Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman Science And Technology

University, Gopalganj-8100, Dhaka

An Assignment On
Marketing Strategy of Grameenphone Company Ltd.
Submitted to
Israt Jahan
Lecturer
Department of Marketing
Submitted by
Name: Student ID
Soma Sarkar 18MGT017
Tanmoy Karmakar 18MGT024
Minhajul Abedin Turag 18MGT031
Md Ahasanul Haque 18MGT033
Sharfuddin Mahmud 18MGT057
Rasel Ahmmed 18MGT058
Md. Ibrahim Hossain 18MGT062
Raihanul Rafat 18MGT063
Arifa noor Suchi 18MGT068

Department of Management Studies

Date of Submission: 20-11-2019
 Executive Summary

Grameenphone is a GSM based cellular operator in Bangladesh. Grameenphone(GP) is the

telecommunications industry leader with investments in the dynamic markets of Bangladesh.
Experience has taught them the importance of telecommunications for economic development.
Grameenphone is committed to developing the services that best contribute to the growth of local,
regional, and national economies. Today, Grameenphone is the largest mobile phone company in
Bangladesh and market leader with more than half of the Bangladeshi market share.

Over the years, Grameenphone has always been a pioneer in introducing new products and services
in the local market. Grameenphone was the first company to introduce GSM technology in
Bangladesh when it launched its services in March 1997. Being one of the pioneers in developing
the GSM service in Europe, Telenor has also helped to transfer this knowledge to the local
employees over the years. The technological know-how and managerial expertise of Telenor has
been instrumental in setting up such an international standard mobile phone operation in
Bangladesh.

Grameenphone was the first operator to introduce the pre-paid service in September 1999. It
established the first 24-hour Call Center, introduced value-added services such as VMS, SMS, fax
and data transmission services, international roaming service, WAP, SMS-based push-pull
services, EDGE, personal ring back tone and many other products and services.
Introduction: 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. 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.

Company Profile 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 is the market leader of the telecommunication industry in Bangladesh with
more than 36 million subscribers as of December 2011. It is a joint venture enterprise between
Telenor and Grameen Telecom Corporation. Grameenphone got its operating license in November,
1996 and launch edits service on March 1997. Its head quarter is situated in Bashundhara
Residential Area.

The journey of Grameenphone started with the Village Phone program: a pioneering initiative to
empower rural women of Bangladesh. The name ‘Grameenphone’ translates to “Rural phone”.
Starting its operations on March 26, 1997, the Independence Day of Bangladesh, Grameenphone
has come a long way. Grameenphone pioneered the then breakthrough initiative of mobile to
mobile telephony and became the first and only operator to cover 98% of the country’s people
with network. Since its inception

Grameenphone has built the largest cellular network in the country. Presently, nearly 99 percent
of the country's population is within the coverage area of the Grameenphone network.
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 March1997.

It has now more than 1600 GP Service Desks across the country covering nearly all upazilas of
all districtsand 94 Grameenphone Centers in all the divisional cities.
STP Analysis: The STP process is an important concept in the study and application of
marketing. The letters STP stand for segmentation, targeting, and positioning. The STP process
demonstrates the links between an overall market and how a company chooses to compete in that
market.

STP for Grameenphone:

Step 1: Segmentation

There are many different ways to segment target markets. For example, we can use the following
approaches:

A. Demographic By personal attributes such as age, marital status, gender, ethnicity,

sexuality, education, or occupation.
B. Geographic – By country, region, state, city, or neighborhood.
C. Behavioral – By how people use the product, how loyal they are, or the benefits that they
are looking for.

Demographic Bases:

Demographic

Age Income Occupation

Age:
Grameenphone successfully launched dujice an international youth brand on 2005. This was the
first time in Bangladesh that a brand totally dedicated to the youth was launched by a mobile
phone service provide.

Income:
In Bangladesh peoples have different level of income. Considering this, GP provides various
offer such as:
 Scratch Card of 50 Tk.
 Scratch Card of 50 Tk.
 Scratch Card of 50 Tk.
 Occupation:
GP also devided their product according to the necessity of people. Such as, GP National, GP
Regular, Anytime 300, Easy Gold. These are post paid and others are prepaid.

Geographic Bases:

Geographic

National International

Urban Rural

Urban Area:
GP a first products for their urban subscribers. Some of the products that GP provide their urban
subscribers are:
 GP Regular
 GP National
 Anytime 300
 Anytime 500
 Easy Gold
 Easy Pre-paid

Rural Area:
After introducing their product they have concentrated about the country side. One of the
important product/service of GP is “Village Phone Programme”. (VPP)
 Subscriber
100000
90000
80000
70000
60000
50000
40000
30000
20000
10000
0
2000-2001 2001-2002 2002-2003 2003-2004

Bar chart: Village Phone Subscriber

Step 2: Targeting
A well-defined target market is the first element to a marketing strategy. The target market and the
marketing mix variable of product, distribution, promotion and price. The major elements of a
marketing mix strategy that determine the success of a product in the market place. Grameenphone
influenced his target market by his advertisement. For different types of target market
Grameenphone launched different types of product and different types of advertisement.
Step 3: Positioning
Grameenphone has planned their strategy as below while positioning:
 Djuice, Targeted the youth extremely well.
 Smile Pre-Paid & PSTN, because of Low flat tariff and nationwide mobility, it’s a Pre-paid
service, no monthly rent required and instant use due to pre-activation, no hassles of bill
payment.
 Xplore because of low flat tariff, nationwide mobility, connectivity to other operator’s
mobiles in different zones.
 EDGE Service through mobile because of easy access, interesting theme and reasonable
rate and for being new and innovative.
In this way, Grameenphone in a good position. They publish a very nice advertisement. Also they
refer for their refers by announcement.

Products or Services:
As being in a service oriented business GrameenPhone relies more on coverage and quality than
the number of services or products offered. It has divided its product into two types: Standardized
and customized product.
Standard product:
Standardised product is further divided into two categories i.e. Prepaid and Post-paid.
 Smile(Standard)
 Smile prepaid STD.
 Shohoj package
 Apon Package
 Bondhu package
 Badhonpac
 1. 4G Router

Product Name: HUAWEI B311AS-853 Router

Product details:
 Customer will get One IoT Prepaid SIM Free
 This offer will be available at GP Sales Channels (GPC, GP Online Shop)
Tagging Offer:
 Free 1GB internet for 7 days validity
Purchase Offer:
 Customer can purchase any GP Internet package
 Internet Offer Activation Process will be as follows:
Tagging:
 The free 1GB internet offer will be activated by sales agent right after the activation of the
SIM

2. 4G Modem

Product Name: GP 4G Modem - ZTE MF833T

Product Details:
 Download speed up to 150Mbps and upload speed to 50Mbps.
 Supports LTE-FDD/TD-LTE/UMTS/GSM networks based on Qualcomm MDM9225
chipset.
 Can be configured by Web UI.
Bundle Offers:
 On first time tagging FREE 4GB 4G data - validity 7 days
  On purchase 4GB regular data (validity 7 days) at 179TK (inclusive all charge), FREE
4GB 4G internet (validity 7 days)
 Customer can purchase this data bundle offer 9 times (3 times in a month) in 3 months and
can get maximum FREE 36GB data
 By FREE 4GB 4G data on tagging and on purchase FREE 36GB 4G data (maximum),
customer can enjoy up to FREE 40GB 4G data

3. Nishchinto (prepaid sim)

Product details:
Nishchinto is the default Consumer prepaid price plan offered from Grameenphone. Every new
consumer prepaid connection is a Nishchinto connection. It gives you the opportunity to make any
local voice calls, with a call rate of 23 poisha per 10 second.
 10 Second pulse will be applicable in this package
 All other tariffs of SMS, Intl SMS, MMS, Ring tone, Welcome Tune , Value Added
Services (VAS), Internet Packages and contents etc. remain AS IS or similar to any other
prepaid package
 Bondhu, Smile & djuice will be able to migrate to this package. To migrate, customer needs
to write “N” and send SMS to 24444. Or just dial *121*1*6*2#
 Customer of this package can also migrate to the other prepaid price plans of
Grameenphone i.e. Bondhu & djuice
 Customer will be able to migrate out to other consumer prepaid packages after each 1
calendar day of migration
 No F&F or Community feature is applicable for this package
 10% Supplementary Duty (SD) + 15 % VAT inclusive of SD will be applicable for all
charges + 1% surcharge on base tariff
 4. Bondhu (Prepaid sim)

Product Details:
This package with the highest number of F&F numbers, allows you to talk to your near and dear
ones at the lowest rate. This is the first time that a total of 18 F&F numbers are allowed for each
Bondhu customer. With 10 second pulse facility, this is the only Consumer prepaid package
offered by Grameenphone that gives you the privilege of calling to 1 GP-GP Super F&F at only
7.5 poisha/10 second. In addition, 17 (maximum) any operator F&F are available at 12 poisha/10
second.
 18 F&F numbers in total
 1 GP-GP super F&F
 17 (maximum) GP-GP F&F or GP-Other operator F&F in any combination
 Calls to GP-GP Super F&F numbers at 7.5 poisha/10 second
 Calls to GP-GP F&F numbers at 12 poisha/10 second
 Calls to other operator F&F number at 12 poisha/10 second
 All GP-GP calls (excluding F&F calls) at 27.5 poisha/10 second
 All GP-Other Operator calls (excluding F&F calls) at 27.5 poisha/10 second
 10% Supplementary Duty (SD) + 15 % VAT inclusive of SD will be applicable for all
charges + 1% surcharge on base tariff
 5. Minute pack

Product details:
 To avail this Talk Time offer, eligible customers : Consumer Prepaid except I-Sim, Flexi
Load SIM and BPO) and Consumer Postpaid (Xplore, Xplore Special, Xplore Plus,
MyPlan, Xplore P2P) will need to dial *121*5074#
 Customer will get 500 Minutes (GP-Any local operator)
 The validity of the Minutes will be 30 Days and can be used for 24 hours of the day
 At the end of the validity period, if a customer has any remaining minutes, it will be
forfeited. However, if a customer re-purchases the same pack (500 Min @ Tk 288 30 days
validity pack) within the validity period, the minutes will be added and the validity will be
updated
 Customers need to dial *121*1*2# to know the remaining minutes balance
 The minutes purchased can be used for any local operator
 The price is inclusive of SD, VAT and SC

6. Djuice (Prepaid sim)

Product Details:
New djuice price plan from Grameenphone Ltd. is designed with the Youth in mind. It addresses
the most relevant elements of atypical Youth lifestyle: F&F, Super F&F!
You can talk to any local numbers at only 25 poisha/ 10 second. In addition, 3 Super FnF (any
local numbers) at only 7.5 poisha/10 second and 10 FnF any local numbers are available at 12
poisha/10 second. Besides, if you are text & tech savvy, you can satisfy your thirst by by
purchasing a SMS bundle along with discounted smaller Internet Pack!!
 In order to migrate to new djuice, type D and send to 24444.
 Pulse: 10 Seconds
 A subscriber can also migrate to the other prepaid price plans - Bondhu and Nishchinto
 10 FnF numbers at 12 poisha/ 10 second
 3 Super FnF numbers at 12 poisha/ 10 second

7. My Plan (Postpaid Sim)

Product Details:
MyPlan is offering a new postpaid monthly bundle from Grameenphone with the best 4G network.
This bundle is designed to give you a greater essence of the digital lifestyle by riding on a Telco
boat. With MyPlan, you are getting the best call rates, free data every month, carry forward feature
and auto renewal service of monthly bundle or, commitment plan- as per your choice. Star status,
access to priority service and other offers come along with MyPlan.
You need to pay 100 Taka for MyPlan sim. However, 200 Tk is required as security deposit and
you will enjoy below mentioned offers:
 Upto 18 GB free data offer for next 6 months
 500 MB Data (for 15 days) as activation freebies
 249 Tk talktime for 30 days with 65 poisha/min local call rate
 Free 1Gb every month
 Unused amount carry forward (with bundle/plan auto renewal option)
  20% Data bonus on 1Gb & above data packs
 Minute pack/ Rate cutters are also usable

8. IoT Products

Product Name: eVTS

Product details:
Grameenphone eVTS solution helps to manage your vehicle like never before. Take better care of
your car and everyone in it with GP eVTS solution, the integrated system that assists and empowers
you. Vehicle tracking, navigation, management, incident alarms, reports, driving behavior
analytics and engine monitoring solution that lets you interact with your vehicle from the
convenience of a mobile app.
 No installation required. Simply plug the device in your vehicle’s OBD-II port
 Navigate to your desired place without leaving the app
 Scan your vehicle & find out possible issues by yourself
 Get notified immediately on incidents of your car
 Get fuel consumption data based on every trip/day
 Get driving scores & see if you or your driver is driving safe
 9. Apon (Prepaid sim)

Product Details:
 10 second pulse will be applicable for On/Off-net calls
 Aapon subscribers can also migrate to the other prepaid price plans like Nishchinto,
Bondhu, Amontron and djuice
 No differential charging will be applicable (Same for 1st and rest of the minutes)
 All other service charges will remain unchanged
 3% Supplementary Duty (SD) +15 % VAT on price/tariff inclusive of SD will be
applicable
 This package allows you to call all local numbers at a very low rate of 16.5 poisha/10
second during 16 hours of the day.
 All Aapon subscribers can migrate to the other prepaid price plans i.e. Nishchinto, Bondhu,
Amontron and djuice.

10. Village Phone

Product Details:
Village Phone Program is a noble effort by tri party (GP-GTC-GB) to eliminate poverty by
providing self-employment opportunity. Village Phone program has created an income-earning
opportunity for the VP operators, mostly poor women and borrower members of Grameen Bank,
who are now able to make their opinions count.
 Prepaid Price Plan
 Tk. 50 Preloaded talk time with validity of 30 days
 Make and Receive Calls from any phone (Mobile, PSTN,ISD)
 Electronic and Scratch Card Based Recharge
 VP Community Pricing
 1 sec pulse
 10% Supplementary Duty (SD) + 15 % VAT inclusive of SD will be applicable for all
charges + 1% surcharge on base tariff
 *To migrate this optional tariff plan Please Dial *479*2# (free)
 *To migrate the default tariff plan Please Dial *479*1# (free)

11. Internet Pack

Product Details:
 6GB for 7 Days (Activation+6) days at Taka 148
 This campaign will run until further notice
 After expiration (Volume or Validity) of every internet pack maximum PayGo rate will be
5.825 Tk (inclusive VAT, SD & SC)
 Unused data volume will be carried forward if the customer purchases the same campaign
offer within the active validity period
 Activation code: *121*3262#
 During pack purchase, for 'Payment through bKash or cards' any prior subscription free or
emergency balance usage will be deducted from the amount recharged for pack or offer
purchase. In that case internet pack or Offer that you have selected may not be activated.
 Dial *121*1*4# to know internet balance
 Offer applicable for all GP customers
 Price:
A price is the quantity of payment or compensation given by one party to another in return for one
unit of goods or services. Different types grameenphone price are discussed below, like: package,
call rate and internet rate.

A. Minute Packs:

Grameenphone provides different types of minute packs in different prices. Which are starts
from 2.5 Taka. And these packs are so popular to everyone. Here we discuss on some popular
packs.

1. 125 minutes at 78 Tk.

Price details:

78 Taka (inclusive VAT, SD & SC)

Customers will get 125 Minutes (GP-Any local operator)

Validity for 7 days.

 2. 85 minutes & 50 SMS at 53 Tk

Price details:
53 Taka (inclusive VAT, SD & SC)
Customers will get 85 Minutes & 50 SMS (GP-Any local operator)

Validity for 7 days.

3. 100 minutes at 59 Tk

Price details:
59 Taka (inclusive VAT, SD & SC)
Customers will get 100 Minutes (GP-Any local operator)

Validity for 7 days.

 4. 400 minutes at 233 Tk

Price details:
233 Taka (inclusive VAT, SD & SC)
Customers will get 400 Minutes (GP-Any local operator)

Validity for 15 days.

5. 40 minutes at 24 Tk

Price details:
24 Taka (inclusive VAT, SD & SC)
Customers will get 40 Minutes (GP-Any local operator)

Validity for 10 hours.

 B. Internet Packs:

Grameenphone provides different types of internet packs in different prices. Which are starts
from 5 Taka. And these packs are so popular to everyone. Here we discuss on some popular
packs.

1. 2 GB at 54 Tk

Price details:
54 Taka (inclusive VAT, SD & SC)
Customers will get 2 GB internet

Validity for 72 hours.

2. 3 GB at 289 Tk
Price details:
289 Taka (inclusive VAT, SD & SC)
Customers will get 3 GB internet

Validity for 30 Days

3. 6 GB at 148 Tk

Price details:
148 Taka (inclusive VAT, SD & SC)
Customers will get 6 GB internet

Validity for 7 Days

4. 3 GB at 89 Tk
Price details:
108 Taka (inclusive VAT, SD & SC)
Customers will get 3 GB internet

Validity for 7 Days

5. 1 GB Bioscope pack at 17 Tk

Price details:
17 Taka (inclusive VAT, SD & SC)
Customers will get 1 GB bioscope pack

Validity for 7 Days

 C. Packages

1. Nishchinto

Price details:
200 Taka (inclusive VAT, SD & SC)
 Call Rate: 23 poisha/10 second
 FNF: N/A
 SMS: 50 poisha / SMS
 Pulse: 10 second
 2. Bondhu

200 Taka (inclusive VAT, SD & SC)

 Call Rate: 27.5 poisha/10 second
 FNF: 1 Super FnF (7.5 poisha/10 second) & 17 FnF (12 poisha/10 second)
 SMS: 50 poisha / SMS
 Pulse: 10 second

Place:
 Most of the operators have established their distribution facilities almost everywhere in
Bangladesh. They have their own customer care centers almost in all the important areas of almost
all the different regions of the country.
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 May‟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 upazilas 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.

Promotion:
In the case of promotion, mobile companies are very aggressive. They place their ads in
everypossible media - from TV to radio, from print media to Internet, from the body of the buses
tobillboards. Operators spend enormous amounts of money on advertisements, often acquiring
theservices of leading media producers and actors to direct and play out TV
commercials.Grameenphone maintain the strongest promotional strategy among the telecom
companies of our country. Basically Grameenphone uses advertising as a promotional tool to make
a communication task to be accomplished with a specific target audience during a specific period
of time.

Grameenphone Promotional tools

Advertising Sales Promotion Public Relation Personal selling Direct

Marketing

 Price packs
 Newspaper  Cash  Publication
 Television Refund s
 Offers 
Radio Events  Inside
Prizes 
 Magazines News Sales Force
 Patronage 
 Newsletter Award
Sponsorshi
 ps
Internet  Premium  Public
1. Advertising
 Newspaper advertisement (print media)
 Television advertisement
 Radio advertisement and also sponsoring radio shows.
 Billboard.
 Internet based advertisement.

2. Sales Promotion:

 Cash refund offer
 Prizes/gifts for the premium users.
 Discount offers at different shops that has partnership with GP.
 3. Public Relation:
 Publications
 Events
 Sponsorship (GP Hangout)

4. Personal Selling:
 Inside sales force that conduct outbound business from the customer care center through
telephone and visit to prospective buyers.

5. Direct Marketing:
Direct marketing is a form of communicating an offer, where organizations communicate directly
to a pre-selected customer and supply a method for a direct response. Among practitioners, it is
also known as direct response marketing.

SWOT Analysis of Grameenphone:

The SWOT analysis of Grameenphone Ltd. is described as below:
1. Strength:
 Market leadership and financial soundness •
 Largest geographical coverage
 Largest coverage of international roaming service
 Strong distribution channels
 Dynamic management team
 24 hours customer services
 Skilled human resources

1. Weakness:
 Comparatively high call-rate
 Complicated pricing structure
 Network Limitation
 Some value-added services are not successful:

2. Opportunities
 Increased demand for telecom service
 Continuous growth opportunities
 New international gateway
 Increased cross border communication
 Attractive market

3. Threat
 Devaluation of Taka
 Price war
 Switching behavior of customers
 Aggressive marketing strategies by competitors
Recommendation:
 More investment on digital marketing.
 Promoting Digital Marketers:
 Grameenphone Ltd. should also look up the matter to improve their pay grade because this
will only improve the growth of GP itself in the long run.
 Promotions are very important in terms of service like GP internet modem
 Promotions should be designed in innovative concept
 Brand is not always works in terms of effect on the purchasing pattern of the consumers.
 Not only ads but also whole promotional mix is important for attract the consumers
 Promotions should deliver the consumer needs to satisfy the consumers
 When its matter to design the promotion, the company should give the proper information
in the promotions that a consumer can easily understand.
 Promotional frequency and availability is also important to draw the attention of the
consumers.
 Besides the promotion, the company should also be consider the quality and price of the
service to satisfy the consumers.
 The company should give more ads in TV as it is most popular media for our country
people.

Conclusion:
Grameenphone Ltd. keeps modifying their talk time packages with several offers on daily basis.
However, till date, the acceptance of GP among the youth is lesser than the other competitors
because of the pricing of GP’s product. Where one can afford unlimited internet with high speed
via other operators connection, GP is still providing expensive net packages. Although GP is
trying their best to get engaged with the customers through various social media platforms and
their service motto is – “CUSTOMER FIRST”, it has been observed that the growing
subscription number has lesser youth in it. Although cost-effective pricing strategy is the best
tool, if GP can deliver superior value by exceeding the customer expectations on product
attributes and continues such customer engagement in the upcoming days, it sure will be able to
hold its’ number one position in the telecom industry.