Marketing Plan: Telecommunication
Company [ DU]
Group members:
Nouf Al Janahi
200920194
Hessa Al Ghaith 200923012
Shamma Yousif 200921539
Noora Abdulla 200920449
Reem Fahad
200920235
Habiba
200920245
Instructor: Li Sun
Course: Bus 310-502
Table of Contents
Executive summary .................................................................................................................................... 3
Current Market Situation analysis ........................................................................................................... 4
SWOT Analysis ....................................................................................................................................... 10
Objectives and Issues ............................................................................................................................... 12
Marketing Strategy ................................................................................................................................. 13
References ................................................................................................................................................ 17
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Executive summary
Du is the second telecommunication company operating in the United Arab Emirates. Du
was first launched in 2006, starting with providing mobile services which later developed
in providing fixed telephony, broadband connectivity and IPTV services for businesses,
individuals and homes. Du also provides carrier services for business and satellite
up/downlink services for TV broadcasters. Above all that Du offer value and enhances
their services every now and then.
By October 2011 over 5 million people and over 40,000 businesses have chosen to use
Du’s services and become their customers.
Du’s objectives are driven and stem from the company’s vision and mission, which are:
Vision: To enhance your life, anytime, anywhere.
Mission: We want to delight our customers, be the employer of choice for the best
talent, create optimal value for our shareholders through business excellence and
innovation, and proudly contribute to the transformation of our community. We work to
deliver our vision by using our talent, skills and energies to connect, inspire and reward
all we touch, every day.
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1. Market Situation Analysis
Current Marketing situation:
The telecommunication industry has widened with the strong potential, and determined
marketing strategy and services that are more effective to attract more customers. Du is a
telecommunication industry that was founded in 2006. It offers mobile and fixed telephony,
broadband connectivity, and IPTV services to individuals, homes and businesses. Du consist of
over 2000 employees, with more than 50% locals in the seniors management teams and
customer-facing staff, and have around 4 billion revenue. It has flourished the UAE market by
acquiring around 40% mobile market share within five years of its entry, and maintaining an
annual growth rate of more than 32% in a saturated market. A statistic that was done in October
2011 shows that over 40,000 businesses have chosen to use du services and become a regular
customers (Du, 2011). The high care in enhancing the life of the customers with all honesty and
creating innovations that pleases them has made the competition intense.
Price strategies are made by keeping the competitor price strategies in mind to provide
the consumers with a competitive price. Comparing the pricing strategies of competitors is very
important topic for marketers. The UAE telecommunication market consists only of two cellular
companies, which are Du and etisalat. A few years ago, Du entered a 100 % penetration market,
taking the risk to compete with etisalat, a pioneer and leading company in this region. Etisalat
offers a good quality of service with high pricing whereas, du offers low prices that has attracted
many customers.
Market description:
The Telecommunication company Du considers the target audience as a priority, and they
consist of residential and business customers. Those audience have different preferences, such
as products and services that enable communication and entertainment of a high quality and at
good prices. Du's creations focus on providing the target market segment innovative and new
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services to assure a better experience to the categories that range both socially and
professionally. Du has the broad target segments that are : Consumers, Businesses, and
carriers.
The patrons of du have a variety of products and services to choose between. Du provides
packages that are more convenient for local and international communication, such as using
landline benefits, as payment is by seconds, simplified tariff on international calls, and around
the clock off-peak international rates . Moreover, Du offers a unique entertainment experience
through du TV+ with a selection of features; such as instinctive channel browsing, pause,
rewind and record of live TV. Also, there’s no missing out on HD and 3-D television plus
”Movies on Demand “ and “On Demand Club” with your desired TV shows while at the
comfort of your own home. The customers of du can enjoy the vast handset products, including
blackberries, iPhones , Nokia, and Samsung galaxy with many exclusive offers. Du performs at
high consideration of the targeted market, and improve alongside the technology to assure their
comfort and satisfaction.
The emergence of a new Telecommunication company that targeted both the nationals and the
emergent citizens has indeed increased the competitive power. The different offers and lower
prices provided for messaging, phone calls, Wi-Fi, and different entertainment systems are
major factors that increased competition. The key, and only competitor of du in the United
Arab Emirates, is Etisalat.
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Targeted segments
Customer Need
Consumers :
Households
Individuals

To have improved
entertainment technology

to stay in contact with the
world in cheaper prices

to carry less devices rather
than many

Express individualism through
new technologies
Business:
Small and medium
business

search for ease, support,
simplified solution where all
their telecommunication
requirements are met at one
stop shop
Corresponding
feature/Benefit
o
present mobile and fixed voice
calling, Internet, data services
and television. Provide internet
services that are more
convenient such as the Mobile
Broadband Data Card that
provides with internet
everywhere. moreover, the
television services that assures
movies on demand, controlling
with forward pause and record
of live TV, and high definition
of many packages.
o
business voice that allows
users to benefit from inbound
and outbound services to ease
your communication needs
o
business mobile that provides
flexible mobile strategies and
mobility products to outfit the
business needs.
o
business managed services
help enhance the business IT
investment value
o
Enterprise and
Government
Carriers:
Blue color workers

Aim for growth

enhance relations
Develop business analytics an
product
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o
business access is committed
to secure and reliable pointto-point connection for
offices countrywide or
globally that are there when
needed.
Provide international data
networks and wholesale
services to international
operators, multinational
corporation and
telecommunication carriers.
Product Review:
Our company provides products and services for businesses such as:

Business mobile are flexible mobile plans and mobility products that suits the business
needs

Business voice allow businesses to gain advantage of inbound and outbound services to
fulfill their communication needs.

Business broadband is an internet service that allows companies to communicate with
their customers and provide reliable source of information with a lower cost that helps
drives the overall business productivity.
-
Symmetric high speed/ redundancy/ highly reliable
-
Unlimited internet up to 1Gbps with attractive prices
Our company provides different mobiles products and services:

Handsets: gives the customers the chance to choose the mobile phone that suits them.
-
Blackberries: provides email service that automatically delivers email
message/manage multiple accounts/ get online/ view documents
-
Nokia phones with du: offers 1 GB data free per month for 1 year
-
Samsung phones with du: offers 1 GB data free per month for 1 year with elite super
plans
-
XPERIA arc with du: buying new Xperia arc with any of du’s elite plan allows the
customer to get 1 GB free data every month for a whole year.

Mobile broadband: enables consumers to enjoy faster mobile internet browsing, music
downloading, and other applications that require high speed mobile broadband access.
-
internet key: supported by du’s state-of-the-art HSPA+ data network/ high speed data
connectivity/ managing contacts and sending and receiving SMS laptop/
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-
Micro Data SIM: high-speed data connectivity/ provides variety of attractive and
unbeatable data bundle rates, tailored to individual needs.
-
data bundles: surf the internet, watch videos, chat and many other entertainment using
mobile device more reasonably by subscribing to the data bundles.

Traveling abroad: du has tied up with over 430 telecom operators worldwide to ensure for
their customers to stay in touch and enjoy a full ranch of services
-
Passport: calls within the GCC be charged at only 90 fils per minute that allows
customers to enjoy talking longer for less.
-
One world one rate: offers an attractive and unified price of AED 1.25/ minute for all
incoming calls while roaming abroad.
Our company provides different home products and services:

Landline: pay by the second/ flat rates for national destinations/ off-peak international
rates around the clock to all countries

Broadband: easily connect to the internet by just plugging the computer into the socket
without the use of modem or a passwords and usernames. Several packages from 24
Mbps to 256 Kbps with various speed is available to chose from.

TV: contains advanced features such as simplified search and display, superior channel
browsing, instant channel change capability, high definition TV, and the option of
pausing, rewinding and recording live programs.

Real broadband packages: offers premium home services at an attractive price with fast
speed.
-
Talk: call the world with 1 fils per second using the home landline.
-
Surf: offers up to 16 times more broadband
-
Watch: offers intuitive channel browsing, pause, rewind, record live TV, and 3-D
movies on demand and TV shows.
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The service that we are focusing on in this paper is the On world one rate:

Offers one unified and attractive rate of AED 150 per 50 KB for mobile internet and 1,25
per minute for all incoming calls while roaming abroad.

Charges for outgoing calls and SMS are set based on areas of the world.

Calls to any number of the visited countries starts from AED 1,25 per minute in GCC up
to AED 5 per minute according to the rest of the world.

Calls back to the UAE begins from AED 3 per minute in GCC up to AED 9 per minute
according to the rest of the world.

SMS charges are AED 1 per SMS in GCC and up to AED 2 per SMS according to the
rest of the world.

Data roaming is AED 1 per 50 KB in anyplace in the world.

Outgoing and incoming calls are charged on a 60 seconds unit basis.
Competitive Review:
The emergence of a new Telecommunication company that targeted both the nationals and the
emergent citizens, has certainly increased the competitive power. The different offers and lower
prices provided for text messaging, phone calls, Wi-Fi, and different entertainment systems are
major factors that increased competitiveness. The foremost, and only competitor of du in the
United Arab Emirates, is Etisalat.

Etisalat: is the leading telecommunication organization in the UAE market, etisalat offers
a good quality of service using allowance, promotion, and segmented strategy. It uses
promotional strategies rather than reducing the prices. Their packages are more complex
and a bit tricky for a normal customer, and are overall more expensive than du.
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Moreover, Etisalat has invested in 17 countries worldwide and caters around 94.7 million
customers. Thus, the telecom will grow in the competitive market according to the
increase in profits and revenues (Naeem, 2010).
Despite this strong competition, Du can carve out a definite image and gain
recognition among the targeted segments. In the Bond Prospectus at the London Stock
Exchange, etisalat stated that “the introduction of Du in 2007 led to significant changes in
Etisalat’s mobile tariff structure, including segment-targeted promotions and tariffs. In
addition, the significant number of new promotional offers introduced by Du and Etisalat
during the period from 2007 to 2009 and through 30 September 2010 led to a decline in
effective tariffs” (Naeem, 2010). Additionally, du has attracted over 159,800 customers
in the last quarter and a total mobile market of 37 percent. Du is the economical service
provider, it attracts its customers by providing lower prices than etisalat, but
unfortunately provide lower quality. Du offers bundle, allowance and discount, and
segmented strategy. It offer per second pricing, thus a majority of user prefer to call from
du.
2. SWOT analysis
Strengths
Du has three important strengths:
Talk, Surf and Watch package. This package offers premium home services at an attractive
price. The benefits of this package are users can call the world for as low as 1 fils per
second from their home landline, where they pay by the second. Users can also enjoy up to 16
times more broadband and get free 5 e-mail accounts with 1 GBmailbox each plus free antivirus
and anti spyware software. Users can watch whatever they want, whenever they want.
Du TV+. This feature that can be experienced with an array of advanced features such as
intuitive channel browsing, pause, rewind and record live TV. Users can enjoy HD and 3D television plusMovies on Demand and On Demand Club with their favourite TV shows from
the comfort of their homes.
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Loyal customers because of fair prices. Du charges local and international calls by the
second. Therefore, people are more interested in Du and trust it more than Etisalat. Du
has a large number of loyal customers. Unlike Etisalat, Du is more customer-oriented and
80% of Etisalat customers shifted to Du because of their prices.
Weakness:
Since Du is a new telecommunication company, it has learned from the mistakes of
Etisalat, which was the only telecommunication company in the UAE. However, it still
has some weaknesses:
Lack of signal. Du’s signal is still not available everywhere in the UAE.
Services not used by everyone. Not a lot of people use Du’s services because it is still new
to the market, and the public doesn’t really know the products and services that Du is
offering.
Opportunities
Increasing demand for cheaper telecom services. There are only two telecommunication
companies in the UAE, which makes the market have an oligopolistic competition
between Du and Etisalat. There is an increased demand for the cheapest telecom
company. Du is trying to keep ahead with the fair prices by creating packages and
services that are cheaper than the other telecommunication company.
Better technology. Being in the 21st century a wide range of technologies have evolved
with lower cost. Therefore Du can bring better services with the advanced technology at a
lower cost and therefore offer value-added prices.
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Threats
Downward pressure on pricing: increased competition between Du and Etisalat has lead
Etisalat to use some of the same pricing strategies du is following, causing a downward
pressure on pricing. For example, Du follows the pay by second theory while Etisalat
used to use the pay by minute. But after Du’s success Etisalat started using the pay by
second theory.
Future competition threats. Competition in the market for telecommunications systems
is highly competitive and the company expects this competition to increase. It is expected
that continued growth and competition in the telecommunications industry, and new
competitors will enter the market.
Alternative pricing arrangements. Alternative pricing arrangements may be required to
cultivate relationships with new market entrants, and to a lesser degree with established
companies. Even though Du’s prices are reasonable, they still need to have alternative
prices to stay ahead of the telecommunication company.
3.
Objective
First-year Objective
The market of telecommunications was a monopolistic market which was controlled by
Etisalat. Du’s aim is to be stable in the market, to have a strong and professional relationship
with customers.
Second-year Objective
To increase Emiratization, which is by employing UAE nationals in the company, develop
training programs for UAE nationals, supporting projects of UAE nationals, and advertising
for the company “du” throughout the UAE cultural places around the UAE.
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Third-year Objective
Du’s third objective is to go globally, to open du branch in the Middle East countries such as
Egypt, KSA, Bahrain, Algeria, and other countries too.
-
Issues in general
Since the company is entering a monopolistic market, du needs to spend a lot on the marketing
procedure. Also, another issue is to form a confident relationship between customers and the
company, since the company is new and needs a lot of support.
4. Marketing strategy
Du’s marketing strategy stems from first analyzing the current market, and later
developing marketing objectives which influences the products design offered, and du’s
overall marketing approach.
Du’s marketing strategy is based on a positioning of product differentiation. Their
primary consumers are both women and men from age 18 and above who need good
telecom products and services at good prices. Du’s secondary consumers are expats who
are from the lower level that come work in the UAE and need cheaper prices to contact
their family and friends back home.
the UAE telecommunication industry in the past has always been product oriented,
meaning Etisalat being the sole telecom provider will provide the customers with one
product, catering to the whole entire mass of people in the UAE. For example for mobile
services etisalat use to offer two kinds of mobile plans either prepaid or monthly plan
with no rewards or special offers. One product that is not custom made catering to the
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entire country. With no competition in the market, and no options for the consumer, lead
to the lack of creativity in the product offered.
Positioning
Du is positioning their market as the most up to date, convenient and value-added
telecommunication company in the UAE. Their marketing strategy is to focus on the
consumer’s need rather than just launching a product in the marketing. This could be
established by segmenting and later designing a product or an offer which this segment
require or would be interested in. Du continually hunts for new and innovative plans that
sends importance and value to all their customers and build a long lasting relationship
meeting their expectations and needs. Since most of the customers travel between their
work area and home , du looks for great solutions by offering voice, messaging, data and
increasingly fixed line services to meet consumers needs..
Product Strategy
Du recognized how much the internet and phone calls is increasing in everyone’s daily
lives and decided to create a new international roaming offer. This offer is called One
World One Rate which is a flat data pricing rate for its subscribers who are able to use
mobile internet while travelling anywhere in the world. It provides unified prices for all
incoming calls while roaming abroad, anytime, anywhere. Plus instead of charging you
for outgoing calls and SMS depending on the country you’re visiting Du have made
things simple by setting up charges based on areas of the world instead. One World One
rate will enable customers to enjoy more value, simplicity and convenience than ever
before.
Pricing strategy
One World One Rate costs AED 1.25 per minute for all incoming calls and AED 1 per 50
KB for data. Du will introduce a more affordable service in the upcoming years if this type
of service became highly demanded. Their prices reflects Du’s strategy of attracting new
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customers as well as maintaining their loyal customers. This offer provides customers with
peace of mind, rather than having to worry about hidden international costs.
Distribution strategy
Du’s distribution strategy will be using both direct channel and indirect channel. The One World
One Rate services can be obtained from a variety of ways such as retail locations, by telephone
or through our website online. During the first months of providing this service, du will advertise
in promote areas where large numbers of expats and other individuals who will be interested in
this service. These areas will be in Airports and malls across the UAE. Advertisements in
tourism and booking websites will also be part of distributing this service since the internet is an
important key channel to promote services.
A third party service provider and distributors will be part of the indirect distribution. This will
allow the service to expand and offer top quality and uncomplicated roaming services to cater the
needs of both national and international customers.
This is the advertisement that will be distributed:
Marketing Research
Since Du is committed to providing elite, affordable and, simple roaming services, marketing
research will take place to support development and evaluate The One World One Rate service.
It will start by creating surveys and focus groups to analyze the consumers opinions and attitude
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towards the service. This will help in developing The One World One Rate service. The second
step will be researching the awareness of this service. This will be done by analyzing the
effectiveness of the advertisements. Throughout this research du will be able to know the degree
of satisfaction of their consumers
Marketing Organization
Du’s senior president of marketing and customer experience is responsible for all the marketing
activities in the company. The figure below shows the top level employees whom are in charge
of different aspects of the marketing department in Du.
Subhra Das
Senior President
Marketing and
Customer
experience
Mark Briers
Souhail Haddji
Ashok Israni
John Lincoln
Saleem Mohbani
Vice president
Vice president
Vice president
Vice president
Vice president
Strategic
Marketing
Marketing Fixed
Consumer
Segment
Enterprise
Marketing
Digital Marketing
& Entertainment
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