A Report on

The Strategic Approaches of Grameenphone

Submitted to
Sabakun Naher Shetu

Faculty Member

Department of Marketing

Faculty of Business Studies

Bangladesh University of Professionals (BUP)

Submitted by
Maruf Abir; ID # 16251017

Jaheen Abraar; ID # 16251025

Mariful Islam; ID # 16251077

Marketing 2016, Section-A

Letter of Transmittal

November 4th, 2019

Sabakun Naher Shetu

Faculty Member

Department of Marketing

Faculty of Business Studies

Bangladesh University of Professionals (BUP)

Subject: Submission of A report on “The Strategic Approaches of Grameenphone”

Dear Ma‟am,

It is our pleasure to submit to you the report paper you have assigned us on “The Strategic
Approaches of Grameenphone” as part of our course requirement. We have tried our best to
carry out all necessary research and present the information we have gained in a cohesive and
eloquent manner. Working on this assignment has made us understand the skills and techniques
required to implement pricing strategies from the perspective of a brand. We hope you find this
report satisfactory and that it meets all your expectations.

Sincerely,

Maruf Abir (ID-17)

Jaheen Abraar (ID – 25)

Mariful Islam (ID – 77)

Section: A

Marketing Batch 2016

Department of Marketing
Acknowledgements
We are extremely grateful to our respected course teacher, for her helpful instructions and
guidance without which we would not have been able to complete this term paper. We would
also like to take the opportunity to express our gratitude towards Mr. Tabriz Haidary,
Management Trainee, Grameenphone for giving us the crucial insights regarding the telecom
sector of Bangladesh, which made writing this Project Paper a resourceful one.

Executive Summary
This paper examines the competitive environment of Grameenphone, its functional level and
business level strategies, as well as an internal analysis of Grameenphone in order to better
understand Grameenphone‟s current market position, as well as its potential in the future.

The paper first examines Grameenphone‟s strengths and weaknesses by conducting a SWOT
analysis. The results indicate that GP has many strenghths such as its reputation for being one of
the best telecom brands, its innovative marketing strategies, broad distribution channels etc.
However, rising distribution and operation costs are some threats GP needs to overcome.

Next, the Porter‟s Five Forces model have been used to understand the competitive environment
of the telecom industry. Although the threat of new entrants in the market is low, the competition
in this industry is intense.

An internal analysis have also been conducted to understand the distribution and communcation
strategies used for Grameenphone. The value chain model for this service have also been
developed to better understand the acitivities GP had to undertake in order to deliver higher
value to customers through this brand.

Next, the paper analyzes GP‟s functional level strategies to determine their distinctive
competencies which have given them competitive advantage over rival products while attaining
superior efficiency, quality, innovation and customer responsiveness. The paper also examines
GP‟s business level strategies in order to understand how GP‟s is managing to compete in the
market in its current product life cycle stage.

Finally, the paper summarizes all of the aforementioned findings and concludes that while GP is
performing extremely well in the telecom market, there is still scope and potential for GP to
achieve higher profitability and market share in this industry.
List of Figures

Porter‟s Five Forces Model for GP

Value Chain Model of GP
Roots of Competitive Advantage
Strategies in Mature Industries
Strategies to handle Rivalries

Methodology
The information provided in this term paper have been collected from electronic sources, mainly
from informative websites. All information in this term paper have been therefore collected from
secondary data sources, since collecting data from primary sources would not be feasible for this
particular topic.

Introduction

Background of the Study

The broad and overall objective of this report is to provide with an overview of the learning at
Grameenphone Ltd. so that the theoretical learning can be related with the real-life business
situation.

By this assignment our normal objectives are-

• Competitive strategies of Grameenphone.

• Define the target market of Grameenphone.

• Extensively describe Grameenphone Ltd. (GP) as an organization providing cellular phone

service in Bangladesh, its other products and services.

• Identify the customer satisfaction and marketing strategy level of Grameenphone.

Brand Overview

Background
Grameenphone Ltd. widely known as GP is currently the leading and largest telecommunications
service provider in Bangladesh and is a part of Telenor Group which has presence in 13 markets
across Europe and Asia with more than 60 million subscribers (as of June 2016). (About/Our
Story, 2016) 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 organization of Bangladesh.
The other 10% shares belong to general retail and institutional investors.

The Telenor Group

Telenor is emerging as one of the fastest growing providers of mobile communications services
worldwide with ownership interests in 12 mobile operators across Europe and Asia. Telenor is
organized into three business areas; Mobile operations covering 12 countries, and Fixed-line and
Broadcast services covering the Nordic region. They are a huge shareholder of Grameenphone.
They have:

1. More than 150 million mobile subscribers worldwide.

2. Strong subscription growth, particularly in our Asian operation.

3. Listed as No.1 on Dow Jones Sustainability Index 2008.

4. Ranked as the world's seventh largest mobile operator (Revenues 2007: NOK 105 billion,
Workforce 2007: 35 800 man-years).

5. Listed on the Oslo Stock Exchange, with headquarters in Norway

Grameenphone

Grameen Telecom is a not-for-profit company in Bangladesh established by Professor

Muhammad Yunus, winner of the Nobel Peace Prize 2006 which owns 34.20% of the shares of
Grameenphone. Grameen Telecom, with its field network, administers the Village Phone
Program, through which Grameenphone provides its services to the fast-growing rural
customers.

Grameen Telecom trains the operators and handles all service-related issues. GTC has been
acclaimed for the innovative Village Phone Program. GTC & its Chairman Nobel Peace prize
laureate Professor Muhammad Yunus have received several awards which include; First ITU
World information Society Award in 2005; Petersburg Prize for Use of the IT to improve Poor
People‟s Lives” in 2004; GSM Association Award for “GSM in Community Service” in 2000.
(Grameen Telecom)

Starting its operations on March 26, 1997, the Independence Day of Bangladesh, Grameenphone
was the first operator to introduce GSM Technology in this country. Grameenphone pioneered
the then breakthrough initiative of mobile to mobile telephony and became the first operator to
cover 99% of the country‟s people with network. Since its inception Grameenphone has built the
largest cellular network in the country with over 10000 base stations (official Facebook page of
Grameenphone, 2016). 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
telecom market. Grameenphone was also the first telecommunication operator in Bangladesh 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. In October 2013 the company launched 3G services
commercially. The Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (BTRC) awarded
4G licences to Grameenphone, Banglalink, Robi and Teletalk on February 19th of 2019, which
took Bangladesh into the fourth-generation data service era. The entire Grameenphone network
is 3G/EDGE/GPRS/LTE enabled, allowing access to high-speed Internet and data services from
anywhere within the coverage area. There are currently over 15 million Internet users in the
Grameenphone network. With the slogan “Stay Close”, stated goal of Grameenphone was to
provide affordable telephony to the entire population of Bangladesh. Before Grameenphone‟s
inception, the phone was for a selected urbanized few. The cell phone was a luxury: a flouting
accessory for the select elite. The mass could not contemplate mobile telephony as being part of
their lives. Grameenphone started its journey with the Village Phone program: a pioneering
initiative to empower rural women of Bangladesh. The name Grameenphone translates to “Rural
phone”.

Grameenphone, the market leader in the industry, is trying to establish a benchmark in terms of
customer service in the mobile phone industry. They have established a customer care hotline
121 which operates 24/7 round the year. There are now more than 1600 GP Service Desks across
the country covering nearly all upazillas of all districts and 94 Grameenphone Centers in all the
divisional cities. Furthermore, they are also serving through social media and online platforms.

Along with their core service, Airtime, Grameenphone now also offers high speed Internet,
Health line service, Bill Pay and many other value-added services. Grameenphone has so far
invested more than BDT 26,830 crore to build the network infrastructure. Grameenphone is one
of the largest taxpayers in the country, having contributed more than BDT 43,890 crore in direct
and indirect taxes to the Government Exchequer over the years. Grameenphone has about 4700
full and temporary employees. 500,000 people are directly dependent on Grameenphone for their
livelihood, working for the Grameenphone dealers, retailers, scratch card outlets, suppliers,
vendors, contractors and others.

The right and contemporary use of technology is the key to the progress of a nation. Keeping this
in mind, Grameenphone always brings the future proof technology in order to facilitate the
progress. The possibilities in this new world are immense and the bright people should not be
kept behind in anyway. At the end of the day, all the individual progresses accumulate to the
progress of the beloved motherland. Grameenphone promises to bring the best of communication
technologies so that we all can Go Beyond.

Mission

“We are here to help our customers” - GP exists to help the customers get the full benefit of
being connected. The success of GP is measured by how passionately the customers promote us.

Vision

“Empower societies” - GP provides the power of digital communication, enabling everyone to

improve their lives, build societies and secure a better future for all.

GP Values

Grameenphone Ltd. is a diverse and multicultural workplace with unique individuals from
around the globe working together. Therefore, the company makes it a point that each of them
maintains dignity, honesty and fairness towards their co-workers, acts in a respectful manner,
make the work simpler and easier, be an inspiring figure for the fellow workers and try to
maintain the promised that are made to the customers, to the employees and to the stakeholders
as well. The below four are the four core values of GP:

1. Make it Easy

2. Keep Promises

3. Be Inspiring

4. Be Respectful
Implementation of Porter’s Five (5) Forces in Grameenphone
In his revolutionary article - "Five Forces that Shape Strategy", Michael Porter observed five
forces that have significant impact on a firm's profitability in its industry. These five forces
analysis today in business world is also known as -Porter Five Forces Analysis. The Porter‟s Five
(5) Forces are –

1. Threat of New Entrants

2. Bargaining Power of Suppliers

3. Bargaining Power of Buyers

4. Threat from Substitute Products

5. Rivalry among the existing players.

Threats of New Entrants

New entrants in Education & Training Services brings innovation, new ways of doing things and
put pressure on Grameenphone through lower pricing strategy, reducing costs, and providing
new value propositions to the customers. Grameenphone has to manage all these challenges and
build effective barriers to safeguard its competitive edge.
How Grameenphone can tackle the Threats of New Entrants:

• By innovating new products and services. New products not only bring new customers to
the fold but also give old customer a reason to buy Grameenphone products.

• By building economies of scale so that it can lower the fixed cost per unit.

• Building capacities and spending money on research and development.

Bargaining Power of Suppliers

All most all the companies in the Education & Training Services industry buy their raw material
from numerous suppliers. Suppliers in dominant position can decrease the margins GP Strategies
Corporation can earn in the market. Powerful suppliers in Services sector use their negotiating
power to extract higher prices from the firms in Education & Training Services field. The overall
impact of higher supplier bargaining power is that it lowers the overall profitability of Education
& Training Services.

How Grameenphone can tackle Bargaining Power of the Suppliers:

By building efficient supply chain with multiple suppliers. By experimenting with product
designs using different materials so that if the prices go up of one raw material then company can
shift to another. Developing dedicated suppliers whose business depends upon the firm.

Bargaining Power of Buyers

Buyers are often a demanding lot. They want to buy the best offerings available by paying the
minimum price as possible. This put pressure on Grameenphone profitability in the long run. The
smaller and more powerful the customer base is of Grameenphone the higher the bargaining
power of the customers and higher their ability to seek increasing discounts and offers.

How Grameenphone can tackle the Bargaining Power of Buyers

• By building a large base of customers. This will be helpful in two ways. It will reduce the
bargaining power of the buyers plus it will provide an opportunity to the firm to streamline its
sales and production process.

• By rapidly innovating new products. Customers often seek discounts and offerings on
established products so if Grameenphone keep on coming up with new products then it can limit
the bargaining power of buyers.
• New products will also reduce the defection of existing customers of Grameenphone to
its competitors.

Threats of Substitute Products or Services

When a new product or service meets a similar customer needs in different ways, industry
profitability suffers. For example services like Dropbox and Google Drive are substitute to
storage hardware drives. The threat of a substitute product or service is high if it offers a value
proposition that is uniquely different from present offerings of the industry.

How Grameenphone can tackle the Treat of Substitute Products / Services:

By being service oriented rather than just product oriented. By understanding the core need of
the customer rather than what the customer is buying. By increasing the switching cost for the
customers.

Rivalry among the Existing Competitors

If the rivalry among the existing players in an industry is intense then it will drive down prices
and decrease the overall profitability of the industry. Grameenphone operates in a very
competitive Telecom Services industry. This competition does take toll on the overall long term
profitability of the organization.

How Grameenphone can tackle Intense Rivalry among the Existing Competitors in
Education & Training Services industry:

By building a sustainable differentiation. By building scale so that it can compete better.

Collaborating with competitors to increase the market size rather than just competing for small
market.
SWOT Analysis of Grameenphone Ltd

Marketing Strategies of Grameenphone

Grameenphone has adopted different strategies to be in the lead position in the telecom industry
of our country for last 19 years.
Global Level Strategy:

Telenor adopted individual brand names in different countries. For example, Grameenphone Ltd.
also known as GP in Bangladesh, Uninor in India, Telenor in Pakistan, Norway and Hungary,
DiGi in Malayasia, Dtac in Thailand etc.

Business Level Strategy:

Different airtime package for different target market which includes Nishchinto package (flat
rate to all operator), Bondhu package (more importance on friends and family numbers), djuice
package which was introduced specially for the youth of Bangladesh. Xplore package for
postpaid users.

Corporate Level Strategy:

GP follows product concept and offers an elegant and customized package named „Business
Solution‟ for the high-end corporate users.

Enterprise Level Strategy:

Grameenphone Ltd. offers packages such as „Ekota‟ for small and medium enterprises which is
available in both prepaid and postpaid forms and has community tariff privilege. GP Public
Phone (GPPP) is the package for PCO enterprises.

Promotional Tools:

For the execution of the strategies that were designed and adopted by the GP authority, below
promotional tools are being used every now and then.

1. Advertising: Newspaper advertisement (print media) , Television advertisement , Radio

advertisement and also sponsoring radio shows. , Billboard. , Internet based advertisement.

2. Sales Promotion: Price pack/bundle offers. 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. CSR activities: The CSR activities is getting considered as a promotional strategy these
days. GP focuses on three major areas for their CSR activities that include health, education and
environment.
Value Chain Model of Grameenphone

Supportive Activities
When it comes to supportive activities for Grameenphone the IT, Managemnt and Human
Resources work together. Grameenphone integrates the different resources such as their website,
social media, data management and integrates them with their HR to work in different sectors
such as communication tools such as, advertisements, events, campaigns etc.

Primary Activities
Marketing and Service department plays an important role for Grameenphone.
Competitive Analysis

Banglalink: Launched in February 2005, with over 33.69 million subscribers over a decade,
Banglalink was the catalyst in making mobile telephony an affordable option for consumers in
Bangladesh. The initial success of Banglalink was based on a simple mission: “Bringing mobile
telephony to the masses”, which was the cornerstone of Banglalink‟s strategy.

ROBI: Robi Axiata Limited, DBA Robi (Bengali: ), is the second largest mobile network
operator in Bangladesh. It is a joint venture between Axiata Group Berhad of Malaysia, Bharti
Airtel Limited of India and NTT DoCoMo Inc. of Japan.

Functional Level Strategy

Aimed at improving the effectiveness of a company‟s operations and, thus, its ability to attain
superior efficiency, quality, innovation, and customer responsiveness.
Grameenphone has been using its resources and capabilities to gain distinctive competencies
such as Efficiency, Quality, Innovation through pro creations. This leads to them being different
through competitive prices and superior value. Thus, this leads to superior profitability.

Business Level Strategy

Strategies in Mature Industries

Grameenphone is operating in the telecom market. Since the market has now reached its maturity
stage, GP employs mature market strategies in order to stay on top of their game. They use the
following strategies in order to stay ahead.

• They use Price Cutting on occasional basis in order to stay ahead of other brands on
price. Since, products in this category are often price sensitive when compared to customer
behavior, Grameenphone gains a clear advantage through this.

• Product Proliferation helps Grameenphone to fulfill the needs of many customer

segments while also constantly staying in the minds of the customer.

Strategies to Manage Rivalry

When it comes to the telecom market, GP is undoubtedly the market leader. In order to maintain
their position in the market, they have been employing some strategies to keep rivals away. They
are mentioned below:

• GP uses Price Leadership since they are the dominant brand and are able to setup prices
that are followed by others. This is the only strategy among the above mentioned strategies in the
rivalry management that Grameenphone uses to manage its existing rivals and keep them at bay.
Strategic situation analysis
Market vision, structure and analysis

“To be the leading provider of telecom services all over Bangladesh with satisfied customers,
shareholders and enthusiastic employees”. GP has a dual purpose: to receive an economic return
on its investments and to contribute to the economic development of Bangladesh where
telecommunications play a critical role.

The mission is to provide value at an economic cost, process in diversity, and continue to
contribute to growth of industrialization in Bangladesh by being the market challenger.

GPs market structure is very strong to other telecommunication companies. GP create an

excellent distribution channel to serve their product. GP also set a strong networking system.

GP always analyze the competitor markets because competitors are suddenly launched New
Internet package through My GP App and low call rates.

Segmenting markets

Basically, they segment their market in considering two factors; one is demographic, and another
is geographic.

Geographic segmentations call for dividing the market into different geographical units such as
countries, state, cities etc. GP provide international roaming system for their customer to use
other country.

Demographic segmentation divides the market into group based on variable such as age, gender,
family size, lifecycle, income etc. GP offers GP national for all kinds of customers.

Continuous learning about markets

Basically, future market forecasting is very difficult. Although they try to learn about the market
through using the researcher. The researchers continuously conduct survey and other method to
gather current market situation in whole over Bangladesh and periodically submit their report to
the superior. Through a recent study shows customer like to purchase low call rate service and
various extra offers like internet, MMS, GPRS, News update, Health line etc.
Designing market-driven strategies:

Market targeting and strategic positioning

Marketing segmentation reveals the firms market segment opportunities. GP now evaluates the
various segments and decide how many which wants to target. Now the targeting market of GPs
most probably young generation because now they provide some attractive offers to attract the
teenage people.

GP try to make their positioning strategy combining with the lower call rates and offering
attractive benefits and promotions to customer.

Marketing relationship strategies

GP make a strong marketing relationship may include subscribers, marketing channel members,
suppliers, competitor analysis and internal teams. They organize periodically conference with
their distributor and try to motivate them by providing reward, extra incentives, gift hamper;
sometimes it depends on sales performance. They make relation with customers through
basically providing best network service and sometimes also providing promotional offer by
making public relations such as sponsoring social program. GP also sponsored Bangladesh
national cricket team to build up a relationship to all kinds of people.

Planning for new product

GP are always trying to launch varieties types of new services like health line, voice SMS,
MMS, GP world service, Free Facebook Messenger and welcome tunes etc. to attract the
consumers. GP also provide their Skitto subscribers value for money Internet services. They
always concern about the quality service at competitive low call rates and select the required
distribution channel as target customer easily take their service.

Market-Driven program development:

Strategic brand management

GP are one of the pioneer telecommunication company in Bangladesh. For that GPs brand is
express themselves as an established brand. They focus their patriotism through expressing their
brand name “Grameenphone”. Ultimately there is a great chance to attract all kinds of
subscribers. May be their call rates is low, they try to make it decrease by providing best service.
Besides they also arrange many social programs to make subscribers and build their brand
equity.
Value chain, price and promotion strategy

Price is important for every type of services. GP are always trying 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 wants quality services then they must 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. They also have a campaign “Pothe Pothe” to increase their sim card sale.
They are now heavily relaying on social media to attract youth.

Implementing and managing market-driven strategy:

Designing Effective market driven organizations

Now these days called twenty first century when all things are modern. Everywhere we use
technological product like computer, fax, and internet etc. Now there are lot of sectors like that
product development sector, quality control department, Research and development department,
HR department is introduced & recruitment new employee. Another important department is IT
sector where control sectors.

Strategy implementation and control

GPs marketing strategy implementation and control consist of marketing plan and their budgets
and also the managing and controlling the strategy on an ongoing offers .At the starting of the
year they formulate the plan which includes the sales revenue, production, marketing, HR for the
interest of their company. For implementing the strategy, the management arrange monthly
meeting for all top positions employee because they are set new strategy for organization.
Conclusion
The subscribers and consumers perception about Grameenphone are good. After examining of its
marketing mix (Product, price, place and promotion) marketing segmentation and competitive
position we can say that it is a world class cellular company and applying better marketing
method. Finally, we want to say that the marketing strategy and policies of Grameen Phone are
world class. Everyday life is becoming increasingly dependent on the services of the
telecommunications industry. New government policies may mean the industry will thrive at the
expense of the profitability of individual companies. As most of these are owned by large global
players, the rising difficulty of operating in the Bangladeshi market may discourage additional
investment, despite the opportunities the market has to offer. On the other hand, the government
initiative to protect customers, such as by improving complaint lodging systems, will prevent
these large companies from exploiting customers. Transformation will come not only by the
introduction of new technologies but also by constantly developing government regulation. The
very definition of the industry will be affected by changes like the separation of the tower
development industry and the introduction of 5G technology.

By overcoming these growing barriers, as well as those posed by accessibility and infrastructure,
the telecommunications industry may be able to carry Bangladesh into the era of the Fourth
Industrial Revolution by providing cheap, reliable connectivity to the mass population. By taking
good and sustainable marketing techniques Grameenphone will do good in the long run in the
Bangladeshi telecommunication market.

References

• http://www.mghgroup.com/contract.html

• http://shristi23sunsilkmarketingblog.blogspot.com/2014/09/pricing.html

• https://www.mbaskool.com/brandguide/fmcg/1005-grameenphone.html

• https://www.mbaskool.com/brandguide/fmcg/814-veon-v.html