THE STUDY OF CUSTOMERS’

PERCEPTIONS ON VAS & DIGITAL

PRODUCTS OF OOREDOO MYANMAR

In Partial Fulfillment of Requirement

For Global Master of Business Administration

Under the Supervision of Dr. Angsuthon Srisuthisa-ard

Name: LIN THEIN NAING

Student ID: 1501116013027
University of Thailand Chamber of Commerce
Global MBA Offshore Program
Batch – 6, Yangon
May, 2017
This page is intentionally kept blank.

PAGE 1
 Acknowledgements

This independent study paper is a part of the study for the Offshore Global
Master of Business Administration program at the University of the Thai
Chamber of Commerce in joint cooperation with Union of Myanmar Federation
of Chambers of Commerce and Industry (UMFCCI). Foremost, I would like to
express my sincere gratitude to my study advisor, Dr. Angsuthon Srisuthisa-ard
for her support, encouragement and guidance throughout the time I have been
working on this study. I would also like to take this opportunity to extend my
sincere gratitude to Dr. Jakarin Srimoon, Dean of International college, UTCC
for his inspiration, empowerment and guidance not only in this study but also
through the entire program.

I also would like to express my gratitude to Telenor Myanmar, especially to Mr.

Neelesh Pratap Singh who was the Head of IT in Telenor Myanmar for giving me
a chance to pursue education with this program.

At last, but not least, I would like to thank to UMFCCI family and fellow
candidates from Global MBA Offshore program, batch 6 for being very helpful
throughout the study.

PAGE 2
 Table of Contents
Acknowledgements ...................................................................................................................2
Chapter 1: Introduction ...................................................................................................... 6
1.1 Introduction ...............................................................................................................6
1.2 Problem Statement ....................................................................................................9
1.3 Objectives of the study ..............................................................................................9
1.4 Scope of the study .................................................................................................... 10

1.5 Expected benefits of the study ................................................................................ 10

Chapter 2: Literature Review .............................................................................................. 11
2.1 The four Ps Model..................................................................................................... 11
2.1.1 Product ................................................................................................................. 12
2.1.2 Price...................................................................................................................... 12

2.1.3 Pricing ...................................................................................................................13

2.1.4 Place ......................................................................................................................13
2.1.5 Relationship between 4Ps and customer perception ......................................... 14
2.2 Related Studies......................................................................................................... 14
Chapter 3: Research Methodology .................................................................................... 16
3.1 Data Collection ........................................................................................................ 16

3.1.1 Population ............................................................................................................ 16

3.1.2 Collection Method ............................................................................................... 16
3.1.3 Data Collection Process ....................................................................................... 17
3.2 Data Analysis ........................................................................................................... 19
Chapter 4: Analysis and result ........................................................................................... 21
4.1 Demographic Analysis ..............................................................................................21

4.1.1 Analysis on Gender and Age Group .................................................................... 22

4.1.2 Occupation and Income level ............................................................................. 23
4.2 Descriptive Analysis of marketing mix ................................................................... 24
4.2.1 Product ................................................................................................................. 25
4.2.2 Price......................................................................................................................26

4.2.3 Place ..................................................................................................................... 27

4.2.4 Promotion ............................................................................................................ 27

PAGE 3
Chapter 5: Conclusion and recommendation ...................................................................29
5.1 Recommended strategy ........................................................................................... 29
5.1.1 Price Adjustments .................................................................................................31

5.1.2 Distribution Channels ..........................................................................................31

5.1.3 Increased Promotion ........................................................................................... 32
5.1.4 Product Improvements ........................................................................................ 32
5.2 Discussion ................................................................................................................ 33
5.3 Limitations ............................................................................................................... 33
References ................................................................................................................................ 35

Chapter 6: Appendix: Questionnaire ................................................................................ 37

PAGE 4
 List of Table
Table 1.1 Mobile Value-Added Services available in Myanmar................................................ 8
Table 3.1 Translation of scale in questionnaires ..................................................................... 17
Table 4.1 Tabulation of demographic information of respondents........................................ 22
Table 4.2 Interpretation of mean into level of agreement .....................................................24
Table 4.3 Mean, Standard Deviation & level of agreement to product ..................................26
Table 4.4Mean, Standard Deviation & level of agreement to price .......................................26
Table 4.5 Mean, Standard Deviation & level of agreement to place ...................................... 27
Table 4.6 Mean, Standard Deviation & level of agreement to promotion .............................28
Table 4.7 Mean of the marketing mix .....................................................................................28

Table of figure
Figure 2.1 4Ps of marketing mix .............................................................................................. 12
Figure 4.1 Demographic information of gender and age group ............................................. 22
Figure 4.2 Occupation and gender distribution ..................................................................... 23
Figure 4.3 Demographics information of income level ..........................................................24
Figure 4.4 VAS product preferences ....................................................................................... 25
Figure 5.1 The Ansoff Matrix.................................................................................................... 30
Figure 5.2 Recommended strategy for market penetration ....................................................31

PAGE 5
 Chapter 1: Introduction
1.1 Introduction

Ooredoo Myanmar is a telecommunication company in Myanmar. It is a

subsidiary of the Qatari Ooredoo Group. In June 2013, Ooredoo was chosen as
one of the two successful applicants among 90 bidders to be awarded a license
to operate in Myanmar, considered one of the Asia’s last remaining greenfield
telecom markets. (Ooredoo Myanmar, 2014) Formal licenses were granted in
January 2014, and Ooredoo pledged an investment of $15 billion to develop
Myanmar’s telecoms sector, with plans to cover 75 per cent of the population in
five years. (Asia, 2013)

In June, 2014, Ooredoo Myanmar has launched its service in Myanmar. At the
end of 2016, it has acquired more than 10 million subscribers nationwide.

Myanmar’s telecom sector has been a major driving force in reshaping the
economic and social composition of the country. Before 2010, there was only a
state owned communication service provider, Myanmar Post and
Telecommunication (MPT), monopolizing the mobile and fixed communication
services for more than half of century. Right after the historical political reform
in 2010, an impressive numbers of international companies – a total of 91 –
competed for two mobile communication operating license. In 2013, Norway’s
Telenor and Qatar based Ooredoo were eventually awarded the winning
companies to operate in the last true greenfield in Asia.

In mid of 2014, Ooredoo Myanmar first brought the pure 3G mobile technology
into the market which had no in touch with modern technologies. Following
Ooredoo Myanmar, Telenor launched its services in three major cities. Since
then, the competition of mobile operators began and getting tougher.

In January 2017, the Ministry of Transport and Communication formally awarded

the firm – Myanmar National Tele & Communication (MNTC) – a mobile
operator license. MNTC is a tie up between Vietnam defense ministry owned-

PAGE 6
firm Viettel, a consortium of 11 local firms called Myanmar National Telecom
Holding Public and a subsidiary of military-run Myanmar Economic Corporation
called Star High Public Company.

As the result of dramatic reform, Myanmar ranked as the third-fastest-growing

mobile base in the world in Q1 2015, behind neighboring China and Thailand. Yet
it has not taken log for investment to boom. According to Myanmar Investment
Commission (MIC), telecoms accounted for 31% of the total foreign direct
investment (FDI) in the first five months of the 2014/15 fiscal year. (Group, 2016)

A Value-Added Service (VAS) is a popular telecommunications term for non-core

services, or in short, all services beyond standard voice calls or other bearer only
type services. All VAS share the same characteristics:

− Not a form of basic service but rather adds value total service offering

− Stands alone in terms of profitability and/or stimulates incremental

demand for core service(s)

− Can sometimes stand-alone operationally

− Does not cannibalize basic service unless clearly favorable

− Can be an add-on to basic service, and as such, may be sold at a premium

price

− May provide operational and/or administrative synergy between or

among other services – not merely for diversification

Every VAS will demonstrate one or more of the above characteristics.

Furthermore, a value-added service will never stand in stark contrast to any of
the above characteristics.

VAS applications also have a certain time dimension associated with them.
Subjectively speaking, a value-added service today becomes a basic service when
it becomes sufficiently common place and widely deployed to no longer provide
substantive differentiation on relative basis.

PAGE 7
Followings is the list of Mobile Value Added Services currently deployed and
operated in Myanmar.

No. Service Type Operator Support

MPT Telenor Ooredoo
1. Short Messaging Traditional   
Services
2. Colored Ring Back Traditional   
Tone
3. Missed Call Alerts Traditional   
4. Voice mail Traditional  
5. Conference Call Unconventional   
6. Balance Transfer Unconventional   
7. Loan Unconventional   
8. Content Services Unconventional   
Subscription
9. Mobile Applications Digital  
10. Call Me Back Unconventional  
Table 1.1 Mobile Value-Added Services available in Myanmar

Along with the tide of reform and improvement in the industry, the mobile
operators compete to gain as much customer base from various services of voice,
data, VAS and digital. The operators are starting to offer as much value-added
services as possible to acquire new customers and maintain existing customers.
VAS and digital services starting to play vital role in competition since service
operators are bringing the most cutting-edge technologies to the public.

With the higher mobile penetration rate and internet user of 60% of mobile
population, the companies are strategically emphasizing on the VAS and digital
products and service offerings to generate more revenues. Digital has become
the strategy of every operator in 2017.

PAGE 8
For Ooredoo Myanmar, revenue from VAS and digital services contributed
around 10% of company revenue in 2016. Rene Meza, CEO of the company,
announced that digital is the firm’s competing strategy along with mass market.

1.2 Problem Statement

In mobile operators’ services market, especially when the market is going toward
the saturation and maturity, the value added service (VAS) of each operator will
be the most important factor of operators’ competition. As the voice market
reaches saturation continued industry growth is contingent on the development
of new mobile data services or VAS.

From the introduction of mobile phone services to the market until the
saturation of this market, the main service that mobile phone operators offer was
the voice service. However, saturation of voice service industry and increased
competition in the market gave rise to offering new services and utilizing new
strategies by different operators to enable them to get more market share and
profitability out of this industry.

The most significant factor and differentiation method in the saturated and
mature service market is offering Value Added Services or VAS in addition to
voice service which will give rise to more market share and market
development.

However, VAS product penetration of Ooredoo Myanmar in the market is low

even though it has become the competitive edge of the industry. And Ooredoo
Myanmar find it challenging to penetrate the market due to lack of insights on
customer perception on VAS and Digital products.

1.3 Objectives of the study

 To get more knowledge into the customers’ perception of the VAS and
Digital products in the market.
 To provide recommendations to increase market share and penetration of
VAS and digital products.

PAGE 9
1.4 Scope of the study
The study will be focus solely on the Value Added Services and Digital product
line of Ooredoo Myanmar. Under marketing department, the product team is
managing the marketing, product development and lifecycle management.
Ooredoo Myanmar is currently providing VAS services such as Color Ring Back
Tune, SMS based Infotainments and entertainments services and mobile
applications. This study will analyze the penetration and customers’ perception
on VAS and digital products and propose the strategy to improve the market
share and revenue.

1.5 Expected benefits of the study

The study of customers’ perception and market penetration strategy will not only
reflect the market situation and customers’ demographics, but also the strategy
to help the VAS and digital marketers of Ooredoo Myanmar in generating more
revenue and gaining the higher market share.

PAGE 10
 Chapter 2: Literature Review

In this chapter, the focus of the study is to get more knowledge into the
significance of the VAS in Ooredoo Myanmar's market, the VAS penetration,
services and average consumption of the customers and awareness. In this
research, 4 P’s analysis of the marketing mix is applied to the VAS and digital
product line of Ooredoo Myanmar. Marketing Mix are the ingredients that
combine to capture and promote the product’s selling points, those that are
differentiate it from its competitors.

2.1 The four Ps Model

"Marketing mix" is a general phrase used to describe the different kinds of

choices organizations have to make in the whole process of bringing a product
or service to market. The 4Ps is one way – probably the best-known way – of
defining the marketing mix (McCarthy, 1960).

The 4Ps are:

 Product strategy
 Place strategy
 Pricing strategy
 Promotion strategy

PAGE 11
 • Variety • List Price
• Quality • Discount
• Design • Allowances
• Features • Credit terms

Product Price

Place Promotion

• Channels • Adverstising
• Location • Direct Marketing
• Coverage

Figure 2.1 4Ps of marketing mix

2.1.1 Product
Product strategies include product mix decisions, product line decisions, product
attribute decisions, brand decisions, label decisions, and new product decisions,
etc.

The product is the foundation of the brand; a brand cannot last long without a
fine product. In other words, there is an inseparable relationship between the
brand and product. Product strategies are typically examined from the two
angles of quality (P, 1990) (Day, 1990) and packaging (Keller K. , 1998).

2.1.2 Price
Price strategies include pricing methods, new product positioning, price
adjustments, discounts, payment deadlines, and credit term decisions.
Increasing competition in recent years has resulted in very little differentiation
between products; as a result, price changes have remained the sale effective
means of attracting customers (D.S. Roger, L. R. Gamans and M.T. Grassi, 1991)
(Keller K. , 1998).

PAGE 12
( Jean-Claude Larreche and Hubert Gatignon, 1990) suggests that, apart from
consideration of the product itself, pricing strategies are most commonly used in
conjunction with sales promotion strategies. (Randall, 2000) believes that
pricing is a strategic decision. Brand pricing standards must simultaneously take
into consideration manufacturing and financial issues, and the prices of market-
leading brands must reflect a full-scale assessment of market positioning.

2.1.3 Pricing
80% of consumers feel that their most important reason for buying generic
products is lower prices (Cunningham, 1982). It is evident that low prices are the
main competitive advantage of generic products (Busch, 1987). As a result,
pricing strategies should be considered first when formulating marketing
strategies for generic products. The retail prices of generic products should be
set in accordance with the following three pricing guidelines (Hawes, 1984):

(1) Prices should be less expensive than those from the leading competing
manufacturer.

(2) Prices should be 10% less expensive than those of private brand products in
the store.

(3) Prices should be at least 30% less expensive than those of national brand
products in the store.

2.1.4 Place
Place strategies include decisions concerning distribution, agent type, storage,
and transportation systems. Kotler (1991) Place includes various activities
performed by a company in order to put its products in the hands of target
customers (Kotler, 2000). In addition, product flow begins with production by a
manufacturer and ends with sale to a customer by a retailer. As a consequence,
retailers selling to consumers can be considered intermediaries between the
manufacturers and consumers. Keller (1998) believes that product transport

PAGE 13
methods can have a far-reaching effect on a brand's ultimate sales success (Keller
K. , 1998).

2.1.5 Relationship between 4Ps and customer perception

Marketing is a social and managerial process by which individuals and groups

get what they need and want through creating, offering and exchanging products
or services values with each other (Kotler, 2005). The way the company creates
the products has direct relationship with customer perceptions in different
dimensions of marketing mix such as product, price, place and promotion.
(Anderson & Fornel, 1994)

There are certain factors which can influence the customers’ perception in terms
of product are quality, user friendliness and meeting the user exceptions. For
price, setting the right price, affordability and competitive. Inconvenience to the
customer leads to dissatisfaction among the customers which further influence
the organization in negative way. So, to keep the customers in their comfort zone
and provide them goods on the more relevant place suits to them and create
satisfaction among them. (Ravald & GroÈnroos, 1996) The location from where
we can purchase a product is called place of distribution. And it is known as
distribution channel in which product moves from producer part to the
consumer part, i.e. The channel used for this movement is known as Distribution
Channel. (Bolton & Drew, 1991) It includes both physical as well as virtual stores
which are available on internet. In terms of promotion, influencing factors on
customer perceptions are communication channel, clear communication and
managing positive words of mouth.

4Ps of marketing mix influence the customer perceptions, satisfactions and

loyalty which will compose of the successful product marketing mix. (Lemmink,
Ruyter & Wetzels 1998)

2.2 Related Studies

Several studies apply 4Ps marketing mix, defined as the set of marketing tools
that the firm uses to pursue its marketing objectives in the target market. There
are numbers of study using the marketing mix to learn balancing of the 4Ps to
position the products in the market.

PAGE 14
Kumar, A., Ranjan, R., & Singh, D., (2011) conducted a research on the Indian
telecom service providers to help the telecom service providers in analyzing the
buying stimuli for their products, services and accordingly the satisfaction level
of customers based on the responses provided based on 4Ps. The case study is
concerned about the telecom service providers in Indian mobile phone market
and of five different brands (Airtel, BSNL, Idea, Reliance and Vodafone). In this
study there are total 5 parameters Product, Price, Distribution, Advertisement,
and Sales Promotion on which we have evaluated the above mentioned brands
of telecom companies.

Chumaidiyah (2013) aimed to examined marketing mix in influence marketing

performance on telecommunication services companies in Indonesia. The test
statistic using is path analysis, and the result shows that the elements of
marketing mix strategy influence to the marketing performance simultaneously
and significantly.

Lin (2012) seeked to explore which factors affect customer satisfaction in using
mobile telecommunications with the use of 4Ps marketing mix as one factor. The
study aimed to identify on marketing mix (product, price, place, promotion,
personnel, process, and physical evidence) on the customer satisfaction of
customer using mobile telecommunication in Bangkok, Thailand. There are
different factors that affect customer satisfaction. So the marketing mix was
chosen whether it will or will not affect customer satisfaction. When customers
are using the mobile telecommunication service, the product, process, and
physical evidence would affect the customer satisfaction.

PAGE 15
 Chapter 3: Research Methodology

This section describes the rationale for the application of specific procedures or
techniques used to identify, select, and analyze information applied to
understanding the research problem. The methodology section of a research
paper answers two main questions:

1. How was the data collected or generated?

2. How was it analyzed?

In this study, quantitative approach is used to get more knowledge of analyze

customer perception on VAS and Digital products.

3.1 Data Collection

3.1.1 Population

Ooredoo Myanmar customers are the primary target of the research and sample
size of 150 to 200. As of 2016, Ooredoo Myanmar has acquired 9 million
customers. Out of 9 million, around 1 million customers are using at least one
VAS and digital product.

3.1.2 Collection Method

For quantitative research, surveys and questionnaires are common methods for
collecting data. But for this study, use of questionnaires is adopted.
Questionnaire is composed of the key factors of marketing mix, Products, Price,
Place and Promotion. Target of the research is the customers of Ooredoo
Myanmar service.

Questionnaire consists of five sections. First section reflects the demographic

information of the respondent such as occupation, income level and age.
Demographic information is important to identify because it can briefly describe
the respondents. Second section of the questionnaires is about the product from

PAGE 16
the marketing mix. Respondents are questioned about the VAS products, use and
quality of products.

Third and fourth section of the questionnaire are price and place. Price questions
are to find out the customer average spending on mobile and how customers
perceive the pricing of Ooredoo Myanmar VAS and digital products. Place focus
on the customer accessibility to VAS products and its information.

The last section, but not the least, is the promotion. In other words, how
customers get to know about the product and preferred communication
channels.

Questionnaires are adopted the Likert-scaled manner to describe the usefulness,

friendliness and affordability with five-point scale rating. But on the
questionnaires form, the scales are translated into more user friendly form.

Scale Translation
1 Strongly Disagree
2 Disagree
3 Neutral
4 Agree
5 Strongly Agree
Table 3.1 Translation of scale in questionnaires

For the questionnaires, please see the Appendix.

3.1.3 Data Collection Process

There are 26 questions generated to gather data upon the 4Ps of marketing mix.
The questionnaire will be conducted in quantitative approach. Questionnaire
are prepared with Google Forms for its simplicity and friendly interfaces for
respondents.

Questionnaires are distributed via email and social media such as Facebook and
LinkedIn since customers are known to be internet accessible. The
questionnaires are optimized to take not more than 2-3 minutes of respondents.

PAGE 17
The questionnaires will be carried out 3-5 days until the targeted sample size has
been reached. With the help of Google Form, the responses will be recorded into
comma separated values (CSV) and proceed to analysis.

PAGE 18
3.2 Data Analysis

After the collection of data, quantitative data analysis shall be conducted with
the collected data. Quantitative data analysis is helpful in evaluation because it
provides quantifiable and easy to understand results. Quantitative data can be
analyzed in a variety of different ways.

Firstly, the level of measurement is to be identify with the quantitative data. The
level of measurement can influence the type of analysis. Collected data is the
interval data because it is measured on a Likert scale to rank customer perception
in scale of 1-5. Of course, there are a few question some nominal and ordinal
data in the questionnaires especially in demographic data.

After level of measurement had been identified, quantitative data analysis

procedure to be carried out. In this research, two analysis procedures will be
carried out as follows:

1. Data Tabulation
2. Descriptive data

Data tabulation is the process of tabulation collected data for the different
variables in data set. This process will give a comprehensive picture of what data
looks like and assist in identifying the patterns. There are two ways of tabulation
which are frequency and percentage distribution, but percentage distribution
will be carried out in this study. A percent distribution displays the proportion
of participants who are represented within each category. (Analyze Quantitative
Data, 2017)

A descriptive refers to calculations that are used to “describe” the data set. The
most common descriptive used are:

 Mean – the numerical average of scores for a particular variable

 Minimum and maximum values – the highest and lowest value for a
particular variable

PAGE 19
  Standard Deviation – a quantity expressing by how much the members of
a group differ from the mean value for the group.

(Analyze Quantitative Data, 2017)

PAGE 20
 Chapter 4: Analysis and result

In this section of the study, the outcomes of the survey are going to be analyzed.
The outcomes will be analyzed in two sections; demographic analysis and
descriptive analysis. Later part of the chapter, internal and external factors will
be analyzed with SWOT analysis which will help to recommend the strategy in
next chapter.

4.1 Demographic Analysis

There are 130 respondents to the survey. The respondents are the customers of
Ooredoo Myanmar. As an information gathering tool, Google Form supports the
feature to organize and summarize the feedbacks in graphs and chart forms.
Aside from summary from Google Form, data tabulation with percentage
distribution will be used as well to get clearer picture of the demographic of the
survey respondents.

Total sample size, 125

Gender Male = 50.8%
Female = 49.2%
Age Group Under 18 = 11%
18 to 25 = 23%
25 to 35 = 44%
35 to 45 = 16%
Above 45 = 6%
Occupation Student = 4.8%
Unemployed = 2.4%
Employee = 74.2%
Self-employed = 18.5%
Income Level Below 100,00 Kyats = 5.6%

PAGE 21
 Between 100,000 Kyats and 500,000
Kyats = 13.7%
Between 500,000 Kyats and 1,000,000
Kyats = 33.9%
Above 1,000,000 Kyats = 46.8%
Monthly Spending on mobile usage Below 5,000 Kyats = 6.5 %
Between 5,000 Kyats and 10,000
Kyats = 17.7%
Between 10,000 Kyats and 20,000
Kyats = 31.5%
Above 20,000 Kyats = 44.4%
Table 4.1 Tabulation of demographic information of respondents

4.1.1 Analysis on Gender and Age Group

Gender is an important variable in marketing because male and female will not
response to the product or marketing message identically. Out of 124
respondents, there is the comparable gender ratio with 63 male respondents and

above 45

35 to 45

Fema
Male le 25 to 35
51% 49%
18 to 25

Below 18

0 10 20 30 40 50 60
Female Male

Figure 4.1 Demographic information of gender and age group

61 female respondent.

PAGE 22
Age helps segment the customers into different groups. Customers in different
age group will not react to the product especially the digital ones. There are 11%
of teenage below 18, 23% of 18 to 25, 44% of 25 to 35, 16% of 35 to 45 and 6% of
above 45 took part in the survey. The respondents of 25 to 35 years old are the
largest contribution of all.

4.1.2 Occupation and Income level

Occupation and income level are two relating variables of demographics.

Theoretically, working people with stable income would have high response rate
to new products and services. Most of the respondents are employees
contributing 74% of all followed by 19% of self-employed or business owners.
Only a few percentage of student and unemployed are there.

5%2% Female Male

100
19% 80

60

40
74% 20
Employee Self-employed
-
Student Unemployed Employee Self-employed Student Unemployed

Figure 4.2 Occupation and gender distribution

Another interesting dimenstion of occupation is with gender. In employee
segment, number of males is higher, but female are higher in number in self-
employed segment.

Majority of the respondents are highly paid above a million Kyats monthly. There
are small portion of under paid less than 100,000 Kyats per month.

PAGE 23
 100%
Middle
Paid
80%
34% Highly
Paid 60%
47%
40%
20%
0%
Low Paid
Highly Paid Under Paid Lowly Paid Middle Paid
14% Under
paid
5% Employee Self-employed Student Unemployed

Figure 4.3 Demographics information of income level

Refering to figure , self-employed not always have higher income than employee
since there are some self-employed people in low paid segment.

4.2 Descriptive Analysis of marketing mix

In descriptive analysis, questionnaires responses will be converted into Likert

scale. There are five level of scales. To analysis this, the following analysis will be
applied.

(𝑀𝑎𝑥𝑖𝑚𝑢𝑚 𝑠𝑐𝑎𝑙𝑒 − 𝑀𝑖𝑛𝑖𝑚𝑢𝑚 𝑠𝑐𝑎𝑙𝑒 )

𝑁 (𝑊𝑖𝑑𝑡ℎ 𝑜𝑓 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑟𝑎𝑛𝑔𝑒) =
𝑁𝑢𝑚𝑏𝑒𝑟 𝑜𝑓 𝑠𝑐𝑎𝑙𝑒𝑠

The mean of the score will be calculated and following matrix will be applied to
address the level of agreement to the question.

From To Level of Agreement

1.00 1.80 Strongly Disagree
1.81 2.60 Disagree
2.61 3.40 Neutral
3.41 4.20 Agree
4.21 5.00 Strongly Agree
Table 4.2 Interpretation of mean into level of agreement

PAGE 24
4.2.1 Product

Under the first P (Product) of the marketing mix, there are two major section of
questionnaires. First is to find out the penetration of VAS and Digital product of
Ooredoo Myanmar and second, customer perception on quality, variety and
features.

Figure 4.4 VAS product preferences

There are 53 respondents not using any of VAS or digital services which is
translated into 59% product penetration. There is still a room to improve the
penetration. Among the VAS and Digital products, Ooredoo App is the most
popular where 55 respondents are using it. Second most popular product is Kyo
Thone, which is the loan service which the customer can request loan from
Ooredoo Myanmar in case of low balance. Following Kyo Thone, there is the
colored ring back tune service, “Fun Tone”.

Table 4.3 describes analysis of the customers’ perception of the sample in regards
of product. In general, Ooredoo Myanmar’s products are in good shape in terms
of quality, customer friendliness, uniqueness, competitive and meeting the
customers’ requirement. The mean of the two dimensions, quality and
competitiveness, scored above 4.2 which means that customers are very happy
with these two criteria.

PAGE 25
 Standard Level of
Aspect Statement Mean
Deviation Agreement
Do you think if digital products and VAS
products from Ooredoo are High Strongly
quality? 4.23 0.84 Agree
Do you think if digital products and VAS
products from Ooredoo are Customer
friendly? 3.85 0.93 Agree
Do you think if digital products and VAS
Product products from Ooredoo are Different to
competitors' products? 3.66 1.00 Agree
Do you think if digital products and VAS
products from Ooredoo are Better than Strongly
competitor's products? 4.29 0.86 Agree
Do you think if digital products and VAS
products from Ooredoo are meeting
your requirement? 3.62 1.06 Agree
Table 4.3 Mean, Standard Deviation & level of agreement to product

4.2.2 Price

In regards of price, the respondents don’t think the prices are set right and even
agreed to that price is high to certain level. There is only neutral agreement to
the statement of price to quality ratio, neither agree nor disagree. Products are
less competitive in terms of price since its mean is only 3.32.

Standard Level of
Aspect Statement Mean
Deviation Agreement
Do you think the price of digital
products and VAS products are Neither
high nor low? The price is right. 3.38 0.89 Neutral
Would you like to spend more for VAS
products? 3.62 1.09 Agree
Do you think the price of digital
Price
products and VAS products are match
with its quality. 3.30 0.76 Neutral
Do you think the price of digital
products and VAS products are Compare
to the competitors, Ooredoo prices are
competitive? 3.32 0.75 Neutral
Table 4.4Mean, Standard Deviation & level of agreement to price

PAGE 26
4.2.3 Place

Ooredoo Myanmar is known to be more of online presence than physical

locations. Respondents agree to that products are available online such as self-
care portal highly with mean of 3.41. But they disagree that information and
physical store are at their reach.

Standard Level of
Aspect Statement Mean
Deviation Agreement
For Ooredoo's digital products and VAS
products , you can Easily find the details
information. 2.492 1.07 Disagree
For Ooredoo's digital products and VAS
Place
products , you can Buy at nearby retail
store. 2.323 1.05 Disagree
For Ooredoo's digital products and VAS
products , you can Buy on online store 3.411 1.08 Agree
Table 4.5 Mean, Standard Deviation & level of agreement to place

4.2.4 Promotion

Promotion means that how products are being communicated and promoted to
the intended audience or customer. Respondents agree that products are in favor
of channels, clear and understandable communication and recommendation to
them. Means are 3.55, 3.46, 3.49, 3.51, 3.59 and 3.67.

Standard Level of
Aspect Statement Mean
Deviation Agreement

Do you think Ooredoo's products and services

are Communicated to you via different
channels. 3.556 0.82 Agree

Do you think Ooredoo's products and services

Promotion are Communication are clear, easy to
understand and relevant. 3.468 0.95 Agree

Do you think Ooredoo's products and services

are Using the communication channels
effectively. 3.492 0.86 Agree

PAGE 27
 Do you think Ooredoo's products and services
are offered with enough promotions. 3.516 0.85 Agree

Do you think Ooredoo's products and services

are to be recommended to others. 3.597 0.81 Agree

Table 4.6 Mean, Standard Deviation & level of agreement to promotion

Then, mean of each P in the marketing mix is compared to understand the
customer perceptions on it.

Aspect Mean
Product 3.93
Price 3.40
Place 2.74
Promotion 3.55
Table 4.7 Mean of the marketing mix

PAGE 28
Chapter 5: Conclusion and recommendation

In the beginning of this study, it is stated as the objective to get more knowledge
of the customers’ perception of the VAS and digital products of Ooredoo
Myanmar and to increase the VAS penetration, market share and revenue. In
order to achieve its objective, the customer’s perception survey on the product
portfolio of VAS and Digital carried out and mapped with 4Ps of marketing mix.
Based on the analysis and findings, the strategy to increase revenue and market
penetration will be recommended in this chapter.

Based on the analysis from the previous chapter, a few improvements areas are
identified which are price and accessibility. For price, more than 50% of the
respondents feed backed that VAS services Ooredoo Myanmar offering are
relatively high compared to the competitors and quality doesn’t reflect in price.
And customer find it difficult to get to know about the products and access to
the product. Only 14% of respondents think that products and services are easily
accessible. The study needs to recommend the appropriate strategy which will
overcome these two challenges so that it can meet its target of increasing market
penetration.

5.1 Recommended strategy

In developing the strategy to overcome challenges, Ansoff Matrix is applied

which defines a definition of product-market strategy (Ansoff, 1957). According
to the Ansoff matrix, there are the four growth alternatives.

PAGE 29
 Figure 5.1 The Ansoff Matrix

Among these four growth alternatives, the strategy of market penetration is

recommended for VAS and Digital product line of Ooredoo Myanmar. Market
Penetration is a strategy to increase sales without departing from the original
product-market strategy. This involves increasing sales to existing customers and
finding new customers for existing products.

In pursuing the strategy of market penetration, there are several tasks to

perform. Among them, four tasks are recommended.

1) Price Adjustment
2) More distribution and retail channel
3) Increased promotion
4) Product improvement

PAGE 30
 More
Price Distrubtion Increased Product
Adjustement and retail Promotion Improvements
channel

Figure 5.2 Recommended strategy for market penetration

5.1.1 Price Adjustments

One mostly used market penetration strategy is to make price adjustments. By

lowering prices, the business expects to grow sales volume by increasing the
number of units purchased and to make prices more attractive to consumers
when compared with the competitors. Companies may follow a strategy of higher
prices expecting higher revenues per unit sold translate into higher sales volume
and a resulting increase in market penetration.

In the case of Ooredoo Myanmar, prices are recommended to lower increasing

affordability and subscription. Another way of doing that changing the
subscription type. Most of the VAS subscription type is weekly for now and
Ooredoo can change this into monthly subscription with fair price.

5.1.2 Distribution Channels

A company can attempt to increase market penetration by increasing the

methods it uses to get products into the hands of consumers, making them more
readily available. For instance, a company that traditionally sells its products

PAGE 31
through retail outlets may add distribution channels such as sending direct mail
offerings or instituting a telemarketing operation. It may also attempt to gain
additional selling space in current distribution channels, such as when
purchasing additional display space in retail stores.

To align with the strategy, Ooredoo Myanmar shall onboard more retailers and
distributors especially in major cities such as Yangon and Mandalay.

5.1.3 Increased Promotion

Companies may choose to increase market penetration through greater

promotional efforts. They may launch an advertising campaign to generate
greater brand awareness or implement a short-term promotion with a finite
ending date. A promotion is often linked with pricing, such as advertising a
special sale price for a limited period. A competitor may counter a successful
promotion with one of its own in an attempt to regain lost market share.

Ooredoo should increase the awareness of the VAS and Digital products. The
discussion, awareness event, promotion or campaign can be carried out. In
Myanmar, the influence of social media has grown incredibly and it is also a good
choice for the company.

5.1.4 Product Improvements

Making product improvements can be used to create new interest in a stagnating

product or to offer an extra benefit when using it. Consumer products
manufacturers have often used the "new and improved" claim to entice
customers to give a product another chance or to improve the perception of
quality. Companies can also change the product's packaging to give it a more
modern design that might appeal to a younger customer base.

Since the industry has become more competitive, the customer demand and
requirements are also changing rapidly. VAS and Digital product managers
should review existing position of the products and update if require.

PAGE 32
5.2 Discussion

In this section, why the strategy recommended is suitable for Ooredoo Myanmar.
Ooredoo Myanmar is the established mobile communication operator offering
variety of products and services. In Ansoff Matrix, the first decision to make is if
growth is expected from existing products or new. According to survey result,
there are rooms for the growth with existing products. Moreover, Ooredoo
Myanmar market is all across Myanmar. Therefore, market penetration strategy
is the most suitable. As the output of the data analysis, price and distribution has
been identified as the organization’s weakness. Therefore, strategy should be
aligned with improving the weakness of the organization.

In 2011 research of Kumar, A., Ranjan, R., & Singh, D., total 5 parameters Product,
Price, Distribution, Advertisement, and Sales Promotion on which we have
evaluated the above mentioned brands of telecom companies in India. Analyzing
the buying stimuli for their products, services and accordingly the satisfaction
level of customers based on the responses provided based on 4Ps. This study also
share the same theoretical framework of marketing mix, but current study focus
on customer perception about the specific product line.

Lin (2012) seeked to explore which factors affect customer satisfaction in using
mobile telecommunications with the use of 4Ps marketing mix as one factor. The
study aimed to identify on marketing mix (product, price, place, promotion,
personnel, process, and physical evidence) on the customer satisfaction of
customer using mobile telecommunication in Bangkok, Thailand. Lin attempted
to use 7Ps instead of which is much more up-to-date.

5.3 Limitations

It is necessary to recognize the limitations of the current study. The sample size
itself was relatively small. To accurately evaluate Customers perceptions about

PAGE 33
VAS and Digital services, a larger sample size is desirable. Another is the
limitations of the statistical methods used. Future research needs to focus on a
larger cross section of telecom service users and employ more diversified random
samples to verify the findings of the current study. Moreover, the use of 4P is no
longer sufficient to examine the marketing mix. Future research needs to add
more factors such as people, process and so on.

PAGE 34
 References

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Simulation Game. Palo Alto: CA: Scientific Press.

Analyze Quantitative Data. (2017). Retrieved from

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quantitative-data/

Ansoff, I. (1957). Strategies for Diversification. Harvard Business Review, 113-124.

Asia. (2013). Burma awards lucrative mobile phone contracts. BBC.

Busch, D. S. (1987). Identifying the Generics-prone Customer: A Meta Analysis.

Journal of Marketing Research, 425-431.

Chumaidiyah, E. (2013). Marketing mix strategy in increasing marketing

performance in Indonesia telecommunication services companies.

Bandung, Indonesia: IEEE.

Cunningham, I. (1982). Generic Brands Versus National Brands and Stores

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D.S. Roger, L. R. Gamans and M.T. Grassi. (1991). Retailing: New Perspectives,

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Day, G. (1990). Market Driven Strategy: Process for Creating Value. 1990: The

Free Press.

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Group, O. B. (2016). The Report: Myanmar 2016. Oxford: Oxford Business

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Hawes, M. M. (1984). The Market for Generic Brand Grocery Products: A

Reveiw and Extension. Journal of Marketing, Vol. 48, 75-83.

Keller, K. (1998). Strategic Brand Management. New Jersey: Prentice-Hall.

Keller, K. (1998). Strategic Brand Management . New Jersey: Prentice-Hall.

Kotler, P. (2000). Kotler on Marketing: How to Create, Win, and Rule the

Marketing.

Kumar, A., Ranjan, R., & Singh, D. (2011). MARKETING-MIX MODIFICATION

ANALYSIS BY USING MULTIDIMENSIONAL. Society For Science and

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Intentions in Using Mobile Telecommunications Service. Bangkok,

Thailand: UTCC.

McCarthy, E. J. (1960). Basic Marketing: A Managerial Approach. Homewood:

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PAGE 36
 Chapter 6: Appendix: Questionnaire
Customer buying behaviors of Ooredoo's Digital
Services and VAS products
Dear Sir/Madam,

My name is Lin Thein Naing. I am a student from UTCC Global MBA program of Yangon,
batch 6. I would like to request a few minutes of you to let me know how do you think of
digital services and Value Added products from Ooredoo Myanmar. Your response will be
kept highly confidential and will not be shared with any other parties. Thank you very
much for your support.

Regards,
Lin Thein Naing
UTCC Global MBA
Batch - 6, Yangon

* Required

DEMOGRAPHIC

1. Gender *
Mark only
one oval.

Male

Female

2. Occupation * Mark only

one oval.

Employee

Self-employed

Unemployed

Student

PAGE 37
3. Income Level * Mark
only one oval.

Below 100,000 Kyats

Between 100,000 Kyats and 500,000 Kyats

Between 500,000 Kyats and 1,000,000 Kyats

Above 1,000,000 Kyats

4. Which mobile operator

are you using? * Mark
only one oval.

MPT

Telenor

Ooredoo

Product

5. How many products are you using now? * Check all that
apply.

Fan Tone

Ballone

Site Pyo

Kyo Thone

Ooredoo App

None

6. What are the main reason you used Ooredoo's Product?

* Mark only one oval.

Information

Entertainment

Communication

Work

PAGE 38
7. Do you think if digital products and VAS products from
Ooredoo are * Mark only one oval per row.
Strongly Disagree Disagree Neutral Agree Strongly Agree

High quality

Customer friendly

Different to competitors'
products

Better than competitor's

products

meeting your requirement

Price

8. How much do you normally spend in a month for mobile services?

* Mark only one oval.

Below 5,000 Kyat

Between 5,000 Kyats and 10,000 Kyats

Between 10,000 Kyats and 20,000 Kyats

Above 20,000 Kyats

9. Do you think the price of digital products and VAS products are *
Mark only one oval per row.
Strongly Strongly
Disagree Neutral Agree
Disagree Agree

Neither high nor low. The price is

Fair.

Would you like to spend

more for VAS products?
match with its quality.

Compare to the competitors,

Ooredoo prices are competitive.

PAGE 39
 Place

10. For Ooredoo's digital products and VAS products, you can
* Mark only one oval per row.

Strongly Disagree Neutral Agree Strongly

Disagree Agree
Easily find the details
information.

Buy at nearby retail store.

Buy on online store

Promotion

11. How do you know about the products? * Check all

that apply.

TV Commercial

Printed advertisements

Social media

Events and seminars

Word of mouth

Radio

PAGE 40
12. Do you think Ooredoo's products and services are *
Mark only one oval per row.
Strongly Strongly
Disagree Neutral Agree
Disagree Agree

Communicated to you via

different channels.
Communication are clear, easy to
understand and relevant.
Using the communication
channels effectively.
Offered with enough promotions

Will be recommended to others.

13. Do you think if Ooredoo's VAS and digital products

are Mark only one oval per row?

Strongly Disagree Disagree Neutral Agree Strongly Agree

Satisfactory.

14. Please let us know if you have any suggestion.

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