009. The shareholding structure comprises of mainly two sponsor
Shareholders namely Telenor Mobile Communications AS (55.80%) and Grameen Telecom
(34.20%). The rest 10.00% shareholding includes General public & other Institutions.

Grameenphone Ltd. is a leading provider of telecommunications services of Bangladesh. The

company operates a digital mobile telecommunications network based on the GSM standard in the
900 MHz, 1800 MHz and 2100 Mhz frequency bands, under license granted by the Bangladesh
Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (BTRC). The table below gives an overview of the
mobile spectrum licenses held by Grameenphone Ltd.

Grameenphone Ltd. serves both rural and urban customers across Bangladesh, where mobile
telephony is a major driver of socioeconomic development. The company envisions to provide the
power of digital communication, enabling everyone to improve their lives, build societies and
secure a better future for all. The company also has always been a pioneer in introducing new
products and services in the local telecom market.

Grameenphone Ltd. built its network on a nationwide basis. As of December 2017, the company’s
network covered more than 99% of Bangladesh’s population with 2G services and more than 92%
population with high speed 3G network. The company was awarded with license of 4G/LTE
cellular mobile phone services on 19 February 2018. Grameenphone Ltd. has so far invested more
than BDT 313 billion to build the network infrastructure. It is one of the largest taxpayers in the
country, having contributed more than BDT 585 billion in direct and indirect taxes to the
Government Exchequer since inception.

Banglalink
Launched in February 2005, with over 33.69 million subscribers over a decade, Banglalink was
the catalyst in making mobile telephony an affordable option for consumers in Bangladesh. The
initial success of Banglalink was based on a simple mission: “Bringing mobile telephony to the
masses”, which was the cornerstone of Banglalink’s strategy.
Fueled with the strong core values such as Customer-obsessed, Entrepreneurial, Innovative,
Collaborative & Truthful, Banglalink is now working relentlessly to bring digital world to each

21
and every customer to build a true digital Bangladesh, moving away from the traditional mobile
operator to a tech company.
With customer experience being Banglalink’s core focus, digitalization has become a necessity to
update the way customers engage, communicate, operate (Internally & Externally) and offer
services from traditional way of business to digital/online. Banglalink aims to enable its customers
to get the best out of the digital future and create a true digital ecosystem through providing
products that suits the demands of customers.
The growth of Banglalink over the years have been fueled with innovative products and services
targeting different market segments, aggressive improvement of network quality and dedicated
customer care, creating an extensive distribution reach across the country and establishing a strong
brand that emotionally connected customers with Banglalink.
Banglalink provides equal opportunities to employees and has always shown zero tolerance for
any non-compliance activity. Banglalink’s HQ became the first certified Green Office by World
Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) in Bangladesh. The company has relatively formed a flat
organization, Banglalink is now working relentlessly to bring digital world to each and every
customer to build a true digital Bangladesh.

Banglalink Digital Communications Limited is a fully owned company of Telecom Ventures Ltd.
which is a 100% owned subsidiary of Global Telecom Holding. VEON owns 51.9% shares of
Global Telecom Holding following a business combination in April 2011, between VEON Ltd.
and Wind Telecom S.p.A. VEON is a NASDAQ and Euronext Amsterdam-listed global provider
of connectivity, with the ambition to lead the personal internet revolution for the 235 million+
customers it currently serves, and many others in the years to come. It offers services to customers
in 13 markets including Russia, Italy, Algeria, Pakistan, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Ukraine,
Bangladesh, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Armenia, Georgia, and Laos. VEON operates under the
“Beeline”, “Kyivstar”, “WIND”, “Jazz”, “banglalink”, and “Djezzy” brands.

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Teletalk
Teletalk Bangladesh Limited is a public limited company, registered under the Registrar of the
Joint stock companies of Bangladesh. Total shares owned by the Government of the Peoples
Republic of Bangladesh.

Teletalk continuse to grow and engage our customers through its clear commitment to offering
high quality products and services as well as leading customer retention and loyalty programmers.
Teletalk continues to be a part of the revolution that’s connecting millions of Bangladeshi people
and around the world.

Teletalk Bangladesh limited was established keeping a specific role in mind. Teletalk has forged
ahead and strengthened its path over the years and achieved some feats truly to be proud of, as the
only Bangladeshi mobile operator and the only operator with 100% native technical and
engineering human resource base, Teletalk thrives to become the true people’s phone – “Amader
Phone”.
Teletalk Bangladesh Limited (the “Company”) was incorporated on 26 December, 2004 as a public
limited company under the Companies Act, 1994 with an authorized capital of Tk.20,000,000,000
being the only government sponsored mobile telephone company in the country. On the same day
the Company obtained Certificate of Commencement of Business.
Teletalk Bangladesh Limited has continually expanded its network, to better accommodate its
growing customer base as well as to keep the promise of providing better service. As of now,
Teletalk has already established its network foothold in 64 Districts, 402 Upazilas, and most of the
highways. Teletalk is continuing its network expansion to reach more corners of Bangladesh.

3.2 An Overview of Robi Axiata Limited

Company Profile
Robi Axiata Limited (Robi) is a subsidiary company of the Asian telecom giant, Axiata Group
Berhad, based in Malaysia. Other shareholders in the entity are Bharti Airtel International
(Singapore) Pte Ltd and NTT DOCOMO Inc.

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Robi is the second largest mobile network operator in Bangladesh with 46.88Mn subscribers as of
end of December 2018. The company commenced operation in 1997 as Telekom Malaysia
International (Bangladesh) with the brand name ‘Aktel’. In 2010, it was rebranded as ‘Robi’ and
the company changed its name to Robi Axiata Limited.

Following the merger with Airtel Bangladesh, the merged company, Robi Axiata Limited (Robi)
started its commercial operation on 16 November 2016. As of now, this is the biggest ever merger
of the country and first ever merger in the mobile telecom sector of Bangladesh.

Robi was the first operator to introduce GPRS and 3.5G services in the country. It is the first
company to launch 4.5G service in all the 64 districts of the country. In fact, this landmark
milestone was achieved on the first day of the commercial launch of the service by Robi on 20
February 2018. By the end of 2018, Robi created the largest 4.5G network of the country with
nearly 7,400 sites covering 99 per cent of the thanas of the country.

Robi also proudly claims to have the widest international roaming coverage with 398 operators
across 182 countries with widest 4G roaming footprint in 29 countries with 40 operators.

The company has introduced many first of its kind digital services in the country and has been the
pioneer for paving the way in taking mobile financial services to the underserved communities in
the rural and semi-urban areas. It is the only mobile operator to have successfully conducted the
trial run of 5G and Voice over LTE technology on its 4.5G network.

Being deeply involved in the socio-economic development, Robi has created the largest online
school, Robi-10 Minute School, set up internet corners in seven divisional public libraries, set up
safe drinking water facilities in 10 major railway stations and partnered with Access to Information
(a2i) for setting up the contact centre, 333, offering information on availing government services.

Robi has clearly pioneered in the domain of mEducation with the creation of the largest online
school of the country, Robi-10 Minute School, which is providing quality educational content to
millions of students across the country for free of cost. Among many awards it has won nationally
and internationally, the prestigious GSMA Glomo award for the Best Mobile Innovation for
Education and Learning in the “Connected Life Awards” category at the Mobile World Congress
(MWC) 2017, is highly noteworthy.

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Robi has also been the trail-blazer in the industry in unveiling unique digital solutions. The
country’s first comprehensive Islamic lifestyle app, Noor, sports entertainment app, My Sports,
mobile-based health insurance digital service, My Health, customers’ digital self-service window,
My Robi app, entertainment content platform, Robi Screen, comprehensive audio-visual digital
music platform, Splash, are a few of the examples.

Robi leads in the new frontier of Digital Services. It has created the premiere ecommerce platform
for all digital gadgets, robishop.com.bd, provides the complete range of digital advertising solution
through adreach, facilitates convenient payment gateway for purchasing digital content through
direct operators’ billing for the customers under MIFE, provides IoT-based vehicle tracking
solution, Robi Tracker, facilitating easy access to digital gadgets in remote parts of the country
through the assisted ecommerce brand, DigiRed, creating opportunities for entrepreneurship by
creating the largest appstore of the country, bdapps.com, etc.

These tremendous developments were a major draw for the customers as they joined the network
in droves as soon as the Mobile Number Portability facility was introduced in October 2018.

Creating the largest human flag, Robi has proved that it moves to the tune of the rich culture and
heritage of Bangladesh. Having the #1 network of friends, Airtel, as its independent brand only
widens the company’s appeal. As the appeal gets entrenched in the society, Robi feels confident
that it will be able to deliver on the promise of enabling digital life for a better future for all.

The mentionable incident In case of Robi is that its consolidation with another famous
telecommunication peer Airtel. The Two administrators began their merger talks in the September
of 2015 and presented their joint merger application to BTRC. A high court branch gave eight
weeks to the administration telecom controller to come to ultimate choice on merger on 25 January
2016. Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (BTRC) made a declaration to
hold an open hearing on Robi-Airtel merger on 17 February 2016 to settle the merger issue. All
partners including others administrators head, legal advisor, supporters affiliations were available
to finish the arrangement. A sum of 98 experts partook in the listening to managed by BTRC
Chairman Shahjahan Mahmood. Of them, 34 individuals gave their perspectives and 28 of them
talked for merger. Robi Axiata Ltd reported, subsequent to marking the merger bargain, the new
organization started working work under the name Robi. Robi and Airtel got fundamental

25
endorsement of their arrangement in 31 st August, 2016. After the merger merger Robi became
the second biggest telecom administrator after Grameenphone limited. As indicated by the
proposed merger Robi became the administrator of 3.9 crores suscribers, 29% market share and
Tk 7000 crore of market income maker.

Robi Axiata limited at a glance

Business Type Mobile phone operator

Industry Mobile Telecommunication
Founded 1997
Headquarters Robi Corporate Office, 53 Gulshan South Avenue,
Gulshan-1, Dhaka, Bangladesh
Area served Bangladesh, almost in every districts
Key people
Mahtab Uddin Ahmed (Managing Director & Chief
Executive Officer)

Pradeep Shrivastava (Chief Commercial Officer)

Roni Tohme (Chief Financial Officer)

Medhat El Husseiny (Chief Technology Officer)

Ruhul Amin (Head of Corporate Strategy)

Products Mobile Telephony, EDGE, GSM, GPRS, UMTS, HSDPA,

HSUPA, HSPA, HSPA+, FDD-LTE, LTE-A, VoLTE
Revenue Tk. 52.68 billion (2016)
Subscribers 47.939 (June, 2019)
Parent/ Ownership Axiata Group (68.7%)
Bharti Airtel (25.0%)
NTT DoCoMo (6.3%)
Significant Partner Airtel BD
(Merger partner)

26
Vision

To be the most preferred GSM cellular service provider in Bangladesh. Robi draws on leading
edge technology to provide its service in Bangladesh, covering almost 100% of the population;
Robi is committed to provide best data and voice quality and will continue to ensure that its
customers are able to enjoy the best experience through leading edge technology and innovative
products and services.

Mission

Robi aims to provide total customer satisfaction as the company strives to become the most
preferred GSM cellular service provider in Bangladesh. Robi will achieve this through developing
people, products, and services of the highest quality and meeting the needs of its employees,
shareholders and the nation.

Organogram of Robi Axiata Limited

Rabi Axiata has a very well structured organogram which helps them to run their organization
properly. All the divisions are mainly under MD which is also known as Chief Managing Director
who is trusted by all the responsibilities that are given by the board of directors. The organization
is headed by its Chief Executive designated as the Managing Director entrusted with overall
responsibilities of business direction of the organization and leading dynamically towards the
attainment of its Vision, Mission and Goal. Each division has their own Director and General
Manager. Every manager from each division is responsible and directly connects with their
respective division Director or General Manager. Mainly they are associated with the mid-level
manager. In the low level management there are officer, senior officer, executive and senior
executive.

They maintain the chain of command and follow the vertical structure. Means, low level
management will report to the mid-level management and the mid-level management will follow
the low level management.

27
Figure: Basic Organogram of Robi Axiata limited

28
Products of Robi Axiata Limited
In a common perspective Robi offers SIM (subscriber identity module) as a physical product and
telecommunication services along with internet as services. However their product portfolio is
richer than they appear.
Robi mainly offer two types of product based on the subscription category for general subscribers-
Pre-paid and Post-paid.
Pre-paid package: Robi Pre-paid is continuously offer new features and plans to provide absolute
freedom to the customer. Robi offers a single Pre-paid package with different tariff plans to meet
different types of needs instant, easy and multiple migration facility form one tariff to another.
Tariff plans are as follows
 Goti 36
 Shorol 39
 Noor Pack (First Islamic package in Bangladesh)
Post-paid package: Robi offers few lucrative Post-paid Package named Robi Ace Combo Bundle
Supplementary services: Robi provides following supplementary services:
 Call Waiting and Call Holding
 Call Forwarding
 Call Conferencing
 National Roaming-Both way
 Dedicated Customer Services
 Music and Entertainment
 Internet & Data Services
 Messaging
 Miss call alert
 Information & Services
 Islamic Info
 Lifestyle
 M-Ticket
 Finance
 Balance Transfer Request
 Voice mailbox, voice mail etc.

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Customized Service: Robi has various Bundles and Voice packs regarding Internet, Messaging
and Voice calls which are customizable by the used in respect to price, validity (time) and volume
.
Internet Services: Robi provides Internet services including packages like Volume Packs, Social
Packs, Bundle Packs, Scratch Card, 4G Bonus etc.

Recharge Services: Robi has easy recharge services through Internet, online banking mobile
banking like bkash and rocket and have degree of bonuses and special recharge offers based on
recharge amount.

VAS services: As value added services, Robi provides services in respective areas Entertainment
Islamic Services, Calling & Mobile Management, Social & Chat, Music, Finance & Career,
Information Services, Robi News Services, Multimedia, Loyalty Program, Health.
Services includes Star Zone, Kids Stations, My Buddy, Cricket World, Fun Portal, Funny Status,
Fun voice, Robi Tunes, Bongo Music Café etc. type multipurpose digital services.

App Based Digital Solutions: Robi provides Digital solutions named services in respects like
Sports, Gaming, Music Utility & Lifestyle, Video on Demand, Health, Self Service, Innovative
Services, Entertainment etc. These comprises of services like Robi Ghurbo app, Maya app, Splash,
My Karaoke, BPDP bill payment and so on.

MNP and other services: Robi provides Mobile number portability (MNP) service that allows a
cellphone or smartphone customer to change telecom carrier and keep the same phone number.
Also Robi helps customize the phone number if available based on customer request.

Robi shop: Robi Shop is new service provides by Robi where Mobile phones and accessories are
sold by them online and offline. IT is An online store from one of country's leading Telecom
Operator Robi Axiata Limited and a proud member of eCAB (eCommerce Association of
Bangladesh) that lets customers discover and experience the best of every product and special
offers from a wide array of categories ranging from electronics to household appliances, latest
phones, computers, laptops, accessories and many more.

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3.3 Non-Price Competition Tools Used by Robi
Among the various Non-Price competition tools, Robi uses lot of tools based on which they can
compete without any price related content. Robi uses tools multi perspective for sustaining well in
the intense competition of telecommunication Industry. NPC used by Robi comprises following
tools:

Brand Name and Elements

A common NPC used by Robi can be its distinguished Brand name and elements that separate
itself from the other competitors. For instance,
Brand Name: As it was discussed before Brand name is a name that is given to a product by the
company that produces or sells it. The name “Robi” is much distinguishable from other brands.
The meaning of word stand for sun which implicate the product theme proposed by Robi that it is
powerful and bright as sun. The Brand name spate Robi’s unique identity from other competitors
also it is memorable, meaningful, likable, transferable, adaptable and protected by the copyright.

Logo: Logo is something which provides a symbol or other small design adopted by an
organization to identify its products. The logo of Robi looks like following:

Their logo can be called as the heart of their new brand. It is a symbol of power, balance, movement
and change that makes their company and products separate from those of competitors
Brand Cover: Robi has a brand cover used on any material used by Robi this looks like following:

This also called as an Alpona or signature mark by Robi. The Alpona is one the most creative
expressions of Bengali graphic arts. Robi’s Alpona motif is uniquely created, especially for them.

31
Slogan: Robi has a unique Slogan which is- Jole Uthun Apon Shoktite (Ignite the power within)
“জ্বলে উঠুন আপন শক্তিলে”

By this slogan it means "empowering you" Like the Sun has its own power. So just like every day
the sun rises with new hopes, Robi always try their level best to create new ideas, new variation
for the customer.

Jingles: Robi developed an eccentric Jingle that is memorable and even be muttered unconsciously
by the customers. Though they have various ads containing various sound and music but as their
brand theme this jingle is set as their main as it signifies their brand message. The jingle as well
the theme song can be found at following links:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hlLe26yN8z4

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qBv0a8GmF2k

Brand Color: Robi uses the brand color “red” it helps them distinguish their activities and
products from the competitors. Since their competitor Grameenphone has sky blue brand color,
Banglalink has orange color and Teletalk has light green brand color, Robi’s red color stands out
as somewhat of unique. Red is the color of fire and blood, so it is associated with energy, war,
danger, strength, power, determination as well as passion, desire, and love that signifies Robi’s
brand vividly to market compared to the other competitors.

Advertisements
Advertisement is another NPC used by Robi on a great scale. The advertisements developed and
executed by Robi doesn’t always communicate their price information rather the messages often

32
contain various services related information socio-cultural deep themes that impacts the viewers
significantly. They used various types of Medias and types for advertising for instance:

TVC: Robi has various popular tvcs or television commercials .At present some of the TVCs
include different themes socio cultural themes like some TVCs are- Takay Aka Gourob Er Itihash
(টাকায় আঁকা গ ৌরবের ইতিহাস ), Stand with the street Childs (আপতিও পাবে দাঁডাবি পাবরি এই পথতেশুবদর
পাবে), Robi Icche Dana (full-fill you wishes) , Robi safety net for children etc. Links of these TVCs
are given bellow:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yS5EG4Tbm2M

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dbnnxtMWxwQ
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0v_5K2E1qh0

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oo4tSmRl25o

Also more TVC ads are available at https://www.youtube.com/user/robiaxiatalimited

Billboard: Robi’s various advertisement are also presented via billboards located at busy areas.
Some billboard ads are:

Image: Robi’ Billboard advertisements

33
Though maximum billboards ads present service and campaign related information they are
distinguishable for placement and theme.

Printed Media: Robi also uses Printed media like Newspapers and magazines to execute their
printed advertisements of product or services, campaigns and achievements.

Online and Social Media: Robi’s advertising activity is very much proactive through social media
and internet. Their social media activities and advertisements are reactive too that represent and
address the concurrent issues. Some of these ads and information’s are:

More of Such Online contents and advertisements managed by Robi is available at

https://www.facebook.com/RobiFanz/

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Product-Service Features and Differentiation
To be more competitive in terms of no-price competition, Robi’s product and services are designed
to have distinguish features and differentiated based on various aspects.

For instance their main product, telephony service which requires a unique number per subscriber
starts with digits “018” that makes their product separate from other competitors.

Also they have some key distinguished products and related services compared to the competitors
for instance:

Robi Noor Pack: Robi Noor pack is said to be first Islamic mobile package in Bangladesh for the
religious people. It comprises of different services and VAS services including Access to Islamic
Ayojon for the religious minded customers.

Robi 4.5G: Robi claims that they are the first in Bangladesh to possess 4.5G technology and their
Internet speed is the highest in the Bangladesh proved by the Speed test by Ookla.

Customized Service: Robi let their customers customize the services in terms of Internet and
voice pack. With the online portal, they allow customers to build their own package based on his
or her needs and abilities. Also Robi allows customer to customize preferred phone no. in case of
new connection purchase.

RobiCash: RobiCash is an electronic float that enables customer to perform a wide range of
payment transactions (utility bill, train ticketing, Robi airtime purchase etc.) using their mobile
phone anytime, anywhere. By refilling RobiCash m-wallet or with assistance from RobiCash Point
or from the online platform customer will be able to carry out the transactions.

Robi Ichchedana: Robi Ichchedana is a comprehensive service pack for all the women in
Bangladesh. For Women’s safety and privacy, there are features like Recharging without revealing
your number, non-refundable emergency free minute and emergency location alert.

Robi-Shop: Robi shop is also an initiative of Robi to sell smartphones and accessories as well as
Robi Sim cards offline and online with home delivery service.

Robi-Ark: Robi ark as kind of an AI based system where customers can get various services and
offers through chatting in Facebook messenger.

35
Robi safe net: Robi revolutionized Bangladesh's digital landscape by introducing Robi Safenet -
a unique service that allows parents to protect their kids from harmful content on the internet
through filtering. Robi Safenet uses intelligent risk detection algorithm to allow/ block specific
sites that are inappropriate for children. The service also allows parents to control when their child
can use the internet.

Beside these there are also various offers and features through which Robi differentiated
themselves from the competitor as well performing well in terms of using NPC tools.

Direct Marketing
As we have defined direct marketing before, as an effective NPC Robi often use direct marketing
for instance:

 Robi directly calls their customers to promote or inform them about new offers and services
they basically do direct telemarketing.
 Even they continuously send customized promotional massage to the consumers based on
their activities.
 Often Robi uses direct e-mail and Facebook messages to selected customers promoting
special offers.
 In many cases direct mail is used for corporate customers.

36
Product Package
From the tangible perspective of Robi’s product package their SIM card is different from the others
of competitors in terms of packaging and color. This also helps them to be engaged in NPC
competition in a sense through distinguished packaging. The packaging and sim card holder looks
like following:

Sales Promotion
As another NPC tool, Robi does lots of things as a part of sales promotion for instance:
Contests: Robi organize various contest for the customers. For instance a recent contest held- That
was regarding designing the jersey of BD national cricket team.
They also arranged many others contest Fast baller hunt, Instagram contents, movie related contest,
winter question etc.

37
Premiums: Robi gives gifts to their customers like free internet packages, free talk time, free sms
or some special offer for purchasing new sim and services

Point of Purchase: Displays, posters, sign boards, danglers, buntings, confetti etc. are some form
of POP that are found in a large numbers of shops selling Robi products all over Bangladesh. This
plays a very important role in positioning the brand Robi.

Referral and Gifts: in many cases Robi provides gift of talk time and Internet packages or other
VAS to random users, also for referring friends in Robi app, Robi gives special benefit and offers.

Bonus and cash refund: Occasionally Robi provides bonus Internet pack or talk time to the valued
and random customers and often holds cashback or cash refund offers.

PR and Sponsorships
As a part of NPC tool, Robi establish itself firmly with the help of building well pubic relationship
and engaging in various types of sponsorship programs. Robi tries to maintain a good public image,
publicity and public relationship via maximum media exposure, event-program sponsorship or
other things. Some of the mentionable PR related activities are:

 Robi become the official sponsor of Bangladesh national cricket team by with the
agreement of BCB (Bangladesh cricket board) in 2015. Robi used their logo in the jersey
of BD national cricket as a proud sponsor. However they terminated this sponsorship in
2019 as it expired.
 Robi organized the country’s first ever Datathon in 20 April 2019. With a vision to build
capacity and talent in the field of data science and machine learning, country’s first ever
Datathon competition has concluded with a grand success. A total of 84 Data Scientists
and Data Engineers took part in the 24 hours long competition in 21 teams.
 British Council inaugurated library at Robi office, The British Council has teamed up with
Robi Axiata Limited to set up a British Council Satellite Library inside the telecom
operator’s corporate office.
 Robi launched country’s first private cloud platform in August 2016. Robi Cloud is a suite
of cloud computing and hosting solutions tailored for Bangladeshi businesses. Robi Cloud

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 begins its journey by offering a fully managed IT infrastructure service for the business
enterprises of the country
 Robi held a campaign for BCB in 2018 named Fast Bowler Hunt for finding skillful eligible
players for the national team.
 Following the grand success of the “Fast Bowler Hunt” campaign 2018, Robi and
Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) have teamed up again to search for the number one
spinner of the country. Young male & female spinners aged 16- 23 are eligible to take part
in the campaign. The campaign, aptly named as “Khoj: The Number 1 Spinner” has made
an instant connection with the aspiring young cricketers. Young spinners from all over the
country have started registering for the competition
 Robi sponsored drinking water plant at Cumilla railway station in 2018.
 Robi Partnered with AIUB on Student Internship Program. They also have partnered with
various top universities in Bangladesh.
 Free internet corner set by mobile operator Robi at the Rangpur divisional public library to
provide ease of internet access to the students.
 Robi launched ‘Pahela Boishakh’ campaign on Instagram to promote culture to Youngers.
 Robi and YABX collaborated to facilitate financing for smartphones in Bangladesh.
 Robi started to work with Apigate to open up international business opportunities for
Bangladeshi content partners.
 Robi launched social awareness program #CommonSense to take a stand against the
potential social malaise being facilitated by the increasing adoption of digital lifestyle in
the country.
 Month-long Ekushe Boi Mela in Khulna is sponsored by Robi in February 2019.
 Robi and CodersTrust Bangladesh sign corporate agreement to accelerate freelancing in
Bangladesh.
 The most prestigious debate competition of the country, “Robi- Drishty Debate
Championship 2018” was kicked off in the commercial capital, Chattogram. Sponsored by
Robi.
 Robi launched QR code based campaign for the first time in Bangladesh in 2018 to promote
the ease of using internet and smartphones.
 Robi organized National High School Programming Contest in 2016.

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CSR Activities
Robi has very rich CSR or corporate social responsibility activities portfolio as CSR can be an
effective NPC tool. These activities includes mentionable projects like:

Robi-10 Minute School

Robi-10 Minute School is the largest online education platform of Bangladesh that has been
playing a very important role in reducing the digital gap in the country’s education sector. Created
in 2015, its goals are to cross the geographical, economic and information-related barriers to
quality education. More than 260,000 students across Bangladesh every day reach out access the
free content on the platform. Robi-10 Minute School caters to academic classes from 1 to 12
covering the entire academic syllabus of the Bangladesh schooling system. It also contains
university admission subjects, university examinations, university courses, software and skills
training. It has a total of 861,035 followers on its official Facebook page. The platform has more
than 4,500 video tutorials. It can be found on YouTube through its channels ‘10 Minute School
LIVE’, ’10-Minute School ARTS’ and ’10-Minute School Blog.

For its contribution in the field of education and technology, Robi-10 Minute School won the
APICTA award, which is awarded to the best ICT venture out of 17 participating countries in the
Asia-Pacific Alliance every year. It also won the GSMA Glomo award for the Best Mobile
Innovation for Education and Learning in the “Connected Life Awards” category at the Mobile
World Congress in 2017. Some of its other notable recognitions include the BRAC Manthan
Award for Digital Innovation, the Swiss Embassy Award for social impact, the YSSE Impactful
Project of the Year Award and a special mention in the GIST Tech-I at Silicon Valley in 2016.

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Internet4U

There’s no denying that the internet is a powerful tool. However, left to someone not equipped to
use it properly may lead to disastrous consequences. Especially the youth who make up a large
portion of the internet users are particularly vulnerable to the cyber bullying, crimes and many
other unwanted experiences that plague the internet.

Keeping that in mind, Robi has developed a possible remedy to this problem and the company has
partnered with the British Council to spread the message among the youth of Bangladesh. It comes
in the form of a social awareness programme titled “Internet4You” - an aptly-titled programme
that readily chimes in the minds of the youth from various schools, colleges, universities and
different professionals including British Council library members. The participants in the sessions
were overwhelmed to know about the cyber-rights and the potential of the internet in improving
their lives.

Safe Drinking Water for Railway Passengers

Creating an access to safe drinking water is one of the core elements of a robust public health
system. The government has been putting a lot of efforts for ensuring that the country achieves the
targets of SDG 6: "Ensure availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all".
Robi, an eager development partner of the government, felt that this was an areas in which it could
help the cause. Keeping that in mind, with the technical support from the WaterAid Bangladesh,
the company has set up ten water plants in ten of the busiest railway stations of Bangladesh.
Considering the sheer number of people gathering at these stations, Bangladesh Railway also
responded positively when Robi sought its support.

Robi’s water projects with the slogan “Nirapod Pani, Sushtho Jibon” in association with
Bangladesh Railway and WaterAid Bangladesh have been set up at Kamalapur, Dhaka Airport,
Chittagong, Sylhet, Khulna , Rajshahi , Mymensing, Mohangonbg, Feni and Cumilla Railway
Stations. Each of these plants is capable of dispensing 5,000 litres of pure and safe drinking water
per hour. Located in public places, these plants are evidently making a difference in ensuring easy
access to safe drinking water. The plants have separate corners for males and females. Considering
the special need of the physically challenged, the plants have ramps for their convenience. There
are separate corners for ablution also.

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The water coming through purifying units (Membrane & UV filter) has already earned the trust of
the commuters travelling on trains. The maintenance of the plants and ensuring the quality of the
water are done by regular testing in the laboratories of BUET, CUET, KUET, SUST and PWD.

Robir Alo Booklet

(LET THE LIGHT IGNITE A BRIGHTER FUTURE)

Almost 80 percent of Bangladesh’s population lives in rural areas, where 53 percent of the
population is classified as “poor”*. People living in these rural areas survive on daily manual labor
such as agriculture, farming, pottery, handiwork, and fishing to make ends meet. Over half of these
families live below the poverty line and in certain areas people are deprived of certain privileges
that most of us can take for granted, such as electricity.

People who live in off-grid regions depend on kerosene or candles as their only source of light.
Areas like Kurigram, Rangpur. Kaluar Char was identified by the World Bank among the least
developed villages in Bangladesh and with one of the lowest per capita income.

Robi Axiata Limited built a mini-solar power grid to provide electricity among the villagers, as
well as to provide a low CO2 emission solution. The solar power grid was first distributed among
150 families in Kaluar Char who were provided solar electricity free of cost to power two lights
and a mobile charger. Today the grid provides four hours of electricity to nearly 600
households. Robi, through its contractor, is committed to provide all technical support
and maintenance of the solar panels and the grid until 2018.

Recently, this Robi’r Alo project was expanded to Ashartoli, Naikhoncchori, Bandarban in the
remote Chittagong Hill Tracts, where home solutions have been provided to an additional 350

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families. This initiative has changed the lifestyle and living standards of many underprivileged
people. This has had a positive impact on the socio economic development in the area and the
project is expected to be expanded to other remote, underserved locations in the future.

Robi Internet Corner

In today’s world, information technology plays a dominant role in all aspects of our life. Right and
access to information play a key role in augmenting knowledge and no one can go ahead without
an access to the internet. Considering the scenario, Robi has established Internet Corners in all
divisional libraries e.g., Dhaka, Khulna, Sylhet, Chittagong, Rajshahi, Barisal, Rangpur. The
Internet Corners have been facilitating the students with the window of opportunity to log on to
the internet and thus to the vast reservoir of knowledge. Robi believes that the users will be able
to explore the world through this free internet service. This is also adding value to the
government’s vision of creating Digital Bangladesh by 2021. Robi has provided three computers
in each library for this purpose. The Department of Public Library is Robi’s partner in this projects.

E-Library

Robi has helped establish the e-library at the Faculty of Business Studies, University of Dhaka
(DU). A total of 35 overseas universities and international publishers are affiliated with this e-
library. This facility directly benefits at a total of 6092 students and 208 teachers.

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The free access to e-books, scientific journals and research papers through this e-library is richly
contributing to raising the standard of education in this university. Apart from sponsoring the
establishment of this facility, Robi has also been maintaining the facilities and continue to support
it until 2030

Buses for ICT Education

Bangladesh’s ICT Division of the Ministry of Posts & Telecommunications & Information
Technology (MoPT&IT), Robi Axiata and Huawei Technologies have jointly launched the “digital
buses” project designed to offer ICT training to women across Bangladesh. Under the three-year
“Digital Training Bus project for Sustainable Women Development through ICT”, six buses –
fully equipped with modern ICT training facilities – have been deployed to offer basic ICT training
to 240,000 women.

The buses are specifically designed to reach out to the women who find it inconvenient to venture
out of their homes/localities due to various social restrictions. The project is generating massive
interest among the women, especially in rural areas to pursue entrepreneurship through ICT.
Roadshows at rural areas are being conducted under this project to popularize ICT education not
only among women but also among other school and college students.

333 with a2i: 333 is a government call center where Bangladeshis can find all government
service-related information any time and from anywhere in Bangladesh. All one has to do is to dial
the number. The non-residential Bangladeshis can dial 09666789333 to receive the information.
The information that is available on this number is public services, contact information of people’s
representatives and government employees, tourist attractions and detailed information about
different districts. The citizens can also inform about and complain against different social
problems and get a response from Deputy Commissioners and Upazila Nirbahi Officers
themselves. The citizens can seek assistance from Deputy Commissioners and Upazila Nirbahi
Officers during disasters.

R-Ventures: Where the dreamers nestle: An unchased dream hurts more than a broken
dream. Not everyone has a choice, but everyone has a dream. Unfortunately, not many are
fortunate or brave enough to have the opportunity of embracing the uncertainty that comes with

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such dream of being his own boss- An entrepreneur. Especially, in the socio-economic context of
Bangladesh, once a talented young man joins an established company, the comfort of job certainty
becomes too enticing to renounce. Once upon a time, companies frowned on employees having
second jobs (or even entrepreneurship). The fear was that it would distract people from their main
role. However, Robi as an aspiring digital services provider quickly identified an opportunity to
tap into the suppressed dream of its employees of becoming owners of their own digital companies.

Orphan Iftar: Robi, has organizes Iftar program for orphan children each year where hundreds
of children join and Robi also handes over some gift items for them.

Blood Donation Camp: Robi has observed World Thalassemia Day, No they often organize
blood donation camp, in partnership with Bangladesh Thalassemia Foundation.

Except these, Robi’s CSR activities include Public Speaking training for children, Safe
Workplace promotion, Youth Day seminar, Cancer Aid Foundation, Code Learning events
and so on.

Brand Image and loyalty

With various marketing tools Robi has become successful to create a significant unique brand
image that helps them to compete in non-price competition. ROBI extends its services to its
customers and subscribers with the theme of spreading its power to every individual and
empowering them with their own strength. It showed the traditional culture that it understood the
principles of brand building and equity. “Brand Awareness" consists of Brand Recognition and
Brand Recall Performance. With the proper tools and their perfect implementation Robi become a
powerful Brand in Telecommunication industry as their place as second best in the industry
signifies. Apart from Building a strong brand Image, Robi try to have a tight grip over their existing
customer making them brand loyal as well as rewarding them for their loyalty through Robi’s
“Dhonnobad Program” putting customers in various layers like Platinum Ace, Platinum,
Diamond, Gold and Bronze based on the loyalty status. This also helps them to retain customers
better and do significantly better in oligopoly competition without getting involved in mere price
based competition.
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4.0 Problems and Recommendations

4.1 Identified Problems: Though Robi seems to manage optimum activities in the verge
of oligopolistic intense competition but there are some problems which can be mentioned. For
instance:

 Robi cannot use the product quality as a NPC tool since their network or service quality is
not good enough or distinguishable compared to existing competitors.
 Uniqueness or creativeness in terms of advertising of Robi doesn’t seem much effective as
their advertisements often fail to get inside customers heart or mind.
 Outdoor advertising activities of promotion by Robi in terms of billboards, POP etc. seem
less in number.
 In many cases, Robi seems to imitate market leader Grameenphone in product or offer
design instead of being first one to bring something new.
 Product differentiation of Robi is not communicated properly and not in larger scale.
 Robi is usually reactive in case of marketing activity where they should be proactive to win
an intense competition of oligopoly.
 Robi seems to have problem regarding value delivery promise and actual value delivery In
terms of services.
 Often advertisements developed by Robi perceived as poor with complexity to understand
by the viewers.

4.1 Recommendations: Despite the problems Robi is doing well in the competitive
market. However, here are some recommendation on their NPC usage and implementation:

 Robi should revise their marketing activities in terms of advertising and other promotional
tools.
 Robi should try to bring more uniqueness and distinctiveness in their NPC tools.
 Robi should maintain a steady flow of sponsoring events at popular and well-known
institutions
 Robi should improve their core service, network service, hence, overall quality of services.

46
  Robi should bring more distinctive services and product features to stand isolated from the
competitors of oligopoly.
 Robi should be proactive or retroactive instead of always following Market leader.
 Robi should emphasize on attacking or counter attacking other competitors if possible as
well as defending its brand image.
 Robi should developed more catchy advertisement with following AIDA ( attraction,
interest, desire, action) that successfully communicate the message and make viewers
understood without violating cultural standards.
 Robi’s outdoor advertisements should be more visually or aesthetically pleasing and more
in number if possible.
 Finally, Robi’s CSR activates should include more prompt situational responses including
concurrent social issue related activities.

5.0 Conclusion
An oligopolistic market is featured by intense competition among few sellers. Which means as an
oligopolistic market, telecommunication industry in Bangladesh is bestowed with four major
competitors. To win or sustain in oligopoly nature, strategy of price based competition becomes
obsolete at a point and only feasible or reasonable competition ground encompasses non-price
based tools. Robi is the second largest oligopolistic in the telecommunication industry. Being in
the second position constantly thrust them to try being the first or market leader as well as
defending themselves from the other competitors. Doing so requires extensive efforts and activities
including the usage of proper NPC tools. Robi persistently try to make themselves different,
distinctive among the other competitors. Through the advertising, products and service offering as
well other promotional tools comprising public relationship building and managing corporate
social responsibilities Robi aims to build a long lasting strong brand image compared to the other
competitors. Carefully designed such approaches often helps Robi to get an edge over the cut throat
competition. Though in many cases in matured oligopoly market survival requires snatching
market share off to competitors and increasing market share through generating new customers,
the schemes required to do so seem tougher than they appear. In such case, Robi is doing notably
well considering their slow yet continuous growth in the telecommunication industry.

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Company Overview of Robi Axiata Limited, Bloomberg, and data retrieved 2018 from
http://www.bloomberg.com/research/stocks/private/snapshot.asp?privcapId=116221220

https://databd.co/profiles/industries/profile-telecommunication

infoasaid.org/Bangladesh/telecommunications-overview

https://www.robi.com.bd/en/corporate/media-room/press-release

Robi Axiata Group 2019-2020, data retrieved http://www.robi.com.bd

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