Assignment on Integrated Marketing Communication Campaign Planning

of Grameenphone.

Submitted to

Nigar sultana
Associate Professor
Department of Marketing
Jahangirnagar University

Submitted by
Shobuz Mia
Id:20182077

Course Name: Integrated Marketing Communication

Subject Code : EMKT 512
Season: Summer 2021

Submition Date : January 17 ,2022.

 BACKGROUND, PURPOSE, FOCUS

Grameen Phone is now one of the leading telecommunication service providers in

Bangladesh with more than 23 million subscribers as of December 2009. In November 28,
1996 Grameen Phone was offered a cellular license in Bangladesh by the Ministry of Posts
and Telecommunications with a view to covering the whole country with a good quality
network. And with a great surprise after almost 10 years of its operation, Grameen Phone has
over 10 million subscribers. Presently, there are about 50 million telephone users in the
country, of which, a little over one million are fixed-phone users and the rest mobile phone
subscribers.
Starting its operations on March 26, 1997, the Independence Day of Bangladesh,
GrameenPhone has come a long way. It is a joint venture enterprise between Telenor
(55.8%), the largest telecommunications service provider in Norway with mobile phone
operations in 12 other countries, and Grameen Telecom Corporation (34.2% ), a non-profit
sister concern of the internationally acclaimed micro-credit pioneer Grameen Bank. The other
10% shares belong to 10%to general retail and institutional investors. 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.The technological know-how and managerial expertise
of Telenor has been instrumental in setting up such an international standard mobile phone
operation in Bangladesh. 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.
Connecting you to what matters most. Empowering societies.
Grameen phones’s basic strategy is coverage of both urban and rural areas. In contrast to the
“island” strategy followed by 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.
New manufacturing technologies are developing rapidly, resulting in new products/services,
innovations and improvements in the manufacturing process, thus, requiring a proactive
approach by organizations. To be proactive, organizations require innovative methods of
performance measurement, to assess their progress towards achieving organizational mission,
vision and strategic objectives.

SITUATION ANALYSIS
SWOT Analysis of Grameenphone
The Strengths of Grameenphone:

Market Leader: It is the market leader in the telecommunication industry in Bangladesh.

Collaboration with Apple and Samsung: It sells smartphones of different recognized
brands including apple (iPhones) and Samsung (Galaxy). These phones are offered with
different packages. Users can buy these smartphones paying the price at instalment. This
strategy gives Grameenphone extra advantages to reach and sell their connections to the
upper society of the country.
Introduction of latest Technologies: It has always been the first mover to introduce latest
technologies among all the private telecommunication companies of Bangladesh.

Network Availability: Grameenphone has the largest network coverage. It has a large
number of BTS station all over Bangladesh. That is why the company can provide better
connectivity with excellent clear networking system in most of the areas of Bangladesh.
Among all, GP introduced 3G networking service second after the Teletalk (the government-
owned Telecom Company).

Brand Value: Grameenphone is well known all over the country because of its strong
network which developed the strongest brand image in the country. This brand recognition
symbolizes the strongest business activities.

Revenue: Because of effective strategic planning, quality service, and networking coverage
Grameenphone has been able to earn a strong revenue growth which gave them financial
soundness.
Skilled Human Resources: Most of the stuff of Grameenphone are highly skilled and
efficient in many ways in their job responsibilities. The reason behind this responsible
manner is the Human Resource Department of Grameenphone which follows an ethical
strategy to recruit and manage employees.

Effective Support Organization: GP has taken this idea from the employees of Bangladesh
Railway and Grameen Bank who are experienced and capable of providing precious and
effective guidelines for the operations.

Easiest Access to the Widest Rural Network: Grameenphone has been dedicated to set up a
strong network through the widest rural area across the country to provide the utmost service
to the people of the country.

High Ethical Standards: To ensure the quality of services, Grameenphone has been very
strict to follow its ethical standards.

Weaknesses Of Grameenphone
Cultural Gap: In the management body of Grameenphone, employees from different
countries and cultures exist. The Chief Executive Officer and Chief Technical Officer are
Indian and many employees come from different countries around the world. Because of this
reason, there may sometimes be a lack of understanding due to the cultural gap. Also, they
might not realize to understand the future goals of the company.

Different Mind: Sometimes, idea variety creates problems. In Grameenphone, it is highly

encouraged to innovate and apply a new strategy for providing better service. Sometimes, it
could create a problem because employees are used to with the previous strategy.

Complicated Pricing Structure: Grameenphone has lots of service packages. The pricing of
these packages and their billing policies are different. These are difficult to promote and hard
for users to understand.

Technical Problems with Offered Packages: Almost all of the new offers from
Grameenphone are having some technical problems and users are experiencing those
problems. Either they are not working at all or part of the services of those offers is disabled.
The Grameenphone is not aware of those problems. They are delaying to give a solution to
these problems. As a result, it is increasing customer dissatisfactions.

TARGET MARKET

Price is important for every type of services. GP are always try to provide best service for low
prices. Most of the competitor offer low rates but negotiate with the quality services. But GP
believes that if a customer want quality services then ha must to pay high rates.

GPs target customers are upper middle and lower class and their price is as possible as low;
for that they are keeping their existing subscriber loyal and create such potential subscriber
who are mentally prepared to use their services with lower price.

GP offer various promotions for their subscriber like bonus talk time for night talk, free SMS,
free t-shirt, cap etc. GP gave the advertisement of their product through electronic and no
electronic Medias. Very recently they start new campaign “Pothe Pothe” to increase their
sale.

IMC CAMPAIGN OBJECTIVES

Grameenphone in Bangladesh is now synonymous with not just connectivity, but also
reaching higher altitude and achieving the impossible. Since its inception, Grameenphone
(also known as GP) has invested heavily in its IMC campaign. Starting from the more
ordinary billboards and posters, to the more expensive TV commercials, to the more
innovative products like manually charged lamps, the marketing team of GP has always
challenged the obvious.

In recent times, GP has come up with the slogan of “Cholo Bohudur”, translated which
means Going Further. Backed up by its infrastructure of 3G network and countrywide
coverage, GP exhibits how it is helping people move further in life using the benefits of one
of the finest networks in Bangladesh.

GP has always tried to associate itself with the indomitable spirit of Bangladesh and the rise
of Bangladesh as a formidable force in the world. When it comes to the rise of Bangladesh,
we as a nation are extremely proud of the achievements of our national cricket team. GP has
been quick to realize this and when the opportunity came in the form of the 2015 Cricket
World Cup, they reacted in a well organized manner.

GP took the title sponsorship for this event from Bangladesh and launched the logo of “Cholo
Bangladesh”. The purpose was to bring together the whole of Bangladesh under one banner –
the banner of hope and prayer for the Bangladesh Cricket Team and everything that we stand
for.

GP filled the major cities of Bangladesh with billboards containing these images.

BARRIERS, BENEFITS, COMPETITION

GP has four behaviours that guide the way they work:

 Always Explore: We believe growth comes from learning every day. We’re curious
and we dare to challenge, test, fail fast and pivot.
  Create Together: We believe diverse teams find better solutions. We seek different
perspectives, share, involve and help each other succeed.
 Keep Promises: We believe that trust is key in all our relationships. We take
ownership and pride in delivering with precision and integrity.
 Be Respectful: We believe in the unique human ability to understand what matters
for people. We meet everyone at eye level, listen and show that we care.

Functional Level Strategy - GrameenPhone's focus is on efficiency, quality, innovation, and

customer responsiveness. This enables the organization to earn competitive advantage over
the competitors. Business Level Strategy - GrameenPhone mainly applies cost leadership
strategy.
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.

POSITIONING STATEMENT
1. Product Differentiation: Network (best, quality): Grameenphone has the largest network
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 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: Business Solutions is a complete, quality business communications
service from Grameenphone – designed especially for the business community in
Bangladesh. Their Business Solutions teams are here to help provide their customers with
customized telecommunications solutions through consultation with their customers.
Messaging Services GrameenPhone have various messaging services allow the customers
ways to communicate smarter, faster, more efficiently and more cost- effectively on the go.
SMS (Short Message Service): 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 provides the flexibility to record it up to 120 seconds of audio – MMS
(multimedia messaging): The MMS service provides to take pictures customize it with
animation, 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 Chartered Bank, BRAC Bank, Bank
Asia, etc. Customer Services.
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 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. .
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: Company and Brand Positioning
should be summed up in a positioning statement. GrameenPhone positioning statement is
“Stay Close” which explain that customer can easily express their emotion with their close
relatives & friends through using GrameenPhone.

VALUE PROPOSITION
Grameenphone’s manifesto is to add value to customers’ practical use making things simple
and easy to understand. The company never forgets to try its customers’ lives easier. GP is
focuses on creativity. So it brings energy and imagination to the work and wants to be partner
in development and is passionate about its business, customers and country. The company
understands what it should do and how to put things right. Over all GP acknowledges and
respects local culture and comes forward with an open, helpful and friendly attitude.

Thank you