Marketing Research : Malaysia TM company

Exclusive Summary

This report will be analyzing the telecommunication service company in Malaysia named“Telekom Malaysia (TM)”

The first part of the report will be explaining about the TM company history before the company called as TM. In this report, there are visions and mission for the TM Company to achieve their own goals. Beside that, explanation of the analysis of the company and the analysis will be separated into different categories topic, which are product, brand & services strategic strategies, dealing with the competition; segmenting, targeting & positioning strategies and the consumer buying behaviour. As the report will be based on the topic above, as the topic are related to each other, which on how the company practicing on selling its products and services to the public


1.0 Introduction
Today, Telekom Malaysia is well known around the world. Before Telekom Malaysia uses TM as their branch mark, the company name was Jabatan Telekom Malaysia (JTM). This is because JTM was a government agency, which its role is to regulate tariffs, licensing, and rates of the telecommunication industry. In 1987, JTM changed its’ name to Syarikat Telekom Malaysia due to its corporatisation and privatization (Talk Malaysia, Malaysia Telekom, 2006). After the company changes its name to Syarikat Telekom Malaysia, it also restructured the company from being a government-owned status to commercial status. After changing the company’s name, the company now focused more on telecommunications. In 2003, Celcom was being sold to Syarikat Telekom Malaysia. This is because Celcom's owner, Tan Sri Tajudin Ramli failed to resolve his debts (Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, 2006). The reason why Telekom Malaysia does not use its own mobile company TM Touch after taking over Celcom is because Celcom users are much more than TM Touch users. It was said that in 1999, TM Touch users amount to 182,000, however, Celcom users amount to 643,000 (System Dynamics Group, pp. 15). In April 2005, Syarikat Telekom Malaysia officially changes its name to TM. The company now offers a huge range of telecommunication services such as fixed-line, mobile and Internet service. The reason why TM is well known around the world is because in 1996, the Menara Kuala Lumpur tower was built and recently builds Menara TM. Since then, it had been a landmark for tourist.

Other than operating telecommunication by the company in the nation, the company also involved on other services and invested other countries as well. The company involves in the field of education and also research and development to increase the welfare of the nation, for example some facilities such as Multimedia University, Multimedia College, and TM Smart School and Telekom Research and Development Sdn Bhd and Yayasan TM (Education & Research 2006). The company also invests to countries as well, such as Mobileone Limited (M1) in Singapore, PT Excelcomido Pratama (XL) in Indonesia, Cambodia Samart Communication Co. Ltd (Casacom) in Cambodia, Samart Corporation Public Company Ltd (Samart) in Thailand, TM International (Bangladesh) Limited in Bangladesh, Spice Telecom in India, Dialog Telekom Limited (Dialog) in Sri Lanka, Multinet Pakistan (Private) Limited (Multinet) in Pakistan, TM Networks Malawi Limited (TNM) in Malawi, and Societe Des Telecommunications De Guinee (Sotelgui s.a.) in Republic of Guinea.

1.1 Competitor
There are many competitors in the telecommunication service for TM Company. For the mobile communication services, the competitors for Celcom are Digi and Maxis. There is a competitor in the internet services, that’s Jaring that provide the similar services to the consumers. However, Jaring Company does not provide broadband service.

1.2 Mission & Vision
TM has been serving the nation for many years by its telecommunication service, as its vision “Our vision is to be the Communications Company of choice – focused on delivering Exceptional Value to our customers and other stakeholders.” TM also set its mission to achieve its vision and these missions are followed as below:

- Be the recognized leaders in all markets we serve.
- Be a customer-focused organization that provides one-stop total solution.
- Build enduring relationships based on trust with our customer and partners.
- Generate shareholder value by seizing opportunities in Asia Pacific and other selected regional markets.
- Be the employer of choice that inspires performance excellence.
(Vision & Mission 2006). And from the mission objective this is how the company is going to achieve its mission.

This report is going to analysis on the TM company on how the company sale its products and services to the public, from how the company segment its products and services on different group and how it’s going to promoted the products and services by analyze the consumer buying decision.

2.0 Product, brand & services strategies

TM company have a lot of services and product such as consumer telephony, mobile, internet, entertainment, card services, education and 600 info line (TM consumer 2006). The TM Company has provided the consumer telephony such as home line. Home line that divide into two, local call and the long distant call. They also provide mobile service that name as Celcom. Celcom have tow kind of service such as postpaid and prepaid communication services. There also provide the internet services that are TM net. There is much kind of services that provide by the TM net. First is the board band internet access, the Streamyx, the fast speed internet access in Malaysia. Second is the normal internet dial up, which is a normal speed internet service that for a light user. Third is the prepaid internet access, TM prepaid. The consumer can use their internet service in any place by buying the TM prepaid and not need to register for a fixed service. Last is the TM hotspot that given the coffee house or fast food center for attracting costumer that can use the wireless internet accessing in the coffee shop that have hotspot. The entertainment is the life portal and the broad portal, Blue hypoo and the broadband bluehyppo. These provide the consumers to download music, see online video, searching information about lifestyle and others. There are Card services also found in Tm Company. There are iTalk, iTalk Prepaid, Kadfon TM, Ring Ring Card, Telecard , and TM Visa. iTalk, iTalk prepaid, kadfon TM, Ring Ring card, and Telecard is all provide the telephone communication services that with different calling rate and the TM visa is let the customer to enjoy for packaging and discount on TM product and service. Beside that, TM Company has provided the education such as Multimedia University, Telekom Smart School, Multimedia College and Yaysan TM. There also a 600 info line service provide for the consumers for getting information by calling on this line. The information is providing for the customers such as education, government, religion, commercial and the general.

There are different brand that found in TM Company such as Celcom, TM net, iTalk and others, but it is targeting for different market. TM Company separates the service in to many kind of brand with different service. Celcom provide mobile communication service, TM net provide internet accessing services and others. They target in internet service, communication service, entertainment, mobile services and others. With these different brands, the customer will not mess up with the services that provide by Tm Company if they do not have different brand for different services. In the customer mind will come out for the brand when they want to choose the services.

The company has offered fixed line and mobile communication service and also provides internet service. The services in the company are mostly intangible as the service such as fixed line, mobile service, and internet service were for people to communicate to others and find information. The company is mostly in telecommunication services and also sells accessories to the customer. The company also offered other services such as education, entertainment, and info-line to the public. The services in the company are categorized in different core and supplementary services. For example, Celcom, the mobile telecommunication services have offered different product and services, and these offer are in different package such as prepaid, postpaid, and 3G to the consumer; and also these package also provide different the plans and promotion for customers. The price of the services which provide by the company are varies from one than another. The price of the services are been established to suit the need of the customer. For example, the mobile services are presented in different pricing package for customer to choose what they are needed, such as the prepaid service is offering different plans such as lite plan, mid plan, and max plan. The promotion of the services in the company are presented in many ways, for example the promotion are advertise in television and ads in internet, campaign such as carnival TV3 hosted by TMnet and other sorts of promotion can be found around the neighborhood.
3.0 Dealing with competition; segmenting, targeting & positioning strategies
TM Company appears geographic segmentation, demographic segmentation, and behavioral segmentation in market.First, geographic segmentation is dividing a market into different geographical units such as nations, regions, states, states, municipalities, cities or neighborhoods'(market segmentation - geographic segmentation 2006). The Celcom service has provided Tamil messages services (refer to the 2005 annual report p15). In Malaysia there are many different nations so Celcom provide the Tamil messages services to attract other nation costumers (Saraswathi.M 2006). The TM Company also has provided homepage to let costumers to find out much information for the services that TM provides. Nowadays, most of the citizen are busy of their own job and cannot manage to have time to get any extra information form the TM Center. TM Company has provided a Webpage for the customers to get information, advertisement in television and newspaper, or even in the mobile phone shops.

Second, demographic segmentation is dividing the market into group based on demographic variables such as age, sex, family life cycle, income, occupation, education, religion and nationality (Preid et al. 2006). The Celcom have provided postpaid n prepaid communication services (Celcom: Product & Services n.d.). The prepaid communication usually use by most of the teenager because they just need to reload as much as they need to use by buying the reload coupon. The Xpax is providing the 8pax with the user of the Xpax can enjoy a special calling or messaging for 8 persons (refer to newspaper 1). The Xpad also have provided the 8 family members with special rates for calling and messaging for those 8 members (8pax- Term and Condition n.d.) The postpaid is different than the prepaid because postpaid is providing by packages to the customer by different packages such as 100 minutes,200 minutes,300 minutes and others packages without paying any services charges(Celcom Postpaid n.d.). Some of the officers or the adult will choose to use the postpaid because all the nation call is in one rate and they not need to pay for any charges for the services. There are also have new packages for the postpaid, such as normal postpaid that simple and easy to pay as you use, family postpaid that free call for the family and the minutes postpaid with best rate and more saving (refer to newspaper 4). The consumers just need to choose the packages how many they need to use (Celcom service and product n.d.). The TMnet company has provided the Streamyx in packages (refer to appendix pg17). Different income’s consumer will choose different packages for the streamyx, such as RM20 for 10 hours, RM44 for 60 hours and RM66 for unlimited (TMNet Streamyx packages n.d.).

Last, behavioral segmentation is dividing buyers into groups based on their knowledge of the product, their attitude toward it and their responses to it. (Pried et al. 2006) The usage rate is found in Celcom because there are light, medium and heavy-user group. Most of the company like to apply the mobile service form Celcom for their employees and they provide the postpaid packing such as RM30, RM50, RM100 and following that include the services charges and provide calling time for the costumers who are heavy user or light user. For the occasion, Celcom have intro the X-pax with the FIFA World Cup 2006 that giving out the football star packages, poster, free 1000 messaging, free download for the mobile phone and others (refer to newspaper 2). Celcom also have advertised the Xpax with the movie of X-Man to attract more people to use Xpax prepaid services (refer to Advertisement 3). TM Company had separate to serve with many common needs of the communication service to the market such as fixed line services, Celcom Mobile services, TMnet services, ITalk card services, education, infoline and entertainment services.

These services are all targets to the nation and attract more customers to know their services and choose to use their services. The Celcom identifying possible competitive advantages by providing many extra services for the consumers that the others mobile company had provide such as the 8pax. Before the Celcom providing the 8pax, the Maxis and the Digi have also providing the Active5 and Friend & Family that almost same as the 8Pax but the Celcom found out and providing the same services to the consumer (refer to appendix pg).

4.0 Consumer Buying Behaviour Process in TM (Celcom)


Before a user need of buying a product or services, the users will need to know about the consumer buying behaviuor. There are five stages for the consumer buying decision-making process, problem recognition, information search, evaluation of alternatives, purchase and post purchase evaluation. Companies need to understand these five stages of consumer buying behaviour process to help the company produce or expand new products or services into the market.

First and foremost, the problem recognition occurs when the buyers notice the condition is not in the desired state, as a result creating an inspiration to achieve the goal. The user will need to think of what they want or their needs before making a decision to buy the product. From the company’s point of view, the company have to evaluate and do some research on the market needs before it produces a product or service to the users. Due to the increase in prepaid subscribers, Celcom had introduced its new and innovative prepaid package namely X-pax in December 2004 (LogicaCMG’s Next Generation prepaid solution enhances the mobile experience for Celcom's Malaysian subscribers 2005). The other reason for Celcom to introduced X-pax is because the company wants to focus on family brand. In this package, Celcom introduced the 8-pax for the users to enjoy a low rate call and messaging service for 8 selected contacts………. Another reason for Celcom to introduce X-pax is because of the 3G services (Loong.T.M. 2005).

In the second stage, information search is when a buyer search for a products’ information after they recognise their problems or needs, they will need help to decide the problem or satisfy the need. There are two aspects; internal search and external search. The internal search is when the users search their memories for information to solve their problems. On the other hand, the external search is the information that users get from communicating with their friends or family, comparing the prices and brands. To solve the problem of finding information regarding the company’s products, Celcom had set up their own website (Products and services 2006). Celcom also promote their products or services through newspapers, magazines, etc. to ensure that the users notice of their product. Other than that, the company also cooperate with some websites to promote their product, for example, www.soccernet.com, and msn messenger. Refer to appendix …

For the third stage, the users will need to make decisions by using the information that they search to evaluate the alternative brands in the choice set. In this stage, the producer/Celcom has to produce good quality service to satisfy the users so that the users will continue using their product or buy their product. In order to do so, Celcom had combine most of the services provided by Maxis and Digi. For example, Friends and Family, Active 5 and 8-pax that were meant to give the users to enjoy low call and messaging rates. Digi was the first telecommunication service that provides such service and was named Friends and Family, users can put at least 6 persons in the contact list to enjoy a low call and messaging rates (DiGi announces reduced prepaid voice and data rates for upcoming festivals 2004). Then followed up by Maxis introducing Active 5, also allow users to enjoy low call and messaging rates, however, it can only put in 5 contact numbers in the list. Lastly was Celcom namely 8-pax, however, Celcom users have the advantage of putting 8 people in the contact list to enjoy the service. This is to ensure that the users are satisfied with their product and services. Refer to Appendix …. Other than that, Celcom is one of two Telecommunication Company that provides 3G services (Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, 2006). Celcom introduced this service is to offer the users a better quality services and offers a faster online coverage. These services are to ensure the satisfaction to the users.

In the fourth stage, the users choose the product to be bough. The selection is result of the evaluation stage and on other circumstances. From the company’s view point, Celcom had to set up reasonable price for their product/services so that the company can compete with Maxis and Digi. To ensure that the company make profit from their product, Celcom are now selling its starter pack via AirAsia in-flight sales as well as at Celcom Service Centre in KLIA. Celcom sells its starter pack at a price of RM 4.99 (Products and services, new promotions 2006). Comparison between Maxis and Digi, Celcom is selling its starter pack at a very low price (Telecommunication-neutral, Alive and kicking 2006). Refer to Appendix ………………………………...

Lastly, the post purchase evaluation is that the users of the product evaluate the product or take further action based on their satisfaction and dissatisfaction. To let the users give feedback on their product or services, the company provide feedback form for the users; this is to ensure that the users give feedback from what they had used. By providing the feedback form, the company can improve their product from the users’ feedback of their products and services. Refer to Appendix ….Whenever the users have any enquiries or problems, they can call to the customer service to seek advice or help. Other than that, Celcom also provide customer centre for the users to pay their bills, ask for information, subscribes for a postpaid package.

The most important stage in the consumer buying process is the Information search. This is because before a user purchases any of the starter packs, a user has to think of what type of services they want, or the type of services they need. If a user who buy a mobile phone with 3G functions, he or she will consider more on buying those telecommunication company that provide 3G services, for example Celcom and Maxis. The user will also need to think whether they call frequently or just to have a mobile phone to contact others when there is an emergency. This can help the users to choose which company’s starter pack they will buy. Overall, Celcom is providing the users the best quality service to keep their existing customers and to attract other mobile users.


5.0 Recommendation
1st Product, Brand & services strategies recommendation:



2nd Dealing with competition; segmenting, targeting & positioning strategies recommendation:
About the segmentation, the Celcom and TMNet Company have done their best to attract more consumers to use their own services. The problem for the Celcom is that they always provide the extra services or promote their product slowly than their competitor. So they should target more other customer to use their services by providing new extra services or giving a special rate to the user.

3rd Consumer Buying Behaviour recommendation:


6.0 Conclusion

Telekom Malaysia is a vast telecommunication service company. With its variety of products and services, the company has been progressing greatly to meet its vision.