Detailed Marketing Plan Analysis of Singtel Telecommunications

This report provides a detailed analysis of Singtel's marketing plan, focusing on the SOSTAC model. It begins with a situation analysis, examining internal and external factors like economic, social, technological, and legal influences using the PESTEL framework. The report assesses Singtel's competitive position through Porter's Five Forces and evaluates its expansion strategies using the Ansoff matrix. It then explores the marketing mix (product, price, place, promotion, people, process, and physical evidence), presents an action plan, and outlines control measures. The analysis covers market analysis, competitor analysis, and company analysis, including SWOT and TOWS analyses. The report also examines Singtel's product life cycle, segmentation, positioning, and targeting strategies, concluding with recommendations for the company's future marketing efforts. This report is contributed by a student and available on Desklib, a platform for AI-driven study tools.

Running head: MARKETING
Marketing Plan
Name of the Student:
Name of the University:
Author Note:

MARKETING 1
Executive Summary:
The report examines the marketing plan of SingTel based on the SOSTAC model. Singtel
belongs to the telecommunication sector which has been quite attractive in recent times. Singtel
happens to be one of the reputed telecomm service providers of Singapore. The report
commences with a situation analysis that shows both the internal and the external factors
effecting the company. It has been found that Singtel is influenced by the economic, social,
technological and the legal factors. The report shows how Singtel remains in a better position by
taking advantage of the opportunities and avoiding the threats. The Porter’s five forces tries to
portray how the company can gain competitive advantage and remain in a better position. The
evaluation through the Ansoff matrix shows how the company remains ahead of the competitors
in undertaking expansion through adopting the penetration strategy. The marketing mix shows
the tactics that the company adopts with respect to product, price, place, promotion, people,
process and physical evidence. The report also put forward an action plan that the company
needed to adopt along with a mention of the measures of control. Although Singtel serves close
to over 4 billion customers so it needed to have plans for adopting changes.

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Table of Contents
Introduction:....................................................................................................................................3
Marketing Plan:...............................................................................................................................3
1. a. Situation Analysis:...............................................................................................................3
b. Segmentation, Positioning and Targeting (STP)......................................................................8
2. Objectives:...............................................................................................................................9
3. Marketing Strategy:..................................................................................................................9
4. Implementation or Tactics:....................................................................................................10
5. Action Plan:............................................................................................................................12
6. Control:..................................................................................................................................13
Conclusion and Recommendations................................................................................................13
References:....................................................................................................................................15

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Introduction:
The report aims at providing an insight into the marketing plan of Singtel
Telecommunications Limited (singtel.com 2020). Singtel represents one of the biggest operators
of mobile network. The company has 4.1 million subscribers. Through its subsidiaries the
company has a subscriber base that stands at 640 million (singtel.com 2020). Singtel experienced
massive expansion outside home market and owned shares with different regional operators. The
company had substantial control on market shares of Singapore since the company owns eighty
two percent shares in the fixed line market, forty three percent share in the broadband market and
forty seven percent share in the mobile market. Singtel is also considered one of biggest with
regard to market capitalization. The report puts across a detailed analysis of the marketing plan
of the firm based on the SOSTAC framework. The report thus focuses on the situation analysis,
objectives, strategy, tactics or implementation, action and control.
Marketing Plan:
The marketing plan in this report puts across the marketing strategy of Singtel
Telecommunications Limited covering period of one year.
1. a. Situation Analysis:
Situation analysis refers to the analysis of internal and the external factor of Singtel. This
analysis helps in identification of the customers, capabilities, business environment and potential
customers along with their impact on company (Blackwell and Eppler 2014). The situation
analysis comprise of three sections, market analysis, competitor analysis and company
analysis. The details of the analysis is mentioned in the following paragraphs

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As far as market analysis is concerned, it is noted that Singtel Telecommunications
Limited works towards delivering value to the employees, customers and the shareholders. The
company through its communication network makes the communication faster, easier, reliable
and economical through breaking barriers of the price, time, distance and technology. However,
there are various macro environmental factors that influence the decision of the managers at
Singtel. The PESTEL framework will help in understanding influence and demand which will
enable the company in pursuing its goals and thereby sustain business (Dockalikova and
Klozikova 2014). The analysis is mentioned as follows:
Political The trend of privatization, deregulation and
liberalization in telecommunications industry
and support from government allowed Singtel
to put forward better quality of service at
competitive pricing. The company also
introduced innovative service aimed towards
fulfilling needs of the market segments.
Economic It directly impacted the business of Singtel.
Globalization not only opened up but also
enhanced the business for the firm. The
increased use of telecommunications device
provided Singtel with the opportunity of
Overseas investment for enlarging market and
thereby maintain the profitability.
Social Young Singaporean’s works harder to earn
more and pursue a modern and newer
technology. This also contributes towards
change in purchase behavior, lifestyle and also
demand higher standard of service and quality.
This allowed Singtel to increase its revenue

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through offering customized and new services
and products.
Technological The rapid changes in the technology has led to
the introduction of service like Internet
Telephone. The rise in the telecommunication
users has compelled Singtel to cover services
like e-commerce, telephone line and the mobile
service. The company also undertook internet
based activities.
Environmental Singtel contributes to the environment through
minimizing pollution as well as conserving
resources. Provides a safe work and healthy
environment along with managing
environmental footprint.
Legal Singtel had been roped into legal action for
running a campaign for the youth through
social media when a blogger published internal
instructions and briefings against the
organization.
The framework shows economic, social, political and technological factors that leads to
higher market demand thereby making the operating environment for Singtel highly competitive.
The increase in demand creates intense competition amongst the telecommunication companies
along with the increased expectations of clients towards providing quality and standard service.
The Competitor Analysis can be explained with the help of Porter’s Five Forces
Analysis (E. Dobbs 2014). This can be explained as follows:
Threat of the Substitutes It is higher. There has been increased threat of

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substitute with the VoIP (Voice over Internet
Protocol) replacing the fixed line
telecommunication to reduce the infrastructure
and the communication cost.
Power of the Buyers It is higher. Here the buyers have a higher
bargaining power due to the availability of
different service and lower cost of switching.
Power of the Suppliers It is moderate. This is because there is a
stability between the suppliers and the
telecommunication firms as suppliers are not
able to contest present users directly for higher
estimated networks.
Threat of the Newer Entrants It is lower. This is because the major obstacles
in entering the industry is the infrastructure
related investments which is huge.
Intensity of the Rivalry It is higher. This is due to the presence of
various telecommunication companies that
supplies similar and undifferentiated products.
The forces helps in understanding the location of the power within the business
environment of Singtel. The moderate power of suppliers and lower threat of new entrants
provides a competitive advantage to the firm.

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As far as the company analysis is concerned, Singtel is one of the most renowned
telecommunication company of Singapore offering mobile, data, internet and fixed line and
television services. The company offers optical fibre based broadband service that puts across
facilities like television, internet protocol, telemedicine and the real time simulation game. The
operating revenue of the company for the first quarter of 2019 has been closer to $4.34 billion
(singtel.com 2020). However the strength and weakness of the company is put across by SWOT
analysis mentioned below:
Strength
1. Provides advanced mobile network service
2. Have strong performance
Weakness
1. Dependency on the Singapore market
2. Economic factors directly impacts mobile
revenue.
Opportunities
1. The Asia pacific region needed to be
harvested.
2. Immense growth potential in the associate
market
Threat
1. Changes in regulation
2. Pressure of competition across the market
Nevertheless, an organization is able to match the internal strength with the external
opportunities. This can be explained with a TOWS analysis mentioned below:

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Internal Factors
External Factors
Strengths Weakness
Opportunities Singtel can introduce the
advanced mobile fibre
network in the associate
market
Singtel must utilize the
benefits of globalization to
open up national boundaries
and increase business and
trade.
Threats Avoiding threats through
delivering stronger
performance by remaining
compliant with regulations
and providing unique service.
Ensure overseas investment
for enlarging the market and
ensure profitability.
The above mentioned TOWs strategies shows how they can act as actionable tactics for
Singtel.
However, the competitive advantage of Singtel is determined with the help of Value
Chain analysis (Schmeisser 2013). It represents a tool that the managers use for identification of
the key activities of operation within the value chain of the company. The value chain framework
of Singtel has enabled the firm in analyzing its strategic organizational planning.

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Figure 1: Value Chain of Telecommunication Sector
Source: (Theyel 2013)
Singtel identified that the core drivers behind the growth of the company has been the
three business segments. The strategic priorities has the aim of helping Singtel in creating an all-
round service for improving the core business of the enterprise and the experience of the
customers. The financial ratios portrayed that the company showed a consistent rise in the net
profits. Nevertheless, the revenue put across by one of its subsidiaries has been quite uninspiring.
Singtel however undertakes continuous investment for the improvement of the mobile networks
and the related infrastructure for increasing the market share. In comparison to the competitors,
Singtel was found to report the highest margin of profit. The company also tried to improve
profitability through diversification across the markets and service. In fact the firm diversified
across the regional market while 74 percent of the revenue came from the overseas associate and
business. Singtel undertook the required steps for diversification of the service. This particularly
includes the acquisition of Trust wave. The valuation of the business segment of the company

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has been found to remain stable and the return on investment of the company also showed an
improvement.
The Product Life Cycle (PLC) represents succession of strategies by the business
management as the product or the service moves through life cycle. It comprises of four stages
which includes introduction, growth, maturity and decline (Wang, Wang and Zhao 2015).
Figure 1: Product Life Cycle of Singtel
Source: (Cheng, Jiang and Liu 2015)
The introduction phase represents the announcement about the product or service in a
particular country followed by rapid growth in sales volume as market demand is yet to be
satisfied (Chang Lee and Chen 2014). The growth phase represents the phase when the product
or service marketed meets requirements of target audience and experience immense growth. The
phase of maturity represents a slow increase of sales volume with a level off demand. The
decline phase represents final phase that represents decrease in sales volume where various
products or services are phased out and are discontinued (Bilir 2014).

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In case of Singtel, the introduction stage is marked by the initiation of the
telecommunication service in the markets of Singapore when it faces very little or no such
competition. This is followed by the growth stage when there is a rise in profitability due to
increase in demand for the product. The maturity stage leads to a drop in price of the service
due to presence of various competing products. The reduction in price and profitability is marked
by the decline phase.
b. Segmentation, Positioning and Targeting (STP)
Singtel Telecommunications Limited segments the users into personal and business
users. It also divides users based on speed of the internet service as the higher speed users using
speed between 500Mbps to 1Gbps and medium speed ranging between 50 Mbps to 500 Mbps
(sbr.com.sg 2017). When it comes to positioning, Singtel has been found to adopt differentiation
generic strategy for maintaining competitive advantage. As far as business users are concerned,
Singtel primarily targets the small and medium business enterprise (SME) and the personal
users are mainly targeted towards the family, children, professionals and others.
2. Objectives:
Singtel with close to 140 years of experience is one of the prominent communications
group that plays a key role in providing diverse range of services thereby acting as a key hub of
communication. The company however has the following objectives (singtel.com 2020):
1. Building bonds through breaking barriers and making the communication faster, easier
and increasingly reliable for the customers.

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2. Looking for better means of business and sharing the passion of making difference
through innovation, creativity and overseas investment.
3. Marketing Strategy:
The marketing strategy of Singtel can be explained with the help of Ansoff Matrix
(Hussain et al. 2013). It represents a tool that portrays the possible strategy that Singtel adopts
for ensuring growth. It represents four growth areas which includes market penetration, market
development, product development and diversification.
Figure 1: Diagrammatic Representation of Ansoff Matrix
Source: (Gregor and Hevner 2014)
Market Penetration: This refers to the first growth strategy and is adopted when a firm
with existing product requires a growth strategy within a known market (Yin 2016).
Market Development: This strategy is adopted when a firm with its existing products
targets newer market.

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Product Development: A firm is found to adopt this strategy whenever it has a good
market share in the existing market and might have the need of introducing newer product for its
expansion (Bocken, Fil and Prabhu 2016).
Diversification: This strategy is adopted by a firm when it has completely new products
that seems to be introduced into newer markets.
The Ansoff matrix thus reveals that the strategic opportunities that made Singtel
increasingly productive compared to other companies is its capacity of penetrating into the newer
markets each time.
4. Implementation or Tactics:
The tactics adopted by the firm in achieving its objectives lies in the use of 7 P’s of
marketing mix that focuses on key attributes considered by the firm. This is mentioned as
follows:
Product: The brand puts across higher speed internet services like broadband plans, Wi-
Fi, both pre-paid and postpaid 4G services, internet dependent television connections like the
setup box, on demand video services, digital video recorder (DVR) portals and networks for the
mobile phones (singtel.com 2020). In addition to this, the company also puts across lifestyle
services like the Singtel apps and news, Singtel music, Singtel dash, smart homes and other
services.
Price: The services put forward by SingTel are priced variably and depends on the kind
of product chosen. The range of the service falls between $49.90 and $ 189.00 on a monthly
basis (singtel.com 2020.) The company also offers free services for the initial two months.

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During this period it offers free subscription for television, puts across exclusive deals, free of
cost installation and a waiver of close to $145 for any service.
Place: Singtel has headquarters located in Singapore and a huge network of office across
Europe, Asia Pacific, Africa, Australia and the United States. It has over 25,000 employees and
serves closer to 685 million customers across globe (singtel.com 2020). The submarine mobile
services of the company serves close to 100 countries including Middle East. However, for
increasing its reach the company has subsidiaries in countries like the ‘Bharti Airtel’ in South
Asia, Africa and India, ‘Globe Telecom’across Philippines, ‘Telkomsel’ across Indonesia, ‘T-
Mobile Egypt’ and ‘Telecom’ across Egypt, ‘Advanced Info Service’ across Thailand and
‘Optus’ across Australia.
Promotion: Singtel opts for traditional means of advertising that includes
print, newspaper, print and the billboards. The company even has tie up with
major technological giants like the Microsoft. Google, Apple and Hewlett Packard
for further enhancing the brand equity (singtel.com 2020). Singtel also tries to
enhance its visibility through various sponsorship events. The company had the
broadcast rights for the Olympics of 2012 and provided 15 ESPN sports channel
without charging any cost.
People: Across its diverse business Singtel comprise of passionate and competent
workforce (singtel.com 2020). The company is known for sustaining and nourishing the
wellbeing of the employees.
Process: The people of Singtel are not only friendly and dedicated and commands
customer loyalty rarely seen amongst the other companies. Data collected by the company

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remains protected by the General Data Protection regulation (GDPR) and thereby
conducts business complying with the Personal Data Protection Act (PDPA) for
preventing breach of data of the customers.
Physical Evidence: The services provided by Singtel are diverse since the brand
provides necessary support for internet, telephone service and business mobile. Customer have
the option of managing the Singtel account through mobile app known as “My Singtel”. The
company also has online website dedicated for customers where the customers are able to check
their services, account and eligibility (singtel.com 2020).
5. Action Plan:
Figure 2: Gantt chart showing the Action Plan to be undertaken by Singtel
Source: By Author

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6. Control:
In order to ensure control, Singtel should have plans for transformation in order to not
only succeed but stay ahead of competition. In doing so, it was necessary for the telecomm
company to ensure cost efficiency that would prompt higher performance of the core business
along with creation of the next generation engines for growth within the digital space through
means of innovation. Nevertheless, the transformation strategy is expected to include the
following elements:
 By enhancing business performance of the enterprise and operations. This can be
achieved through driving of a profitable growth of revenue, ensuring operating
efficiencies and creation of competitive cost structure.
 Enhancing the experience of customers through compelling and simplified value
propositions. This has been supported by reliable and extensive networks.
 Leveraging the assets for driving the scale benefits. This involves establishment of the
collaboration with the associates for bringing in synergistic benefits in the product
development, technology and the customer offering.
 Creation of differentiated and innovative digital service for enhancing core business
along with delivering the newer streams of revenue.
Conclusion and Recommendations
On a concluding note, it can be said that, Singtel happens to be good at determining
strategies. The report portrays how the physical, financial and the human resource are providing
the company with competitive edge. The report further indicates how the situational analysis
how the telecom industry is influenced by the various factors and hence firms should possess the
ability of getting adapted to the change thereby maintaining its competitive advantage. The

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objectives of Singtel portrays that the company tries to provide higher quality service as
demanded by the customers. Singtel being a part of the telecom industry chooses a penetration
strategy as derived through the analysis of Ansoff matrix. The tactics adopted by the company
are explained through the 7 Ps of the marketing mix. The report also puts forward an action plan
along with the mention of measures of control.
It is however recommended that Singtel should maintain the deep relationship with the
customers through implementation of exciting and new services that will allow it to remain in the
forefront. Singtel should also undertake investments in newer markets through stronger research
and development along with keeping sharpened focus on enhancing profitability of the core
business.

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