Critical Analysis of Marketing Audit for D-GSM

1.1 Introduction

In today’s dynamic telecommunication industry it is critical to analyze the dynamic environment and analyze key product/service offering to target customers. Further, the information gathered from marketing audit is used to critically analyze Dialog product line performance and current product management issues with relevant tools and models to identify the key opportunities/weakness which D-GSM could face in future.

1.2 General Issue

Inefficient Channel Distribution & Management

The downstream distribution is a key part of achieving sales objectives for D-GSM. In other words, business-to-business (B2B) customers push the products of D-GSM to end customers. Currently D-GSM is operating with four major first tier distributors and 1200 retailers in 85 cities in Sri Lanka.

In recent past further the retail distribution chain has declined in each province (Refer Appendix B – 10.0). The long tier retail distribution has reduced the profit margin thus resulted the retailers willing to promote competitors’ products (Refer Appendix B – 11.0). Another reason identified for this decline is high sales staff turnover which resulted for poor retail management.

The issue highlighted above can be highlighted using Ishikawa Cause/Effect diagram shown below (Refer Figure 1.0)

Model Adopted from (Albert, 1989)

1.3 Product Management Issue

Current Health of Product Portfolio

Figure 2.0 – BCG Matrix

BCG Model Adopted from – (Kotler, 2008)

Healthy product portfolio is important for organization to gain competitive advantage. Further analyzing the Boston Consultancy Group (BCG) matrix (Refer Figure 2.0) it’s understood that D-GSM key products are positioned i0n cash cow. In long term these products could move to dogs section which could harm the product performance of the organization.

Further products like Kid’s connection and Code-Division-Multiple-Access (CDMA) are currently in dogs section of BCG matrix needs to be removed from the product portfolio as they consume high cost to maintain the products and return low profit to the organization.

Moving forward D-GSM needs to plan for product development to position in star segment of BCG matrix which is currently with few products. Star products are highly needed for organization to gain competitive position; eventually star products will become cash cow and dogs respectively, Further D-GSM needs to identify products are in the question-mark segment to invest to generate market share and returns.

Now it is proved lack of product portfolio management has resulted developing low income generating products and thus D-GSM needs to follow a strategic system to have a balanced product portfolio management to gain competitive position in dynamic market.

Inefficiencies in New Product Development(NPD)

Model adopted from (Kotler, 2008)

D-GSM is currently facing set back with competitors. Presently D-GSM’s core products, which face severe competition from competitors, are in maturity stage. Thus these products are experiencing reduction in the profit margin (Refer Appendix B- 8.0).

The marketing audit (Refer Appendix – B) clearly indicates that Dialog’s Mobile-broadband is currently in maturity stage and clearly indicates declining in profit. Further it is evident that no product-line-extensions are developed for the product survival which has created a quick decline stage for most of the product.

There are few products and product-line-extension that are developed having long gap in introducing to the market in the new product development pipeline (Refer Appendix B- 11.0); as a result existing mature products (Cash-Cow) tends to decline faster. Moreover this is further evident that D-GSM has allocated low marketing budget allocated product innovation (Refer Appendix B- 12.0).Overall improper management in NPD has created threat for D-GSM of being a market leader and loosing first mover advantage for key products.

Gap identified in mobile-broadband STP Strategy

Today in telecom industry mobile-broadband is a core product and a matured product in the PLC; it is consumed in a very high level and has become a commodity in daily life. The marketing audit has identified that D-GSM has been targeting the same segment which are professionals/senior executive since inception their mobile services. This is a drawback for D-GSM’s long term survival and its market leadership. Further competitors are able to manipulate this service and will lose its market share (Refer Appendix – B; Appendix B- 4.0).

The PESTEL analysis provides evidence that new potential segments are emerging such as entry level executives (1), undergraduates/students (2), travellers and businessmen (3). As result old segments are becoming outdated. (Refer Appendix B- 12.0).

The below diagram illustrates the ability of D-GSM to cater and take necessary action for new segments (Refer Appendix B- 9.0).

Figure 4.0 G.EMatrix

Model adopted from (Business tools, 2007)

The output of market segmentation matrix identifies the emerging new segment to generate more revenue and increase market share by repositioning the broadband (Refer Figure 4.0).

Knowledge gap in customer preference

Internet technology is continuously evolving and adapting to such changes is highly important to D-GSM. Continues adaptation to such technology and augmenting future technology is important for long term survival.

The marketing audit explicitly specifies that D-GSM provides the core features of MBB to present customers. Further it is not providing the expected features or long term product augmentation of MBB (Refer Appendix B- 9.0).

Referring to figure 5.0 clearly indicates gap between current feature offering of broadband and customer expectations. To fulfill this gap D-GSM needs to continuously evaluate customer expectation and adopt to provide new technologies to retain market leadership.

1.4 Conclusion of Critical Analysis

• Lack of information
• Knowledge gap in changing market
• Gaps in STP
• Potential New segments to target
• Deficiencies in the product portfolio

2.0 Recommendation

Following recommendations are addressed below to overcome current drawbacks faced by D-GSM having critically analyzed using market audit. Recommendations are categorized to cater mobile-broadband and product portfolio management.

2.1 Recommendations for Mobile-broadband product Line

Recommendation 1 – Reposition Mobile-broadband

Topic 1.3 above states that current segment targeted for mobile-broadband is declining. Following segments are identified as target audience who are students, travellers and undergraduates to be targeted to generate high revenue for mobile-broadband.

Proposal in Detail –

Following recommendation is to reposition the mobile-broadband product line targeting new potential segments as the current segment is declining. This is also evident where 3 major UK telecommunication vendors has overall share of 30% mobile-broadband users as students and undergraduates affording on the go low-cost internet facility (Gabriel, 2011).

Currently mobile-broadband is a cash cow product. Repositioning this product can help D-GSM to reach more customers and generate more revenue. Based on the proposed recommendation, following product forecast is analysed using net present value (NPV) analysis.

Table 1.0 NPV Analysis for Mobile broadband reposition

Key Finding of NPV Analysis

• Return on Investment (ROI): The entire return on Investment on the repositioning the product will be fully recovered by the end of the first year.
• Forecasted sales performance: Repositioning the product will pave the way to the sales to increase notably. Nearly 67% increase in first year, 150% within two years and 200% within three years.

NPV analysis indicates positive (+) result which mean reposition will be successful. The product can be expected to perform well in the market to gain more revenue and market share for Dialog mobile-broadband. Further D-GSM could follow the proposed product reposition process for mobile-broadband

Further D-GSM could follow the proposed product reposition process for mobile-broadband

Figure 6.0 Proposed product reposition process for mobile broadband product line

To better position mobile-broadband D-GSM could adopt the following marketing mix to reach the newly identified segments since the current marketing mix for mobile broadband is outdated.

Table 2.0- Proposed new marketing mix for mobile broadband product line

Following perceptual map can be considered for the new repositioning strategy,

2.2 Recommendations for Product Management

Recommendation 2 – Appoint Product Management Team

The present marketing structure is incapable of managing multiple product portfolios at D-GSM. This structure only focuses to cater existing product portfolio and provides low importance for NPD. Further, it is inefficient to support and manage more products by fewer staff which increases the existing workload.

Proposal in Detail

It is recommended to restructure existing marketing hierarchy to cater NPD, to conduct product management efficiently and reduce burden on staff of marketing department. This recommendation emphasises the creation of a product management team, which could be formed to better manage product portfolio for D-GSM. Below product team structure is recommended (Refer figure 7.0)

Recommendation 3 – Financial Resource Allocation to Product management

Further to the critical analysis conducted it is understood low financial resource allocation as key reason for poor performance of product management in D-GSM. To overcome this issue more financial resource allocation has to be allocated for better product management in future.

Proposal in Detail –

Following recommendation is to cater financial resource for product management team. Proposed financial resource will cater the team to conduct product portfolio management, new technology acquisition for product development, research & development to introduce new products/service to market.

It is recommended to allocate 10% of the annual sales revenue to facilitate product management team. The following financial allocation breakdown is proposed.

Table 3.0-Proposed Financial Allocation breakdown for project management team

Recommendation 4 -Implementation of Product Portfolio Management System (PPMS)

In topic 1.3 identifies the lack of system and process in place to manage product portfolio and help senior management make strategic decision towards managing product portfolio as it consumes human and financial resources .This recommendation will highlight in implementing a PPMS for D-GSM.

Proposal in Detail –

This recommendation is to implement PPMS for D-GSM. This system in place will help management make strategic decisions and allocate investments to individual products with the goal of optimizing the entire product portfolio. Also this system will provide a tool to maximize the performance of product portfolio in varies stages of PLC.

The following system will help product management have a consistent view of product performance, products status in PLC, new product development pipeline progress, monitor product operation cost and more with product portfolio management.

Further with the help of such system product development managers to align product roadmaps with market expectation and help to increase revenue, grow market share and reduce costs.

Benefit for D-GSM by implementing PPMS

• Maximize the performance of D-GSM product portfolio
• PMSS in place will enable centralized management of product portfolio
• PMMS in place will enable product managers to align product roadmaps with marketing objectives to increase revenue, grow market share, and reduce costs
• PMMS will enable product management team gather historical information which is valuable information that will improve time to market of future products

Recommendation 5 – Expand & Re-align Channel Distribution

This recommendation will highlight in improvising the current retail management and introducing new retail partners for D-GSM to expand the channel distribution to compete with competition and in long term to penetrate Sri Lankan market.

Proposal in Detail –

Proposed strategy of expanding the channel distribution to reach wider & untapped market of D-GSM as competitors are aggressive in penetrating the market .This strategy will enable D-GSM to gain more consumers and boost profit through additional venues and expanding current channel distribution can be an effective tool to increase existing business for Dialog GSM.

Benefit for D-GSM by Expanding & Re-aligning Channel Distribution

• Channel expansion will cut down operational cost in every region and improve sales performance
• Current level of channel risk will be minimized and risk could be shared among many regional retailers
• Expanding channel distribution will help in brand building and make products available in more locations which will raise consumer awareness of D-GSM offerings.

Recommendation 5 – Implementation of Marketing Information System (MKIS)

Further to the critical analysis conducted in 1.5 and 1.6 it is evident that there is no system and process in place to monitor dynamic market environment and consumer behavior, in current situation without a proper system in place D-GSM has not been able to understand consumer behavior and identify emerging segments and target potential new market.

Proposal in Detail –

The following recommendation is to implement a MKIS. This system in place will help D-GSM to scan dynamic market environment constantly to make strategic decisions. Further this system will enable the marketing and product management team to analyze consumer behavior and act accordingly in competitive environment. In long term this system in place will enable the organization to be market oriented.

Proposed key integrated feature of this system will be;

• Marketing intelligence
• Information Analysis
• Marketing research
• Internal Records

The prototype of the proposed MKIS will be as shown in figure

Benefit for D-GSM by implementing MKIS

• MKIS will enable organization to constantly monitor dynamic marketing environment
• Distribute marketing information within organization
• MKIS will enable to analyses consumer behavior, This will help D-GSM to better manage STP strategies for new products
• MKIS will facilitate towards product planning and control

3.0 Evaluation of Resource capability and Capacity Management

3.1 Introduction

This section evaluates the resources and capability requirements to deliver the identified recommendations for product management of D-GSM. This analysis is based on drawbacks identified from the critical analysis and possible recommendations are proposed to re-align the current D-GSM resources and capabilities to desired level.

3.2 Analysis of current organizational capability and resource

When conducting a project management in this scale it is important for D-GSM to evaluate current resource capability and capacity of the organization to deliver the recommendations proposed under heading 2.0. Further to evaluate the current strength of delivering the recommendations, a skill audit was conducted within marketing department against the expected skills and competencies required for the product management project (Refer Figure -9.0)

Figure9.0 – Marketing Team Current Skill vs. Expected Skill for product management project

The skills audit analysis (Refer Figure 9.0) against the marketing audit (Refer Appendix B- 14.0 ) indicates there are lack of gap overall skills, therefore there is a need for skills improvement from external or internal sources which needs to be acquired to close the current skill gap.

The marketing audit analysis indicates present marketing team’s resources are limited and the current structure is incapable of managing the proposed project (Refer Appendix B- 5.0). Therefore it is recommended to recruit a new project management team to implement the recommendation made for D-GSM.

To overcome the skill requirement a project management team can be formed from a cross functional basis of appropriate staff who will have relevant skills and knowledge to implement the proposed recommendation as a team. Further D-GSM could acquire required skill and expertise resources from external environment.

3.3 New Capability & Resource required

Provide Training in Product portfolio management

Marketing team currently needs new skills in understanding the importance of organizational product portfolio management to achieve organizational objectives. By training the staff on portfolio management it will enable the marketing team to formulate effective product portfolio management strategies to cater dynamic market environment.

Increase Financial Allocations for Portfolio Management

To have an efficient product portfolio management more financial resource is needed to cater new product development. The current budget quota is insufficient for product portfolio management and therefore to implement the identified recommendations and to gain new capabilities and other needed resources which needs sufficient financial allocation for product portfolio management.

Training on customer relationship management

Marketing team is currently in need for training in customer relationship management. Currently in the highly competitive Sri Lankan telecom market relationship management with key customers, retailers and distributors are important to retain recurring business. By conducting such training D-GSM could retain customers to generate more revue for organization.

3.4 How to Acquire New Capability and Resource

Internal Development

Internal development refers to the changes that a firm undertakes by recombining its existing resources or developing new resources on its own (Capron and Mitchell, 2004). To acquire new capabilities at minimal cost marketing team along with human resource department could form an internal development team to provide key skill and mentoring to staff, this could be in the form of:

• Knowledge Sharing Session
• Internal Presentation
• One to One session

Hiring External Consultant

“External sourcing means trading in a strategic capability that stems from external sources” (Capron and Mitchell, 2004).The hiring of a consultant will help D-GSM in gaining external/industrial expertise on product portfolio management and enable the marketing team to build new strategies to increase performance for Dialog Mobile-broadband product line.

Training and Development

D-GSM could evaluate the option of on-demand training and development to cater highly critical skill and capability needs to manage competitive product portfolio to the market. Further D-GSM could follow the proposed model shown in Figure 10.0 to plan training development.

Figure 10.0 Training and Development process

Model Adopted from (Moskowitz, 2008)

The Benefit of Training and Development

• Improved motivation – Individuals see their skills base extending and their promotion prospects being enhanced.
• Opportunities for self-improvement, leads to people staying longer in one employment.
• Higher levels of performance – Trained and motivated staffs are more likely to give of their best which in the end justifies the training budget.

Recommendation for accruing new resource and capability

The options discussed above to acquire new resources and capability to manage product portfolio for D-GSM is to hire external consultant to gain new ideas and industry expertise. Further hiring external consultant will help to reposition broadband product line effectively.

Moreover, D-GSM needs to constantly identify new skill required for employers since marketing environment is dynamic and employees adapting to such changes instantly is important, therefor it is advisable to constant monitor required skill and plan to train and develop by external consultant.

There is a high risk of outsourcing new resource and capability because it will create conflicts within internal employees and internal information could be considered as risk when outsourcing key resources from external environment

3.6 Financial Consideration

Herewith financial proposal is addressed for future budgeting purpose to acquire new capability and resource to implement effective product portfolio management.

Table 1.0 Financial Consideration for new resource and capability management

4.0 Project Plan

Introduction

To the priority of recommendations provided above in topic 2.5, following project will focus to reposition mobile-broadband product line targeting newly identified segment with differentiated marketing mix and finally position the product as affordable product for consumers

Project Initiation

The following project is selected to increase the mobile-broadband. A stable project based approach is required. This therefore enables the management to monitor the manage performance, cost and time scales. Fore reference purpose this project will be named as “Project 3G”.

Project Objectives

The project objectives expected to be achieved by implementing project 3G are as followed,

1. To successfully reposition Dialog Mobile-broadband product line
2. To successfully create awareness to newly identified segments
3. To increase mobile-broadband trial among new segments targeted
4. To position the product to the new target segments using new differentiated value propositions within the period of six months.

Project Scopeand creep

The project scope refers to the work that must be accomplished to deliver the project objectives and successfully complete the project with quality, time and minimal cost (Hill, 2009). Project scope management will be used to make sure that project cover’s all the key tasks to deliver high efficiency of triple constraints [4] and focus of project.

Further the management will resist and prevent scope creep as it will dent the achievement of triple constrains- budget, performance, and time as project creep could bring negative effects on the members (Kendrick, 2009). Therefore below matrix illustrates project boundary (Refer table 2.0).

Table 2.0 – Project Scope Matrix

Every project stakeholder must be educated about project scope from deviating. If there are any changes to the scope a request should be made to the project manager for consideration (Pritchard, 2004).

Project Team

The project manager will be General Manager- marketing and sales. He/she is selected for because of leadership skills and previous experience in handling similar projects. The key role of project manager is to manage the project team from initiation to evaluation stage, while leading and motivating the team towards achieving the objectives and clearly defining team’s – roles, responsibilities and performance, budget and time (Lock, 2007). The proposed project team structure is shown in Figure (9.0).

The project team consists of seven members including staff from different department of Dialog GSM. This system will become a cross functional team for the project. Project Sponsor will be the Chief Financial Officer (CFO).

According to Melton (2009), project sponsor is accountable for the delivery of the business case and to ensure that project is financially worthwhile. Project Managers and sponsors must work closely together to deliver the project and maintain control.

External resources for the project team will be the outsourced marketing consultant and the advertising agencies key account manager for D-GSM for this Project. The consultant will guide the project team in implementing the project by providing training and in-depth guidance on product repositioning of Dialog Mobile-broadband.

Furthermore, project manager will be responsible for driving the project team to achieve the project objectives by delegating the project tasks, proper resource allocation for the project through possible mediums and finally responsible to deliver project report for management.

Project Beginning and end dates

Project 3G will span for a period of 6 months and will be implemented from 1st of July 2011 till the 30th of December 2011.

Project Key Deliverable

Key deliverable of Project 3G could be highlighted in a work breakdown structure (WBS). The top of the WBS is the project itself. The next layer or level in the structure is ‘work packages’ (Lock, 2007). WBS explains the key deliverables of the project in figure (10.0).

Figure () Key deliverables for project 3G

ProjectMethodology