Marketing Mix of Axiata Group Berhad

This report discusses the marketing mix of Axiata Group Berhad, a telecommunications conglomerate in Asia. It covers their product, price, place, promotion, physical evidence, people, and process. The report also provides recommendations for improvement.

Running head: MARKETING MANAGEMENT
Axiata Group Berhad
Marketing Management
10/11/2018

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Table of Contents
Introduction................................................................................................................................2
Overview of Axiata Group Berhad........................................................................................2
The vision of Axiata Group Berhad...................................................................................4
The mission of Axiata Group Berhad................................................................................4
Marketing Mix of Axiata Group Berhad................................................................................4
Product...............................................................................................................................4
Price....................................................................................................................................5
Place...................................................................................................................................6
Promotion...........................................................................................................................6
Physical Evidence..............................................................................................................7
People.................................................................................................................................7
Process................................................................................................................................8
Recommendations..................................................................................................................8
Conclusion..................................................................................................................................9
References................................................................................................................................10

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Introduction
Marketing Management is the procedure of creating strategies and scheduling for services or
products, promotions, advertisement, or sales to reach a targeted segment of consumer. It
makes use of different competitive strategy and economic tools to evaluate the context of the
industry in which the firm operates its activities (Penaloza, Toulouse, Massimiliano and
Visconti, 2013). The success of any business is dependent on the techniques of marketing it
adopts. Functions and activities of the business get simplified through marketing management
that is involved in the services and goods distribution. As per Philip Kotler, Marketing
management is the examination, preparation, execution, and control of programs intended to
carry anticipated exchanges with the target markets for attaining the objectives of the
organization (Chand, 2018). The aim of this report is to highlight one of the tool of marketing
management that support organizations to attract customers by making them aware of the
services provided by the business. Axiata Group Berhad Company has been selected for
explaining how the organization has adopted the marketing mix the tool of marketing
management in its operations. Besides this, the report will provide some recommendations in
regards to enhancement to be made by the company in its marketing mix.
Overview of Axiata Group Berhad
Axiata Group Berhad is telecommunications conglomerate of Malaysia with widespread
operations in Asia. It is the biggest wireless carrier of the country. The primary business of
Axiata is in the investment holding and the delivery of consultancy and telecommunication
services on the worldwide scale. The company majorly concentrate on the developing Asian
market, few with low mobile dispersion in Southeast Asia and South Asia (Hasnat, Mahbub,
Talukder & Mubasshira, 2017).

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Axiata was established as a private limited company in 1992 as Telekom Malaysia
International (TMI), which then functioned as one of the parts in Telekom Malaysia Berhad
(TM). TMI was then demerged from TM and registered in 2008 on the Bursa Securities. TMI
altered its name in 2009 to Axiata Group Berhad and established a fresh identity, augmenting
their status as the prominent operator of mobile in Asia (Axiata, 2017). This more was the
corroboration of their new philosophy of the business and pledge to Proceeding Asia by
highlighting the unsatisfied needs of communication of native populations in the area with
reasonable and advanced digital services and products. Since then, they moved from pre-
demerger 40 million consumers, to around 350 million across eleven nations that made
Axiata the leading Asian mobile player. Their footprints of mobile telecommunication now
cover the Asian continent, Indonesia, Bangladesh, Malaysia, India, Nepal, Sri Lanka,
Cambodia, Myanmar, Pakistan, and Singapore.
Axiata has regulatory interests in six operators of mobile with the brand names ‘XL’ in
Indonesia, ‘Robi’ in Bangladesh, ‘Celcom’ in Malaysia, ‘Ncell’ in Nepal, ‘Smart’ in
Cambodia, and ‘Dialog’ in Sri Lanka, with deliberate interests in ‘M1’ in Singapore and
‘Idea’ in India. ‘Edotco’, is the infrastructure company of the group, with key operations in
five nations in order to offer telecommunication infrastructure services, and handles a local
portfolio of around 25,000 towers (Axiata, 2017).
In 2012, Axiata introduced ‘Axiata Digital’ in order to gain quick growth in the business
sector that is based on the internet. Over the years, the company has successfully created 29
digital brands portfolio comprising seven joint ventures and 3 subsidiaries; moreover, the
sector in which demand is increasing is mobile advertising, education mobile money, e-
commerce, and entertainment. In 2016, the revenue of the group was at RM 21.6 billion,
whereas capitalization of the market rose at around RM42.3 billion at the end of 2016. They
offer employment opportunities across Asia to around 25,000 people (Axiata, 2008).

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The vision of Axiata Group Berhad
The vision of Axiata Group Berhad is to become the Digital Champion of New Generation by
2020; the company is one of the best organizations of the area in regards to the connectivity,
talent, and innovation. With the help of its varied collection in the network of mobile, digital
services, and communications infrastructure, it offers a variety of innovative
telecommunications services and products (Axiata, 2017).
The mission of Axiata Group Berhad
The mission of Axiata Group Berhad is to be the leading company of regional tower and
performs responsible and justifiable operations of the business (Axiata, 2017).
Marketing Mix of Axiata Group Berhad
The marketing mix is all about placing the correct product or a mix thereof in the place, at the
correct time, and at a reasonable price. The tough portion is performing this appropriately
because it is very important to understand every aspect of the business plan. A marketing mix
is normally about developing an appropriate strategy of marketing (MBA Skool, 2018). The
aim of the marketing mix is to make customers aware of the offering. It helps a business in
taking strategic decisions while introducing a new service/ product or updating existing
products. The strategy of the marketing mix is developed by using the 4Ps of marketing i.e.
product, price, place, promotion, and 7Ps if business deals in service i.e. physical evidence,
people, process (Richter, 2012).
Product
The product is the central part of the company offering. It is one of the essential aspects of
the marketing mix. The product is something that offers value and could be utilized by the
consumer to get something. A vendor has to explain the features of its products very carefully
in terms of its value, competition, and USP. Axista Group Berhad, is a company of

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investment holding, offers services of telecommunications in the Asian region. The company
functions through infrastructure, mobile, and other different segments (Axiata, 2013). It
provides pay television transmission, interconnects, and other data services;
telecommunication network capacity, infrastructure, and services, and digital services.
Axista Group Berhad also offers operation support, financing, and telecommunication
technologies, communications and managed information services. Besides this, it offers cable
television, multimedia, fixed wireless, internet of things, backbone and data, information
technology and transmission infrastructure. Direct-to-home, e-commerce, television
broadcasting, digital marketing, and business process outsourcing, fiber optic transmission
network, property investment, online ticketing, digital analytics services, and electronic
wallet are some other services of the company (Bloomberg, 2018). All these services
collectively support organization to sustain as a strong player in the market.
Price
Price is said to be the amount the customer gets ready to exchange in order to obtain the
offering or product. It is one of the essential elements of the marketing mix. The pricing of
the product or service is determined by the product cost and the amount consumer is willing
to pay for it. Axista Group Berhad is the evolving leader in the mobile telecommunication of
the Asian market. Its affiliates and subsidiaries work under the brand names ‘Dialog’ in Sri
Lanka, ‘AKTEL’ in Bangladesh, ‘Celcom’ in Malaysia, Spice, and Idea in India, ‘XL' in
Indonesia, ‘hello' in Cambodia, ‘MTCE’ in Iran and ‘M1’ in Singapore. The company
majorly concentrate on competitive strategy in the telecom sector. In the aggressive
competition of this sector, the price is the main element that helps in surviving in the market.
For example, in the voice services, plans of post-paid are low as 199 in the Indian market,₹
which is low as compared to the normal plans of different companies in the market (MBA
Skool, 2018).

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However, the company is dealing with huge competition in the telecommunication industry
in the market of Asia (The Star Online, 2017).. There are various big players such as Gio,
Deutsche Telekom AG, Bharti Airtel, and Maxis Communications Berhad who are every now
and then brings new strategies to increase their market share (MBA Skool, 2018).
Place
The place comprises activities of the company that makes the availability of the product to
the target audience. It is also called a distribution channel, or intermediary. Services and
Goods are transferred from the service provider to the end user through this mechanism.
Axista Group Berhad has possessed an outstanding reach and its existence in every corner of
all the 10 countries it operates (Lumpur, 2009). Serves to offline and online formats, the
presence of the company can be realized very easily. In the present digital era, it is necessary
to possess lightning fast consumer serviceability. Axista Group Berhad is capable to achieve
this by being able to present always with the customers via customer support anytime and all
time. For example, the online portal of the business for customers to raise their issues faced,
and this helps them to look for various packages, which they took to avail or change. Besides
this, a separate portal is provided to the customers for the bill payments and easy recharge.
Promotion
Promotion comprises all the functions that marketers do to notify customers about their
services and to inspire possible consumers to purchase these products. Print, digital media,
and advertisement are the tools of promotion undertaken by every organization. Axista Group
Berhad concentrates on strong promotional activities in its marketing mix. It employs a
considerable amount of its revenue for promotional and advertisement activities. This is taken
as adequate when considered in account the plethora of services they require to advertise
(Bhasin, 2018). The major promotional projects of the company usually comprise television
advertisements. The company is dedicated to promoting responsible practices of business in

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its relationships and dealings with their suppliers. By following their Conducts and Code of
ethics, they also make it a precedence to confirm they create local entrepreneurs and suppliers
in the market they offer its services (Axiata, 2013).
Physical Evidence
The environment in which product is delivered and where the consumer and firm interact and
any physical mechanisms that enable communication or performance of the service is
considered as physical evidence. There are different examples of physical evidence i.e.
equipment, business reports, website, buildings, annual accounts, logos, brochures, business
cards, and signs. Axista Group Berhad has its existence in 10 countries. They also come up
with attractive plans of its services that attract customers to its services. They are present in
all the major places with its physical stores, which increase their visibility. The physical
evidence covers its stores, recharge vouchers, sim cards, etc. The company's stores in the
different market offer a physical point of contact for its customers that help in contributing
towards the company’s reliability in the market (Axiata Group Berhad, 2015).
People
People are the human resource who perform an essential role in the delivery of the goods or
services and thus affect the perception of the buyer. They may work, as the company’s face
hence is very essential that is why it is significant to select the right people. According to the
Chairperson of Axista Group Berhad, the success of the company would not have been
possibly deprived of the hard work and generous efforts of their workforce (Axiata, 2016).
The company is comprised of around 25,000 employees all over in Asia. The company offers
proper training to its employees such that they can effectively follow their duties and
responsibilities in the highest possible manner. Moreover, the guidelines related to
misconduct are also framed within the organization in order to handle disciplinary and
misconduct matters created with the reference of domestic laws. Initiatives and programmes

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have been arranged to confirm that the human resource of the business is well appointed with
the skills and qualities to take the company at heights by continuing emphasis on employee
development and performance management. The Group has a procedure of executing the
system of Key Performance Indicator (KPI) as approved under the GLCT programme
(Government-Linked Companies Transformation) in order to connect compensation and
performance to develop a work culture of high performance. However, the company does not
possess a risk management committee, that could take proper steps for the safety of its
employees and the financial risk that the company deals with.
Process
The process is said to be the actual flow, mechanisms, and procedures of activities through
which the product or service is delivered. The procedure must not only comprised of the
optimistic direction but must also include the adverse matters in the service delivery, for
instance, reverse supply chain, complain management, etc. As a group, they are focused
towards maintaining strong governance, ethics, and transparency, for internal procedure
along with third-party practices all over the Group (Axiata, 2013). The company has re-
organized its treasury and procurement operations into federal operations of the business for
the group. Every country in which the company deals has its own rules and regulations
regarding tax payment and regulations. Therefore, it deals with issues related to regulatory
and tax challenges in some of its market (Lumpur, 2017). The company is trying to maintain
its promises of Advancing Asia through its process. Besides this, they also confirm that their
processes are benchmarked in contradiction of excellent standards.
Recommendations
From the above analysis, it could be recommended that Axista Group Berhad need to set a
risk management committee in order to improve their performance. By doing so, the
company can identify the issues or problems that will influence the company’s performance

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promptly. Besides that, the risk management committee can keep up a sound procedure of
risk management and internal control practices for the safety of the employees as well as
funds of the shareholders (Lim, 2017).
The process element of the marketing mix reflected that the company is dealing with
regulatory and tax challenges in some market. In order to overcome with these challenges
company must hire an expert with thorough knowledge of tax and other regulations of the
respective country the company is dealing issues and must analyze and comply all the
essential rules regarding tax payment of the country.
In order to deal with the increasing competition among the key players in the market, Axista
Group Berhad needs to make updates in its pricing strategies such that it can also give tough
competition to different strong players.
Conclusion
From the above analysis, it could be said that Axiata Group Berhad is one of the foremost
organization in the sector of telecommunication within Asia. It effectively operates all of its
elements of the marketing mix in the market with operative strategies that support company
in surviving in the market for long term. However, it deals with some challenges in the Asian
market such as tax and regulations challenges, increasing competition, and the absence of risk
management committee affect the long-term revenue of the company. In order to overcome
all these challenges, the above report has recommended some actions that will effectively
support the company in increasing its market share and trust of employees, customers, as well
as shareholders.

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References
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