Introduction

Background of the Study

East West University, one of the leading researched based universities in Bangladesh,
allows the students of BBA program to do more than 40 courses where MKT101 is one of
them. By this course we get introduced with the principles of marketing, most
fundamental and basic things related to marketing. Here, the course teacher assigns the
students to work on a project. Such step enables students to make a successful
reinstitution to the corporate world after acquiring the academic knowledge. Being
students of this course, we are grateful to get the chance to apply the theories of
marketing strategy that we have learnt so far, in practical life.
The main purpose of the task from the part of the university was to make the students
apply the knowledge they acquired from this specific course and to compare between the
work in practical world and the theoretical knowledge acquired from the books. For SEL,
this project has a significant importance as well as its an overall analysis of both their
internal and external situation.

Objectives of the Study

To find out how SEL has become reliable real estate company in Bangladesh.
To show them the currents market situation and position of them in the market.
To show them the competitive advantages they are holding over the other existing
companies in the market.
The possible obstacles company may face in recent time.
To gather an overall idea of Bangladeshi real estate business.

Process of Data Collection

Data collection methods are followed as follows,
Primary Level:
General Manager, Marketing Dept. of SEL
Senior Executive, Marketing Dept. SEL
Industry Experts
Commercial Executive
Technical Persons.
Direct Photography
Secondary Level:
Website
Google
Outlets
Advertisements on Paper
Bussers
Advertisement on Billboard

Scope and Limitation:

It was not so difficult to us to get the access in several necessary parts of SELs corporate
office and to talk to them to have discussion on certain topics due to the reputation of
East West University and its students positive image. The letter forwarded by our
honorable course teacher Miss Husna Ara again helped us to proceed the sequences
officially and successfully.

On the other hand some obstacles could be noticed. Such as:

Communication gap. It took a bit more time to get an official approval from them.
Long distance from the university campus to Panthapath(corporate office) and
intolerable traffic jam made dilemma.
Financial support was low among the group members.
Some big holidays, such as Eid Ul Azha, Durga Puja, Ashura ect. and sudden
political clashes between political parties hampered on our go.
Last but not least, lack of experience. Its our first time to do any survey in any
organization.

Overview of
The Company

Brief history
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The Structural Engineers Ltd. (SEL) is a private limited company, established in 1983
as proprietary concern with Engr. Md. Abdul Awal, a graduate civil engineer of 1977
from BUET, Dhaka as the proprietor. Subsequently the firm was converted into a private
limited company in February, 1987 and was duly registered with the registrar of joint
stock Companies, Bangladesh. Then the firm was re
organized by co-opting more graduates of various
disciplines in the field of engineering. After the
inception of the company, it started making significant
contributions mainly in the field of civil engineering
and gathered wide experience by completing diverse
structures including buildings, bridges, food go downs, hospitals, cyclone shelters, substation buildings etc.
Banking on its reputation in the construction sector, the company forayed into the real
estate sector in 1994 and has completed 100(hundred) residential and commercial
projects, establishing itself as an embodiment of quality, competence and efficiency. They
are ISO approved and they strictly maintain the law and Government rules. SEL strongly
set their position by answering a simple straight forward question:
Are the Project Plans approved by the relevant authorities?
And the answer goes

We do not go for marketing or construction of any project until that project is duly

approved by concerned authority like RAJUK.

Company profile
6

About SEL.: The Structural Engineers Ltd., is affectionately called SEL by its
innumerable customers and patrons. It holds a logo of two different brown rectangles
combined with a black square and a white circle, representing the overall thought of
variation and professionalism in structural developments. SEL stands for honesty, trust,
faith, quality & commitment. These are the guiding forces behind SEL's excellence as a
trusted developer. They proudly say that SEL is a Brand Name one can trust for safe
investment.
SEL has been in the construction arena for the last 28 years, initially serving various
sectors of the Government including the sectors of health, food, power, disaster
management etc. and gradually moving on to the sector of real estate.
With a view to alleviating the living accommodation problem of the mega city Dhaka,
SEL stepped in the real estate development scene in 1995. During the span of the last 15
years SEL has completed and handed over more than 100 apartment and commercial
projects in Dhaka, establishing itself as an embodiment of quality, competence and
efficiency.
SEL believe that Quality is not a concern solely of the top management or the quality
control department rather it should be the concern of every single member of the
workforce, starting from the CEO right down to the bottom rung of the ladder. Besides,
based on the philosophy Quality comes first, Profit is its logical sequence, SEL is
maintaining Quality at all stages of development by involving the total workforce. With
the dedicated contributions of a full-time workforce including architects, design
engineers, skilled & experienced project personnel and not to mention state-of-the-art inhouse architectural & structural design facilities, SEL has been able to achieve success
within a very short time.

At SEL we believe that a satisfied customer, whether a landowner or a purchaser, shall

become a source of our advertisement, creating a wider scope for business. They always

proudly aver that of the more than 150 completed projects, many of the plots we acquired
were through the advocacy of our valued landowners.
In all honesty choosing a developer is quite a difficult and risky task for a landowner.
Nowadays there are many developers in the field. Which, then, shall one choose and what
shall be the criterions for choice? They suggest that a landowner may quite easily jump
over this hurdle by talking to the landowners and the unit owners of various completed
projects of a particular developer. From them he shall be able to get an accurate and
unembellished picture about that developer. Making decisions based on the external
trappings such as the dazzling finishing items and ostentatious gate only, instead of
paying adequate attention to the structural details shall surely not help matters. In fact, the
structure of the building ought to be a major matter of concern as there is nothing one can
do to change it until or unless the building is demolished. And sound structures there are
always a priority for honest developers.
Goal: SEL set their goal that refers to earn a respected position, discovering and
understanding the desires and needs of the community, whiles working in harmony with
their consumers, employee and business partners. They want to be the market leader by
excelling in product quality, social, technical and marketing creativity and service to their
consumers through skill and cordial commitment of their employee. Any companys goal
is to maximizing the market share. They want to be the best company through their best
effort, suitable and competitive marketing strategy and the consumers support.

Business Area:
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The corporate office SEL Center of The Structural Engineers Ltd. is situated in 29
Bir Uttam Qazi Nuruzzaman Sharak, West Panthapath, Dhaka, Bangladesh.
Two questions can be related to this portion:

How many projects does SEL have and where are these located?
SEL has more than 200 projects. SEL has undertaken projects mainly in
Dhaka. The areas where SEL currently has projects are : Gulshan, Banani,
Dhanmondi, Kalabagan, Elephant Road, Mohakhali; Indira Road, Eskaton,
Zigatola, Lalmatia, Green Road, Mohammadpur, Mirpur, Pallabi, Niketon, Uttara,
Paltan, Garden Road, Bashundhara, Lalbagh, Bara Maghbazar, Nakhalpara, K M
Das Lane.Besides, SEL has also undertaken projects in Comilla, Khulna and
Bogra.

What are the criterions for choosing a project location?

The locations of our projects are selected on the basis of the requirements of
our prospective and existing clients.

Mission
Creating environment friendly dwelling for ultimate satisfaction of customers.

Vision
Developing Planned habit for future generation.

Slogan
Quality comes first, Profit is its logical sequence.

The company believes in this above mentioned philosophy and gives prior importance to
the maintenance of time schedule and high quality of works. The company also believes
that an organization survives and thrives only by providing its customers with satisfaction
9

through its products and services. At SEL we do so by adopting Total Quality

Management (TQM) a systematic approach based on companywide activities through
which a company is able to devote itself so satisfy its clients by providing top quality
products and services.
SEL again and again say the same thing in order to establish that it stands for honesty,
faith, trust, quality and commitment. These are the guiding forces behind SELs
excellence as a trusted developer.

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Product Information

The Structural Engineers Ltd. shows a great promise in choosing n providing products to
the target market. They build up their products and serve them according to customers
preference. The SEL usually sells two types of products. They are:
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 Ready Flat
Flat

Ready Flat: SEL provides ready flat to the customers that is built up
by their own finance and observation and after making it completely ready,
they offer it for sale. SEL sell two types of ready flat
Full furnished ready flat
Ready flat without furniture.

Flat:

SEL also advertise of their projected apartment using various

promotional tools and collect the capital and gradually use them to
construct flat. After a certain period of time, the make it completely
finished and hand over them to the customers.
In order to keeping the customers aware of their product they established a bunch of
questions with elaborated answers that give a broad knowledge about the product. Some
of the important are given below:
What Construction/core materials (Rod, cement, sand etc.) are used?

The construction/core materials we use for our projects are of standard

quality:
1. All 40/60 grade M.S. deformed bar.
2. Stone chips/Volagonj stone shingle/Picked jhama brick chips.
3. Coarse sand for concreting & medium sand for plastering.
4. Concrete mix proportion 1:1.5:3 or 1:2:4 (as per design requirement).

All construction/core materials are tested independently by BUET and/or the

University of Asia Pacific.

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What Finishing materials (fittings, fixtures, tiles etc.) are used?

They provide standard finishing items and fittings/fixtures; these include:

1. Apartment floor: Homogeneous tiles (RAK/CBC/Mir or

equivalent).
2. Bathroom and kitchen: Glazed tiles on walls and wall matching
homogeneous/glazed tiles on floor.
3. Exterior wall paint: Weather coat paint of Berger Robbialac
/Aqua/Asian paint or equivalent of elegant color.
4. Interior wall paint: Plastic emulsion paint of Berger
Robbialac/Aqua/Asian Paints or equivalent of elegant color.

Features
SEL is always famous for providing different features in their products. They say their
product is different than others. It is because of they apply customers feelings or
preferences with their brand. They also keep the quality superior to others, exclusive than
anything.

Variety
They make varieties of apartments all over the Bangladesh. It starts from the size from
1000 sft. to 4000 sft. which give a a lot of options to customers. Again, they locate their
flats in various areas and thus they make the variety.

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Quality
From the very beginning, SEL keeps the promise to give the superior quality product to
their customers. . Although they prepare both large and small apartments according to
customers need and affordability, they keep the quality same for all. Their slogan, mission
and vision always talks about the same thing, the quality.

Design
According to the survey and the overview gained from the
customers, design is one good thing that attracts all kind of people
who are interested. Their designs are exclusive. A number of skilled
and experienced engineers and architect works in this company and
make world class designable and fashionable flats that easily represent ones personality.

Packaging
SEL offers their product according to the size, situation and requirement of the project.
They put various opportunities like install basis payment, direct payment etc. based on
the ability and situation of a customer.

Relative Market Share

A companys relative market share determines its position in the competitive market
where it belongs along with its other competitors. The Structural Engineers Ltd. is
presently the market leader in the world of real estate business in Bangladesh. Recent
performance of this company pictures that it has got a great value in the market.
Customers are satisfied with their product and pricing strategy.

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Strategies
The Company Follow

15

Marketing Mix
The marketing mix is the set of controllable, tactical marketing tools that the firm blends
to produce the response it wants in the target market. The marketing mix consists of
everything the firm can do to influence the demand for its product. The many possibilities
can be collected into four groups of variables known as the four Ps: product, price,
place, promotion.
Now lets see how The Structural Engineers Ltd. use the 4Ps concept to marketing.

Product
Product means the goods and services combination the company offers to the target
market.
Although SEL usually do business with ready flat and flat, they have variations on their
products under their product line so SEL offer different size, shape, design and offerings
to introduce their products. They offer:

Stores vary from 6 to 16, depending on the location and measure of land.
Various apartment sizes according to the project location and as per requirement
of the client base. The smallest are close to 1000 sft., while the larger apartments

might measure around 4000 sft.

Large apartments consisting of 3 to 4 rooms and slam apartment with 2 to 3

rooms.
Provides the maximum usage of natural light, exposure to scenic view - these
factors are given highest priority while designing the units.

Price
Price is the amount of money customers must pay to obtain the product.

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SEL offer different price limit to their target customer. They are very concern about the
user comfort of product. They know that large apartments is not the only size their target
customers choose rather than they are more likely to choose smaller apartments with an
affordable price rate. So they focus on both types of customer & offer them different size
and price knowing their purchasing power and need. Point to be noted that SEL charge
their product price by the Cost-based Pricing Strategy.

Their units are priced at a very reasonable rate and the payment mode is kept

flexible to accommodate the purchasers.

The price of the car parking space is not included in the apartment price.
They provide clients with all necessary information regarding financial assistance
and give them all the help they need in applying for loans from any financial
institutions they might want to patronize. Usually, local clients get up to 50% of
the flat price as loan, whereas expatriate purchasers might be granted unto 70%
loan.

Place
Place includes company activities that make the product available to target consumers.
The distribution channel of SEL is very strong. They can fill up the demand to their target
customer and particularly the ready flat of SEL has strong brand name so it supply
rapidly to the target customer. If we take a look on SEL supply channel that isProduction- Central depo- Regional depo- Distributor -Celtral.

They have cover around 60% of the urban, semi urban and sub urban areas of
Bangladesh. SEL do direct marketing and one to one marketing. They strongly take the

position to say that the quality of their product is higher the brands price compared to the
other existing brand is much lower.

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Distribution Channel
SEL buys the raw materials both from internal and external outlets. As they are always
concerned about proving the best quality to the customers and holding their reputation to
all, it never compromise to buy good from foreign countries. One good thing is that they
are doing some small businesses like ceramic business or furniture business in order to
just getting the materials to run properly the SEL real estate company which certainly
makes the difference from others.

Promotion
Promotion means activities that communicate the merits of the product and persuade
target customers to buy it.
The Structural Engineers Ltd. comes with their tagline Quality comes first, profit is its
logical sequence. and they promote several activities of Bangladesh. Eventually their
promotion is so high & effective that helps them to grab their target market region easily.
They do mainly sales promotion to ensure the gradual increase of their selling rate. As
promotional tools, SEL prefer the print media above all. All sorts of offerings are showed
in advertisement on newspapers and other print medias. Besides, they often organize
rehab fair to sell their goods, promote their offerings and let their customers know about
the present situation of their business. They also promote their names and encourage
people to buy their products by providing them various offers such as install basis

payment opportunity, seasonal offers and information in detail version. To them, the most
effective promotional tools are,

Organizing fair
Add in print media.
Bill Board.
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CSR Activities
The social welfare done by a company besides their corporate activities is called the
Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR). SEL are highly involved in CSR program from
the beginning of their journey. Besides, they arrange several activities to promote the
country. In this year SEL have arranged a Travel and Tourism Fair to promote the
promising tourism industry. They believe that these are the most effective CSR program
they have taken.

Use of STP Concept

STP is the prime concept to do customer-driven marketing. The company must win
customers from competitors, then keep and grow them by delivering greater value
through STP concept.
S Market segmentation
T Target marketing
P Positioning

Before a company satisfies its customers, it first finds out the need and want of
customers. So they have to do market segmentation to find their customers because a
company cannot satisfy all the customers.

Market segmentation
Market Segmentation mean dividing a market into distinct groups of buyers who have
different needs, characteristics, or behaviors, and who might require separate products or
marketing programs.
19

The Structural Engineers Ltd. has divided their market that is segmented their market
with a unique combination of two different bases. First of all SEL segmented its market
Geographical basis. They have started in the Dhaka city but now they are developing
their projects in Comilla, Khulna, Chittagong and Coxx Bazar.
They also used the theory of Psychological segmentation, targeting the upper class and
upper middle class to sell their product.
After segmenting the market a SEL had to choose their target customer.

Target Marketing
Target marketing is the process of evaluating each market segments attractiveness and
selecting one or more segments to enter. The interesting part lies here. SEL has made a
unique combination between the geographical and psychological segmentation.
According to their policy SEL selected the middle and upper middle class (not higher
class) people as their client. On the other hand, areas outside the Dhaka city, the selected
higher and only higher class people as their client. They related these two things as they
are conscious of the high cost of the life style in Dhaka city, so emphasis more on
providing reliable products than making it luxurious and costly. On the contrary SEL are
making big apartments with latest features and technologies in the out of Dhaka city such
as Comilla to make people used to with a different life style n approach of living. Thus
those significant areas customers are more likely to be upper class. After selecting
segments SEL again had to create a soft corner in the heart of their customer for their
product.

Differentiation
Differentiation is to provide something unique in their market offerings that create a soft
corner to its target customer.
SEL do its brand differentiation by their slogan, logo and their entire building structure.
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Positioning
Positioning means arranging for a product to occupy a clear, distinctive,
and desirable place relative to competing products in the minds of target
consumer.
SEL do its brand positioning by promoting their slogan Quality comes
first, profit is its logical sequence. again and again and set it permanently
into the mind of their customer. SEL also emphasize on their logo for
positioning.

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Evaluation:
Company & Its Product

BCG (The Boston Consulting Group) Matrix

Using the Boston Consulting Group (BCG) approach, a company classifies all its SBUs
(strategic business unit) according to the growth-share matrix.
The growth-share matrix defines four types of SBUs:

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STARS: are high-growth, high-share businesses or products. They often need heavy
investments to finance their rapid growth. Eventually their growth will slow down, and
they will turn into cash cows.

Cash cows: are low-growth, high-share businesses or products. These established and
successful SBUs need less investment to hold their market share. Thus, they produce a lot
of cash that company uses to pay its bills and to support other SBUs that investment.

Question marks: are high-share business units in high-growth markets. They require
a lot of cash to hold their share, let along increase it. Management has to think hard about
which question marks it should try to build into stars and which should be phased out.

Dogs: are low-growth, low-share businesses or products. They may generate enough
cash to maintain themselves but do not promise to be large sources of cash.

BCG Matrix of SELs Product

Now lets try to understand the present market situation of SELs products by putting its
products into the BCG Matrix.

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Market
Growth
Share

H
i
g
h

Stars

Question marks

Ready Flat

N/A

L
o
w

Cash Cows

Dogs
N/A

Flat
High
Low
Relevant
Market Share

Analysis:
1. Ready Flat is their Star product. They sell it most. They try to keep the position in
here by investing.
2. Flat is their product that can be put in Cash Cow. They try to earn as much money
as possible from this and invest the revenue into Star product.
3. As the deal with these only two products, no real threat is there in Dogs or in
Question Marks.

BCG Matrix of SELs Business Portfolio

It is important to understand the overall situation of business portfolio SEL have. Now
lets try to understand the present market situation of SELs portfolio by putting its
businesses into the BCG Matrix.

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HiN/A

SEL Nibash
Orchard Point

gh

STA
R
Lo
w

SEL Center

CAS
H
CO
W

Growth

Market

DO
G SEL Cement
SEL Concrete

High
Low
Relevant
market
growth

Analysis:
1. Their most profitable business that is real estate business is in cash cow position
due to the present market situation.
2. SEL Nibash, a hotel is another promising and profitable business of SEL is in
Question Mark situation. By taking several right and necessary steps, they can
make more profit from it.
25

3. SEL can increase their shopping mall business using the same strategy they use in
SEL Nibash.
4. SEL have some business that mostly being run to support their main real estate
business. Their cement business and concrete business are some of them that are
presently in Dog position. They can either stop them and invest the money in
other businesses or can work hard to increase their level of profit from these.

SWOT ANALYSIS:
Managing the marketing function begins with a complete analysis of the companys
situation. The marketer should conduct a SWOT analysis, by which it evaluates the
companys overall strengths (S), weakness (W), opportunities (O), threats (T).

S
T

The SWOT analysis of The Structural Engineers Ltd. is shown below:

WO

Positive

Negative

They have strong financial base.

Loyal price for upper and middle class

Lack of organizing proper marketing

strategy.
They do not have sufficient project in the

family with standard quality.

Using raw materials from their own sister

prime locations.
They do not promote highly of their flat

concern company.
Making a fruitful profit with offering a

standard quality material.

Offering those types of flats depending on

or ready flat, especially to their target

customer.

their customer demand.

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Exernal

Capturing the market outside of Dhaka.

By using new technology they can distinct

their position from their competitors.

By using new technology they can reduce

their cost for generating better profit.

They can segment their target customer

on their income basis.

They should not overlook most exclusive

Price
Internal

hick of lands, especially inside

Dhaka.
Economic inflation in Bangladesh.
Reduction of public purchasing power

over flats.

prime location.

Conclusion
27

Conclusion
There is no doubt that new product development is very much difficult and challenging in
current competitive market situation. Each and every company is trying to improve their
existing project as market demand as well as like to come up with innovative solution
through its product system and approach.
SEL, The Structural Engineers Ltd. is undoubtedly an established organization that
emphasize on maintaining high quality product and their promises rather than using huge

28

type of promotion tools. Although there are many difficulties, SEL has very good brand
image and customer acceptance for best quality product.

Recommendations
From SEL marketing experience along with the academic knowledge gathered for
preparing this report there would have few recommendations to introduce this product in
the particular market segment.
To introduce The Structural Engineering Ltd (SEL) it will be better to take heavy user
target marketing approach. In this approach cost involvement will be interested to use this
product. Always monitor competitors activities price promotion innovation development
etc.
Product formulation guideline should be simpler and make it easily understandable to
local technicians. Any complex process will keep away the technicians from the use of
the product. Ensure regular service availability.
They can bring some variety as their products demand. Selecting new locations by
geographical & demographical advantages can be a major factor.

Promotional activities can be increased by using different promotional tools such as mass
media etc.
They can take total benefit of their WOM. Its highly positive and will be highlighted when
promotional tools will be used.
Due to strong financial base they can launch a residential project to reduce our accommodation
problem in our city.

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30

Appendix

Attachments:

31

Chandanbari at KathalBagan

Basement Floor Design

SEL Center

32

SMYLE Group Members with

Md. Shajahan Mia
General Manager
Head of Marketing & Finance

33