Term Paper

“Factors Influencing Consumers’ Buying

Pattern towards SIM Card in Bangladesh:
A study on Grameenphone Ltd.”
 Course Name: Marketing Management

Course Code: MKT 201

SEC: 02

Semester: SPRING’2014

Date of Submission: 24/03/2014

Submitted To :
Mahmud Zubayer
Assistant Professor
Dept. of Business Administration
East West University

Submitted By:

Name ID

ArnabMitraSumit ( Leader ) 2013-1-10-293

Md. SadmanRashed Khan 2011-2-10-266

Md. Mainul Islam 2011-2-14-076

ZahirunBintaZahir 2011-3-10-157

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 Acknowledgement

First and foremost, we would like to thank our supervisor of this course, Mahmud
Zubayer for the valuable guidance and advice. He inspired us greatly to work in this term
paper. His willingness to motivate us contributed tremendously to our term paper. We
also would like to thank him for showing us some example that related to the topic of our
term paper.

Besides, we would like to thank the authority of Grameenphone Limited for providing us
with a good environment and facilities to complete this term paper. Also, we would like
to take this opportunity to thank to the employees ofInbound Contact Center, Customer
Service, Grameenphone Limited for providing us valuable information and time.

In addition, we would also like to thank Mr. GolamMuktadirChowdhury, Manager,

Inbound Contact Center, Customer Serviceof Grameenphone Limited who provided us
valuable information as the guidance of our term paper.

Finally, we would like to thank those people who helped us to complete our questionnaire
by answering our survey questions. Without helps of the particular that mentioned above,
we would face many difficulties while doing this.

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 Table of Contents

Content Page no.

Executive Summary 5
Introduction 6
Objectives of the study 7
Methodology of the study 8

Strengths & Weaknesses of theBrand 9-10

from an Image Perspective
Strengths & Weaknesses of the 11
product
Factors Influencing Consumers’ 12-13
Buying Pattern
Data Analysis & Interpretation 14-16
Recommendations 17
Conclusions 18
Sources 19-22

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 Executive Summary
Grameenphone is the largest telecommunication service provider in the particular market.
They started their internet service facility since long. They initially started with the GPRS
system and then they established the EDGE system which is faster than the previous one.
Although the two systems are working simultaneously the service gained by the customer
is depend on his/her mobile phone or the modem. Sometimes it depends on the network
coverage. Meanwhile, there are other five service providers in this market. So, it is a very
competitive market where Aktel and Citycell are aggressively advertising their Internet
service.
This research is intended to determine what factors are considered by the customers to
use Grameen Phone internet service. And find out the dependency of the factors on
customer satisfaction.
In this research I have tried to use the market information and also the research analysis
by having the survey.

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 Introduction

Consumer buying pattern is all about typical manner in which consumers purchase goods
or services (or firms place their purchase orders) in terms of amount, frequency, timing,
etc. It is important for a company to know about consumer’s buying pattern because
without knowing it, the company can’t make decision about their marketing strategy. In a
country like Bangladesh, a popular company like Grameenphone has to consider about
consumer buying pattern because Bangladesh is one of the big market of
telecommunication. Grameenphone has been successful to build a superior image in
comparison to the other operators. In other words, GP has a clear advantage over the
competitors. Grameenphone has some additional features in comparison to its
competitors. It is playing a vital role to increase the subscribers of Grameenphone.
Another important thing is that GP users are mostly satisfied with the initial price of GP
connections and handsets. Because, before GP’s introduction to the market, mobile
phones were totally out of reach to the major part of the current market. Moreover,
Grameenphone subscribers are happy with the country wide network. In spite of this, GP
users are not satisfied with service of the company.

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 Objective of the study

This term paper was designed to accomplish two objectives. The objectives were
identified through a closer interaction and exchange of views with the customers of
Grameenphone and employees of Grameenphone.:

Primary Objective: To find out the factors that influence Consumers’ buying pattern
towards SIM cards and mobile services in Bangladesh.

Secondary Objective: To find out specific factor which influence buying decision the
most.

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 Methodology of the study

Research Method:

Research was done by collecting organizational information and also customers view
over Grameenphone’s products and services directly.

Primary Sources:

This study was mainly based on primary data that was collected through direct survey. To
accomplish this, a questionnaire was developed that consisted mainly closed ‐ended
questions.

Secondary Sources:

Some data and other necessary information were collected by interviewing officials of
Grameenphone Limited and also from its website and newspapers and articles. These can
also be treated as secondary data.

Limitation of the Study:

Grameenphone’s basic strategy is widening its market through its emerging countrywide
network. As a result of this strategy, the subscribers are from different segments or from
different income levels. Moreover, the subscribers are scattered all over the country. The
time constraint confined the study mostly on the data collected in Dhaka zone. Moreover,
it was not possible to get all required internal information of the company as these are
treated as confidential to the company. The outcome of the study can thus be regarded
exploratory, and may not be treated as absolute for the whole country.

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 Strengths & Weaknesses of the Brand from Image Perspective

Strengths:

Good Owner Structure: Grameenphone has the best owner structure in the
telecommunication industry of Bangladesh. Telenor is one of the largest companies,
which is operating in different countries around the world. Again, in Bangladesh,
Grameen Bank is one of the largest NGO, which has the better communication all over
the country.

Market Leader: Grameenphone is the first organization in Bangladesh, which have

reached to the general people. Though City Cell had started their operation beforehand,
but they were unable to reach the general people. So, the people are being used to with
Grameenphone. This is a huge advantage of Grameenphone.

Network Availability:Grameenphone has widest network coverage and a large number

of BTS station (Tower) all over Bangladesh. That’s why the company can provide better
connectivity in most of the area of the country.

Financial Soundness:Because of effective planning, Grameenphone is able to earn a

healthy amount of revenue, which gives them financial soundness.

Skilled Human Resource: All the staff, which are related to Grameenphone are skilled
and effective in their own job responsibility. The reason behind this is the Human
Resource department of Grameenphone follows ethical strategy to recruit new
employees.

Effective Support Organization: Grameenphone have shared the idea from the
employees of Bangladesh Railway and Grameen Bank, who are experienced and was
able to provide precious guideline for the operation of Grameenphone.

Access to the Widest Rural Network through Grameen Bank:Through the help of
Grameen Bank, this was easier to Grameenphone to reach the rural area of Bangladesh.

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High Ethical Standard:To keep the quality of service, Grameenphone is strict to follow
its ethical standard.

Weaknesses:

Culture Gap: In Grameenphone management, employees from different country are

existed. Suppose, The Managing director is a Norwegian, Director from technical is
Indian and many more employees come from different country. That’s why; sometimes
there may be lack of understanding due to cultural gap.

Different Ideas create problem: In Grameenphone, this is highly encouraged to apply

new strategy for the better performance. Sometimes it creates problem because
employees are used to with the previous strategy.

Complicated Pricing Structure: Grameenphone has lots of products. The pricing of

these products and their billing policies are different which also difficult for a user to
understand.

Problem Contained Offers:Recently all most all of the new offers of Grameenphone are
having some technical problems. Either they are not working at all or part of the

services of those offers is disabled. Not only that, Grameenphone is also delaying to solve
those problems which is only raising the dissatisfaction level of its subscribers.

Different Departments are not Working Together:The interconnection of the

department is little bit weak. The reason behind this, there is no exchange program for
employees to work between departments.

IncompleteMessages through Promotional Activities:Most of the time the

advertisement of Grameenphone do no clear the appropriate messages. Not only that,
most of them are also so confusing to understand. As a result subscribers get the wrong
meaning of what has been said to them.

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 Strengths & Weaknesses of the product

Strengths:

Variety: Grameenphone has a large number of products to serve. Products are different
from one another. Voice and Internet are two types of their products.

Availability: Grameenphone products are available throughout the country. Wherever we

go, we find Grameenphone products and services which is very strong side of
Grameenphone.

Attractive: Products of Grameenphone are very much attractive to the people. As it has
good network coverage all over the country, products and service are widely accepted by
the customers.

Easy to avail: As Grameenphone has many customer service centers and touch points
around the country, it is easy to avail their products and services from anywhere in the
country. Also they have 24/7 hotline (121) for customers.

Weaknesses:

Price: Price of the products and services Grameenphone provides is little bit high than
the other companies.

Target market: Grameenphone does not target total market to sell their products or
services. This is one of their weaknesses.

Offer:Many of the subscribers complain about offers that Grameenphone gives is much
less than other companies.

Unwanted and promotional call/sms:Like other companies, Grameenphone also sends

promotional sms or give calls to customers which are disturbing for the customer
sometimes.

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 Factors Influencing Consumers Buying Patterns:

Cultural Factors: As most of our people live in village, the word Grameen is attached to
them. So, people of village area prefer to buy Grameenphone products and services rather
than other companies first.

Social Factors: As Grameenphone is the leading telecom company in Bangladesh, many

of the customers prefer Grameenphone. They just go with the flow because of their
friends and family likes it.

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Personal Factors: Most of the people like to use Grameenphone because they like its
service. People don’t listen to others what they say about Grameenphone as he or she
likes it personally.
Psychological Factors: It’s all about psychology of the customers what they think about
Grameenphone. Many of the customers feel good and satisfied by using Grameenphone’s

products and services.

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Define the Marketing Mix:Marketing mix of Grameenphone is defined below:

Product:

Grameenphone is very much concerned about their current products and services in the
market. They have some prepaid and postpaid products as well as lots of value added
services to offer to the customers.

Price:

Though Grameenphone has lots of products and services but customers always claim that
tariff or price of these products are little bit high than other operators. So Grameenphone
is trying to meet customers expectation and lower the tariff.

Place:

Here comes the distribution channel of Grameenphone. They have strong network of
distribution channel. The motto of GP in establishing distribution channels is to be the
nearest of the customers. And exactly their motto is realistic.

Promotion:

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.

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 Data Analysis & Interpretation

In order to measure the buying pattern 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. The survey was
conducted among thirty Grameenphone subscribers; it was conducted directly.

We asked total ten closed end question to thirty subscribers. In the basis of strongly agree
to strongly disagree. So the point of strongly agree is 5, and strongly disagree is 1.

So the highest point for a question is 150 (30*5) and the lowest point is 30 (30*1). Here I
find out the total point for each question and also find out the average point of each
question.

From the total point and average point I divided in to three category of subscribers,
satisfied subscribers, moderate subscribers and not satisfied subscribers.

If the average point is more than 4 = satisfied subscribers.

If the average point is more than 3 but less than 4 = moderate subscribers.

If the average point is less than 3 = not satisfied subscribers.

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In the below, tableshows the total point and the average point of each question.
From the table we see that in some area from question 1 to 10, subscribers are satisfied
and in some area subscriber are not satisfied also there are some areas where subscribers
are moderate. In below I discuss all the questions finding elaborately.

Average point of each questions which I Total point out of 150 Average point
asked to the subscribers

1. Do you get the service what you need when 130 4.33
you go to Grameenphone center?

2. When you call to GP helpline you always get 104 3.47

the service?

3. When you buy a new service does it activated 124 4.13

quickly?

4. Are you satisfied with the network coverage 143 4.77

of the provider?

5. Do your provider fulfill your need with the 103 3.43

current product and service?

6. The EDGE service of Grameenphone is very 106 3.53

good-

7. Does the customer manager behave well to 129 4.3

you?

8. Does the customer manager carefully 123 4.1

listen /give attention to your problem?

9. Does the customer manager provide the right 113 3.77

information to you?

10. Do you get the service quickly? 102 3.4

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From the table, the point in my survey of getting service from a Grameenphone Center is
130, so the average point is 4.33 which are high so subscribers are satisfied. But the total
point of getting service from helpline is 104 and average is 3.4, so the satisfaction level is
moderate in this point.

The total point in my survey of activating a new service is 124 and average point is 4.13
so in this point subscribers are satisfied and about the network coverage subscribers are
fully satisfied because the total point is 143 and average is 4.77.

Fulfillment of subscribers need with current product and service which is moderate in
customer satisfaction because the total point in my survey is 103 and average point is
3.43. The performance of Edge service is not so good, total point is 1.6 and average is
3.53.

Behavior of customer manager satisfied the customer so the total point is 129 and the
average point is 4.3. Customer manager also listen the problems of subscribers carefully.
The total point is 123 and average is 4.1. So, in this area subscribers are satisfied.

Getting the right information is important but subscribers do not get the right information
all the time so in this area customer satisfaction is moderate and the total point is 113 and
average point is 3.77. The point of speed to getting the service is also moderate
subscriber need to long time to get service the total point is 102 and average is 3.4. Price
of different package of Grameenphone is also not satisfactory it is moderate the total
point is 103 and average is 3.43.

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Now Here is a Chart of Bangladeshi Mobile operators market share
The chart is of 2013

percentage
45%
40%
35%
30%
25%
percentage
20%
15%
10%
5%
0%
Grameen
phone Banglalink Robi Axiata
Airtel
Citycell
Teletalk

According to the chart in year 2013 Grameenphone captured 42%

Banglalink 26%
Robi Axiata 22%
Airtel 7%
Citycell 1%
Teletalk 2% of the Market.

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 Recommendation

 Analyze the market in a regular basis and find out what customers need and want
in the area where subscribers are not satisfied like call rate, package speed, and
moderate. Grameenphone have to take necessary action to influence consumers’
buying pattern by lowering their call rate, offer different package, speed up their
service etc.
 Communicate with the customer in easiest way like sending Bangla SMS, Bangla
voice service, so that subscriber can understands all the product and service, most
of the subscribers still watch BTV and listen radio so they have to give
advertisement in BTV and ‘Bangladesh Betar’ and in this way Grameenphone can
influence consumers’ buying pattern.
 Offer various kind of package in their product so that their subscribers can match
with their preference.
 Create strong brand image by different promotional activities which catch peoples
emotion and feelings so that subscribers will be very much loyal..
 Offer various services with their connection so that subscribers can enjoy various
services at a single device.
 Fulfill corporate social responsibilities to create a good image in subscribers mind.
By organizing different events, donating money, do something for the poor
people; help the government to give education to the poor children.
 Capacity of the helpline should be increased in the peak hours because in peak
hour pressure of calls is high and customers need to wait long time to get the
service which decrease customer satisfaction. So recruit more efficient customer
manager to increase customer satisfaction.

 Send greetings message on special occasions to the subscribers which increase

customer satisfaction

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 Conclusions

As a leading telecom company in Bangladesh, Grameenphone Limited needs to improve

its business strategy continuously to capture the bigger portion of the consumer market.
Different actions stated above in the term paper would help them a lot to increase their
customer and also influence buying pattern of the consumers’.

Grameenphone also needs to work on their strengths and weaknesses of both their brand
image and products to attract more customers. As soon as they reduce their weaknesses,
more consumers will join them, buy their product and influence others to buy
Grameenphone’s products and services.

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 Sources

 www.grameenphone.com

 Mr. GolamMuktadirChowdhury

Manager, Inbound Contact Center

Customer Service, Commercial Divisoin

Grameenphone Ltd.

 Questinnaire:

Q1. Do you get the service what you need when you go to Grameenphone center?

Strongly Agree 47%

Agree 40%
Neither Agree nor Disagree 13%

Disagree 0%
Strongly Disagree 0%

Q2. When you call to GP helpline you always get the service?

Strongly Agree 7%
Agree 40%

Neither Agree nor Disagree 47%

Disagree 7%

Strongly Disagree 0%

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Q3. When you buy a new service does it activated quickly?

Strongly Agree 40%

Agree 33%

Neither Agree nor Disagree 27%

Disagree 0%

Strongly Disagree 0%

Q4. Are you satisfied with the network coverage of the provider?

Strongly Agree 70%

Agree 27%
Neither Agree nor Disagree 3%

Disagree 0%
Strongly Disagree 0%

Q5. Does your provider fulfill your need with the current product and service?

Strongly Agree 7%
Agree 40%

Neither Agree nor Disagree 43%

Disagree 10%

Strongly Disagree 0%

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Q6. The EDGE service of Grameenphone is very good-

Strongly Agree 3%
Agree 53%

Neither Agree nor Disagree 43%

Disagree 0%

Strongly Disagree 0%

Q7. Does the customer manager behave well to you?

Strongly Agree 40%

Agree 47%
Neither Agree nor Disagree 13%

Disagree 0%
Strongly Disagree 0%

Q8. Does the customer manager carefully listen/give attention to your problem?

Strongly Agree 30%

Agree 33%

Neither Agree nor Disagree 37%

Disagree 0%

Strongly Disagree 0%

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Q9. Does the customer manager provide the right information to you?

Strongly Agree 23%

Agree 30%

Neither Agree nor Disagree 43%

Disagree 3%

Strongly Disagree 0%

Q10. Do you get the service quickly?

Strongly Agree 13%

Agree 40%
Neither Agree nor Disagree 40%

Disagree 7%
Strongly Disagree 0%

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