Telecommunication industry is going through a parity environment. All players are moving in the same direction. Attempting to drive differentiation through emotional messaging without any focus to Leverage product innovations… No investment to build identity & look. Focus more on acquisition rather than revenue generation...

1. Strategic Recommendations for
Aktel*
in Bangladesh Telecom Market
Brand-building Exercise for AKtel
*AKtel is now ‘Robi’,
the 2nd
largest Telco in Bangladesh

2. 1. The Positive Outlook
2. The Mobile Eye Poppers
3. The Most Relevant Category Trends
4. A Competitive Update
5. The India Paradigm
6. The Prospects for the Bangladesh Market
7. The Challenges & the Strategic Imperative
8. The 3 Critical Blocks
9. The Opportunity & the Strategic Challenge
10.The Communications Purpose & the Brand Spirit
11.The Portfolio Strategy
12. Creatives – Sample Concept for Signature
• Route 1 – Signatures of Celebrity Lifestyle
• Route 2 – Making Possibilities Possible
8. Comprehensive 360 degree IMC roadmap for Signature
9. Protishabda Agency Strengths
10. Protishabda Billing Principles
11. Protishabda Media Highlights
We Will Walk You Through

3. The Positive
Outlook

4. Economy Growing by a whopping 6.7%
Share of Agriculture in GDP down to 26 % from 80 %
A rapid growth in Urbanization has also led to a sudden
spurt of the middle class household
A Progressive Literacy rate of 60%
Millions of Cars on the road today and growing further

5. A Nation Emerging as
economic powerhouse
of tomorrow

6. “House” owning households have increased by almost
50% in the past five years

7. One of the top 11 Emerging economies
as per Goldman Sachs outlook report

8. Moving onto the Telecom Space

9. A change that is affecting everyone across the country…
across profiles…geographies…
A change that is not just driven by the city-bred urbanites anymore…

10. Who says you can’t have everything?
One of the fastest growing categories
Never Had the Consumer Had it so good

11. Let’s Look at some Eye Poppers
With relevance to the Mobile Space

12. 15 Million Phones to 32 million phones in 3 years flat
A tele-density of 22 today from a Tele-density of 0.26
In 1997

13. The fact that almost 60% of the
population in the country
is under 40 makes a large chunk of users and
prospective users in the youth band

14. The country with one of the lowest call rates…
An average of Tk. 1 per minute from about Tk. 7
per minute 5 years back

15. A certainly talkative Bangladeshi….
Almost 350 Minutes of usage per month, which is one of the highest in the world

16. There is still a very strong value-orientation…But,
with an altered perspective…Due to the plummeting
call rates, a new “inclination” has come to the
scene…to try out things that appeal to me…
“ a willingness to stretch if it catches my fancy…”

17. The consumer is truly the king…

18. Lets look at few of the defining trends in
this scenario

19. The ever-bulging Pyramid
1. A never ending stream of new customers entering the category
2. Constant migration upwards. A steady stream of consumers moving from the bottom
end to mid end and mid end to the top end…
Trend 1
New Users Coming
in to the category
New Users Coming
in to the category
Evolved High-end User
Holistic
Value
Seeker Pure-Play
Voice
User

20. Shifting of the Battle Arena
Everyone is trying to get a lions share of the uninitiated 78…
Acquisition has become greater than retention
Trend 2

21. The Fallout
Sudden Course Correction and change of focus by all players…
single minded objective now…
Building preference amongst the prospective users at the mass end of the market

22. Urban Markets almost saturated
Evolved cellular markets have penetration levels ranging from 30% to 50% …Out of the
new acquisitions the split between rural and urban is almost 50 : 50
Trend 3

23. Sacrifice on the altar of Acquisitions
In the focus to be competitive, the Industry ARPU average has drastically fallen to
levels of US $ 4 per month from about US $6 even a year back…Which is one of the
lowest in the world…The world-wide average ARPU is US $ 21.30
Trend 4

24. Monthly Bill Headed Southwards
On an average there has been a 10 % to 15 % reduction in the monthly
payout…giving the consumer room to aspire for more…The desire to sample
newer products and services is more than ever before
Trend 5

25. Product & Imagery Parity
Same set of benefits. Same set of Problems.
Nothing significantly different happening at the brand level
Trend 6

26. With this Backdrop, let’s evaluate the
Competitive Landscape

27. The Key Players
 3 Salient Players
 Grameen Phone clearly the National brand of Choice
 Strong Equity
 Invokes the Bangladeshi Pride
 Long time heavyweight leader in terms of numbers (subscriptions,
ARPU, Coverage, Growth, etc.)
 Innovative Products
 Only one to have an youth brand in the portfolio
 A strong challenger brand - Banglalink
 The Only recent entrant who has been able to communicate a clear imagery in
the market and dent the market upside down.
 AKtel the No. 2 brand in the country
 A strong product portfolio…However the brand is yet to forge a clear identity in
the consumers’ mind

28. Communication
 Banglalink has made regular attempts with the play of
tiger / agent of change / aggressive price cut / heavyweight
spender and so on.
 Grameen Phone also has maintained attempts with the
leadership image to retain and grow further.
 Noticeable efforts were there to appropriate and leverage
specific product innovations by AKtel.
 For AKtel not enough has been done at the master brand
level.

29. The New Players
 The pool has widened and the options for the cost
conscious user has multiplied
 The market is going to get more competitive once
the new players pan out across the nation and get
their infrastructure in place

30. The Market is on the verge of taking the
next flight…
A situation where the neighboring Indian telecom market was there a
few years back

31. The Indian Paradigm
1. Parity Market
2. No Differentiation
3. Plummeting Tariffs
4. Falling ARPU’S

32. Suddenly…
A Lifeline emerged for the operators…Increasing demand for VAS meant
potential to generate revenue and shore up the plummeting ARPU’s…
The Indian Paradigm

37. VAS –Finally dropped anchor
1. Over 100million sms’s everyday, 1 million paid ring-tone downloads
everyday.
2. Contributes to 7-8% of telecom industry revenue, likely to
contribute up-to 20 % in the next 3 years.
3. Total market today around 2850 crores, likely to reach
4850 crores in the next 5 years.
Around 22% of VAS revenues come from caller ring back tones,
18% from ringtones, 7% each
from wall papers and games, 15% from voice-based info services
and 31% from text-based information services.
The Indian Paradigm

38. Brands began to drive differentiation through
Value Added Technology Led Innovations in the
VAS & GPRS Space

39. With this Backdrop, Let’s do some Crystal Ball
Gazing on the Bangladesh Market

40. Voice will be Vanilla
Voice will play no role in building disposition or preference…In the next few
years, with growing importance of VAS, revenue contribution from pure voice
services will diminish…
Prospect 1

41. The Fallout
As we go along, the 3 C’s of Clarity, Connectivity and Coverage, that used to
be critical attributes earlier, will become hygeine

42. Prospect 2
A
The more evolved user
A large section of the audience would evolve to be a discerning user and
therefore demand more & more value additions
VAS already growing at 10 % per annum
Technology Integration would be critical

43. Technology will continue to unravel
new possibilities
Exploding demand would warrant upgraded capabilities from both
ends “Handset” & “Network”
Prospect 3

44. Handsets will drive Imagery
Will continue to symbolize Success, Youthfulness and Progress across profiles

45. The desire to be seen with what is “in”
Replacement Cycles will alter
Prospect 4

46. Ambassadors
of tomorrow
Prospect 5
The Young & the Youthful will dominate
the scene
The young and vibrant between 17 and 21
To them a mobile is not just a device…it is the means to express their
individuality, a medium to share and exchange feelings, thoughts, emotions,
trends, fads, jokes…the next best medium after the internet
They would seek to express much more through
a mobile device

47. Prospect 6
Contrasting Impact on Revenue
While the mass market would drive the ARPU’s down, the
top end of the market would provide the opportunity for
shoring up revenues through high-end VAS

48. With this backdrop, let’s look at few of the
Challenges that confronts the brand

49. 1 The Balance between Numbers & Revenue
2 Building differentiation through innovation
3 Connectivity in Smaller towns and the heartland
4 Building Loyalty at the top-end and connecting with the youth
5 Building Preference and preventing churn at the mass end
6 Prepare grounds for high end data services
7 Keep strengthening the basic 3 C’s…

50. The Strategic Imperative
 Gear up for an evolving market with
regards to
 Communication
 Products
 Network
 Refresh imagery and bring to life the numerous
possibilities on the AKTEL Network
 Clearly earmark how each of the product
portfolios would address the different segments

51. Most Importantly clearly articulate and
define the Master Brand Proposition

52. Identifying the most salient Blocks that will
Determine the strategy
1. Consumer 2. Market 3. Brand

53. Consumers are experiencing the benefits of a Gung-Ho Macro environment
The revolution in the Telecom space has been accompanied with
Enhancement of life quality across the board
The Consumer has begun to recognize the role of a mobile in living a life
that is meaningful, socially fulfilling & progressive…
Every Bangladeshi is rediscovering the emotions associated with the Pride of being a part of
an emerging Nation…Also a band of customers are emerging with clearly defined aspirations
1 Consumer
A Parity Environment. All players moving in the same direction. Attempting to
Drive differentiation through emotional messaging
without any focus to
Leverage product innovations… No investment to build identity & look
Focus more on acquisition rather than revenue
generation
2 Market
AKTEL has had a history of focused communication on the innovative Products and
Services…However the accent has never been on building an overarching master brand
Proposition…On the contrary it is an opportunity that one could build a new
Proposition from scratch without any baggage
3 Brand

54. The emotionally charged Optimist who has begun to experience
the high of quality life
and seamless
Communication
&
The Uni-dimensional
Pure Voice Connectivity based brand propositions of all players
The Opportunity

55. Change the Playing field by clearly defining a holistic role of the brand in adding
value to every facet
of his life…
Through the different Product Portfolios…
The Challenge

56. The AKTEL Communication Purpose
Dream
Inspire every Bangladeshi to unlock their full potential through the benefits of a seamlessly connected
world
Spirit
Empowering Innovation
 Beliefs
 Everyone has the right to expressing, receiving & transmitting
information in real time
 In the age of Instant Global Connectivity no one should be a laggard
due to lack of a communication medium
 Integrating communications technology
 Communication should open up a new world of possibilities
 Embracing and harnessing the diversity of Bangladesh
 Make every Bangladeshi an integral part of the global village
 Delivering value through the benefits of cutting edge technology
 Relentless Pursuit of “step ahead” innovation
 The power of simplicity GIC (Greatest Imaginable
Challenge)
To be the No 1 Telecom
To be one of the most admired brands
To bring in regional and global synergy in
terms of technological superiority and brand
equity.
 Character
 World Class
 Accessible
 Innovator
 Transformational
 Optimistic
 Caring
 Simple
 Restless
 Passionate
Focus
Simplify technology to enrich lives
Our Legacy
AKTEL is 2nd
largest cellular operator providing high quality
service and innovative products. It is the only player
launching many value-added products in the market and
focusing more on quality than quantity

57. Empowering Innovation
Strategically it would be imperative to manifest this spirit
across all interfaces

58. The Portfolio Strategy
1. Define & Build Premium imagery and create Connect
through overarching master brand communication
2. Build Product range leadership through the Post Paid
Franchise
3. Make inroads into the mass market through Pre-paid
products
4. Build a Franchise of the Future…Connect with the
youth with a youth brand

59. AKTEL PORTFOLIO STRATEGY
Articulate the Empowering essence of innovation at the brand
Level…Make it the Pivotal force around which all inputs
could revolve
Brand
Bring to Life the manifestations of this spirit at the Product Level
Position Post Paid as the Flagship Product in the range…
A complete communication portfolio that opens up infinite possibilities
for consumers
Product
Post Paid
Penetrate market with aggressive acquisition strategies…
Manifest innovation through innovative Tariffing
Mass
Pre-Paid
Create a separate youth product with products and services that conform
to their aspirations and lifestyles…
A product designed to help them bond and vibe as close knit groups
in a format and look that is Trendy, Hip and talks their language
Youth
Separate Brand

60. The Positioning
Only AKTEL will allow Millions of Bangladeshis the benefits of being
seamlessly connected anytime, anywhere by providing innovative
communication solutions across various formats.

61. The Key Pillars
Master Brand
Product
Post Paid
Mass
Pre-Paid
Connectivity
Clarity
Coverage
Integrated
VAS
Internet Service
Youth
Zero Rental
Friends & Family
Integrated
VAS
Broadband
Internet
AKTEL Data
Card
Leverage TM Credentials

62.  Qualitative
 Brand understanding
 Points of contacts
 Media planning tools
 Media creativity
 Shared expertise within
network
 Quantitative
 Buying efficiency
and optimization
 Strategy
 Cost
 Position
 Overall negotiation
to increase value
The ROI Perspective
Higher ROI

63. The ROI Perspective
 Protishabda media aims to ensure that clients receive a
greater return on per Taka invested in media than any of
their competitors
 Five key principles
 Invest – we invest, not spend our client’s money
 Outcomes – we are interested in outcomes, not output
 Connect – we believe in creating powerful connections with
consumers
 Productivity – we aim to increase marketing productivity
 Evaluate – we are committed to measurement and evaluation
 Thus we would like to be known as the ROI agency
accountable for our clients investment in media.

64. Thank you
Kazi M. Hossain
Account Manager
Fastrack Graphics
Thorncliffe Park Drive,
East York, Toronto
Brand Consultant, Mozaic Creative
Yonge St, Thornhill, ON L3T, Toronto, Canada
Ex. COO of Protishabda
(Publicis and Saatchi & Saatchi Affiliate)
26 Kemal Ataturk Avenue, Dhaka, Bangladesh
Mobile: (647) 836 4335
Email: rasel1210@gmail.com
ca.linkedin.com/in/mkazihossain
youtube.com/user/kmhrasel