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Positioning Approach of Grameen Phone by Shovon
Positioning Approach of Grameen Phone by Shovon
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Batch: 43rd
Executive Summary
As a market leader, GrameenPhone is continuously coming up with new ideas regarding its
products and services. They specially concentrate on developing the best network
try to focuse on the factors behind the core idea of Grameen Phone’s positioning strategies
In addition of its positioning term , Grameen Phone recently try to focusing on it’s
differentiated services, such as, the non-voice services as because the company knows in
near future, voice based services will reach to the maturity stage which will make the
business growth constant to some extents. Hence, the company is trying to maintain the
leading position in non-voices services as well like SMS, Push-Pull, and Information
related services at the early growing stage. These services are working as a building block
Coming up with innovative service is easier than making subscribers aware of services.
Hence through this report I have tried to analyze the present situation of the cellular phone
industry in Bangladesh and GP’s positioning strategy in there to find out the services that
Grameen phone is presently providing to its valued customers & their satisfaction level to
further established other positioning attributes. 15 million people out of 140 million total
citizen of Bangladesh are presently using cell phone; it means that out of every 9 people
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one is using cell phone. In the third world country like Bangladesh the amount of users is
amazing. Grameenphone holds almost 61% market share of telecom industry that is out of
be “Profitable growth & expanding market share through satisfying existing customers”. I
have also made a comparative service analysis of various cellular phone companies in
A comprehensive survey was conducted to know about GP’s present position in the market
and its present service condition that is providing to its valued customers. The survey
report shows that Grameen phone is still a market leader in this industry but as it is
becoming more competitive day by day so Grameen phone should revise its service
Among the other cellular phone companies GrameenPhone has some unique competitive
services with continuous innovative products it will add value to the company which is a
part of their positioning implementational movements. Otherwise, in the long run new
In a highly populated country like Bangladesh, telecommunication can play a vital role to
boost the economy and social level of people. The introduction of cellular phones has
dramatically changed the lives of businesses and individuals.Grameenphone Ltd., the
largest telecommunications service provider in Bangladesh, received its operating license
in November 1996 and started its service from March 26, 1997. Now, after 11 years of
successful operations, Entrepreneurship at MIT . He was inspired by the Grameen Bank
micro credit model Grameenphone is the largest mobile phone service provider in
Bangladesh, with more than 28 million subscribers as of November 2008. The idea of
providing mobile phone facility to rural areas in Bangladesh was originally conceived by
Iqbal Quadir, who is currently the founder and director of the Legatum Center for
Development and and envisioned a business model where a cell phone can serve as a
source of income. After leaving his job as an investment banker in the United States,
Quadir traveled back to Bangladesh, after meeting and successfully raising money from a
New York based investor and philanthropist Joshua Mailman, and worked for three years
gaining support from various organizations including Nobel Peace Prize laureate
Muhammad Yunus of Grameen Bank and the Norwegian telephone company, Telenor. He
was finally successful in forming a consortium with Telenor and Grameen Bank to
establish Grameenphone. Quadir remained a shareholder of Grameenphone until 2004.
Basically Grameenphone is a joint venture enterprise between Telenor (62%), the largest
telecommunications service provider in Norway with mobile phone operations in 12 other
countries, and Grameen Telecom Corporation (38%), a non-profit sister concern of the
internationally acclaimed micro-credit pioneer Grameen Bank. Over the years,
Grameenphone has always been a pioneer in introducing new products and services in the
local market. GP was the first company to introduce GSM technology in Bangladesh when
it launched its services in March 1997.
There is a growing trend of workers turning from farming to other occupations, the need for
mobiles is increasing among the thousands of impoverished villages. The overall efficiency
of other business has increased as an aftermath of the government's decision of deregulating
the telecommunications sector, which until the late 1980s had been a state monopoly.
Privatization of the telecommunications sector began in 1989, when Sheba and BRTA
were awarded 25-year licenses to install and operate fixed-wire lines and wireless services
in rural areas. The same year, Pacific Telecom Bangladesh got the government's
permission to launch the country's first cellular phone and paging service sold under brand
name CityCell in collaboration with a Hong Kong-based company. The company targeted
only the higher class of the society.
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During that time price of mobile was above Tk 50,000/=. Naturally, the growth of the
industry was too slow. CityCell had a virtual monopoly until 1996, when the government
gave licenses to three more companies to operate cell phones in Bangladesh. So, the
government decided to bring more companies in the market and break the monopoly.
These three new companies entered the market, not only helped trim down over-
dependence on BTTB's fixed-line system, but also made mobile phones cheaper and easier
to get. The price of a cell phone came down from $2,000 to as low as $100, depending on
the features of the handset and SIM price is only Tk.200-300.
A definite development has been observed in the Business Market with comparatively high
expectations. Customer maturity and anticipation regarding technology has increased over
time.
The existing Cellular phone companies in Bangladesh are CityCell (Pacific Bangladesh
Telecom Limited), GrameenPhone Ltd., AkTel Ltd(Robi). Banglalink and TeleTalk.
Among these company Gra meenPhone, AkTel(Robi) and Banglalink adopted GSM
technology andCitycell the market pioneer started with CDMA technology.
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• Djuice:
• Target Market: Youth
• Product Type: Prepaid
• Price: 150
• Focus on music, messaging Community to appeal to the Youth
• Completely separate from the Grameenphone brand.
• Shohoj Package:
• Target Market: Corporate Level
• Product Type: Prepaid
• Price: BDT 150
• Offering you will be able to talk to over 23million
• GrameenPhone numbers at a l ow rate
• Aapon Package:
• Target Market: Family Members
• Product type: Prepaid
• Price: BDT 150
• You will be a ble to talk to over 23million
• GrameenPhone numbers at a l ow rate.
• Bondhu Package:
• Target Market: Friends & FnF
• Product Type: Prepaid
• Price: BDT 150
• This package with the highest number of F&Fs allows you to talk to your near and
dear ones at the l owest rate. This package gives you the privilege of calling
7FnFnumbers at Tk 0.49/min.
• GP explore Postpaid:
• Target Market: High Income Mass and Professionals
• Product Type: Postpaid
• Price: BDT 650
• Offering competitive tariff with features such as unlimited internet, flat call tariff,
easy bill payment facilities etc.
• GP Business Solutions:
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GrameenPhone aims to build a full range of service all over the country. The company has
targeted to build extensive network all over the country. For better coverage, GP has taken
1600 Km fiber optic cable network leased from Bangladesh Railway. In April 2004, GP
had 750 base stations. Now till Oct’05, it has 1750 base stations. Furthermore, considering
the subscribers’ need of quality network and extensive coverage, the company is planning
to set up another thousand base stations in the following year. Recently GP has doubled its
speech quality 900GSM MHz to 1800GSm MHz. Already the company has expanded its
network to 61 districts out of 64 districts and 400 upazillas out of 460 upazillas. It’s the
only company which covers the most of the land areas with its net work. Approximately
52% land area is covered by GrameenPhone’s network. In over all, GrameenPhone offers
the most competitive network facility to its subscribers, and continue improving it.
Existing coverage areas are divided into six zones according to the divisional boundary.
These are
• Dhaka
• Sylhet
• Chittagong
• Rajshahi
• Khulna
• Barisal
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The zone in which a subscriber is registered with GrameenPhone is that subscriber's Home
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Zone, and all other zones are Remote Zones. Area under GP net work covered
Marketing Concepts:
The strategic plan defines the company’s overall mission and objectives and hopes to
achieve company’s objectives. Through market segmentation, targeting and positioning the
company decides which customers it will serve and how. The company also designs a
marketing mix made up of factors under its control product, price, place, promotion.
Strategy of GrameenPhone
GrameenPhone’s basic strategy is coverage of both urban and rural areas. In contrast to the
“island” strategy followed by some companies, which involves connecting isolated islands
of urban coverage through transmission links, GrameenPhone builds continuous coverage,
cell after cell. While the intensity of coverage may vary from area to area depending on
market conditions, the basic strategy of cell-to-cell coverage is applied throughout
GrameenPhone’s network.
In the report, we are going to focus of Grameenphone is to segment, target the potential
customers and to position of their profit oriented products. The relevant information is
given below:
1.Geographic
2.Demographic
3.Psychographic
4. Behavioral
1. Geographic
1.1 Network:
Grameenphone have the widest network coverage in the country. It has changed the
communication structure of the country and it can be compared with communication
revolution. It is the first company in the country that has brought the mobile service to the
mass level. GP's network is very robust and undoubtedly the best in the country. But it
suffers from severe network congestion during festivals and celebrations when people
badly need smooth communication. This is because, a big number of people moves to rural
side during festivals, which is very difficult to cater from any operator's perspective. As a
result, people face problem during those times. But it is very difficult to ensure smooth
network in rural areas considering only 10-15 days’ (out of 365 days) additional pressure
derived from non-regular members (visitors) of that area. This is a worldwide problem for
the Telco operators. GP has the highest number of base stations throughout the country.
GP covers the most. GP's customer service is one of the cheapest among all in the country.
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2. Demographic
2.1 Age:
Djuice: a youth based mobile to mobile connectivity within Bangladesh. Djuice was
launched in Bangladesh by Grameenphone on the 14th of April, 2005 i.e. the Bengali New
Year. Ever since the launch djuice has seen a big warm response from the crowd. Within
two years djuice Bangladesh had enlisted around 2 million subscribers. On the 14th of
April, 2007 djuice Bangladesh shed its old skin to put up itsnew identity which a part of
the worldwide re-branding process of djuice.
2.2 Occupation:
Public call office (PCO): a package exclusively designed for people
operating public phone booths who basically need low call rate.
3. Psychographic
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4. Behavioral
4.1 Occasion: Greemenphone provide various offer for special occasions, like- Eid
Spesial, Grameenphone brings back the popular Nokia 1200 handset, bundled with GP
prepaid connections, for its prepaid subscribers at an amazingly affordable price. With the
GP- Nokia Eid campaign launch on September 15, 2008, anyone can stay connected with
the largest prepaid subscriber base of the country, at as low as BDT 2,350. The bundle
offer consists of a Nokia 1200 handset at BDT 2,350 and a smile M2M/smile with BTCL
connectivity/djuice/Business Solutions prepaid connection.
mobile connection; “Thank you” bonus is the beginning of a new relationship. Since the
start of our operations in 1997, they believe that a special relationship is formed with each
new connection – a time-nurtured attachment that deepens with every call you make and
receive. “Thank you” is the way of expressing their gratitude to their loyal customers.
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used GP-sim.
B)Target Marketing:
Market segmentation reveals the firm’s market segment opportunities. The GrameenPhone
evaluated the various segments and decided to expand their in whole Bangladesh. They
separate their target market because their customers have unique needs & wants.
1.Undifferentiated Marketing
GrameenPhone has merged their pre-paid packages into 2 Smile Prepaid packages SMILE
(Mobile to Mobile) and SMILE (with BTTB connectivity). All Easy clients will be
updated to SMILE (Mobile to Mobile). And all Easy Gold clients will be updated to
SMILE (with BTTB connectivity).
2. Differentiated Marketing
GrameenPhone also follow differentiated marketing strategy. They offers different product
for different segments based on different age, occupation, wants etc.
Bangladesh.
operating public phone booths who basically need low call rate.
connectivity. GrameenPhone introduced this premium service for the first time in
Bangladesh and now provides International Roaming service to its own subscribers
traveling abroad as well as to foreign operators’ subscribers traveling in Bangladesh. For
the first time in Bangladesh in July 2006, GrameenPhone launched Roaming Services
(both GSM and EDGE/GPRS) with CAMEL Phase II for Pre paid In-bound subscribers.
GrameenPhone has unique ‘One to One’ relationship with all its International Roaming
partner operators.
C) Positioning Strategy
By creating product, service, channel, people & image differentiation GrameenPhone reach
the consumer touch point more effectively & efficiently in comparing with their
competitors in the highly competitive telecommunication sector.
1.Product Differentiation:
with the widest coverage around the country, bringing 98 percent of the population under
the coverage of its network. The entire GrameenPhone network is also EDGE/GPRS
enabled, allowing GP subscribers to access the Internet from anywhere within its coverage
area. The 10,000 Base Stations are located in about 5,700 sites around the country. The
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company has so far invested more than BDT 10,700 crore (USD 1.6 billion) to build the
network infrastructure since its inception in 1997. It has invested over BDT 3,100 crore
(USD 450 million) during the first three quarters of the current year while BDT 2,100
crore (USD 310 million) was invested in 2006 alone. GrameenPhone is implementing an
aggressive roll-out program by installing new network elements with an emphasis on
maintaining quality service. A number of steps are being taken to identify the problems
spots in the network in order to constantly improve quality.
Special efforts are being taken to constantly monitor and ensure network quality in the
urban areas. In Dhaka and other major cities in- building coverage solutions and microcells
have been deployed to provide improved coverage in important high-rise buildings and
busy street junctions.
2.Service Differentiation:
Fast and affordable messaging through SMS. Send a SMS to any mobile phone in
Bangladesh and to more than 115 countries with their international SMS service.
Voice SMS:
Save time and personalize message through a voice SMS. This service
music, video clips and send it across the globe within seconds.
Cell e-mail:
Send emails without a computer. With cell e-mail, Customers have the
facilities to e-mail any GP number through an SMS and email any PC across the globe.
SMS Banking:
Enjoy hassle-free account updates from renowned banks like Standard
Customer Services
Priority Service
GP believe in the importance of human touch in the business world. As they step into third
year of providing innovative communication solutions, Business Solutions aims to provide
enhanced priority services.
Prioritized Hotline 121
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Enjoy prioritized customer service by simply dialing 121. Dedicated customers care
managers are available round-the-clock, 24 hours a day and 7 days a week only to serve.
Business Solutions postpaid subscribers can call 121 absolutely free of cost.
Value Added Services
Missed Call Alert and get SMS notification of the attempted call when
phone was off. To subscribe the service, type on and send to 6222.
Stock Information
The latest updates of the Dhaka and Chittagong Stock Exchange are now in consumer
palm. To avail this service, go to GP WORLD (wap.gpworld.com), then Business City,
and download the Bull application.
4. Channel Differentiation
GP gain competitive advantage through the way they design their
3. People Differentiation:
Almost half the total number of employees of GrameenPhone Ltd. today (Tuesday),
participated in the company's biggest customer care program to date.
"This customer service campaign follows up on the "Stay Close" promise from
GrameenPhone. As a caring company, GrameenPhone values its subscribers, stands by
them and takes care of them when they need help," explained GrameenPhone CEO Anders
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Jensen. Management Team led by, over 2000 employees, representing most of the
functional divisions and all the regional offices of GrameenPhone, spent the day
interacting with the customers in 124 popular local area markets and important public
places across the country. The purpose was to interact with the customers, help them in
solving their mobile phone related queries, and demonstrate Grameenphone's commitment
as a helpful and customer-oriented company.
5. Image Differentiation
GrameenPhone logo differentiates from the other companies. For that reason customer
easily identify them in the market, which is another effective competitive advantages for
GrameenPhone.
Positioning Statement:
Like human beings, products also have their own life-cycle. From birth to death human
beings pass through various stages e.g. birth, growth, maturity, decline and death. A
similar life-cycle is seen in the case of products. The product life cycle goes through
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multiple phases, involves many professional disciplines, and requires many skills, tools
and processes. Product life cycle (PLC) has to do with the life of a product in the market
with respect to business/commercial costs and sales measures. To say that a product has a
life cycle is to assert four things:
2. Growth stage
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3.Maturity stage
1. costs are lowered as a result of production volumes increasing and experience curve
effects
2. sales volume peaks and market saturation is reached
3. increase in competitors entering the market
4. prices tend to drop due to the proliferation of competing products
5. brand differentiation and feature diversification is emphasized to maintain or
increase market share
6. Industrial profits go down
If the inquiry is regarding general information, the customer relations officer does not need
to take help of information system. She/he just provides the information and the subscriber
keep the phone.
There are some queries that are much more personalized and the CM needs to get into the
account of that particular subscriber to provide the service. In some case, the subscriber
just keeps the complaint/ request and later action is needed to be taken.
Customer need to pay TK. 4 per minute to take the service from helpline.
2 Interactive Voice Responses (IVR):
This newly introduced service by GrameenPhone. This is automated helpline service. A
GP subscriber needs to dial 123 to reach this service. After that she/he can get information
regarding the bill, usage, credit policy, bank name that receives GP’s bill and so on by
choosing different options.Itisfree of charge for the first minute, from the second minute
the subscriber needs to pay tk.2 per minute.
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3. Information Centers:
Most of the problems of the subscribers are solved by the helpline service. But there are
some problems that can not be solved there. Subscriber need to come physically to deal
with that problems.Grameen Phone has seven customer relation centers and 380 GPSDs
which provide services all over the country.
These Customer Relation Centers are situated in the prime divisional head quarters like
Dhaka, Chittagone, Sylhet, Rajshahi and Khulna and GPSDs situated all most everywhere
in Bangladesh. In these information centers the subscribers can come directly with their
problems like billing, address change, SIM change, handset problems, etc. These after
sales services are very crucial to keep subscribers satisfied regarding GrameenPhone.
Survey Findings:
In order to measure the satisfaction of the customers a series of questions were asked to the
customers with the help of a questionnaire, the data from these questions are tabulated
below. For clear understanding, the overall satisfaction has been divided into satisfaction
with the package and satisfaction with the after sales service. As already mentioned, the
survey was conducted among hundred GrameenPhone subscribers, it was conducted in the
information center as subscribers from different areas in Dhaka come to this center .
Finding on Analysis
Several frequency distribution have been constructed to find the answers
regarding the customers perspective of grameen phone line users. By the
analysis. Some limitation of grameen providers have been identified. The most
important finding of the analysis is customers have claimed some problem on
their network system. It is found that some of the customer of grameen hardly
got connected after calling more then 4 or 5 times. This problem happens
especially in case of connecting outside Dhaka . it is found from the analysis on
customers occupation that the grameen is being more used by the students. Also
the have been frequently changing their choices regarding mobile service
providers. By proper customer care, once they catch this group for long
time,they can better perform in the market. Analysis shows that80% of the
customers use prepaid lines. One of the significant finding from the analysis is
that customer who use grameen , use the line because of minimum call charge
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However, there is dissatisfaction among the GP users with the service of the company.
Many important factors are acting as reasons behind this overall dissatisfaction. Quality of
airtime and network availability is not satisfactory.Grameen Phone connections are
difficult to reach sometimes. It so happens that the subscribers used to pay extra money to
get the access. This is especially true for prepaid service. It is encouraging that very
recently situation has improved to a certain extent bases on the findings in this report.
The “Info Centers” of GP are very important for some after sales services. But, there is
shortage of capacity of this service, In Dhaka “Info Centers” are located at Gulshan,
Dhanmondhi, Mothijheel, Uttara, these four centers cannot cope with the demand of vastly
populated Dhaka city. The GP helpline is also an important customer care tool. But it is
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also in shortage of capacity. Subscribers need to spend significant amount of time to reach
the helpline. Behavior of the helpline CM is also sometimes unmanageable. They are to
handle continuous queries. So it may so happen at times the CMs cannot keep up smiling
voice and amenable behavior.
Most of the subscribers are not happy with the billing rate of GP.They think it is too high
in the context of Bangladesh, But they are still using the service as GP is still more easily
accessible. Many newer companies are coming up with the lower price; it is thus a great
challenge to GP to face,
Another significant dissatisfaction of the GP users is that most of the GP connections are
mobile to mobile. Access to BTTB is not that good. Wider access with BTTB will boast
the subscribers. Most alarming thing is that most of the GrameenPhone users are not loyal
towards the company. If BTTB or any other company comes up with same sort of services,
the GP subscribers might switch to that company
Reference
www.grameenphone.com
www.wikipedia.com