Background of Celcom CELCOM, known as CELCOM AXIATA BERHAD, is the oldest telecommunication company in the mobile telecommunication services

industry in Malaysia currently. CELCOM is one of a member of the Axiata group of companies, which is one of the leading telecommunication companies in Asia. In 1988, CELCOM started its operation as STM Cellular Communications with Fleet Group and Telekom Malaysia as shareholders. As one of the telecommunication companies in Malaysia, to originally obtain a cellular phone license, it introduced mobile telephony in Malaysia through ART-900 (Automatic Radio Telephone) services successfully. The ETACS (Extended Total Access Communication System) ART900 was started using the prefix 010. However, in 1995, when the cellular phone market was opened up, CELCOM used dialling prefix identifier of 013 and 019 and offer digital GSM (Group Special Mobile), an originally European standard, now largely a world standard for mobile communications. Then, CELCOM upgraded to the GSM900 service and quickly grew to become the largest mobile phone company in Malaysia.

Brands Product Celcom has provided several brand products. The first product is postpaid services which is the Celcom Exec. This product has divided into a few packages which is Celcom Exec 20, 50, 250 and also 1+5 plan that targeted different categories of people and also fulfill different customer needs. Besides, customer also can choose Celcom Exec plan that comes with the Blackberry Smartphone. These plans offer the customer several features which allows the customer connected to the internet and chat by using the Blackberry Messenger, Window Live Messenger and so on. It also enables the customer to view their e-mail and attachment. The second product is the prepaid services. There are two packages under this service which are Xpax and Celcom Blue. Xpax more focus on the teenagers who are between the ages of 12 to 25, while the Celcom Blue focus on the user above age of 25 and offer longer credit validity period.

Lastly is the broadband services provided by the Celcom Company which is the No.1 mobile broadband in Malaysia and offer the widest coverage that over 71% Malaysias populated area. There are a few plan under this services which is you can either paid daily, weekly or monthly. This services also has the plan with device which is offer the customer a special price for the device if purchase their broadband services.

Brand Identity The brand identity of the Celcom broadband is "youll have nothing but peace of mind from the moment you sign up". Celcom broadband offer you the widest coverage, affordable price and a dedicated customer services. However, the brand identity for Celcom Biz Intelligent is Maximize the reach of your business with Celcom, Malaysias leading mobile network service provider with the widest nationwide coverage. Celcom Biz Intelligent is to fulfill needs and wants of businesses in todays demanding landscape, such as workforce mobility and connectivity, cost effective solutions, and intelligent operation and management systems. Meanwhile, the identity for the Celcom Exec postpaid is Celcom Exec postpaid plan will prove to be absolutely everything you need and more. This package provides the customer low rates and bigger discounts designed to simplify and ease the customer mobile lifestyle. The brand identity for the Celcom Blue is It is loaded with indescribablebablebable, rates, bonuses and reward. Celcom Blue provide the customer lowest rate to all networks. Lastly, the brand identity for the Xpax is Got X, Got it All. Xpax is a prepaid plan which allows you to enjoy the best rates, best bonuses and best mobile broadband and download in town.

Brand Strategies In order to build strong brand identity, Celcom has adapted the major brand strategy decisions which are the brand development and brand sponsorship. First, is the brand development. The brand development strategies used by Celcom is the line extension. Celcom has added new packages under prepaid services category to attract more customers. Example, Celcom has launched packages such as School of X and University of X that pack with different features under the same product category, with the existing brand name, which is Xpax prepaid services in order to satisfy customer come from different age group. Moreover, Celcom used the brand extension strategy too. Celcom has come out new services in new product category, which is the broadband services, using the same brand name Celcom. Next, is the brand sponsorship. The brand sponsorship strategy used by Celcom is the co-branding strategy. Celcom has cooperated with Citibank and launched Citibank Celcom credit card. This credit card is an innovative credit card that gives customer benefits such as cash rebate, reward point and airtime rebate. Besides, Celcom also collaborate with AirAsia Bhd. Both the companies has announced the launch of a RM4.99 AirAsia-Celcom prepaid starter pack that can only be bought at Celcom Service Centre in Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA) and also in all AirAsia in-flight sales. The purpose for Celcom launches the AirAsia- Celcom prepaid starter pack is to break new market ground and gain more market share.

Segmentation Celcom has divided their market into several segments in order to earn more profit and compete with their competitors. First, is demographic variable. Demographic variables show that the company segments the market by difference in age. They also segment based on different income such as high income group and low income group. The company will also segment their market into different stage of life cycle such as children, teenager, adult and

old people. Company also will divide their market based on their customer occupation whether they is business man, office staff, student or foreign workers. Besides, Celcom also adapt psychographic variables in their market segmentation. Psychographic variables stated that the company divides a market into different group based on social class whether they are in lower class, middle class, or upper class. Moreover, they also divide their customer group according to their lifestyle whether they have an active lifestyle or inactive lifestyle. Furthermore, Celcom has adapted the behavioral variables in their market segmentation too. Behavioral variables are about dividing a market into groups based on consumer knowledge, attitudes, usage or response to a product. Examples are segmentation by occasion which is offer special promotion during holidays, user status, usage rate and loyalty status.

Brand Positioning Celcom mobile broadband brand positioning is high speed broadband, connectivity anytime, anywhere. Celcom broadband has the widest coverage in Malaysia which is over 71% of Malaysias populated area. With the help of the technology such as 3G and HSDPA, Celcom broadbands user can easily connect to the internet by just using the USB stick. Furthermore, Celcom is Malaysias first prepaid data only mobile broadband pack with no registration. Moreover, Celcom also provide wide range of plans which is affordable and flexible for the customer to choose. Customers can choose what plan they want according to their usage and financial needs. Celcom mobile broadband has brought many benefits for those customers who seldom stay at home and indoor. They can easily access to the internet at outdoor without using cable since they are portable. The features above have explained well the meaning of "youll have nothing but peace of mind from the moment you sign up."

Targeting Celcom Company chooses to use the differentiated marketing strategy from the four targeting strategies. Based on the demographic variable, Celcom Company more focuses on age group that between ages of 12 to 25. They are very consumptive and willing to spend for their social life. They are also technology savvy and change their mobile phone according to the trend. Moreover, the teenagers nowadays usually use Internet and text messaging service to communicate with each others. Therefore, Celcom Company has offering Xpax package that provides awesome features such as download games and application and low SMS and calling rate to the teenager in order to fulfill their needs and wants. Secondly, is the psychographic variable. Celcom Company targets those users who have active social lifestyles and they need to communicate regularly with their colleagues, friends and family. Therefore, Celcom Company has offering Celcom Blue prepaid services which promise the customer low rates to all network and additional features, such as free airtime, birthday bonuses , and advance credit provider to satisfy those customer within this segment. The third segmentation adapt by Celcom is the behavioral segmentation. Celcom has targeted their customer based on their usage rate in the broadband services they provided. Celcom has provided several plans for their customer to choose based on their usage which is lite, basic and advances. If the customer is a heavy user of internet, they can consider to choose the advance plan which have the bigger Gigabits volume quota to fulfill their needs. Besides, Celcom also provide plan such as prepaid broadband services, daily or weekly payment services and so on to fits different usage rate customer needs and wants.

Product Product is anything that can be offered to a market for attention, acquisition, use or consumption and that might satisfy a want or need. The product classification can be divide into three categories which are consumer product, industrial product and other market offering. Celcom broadband is categorized under the unsought goods. Celcom broadband is a new innovation and does not often thought about by the consumer. Therefore, Celcom need to do a lot of marketing and advertising in order to attract more customers to buy their product and introduce their broadband to the market. Celcom put effort in the individual product and services decisions which is the product attributes, branding, packaging, labeling and product support services. First, is the product attributes. Celcom has maintained their broadband quality by provide features such as widest coverage in Malaysia and also fastest speed in surfing internet to their customer. Celcom has launched several packages to customers which are Celcom Broadband Lite, Celcom Broadband Basic and Celcom Broadband Advance. Besides, Celcom recently also introduced their limited edition USB modem which is the Fortune Mask to their customer. Customer can choose their own modem design according to their zodiac sign. Next, is the branding. Celcom has registered their brand name and also the broadband logo. The purpose of doing this is to prevent others from imitating their products and also provide protection for unique product features. Besides, they can also prevent their customer from buying imitate and faulty product. The quality of the products can be maintained so the customers can have the same features and quality each time they buy the product. Moreover, Celcom also put effort in designing their broadbands packaging. They have design their broadband in small size, portable and light so that the customer can easily bring the broadband to anywhere they go. Furthermore, the cover of the Celcom broadband are also environmental friendly and recyclable. While, in the labeling part, Celcom broadbands cover has clearly stated about the broadband serial number, manufacture place, logo and also others information that related to the broadband on the cover of the broadband. This makes the customer have the peace of mind to use their product safely.

In the product support services part, Celcom broadband has provided some extra services to delight their customer. Examples, Celcom broadband provide services such as Celcoms Money-back Guarantee to their customer. Customer may take back their money within 7 days after they have subscribed the broadband due to dissatisfaction toward their services or poor coverage in their living area.

Pricing Celcom is in the oligopolistic competition market. This is because there are only a few companies involved in the mobile telecommunication industry which is Maxis, Digi and Umobile. Due to there is an intense competition among the companies, customers are sensitive to the companys product price. Customer tends to purchase product from company which offer lower price since all the company within the mobile telecommunication industry offering the same product function. The pricing strategy used by Celcom broadband is the market penetration strategies. Broadband with low price and good quality are offered by Celcom to the market. Few years ago, Celcom launched its new Broadband packages that start from as low as RM48 per month, as compared with RM68 per month previously. During the promotional period, all new signups for Celcom Broadband packages will be offered a RM10 discount, bringing the price even lower to RM38, for the first three months. The Entry Package also comes with free USB modem, offering volume of 1GB at 384Kbps. By using this strategy, Celcom can attract a large number of buyers quickly and win a large market share. While in the pricing mix strategy, Celcom has adapted product line pricing strategies. Celcom set their different broadband packages in different price. For example, Celcom Broadband Lite package is RM48 per month, Celcom Broadband Basic package is RM 68 month and the Celcom Broadband Advance is RM98 per month. Each broadband packages also pack with different features and suitable for different categories of customer. Examples, Celcom Broadband Lite suitable for those light users. While, Celcom Broadband Basic suitable for normal usage user and the Celcom Broadband Advance is suitable for those heavy users.
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Moreover, Celcom also apply the promotional pricing strategies in their business. In order to increase their short run sales, Celcom will temporarily reduce their product price for a certain period. For example, Celcom recently has reduced their broadband volume purchase price. In the past, customer need to pay RM50 in order to purchase 5GB of volume quota but now they only have to pay RM38.88 to purchase it.

Promotion Mix The promotion mix is a specific combination of promotional methods, used to bring about exchanges by informing, educating, persuading and reminding the targeted market with a companys products and services. The promotion mix is using several different types of communication to support marketing goals which include advertising, personal selling, publicity, public relations, direct mail, sponsorship and sales promotions. Celcom promotes their business through promotional mix which is advertising, Internet marketing, sales promotion and public relation, in order to generate more profits. First, Celcom used advertising method. Advertising can be defined as placing your message in any form of paid media, such as newspapers, magazines and journals, television, cinema, radio, outdoor advertising such as poster. In the advertisement, Celcom is trying to tell the readers about their specialty, their unique and superior value, the information and show their differences with other telecommunication company and also convinces the customers to choose their products at the same time in the local newspaper such as China Press newspaper, Star newspaper and Berita Harian newspaper. Another example is in Golden Screen Cinema, everytime before a movie starts, the advertisement of Celcom will be played and let the audiences know about the class of that particular movie. Besides, Celcom has invited Taiwan artist, Lee Hom to become their spokesperson in order to promote the product and also capture the customers attraction especially teenagers. Next, second tool used by Celcom to promote Celcom Broadband is Internet marketing, which also called as I-marketing, web-marketing and online-marketing. Internet marketing promotes the products or services over the internet. Celcom used the power of internet wisely because they can promote, inform, get attention, and persuade the internet
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users to use their broadband in a cheaper and efficient way, as the expensive printed cost can be eliminated. Moreover, Celcom has their own group or page in some popular social networking site like Facebook, Twitter and Friendster. In addition, Celcom had joined Nuffnang, which is a blog advertising community. Through Nuffnang, Celcom can do their advertisements on the famous bloggers blogs with a single picture or a slogan. When the internet users are surfing their favourite blogs, they will see the advertisement that made by Celcom and it can links them from the blog to Celcoms official website for further informations by just clicking it. This is the easiest and efficient way for Celcom to promote their Celcom Broadband because most of the people nowadays really rely on Internet and they can updates the latest promotion or information by their finger. Moreover, Celcom also used the public relations as one of their advertising strategies. In order to build good relationship, obtaining favorable publicity and build a good corporate image, Celcom has sponsor for special event such as GoMobile 2010, Euro 2008 and also the Blue Ribbon Campaign (BRC) which is a campaign that educate the public about the childhood cancer. Through the sponsorship done by Celcom, Customer will found out that Celcom is a company that trustworthy and they will consider to purchase products and services from Celcom when they need it. Besides, Celcom broadband also use public relation to announcement regarding management, speculation, and current issue. The last strategy used to promote Celcom Broadband is sales promotion. Celcom takes on consumer-oriented which targeted to the ultimate users of a product or service through rebates, contests, and discounts. For example, Celcom Broadband has come out with a great discount which customer can choose their limited edition Fortune Mask USB Modem. Customer also can sign up Celcom Broadband with 12 months contract to enjoy discount with any of the devices such as Mini Router, HP G42 Notebook, or HP Mini 110 Netbook. Those promotions make the customer feel worthy enough to sign up Celcom Broadband and they will take the initiative to sign up the Celcom broadband packages.

Marketing Channel and Retailing Strategies. The marketing channel used by Celcom broadband is the indirect channel. From the indirect channel, Celcom has chosen retailer channel as their marketing channel. Celcom distributes their broadband through the intermediate which is the retailer. The reason for Celcom using the retailer channels is because the retailer can help them to promote their products face-to face with the customers. Celcoms retailer sells the product and services directly to the customer for personal or business use. The product line of Celcom broadband is classified under specialty store. Celcom broadband is considered as the narrow product lines with deep assortment. Celcom has set up their specialty stores, Blue Cube, which is the mobile telecommunication retailer outlet for Celcom products and solutions in Malaysia. Celcom has arranged trained and experience sales person in their Blue Cube stores to provide professional services to satisfy the customer. Moreover, in the Celcom Blue Cube store, they have provided full services that related to the Celcom products to the customers. Customers can go to any retailer store or dealer if they had faced any problem in using their product. Moreover, Celcom Blue Cube also provides services such as postpaid bill payment, broadband registration, mobile phone repairing and more to the customers. Besides, locations of the store also play an important role in promoting the Celcom broadband. Celcom usually set up their retailer center at those crowded places such as shopping complex, roads, streets and so on. As a result, they can attract more customers to purchase their product. Customers also can find their store easily no matter where the customer is and more convenience for them if they have any inquiry toward the Celcom products and services. Meanwhile, Celcom also promoting their broadband by set up temporarily store during the PC fair such as Pikom PC fair. By set up store in the PC fair, Celcom can attract more people to purchase their broadband and increase the short run sales. They usually will do a lot of promotion and lower down the broadband price in order to attract more customers to purchase it.

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Critiques of the Strategies and Recommendations After studying and analyzing Celcom Company, we found that there are some weaknesses and obstacles that they faced and these weaknesses and obstacles will really do affect their business performance. Therefore, in order to increase the sales of the company, Celcom should improve their weaknesses. Below are some suggestions and

recommendations that might help Celcom to improve their sales. First, in the product and services part, the weakness should improve is the network coverage of Celcom broadband especially in rural areas which only have 2G connection service. In outskirt of town, the network coverage is poor, and the speed is limited. Sometimes, due to the geographical reasons, the users cannot access the Internet when they need it. Celcom need to improve the internet connection in the rural area. We believe that users will more believe and have confidence with them once they improve their features and function of the Celcom broadband. Moreover, Celcom should improve their broadband network system. Celcom should improve their speed and upgrade their 3G services to 4G services since the 4G service is now launching in Malaysia. The 4G service is much faster and smoother for the users to surf Internet so Celcom should have this 4G service to improve their services in order to attract more customers and compete with other competitors. In the pricing part, Celcom should offer more promotions to the customer. They can come out with different plans and package in low price to fulfill the users needs, regardless which class, which age and which group of people. For example, the cheapest package that Celcom offer is RM48 per month. However, this broadband only provides the limited speed which is 384 kbps only. Therefore, Celcom should come out broadband packages with low price but pack with the fastest speed to the customers in order to bring the greatest satisfaction to the customers. In other hand, Celcom should set up more specialty store which is Blue Cube retailer store in the location that always have many people such as shopping complex. These outlets played important roles because if these outlets are located in everywhere, it is much more convenient for the customers to pay the bills, to register, to repair, and also customer services.
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By increasing the number of outlets, people in that particular place can get the latest information, can consult the promoters for customer services, and also pay their bills without going here and there just for searching the limited outlets. Last, is the promotion part. Celcom need to emphasize more in advertising. Most of the people do not know what newest and latest plans and promotions that Celcom is offering now because of lack of advertising. The rivals of Celcom like Maxis and Digi, always emphasizes in their advertising efforts as their roadway shows can always be seen easily in different shopping complex, different crowded places, across different states. Compare to Maxis and Digi, Celcom is more inactive and passive in this aspect. Therefore, Celcom should improve in the advertising part through organizing more roadway shows, and actively involved in the PC fair in order to gain more market share.

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