Singtel Is The Leading Of The Telecommunication Industry Marketing Essay

Introduction

Scope

The focus of the study will firstly be on introducing the history of SingTel such as how it was first established in Singapore and follow on by finding out how SingTel manage to be so successful throughout the years and what kind of strategy they adopt to remain competitive and strong in the telecommunication industry such as the challenges they face and how to go about overcoming these challenges. A 4Ps model and SWOT analysis is also done to get better insights on the company.

Background

In Singapore, SingTel has had more than 120 years of operating experience and has been a very important part in the development of our country as a source of communications hub in our region and apart from this, Singtel provides huge and wide ranges of services and solutions which makes it an Asia’s leading communications group. This services consist of Internet, Mobile, Fixed, Info-communications technology, Satellite and pay TV.

As the years progresses, Singtel has emerge to become a impactful global player with strong regional heritage. Having to be equipped with the most advanced and modern telecommunication technology, Singtel offers unrivalled reach within and beyond Asia.

In Asia pacific, Singtel is known to be the second largest satellite operator and it’s international network provides connections to more than 100 countries from Singapore. It is also a major investor in multiple sophisticated satellite systems and submarine cable.

SingTel possess the ability to support multi-national corporations (MNCs) on a cross-border basis whereby it is anchored by its extensive network of SingTel Global Offices (SGOs). SingTel has a network of 36 offices in 19 countries and territories throughout Asia Pacific, in USA and Europe which is able to cater and serve the needs of multinational corporations.

Advanced Info Service of Thailand, the Bharti Telecom Group of India, Pacific Bangladesh Telecom of Bangladesh, Globe Telecom of the Philippines and Telkomsel of Indonesia are also Singtel’s other major investment in the reion.The Group’s other major investments in the region include and tgether with its regional partners, SingTel manage to hold the title of Asia’s largest multi-market mobile operator, serving more than 71 million customers in seven markets. And in Australia, Optus serves more than six million customers. It has driven the competition as the challenger brand and led the way in technological innovations and breakthroughs.

History

Just three years after the invention of telephone by the renown Alexander Graham Bell, Singtel became one of the pioneer in the East region to obtain telephone services in 1879 and Mr Bennet Pell intitiated a private telephone exchange during that time which actually hold 50 lines.

The British managed the telephone services in Singapore until the mid-1950s and in 1955, the Singapore Telephone Board (STB) was incorporated as a statutory board with exclusive rights to operate telephone service within Singapore.  Following this was the merger of Telecommunications Authority of Singapore (TAS) and STB in 1974 and TAS provided international services while STB was the one responsible for services locally up until that time . In 1982, there happened a merger of Telecoms and the Postal Department.

In 1988, a subsidiary, Singapore Telecom International, was formed and this thus initiated the SingTel’s expansion into overseas markets.  The corporatisation of SingTel in 1992 was followed by its Initial Public Offering a year later.  It remains Singapore’s largest ever IPO.

Following on in April 2000,there was a full liberalisation on the Singapore Telecoms market. Even though facing strong competition environment, SingTel still manages hold its leadership position in the Singapore market.  SingTel operates about 2 million direct exchange lines, which computes about one line for every two persons in Singapore.  As of 31 March 2006, result shows that Singtel is the leading mobile operator in Singapore with a 43%market share for postpaid and under the broadband Internet market with a 53% market share.

SingTel has changed its business over the last number of years.  In 2001, SingTel concluded its largest overseas investment ever, with the acquisition of Optus – the second largest telecommunications provider in Australia.  Apart from this,Singtel made investment in , the Bharti Group in India ,Telkomsel in Indonesia, Pacific Bangladesh Telecom Ltd and also increased its stake in Globe Telecom in the Philippines.  As at 31 March 2006, statistics show that SingTel and its associates had a total of about 85 million customers which makes it the largest mobile customer base in Asia outside of China.

Recognition

Symbol of SingTel

Singtel identity consists of different components which includes the symbol and the logotype and thus creates a unique corporate signature:

Symbol:

It consists of 2 squares and an ellipse which the squares actually represents the advanced technology used in telecommunications business and the ellipse means that Singtel is in the global network.

Logotype:

The logotype differentiate the company by name and the specially designed serif typeface known as Corporate A Type, has been selected due to its contemporary look which also provides a friendly influence which represents the SingTel’s attitude towards its customers.

Corporate color:

The red and black on SingTel stand for the stability, foundation of experience, expertise and a commitment to the best possible service which SingTel has built up throughout the years. The grey on SingTel has been selected for secondary graphics of square pattern and complements the colors for the corporate symbol.

Case study of SingTel in Singapore

====Progress made over the years====

Awards

2005

Asian Mobile News Awards- Mobile Operator of the Year, Singapore Asian Mobile Operator of the Year Mobile Operator CEO of the Year – Lim Chuan Poh (SingTel Mobile)

Telecom Asia Awards- Best Fixed-Line Carrier (Singapore)

S1000 Awards 2004/2005- Most Profitable Company Among the top 1000 Singapore firms

Singapore 1000 Awards- Highest Net Profit and Highest Sales/Turnover (Communications, Transport & Storage)

2004

Singapore Brand Award- Top among 15 Most Valuable Brands in Singapore

AsiaMoney Corporate Governance Pol- Top in Singapore for corporate governance

World Communication Awards- Best National Mobile Operator

Asian MobileNews Awards- Asian Mobile Operator of the Year

Singapore Business Award- Best CEO (Lee Hsien Yang)

2003

World Communication Award- Best Regional Carrier

Euromoney’s 8th Asian Companies Ranking- Best Company in Singapore, Best Cellular Operator in Asia, Best Fixed-line Operator in Asia.

Corporate Governance Survey- Top in Corporate Governance Among Singapore Companies (The Asset Benchmark Research’s

Far Eastern Economic Review’s Annual Company Survey 2003- Second most admired company in Singapore

SingTel core values

Customer Focus

-SingTel relates and keep in contact with customers and at the same time, they anticipate their needs and cater to them, making business easier for both parties. SingTel promises to deliver services of good quality and value so as to provide customer the top notch service possible and also to enhance success.

-SingTel also treats their customer with the utmost amount of respect and pride

Challenger Spirit

-Singtel always adopt new approach in doing a business and always aim to differentiate themselves, adapting unique characteristics. When encounter with difficulties and opportunities, they don’t say “Cannot”, they ask “Why not?”. They are very determined and compete fairly and at the same time, they set the pace and never give up.

Teamwork

-Singtel value the ideas contributed by everyone and they recognise, respect and value diversity in the team. At the same time, through communication with each other and sharing of mutual knowledge, they develop strong bondings and also, they fairly encourages open discussions and acceptance of each other as Singtel believes that each of them plays an important part.

Integrity

-Singtel’s reputation is derived from their capabilities to fulfil their promises to customers, shareholders and employees and they do so by being accountable for every actions and taking responsibilities for it. Once they have identify possible threats, they come up with solutions to tackle them. Most importantly, Singtel does everything with honesty, being truthful in everything they do.

Personal Excellence

Leadership and superior performance are achieved through the pursuit of personal excellence.

-SingTel are very committed in everything they do and doing them to the best. They also recognise potential of individuals and provide opportunities for growth and excellence. They ensure continuous enhancement and improvement, taking pride in the things they do, making sure they provide high standard of services.

Marketing mix(4Ps)

The marketing mix consists of Product, Price, Place and Promotion, which is also known as four Ps model. They are controllable variables in order to best satisfy customers in the target market.

Product

A product is anything that can be offered to a market for attention, use or consumption and that might satisfy a want or need. It is the thing that a business sells, be it goods or services.

Singtel is a leading communication company that provides top notch communication solutions to both the consumer and corporate market. Singtel provide 4 main type of services which consist of Singnet(ISP), MioTv(IPTV), Mobile Phone(Singtel Mobile Singapore) and Fixed line telephony services. In each of the services, Singtel constantly improves themselves to ensure good quality of product and services are provided for the customers.

Mobile:

*Singtel provides both Postpaid and Prepaid services for the customer, offering the best values and also assuring customer of Singtel’s unrivalled coverage in Singapore.

Mio:

*Singtel introduced Mio Tv, a Pay-Service TV in 1 January 2007 which uses a different approach to the customers by allowing the customer to choose and pay for the services they want as the pricing method is through customers paying based on the programs that they prefer to watch that allows them to choose their own schedule and arrange their preferred mix of programs and this thus promotes a good flexibility for them.

Broadband:

*Singtel offer excellent broadband services, catering different type of speed for home broadband that allows customer to choose the type of connection they prefer . Other than the home broadban, Singtel also offers Mobile Broadband that allows users to use internet even on the move using a internet usb adapter such as a ‘Huawei’ device, this thus have provided users with the ease of accessing internet anywhere with the steady and fast connection.

Example(Plans offered for Singtel home broadband):

speed they

AMPed:

Apart from this main services, Singtel also provide this additional mobile music service that made Singtel stands out from the crowd and this is known as AMPed. Singtel initiated and launched AMPed in partnertship with the renown music production company Universal Music Group in June 2009 which is the first mobile social music service that is offering daily music news and free unlimited music downloads. This service has earned Singtel the ‘Best Mobile Music Service’ award at the GSMA’s Asia Mobile Awards 2009.

Barclay premier league:

Singtel have also managed to win the rights for the Barclays Premier League football matches for 3 years commencing August 2010 & ESPN STAR Sports from mid-2010, establishing it as premier sports provider. As Singtel pricing method is through customers paying based on the programmes that they prefer to watch, this will thus attract many customers who previously have not subscribe to a sports package on cable TV due to the issue of having high cost barrier.

Price

-Singtel offers different type of pricing for the different segment of the market such as under the Consumer segment, they offer a different pricing for student and on the Corporate side, they offer different price as well for the corporate staff:

*An example of Singtel MOE corporate special rate and plans offered for youth:

E.g 1

E.g 2

-Singtel also provide bundling of their products for all services, providing attractive prices with the different combination such as Mio package that gives customer a great discounted pricing when take SingTel multiple services.

An example of a Mio pricing package:

Place

For a company to be successful, place is very important. SingTel currently have 11 main hello shops being dispersed in every part of Singapore, this includes about 2 outlets in each different region of Singapore (North,South,East,West) ensuring that their services are accessible to the customers. They currently locate their headquarter in a strategic area which lies in the most centralized area of Singapore which is the comcentre at Somerset area. Other than these main outlets, there are also many other exclusive retailers in Singapore which at least total up more than 100 shops scattered all around Singapore which they can reach out to their customers at most places, providing accessibility.

Promotion

Singtel always use different types of promotion to reach out to the customer and each of them have different objectives. Singtel often have roadshows for sales promotion for the purpose of increasing sales and generate higher revenue and this can include roadshows held in IT show(SITEX, COMEX etc.). Other than sales promotion, Singtel will also often advertise themselves such as through newspaper. One recent promotion Singtel had is the F1 sponsorhip which I have further explained in the below:

F1 Sponsorship(Public relation)

SingTel has been the first telecommunication company to be a sponsor for F1 racing in Singapore and also having the F1 racing to be arranged at night have manage to attract a wide amount of audiences of about 600 million around the world and this have a great influence on Singtel as being the company to sponsor this event as it is able to create an international branding and bringing Singtel to a whole new level of position in the market as Singtel associate itself with the most glamorous sporting events in the world.

SWOT Analysis

SWOT Analysis is a strategic planning method used to evaluate the Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats involved in a project or a business.

Strength

Singtel holds the majority power in the telecommunication industry with more than 100 outlets locally providing multiple top notch services in Singapore.

Singtel is the number 1 mobile service provide as they own 45% market share with 3.1million subscribers and this puts them at an advantage since they have a large mobile customer base.

Singtel is also the number 1 national telephone provide which they have 87% market share with 1.9 fixed lines and also, they have a strong platform for mio bundles and IPTV

They obtained the exclusive rights to Barclays Premier League and ESPN Star Sports

Singtel offers the best network coverage ensuring that there will always be steady and fast network speed provided for customer which includes internet speed and having good signal for mobile lines in any part of Singapore.

SingTel’s highly developed international network provides direct connections from Singapore to more than 100 countries whereby the Group is also the second largest satellite operator in the Asia Pacific.

Weakness

-Staff productivity:Singtel operator line usually let customer wait for too long which actually affects the quality of service provided for the customers as they might find that they are not being valued as a customer whom have to wait for so long just to get assistance and service

-Customer feedback: There is long queing and waiting time in Singtel hello! Shop such as during the launch of the new iPhone 4, customer have to queue up for very long just purchase a handset.

Opportunities

-Singtel can venture into more countries to propose in stepping into a new market, providing services to different countries as by doing so, Singtel can grow even bigger internationally, gaining even much recognition and eventually aiming to be the main hub for telecommuncations that can provide services in major areas such as the main provider in Asia.

-There is an increasing trend in iPhone user as there are a large number of customers taking up iPhone due to its innovative function of the phones such as iPhone apps take allows customers to download application.I feel that Singtel should tap into this sector by investing in a local exclusive Singtel iPhone applications where free applications are created for Singtel user and this can thus increase interest in potential customers and also benefit existing customers due to a good additional service provided for them. Other than iPone, Singtel can also look into Android applications as the Android platform is still not as popular as iPhone ,however , is growing rapidly which Singtel can start their investment in.

Threats

– Competitors and identical products:

Due to the Singtel being the sole monopoly of the market. Competitors stepped into the Singapore market and sell identical products and services such as Starhub which are also providing internet, mobile and tv services to the consumers in Singapore. Customers may be influence and attracted to other telco companies such as M1/Starhub if Singtel did not handle them well enough.

-Network security:

Singtel have to take note the security of their system such as the internet broadband system, even they might be strong in their security aspect, they need to ensure that their system such as firewall are strong enough to prevent any type of infiltration or viruses sent by any hackers. If their system are not stable and have been affected by hackers or outside possible threats, it will create doubts in consumer mindset as they will lose confidence in Singtel and may switch to other companies.

-Advancement in technology:

Singtel have to make sure that they are constantly improving their technology as we live in an era that have an ever changing technology advancement which require use to keep learning and using new stuff. If Singtel does not learn to keep up with such advancement, there is a high chance that it might lose out in the market.

Annual Report

Appendix 1:

-This graph shows that the healthy growth of Singtel revenue as it rose from $5.547million to $5.995 million from last year which proves constant growth in Singtel company and this is due to different factors such as mobile outperformed the market, as revenue rose 8% due to strong customer growth and at the same time,high increase in data usage.Data and internet revenue also rose 3% on cautious corporate telecom spending.At the same times, IT & Engineering revenue grew significantly by 32% with a robust performance from NCS Group.

Recommendation

In terms of customer services that Singtel provides, I feel that they can improve on being able to cater to the needs of customer as soon as possible because they often have delay times for their services, such as when trying to getting through the hotline operator, customers often complain of the waiting time even to get engage with a customer officer. Also, Singtel can improve their management of staff as Singtel shops usually have slow processing speed and often make customers wait for too long.

In terms of the future aspects of Singtel, I feel that Singtel can consider having more partnership with different companies and also venturing into innovative ideas such as the previously mentioned on creating Singtel iPhone apps free for their customers where they can enjoy free download as a extra value service. I also think that Singtel should always fight to become the first to introduce new technology or product since they are competing with strong companies such as Starhub. By being the first to obtain modern equipments, Singtel can provide even more advance services that can cater to the wants and needs of customer , thus satisfying the consumers’ expectations.

Singtel should always take strong precautions and preparations in their network system since the whole company services revolves around network as there was an incidence in March 2010 where the Mio Tv network system was down for several hours due to technical errors and this have left a bad impression on Singtel as there were many complains on this problem and many customers lost faith and confidence in Singtel service. This have thus demonstrated how a problem in a network can cause a damage to Singtel reputation and reliability in customers point of view and it will be optimal for Singtel to prevent such problems and errors from happening and solving it when it occurs in the shortest amount of time.

Conclusion

In conclusion, SingTel is the leading of the telecommunication industry and have led the way in technological breakthroughs and innovations. It is Asia’s largest multi-market mobile operator and I believe that it will continue to expand in the upcoming years. Over the years, as Singtel has grown to be a global payer with a strong regional heritage and the reason behind ‘s success is due to their customer focus which they place customers before themselves and striving to maintaining to be the best,they continue to listen, connect with them and treating them with dignity and respect.However, for continuous growth and prosperity, SingTel will have to maintain their effort or even improving themselves to catch up with the ever evolving world and society.