Case Study: Banglalink Call Drop Campaign

Prepared for:

Md. RidhwanulHaq, PhD

Associate Professor
IBA, University of Dhaka

Prepared by:

Dina Tanzina Rahman (MBA 51E; 28)

Khandker Md. Readwanul Hoque (MBA 47E; 28)
M M Shahriar Kabir Siddiquee (MBA 45E; 40)

Date: 15 June 2015

About Banglalink:

Banglalink Digital Communications Limited (previously Orascom Telecom Bangladesh Limited) is

fully owned by Telecom Ventures Ltd. (previously Orascom Telecom Ventures Limited), which is a
100% owned subsidiary of Global Telecom Holding. Vimpelcom owns 51.92% shares of Global
Telecom Holding and plays the key coordination role among all the group concerns. Vimpelcom is
one of the world’s largest integrated. telecommunications services operators providing voice and
data services through a range of traditional and broadband mobile and fixed technologies in Russia,
Italy, Ukraine, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Armenia, Georgia, Kyrgyzstan, Laos, Algeria,
Pakistan, Burundi, Zimbabwe, Central AfricanRepublic, Canada and Bangladesh.

Since Banglalink’s launch in February 2005, its impact was felt immediately: overnight mobile
telephony became an affordable option for customers across a wide range of market segments.
Banglalink’s initial success was based on a simple mission: “bringing mobile telephony to the
masses”. Banglalink changed the mobile phone status from luxury to a necessity.

Banglalink attained 1 million subscribers by December 2005 and 3 million subscribers in October
2006. In less than two years which is by December 2007, banglalink overtook Aktel to become the
second largest operator in Bangladesh with more than 7.1 million customers. Banglalink currently
has 30.9 million subscribers as of December 2014, representing a market share of 25.47%.

Services:

The core services that banglalink provides are telecommunication services like peer to peer calling,
peer to peer SMS, internet services and value added services. Apart from these, Banglalink also
provides special offers to corporate clients and the high value segment, “ICON” subscribers. As a
part of its endeavor to engage the customers, Banglalink has a loyalty program named “Priyojon”.
The subscribers can register themselves as “Priyojon” subscribers and earn points based on their
usage of Banglalink services. The subscribers can then earn various gifts by redeeming the points.
Banglalink reinforced its focus towards enhancing the service perception amongst its subscribers.
As an initiative Banglalink launched its Call Drop Campaign, where the subscribers could get one
minute free talk-time for each Banglalink to Banglalink call drop.
Why Banglalink Launched the Call Drop Campaign:

When Banglalink entered the Bangladesh market, Grameenphone was already dominating the
market. At that point of time the call rates were very high and mobile phone was considered as a
luxury. Banglalink slashed its prices and brought down the call rate significantly. This resulted in to
faster subscriber acquisition but it lengthened the breakeven time for Banglalink as its revenue
potential also lessened due to the reduced price. As it took Banglalink longer time to monetize its
current network infrastructure, it could not invest vigorously on expanding the network. Thus
Grameenphone and Aktel had better network strength than Banglalink at the beginning. Over the
course of time Banglalink gained popularity and started investing higher on its network and
managed to ensure its network presence throughout the country. In almost all the areas Banglalink
had equal network coverage with its competitors. Despite having an optimum network, the
subscribers’ perception about the network did not improve. Banglalink was still considered as an
operator with substandard network coverage.

Banglalink wanted to come up with an innovative campaign that would improve its network
perception amongst its subscribers. So it launched the call drop campaign, “A Minute Back on Call
Drop”.

The Campaign: A minute Back on Call Drop:

Banglalink launched the campaign on 28th September, 2014. This campaign was promoted heavily
through ATL and BTL ( TVC, Press Ad, Digital Media, Facebook Page, SMS, End Call Notifications).
Through this campaign Banglalink highlighted the following:

“Banglalink cares for its customers and we are continuously focusing on giving our
customers the best network. Banglalink network saves you from call drop. Even if it
happens get 1 minute back on the call drop. For the first time in Bangladesh banglalink
launches this minute back on call drop offer. Whenever our customer will face call drop
in case of calling in any banglalink number s/he will get 1 min back. All banglalink
prepaid and postpaid customers will get this facility and they don’t need to subscribe or
recharge or even send any SMS to get this facility.”
Promotional Activities:

Press Ad:

Facebook Posts:

After launching the campaign, the market leader Grameenphone replicated the campaign.
Banglalink heavily promoted the campaign in social media and highlighted the fact that Banglalink
was the first to launch this campaign.
Market Response:

After launching the campaign the subscriber activity increased and the subscribers became more
active in the network. The below chart shows the percentage of active subscribers in each category
(active between last 0-15 days, active between last 16-31 days, active between last 31-90 days, Not
active)

This analysis was done on a specific subscriber base who availed call drop bonus and their network
activity before and after the campaign was analysis. The above statisticsshow that the number of
active subscriber increased and the number of inactive and relatively inactive subscribers
decreased. Before the campaign 98% of the subscribers were active in last 15 days whereas
subscriber percentage falling in category- activebetween 16-30 day, active between 31-90 day and
non-active in last 90 days were 1% in each category. After one month of the campaign subscribers
from non-active and active between 31-90 days moved to category- active between 0-15 days and
active between 16-30 days. This was a very interesting outcome resulting in more active subscriber
base and increased ARPU (average revenue per user).
A more in-depth analysis showed that 77% of the subscribers faced 1-5 call drops, 13% and 11%
subscribers faced 6-10 or more than 10 call drops each month. However, call drop was limited to
maximum 5 calls each month. So it cannot said that call drop refund was misused.

Number of call drop each month Availing deciles

Besides, among the call drop refund availing subscribes most of the subscribers were from top
decils, who were most valuable for Banglalink as they generate higher revenue. About 41% of the
availing subscribers were from top two deciles.

Outcomes of the Campaign:

What went right

Outcomes of the campaign and its financial implication were astonishing. In just one month total
usage of Banglalink subscribers increased by 1% and zero users decreased by 1%. It resulted in 2%
increase in ARPU and 0.5% increase in APPM (average price per minute). Most interestingly, off-net
outgoing calls increased by 3% though call drop refund was applicable only for on-net
calls.Outgoing call revenue increased by 2% after this campaign.

The campaign was launched on the motto- “satisfied customer base is the best business strategy of
all” and surely it resulted in a highly satisfied base. Measure of customer satisfaction level came out
from a tele-survey conducted by Banglalink a few months after the campaign started.
Below are the findings of a tele-survey conducted by Banglalink:

Questions Response Option Percentage

Did you notice that recently you got Tk.1 back Yes 23%
for your call drop as a good gesture from
No 77%
Banglalink?
How did you feel about this initiative which no Liked it 16%
other operator is doing? Did not like it 7%
No comment 0%
(If did not like):Would you please mention the Don’t want call drop 7%
reason why you did not like it? Don’t like receiving the SMS notification 0%
Others 0%
Do you think this initiative will strengthen your Yes 22%
relationship with Banglalink? No 0%
No comment 1%
Did you face call drop often? Yes 62%
No 38%
How do you think about the initiative of offering Good idea 60%
money back if you face call drop? Is it good idea Bad idea 1%
or not? No comment 1%
Do you think Banglalink takes better care of Yes 59%
you? No 1%
No comment 2%
Do you think Banglalink network is better now? Yes 70%
No 29%
No comment 1%

Those who noticed the campaign most of them liked it. Among 23% subscribes who noticed the
campaign 16% responded that they liked it. 62% of the respondents faced call drop and 60% think
that the initiative of offering money back in case of call drop was a good idea whereas only 1%
think that it was a bad idea.59% of the respondents think that Banglalink takes better care of them
and most interestingly 70% of them think Banglalink network has improved. The outcome was a
satisfied customer base who started to notice the improvement of Banglalink network performance.

What went wrong

Main motive of the campaign was to create awareness about Banglalink’s better network
performance which was hampered due to Grameenphone’s quick retaliation. Grameenphone copied
the same campaign overnight. Therefore, focus of subsequent market communications shifted to
establish pioneership. Banglalink tried to establish that they are the first to launch such campaigns
which care about the customer benefit. This dilution of focus resulted ambiguity causing less
awareness about network performance. This evident in the tele-survey result which shows that
77% of the respondents didn’t even noticed that they received bonus minute for call drop. Besides,
impact of the campaign was uneven- mostly high ARPU base availed the bonus. This may have been
caused due to lack proper communication in suburb and rural areas. Point of sales materials which
are more effective for rural area was not distributed on selective basis.

At this point Banglalink was at a fix- whether to continue the campaign or to plan something more
effective. Banglalink had already spent huge amount in ATL communications which were failing to
create expected level of awareness. Considering the positive response of the subscribers who
noticed, Banglalink decided to continue with the campaign to gradually build up the impact,
focusing more on core proposition and to target the lower deciles to increase awareness.
Circulation of POSM in key locations wereincreased to create more awareness. Out bound dials,
bulk SMS, cross channel communication through SMS for recharge and offer availing, etc. were also
employed to increase the reach. Simultaneously, recurring ATL presence was also there to remind
the subscribers along with brand promoters endorsement in the activation programs..

Questions:

1. What benefits do you think Banglalink received out of the campaign?

2. How would you evaluate the marketing communication of the campaign?
3. Why the campaign couldn’t create enough awareness about network performance?
4. Do you think call drop campaign was appropriate for addressing network perception
problem? Rationalize your opinion.