INTRODUCTION

1.0 Introduction

1.1 Introduction

Much of the world has, at best, limited access to basic telephone service. Bangladesh is no exception to this rule. A brief survey of the telecommunications sector in Bangladesh (PBC) shows that in Bangladesh, which ranks among the most densely populated countries on the globe, one telephone serves 275 people, equating to one of the lowest teledensity measures worldwide. Of the total telephone count in Bangladesh, approximately 20 percent serve the rural areas. The need for telecommunications sector investment and growth is obvious. This is especially so if Bangladesh intends to participate and coexist economically and socially in a larger information-intensive world.

There were only 3,000 users when mobile phone was an expensive personal gadget of the society's affluent segment. Competition was introduced in 1996. Since then mobile phone gradually became a general-purpose communication tool and today it boasts of 6.25 million users representing a 132 percent compound annual growth rate. It is predicted that there will be around 10 million mobile subscribers in the country by 2006.

Middle to higher income citizens has been dominating the mobile customers. Lately the lower income group started joining the club. It was fuelled after Banglalink rocked the market by bundling subscription and handset at Tk1, 500 only. Later people became more excited after the launching of Teletalk.

AKTEL stunned the market introducing one-second pulse. GP made history with launching EDGE, the very first step towards third generation mobile phone. City Cell's free handset offer coincided with Sing Tel's acquiring this CDMA operator last week. Graph of our mobile phone market's growth was to take the shape of a "Hockey-stick" by this year.

Banglalink was the last addition to the GSM family of OTH. In September 2004, OTH acquired a mobile services company, Shebatel in Bangladesh with a nationwide GSM license valid until 2011. Since then, OTH has installed new management, upgraded the network and re-branded the company as Banglalink. Banglalink has rapidly deployed new network infrastructure, set up a distribution network and points of sale, and designed complete commercial plans to offer high quality voice and data telecommunications services at competitive prices to the people of Bangladesh. It is also worth mentioning that an unprecedented success of sales results followed the Commercial launch of Banglalink on the 10th of Feb 05.

The mobile phone market is a part of the consumer service industry. Banglalink, like any other successful company dealing with consumer commodity, has to keep a continual tap with the prevailing and potential subscribers. Due to this reason, Banglalink has to undertake intensive branding activities to facilitate the attainment of short-term organizational goals and long-term objectives.

1.2 Problem StatementAt present Banglalink is facing intense competition from its major competitors like GP, Aktel & City Cell. They are competing with each other by cutting tariffs, offering more services, extending validity etc. So, the only way to make an impact on the subscribers mind is to create a strong brand & to effectively communicate the brand image to its target audience. In that way a company can set itself apart from its competitors. Under these circumstances, the problem statement would be- Banglalink wants to know the impact of its branding & communication on subscriber perception, and based on the findings from the survey, intends to find out the position of Banglalinks brand image comparing to the brand image of its competitors.

1.3 Research Design

In order to find out the brand image of Banglalink comparing to other mobile phone companies, exploratory research design has been implemented. Now there is rationale behind taking this exploratory research design over descriptive research design. Exploratory research is more flexible and versatile in nature. It can be conducted by a single researcher with a minimum no. of sample size. This kind of research gives more insights for developing an approach to the problem. It establishes priorities for further research. This research has given us a dictation of Banglalinks brand image.

Comparing the Brand Image of Banglalink against the other Mobile Phone CompaniesPage - 4 -