Retail
Distribution
Performance
of
the
Six
Mobile
Companies
operating in Bangladesh At this moment in time, most of the world has at best a limited access to basic telephone service. Bangladesh is no exception to this rule. However, 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 has gradually become a general-purpose communication tool and now at end of Jan 2011 total subscriber base is 70.3 million which is around 42% of the total population of Bangladesh. There are many factors behind this incredible growth in the industry over last few years. Increasing competition resulting in price war made mobile phone affordable at the same time availability of low price handset helped to boost this sector very rapidly. Nevertheless, recent development in distribution network of mobile operators has acted as one of key factors in this rapid growth. Distribution strategy one of important parts of marketing, means making products available to target consumers in the most efficient manner. Better distribution service can always create competitive edge for any company. Without having efficient distribution channel no product offer can be successful. Hence, problem statement of my study is “We want to have a comparative picture on the retail distribution performance and trade satisfaction level of Telecommunication companies of Bangladesh”. Primary objective of this study is to portray the position of telecom operators of Bangladesh in terms of their distribution performance. The report analyzes the parameters that are typically considered by the companies at time of measuring their distribution performance. Exploratory research design has been implemented to find out the reasons behind preferring any operator, satisfaction level on mobile phone
companies in terms of their distribution service. We have developed a close ended questionnaire which contains two types of scale of measurement i.e. Nominal Scale and Ordinal scale. Quota Sampling Technique has been used in order to find out the distribution performance of Telecommunication companies of Bangladesh. Only the retail outlets that are selling telecom products (Connection and/or Recharge items) are selected as sample. The whole retail universe of Bangladesh is first divided into seven administrative divisions. Then judgment is used to select the outlets from each divisions based on a specified proportion (40 SIM selling and 50 recharge selling). A questionnaire were developed consist of seven parts, such as Registration status, Product availability, stock status, Share of sales, RSO visit, POSM availability and Trade Satisfaction level. In order to analyze the data, all parts are explained thoroughly. Data collection has been done through direct interview of retailers. I have taken support from in-house Trade satisfaction index has been developed based factors behind retailer preference and retailers’ satisfaction level in those factors. Data analysis has been done by me. After explaining all the parts, Trade satisfaction index has been developed based factors behind retailer preference and retailers’ satisfaction level in those factors. Formula is:
TSIX = WF1 * SXF1 + WF2 * SXF2 + WF3* SXF3+………+ WXFn * SXFn Where, TSIX = Overall Trade Satisfaction on Company X WFn = Weight (TOM) for Factor n SXFn= Satisfaction on Company X in Factor n
Banglalink is found as leading in terms of distribution service parameters within the surveyed universe although GP is predominantly the market leader in terms of subscriber base. Robi and Airtel are also showing potentials in terms of distribution service in trade.
However, GP manages high quality in distribution service and thus retains highest trade satisfaction level with highest satisfaction in commission and network coverage & quality. GP’s reputation for timely disbursement of commissions backed up by higher demand due to strong network coverage resulted in higher trade satisfaction on GP. Day by day competition is intensifying in mobile industry of Bangladesh. All mobile operators are coming up with attractive offers. Moreover, network coverage & quality has become similar for all major operators. Technologies are being imitated by competition within very short time. There are only a few factors remaining that can create competitive edge for the companies. Distribution is one of those very few. During the study I’ve faced different types of limitations. I tried my best to become bias free during the study so that a good result can be made at the end of the study with the help of both the organizations – Banglalink and University of Dhaka. Finally I can say that, this report can be a valuable study for the further research. Any kind of inquiry regarding this paper will be highly appreciated.
doc_390000763.doc
Distribution
Performance
of
the
Six
Mobile
Companies
operating in Bangladesh At this moment in time, most of the world has at best a limited access to basic telephone service. Bangladesh is no exception to this rule. However, 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 has gradually become a general-purpose communication tool and now at end of Jan 2011 total subscriber base is 70.3 million which is around 42% of the total population of Bangladesh. There are many factors behind this incredible growth in the industry over last few years. Increasing competition resulting in price war made mobile phone affordable at the same time availability of low price handset helped to boost this sector very rapidly. Nevertheless, recent development in distribution network of mobile operators has acted as one of key factors in this rapid growth. Distribution strategy one of important parts of marketing, means making products available to target consumers in the most efficient manner. Better distribution service can always create competitive edge for any company. Without having efficient distribution channel no product offer can be successful. Hence, problem statement of my study is “We want to have a comparative picture on the retail distribution performance and trade satisfaction level of Telecommunication companies of Bangladesh”. Primary objective of this study is to portray the position of telecom operators of Bangladesh in terms of their distribution performance. The report analyzes the parameters that are typically considered by the companies at time of measuring their distribution performance. Exploratory research design has been implemented to find out the reasons behind preferring any operator, satisfaction level on mobile phone
companies in terms of their distribution service. We have developed a close ended questionnaire which contains two types of scale of measurement i.e. Nominal Scale and Ordinal scale. Quota Sampling Technique has been used in order to find out the distribution performance of Telecommunication companies of Bangladesh. Only the retail outlets that are selling telecom products (Connection and/or Recharge items) are selected as sample. The whole retail universe of Bangladesh is first divided into seven administrative divisions. Then judgment is used to select the outlets from each divisions based on a specified proportion (40 SIM selling and 50 recharge selling). A questionnaire were developed consist of seven parts, such as Registration status, Product availability, stock status, Share of sales, RSO visit, POSM availability and Trade Satisfaction level. In order to analyze the data, all parts are explained thoroughly. Data collection has been done through direct interview of retailers. I have taken support from in-house Trade satisfaction index has been developed based factors behind retailer preference and retailers’ satisfaction level in those factors. Data analysis has been done by me. After explaining all the parts, Trade satisfaction index has been developed based factors behind retailer preference and retailers’ satisfaction level in those factors. Formula is:
TSIX = WF1 * SXF1 + WF2 * SXF2 + WF3* SXF3+………+ WXFn * SXFn Where, TSIX = Overall Trade Satisfaction on Company X WFn = Weight (TOM) for Factor n SXFn= Satisfaction on Company X in Factor n
Banglalink is found as leading in terms of distribution service parameters within the surveyed universe although GP is predominantly the market leader in terms of subscriber base. Robi and Airtel are also showing potentials in terms of distribution service in trade.
However, GP manages high quality in distribution service and thus retains highest trade satisfaction level with highest satisfaction in commission and network coverage & quality. GP’s reputation for timely disbursement of commissions backed up by higher demand due to strong network coverage resulted in higher trade satisfaction on GP. Day by day competition is intensifying in mobile industry of Bangladesh. All mobile operators are coming up with attractive offers. Moreover, network coverage & quality has become similar for all major operators. Technologies are being imitated by competition within very short time. There are only a few factors remaining that can create competitive edge for the companies. Distribution is one of those very few. During the study I’ve faced different types of limitations. I tried my best to become bias free during the study so that a good result can be made at the end of the study with the help of both the organizations – Banglalink and University of Dhaka. Finally I can say that, this report can be a valuable study for the further research. Any kind of inquiry regarding this paper will be highly appreciated.
doc_390000763.doc