Take the Lead

never follow…..
 Group Pofile
Name Role
MD. AKTARUZZAMAN 39

MADHU MANGAL KUNDU 133

TUSHNIM AHMED 55

MD. ABIDUR RAHMAN KHAN OVI 103

MD. HASNATUL AZAM 107

Students of University of Dhaka

BBA 12th Batch
Dept. of Marketing
Comparison of Grameenphone and
Banglalink based on the usage of
branding elements
Overview of the Companies
Grameenphone

 Starting
Time: 1997
 Customer Base: 23 millions approx.
 Market Share: 45.5% approx.
 Market Position: Market leader
Banglalink

 Starting
Time: 2005
 Customer Base: 13 millions approx.
 Market Share: 24% approx.
 Market Position: Market challenger
Branding Battles
 Initial weapon
◦ largest network coverage of GP
◦ low call rate of Banglalink
 Later on

◦ value added services and price matching with B’link

by GP
◦ continuing low call rate by B’link
 Current weapon of both companies

◦ non price competition(CSR, emotional attachment

etc)
 Name
Jingle

Slogan
Use of
Branding Elements
Charact
er

URL

Logo
Brand Name Composition
 Grameenphone and Banglalink are descriptive
names.
 Citycell = City + cell = Urban concentration
 Grameenphone = Grammen + phone = Rural

concentration
 Banglalink = Bangla + link = National

concentration
Memorability
 Both
words “Grameenphone” and
“Banglalink” are
◦ familiar
◦ easy to pronounce
◦ distinctive

 Grameenphone shortened its name to GP and

Banglalink shortened its name to B’link.
Meaningfulness
 Both names indicate service category
 But none of them indicates any particular

attribute or benefit
Likability
 Verbally, Banglalink sounds better than
Grameenphone
 Because the word “Bangla” raises the emotion

for Bangladesh, Bangla language

Transferability
 Beyond Category
 GP: transferrable to related product category
 B’link: Not successful so far

 Beyond Geographic Territory

 GP: Difficult
 B’link: Impossible (flavor of country of origin)
Adaptability and Protectability
 Updating is difficult in both cases.
 Protectable through our country’s law.
Survey Analysis of Name

Criteria Grameenphone Banglalink

Memorability 100% 100%

Meaningfulness 96% 88%

Likability 92% 84%

Slogan

Stay Close Vs making a difference

Slogan
 The slogan of GP is
◦ specific and
◦ relevant to service category
◦ focused on every marketing program

 But the slogan of B’link is

◦ abstract
◦ not focused on all marketing programs
 Slogan Analysis
Criteria Grameenphone Banglalink
Memorability Memorable Somewhat memorable
Meaningfulness Clear and reinforcing Subjective
Likability Excellent Good
Transferability Different geographic Different geographic
boundary but same boundary in any category
category

Adaptability Difficult Flexible

Protectability Protectable legally and Protectable legally and
competitively competitively
Survey Analysis of Slogan

Criteria Grameenphone Banglalink

Memorability 92% 92%

Meaningfulness 96% 80%

Likability 96% 80%

URL
 Less important as most of the customers don’t
have the facility to surf internet.
 Both companies’ websites are not updated
regularly.

But the usage of URLs is becoming popular day

by day.
Logo
Logo
 At first, GP used the logo of a rural man &
woman with a cell phone
 Later on, GP changed its logo because:

◦ first logo was not transferable

◦ first logo became obsolete
◦ second one is smarter and is the logo of the parent’s
company, Telenor.
Logo
 Banglalink uses the logo resembling the
stripes of tiger as it indicates royalty and speed
 Logo Analysis
Criteria Grameenphone Banglalink
Memorability Memorable Excellently memorable
Meaningfulness Abstract Abstract
Likability Excellent eye friendly Good but not eye friendly
Transferability Possible beyond boundary Possible beyond category
and category but difficult beyond
boundary

Adaptability Flexible Flexible

Protectability Protectable legally and Protectable legally and
competitively competitively
Survey Analysis of Logo

Criteria Grameenphone Banglalink

Memorability 76% 88%

Meaningfulness 36% 68%

Likability 72% 52%

Character
 GP does not use any character
 At the initial stage Banglalink used tiger as its

character.
 Banglalink brought a differential effect by

using it
Jingles

 Both GP and B’link use sole background

music
 B’link uses same jingle in all the

advertisements of Banglalink Desh Package.

Survey Analysis of Jingle

Criteria Grameenphone Banglalink

Memorability 76% 80%

Likability 52% 68%

Overall Comparison
Brand elements Performance

Name GP dominates

Slogan GP dominates

URL None

Logo GP dominates

Character Banglalink dominates

Jingle Banglalink dominates

Reason behind using GP

8%

44%
48% Brand
Call rate
Network
Others
Reason behind using Banglalink

16% 20%
Brand
Call rate
64% Network
Others
 Bibliography

 Strategic Brand Management by Kevin Lane Keller (3rd

edition)
 http://www.wikepedia.org
 http://www.grameenphone.com
 http://www.banglalinkgsm.com
 http://www.dnaindia.com/money/report_bharti-may-be-

seeking-more-in-bangladesh_1349677
 Bangladesh Brand Forum magazine, December,09
 Survey conducted by Take the Lead
Thank You