Banglalink(Public Relation & Communication)

Internship report

Spring -2006

AN EXPLORATORY RESEARCH ON THE ACTIVITIES OF THE “PUBLIC RELATION, AND COMMUNICATION DEPARTMENT” OF BANGLALINK™

Submitted by

Zahir Ahmed (ID # 0110127)

Submitted to Mr. Mohammed Sohel Islam

Lecturer, School of Business

Independent University, Bangladesh

April 30, 2006

April 30, 2006 Mr. Mohammed Sohel Islam Lecturer, School of Business Independent University, Bangladesh

Sub: Submission of Internship Report on Banglalink ™.

Dear Sir,

It is a great pleasure for me to submit the report on “An exploratory research on the activities of the “Public relation, and communication department of Banglalink ™”. I am submitting this report as the part of my internship (BBA-499A) in Banglalink ™. This report will help the organization to find out related factors of PR & communication department.

This is an exploratory study in a complete form and I have tried my best to complete the study in proper format given by IUB authority. It is true that it could have been done in better way if there would not be any limitations.

I appreciate you will asses my report considering the limitations of the study. Your kind advice will encourage me to do further research in future.

Sincerely yours,

___________________

Zahir Ahmed ID # 0110127

Acknowledgement

In the preparation and finish this internship report, I acknowledge the encouragement and assistance given by a number of people and institution. I am most grateful to the Banglalink™ PR & communication department to give me the opportunity to complete my internship in their organization. I would like to express my gratitude to my Supervisor at IUB Mr. Mohammed Sohel Islam for providing me detailed feedback and advice on this report. He always gave me his suggestions in making this study as flawless as possible. I also want to render my special thanks to Mr. Shahed Zubair, Sr. Manager, and others from PR & comm. Banglalink™ for providing all the supports in the organization. Special thanks go to the respondents, who spared their time generously, and took the trouble of answering a detail Questionnaire and helped me to complete my study. I also like to thank my family and friend for giving me continues support and suggestions. And never the less above all my heartiest thanks goes to all mighty Allah without his help I would not be here.

Table of Contents Subject

Page

Executive Executive Summary Summary ........................... ........................................ ........................... ............................ ............................ ........................... .............

i – ii

Introducti Introduction................. on............................... ............................ ........................... ........................... ............................ ............................ ...................... ........ Research Research Problem Problem ........................... ......................................... ............................ ........................... ........................... ............................ ................ .. Research Research Objectives.............. Objectives............................ ........................... ........................... ............................ ............................ .......................... ............

01 02 02

COMPANY BACKGROUND............................................................................... Orascom Telecom Holdings................................................................................... Mission Statement.................................................................................................. Banglalink Banglalink™ ™ ........................... ......................................... ............................ ............................ ............................ ............................ ....................... ......... Marketing Department of Banglalink™................................................................. PR & Communication Department .......... ........... ........... ........... ........... .......... ........ Why you need PR .......................... ........................................ ........................... .......................... .......................... ........................... ................... ..... Activities of PR & Comm.. dept. ..........................................................................

03 03 04 05 06 08 08 09

LITERATURE LITERATURE REVIEW ........................... ......................................... ............................ ........................... ........................... .................. .... Public Public Relation................. Relation............................... ........................... ........................... ............................ ............................ ........................... ................. .... Advertising.... Advertising.................. ............................ ............................ ........................... ........................... ............................ ............................ ...................... ........ Press Conference......... Conference....................... ............................ ........................... ........................... ............................ ............................ ...................... ........ Press Release.............. Release............................ ............................ ........................... ........................... ............................ ............................ ....................... ......... Spin ................................................................................................................. TV Commercia Commercials......................... ls....................................... ............................ ........................... ........................... ............................ .................... ...... Publicity........................ Publicity..................................... ........................... ............................ ............................ ........................... ........................... ..................... ....... Marketing Marketing Communicat Communication ion ............................ .......................................... ........................... ........................... ............................ ................ Billboard Billboard .......................... ........................................ ........................... ........................... ............................ ............................ ........................... ................. .... Advertising Advertising Campaign Campaign ........................... ......................................... ........................... ........................... ............................ ....................... .........

15 15 16 17 18 18 18 18 19 20 20

METHODOLOGY Statement of the Problem....................................................................................... Purpose Purpose of the Study ............................ .......................................... ............................ ............................ ............................ ........................ .......... Research Design..................................................................................................... Research Timeline.................................................................................................. Instrument Instruments................ s.............................. ............................ ............................ ............................ ............................ ............................ ....................... ......... Sampling Sampling Technique Technique ........................... ......................................... ........................... ........................... ............................ .......................... ............ Data Collectio Collection n ............................ .......................................... ............................ ............................ ............................ ............................ .................. .... Data Analysis......................... Analysis....................................... ............................ ........................... ........................... ............................ ......................... ........... Significance of the study........................................................................................

20 20 21 21 21 22 22 23 23 24

LIMITITIONS LIMITITIONS OF THE STUDY .......................... ........................................ ............................ ........................... .................... .......

24

RESULTS ........................... ......................................... ............................ ............................ ........................... ........................... ............................ .............. Overview of Findings............................................................................................. Findings of question no.1 ...................................................................................... Discussion Analysis Findings of question no.2 ...................................................................................... Discussion Analysis Findings of question no.3 ...................................................................................... Discussion Analysis

24 24 24

25

26

Subject Findings of question Discussion Analysis Findings of question Discussion Analysis Findings of question Discussion Analysis Findings of question Discussion Analysis Findings of question Discussion Analysis Findings of question Discussion Analysis Findings of question Discussion Analysis

Page

no.4 ......................................................................................

27

no.5 ......................................................................................

27

no.6 ......................................................................................

28

no.7 ......................................................................................

29

no.8 ......................................................................................

29

no.9 ......................................................................................

30

no.10 ....................................................................................

31

RECOMMENDATIO RECOMMENDATIONS NS .......................... ........................................ ........................... ........................... ........................... .................... .......

32

CONCLUSION................... CONCLUSION................................. ............................ ........................... ........................... ............................ ............................ ..............

33

APPENDICES APPENDICES ........................... ......................................... ............................ ............................ ............................ ............................ .................... ......

34

References (Article, and books) ..............................................................

34

References (websites) .............................................................................

36

Questionnair Questionnaire....................... e.................................... ........................... ........................... ........................... ........................... ...............

37

Summary statistics of each question, tables, and detailed calculations....

40

List of acronyms.......................................................................................

50

i

Executive Summery This research intends to explore the public relation and communication department under marketing department of Banglalink™. It is an exploratory research which gives an over all idea about the activities of the department, in addition this research will find out what the different types (working class, student, housewives, employees) think about the PR activities of Banglalink™. This research is based on a semi-structured questionnaire. The questionnaire was given from the Banglalink™ authority which was a pre-tested questionnaire having 10 questions. The sample technique was stratified random sample. Total 85 respondents from Dhaka city where taken for this research. Based on their answers the analysis has been made. The sample size is divided in to five (5) sub-categories namely student, housewives, working class, agency personnel, and lastly the Banglalink™ employees. Microsoft excel 2003 software was used for all sorts of calculation and graphical representation for the research. Based on the calculation all sorts interpretation and recommendation was given at the end. Each of the questions has its own calculation and diagram in this research paper. The literature review part was full of secondary information about the research. The terminological definition, explanations of the terms and detail of the departments are clearly described in this part of the research. In addition, company background part is added just for the readers to know more about the company and also the detail of the department of PR & communication. There are mainly nine activities that are taken care by the PR & communication department. Each of the categories are explained and ranked based on their importance

ii after analyzing the questionnaire. Activities like TV, outdoor, press & publications are the most talked about in this research. Least but not the last, based on the analysis recommendations are suggested for the PR and communication department. These recommendations will definitely improve the overall company image if implemented efficiently. Finally, this research will encourage further study and useful guidelines for these types of researches.

An exploratory research on the activities of the “Public relation, and communication department” of Banglalink ™

“Bangladesh Holding]

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[Orascom

Telecom

markets,

and

providing are story

top

quality

confident of

our

that

Mobilink

in

1

Pakistan.”

–

Mr. Naguib Sawiris, Chairman and CEO, OTH

It was with these statements that Orascom launched its first package in Bangladesh that they had hoped would rock the telecom industry. However, neither their competitors nor the public had needed these words to convince them that Banglalink™ would be bringing them a great offering. Ever since Orascom bought off Sheba (Pvt.) Telecom last September, people have been expecting something big, given their record of accomplishment in other countries.

INTRODUCTION Banglalink™ (BL) is the 3 rd largest mobile company in Bangladesh. Out of five mobile companies (Grameen Phone, Aktel, Banglalink™, Citycell, and Teletalk) Banglalink™ managed to secure this position only in a year. Banglalink™ has completed its 1 st year successfully in Bangladesh. The growth rate of the company is tremendous (currently 1.5 million subscribers). During its birth year BL has concentrated on heavy advertisement. Now BL is a known brand to every Bangladeshi. It has been possible because of the strong public relation (PR) & communication department of the company. The research will concentrate on the PR & Communication department’s activities of the company. The activities of the department with the different media agencies are to be discussed here along with the problems.

1

Press Release on the occasion of Banglalink™’s launch on February 10, 2005


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RESEARCH PROBLEM The job of PR & communication department of Banglalink™ is to bridge the relationship between the consumer with the company. Another duty of this department is to communicate information to the target customers. The activities of this department during the initial years are very important. So the effectiveness of the activities of the department needs an evaluation. What the company wants to address to the consumer, and the information dissemination are the vital job for this department. On the other hand, what are the opinions of the consumers about the compnay’s PR activities also needed to know in order to improve the performance of PR & Communication department. In this exploratory research the researcher will try to find out about the various activities of the PR & Comm. department, and also try to find out is there any laggings in their present work, and if there is any chance resolved the problem.

RESEARCH OBJECTIVES As mentioned earlier in the research problem this exploratory research will find out different activities of PR & Communication department of Banglalink™. The purpose of the study is to provide a specific and accurate synopsis of the overall PR & communication department of Banglalink™. As a new company how they are managing the public relations. What sorts of communication form strategy is been using are to be discussed here.



To explore public relation activities in the market. In addition, how much impact is been created with the PR and communication department, how this impact is helping the company in doing business.




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To explore the effectiveness of Banglalink™ print & TV advertisement and competitor’s print & TV advertisement.



To explore the effectiveness of Bangla Link’s Outdoor activities.

COMPANY BACKGROUND Orascom Telecom Holding

Orascom

Telecom

Holding

S.A.E.

(“Orascom

Telecom”) is a leading mobile telecommunications company operating in nine emerging markets in the Middle East, Africa and South Asia.

Established in 1998, the company has acquired nine operating licenses in this region. With nearly 520 million people and an average mobile telephony penetration of only 5% falling under these licenses, Orascom Telecom has positioned itself as a leading telecommunications conglomerate in the emerging markets of this region. The organization has managed to build an amazing subscriber base of around 15 million in just a short span of six years by the end of 2004.

The majority stakeholder (56.9%) of the OTH group is the Sawiris family of Egypt, of whom Naguib Sawiris is the present Chairman and CEO. The rest of the shares are traded in the Cairo, Alexandria & London Stock Exchanges. OTH's IPO raised US$320 million during the year 2000, and was the largest offering on the Egyptian Stock Market at the time.

The capital of Orascom Telecom is estimated at 1.1 billion Egyptian Pound represented in 110 million shares.


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MISSION STATEMENT

The mission statement of the OTH is “to be the primary telecom operator in the Middle East, Africa, and South Asia, providing the best quality services to our customers, value to our shareholders, and a dynamic working environment for our employees. 2”

With this mission in mind, OTH had recently divested its investment in various locations, including Jordan, Yemen & the Ivory Coast, to concentrate on its core function of providing the primary GSM network in the regions it operates.

Most of its remaining subsidiaries concentrate on adding value added services to its operation than in introducing new packages from time to time, in an effort to provide its customers with a complete mobile solution and in turn add value to its shareholders.

Banglalink™

“We have kept our promise of bringing real competion to the 3

market.”

–

Mr. Lars P. Reichelt, CEO, Banglalink™

2

www.otelecom.com/about/

3

Press Release on the occasion of Banglalink™ 1 million customer celebration on November 15, 2005


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Banglalink™ is the latest addition to the GSM family of OTH. Naguib Sawiris, Chairman and CEO of OTH, announced the acquisition of Sheba Telecom (Pvt.) Limited with a cost of US$60m in September of 2004.

The company aims to make a difference in the lives of the people. Its vision is to “understand people's needs best and will create and deliver appropriate communication services to improve people's life and make it easier”. Their mission is, therefore, to reduce the total cost of ownership of buying and using a mobile phone. Moreover, to achieve this vision, the company has established some values that it tries to instill in its employees. They want their employees, and the company as a result, to be straight forward, reliable, innovative and, above all, passionate.

As Sheba Telecom, the worst performing network operator in the industry, the company had only 30,000 subscribers. To dispel this image, OTH had re-branded Sheba as Banglalink™ in an attempt to give it a completely new image.

With that kind of a reputation at its disposition, the Banglalink™ management has placed one of the highest priorities on improving its network. In this respect, they have installed state-ofthe-art equipment from Siemens and Huawei and brought in over 1,000 people, including experts, from 15 countries around the world to set up the required infrastructure. The system took a record of four months (less than half the normal time) to build. In 2005 alone, Orascom plans to invest $120 million, earmarking close to another $300 million for future investments.

While Banglalink™ started out quite small, it has increased its coverage from 9 to 23 districts in just over three months. The company plans to provide mobile communication coverage to all the 61 districts of the country and its major highways by the end of the year. Moreover, in less than only four months, it now has more than 400,000 subscribers from a mere 30,000 in February before the launch. Now the current customer including postpaid (upper-class),


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& pre-paid are more then 1.5 million. Other new news for Banglalink™ is recently changed its logo, this is not a major change only the color and font pattern of is changed.

MARKETING DEPARTMENT OF BANGLALINK™

The Marketing team also consists of several teams, which includes PR & Communications, VAS, Loyalty & Retention and International Roaming (IR). The teams all report to Omer Rashid, the Marketing Director.

Marketing Director (Omer Rashid)

PR & Communications (Shahed Zubair) Sr. Manager

(Shihab Ahmed) Manager

Shirif Amin Taha Sr. Manager

International Roaming (Ashraf Haiba) Manager

Fig 01: Organization chart of marketing department with names of Banglalink™

The Loyalty & Retention team is responsible for the designing of the special offers launched from time to time in an attempt either to increase customer base or to increase ARPU. The VAS division is responsible for the continuously adding valuable services to provide a complete solution to existing customers, for example, for making conference calling & ring tone/logo downloads possible. These two teams together are in charge of making the customers experience with our network more satisfying.

PR & Communication is responsible for designing and developing all promotional materials for the marketing of any new product/package and any other activities. They coordinate and work directly with the advertising agency and other vendors. While other companies have an


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entire department for promotions and branding, at Banglalink™ this division, consisting of only a handful of people is responsible for this task.

Although Banglalink™ does not have any International Roaming facility now, this team is working on developing the service soon for post-paid subscribers.

PR & COMMUNICATIONS DEPARTMENT

The PR & Communication Department of Banglalink™ plays the key roll of advertisement, public communication, promotion, event management, sponsorship, visibility & others. The department is consists of total 13 members leaded by one senior manager Mr. Shahed Zubair, who has vast experience in PR & Comm. activities.

WHY YOU NEED PR While the public part implies inclusion of things like public affairs, community relations, investor relations, public press conferences, media events, internal communications and crisis communications, it also involves a lot of behind-the-scenes, non-public activity. It could involve simply the writing of a press release, but it could also involve coordinating media contacts for an event or conference, securing credentials, lobbying for article placement and the like.

Sometimes public relation is an effort to influence the public. This is especially true for political action groups, associations and other groups. Sometimes public relation is community relations. Just look around your own community to see how many companies and organizations have a community affairs initiative or a person in charge with a related title. In larger, publicly


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held firms, this person is sometimes the director of investor relations. Investors are a public entity, so in this case public relation is appropriate.

What the public wants to hear is a good story. Good PR is the telling of a good story. The better the story, the better the acceptance by the public and the better the public relations, of course if the story is especially appealing to those that could be your clients, then you could have a PR homerun. In this case, it is communication with your target market that may or may not be very public.

PR's importance is changing, according to The Fall of Advertising and the Rise of PR (HarperBusiness). American marketing strategists Al and Laura Ries argue that public relations has become the most effective way to build a brand. Well-known brands like The Body Shop, PlayStation and Harry Potter spend little on brand-name advertising. The same is true for many entrepreneurial companies like yours. Business owners become known in their respective fields of concentration many times through public relations and the associated media generated.

PR is communication in many ways with your target market. Maybe instead of public relations we ought to call it target market relations or TMR. You may be communicating about a new product, spreading news about your company or making a major announcement. You want to communicate publicly, but the only people you care about are potential prospects, customers or investors, in the case of a partnership or a public company. One exception may be communication to a group that you are trying to influence for the best interest of your company and target market. An example of this is lobbying government.

Define what your public or target is in your public relations effort. This is best done by defining your target market and then any sub-segment. Lining up publications publications and broadcasts with the market and the segments will define what the public is for your public relations.


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The bottom line is to get word out about you, your company, your products and services to those who could potentially buy from you. Public relation is just one part of marketing, as marketing is made up of many things. The good news about PR is the cost and the effectiveness when it's in front of your target market.

Activities of PR & Comm. department in Banglalink™

Different types of activities are been conducted in this department. For each of the activity senior executives works along with his/her deputy. The overall control of the department is with the departmental head Sr. Manager Mr. Shahed Zubair. And one PR & Comm. manager Mr. Solaiman Alam is there to help him out. Mainly the work has been distributed between these two managers. The TV, Press & publication, and POS materials are been dealt by Mr. Shahed Zubair. On the other hand, hand, Solaiman Alam, Manager Manager PR & Comm. deals with with visibility, visibility, and Events & Sponsorship issues. The work distribution helps the department to work more efficiently.

Head of Dept. Shahed Zubair Sr. Manager

Solaiman Alam Manager

(Irum Iqbal) Assist. Manager (Press)

(Yasser H. Ch.) Sr. Executive (Media)

(Musarrat Jahan Siddiqi) Executive

Shehzad S. Hossain Sr. Executive (Visibility)

(Ankan Siddiquee) Executive

Rahath Ahmed Sr. Executive (E & S)

Shahriar Ahmed Sr. Executive

Nafizul Hamid Executive

Zahir Ahmed Intern.


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Fig 02: Brief organization chart of PR & Comm. department with names of Banglalink™

Currently there been nine (9) activities are done by the department of PR & Comm.

Activity Name

Outdoor/Visibility TV Press & Publications Events & Sponsorship Radio Ad Pos Materials Gift Items Web Based Communications Others Fig 03: Name of the activities at PR & Comm. dept.

Press conference for corporate signing and press release of any activities are also part of PR and

Communication department job. Outdoor/Visibility: All sorts of Billboard, posters, festoons, placard comes under this heading.

Banglalink™ billboard now can be found almost everywhere in Bangladesh. The brand name is now so popular that only by seeing the tiger strips people understand it is Banglalink™. New concepts like shop marker, shop sign are also been used for advertisement purpose. Almost 30% (PR & Comm. data base, 2006) of the total PR & Comm. expenses are been spent on visibility. Suppliers like Signage, Megna Art, & ARkey works for the outdoor activities.

TV: Television commercial is a very important means of communication in this electronic world.

Now people spent a good amount of his/her time watching TV. Many television commercials feature catchy jingles (songs or melodies) or catch-phrases that generate sustained appeal, which may remain in the minds of television viewers long after the span of the advertising campaign,


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e.g. Habib’s tune for Banglalink™commercials. Some of these ad jingles or catch-phrases may take on lives of their own, spawning gags or "riffs" that may appear in other forms of media, such as comedy movies or television variety shows, or in written media, such as magazine comics or literature.

Animation is often used in commercials. Techniques can vary from hand-drawn traditional animation to different forms of computer animation. By using animated characters, a commercial may have a certain appeal that is difficult to achieve with actors or mere product displays. For this reason, an animated commercial (or a series of such commercials) can be very long-running, long-running, several decades in many instances. So in order to communicate people properly TV commercial is a mast for a mobile company. Like the competitors Banglalink™ also has series of TV ads for its different sorts of packages and VAS services. Currently TV commercials are been shown in Channel I, ATN Bangla, NTV, RTV, & Channel 1. Among these channels ATN Bangla, & Channel I work orders are done by agency Interspeed Advertising Ltd.

Apart from TV commercials program like Rock link in ATN Bangla been totally sponsored by Banglalink™ team.

Press & Publications: Banglalink™ spent maximum amount in March 2006 among the other

mobile phone operators in Bangladesh (Market Intelligence Report of Banglalink, March 2006). And the amount is about 10.17 million BDT. To be more specific on in the Independence Day the Banglalink™ color ad went to 22 daily newspapers which cost the company 2.6 million for only one day. Ad also goes to different types of magazines also. According According to a internal research of Banglalink™ the maximum attention of the customer is gained from the Press & publications. Whole press work is done by the ad agency Interspeed Advertising Ltd. The press layout, idea generation, & guidance all been taken care by the agency. For this service the agency gets 5% commission with every work order.


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Radio Ad: very recently (from March, 2006) Banglalink™ start giving ads in the radio in order

to target the customers in the rural places. The concept of radio ad already been praised among the different rural customer groups (Market intelligence report, April 17, 2006) Events & Sponsorship: For the Pohela Boishak 1413 Banglalink™ had 10 events in all over the

country. Events like Dhaka University Branding (in front of Charukola road), Showrowardi Uddan Branding, musical event at Sohid Minar, Fantasy kingdom concert, water kingdom concert are few of the events of Pohela Boishak 1413. Events are run for publicity of the company. During the event and sponsorship kiosk (A small open gazebo or pavilion.) is installed to provide Pos materials to the customers. In addition, SIM cards are also been sold at the kiosk in the event spots. Banglalink™ Tiger Cup (Bangladesh vs. Kenya) is one of the successful sponsorship ventures of banglalink™. Other then this AFC cup, IGP kabadi tournament, and Professional School Football Championship at Sylhet are few of other recent sponsorship programs of the company. Very month many school, colleges, university, organization’s events are been sponsored by the company. This has been done to improve the PR and increment brand awareness. POS Materials: POS materials mean Point of Sale Materials. All sorts of leaflet, Tariff card,

printing materials comes under these criteria. Pos materials mainly help the customer to understand the product & services offered by the parent company. These leaflets provide detail explanation of the services offered by the operator. Gift Items: different types of gift items are given to the clients and employees of Banglalink™.

Gift items like key ring, pen, CD, Show piece, calendar, Diary, watch, Mug, T-shirt, & Jacket produced for the clients. All the gift items are marked with Banglalink™ logo. The gift item helps the company in public relation and also helps in diffusing the brand name towards the customers.


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Web Based Communications: Advertisement of Banglalink™ in the renowned web sites is also

been conducted. Web site like www.tigerscricket.com , and www.bangladeshinfo.com are few examples of web base ad campaign of Banglalink™. Others: Activities like donation, and charity are done by the sr. executive Mr. Abul Azim

Sulman. In February, 2006 amounted Tk. 1,056,720/= given to Ahsania Mision Cancer Hospital.

Source: “Daily Star” business page dated 17th February, 2006

Illustration: Charity activity by Banglalink™ 1 Working with different agencies: As earlier told, PR & comm. activities are very vast requiring

a lot of manpower. So most of the activities are run through different add agencies. Agencies do the job for the company in return they get a commission amounted 5% to 15% depending on the subject matter. The main agencies of Banglalink™ are Interspeed I nterspeed Advertising Ltd., Market Access Providers Ltd., and Asiatic MindShare Ltd. Interspeed deals with the press & TV activities of the company. The agency provides a complete solution from idea generation to final printing at the press. On the other hand, concept


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development, making of TV ad, scheduling, broadcasting, bill submission, and support service are provided by the agency. Allsorts of big and small events (concert, mobile-fair, road show) are organizer by the Market Access Providers Ltd. during the events company’s placard, posters, backdrops, leaflets were installed. Asiatic MindShare Ltd is engaged for ad making. But recently (March, 06) the agreement between Asiatic Mind share Ltd. and Banglalink™ is over. And no renewal has been made so far. This was the summary of the activities of PR & Comm. department. The senior manager is accountable to the marketing director Mr. Omar Rashid for all his activities. He (Omer Rashid) personally reviews the performance of the department along with the Chief Commercial Officer Mr. Mehboob Chowdhury.

LITERATURE REVIEW

According to Public Relations News, "Public relation is the management function which evaluates public attitudes, identifies the policies and procedures of an individual or an organization with the public interest, and plans and executes a program of action to earn public understanding and acceptance"

Public relations, activities and policies used to create public interest in a person, idea,

product, institution, institution, or business establishment. By its nature, public relation is devoted to serving particular interests by presenting them to the public in the most favorable light ( Phillips, 2001). The goal of the public relations consultant is to create, through the organization of news and advertising, an advantageous image for his client, be it a business corporation, cultural institution, or private or public individual; toward this end—the making of favorable public opinion—many


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research techniques and communications media are used (Lewis & Booms, 1983; Lehtinen & Lehtinen, 1982; Gro¨nroos, 1984; Parasuraman et al., 1985, 1988, 1994).

They also added that although many of the same methods are employed, public relations differs from propaganda, systematic manipulation of public opinion, generally by the use of symbols such as flags, monuments, oratory, and publications publications ( Cutlip, 1994).

Public relations as a field can be traced to the early 20th cent., when American businessmen found it necessary to respond to attacks by social reformers. A milestone in the industry was the opening (1904) of Ivy Lee's publicity office in New York City. Soon there were other firms in the field, and by World War I the concept of public relations had gained general acceptance. Public relations techniques have been widely used in politics and political campaigns. By the 1960s the public relations agency had become a fact in American life, numbering among its clients branches of national, state, and local government, industry, labor, professional and religious groups, and some foreign countries ( Grunig, 1984).

ADVERTISING After spending resources on naming a product, it is imperative to support it through advertising and communication (Berry et al., 1988). For a product to succeed, the brand owner must dedicate more resources to promoting it through advertising. advertising. O'Malley (1991) writes that advertising is a key to sustaining appeal of brands. It is also a key to developing that appeal in the first place. Belch (2004) says that the first job of advertising is to build brand awareness and corporate brand approval. Through advertising, marketers expose the potential consumer to the brand and give them the opportunity to accept it.


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Advertising should be thought of as an investment in the brand it is promoting. Just as a company would invest in technology and innovation, it must also invest in advertising and promotion if it is to succeed (Wentz, 1993).

According to The Economist (1989) Generally speaking, advertising is the promotion of goods, services, companies and ideas, usually by an identified sponsor. Marketers see advertising as part of an overall promotional strategy. Other components of the promotional mix include publicity, public relations, personal selling and sales promotion.

The magazine also mentioned (1989) advertising is the promotion of goods, services, companies and ideas, usually by an identified sponsor. Marketers see advertising as part of an overall promotional strategy. Other components of the promotional mix include publicity, public relations, personal selling and sales promotion.

PRESS CONFERENCES According to Philip Kotler (1999); Bitner, Bitner, M. J., and Zeithaml, V. A. (2003) A press conference consists of someone speaking to the media at a predetermined time and place. Press conferences usually take place in a public or quasi-public place. Press conferences provide an opportunity for speakers to control information and who gets it; depending on the circumstances, speakers may hand-pick the journalists they invite to the conference instead of making themselves available to any journalist who wishes to attend.

A news conference or press conference is a media event in which newsmakers (or people claiming to be newsmakers) invite multiple journalists to hear them speak and, most often, ask questions (Dick, 1994).

There are two major reasons for holding a news conference. One is so that a newsmaker who gets many questions from reporters can answer them all at once rather than answering


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dozens of phone calls. Another is so someone can try to attract news coverage for something that was not of interest to journalists before.

In a news conference, one or more speakers may make a statement, which may be followed by questions from reporters. Sometimes only questioning occurs; sometimes there is a statement with no questions permitted.

PRESS RELEASES Press release format the typical press release announces that the statement is "FOR

IMMEDIATE RELEASE" across the top (some may instead be embargoed until a certain date), and lists the issuing organization's media contacts directly below (Castaldo, 1995; Blois, 1999). The also added the media contacts are the people that the release's issuer wants to make available to the media; for example, a press release about new scientific study will typically list the study's lead scientist as its media contact. The bottom of each release is usually marked with ### or -30to signify the end of the text.

SPIN Public relation is used to present information in a favorable manner. When a presentation uses deceptive and/or highly manipulative tactics, it is referred to as spin ( Ewen, 1996).

TELEVISION COMMERCIAL

A television commercial (often called an advert in the United Kingdom) is a form of advertising in which goods, services, organizations, ideas, etc. are promoted via the medium of television. Most commercials are produced by an outside ad agency and, and airtime is purchased from a channel or network in exchange for sponsorship of its programming ( Norris, 1992).

PUBLICITY


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Publicity is the deliberate attempt to manage the public's perception of a product or organization. The product could include anything from traditional goods and services, to celebrities, or works of entertainment (Gilbert, 1999).

From a marketing perspective, publicity is one of the variables that comprise the promotional mix. The other components of promotions are advertising, sales promotion, and personal selling. Promotion is one of the variables that comprise the marketing mix (Kotler, 1999).

According to Bitner in 1999 Publicity is the means of using an external entity (celebrities, people from the media, etc) to increase the awareness levels of the product, company, goods etc amongst the public and/or buying segment.

A media event at which no statements are made, and no questions allowed, is called a photo opportunity (Belch, 2004).

Lawrence (2004) told in one of his article that Television stations and networks especially value news conferences: because today's TV news programs air for hours at a time, or even continuously, assignment editors have a steady appetite for ever-larger quantities of footage .

MARKETING COMMUNICATIONS

Gregory (1993) told Marketing communications (or marcom) consists of the messages and related media used to communicate with a market. Those who practice advertising, branding, direct marketing, graphic design, marketing, packaging, promotion, publicity, public relations,


Page 19 of 50

sales, and sales promotion are termed marketing communicators, marketing communications managers, or more briefly as marcom managers.

A corporate image refers to how a corporation is perceived. It is a generally accepted image of what a company "stands for". The creation of a corporate image is an exercise in perception management. It is created c reated primarily by marketing experts who use public relations and other forms of promotion to suggest a mental picture to the public. Typically, a corporate image is designed to be appealing to the public, so that the company can spark an interest among consumers, create share of mind, generate brand equity, and thus facilitate product sales (Grunig, 1984).

Grunig (1984) also added corporations are not the only form of organization that creates these types of images. Governments, charitable organizations, criminal organizations, religious organizations, political organizations, and educational organizations all tend to have a unique image, an image that is partially deliberate and partially accidental, partially self-created and partially exogenous.

BILLBOARD (ADVERTISING)

A billboard or hoarding is a large outdoor signboard, usually wooden, found in places with high traffic such as cities, roads, motorways and highways. Billboards show large advertisements aimed at passing pedestrians and drivers. The vast majority of billboards are rented to advertisers rather than owned b y them (Wernick, 1991). Typically showing large, witty slogans splashed with distinctive color pictures, billboards line the highways and are placed on the sides of buildings, peddling products and getting out messages. Billboards originally existed alongside and later largely


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replaced advertisements painted directly onto the sides of buildings or designed into roofs in shingle patterns (Stoykov, 2005).

ADVERTISING CAMPAIGN

An advertising campaign is a series of advertisement messages that share a single idea and theme which make up an integrated marketing communication (IMC). Advertising campaigns appear in different media across a specific time frame (Wernick, 1991).

Methodology Statement of the Problem

The job of PR & communication department of banglalink ™ is to bridge the relationship between the consumer and the company. Another duty of this department is to communicate information to the target customers. The activities of this department during the initial years are very important. So the effectiveness of the activities needs an evaluation. On the other hand, what are the opinions of the consumers about the compnay’s activity also needed to know in order to improve the performance of PR & Communication department.

Purpose of the Study

The purpose of the study is to provide a specific and accurate synopsis of the overall PR & communication department of Banglalink ™. As a new company how they are managing the public relations. What sorts of communication form strategy is been using are to be discussed here.




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To explore public relation activities in the market. In addition, how much impact is been created with the PR and communication department, how this impact is helping the company in doing business.



To explore the effectiveness of Banglalink ™ print & TV advertisement and competitor’s print & TV advertisement.



To explore the effectiveness of Bangla Link’s Outdoor activities.

Research Design – Methods and Procedures 

Exploratory Research



Less chances of error as the sample size is limited here.



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.

Research timeline Table01: Research timeline 2006

February

Research proposal writing and literature review

2006

March

Data collection procedure

2006

April 1

Data analysis and interpretation of findings

2006

April 24

Final redraft of complete manuscript.

2006

April 30

Submission of research paper


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Instruments The source of measurement will be questionnaire. The questionnaire is a semi-structured.

The questionnaire has been made very carefully so that the accurate information came out from the respondents. There are total ten (10) questions where the respondents will have the option to choose their answers or they can also put their own answers in question no. 10. Pilot testing was made on this questionnaire earlier by the Banglalink™ research and development department. This questionnaire is developed by the Banglalink™ personnel. Mr. MD. Mahboob Hossain (Marketing Executive) works under R & D department of the company. Banglalink™ wants to know the research result for their further development. While asking about the Alpha value of the questionnaire Mr. Hossain replied, they pilot tested this questionnaire and the result was positive. Out of 15 samples in the pilot test 14 understood the questionnaire. This is why they have further preceded this research.

Sampling Technique 

Stratified random sampling



This is the price effective and quick method of collecting sample.



In order to find out a proper answer regarding PR & Communication department activity it is very much essential to take the viewpoint of population who are aware of the activity of the department. This is why 5 categories have been chosen to fill up the questionnaire for this exploratory research.


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Table 02: Sample category & size Category

Sample Size (In No.)

Sample Size (%)

Consumer category 1 (Students)

15

17.65%

Consumer category 2 (Housewife)

15

17.65%

Consumer category 3 (Working people)

15

17.65%

Ad agency personnel

20

23.53%

Employees of Banglalink ™

20

23.53%

Total

85

100.00 %

Data Collection

The first step in the data collection was the pilot test of the questionnaire. The questionnaire was pre-tested on 15 people. And the result was positive. All sorts of primary data source will be the questionnaire. But depending on the situation and information some in-depth interview might be conducted during the research. In case of secondary data the company website, brochure, leaflet, Ad, personal working experience, and observation will be under consideration.

Data Analysis

Data analysis will be made based on the respondents answers. Every single question will be analyzed with different calculations (e.g. mean value), for the optimum results. Different sorts of pie diagram, bar charts and other related graphs will be provided in this section.


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Significance of the Study

This research will help the PR & Comm. Department of Banglalink ™ to understand their problem areas. In addition based on the recommendations the department will be able to revise their work for better and efficient performance.

LIMITATIONS OF THE STUDY 

Problems of Quota Sampling: Banglalink ™ employee & the agency personnel

might give biased information. 

Small Sample Size: Only 85 questionnaires have been conducted. The research

topic is so vast that this tiny amount of sample will not reflect the actual picture. 

Centralized study: All the samples were the inhabitants of Dhaka City



Lack of concentration in filling up the questionnaire: Not enough time was

there to fill up the questionnaire properly. Also the levels of knowledge of the samples were not adequate for every question. 

Time as a constrain: Time was a constrain all the time it was quite difficult to

continue the internship and continue the research work together. Literature review could have been better.

RESULTS OVERVIEW OF FINDINGS Findings of question no 1 65% said yes they watch Banglalink™ Television commercials. 22% replied with sometimes and the rest (13%) said no.


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The majority (65%) of the 5 category of respondents watches Banglalink™ Television commercials. Among them employees of Banglalink™ watches the commercials most (14 individuals).

Discussion Total 85 of 85 respondents participated for this question (Appendix Table 3.1). It was a basic question just to start the questionnaire. Everybody positively responded for this question by giving their opinions (100% response).

Analysis: People are watching Banglalink™ Television commercials more then they are avoiding it. So there is a very good chance to communicate people through this media.

Findings of question no 2 14 respondents (4%) are unsatisfied with the TV ads of Banglalink™. Most of the housewives said very good (40%) about the TV ads. Working class judged their opinion by putting average (14 respondents i.e. 23.33 %) mark for this question.

Discussion This question is based on four factors - visual, sound, communication, & contents. Based on the responses towards these factors judgment has been made. Each of the factor has been analyzed individually (shown in the analysis_za.xls file in the soft version of the report i.e. CD). The summary of the factors are in the Table 3.2. And to clear the idea more one pie diagram is given (fig 05). As usual 5 categories of respondent contributed. Out of 339 responses came out of 340 (4 factors X 85 respondents = 340 responses).

Analysis: This analysis is made to find out which factors of preference in case of TV ads of Banglalink™ by the respondents. The summary of the report (table 3.2) says there is no majority for this question the highest vote went for the excellent (32%), and the second best is the 28%


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vote for Very good by the respondents. By analyzing Q1 & Q2 we can see for both the questions respondents gave positive answers. The respondents like the TV ads of Banglalink™.

Findings of question no 3 Most preferred choice is the message contents (40% or 34 people said excellent) for all 5 category respondents. Another interesting finding is 36.5% respondents gave average marking to the presentation standard. Other noticeable thing is total 29 people is unsatisfied with the visual. Visual is a very important factor in case of TV ads, but 32.1% do not think it is an important factors. In this case we can conclude that the few respondents (29) did not understand the question properly, they might have evaluated the current Banglalink™ TV ad instead of giving their opinion on which is the most important factor in TV ad.

Discussion There are five factors were pre identified in the pilot testing for the TV ads rating in case of Banglalink™. Those factors are “frequency of the ad”, “message”, “visual”, “offerings”, and “presentation”. 100 % response rate came total 425 respondents (85 X 5) gave their opinions here. Based on their ranking the table 3.3 was made. In order to give a visual description and easy understanding one very useful bar diagram is used here (fig 06).

Analysis: This analysis was to find out the public opinion that which factor is the most important for them in the TV ad. Out of 5 options the most preferred option was the message of the ad., and the worst was the visual. On the other hand presentation got a average grading. Banglalink™ should work on their visual presentation more. Offering is always a key factor which has been seen in the fig 06 clearly. So the management always put importance in the offerings.


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Findings of question no 4 60% of the samples read Banglalink™ newspaper advertisements. 28% sometimes and the rest (12%) never read newspaper ads of Banglalink™. Among the 5 categories of the sample working people read the news paper ads the most, the number is 12 (80%). Agency personnel also read it vastly, their quantity is 13 but in percentage it is only 65% of its total sample size. 45% (35% +10%) of the Banglalink™ employees sometimes or never read newspaper ad according to this research.

Discussion Total 85 of 85 respondents participated for this question (Appendix Table 3.4). It was a basic question on newspaper readability. All the samples where from the Dhaka city and they were all educated so the majority (60%) positively responded for this question by giving their opinions.

Analysis: People are reads newspaper so do they read Banglalink™ newspaper ad. So communication process should be more precise and target oriented in case of newspaper ad. For example in the regional newspaper like “Uttor Jonopod” ad should be focus on the basic mobile phone ad with direct Bangla communication. On the other hand, in “Daily Star” more option based (Value Added service – SMS, VMS etc.) ad can be given.

Findings of question no 5 6 respondents (13.3%) students are unsatisfied with the newspaper ads of Banglalink™. The total unsatisfied ad reader number is 13 i.e. the 5.18% of entire 251 responses. The highest preference is 32 (53.3%) of excellent given by Employees of Banglalink™. They are very much happy about their newspaper ad works. All sorts of findings are given in the table 3.5.


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Discussion This question is based on three factors - visual, communication/ Message, & contents. Based on the responses towards these factors judgment has been made. Each of the factor has been analyzed individually (shown in the analysis_za.xls file in the soft version of the report i.e. CD). The summary of the factors are in the Table 3.5 in addition one pie diagram fig 08 given to clear the concept of this question. All five (5) categories of respondent took part in this question. Out of 255 responses 251 responses came and 4 answers came out null (3 factors X 85 respondents = 255 responses).

Analysis: This analysis is made to find out which factors of preference in case of newspaper ads of Banglalink™ by the survey samples. The summary of the report (table 3.5) says for this question the highest vote went for the excellent (47%), and the second best is the 19% vote for Very good by the respondents. By analyzing Q4 & Q5 we can see for both the questions respondents gave positive answers. The preference rate for newspaper ad is also very just like TV ads of Banglalink™.

Findings of question no 6 “Frequency of the Ad”, “Page Location of the Ad”, and “Day selection” are most positively voted in this question. The percentages of excellent and very good for these three factors are respectively 60%, 61.18%, and 61.18%.

Discussion There are six factors were pre identified in the pilot testing for the newspaper ads rating in case of Banglalink™. Those factors are “frequency of the ad”, “message”, “Page Location of the Ad”, “Day selection”, “offerings”, and “presentation”. 100 % response rate came total 510 respondents (85 X 6) gave their answers according to their viewpoint. Based on their ranking the


Page 29 of 50

table 3.6 was made. In order to give a visual description and easy understanding one very useful bar diagram is used here (fig 09).

Analysis: The analysis shows the ranking of importance to gain public attention in the newspaper ad (print media). Out of six options the most preferred options “Frequency of the Ad”, “Page Location of the Ad”, and “Day selection” positively voted (table 3.6). So while dealing with any print media ad the department of PR & communication should emphasize on these factors the most.

Findings of question no 7 56% of the samples (including all five categories) observe Banglalink™ outdoor activities. 31% sometimes and the rest (13%) never observe such activities of Banglalink™. Among the 5 categories of the sample students observe outdoor ads the most, the number is 11 (73.33%) out of 15. where as 40% of housewives do not observe the outdoor ads, may be they do not go out that much.

Discussion Total 85 of 85 respondents participated for this question (Appendix Table 3.7). It was a basic question on newspaper readability. The pie diagram fig 10 shows the clear idea of observation of outdoor ads of Banglalink™ by the samples.

Analysis: Those people who go out more they observe the outdoor ads more like students, working class, and employees. So the research question concludes that the outdoor ad should be target oriented. Those who watch it they should be targeted not the entire population.

Findings of question no 8 6 respondents (13.33%) housewives are unsatisfied with the outdoor ads of Banglalink™. The total unsatisfied ad reader number is 9 i.e. the 3.53% of entire 255 responses. The highest


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preference of outdoor ads is 14 (31.11%) of excellent given by the students. All sorts of findings are given in the table 3.8.

Discussion This question is based on three factors - visual, communication/ Message, & contents. Based on the responses towards these factors judgment has been made. Each of the factor has been analyzed individually (shown in the analysis_za.xls file in the soft version of the report i.e. CD). The summary of the factors are in the Table 3.8 in addition one pie diagram fig 11 given to clear the concept of this question. All five (5) categories of respondent took part in this question. Out of 255 responses 251 responses came and 4 answers came out null (3 factors X 85 respondents = 255 responses).

Analysis: By analyzing Q7 & Q8 we can see for both the questions we co relate housewives are lesser in observing outdoor activities. They should not be main target in the outdoor activities, rather students and working class should be come under consideration.

Findings of question no 9 72.94% responses give excellent and very good to the offerings at the billboard ads of Banglalink™. On the flip side, 43 respondents think color and lighting at the billboard are not at all important comparing with the other five factors in this case.

Discussion There are seven factors were pre identified in the pilot testing for the Banglalink™ outdoor ads rating. Those factors are “frequency of the ad”, “message”, “color”, “lighting”, “offerings”, “presentation”, and lastly “location/site”. “location/site”. 100 % response rate came total 595 respondents (85 X 7) gave their answers according to their viewpoint. Based on their ranking the table 3.9 was made. In order to give a visual description and easy understanding one very useful bar diagram is used here (fig 12).


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Analysis: The analysis shows the ranking of importance to gain public attention in the newspaper ad (print media). Out of seven options the most preferred option “offerings” that has been voted excellent by 36 respondents (table 3.9). This research question will give answer and will be a guideline while establishing any outdoor ads for Banglalink™ by PR & communication. All the factors are ranked based on their importance in the table 3.9. On the flip side, fig 12 is a quick window view of the ranking.

Findings of question no 10 Outdoor and TV ads got maximum appraisal for this question. Out of 85, 52 responses gave excellent and very good for outdoor advertisings. advertisings. They think it is the most efficient way of communicating mass audience. On the other hand, for TV ads came to be no.2 audience preference by getting 45 votes having excellent and good marks. 28 people think there are good chances of other factors (which is not shown in the question) to play a vital role in PR & communication activities. Table 3.10 will give us all sorts of measurement and verity of findings. Web base communication and radio are less popular activities here. Radio got 36.5% of average rating which is the highest in its individual rating card. On the flip side, web base communication got 34.12% vote as good way of communication.

Discussion Total 765 (100%) responses responses came for this question. question. Total nine factors were talked about about here. Respondents were clearly briefed each of the activities before attempting this questions so that they did not end up with a wrong preferences. The result shows a acceptable data sheet.

Analysis: The answers failed to indicate any particular activity which can be considered vital. But TV and billboard got very good responses. People understand this sort of communication better then any other one. So the guideline should go on favor of these two factors. But it is need


Page 32 of 50

less to say all nine factors are important in total PR and communication programs. The table 3.10 can give us the actual measurement how much importance should be given to which activity.

RECOMENDATIONS The mobile industry in Bangladesh is still facing an oligopoly competition. In order to be competitive in this industry in future, the only option is to build up a strong brand image is by creating unique product offerings and make a competitive market. Banglalink ™ has successfully managed to introduce perfect competitions among the

mobile operators. The competitions are so vast that that the connection price as well as the airtime rate is falling down day by day. In this changing environment based on this research on Banglalink ™ the following recommendations are suggested for the PR and communication departments. These recommendations will definitely improve the overall company image if implemented efficiently. 

TV ads should provide clear message along with very attractive visual and sound.



Press ad should be communicated with proper message. The understandability of the reader should be concentrated. If the target market does not understand the product ad is for them then there is no use of it.



Outdoor ads should communicate the message along with visibility that can be understandable even to those people who do not understand the message. E.g. Bangladesh Banglalink ™ ad having with Bangladesh Map.


Page 33 of 50

CONCLUSION In the context of service oriented organization activities of PR and communication department has great importance in the service marketing to ensure the market share, customer loyalty, and the service quality. Therefore, from this study Banglalink™ can get the indications on which of the issues they have to pay more attention to hold the market share, to raise it and to increase the public relation. Finally, this research will encourage further study and useful guidelines for these types of researches.


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APPENDICES References Anderson, E.W. & Fornell, C. (1998). A framework for comparing customer satisfaction across individuals and product categories. Journal of Public Relation, Vol. 12, 267-86. B. R. Canfield, Public Relations (5th ed. 1968); Bitner, M. J., & Zeithaml, V. A. (2003). Service marketing, third edition. New Delhi: Tata McGraw Hill. Blois K.J., 1999. Trust in Business to Business Relationships. An Evalutation of its Berry, L.L., Lefkowith, E., Clark, T., 1988, " In services, what's in a name", Harvard Business Review, 66, 28-30. Belch, George and Belch, Michael (2004). Advertising and Promotion: an integrated marketing communications communications perspective, McGraw-Hill/Irwin. Burson, Harold (2004). E pluribus unum: The Making of Burson-Marsteller , New York: BursonMarsteller. Clarke Caywood, The Handbook of Strategic Public Relations & Integrated Communications, McGraw Hill, New York, 1997, p. 23

Castaldo S., 1995, La fiducia nelle relazioni di mercato. Il caso dell'innovazione dell'innovazione di prodotto, Tesi di dottorato non pubblicata, Milano, Università "L.Bocconi" Cutlip, Scott (1994). The Unseen Power: Public Relations, A History, Hillsdale, N.J.: Erlbaum Associates. Dick, A.S. and Basu, K. (1994). Customer loyalty: toward an integrated conceptual framework. Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, Vol. 22, 99-113. E. W. Brody and G. C. Stone, Public Relations Research (1989). E. L. Bernays, The Engineering of Consent (3d ed. 1969) and Public Relations (1970);


Page 35 of 50

Ewen, Stuart (1996). PR!: A Social History of Spin, New York: Basic Books. Gregory, J.R., 1993, " Strong brands stick out in a crowd ", ", Business Marketing, 78, 39. Gilbert A. Churchill, Jr. and J. Paul peter. (1999) Marketing: creating value for customers,Tata McGraw Hill. Graydon, Shari (2003) "Made You Look - How Advertising Works and Why You Should Know", Toronto: Annick Press, Grunig, James E.; and Todd Hunt (1984). Managing Public Relations , New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston. International Association Association of Business Communicators (IABC) Bookstore J. F. Awad, The Power of Public Relations (1985); Kotler, P. (1999). Marketing Management, millennium edition. India: Prentice-Hall. Lewis, R.C. and Booms, B.H. (1983), ``The marketing aspects’’, in Berry, L.L., Shostack, G. and Upah, G. (Eds), Emerging Perspectives in Service Marketing, American Marketing Association, Chicago, IL, pp. 332-377. Lawrence, Felicity (2004). “The Ready Meal” Kate Barker Not Not on the Label, p. 265, Penguin. Leon, Jose Luis (2001) "Mitoanálisis de la publicidad". Barcelona. Ariel, Leon, Jose Luis (1996) "Los efectos de la publicidad". Barcelona: Ariel, Macnamara, Jim (2005). Jim Macnamara's Public Relations Handbook , 5th ed., Melbourne: Information Australia. Norris, D.G., 1992, " TV Ad: a strategy option with multiple beneficiaries", The Journal of Television Commercials, 9, 19-31. Nelson, Joyce (1989). Sultans of Sleaze: Public Relations and the Media, Toronto: Between The Lines. O'Malley, D., 1991, " Brand means business ", Accountancy, 107, 107-8. Phillips, David (2001). Online Public Relations, London: Kogan Page.


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S. M. Cutlip and A. H. Center, Effective Public Relations (4th ed. 1971); Status. Journal of Management Studies, Vol.2, 197-215 Stoykov, Lubomir; and Valeria Pacheva (2005). Public Relations and Business Communication, Sofia: Ot Igla Do Konetz. Stauber, John C.; and Sheldon S heldon Rampton (1995). Toxis Sludge is Good for You: Lies, Damn Lies, and the Public Relations Industry, Monroe, ME: Common Courage Press. The Economist, 1989, " The year of the brand ", ", The Economist, 309, 95-100. Tye, Larry (1998). The Father of Spin: Edward L. Bernays & the Birth of Public Relations, New York: Crown Publishers. Wentz, L., Suchard, D., 1993, " Euro ad execs pay homage to the brand ", ", Brandweek, 64, 39. Wernick, Andrew (1991) "Promotional Culture: Advertising, Ideology and Symbolic Expression (Theory, Culture & Society S.)", London: Sage Publications Ltd,

Websites from which Secondary Information were gathered

Alfred J. Lautenslager for PR, Visit his Web sites at http://www.market-for- profits.com and profits.com and http://www.1-800-inkwell.com http://www.1-800-inkwell.com , or e-mail him at al@market-for- at al@market-for- profits.com . Billoard: Outdoor Advertising Association of America homepage www.oaaa.org

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Press_conference www.banglalinkgsm.com www.orascomtelecom.com


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Questionnaire

Questionnaire This questionnaire has been designed to conduct a research to fulfill the course requirement of BBA 499: Internship, under the School of Business, Independent University Bangladesh (IUB). (IUB) . Your cooperation and active participation will enable me to conduct the research work successfully. One successful completion of the questionnaire will take about 6/7 minutes only. Please be assured that the information you provide will be strictly confidential and will be used only for academic purposes.

Section 1: This section is for Television Commercials of Banglalink™. 1. Do you watch Banglalink™ Television commercials? □

2.

Yes

□

Sometimes

□

NO

Please tick, tick, how will you you rate the quality of the TV advertisements advertisements of Banglalink Banglalink™ based

on the visual, sound, communication, & contents? [Scale: 1. Excellent; 2 . Very Good; 3. Good; 4. Average; 5. Unsatisfactory]

3.

A.

Visual

1

2

3

4

5

B.

Sound/ Sound/ Music

1

2

3

4

5

C.

Communication/ Communication/ Message

1

2

3

4

5

D.

Contents

1

2

3

4

5

Please rank the factors you think is the most important important in case case of gaining public attention

in the TVC? (Please note, there can be multiple 1. excellent) [Scale: 1. Excellent; 2 . Very Good; 3. Good; 4. Average; 5. Unsatisfactory]

Rank

Factors Frequency of the Ad Message Visual Sound/ Music/ Ambient Offerings Presentation

Section 2: This section is for newspaper advertisements of Banglalink™.


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4. Do you read Banglalink™ newspaper advertisements? □

5.

Yes

□

Sometimes

□

NO

How will will you rate the quality of the newspaper newspaper advertisements of Banglalink™ based on

the visual, communication/ message, & contents? [Scale: 1. Excellent; 2 . Very Good; 3. Good; 4. Average; 5. Unsatisfactory]

6.

A.

Visual

1

2

3

4

5

B.


1

2

3

4

5

C.

Contents

1

2

3

4

5


in the print media for Banglalink™? (Please note, there can be multiple 1. excellent) [Scale: 1. Excellent; 2 . Very Good; 3. Good; 4. Average; 5. Unsatisfactory]

Rank

Factors Frequency of the Ad Message Page Location of the Ad Day selection (e.g. Holiday) Offerings Presentation

Section 3: This section is for Outdoor activities (Billboard, placard, festoons, & leaflets) of Banglalink™.

7. Do you observe Banglalink™ Outdoor activities (Billboard, placard, festoons, & leaflets)? □

8.

Yes

□

Sometimes

□

NO

How will you rate the quality of the Outdoor (Billboard, placard, placard, festoons, festoons, & leaflets) leaflets)

advertisements of Banglalink™ based on the visual, communication/ message, & contents? [Scale: 1. Excellent; 2 . Very Good; 3. Good; 4. Average; 5. Unsatisfactory] A.

Visual

1

2

3

4

5

B.


1

2

3

4

5

C.

Contents

1

2

3

4

5


9.

Page 39 of 50


in case of outdoor activities of Banglalink™? (Please note, there can be multiple 1. excellent) [Scale: 1. Excellent; 2. Very Good; 3. Good; 4. Average; 5. Unsatisfactory]

Rank

Factors Frequency of the Billboard Message Color Lighting Offerings Presentation Location / Site

Common Section 10.

In order order to be more more brand brand loyal loyal and market market leader leader in the the cell phone phone industry industry what what sorts sorts

of PR & Comm. activity should Banglalink™ conduct efficiently? (Rank your answer, i.e. most important 5, least important 1)

Rank

PR & Comm. Activities.

Outdoor/Visibility TV Press & Publications Events & Sponsorship Radio Ad Pos Materials Gift Items Web Based Communications Others T H A N K

Y O U

V E R Y

Have a good day☺ !!!

M U C H


Page 40 of 50

Summary statistics of each question, tables, and detailed calculations Q1. Do you watch Banglalink™ Television commercials? □

Yes

□

Table: 3.1 Responses for Q. no 1: Category Consumer category 1 (Students)

Sometimes

□

NO

Sometimes

Frequency 15

Yes

11

3

1


15

10

2

3


15

7

4

4

Ad agency personnel

20

13

5

2

Employees of Banglalink™

20

14 55

5 19

1 11

85

Total

No

No 13%

Sometimes 22%

Yes 65%

Q1. Do you you watch w atch BL TV commercial commercials? s? Fig 04 Q2. Please tick, how will you rate the quality of the TV advertisements of Banglalink™ based on the

visual, sound, communication, & contents? [Scale: 1. Excellent; 2. Very Good; 3. Good; 4. Average; 5. Unsatisfactory]


Page 41 of 50

Table: 3.2 Responses for Q. no 2: (Summary of TVC ad based on Visual, Sound, Comm., & Contents) Category Frequency Excellent V. Good

Consumer category 1 (Students) Consumer category 2 (Housewife) Consumer category 3 (Working people) Ad agency personnel Employees of Banglalink ™ Total

Good

Avg.

Unsatisfactory

60 11

14

20

9

6

15

20

14

8

2

9

21

15

14

1

36

20

15

8

1

37

19

10

10

4

108

94

74

49

14

59 60 80 80 339

Unsatisfactory 4% Average 14% Excellent 32%

Good 22%

Very Good 28%

Q2. Summary of TVC ad of BL based on 4 consumer categories

Fig 05 Q3. Please rank the factors you think is the most important in case of gaining public attention in the

TVC? (Please note, there can be multiple answers) [Scale: 1. Excellent; 2. Very Good; 3. Good; 4. Average; 5. Unsatisfactory]


Table: 3.3 Responses for Q. no 3: Category

Page 42 of 50

Frequency

Excellent

Very Good

Good

Average

Unsatisfactory

Frequency of the Ad

85

27

17

13

24

4

Message

85

34

18

13

14

6

Visual

85

7

11

16

22

29

Offerings

85

33

24

18

8

2

Presentation

85

9

15

22

31

8

Total

425

110

85

82

99

49

35 30 25 20

Frequency 15 10 5 0

Ex c e l l e n t

Very Good

Go o d

Av erage

Unsatisfact ory

Frequency of the Ad

27

17

13

24

4

Message

34

18

13

14

6

7

11

16

22

29

33

24

18

8

2

9

15

22

31

8

Visual Offerings Presentation

Q3. People's People's preferance about T VC of BL

Fig 06 Q4. Do you read Banglalink™ newspaper advertisements? □

Yes

□

Sometimes

□

NO


Table: 3.4 Responses for Q. no 4: Category Consumer category 1 (Students)

Frequency 15

Page 43 of 50

Sometimes

Yes

No

8

4

3


15

7

5

3


15

12

3

0

Ad agency personnel

20

13

5

2


20

11 51

7 24

2 10

85

Total

No 12%

Sometimes 28% Yes 60%

Q4. Do you watch BL newspaper Ads? Fig 07

Q5. How will you rate the quality of the newspaper advertisements of Banglalink™ based on the visual,

communication/ message, & contents? [Scale: 1. Excellent; 2. Very Good; 3. Good; 4. Average; 5. Unsatisfactory]


Page 44 of 50

Table: 3.5 Responses for Q. no 5: (Summary of newspaper ads based on Visual, Comm. & Message, & Contents) Frequency 45

Excellent

Very Good Good

15

9

8

7

6


45

20

10

8

5

2


45

21

9

10

2

3

Ad agency personnel

56

29

9

12

5

1


60

32 117

11 48

10 48

6 25

1 13

Category Consumer category 1 (Students)

251

Total

Good Good

Aver Averag agee

Unsa Unsati tisf sfac acto tory ry

Unsatisfactory 5% Average 10%

Excellent 47%

Good 19%

Very Good 19%

Q5. Summary of newspaper ads of BL based on 4 consumer categories

Fig 08

Q6. Please rank the factors you think is the most important in case of gaining public attention in the print

media for Banglalink™? (Please note, there can be multiple answers) [Scale: 1. Excellent; 2. Very Good; 3. Good; 4. Average; 5. Unsatisfactory]


Table: 3.6 Responses for Q. no 6: Category Frequency of the Ad

Page 45 of 50

Frequency 85

Excellent

V. Good

Good

Average

Unsatisfactory

35

16

27

6

1

Message

85

21

21

17

22

4

Page Location of the Ad

85

29

23

16

14

3

Day selection (e.g. Holiday) Offerings

85 28

24

19

11

3

85

27

19

21

17

1

Presentation

85

15

13

45

8

4

Total

510

155

116

145

78

16

45 40 35 30

Frequency

25 20 15 10 5 0

E xc xc e elllent

Very G o oo od

Good

Av e errage

Unsatisfact ory

Frequency Frequency of the Ad

35

16

27

6

1

Message

21

21

17

22

4

Page Location of the Ad

29

23

16

14

3

Day s election (e.g. (e.g. Holiday)

28

24

19

11

3

Offerings

27

19

21

17

1

Presentation

15

13

45

8

4

Q6. People's preferance about newspaper ads of BL

Fig 09

Q7. Do you observe Banglalink™ Outdoor activities (Billboard, placard, festoons, & leaflets)? □

Yes

□

Sometimes

□

NO


Page 46 of 50


Frequency

Yes

Sometimes

No

Consumer category 1 (Students)

15

11

3

1


15

4

5

6


15

8

4

3

Ad agency personnel

25

15

8

2


25

16

9

0

Total

95

54

29

12

No 13%

Sometimes 31%

Yes 56%

Q7. Do you watch BL B L Outdoor Ads?

Fig 10 Q8. How will you rate the quality of the Outdoor (Billboard, placard, festoons, & leaflets) advertisements

of Banglalink™ based on the visual, communication/ message, & contents? [Scale: 1. Excellent; 2. Very Good; 3. Good; 4. Average; 5. Unsatisfactory]


Page 47 of 50

Table: 3.8 Responses for Q. no 8: (Summary of outdoor activities based on Visual, Comm. & Message, & Contents) Category Freque Frequency ncy Excell Excellent ent Very Very Good Good Good Good Averag Averagee Unsatis Unsatisfac factor tory y Consumer category 1 45 (Students) 14 15 8 4 4 Consumer category 2 45 (Housewife) 6 7 14 12 6 Consumer category 3 45 (Working people) 12 10 14 6 3 Ad agency personnel 60 16 22 15 6 1

Employees of Banglalink™ Total

60

17 78

255

17 78

18 64

8 26

0 9

Unsatisfactory 4% Average 10% Excellent 30%

Good 25%

Very Good 31%

Q8. Outdoor activities rating

Fig 11

Q9. Please rank the factors you think is the most important in case of gaining public attention in case of

outdoor activities of Banglalink™? (Please note, there can be multiple answers) [Scale: 1. Excellent; 2. Very Good; 3. Good; 4. Average; 5. Unsatisfactory]



Page 48 of 50

Exce Excelllent lent

Very Good Good

Good Good

Aver Averag agee

Unsat Unsatis isfa fact ctor ory y

Frequency of the Billboard

Frequ requen ency cy 85

18

24

21

13

9

Message

85

23

21

16

17

8

Color

85

13

11

21

19

21

Lighting

85

9

8

25

21

22

Offerings

85

36

26

14

7

2

Presentation

85

24

24

17

11

9

Location / Site

85

Total

595

31 154

29 143

12 126

8 96

5 76

40 35 30 25

Frequency

20 15 10 5 0

Exc el ellent

V er ery Good

Good

A ve verage

Unsatisfactor y

Frequency Frequency of the Bil lboard

18

24

21

13

9

Message

23

21

16

17

8

Color

13

11

21

19

21

Lighting

9

8

25

21

22

Offerings

36

26

14

7

2

Presentation

24

24

17

11

9

Location / Site

31

29

12

8

5

Q9. Ranking of the factors in case of B illboard illboard

Fig 12 Common Question

Q10. In order to be more brand loyal and market leader in the cell phone industry what sorts of

PR & Comm. activity should Banglalink conduct e fficiently? (Rank your answer, i.e. most important 5, least important 1)


Page 49 of 50

Table: 3.10 Responses for Q. no 10 Excellent

Outdoor/Visibility

Frequency 85

Very Good

21

31

18

12

3

TV

85

20

25

21

11

8

Press & Publications P ublications

85

14

18

21

23

9

Events & Sponsorship

85

19

23

22

16

5

Radio Ad

85

7

19

26

31

2

Pos Materials

85

18

24

17

0

Gift Items

85

11

26 13

27

27

7

Web Based Communications

85

13

22

29

11

10

Others Total

85

4 127

8 185

28 216

24 172

21 65

Category

765

Good Good

Aver Averag agee

Uns Unsat atis isfa fact ctor ory y

35

30

25

20

Frequency 15

10

5

0

Excellent

Very Good

Good

Average

Unsatisfactory

Outdoor/Visibility

21

31

18

12

3

TV

20

25

21

11

8

Press & Publications

14

18

21

23

9

Events & Sponsorship

19

23

22

16

5

Radio Ad

7

19

26

31

2

Pos Materials

18

26

24

17

0

Gift Items

11

13

27

27

7

Web Based Communications

13

22

29

11

10

Others

4

8

28

24

21

Q10. Overall PR activity ranking

Fig 13


LIST OF ACRONYMS AOA ATOB BL BSC BTL BTRC BTS BTTB CCD CDMA CLIP DRC DS EDGE FDI GPRS GSM GSMA IPO ITU IVR M2M M2M+ MMS MOA O&M OTH PBTL PCO POSM PSTN SAF SD SIM SingTel SMS VAS WAP

Articles of Association Association of Telecom Operators in Bangladesh Banglalink ™ Base Station Center Bangladesh Telecom Limited Bangladesh Telecom and Regulatory Commission Base Transceiver Station Bangladesh Telephone & Telegraph Board Customer Care Department Code-Division Multiple Access Caller Line Identification Presentation Democratic Republic of Congo Direct Sales Enhanced Data GSM Environment Foreign Direct Investment General Packet Radio Service Global System for Mobiles Global System for Mobiles Association Initial Public Offering International Communication Union Interactive Voice Response Mobile-to-mobile Mobile-to-mobile plus Multimedia Messaging Services Memorandum of Association Operation & Maintenance Orascom Telecom Holdings Ltd. Pacific Bangladesh Telecom Ltd. Public Call Offices Point of Sales Materials Public Switched Telephone Network Subscription Agreement Form Security Deposit Subscriber Identification Module Singapore Telecommunications Ltd. Short Messaging Service Value Added Services Wireless Application Protocol

………

Page 50 of 50

Banglalink(Public Relation & Communication)

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