[Research Proposal]

The Television Industry in Bangladesh:

Unveiling Market Insights
1.0 Introduction
The TV market in Bangladesh is ever-increasing. Nowadays, most families earning more than
minimum wage have at least a CRT (Cathode-Ray Tube) TV. With the improvement of the
financial condition of the average household coupled with the rapid electrification in rural areas,
the use of TV among families across the country has tremendously increased over the last decade
and a half. Nowadays, people have an increasing tendency towards using LED (Light Emitting
Diode) TV instead of CRT TV.

Walton group is one of the largest conglomerates operating in the Bangladesh market with its
vibrant and dominant presence in the electrical, electronics, and automobiles industry. With a
workforce of over 20000 people, 22 production bases, and around 680 acres of factory area,
Walton established itself as a well-known Bangladeshi brand across the border and in a wide
range of product categories like the refrigerator, air conditioner, television, mobile phone, and
other electrical home appliances.

Over the years, Walton Television has been very successful in proving its business acumen and
establishing the trusted brand image in the minds of customers through its competitive price,
quality, state-of-the-art design & style, verities, latest technologies, widespread distribution
networks throughout the country, customer-centric company policy, and customer services—
leading to capture the substantial market share from its once-dominant competitors and
become the strongest market leader in the industry. Even many of the leading multinational
companies (MNCs) producing/assembling and marketing television products in the Bangladesh
market, once emerged as dominant players in the industry, have been almost outcompeted from
the market due to Walton’s exponential, customer-centric growth strategies primarily based
upon competitive price and superb performance in all respects; many of them are currently
struggling for their survival, losing their substantial market share to Walton Television.

Walton Television has not only captured the market share from its competitors but also created
a new market in both rural and urban areas. This has tremendously helped to increase the size
of the television market which has created ineffable opportunities for all the companies
operating in the industry to reap the benefits from the expanded market. In this regard, Walton
Television can be considered a mutually beneficial player in the television industry.

The total market size of the television industry in the country is around USD 414.22 million (as
per lightCastle partners). This makes the television industry the second largest segment in the
consumer electronic sector right after the refrigerator industry. Walton holds around 27%-35%
market share in the television industry (2018) & currently is the market leader. However, most
of the market share is covered by different local, international & Chinese brands which make the
television market somewhat saturated. There are strong local brands like Rangs, Vision, Singer,
Myone & then there are international brands with giants like SONY, SAMSUNG, PANASONIC,
TOSHIBA, PHILLIPS, LG). Overall, the growth projection of the industry for the upcoming years
is a little about 15%. Therefore, the industry is getting more competitive with time and more so
as international brands started manufacturing locally.
2.0 Research Problem
In this dog-eat-dog market, Walton Television is currently the market leader holding
approximately 27-35% market share. As a routine matter of R&D activities, Walton television
needs to revisit its POPs (points-of-parity) and PODs (points-of-difference) to check how
much their POPs and PODs currently stay relevant in constantly changing customers’ minds,
assess customer perceptions to different attributes of Walton Television, examine customer
experiences with different touchpoints of the total value chain of Walton Television, identify
customer pain-points, and measure the effectiveness of its marketing
communications/promotional programs targeted at its end-users creating pull demand and
channel members creating push demand. Thus, Walton Television needs to conduct a
comprehensive brand audit to know the health of the Walton television brand in terms of its
sources and effects of brand equity and recommend a set of suggestions for improving the
brand image, creating a loyal customer base and making the business sustainable while
competing with the international giants.

3.0 Scope of the Study

The core objective of this study is to have clear insights into the total dynamics of the television
market and identify the competitive position of Walton Television as a brand. The study can be
performed to undertake a comprehensive brand audit through examining customer level of
brand awareness, perceptions, attitudes, and experience with the brand as well as recommend
a set of branding strategies for building a sustainable, stronger brand and a loyal customer base.
Moreover, identifying the involvement of buying centre’s members is also critical to examine
since the buyer, influencer, and the user may not be the same identity.

For this, the study can be conducted in the following areas:

1. Determining the size of the television market, market share of Walton television in terms of
urban and rural markets, and its current position in the market compared to its competitors.
2. Conducting a comprehensive brand audit for Walton Television to assess the level of
customer brand awareness, reveal how its customers perceive the brand, identify the
sources of brand equity, and determine how the brand (television) is delivering its promises
to its customers comparing to the competition.
3. Assessing Walton customer perceptions towards television’s different attributes (similarity
or POP attributes and unique or POD attributes) and determining to what extent these
attributes stay relevant in the highly competitive and ever-changing market.
4. Identifying the strengths of Walton television together with its weaknesses or
inconsistencies and opportunities for improvement and new market developments.
5. Examining customer experiences with its marketing programs and also with different
touchpoints of the total value chain of Walton Television.
6. Determining the brand’s current positioning, brand associations and brand imagery in the
marketplace and examining the gaps between customers’ expectations and customer
attainments.
7. Profiling Walton customers in terms of geographic, demographic, physiographic, and
behavioural attributes.
4.0 Research Design

Type of Study:
Based on the nature of the study, we propose a mix of Qualitative and Quantitative approach for
the study.
Target Market
The target market for this study consists of four groups of people: Industry experts from inside
and outside the Walton Television, end-users of the brand, customers of the competitive
brands and channel members.
Sample frame, size and Technique
A sample of 1350 (+/- 10%) Walton and competitor customers from end-user groups will be
chosen for the study. The target customers will consist of 70-80% offline and 20-30% online
customers. Since the ultimate users of this product are housewives, the respondent category will
contain mostly so that the actual picture can be reflected in the findings of the study. The number
of sample respondents from eight divisions will be chosen. The respondents in all the eight
divisions will represent their representativeness proportionately. A combination of convenience
and judgmental sampling techniques will be used in selecting the respondents.
A sample of 15 retailers/distributers of Walton Television at retailing level from different
divisions (7-8 from Dhaka division and 7-8 from other divisions) will be selected based on
judgmental sampling technique.
A panel of 5 experts from the industry (inside and outside Walton) will also be selected for
expert opinions from the industry. All the experts will be selected based on judgmental sampling
technique.
Method of Data Collection and Instrument Used
The survey method will be used to collect necessary data from Walton customers, competitors’
customers, and retailers. Since the collection of true opinions from the respondents needs close
interaction with them, the survey will be conducted through direct face-to-face interview
using a pre-designed and pretested Semi Structured questionnaire. For pretesting the
questionnaire, the pilot survey will be conducted before preparing the final questionnaire. In
addition, the opinions of the marketing and brand teams of Walton Television will also be taken
into account before finalizing the questionnaire. The research team will conduct online survey
using Google form or survey monkey software.
Three sets of different questionnaires will be used, each containing some dichotomous, close-
ended, open-ended questions. For measuring the level of consumer awareness, perception,
attitude, preferences, and satisfaction, a 5-point Likert Scale will be used. In-depth interviews
with industry experts will be undertaken using a semi-structured guideline.
In addition, 5 ‘Focus Group Discussions’ (FGDs), each comprising 6-7 Walton customers in
Dhaka and other zones will be undertaken to have some customer insights with regard to brand
and its associated marketing programs. The homogeneity of the respondents will be maintained
based on their demographic and psychographic profiles. Each FGD session will continue for 1-
1.5 hours. All the sessions will also be audio-recorded.
Secondary data will also be used for this study. Marketing intelligence, scanning marketing
environment, studying some trade journals, etc. will be used in this regard. And the survey re

Survey questionnaire

Data Analysis
The descriptive method will be applied for the analysis of qualitative data. However, quantitative
data will be analyzed using SPSS, Minitab and Microsoft Excel sheet. Sentiment analysis will also
be done through Machine Learning (ML) algorithms.
Flow Chart of Survey Method
For the survey, the sequence of tasks ranging from issuing work order by the client to report
submission is shown in the following picture.
5.0 Budget

Costs of the Project:

The total cost of this project requires intensive involvement of expert consultants from
university and industry. Moreover, visiting relevant organizations in different districts is part
and parcel of this project. Preparing questionnaires for Walton customers and competitive
customers, conducting pilot survey for the final questionnaires, and surveying Walton
customers and competitor customers from different districts, and training the interviewers
involve a significant amount of costs. Lastly, report generation requires intensive involvement
of experts. The professional charges and project expenditure excluding any applicable VAT &
AIT for the project is Tk. ------- BDT (In words, ------- taka only)

Mode of Payments:
30% of the total cost for the project is to be paid along with the work order. 35% will be raised
at validation workshop. Lastly, the rest of the amount will be cleared right after submitting the
final draft.
 6.0 Timeline

Tasks
week Week Week Week Week Week Week Week Week Week
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

Planning the
Outline
Drafting the
proposal

Preparing the
Questionnaire
Executing the
Survey
Analyzing the
Data
Preparing
illustrations+
Compiling the
Final Report

Feedback on
report
Final report
submission

+ 1-2 Weeks