Positioning Singtel's Products and Services to Beat Competition

The provided content is about the importance of proper marketing strategies for a business organization, with SingTel as an example. The company has been able to increase its penetration among mid-income consumers by implementing effective marketing strategies and spending millions on advertising and promotion. This has led to a higher subscriber base and revenue growth. The article also highlights the role of word-of-mouth marketing in the telecommunications industry and emphasizes the importance of understanding customer churn patterns to retain subscribers.

MARKETING
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Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
MAIN BODY...................................................................................................................................3
SWOT Analysis......................................................................................................................3
TOWS Matrix.........................................................................................................................5
Competitive Advantage..........................................................................................................7
Critical Success Factor...........................................................................................................8
Segmentation..........................................................................................................................9
Market Positioning...............................................................................................................11
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................12
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................14
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INTRODUCTION
Marketing is a very important aspect of a business. It allows an organisation to promote
its products as well as services among masses. There are examples of various industries and
specific companies which has raised their business through effective marketing techniques.
Marketing not only helps companies in enhancing their sales and profits, but it also allows
consumers to get the best possible product at a very competitive prices. There are various
marketing channels that are available which can be used by companies for efficiently market its
products and services. Singapore Telecommunication Limited or SingTel is a telecommunication
company based in Singapore (Leng, 2014). The company along with its subsidiaries have a base
of more than 640 million subscribers. It is the largest telecommunication service provider in
Singapore. The company generates a revenue of around 13 billion$ and a net profit of 3 billion$.
The company employs around 25,000 employees that make it the biggest employer in the
industry. The current report will discuss the various marketing strategies followed by the
management of SingTel. A proper analysis of all the marketing tools as well as techniques used
by the company for marketing its products as well as services will be discussed in detail under
the current report in an efficient manner.
MAIN BODY
SWOT Analysis
SWOT Analysis is a tool used by the management of an organisation for the purpose of
analysing the current strengths and weakness of an organisation and a comparison is made of the
same with external opportunities as well as threats of the market. The Swot analysis of SingTel is
discussed as follows:
Strength
One of the main strength that company has is its next generation mobile network service
that it offers. The company has excellent network capacities, which allows it to give effective
network in even remotest areas of the country. The call drop rate is very low and the price charge
by the company as network fee from consumers is also quite low. Thus it can be said that right
kind of growth can be achieved by company through its efficient mobile network (Ratama,
2013).
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The subsidiary of the company, which is also engaged in enterprise business, has done
fairly well and thus giving an effective support to the company and its operation in an efficient
manner. The company has effective marketing strategies which allow it to capture a higher
market share in the longer run.
Weakness
SingTel is a big company within Singapore and thus a large chunk of revenue of the
organisation comes from Singapore. However, its strength is now becoming its weakness. It has
to rely more on Singapore market for generating revenue for the business. The competitive
telecom policy of the government in future can affect growth of company adversely, if new
players enter the market. Also, one of the primary weaknesses faced by the company is declining
revenue in Australia, which is putting pressure on the margin of company, therefore there is a
need to make right strategies for the business segment wise, instead a single strategy for the
whole telecommunication portfolio that SingTel possess (Shi-Nash, 2015).
Opportunities
Africa and Vietnam are markets in the emerging mobile space, which is definitely worth
our interest, and SingTel is actively taking the lead to explore the untapped emerging telecom
market. Singapore and Australia accounted for 54 percent of the group’s EBITDA and more
opportunities for further growth. With SingTel outbid Star Hub to score the coveted rights to
broadcast the next three seasons of the English Premier League (EPL), there will be great
opportunities to expand the customer-base for Pay-tv customers.
Threats
With StarHub and Mobile1 obtain licenses to sell Apple’s popular iPhone; SingTel lost
the 15th months monopoly. Thus, will likely to face tougher competition in the local market.
Potential merger of StarHub and MobileOne will be a big treats to SingTel’s Number One
position in Singapore for mobile market in Singapore. SingTel’s subsidiary Optus is facing
strong competition with their competitors in the Australia and maybe affects their leading
position and revenges. With the competitive market, SingTel will have to fight against StarHub
and MobileOne through price, promotions, and advertising since all three companies’ main
business are in the provision of mobile plans and the sale of mobile phones. Perhaps, SingTel
may need to improve the customer service further to create a superior customer service that tag
to their brand.
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With the winning of the broadcast rights for the English Premier League, it is expected
that loyal football fans will switch from StarHub over to SingTel, especially with the low rate
offered by SingTel. Hence, competition is intense and SingTel would need to take on actions to
further enhance its Strength whilst working on its Weaknesses (Lee Yi Chen & Ng, 2012).
TOWS Matrix
A TOWS matrix is basically a extension of SWOT analysis. It tries to examine the
external opportunities and threats and compares the same with internal opportunities as well as
threats of the firm. This analysis helps a firm in analysing its core strengths and weaknesses, on
the basis of which necessary actions can be taken by the management of the organisation.
SingTel operates in Telecommunication industry and therefore has to amend its strategies very
often, this is primarily because the change in the behaviour of consumers and the dynamic nature
of the industry. The detailed TOWS matrix of SingTel is discussed as follows:
Threats
There is a growing demands as well as expectation of customers from companies in the e-sports
industry. There is a rapid growth of technological change, and company will have to deal with
the same. There is a slowdown in china, which may drag Asian economy down, which can lead
to negative real growth in revenues of the firm. The competition from Starhub1 and Mobile1 is
quite tough and there is a need to frame proper strategies for dealing with the same. Foreign Call-
back services also giving tough competition. Government is also trying to create competition
within the market (Moutinho, 2016).
Opportunities
Singapore has one of the highest GDP per capita. It is one of the most prosperous countries in
Asia. The country has an advanced IT hardware infrastructure around the world. This gives the
company a competitive edge over the others. There are various kinds of opportunities in terms of
Merger and acquisition for the company. The penetration rate is also quite high in Singapore.
There is a growing trend of deregulation as well as privatisation around the world, especially, in
telecommunication industry. This can be a huge opportunity for growing the business of the firm
on longer run (Luiz, 2016).
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Strengths
The company is having major partners like
Singapore Telecom Mobile, SingNet and
Singapore Post, these partners have allows the
company to expand its telecommunication
business in most of the parts of Asia in an
effective manner. The SingTel group is
effectively positioned to offer all kinds of
services throughout the e-commerce Value
chain. The company is quite famous for its
Telecommunication Infrastructure and is also
ranked at no.1 by leading magazines of
telecommunication industry. The company
currently lead the Telecommunication industry
in Singapore and it at no. 1 Place (Denne,
2012).
Weakness
One of the major concerns for the company in
today’s scenario is that its growth rate has
become much more unstable in recent years
and thus investors are not able to draw a
effective growth plan for the company, leading
to a decline in the investment within the
company from external sources. The
organisation is mainly depending upon internal
profit generation for future growth.
SingTel does not own public sympathy in
Singapore due to its plans and charges. The
company will not get much support of people
if any action will be taken against the
company. If public sympathy will not be there,
a gradual decline in the revenue of the
company can be seen in future years.
Strategies
Now, the SingTel is left with the option of
expanding its business outside Asia for further
growth of its telecommunication business.
Although, the Australian business of the
company is not doing much good, but some
other countries outside Asia like Europe and
North America can be a good market for future
growth of the firm.
It can also seek to implement new strategies in
the current market for reviving growth and to
gain public sympathy as well as attention for
the business in longer run.
Strategies
As it is quite clear that the business of
company is not showing stable growth in
Singapore and other parts outside Asia. The
primary reason for the same is lack of customer
relationship management by the company. It
needs to focus on implementing a separate
department for making policies to improve the
relations with customers both in Asia and
outside Asia (Rimmer, 2012). This will enable
company to gain a competitive ground against
the competitors. If there will not be a proper
relationship management policy with
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customers, they will go to depart from the
clutches of company sooner than later. Thus, it
is important to have a proper customer
relationship management policy for the
business over period of time.
Thus, from the above discussion it can be drawn that the business of the organisation is
growing very fast but at the same time higher and tough competition from government and other
telecom operators is a potential threat for the business. There is a need to come up with new and
innovative ways to serve customers and provide them will all the necessary after sales services as
well, so that a better and effective relationship with them can be developed over period of time.
Competitive Advantage
SingTel is the largest telecommunication company in Singapore, and also do have a
strong foothold in some of the markets main E-sports market of Asia, be it China, Korea and
Japan. The management of the company is seeking the E-sports gaming business as one of the
crucial sector, in which there is huge opportunity. The company expects that the e-sports gaming
business in some of the main parts of Asia will grow at a CAGR of around 19%. The main
competitor of the company in this industry is Molile1 and StarHub. This particular industry has
huge potential because it is related with millennials. There is an expectation, that due to a boom
in the e-sports industry in the recent past and a growing demand for various e-games launched
recently, the growth rate in this business can be much higher than traditional way making money
in the Telecom Industry. SingTel is looking for rapid digitalisation of its core business due to the
current disruption in the digital business that is taking place because of competitors. The main
competitive advantage that company have is in Singapore, because it is the largest
telecommunication service provider in Singapore (Min, Soo, & Geng, W. 2012). However,
outside the home country, the company have a tough time in dealing with competitors. It
operates in other parts of Asia through its business associates, and some of the associates like
Bharti Airtel in India is facing serious competitive pressure in the Indian telecom market due to
entry of a giant conglomerate Reliance industry in the business, through its subsidiary Reliance
Jio Infocom.
Coming back to the e-sports or gaming business, the gaming business around the world is
expected to be around $140 billion along with that it is expected to grow in double digit at a rate
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of around 14%. The company is in talks with various e-sports teams, either to sponsor them or
for branding. The company has recently announced to launch of an e-sports tournament, the prize
money of the same is around $300 million. The same is supported by the government of
Singapore. SingTel has partnered with Australian Telco Optus and regional associates Airtel,
AIS, Globe (Philippines) and Telkomsel (Indonesia) on the initiative (Hendrawan, 2018).
SingTel will organise activities and provide content relating to the competition, with e-sports
specialists such as Razer, Blizzard, Garena and the Mineski Group having signed up to support
the initiative. The company is having a good competitive advantage within this business, at least
in Singapore. This is because the company have enough consumer reach and reputation within
the market, which allows it to effectively penetrate in the e-sports industry. Also, the company
have adequate financial as well as economical resources to enter into a new industry and
compete effectively. The company can face tough competition in countries like China and Japan
because of already existed competitors like Sony etc. The global reach of Sony is quite huge and
it may impact the strategies of SingTel in various ways.
One of the major strength that SingTel is having is its management. The management of
the company has taken the business of the company on a global scale in the recent past. Some of
the key members of the board have been aggressive in making and framing strategies for the
business to take it on a global level. The management is visionary and does not mind in facing
initial losses in a new industry, and believes in patiently staying in the market despite higher
competition and initial loss. It is also important to understand that the overall growth as well as
development of e-sports industry is primarily in the hands of millennials and in order to make
them attract towards business and to make them regular customers of the company, it all
occupies time. Thus, waiting at sideline patiently is also one of the crucial strategy that is
adopted by the company in new industries that it ventures (Hendrawan, 2018).
Critical Success Factor
Key success factors refer to the main factors that are responsible for success of the
organisation and which helps it in achieving higher growth than its competitors. The main key
success factors that the company is that it is that it is financially very strong along with having
great assets, the physical resources of the company also gives it an extra edge over the other
competitors in an effective way over period of time. The understanding between the human
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resource teams and the management gives an additional advantage; the competition within the
sector is quite tough, especially due to entry of giant players like Vodafone within the business.
The e-sports industry around the world is growing very fast, but it requires substantial
amount of investment to enter into the business, thus it becomes a business substantial entry
barriers and not every organisation is able to compete in the industry effectively. This in itself
can be regarded as an added advantage for the company and one of the key success factors for
the firm (Seow & Chia, 2014).
SingTel bought Amabee mobile ad solution provider for a whooping 321 million dollars.
This gives SingTel, an entry in the mobile cloud business. It is expected that the mobile cloud
business will grow quite rapidly going forward and advertisements will contribute around 24%
of the mobile cloud business, which is a healthy sign for SingTel after acquisition of Amabee.
Revenue of the company has seen a decline in the recent past due to some of its
associates not doing well in their respective region, mainly because of the tough competition
faced by them from other players. There is a need for base hike in India for the purpose of
increasing the margin of revenue from that particular region. The company expects a hike of
around 3-4% in tariffs in the coming years, which will boost revenue of the company going
forward. When it comes to Australian market, Australia business is concerned, the company
expects that the cost management initiative taken by Optus recently will enhance the overall
growth of the firm in the particular region. The new tiered data pricing plans can help the
company in getting a better data revenue within Singapore and as per the management it is going
to be a key success factor for the company in the time to come (Martínez & Arango, 2012).
Segmentation
Segmentation is the process in which a company decides to segment its market into
various small segments on some suitable basis. This is done for the purpose of effectively
meeting the demands of consumers belonging to different tastes and preferences, income, gender
etc. Market segmentation can help in improving the competitive position of a company as it
helps in matching the resources of the company with the targeted user groups. It prevents
company’s resources to go waste on users, who either might not be interested in the products or
service of the organisation, or may not be ready to pay the amount charged by the organisation
for the concerned services. The users can be divided into two basis, it includes, according to the
property of the users, that whether they are business users or personal users and as per the speed
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of fibre internet service, the customers can be divided into high speed (500 Mbps to 1Gbps) users
as well as users with medium speed ( 50Mbps to 500Mbps).
The e-sports market consists of personal users and therefore, the company will have to
target that particular segment in an effective way. The management will have to bring necessary
attractive policies to capture this market (Drengner & Köhler, 2013). Personal users are satisfied
by the company by offering them medium speed connection, while business users are also
satisfied with medium speed connection; therefore enable them to effectively segment their
market. It is even more important to make sure that segmentation is done based on the most
relevant factors for the customers, like their tastes and preference when it comes to services. The
quality of service that they expect and the price they are ready to pay for the concerned services.
After effective analysis of all these aspects, the management of SingTel segments its customers
over period of time.
(Source: SingTel annual report)
From the above table, it can be seen that group consumer is the largest of the three, it
contributes around 60% of the total revenue of SingTel. This segment includes the consumer
business across Singapore and Australia in which the company have strong foothold. The
services that are being provided here to the consumers include mobile, fixed pay, broadband as
well as equipment sales services (Lee & Leng, 2016).
Group Enterprises segment is the second most important segment with around38% of the
revenue coming from this segment. Some of the key services that are offered in group enterprise
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segment is mobile, equipment sales, cloud computing, cyber security etc. The company’s target
markets here are Singapore, USA, Australia as well as Europe.
The third and last segment includes Group Digital Life’s segment and it is regarded as the
smallest, with contribution in revenue of around 2.7%. Under this, the company focuses on
digital marketing, video streaming, intelligence services and the recently added e-sports services
as well. Some of the associate companies in these ventures are Amobee, HOOQ, and DataSpark.
Market Positioning
Market positioning is yet another strategy in which an organisation decides to position
itself in the market in a specific way. This will enable the company to capture a higher market
share in the telecommunication and e-sports industry. The company will follow the
differentiation generic strategy, in order to maintain its competitive advantage within the
industry over period of time. The company will have to ensure that it covers majority of
consumers that are present within the market segment. The company should focus more on
offering bundled packages to consumers by offering SingTel services with all new fiber
products. The company will try to give away high end market, which means, the market that
contains high speed connection. Hence, it can be said that for the purpose of positioning
themselves well, the company has decided to focus more on two types of segments, business
users that are happy with medium speed connection and personal users satisfied with medium
speed connection (Son, Lee & Kim, 2015).
The growth potential in e-sports market is very high, and it is possible that company will
be able to garner a higher market share within sector, due to its strong positioning in the Asian
market within telecommunication industry in general. But, the most important thing is to make
sure that the company position itself well within the market, it should know exactly what kind of
product or services they want to sell to consumers and how the same is going to be different from
other competitors? The company is planning to focus more on online gaming users who uses PC
more on a personal level and thus the speed requirement for the same is also not much high, the
company can capture a higher market share without incurring additional cost of raising the data
limit to a new level.
Perceptual mapping
A perceptual mapping is the process used to show the perception of consumers towards
certain brands. It helps in identifying the how competitors are positioned within the market and
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what kinds of opportunities that are there within the market for growth as well as development
over period of time.
(Source: Online gaming market, 2018)
The above map depicts the online e-sports business and its perceptual mapping in the current
scenario. SingTel will focus on more price sensitive consumers within the industry. It will try to
focus more on providing gaming or e-sports services that will be superior in functionality, but the
number of games available will be quite high. The company will also focus on organising e-
sports competition both offline as well as online, that is going to help the business to gain
consumer attention and make a place within the market over period of time (Bonneau, 2015).
The Online gaming market in Asia is around 2.2 billion$ and it is expected to become
double until 2022. This is a big opportunity for the company to capture a higher market share
over period of time in the longer run and beat the competition within the sector. The need is to
position the products and services of the company in an effective manner. The management
should make effective strategies to gain this additional revenue and this is achievable by
providing high quality services to consumers as compared to its competitors like Amobee,
HOOQ, and DataSpark.
CONCLUSION
Thus, it can be concluded that proper marketing strategies is of paramount importance for
a business organisation, whether the business is big or small. Marketing strategy involves proper
and effective selection of the market to sell goods and services. SingTel and its management
have been able to build up an effective strategy for marketing its telecommunication services.
The penetration of the company among mid income consumers has increased drastically, this is
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primarily because; management of the company has decided to follow a aggressive policy of
marketing. The company has spent millions of dollars in advertising and promotion of its
services. This has made people aware about the company and its products and services on a
larger scale; the result is higher subscriber base. The management of the company has framed
marketing strategies after considering various macro and micro environmental factors, which its
competitors have ignored and thus it has given a competitive advantage to the company. The
revenue of the company is expected to boost, if it will focus more on policy making for retail
consumers. A higher chunk of the revenue pie comes from telecommunication services provided
to big corporate service providers, thus they should also be given priority for growing business
over period of time.
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