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Brand Audit: Nepal Telecom

Submitted to,
Asst. Prof. Rupesh Krishna Shrestha

Submitted by,
Amit Pathak
Navin Koirala

Date: June 22nd, 2015

Brand Audit: Nepal Telecom

Acknowledgement
We would like to express our gratitude to Mr. Surya Bhakta Pokhrel, Deputy Managing Director
and Company Secretary, of Nepal Telecom. We would also like to express our sincere thanks to
Mr. Bhuwan Thakurathi, Prakash Bhatta, Chadani Shahi, Nirab Rimal for excepting our request
to interview them.
Finally, we would also like to thank Asst. Prof. Rupesh Krishna Shrestha for this wonderful
opportunity to making such a structured Brand Audit Report which will always remain our asset
for rest of our life.

Thank you,
Amit Pathak
Navin Koirala

Brand Audit: Nepal Telecom

Executive Summary
Nepal Telcom, as a brand is highly recognizable in Nepalese Market. Nepal Telecom is the
oldest service provider in the country and know it is also known as Nepal Doorsanchar Compay.
Nepal Telecom covers highest distribution in Nepal as it has offices and customer service in all
75 districts. It was a time when Nepal Telecom used to have a monopoly market till 2003. After
NCELL enter into into the market, and as sooner NCELL created a brand in lesser time, it was
easy for NCELL to grab the market share from Nepal Telecom. Within this brand audit, a
complete inventory and exploratory of Nepal Telecom has been conducted and also included are
expectations of future potential for growth, budget reality, and recommendations. The brand
inventory provides a current and comprehensive profile of how all the products sold by Nepal
Telecom are marketed and branded.

More specifically, the brand inventory serves as an

assessment of the health of the brand and its sources of brand equity from the companys
perspective. The brand exploratory recognizes what Nepal Telecoms consumers think and feel
about the brand and how to use this information to better understand the sources of brand equity
as well as any possible barriers
As a company that currently operates in over 75 districts , Segementation is essential to Nepal
Telecoms growth and success. Nepal Telecom is lacking have a better understanding of its
consumers. Moreover, Pepsi has not worked to create a strong, unique, and reputable brand
image as NCELL did. Because Nepal Telecom is a challenger brand in the Telecommunication
industry, the company must make more diligent efforts to ensure consumers experiences with
the product at least meet, if not actually surpass their expectations
Given the analysis of the brand audit, Nepal Telecom will likely continue to experience
continued success and growth; however, the brand will continue to be a challenger brand to
NCELL. Recommendations to achieve and maintain success include expanding the brands
portfolio and consumer knowledge of new products, utilization of non-celebrity endorsers to
promote the products, creation of a memorable jingle, and increased participation in close-knit
community events.

Brand Audit: Nepal Telecom

Contents
1. Company Profile ......................................................................................................................... 6
1.1 Introduction ........................................................................................................................... 6
1.2 History of Nepal Telecom ..................................................................................................... 6
1.3 Ownership of Nepal Telecom ............................................................................................... 7
1.4 Service Provided ................................................................................................................... 7
1.5 Mission .................................................................................................................................. 8
1.6 Vision .................................................................................................................................... 9
1.7 Goal ....................................................................................................................................... 9
2. Assessment of Current Brand status ........................................................................................... 9
2.1 Customer Based Brand Equity Pyramid: .............................................................................. 9
2.1.1 Brand Salience .............................................................................................................. 10
2.1.2 Brand Performance ....................................................................................................... 10
2.1.3 Brand Imagery .............................................................................................................. 11
2.1.4 Brand Judgment ............................................................................................................ 12
2.1.5 Brand Feelings: ............................................................................................................. 12
2.1.6 Brand Resonance: ......................................................................................................... 13
2.2 Brand Hierarchy .................................................................................................................. 13
2.3 Aakers Brand Personality Scale to Audit brand .................................................................. 14
2.3.1 Findings: ....................................................................................................................... 15
2.3.2 Analysis ........................................................................................................................ 15
2.4 Brand Positioning ................................................................................................................ 15
2.5 Brand Mantra....................................................................................................................... 16
3. Analysis of various branding Element ...................................................................................... 17
3.1 Brand Elements ................................................................................................................... 17
3.1.1 Brand Name .................................................................................................................. 17
3.1.2 URLs ............................................................................................................................. 18
3.1.3 Logo and Symbol.......................................................................................................... 18
3.1.4 Slogans.......................................................................................................................... 19
3.1.5 Package/Design ............................................................................................................ 20
3.2 Brand Association ............................................................................................................... 21
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Brand Audit: Nepal Telecom

Brand associations are formed on the following basis: ......................................................... 22

3.3 Marketing Mix: ................................................................................................................... 23
3.3.1 Product & Service:........................................................................................................ 23
3.3.2 Price: ............................................................................................................................. 24
3.3.3 Place: ............................................................................................................................ 25
3.3.4 Promotion: .................................................................................................................... 26
3.4. POP and POD ..................................................................................................................... 27
4. Recommendation ...................................................................................................................... 27
5. Bibliography ............................................................................................................................. 30
6. Annex 1 ..................................................................................................................................... 31
Questionnaire ............................................................................................................................ 31

Brand Audit: Nepal Telecom

1. Company Profile
1.1 Introduction
Nepal Telecom also known as Nepal Doorsanchar Company Ltd. is the oldest
telecommunication service provider in the country. With over 90% being government ownership,
it has its office in 184 locations and in all 75 districts. Nepal Telecom had its monopoly in
telecommunication industry until 2003 when United Telecom Limited ( UTL) came into play.

Nepal Telecom is the only landline service provider in Nepal. Similarly, it was the only GSM
service provider until 2005 when Ncell the then Mero Mobile entered the market. With more
than 7000 employees it is one of the largest corporations in the country. According to recent
data, there are about 10 million users of Nepal Telecom including all those of fixed landline,
GSM mobile, CDMA and internet service.

After

Ncell

entered

the

market

following

purchased

by

Teliasonera-

European

Telecommunication Company, Nepal Telecom is getting a tough competition in GSM and

internet service. Therefore, the market for NTC is more competitive than it used to be few years
back.

1.2 History of Nepal Telecom

Informally, the telecommunication operation in Nepal date back to B.S. 1970 but formally
telecommunication service was provided after the establishment of MOHAN AKASHWANI IN
2005 B.S. The telecommunication department was establishment in 2016 BS.

The Communication Corporation Act was brought in 2028 and after this act the present Nepal
Telecom was converted into fully owned Government Corporation called Nepal Telecom
Corporation in 2032 B.S.

After this change, Nepal Telecommunication Corporation was

remolded into Nepal Doorsanchar Company Limited, a company registered under company Act
2053. from Baishakh 1, 2061 B.S. After serving the nation for 29 years with great pride and a
sense of accomplishment, Nepal Telecommunication Corporation was transformed into Nepal
Doorsanchar Company Limited from Baisakh 1, 2061. Nepal Doorsanchar Company Limited is a

Brand Audit: Nepal Telecom

company registered under the companies Act 2053. However the company is known to the
general public by the brand name Nepal Telecom as registered trademark.

1.3 Ownership of Nepal Telecom

As stated above, Nepal Telecom is a company established under company act 2053 and listed in
Nepal Stock Exchange. Hence, there are many other owner than the government itself.
Party

Ownership Percentage

Government

91.05

Employees

4.5

Public

3.97

Citizen Investment Trust

0.48

1.4 Service Provided

There is various service provided by Nepal Telecom and its services are as follows:

PSTN Service

Mobile

Local calls

Postpaid

National Trunk Calls

Prepaid

International Trunk Calls

Roaming (Incoming & Outgoing)

International Telegram

SMS

Domestic Telex

3G Service

International Telex

VAS Services

Leased Lines

Operator -Assisted Int'l Telephone

Packet Switching Data Communication

ISDN (Integrated services Digital

Brand Audit: Nepal Telecom

Network)

Pay Phone

Intelligent Network Services

PCC Easy Call Service

HCD Service

AFS Advanced Free phone Service

Universal Access Number service

PSTN credit Limit service

Internet and E-mail.

CDMA

Dial -up Internet /Email Access

Fixed Postpaid.

PSTN Dial-up

Fixed Prepaid.

Fixed hour package

SKY phone.

Night Surfing Package

Data Services.

Fixed hour / month package

Unlimited Single User Package

PSTN Bills in the Internet

Post-Paid Mobile Bills

Telephone Inquiry

ISDN dialup

Leased Line Connectivity (n*64kbps)

Web SMS

E-mail Alert

1.5 Mission
"Nepal Telecom as a progressive, customer spirited and consumer responsive Entity is
committed to provide nation-wide reliable telecommunication service to serve as an impetus to
the social, political and economic development of the Country"

Brand Audit: Nepal Telecom

1.6 Vision
"Vision of Nepal Telecom is to remain a dominant player in telecommunication sector in the
Country while also extending reliable and cost effective services to all"

1.7 Goal
"Goal of Nepal Telecom is to provide cost effective telecommunication services to every nook
and corner of country"

2. Assessment of Current Brand status

2.1 Customer Based Brand Equity Pyramid:
The CBBE model looks at building a brand as a sequence of steps, each of which is contingent
on successfully achieving the objective of previous one. The basic premise of the CBBE model
is that the power of a brand resides in the minds of its customers. The CBBE model acts as a
branding ladder, or building blocks to guide a firms marketing programs.

Brand Audit: Nepal Telecom

2.1.1 Brand Salience

Achieving the right brand identity means creating brand salience with customers. Brand salience
measures awareness of the brand.
In our survey, 100% of the respondentss were aware of the brand Nepal Telecom. However, a
major confusion remains in name of Nepal Telecom. Even though 100% of the respondents were
aware of Nepal Telecom but when asked with the name of well known telecom only 60% could
correctly write the name Nepal Telecom. People are confused among Nepal Dorsanchar
Sansthan, NTC, and Telecom.
Similarly, 88.4% of the respondents view or recall Nepal Telecom as the top telecommunication
company in Nepal. This means that the brand recall of Nepal Telecom is high. This also signifies
the depth of brand awareness in the mind of consumer regarding Nepal Telecom.
We believe the high awareness level of Nepal Telecom is because of the institution being very
old and has been working in providing landline in the country since long or because of its
monopoly till 2005.

2.1.2 Brand Performance

Brand performance describes how well the product or service meets customers' more functional
needs. How well does the brand rate on objective assessment of quality? Brand performance
transcends the product's ingredients and feature to include dimensions that differentiate the
brand. Five important types of attributes and benefits often underlie brand performance, as
follows:

1. Primary ingredients and supplementary feature:

In an interview with five respondentss, four respondents believe that the ingredients like
optical fiber, Sim card are of high quality. However, all of the five respondents
commented on the service quality of Nepal Telecom in term of its responsiveness to
maintenance and front desk service.

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Brand Audit: Nepal Telecom

2. Product reliability, durability, and serviceability:

Out of 40 respondents, 63% said the reliability of the brand to be very poor. But 57% of
the respondents associated Nepal Telecom with high durability.

3. Service effectiveness, efficiency, and empathy

The response of respondents in service effectiveness, efficiency, and empathy was
disastrous for Nepal Telecom as a brand. 70% of the respondents take Nepal Telecom as
having very low on service effectiveness. Similarly, 67 % and 63% of the respondents
believe the efficiency and empathy to be very low. This data suggest that a major change
in service, efficiency, and empathy is required to boost the brand performance of Nepal
Telecom.

4. Style and Design

Nepal Telecom has an average score of 51% and 56% responding Nepal Telecom to have
high on Style and Design respectively.

5. Price
Price is the point where Nepal Telecom has comparatively better scores. 59% of the
individual responded for price of Nepal Telecom to be low. However, still 27% of the
responded that the price of Nepal Telecom is very high and only 14% believes the price
to be neutral.

2.1.3 Brand Imagery

Brand imagery depends on the extrinsic properties of the product or service, including the ways
in which the brand attempts to meet customers' psychological or social needs. It is the way
people think about a brand abstractly, rather than what they think the brand actually does.
The most frequent image that came in respondents mind when they think about Nepal Telecom is
Government ownership, oldest Network, caring, wide range of services.

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Brand Audit: Nepal Telecom

2.1.4 Brand Judgment

Brand judgment is customers' personal opinions about and evaluations of the brand, which
consumers form by putting together all the different brand performance and imagery
associations. Customers may make all types of judgments with respect to a brand, but four type
are particularly important: Judgment about quality, credibility, and superiority.

Brand Quality: 53% of respondents believes Nepal Telecom brand to be of low quality.

Brand Credibility: 63% of the respondents believe the brand Nepal Telecom to be high
reliability.

Brand Superiority: In interview with five respondents, the brand Nepal Telecom is not
superior to Ncell.

2.1.5 Brand Feelings:

Brand Feeling are customer's emotional responses and reactions to the brand. What feelings are
evoked by the marketing program for the brand or by other means?
Warmth: 64% of the respondents have feeling for brand warmth. This means consumer feel
sentimental, warmhearted, or affectionate about the brand.
Fun: There is no clear majority of people having a feel of fun for brand Nepal Telecom. This
means people are neutral on lighthearted, joyous, playful, cheerful and so on.

Excitement: 56% of the people are neutral about excitement. This means people have
neutral feeling about the brand arousing excitement like " being alive", " being cool"
among others.

Security: 67% of the respondents have higher feelings for security. This means people
feel secured with the brand Nepal Telecom. It can also be because of fact that
communication gives a sense of security to all.

Social Approval: 59% of the respondents have neutral feeling about brand Nepal
Telecom. People are indifferent about social approval with Nepal Telecom.

Self Respect: There is no clear majority on self respect dimension of Nepal Telecom
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Brand Audit: Nepal Telecom

2.1.6 Brand Resonance:

Brand resonance describes the nature of this relationship and the extent to which customer feel
that they are in syc" with the brand.
Behavior Loyalty: 72% of the individual who uses Nepal Telecom also wants to buy Nepal
Telecom Sim it they were to buy another.
Attachment: Respondents were found to have high attachment and involvement with the brand.
Community: The brand also make individual feel about belonging to a community.
Active Engagement: Respondents were found to have low engagement about the band as people
are not interested in learning or talking more about the brand and others.

2.2 Brand Hierarchy

Nepal Telecom does not have different product lines but few brand associated with it. Its main
aim is to make all service accessible to all rather than making some services to be premium. In
terms of phone, Nepal Telecom is the only service provider of Landline in Nepal, so we can also
call it a brand. It has two hierarchies within landline, first is PSTN which mean Public Switch
Telephone Network whereas other one is CDMA. Skyphone is one brand introduced by Nepal
Telecom. It is a CDMA handset phone. Though it is not a strong brand, it can be called as
generic brand. In terms of WiFi, there are two brands; one is ADSL broadband service and
another is WiMax broadband Internet.

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Brand Audit: Nepal Telecom

2.3 Aakers Brand Personality Scale to Audit brand

Brand personality is defined formally as the set of human characteristics associated with a
brand". In this regard, Prof. J.L Aaker has proposed five dimensional brand personality measure
with a scale. Her reliable, valid and generalizable scales measure the following dimensions:

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Brand Audit: Nepal Telecom

2.3.1 Findings:

Figure: Result on Aekers Five Personality Dimension

2.3.2 Analysis
Nepal Telecom scores high in Sincerity and Competence dimension of Aekers five personality
dimension. This means that people value Nepal Telecom high on Domestic, honest, genuine.
Similarly, they also value Nepal Telecom high on reliability, efficient, dependable.
However, the low score is on sophistication which means that people have low value for Nepal
Telecom in Glamorous, charismatic, romantic.

2.4 Brand Positioning

Positioning is the way by which the marketers attempt to create a distinct impression in the
customer's mind; specifically, "the place a product, brand, or group of products occupies in
consumers' minds relative to competing offerings. This is to say that positioning is done keeping
in mind where the company want the customer to see the brand.

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Brand Audit: Nepal Telecom

Nepal Telecom does not have a clear positioning statement. But through interview and various
published source we found that they have positioned the brand Nepal Telecom as Quality
Service at affordable price. This positioning statement can be broken down in two elements:
Quality Service
Affordable Price

Furthermore, Quality Service can be further analyzed by dividing into Quality Network, Quality
office service. Affordable price dimension of brand positioning resonates with the brand
however Quality Service dimension of brand positioning does not resonates as it has poor
Network Quality and poor office service.

One of the main elements of Telecommunication industry is technical superiority or being

updated with the latest innovation in technology. The positioning statement does not talk about
the technological part.
In a survey of 40 participants, 55% of the participant says that the quality of service is very poor,
followed by 27% saying the Quality is Neutral and only 18% saying that Quality of Service is
excellent. Similarly, regarding affordable price 70% of the survey participant agree that the price
is affordable. However, 23% said the service price is neutral and 7% participants said the service
is expensive.

2.5 Brand Mantra

A brand Mantra is an articulation of the " heart and soul" of the brand, a short three-to- five word
phrase that captures the essence or spirit of the brand positioning. It is similar to " brand essence"
or "core brand promise", and its purpose is to ensure that all employees and external marketing
partners understand what the brand most fundamentally is to represent to consumer. Brand
mantra are very powerful as it provide guidance about what products to introduce, what ad
campaigns to run, and where and how the brand should be sold.

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Brand Audit: Nepal Telecom

Nepal Telecom as such does not have a Brand Mantra. Marketing Department is growing just
now and they have not worked on brand Mantra till now. If we were to construct its brand
mantra than it would be Enjoy Nationwide connection at low price".
Nepal Telecom

Emotional Modifier

Descriptive Modifier

Brand Function

Enjoy

Nationwide, Low price

Connection

The main brand function is the connection from various sources. And the descriptive modifier
explains the connection to be nationwide and at low price. Hence, Descriptive modifier is
describing the brand function. And at the end "Enjoy" as Emotional modifier. This emotional
modifier explains that people can enjoy their network and people can only enjoy the network if it
is good. Hence, the word Enjoy has good quality network meaning embedded in it.
Similarly, in the above Brand Mantra various competitive advantages like low price and
nationwide connection has been included.

3. Analysis of various branding Element

3.1 Brand Elements

3.1.1 Brand Name

A brand name is a fundamentally important choice because it often captures the central theme or
key association of a product in a very compact and economical fashion. A brand name is very
crucial for a company in its advertisement and communication as they need to notice the brand
name, register its meaning or activate it in memory in just a few seconds.
The Brand Name " Nepal Telecom" is composed of two words Nepal and Telecom. This brand
name means telecommunication firm of Nepal. This brand name falls in Descriptive category of
Landor's brand name taxonomy as it describes the function of the brand literally. We found that
100% brand awareness exist in brand name.

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Brand Audit: Nepal Telecom

3.1.2 URLs
URLs (Uniform Resource Locators) specify location of pages on the web and are also commonly
referred to as domain names. The URLs of Nepal Telecom is www.ntc.net.np. The URLs name
and the brand name does not match. The URL is ntc.net.np which conveys the name Nepal
Telecommunication Corporation which does not match with the brand name. Hence, it is
absolutely necessary to change the URLs matching the brand name.
The second point is the word "net" which does not have any meaning to the general customer.
Similarly, the website is very lengthy and is difficult to remember as well because of the
difference between brand name and the URL and also because of the fact that the URLs is
lengthy consisting of ntc.net.

3.1.3 Logo and Symbol

Figure: Logo of Nepal Telecom

The logo of Nepal Telecom has been consistent.
Design element of Logo
There are three primary image in the logo of Nepal Telecom:

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Brand Audit: Nepal Telecom

The Logo of Nepal Telecom has two hemispherical figure with one hemisphere having a
tail.

A Namaste gesture inside of two hemispherical shape.

And the tip of Namaste has two arch and one oval full stop in decreasing order of size.

Meaning of Nepal Telecom logo

The Namaste gesture inside the two hemispherical figure signifies " a greetings to
welcome guest And two arch and one oval shaped full stop in decreasing order of size at
the tip of Namaste logo signifies that the " greeting and respect to customer is much more
and will continues".

Color and its Meaning

The background color of Nepal Telecom logo is blue. This color is one of trust, honesty and
loyalty. It is sincere, reserved and quiet, and doesn't like to make a fuss or draw attention. It hates
confrontation, and likes to do things in its own way. This color resonates the silent and non
aggressive nature of Nepal Telecom.
The Namaste gesture is gold in color. The color gold is the color of success, achievement and
triumph. Associated with abundance and prosperity, luxury and quality, prestige and
sophistication, value and elegance, the psychology of this color implies affluence, material
wealth and extravagance.

The use of golden color resonates with quality, sophistication,

prestige, and value aspect of Nepal Telecom as Nepal Telecom position itself as a quality
communication network with sophisticated technology with a prestige of smartest choice at
cheapest price for the service.

3.1.4 Slogans
Slogans are short phrases that communicate descriptive or persuasive information about the
brand. They often appear in advertisement but can play an important role on packaging and on
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Brand Audit: Nepal Telecom

other aspects of marketing program. Slogans are powerful branding devices because, like brand
names, they are an extremely efficient, shorthand means to build brand equity.
Nepal Telecom has not changed its Slogan over time. Nepal Telecom's slogans are as follows:

Nation's Communication Media ( Rastra ko Sanchar)

Dedicated to customer Service

Meaning of these two slogan can be operationalized as follows:

Nation's ownership

People's firm

High Penetration across the country

Quality Network

3.1.5 Package/Design
Packaging is the activities of designing and producing containers or wrappers for a product. One
of the strongest associations consumers have with a brand is inspired by the look of its
packaging. Hence, a marketer must choose the aesthetic and functional component of packaging
correctly to achieve marketing objectives and meet consumers' need.
In telecommunication sector especially sim cards, the packaging has been same throughout the
industry except color combination and design. The Sim card is packaged in envelop with
companies corporate color and logo in the cover inside of which few manuals and sim card
holder looking more like an ATM card. The inside cover of the envelop is pure white which out
any text or design. The packaging of Nepal Telecom Sim card assists in following functions:

To identify the brand

To convey persuasive and descriptive information

To facilitate the Sim transportation and protection

When one buys the Sim card of Nepal Telecom, it is not only buying the Sim but also the
facilities that comes in package like customer service, periodic information, Sim change among
others.
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Brand Audit: Nepal Telecom

3.2 Brand Association

Brand association is anything which is deep seated in customers mind about the brand. Brand
associations are the attributes of brand which come into consumers mind when the brand is
talked about. It is related with the implicit and explicit meanings which a consumer associates
with a specific brand name. Brand association can also be defined as the degree to which a
specific service is recognized within its service class category.
Memorability:
A necessary condition for building brand equity is achieving a high level of brand awareness.
Nepel Telecom has A highly recognizable brand name across the country and is inherently
memorable and attention-getting which helps in increasing the customer value. The brand has
successfully positioned itself in the marketplace so that the Nepal Telecom brand name can be
easily recalled by consumers.
Meaningfulness:

The color blue can be described as exciting, youthful, and bold while the color blue is associated
with dependability, trust, and strength. Another color is one of trust, honesty and loyalty. It is
sincere, reserved and quiet, and doesn't like to make a fuss or draw attention.
The color gold is the color of success, achievement and triumph. Associated with abundance and
prosperity, luxury and quality, prestige and sophistication, value and elegance, the psychology of
this color implies affluence, material wealth and extravagance.
Likeability:
Nepal Telecom packing is very ordinary as other telecom companys packing. the packaging has
been same throughout the industry except color combination and design. The Sim card is
packaged in envelop with companies corporate color and logo in the cover.
Transferability:
Because Nepal Telecom is a Nepalese brand, its brand elements must be able to transfer through
the culture. Nepal Telecoms iconic symbol and logo as well its slogan are easily transferable

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Brand Audit: Nepal Telecom

within various product categories. All three elements work together synonymously to
successfully introduce the Nepal Telecom brand into new markets segments.
Adaptability
Over the years, the Nepal Telecom logo has adapted its image as well as its logo to aid in product
and service. To remain contemporary and relevant to consumers, Nepal Telecom has maintained
as evident in its same logo forms.
Protectability
Nepal Telecom brand is legally and highly protected from any unauthorized use. Its logo,
symbol, and brand name cannot be infringed by another company cannot utilize and copy either
the logo or the symbol. According to Nepal Telecoms website, all content on its site including
design, graphics, logos, icons, images, audio clips, and downloads is the exclusive property of
and owned by Nepal Telecom, its licensors or its content providers and is protected by copyright,
trademark and other applicable laws

Brand associations are formed on the following basis:

Customers contact with the organization and its employees

Advertisements

Word of mouth publicity

Price at which the brand is sold

Celebrity/big entity association

Quality of the product

Products and schemes offered by competitors

Product class/category to which the brand belongs

POP ( Point of purchase) displays

Nepal Telecom wants the following brand association with the brand:

Quality Service
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Brand Audit: Nepal Telecom

Cheapest Price

Quality Network

Modern Technology

National Telecom

Broad range of services

The respondentss were asked to," To remember what comes in their mind when they remember
Nepal Telecom? Their response was recorded and the following mental map was created:

Disturbed
Network

Corruption

Namaste
logo

Old Telecom
firm

Affordable
Price

Nepal
Telecom
Caring
old
fashioned

Poor service

Government
institution

wide range
of services

Figure: Brand Association of Nepal Telecom

Therefore, there is a gap between the brand association Nepal Telecom wants to create and brand
association the customer has in their mind.

3.3 Marketing Mix:

3.3.1 Product & Service:

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Brand Audit: Nepal Telecom

Product is something goods and service offered to the customer. Product decision includes
variety, features, brand name, quality, design, packaging and so on. Nepal telecom provides
customer with the different product or services which are mentioned below:

Telephone service (PSTN) all over the nation.

Broadband service with fastest internet,

SIM card with excellent GSM & CDMA network.

Cable for TV program with channel from all over the world.

Telephone service with domestic, STD and ISD calls.

Broadband service for the bank to run the ATM machine.

Caller id, voice mail, CRBT, mobile internet service, national and international
roaming in mobile (GSM) network

Third generation (3G) mobile service in capital city

Nepal telecom has its own GSM network with brand name 'NAMESTE'. More over by the help
of telephone lines internet and TV program can be used with special package. Recently Nepal
has launched third generation (3G) mobile service in capital city which can prove that Nepal
being poor country has the challenging telecommunication company.

3.3.2 Price:
The price must be right so that consumer will need to buy in large numbers to produce a healthy
profit.

Nepal telecom provides different services to their customer with comparatively in

cheaper price than other competitors like NCELL. NT provides a NAMESTE mobile simcard for
NRS 200(incl VAT) which includes NRS 100 talk Time with validity of 6 month. Customers can
make a call for 0.75 paisa per minutes in same network in case of pre-paid mobile. In case of
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Brand Audit: Nepal Telecom

post-paid mobile NT offers NRS 380 credit limit. SMS within Nepal is Re.1 for the same
network. Thus NT provides the cheapest call in both mobile and land line than it competitor.
However NT can provide cheaper price to the customer to gain the market share and it will not
influence too much on their profit. Not only in mobile, they provided the cheapest broad band
internet than other like UTL and NCELL. The rate for calls differs as per the time (off hour and
peak hour). The charge for landline is NRS 1 for per 2 minutes call. There are lots of other
charges as per the services.

3.3.3 Place:
The place mix for Nepal telecom has largely influenced to the customer. The main place to get
the services is at the different branch of NT. NT has provided Customer Service office at vaiour
place of the cities. Customer has to submit the form with required document in advance for the
services. NT has branches all over the nation with each and every facility. Now to reach the
customer easily they have started to provide the sim card to the business dealer in each and every
market area. And the customer can top up their mobile balance easily from the shop, registered
agent, local PCO. However due to the poor infrastructure NT is not able to provide the internet
service and good mobile service in the hilly and mountain area. They need some more advance
technology and cost effective service to reach in that area. Some time they organize trade fare for
the selling of the services like sim card and internet. In same way the competitor SPNL uses its
dealer to sell their sim card, they also offer other company to sell their product offering the
package deal on it.

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Brand Audit: Nepal Telecom

3.3.4 Promotion:
Nepal telecom is using wide variety of promotion tool to reach to the custom in each and every
possible way. The mission on Nepal Telecom is to reach every corner of nation. For that they are
investing a huge amount on promotion. The promotion tools of NT are:
Advertising is the most effective means of promotion for NT. They use TV and radio with good
commercial advertisement. Broachers, magazines, newspaper are other best media of promotion.
They even use display board in the main location and other sales agent to reach the customer
easily. Beside these, NT is also been indulging into Green Environment process where they have
been planting trees in divider of the roads and watering those plants once or twice a week. In
return NT place its hoarding between the dividers. They sponsor most of the national and
international sports and cultural program. Thus sponsorship also has become a good means of
promotion for Nepal Telecom. They are also organizing trade fair and exhibition centre for the
new customer and existing customer to introduce their product to them.
NT gives the special offerings during the festive like 'Dashain and Tihar' where they offer
discount on the purchase of the services and also offer other package with reduced rat e than
before. They uses sales promotion tool to encourage the customer to purchase the product of
Nepal Telecom

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Brand Audit: Nepal Telecom

3.4. POP and POD

Point of Parity

Point of Difference

Telecommunication Industry

Landline Service provider

GSM Service provider

ADSL service

GPRS and 3G Network

CDMA service
Government Ownership
Largest Network

4. Recommendation
Nepal Telecom had a monopoly market till 2003. After 2003, several Telecommunication
company enter into the market like UTL, NCELL. NCELL did all the marketing campaign and
tired to fill the gaps which NTC wasnt able to do so like GPRS, 3G, MMS. And NCELL broke
the monopoly market and now the outlook of the market is that NCELL has grabbed the
maximum market share than NTC. Another quandary with Nepal Telecom was the brand
dilution. Nepal Telecom (NT) previously known as Nepal Telecommunication Corporation
(NTC) was only a state owned telecommunication company until 2003 that had a monopoly
market all over Nepal. For the development and to meet the demand of the changing world, the
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Brand Audit: Nepal Telecom

former king transformed the company to the public limited company on 2004. Now it is named
as Nepal Doorsanchar Company Limited.
A better improvement in marketing segmentation is needed. Recently the market segmentation is
mostly focused on city and town area. This segmentation should be enlarged to other part of the
country so that the customer can easily meet the service. Internet facility is very poor in most of
the places. Thus to get more market share I will come up with good strategy for market
segmentation so that every single customer can get the service in most easy way. Few part of
Nepal is still lacking each and every service of Nepal Telecom due to the infrastructure and lack
of good technology and budget. Thus that area should be given more priority in coming future. I
would also introduce satellite telephone in the hilly and mountain area.
Based on our band audit, we also recommend the following:

There is a major confusion on the brand name of Nepal Telecom as Nepal Telecom has
been changing name time and again. Hence, we recommend them to use Nepal Telecom
intensively rather than using Nepal Doorshanchar Company limited.

The URLs of Nepal Telecom does not matches the name Nepal Telecom. This is to say,
Nepal Telecom's URLs is ntc.net.np which does not match the brand name Nepal
Telecom.

Nepal Telecom's Slogan like " Nation Building is our Goal" sounds like the slogan of
Government rather than a corporate office. Hence, we recommend Nepal Telecom to
have slogan of an enterprise rather than government slogan.

Nepal Telecom should have its brand mantra which is the heart and soul of an
organization. We recommend Nepal Telecom to have brand name like Enjoy Nationwide
connection at low price which include brand strength and brand positioning.

Through our research we found that Nepal Telecom does not have clear market
segmentation, targeting and positioning. Hence, we recommend Nepal Telecom to have
distinct STP so that other higher brand strategy can be worked out in days ahead.

Nepal Telecom wants it customer to have brand association to be quality service, modern
technology but on contrary customers associate brand Nepal Telecom with poor service
quality, old fashion, and corruption. Hence, Nepal Telecom should improve this

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Brand Audit: Nepal Telecom

association by improving service quality and communicating persistently about the brand
association Nepal Telecom wants to have in customers mind.

Even though Nepal Telecom has brand loyalty due to price and very old technology but
its low performance, Judgement, and feeling should be increased as competition is
growing.

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Brand Audit: Nepal Telecom

5. Bibliography
Keller, P. J. (2013). Strategic Brand Management. New Delhi: Dorling Kindersley ( India) Pvt. Ltd.
Telecom, N. (2014). 10th Annual Souviner. Kathmandu: Nepal Telecom.
Telecom, N. (2015). 11th Annual Souviner. Kathmandu: Nepal Telecom.
Telecom, N. (n.d.). Nepal Telecom. Retrieved June 22, 2015, from Nepal Telecom: http://www.ntc.net.np/

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Brand Audit: Nepal Telecom

6. Annex 1
Questionnaire
1. Please write the name of well Known Telecommunication Company in Nepal?
__________________
2. Which is the top telecommunication company in Nepal?
__________________
3. Do you know whose logo is this?

Yes
No
If yes, name _______
4. Are you aware of the brand Nepal Telecom?
Yes
No

5.Which GSM Sim card do you use at present?

Nepal Telecom
Ncell

6. If you were to buy another GSM Sim card, which brand would you prefer?
Nepal Telecom
Ncell

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Brand Audit: Nepal Telecom

7. Please rate Nepal Telecom on five point likert scale, where 1= very low and 5= very high
Attributes

1= Very low

2= Low

3= Neutral

4= High

5= very High

Neutral

Low price

Very

Reliability
Durability
Service
Effectiveness
Price

Very

High High Price

Price

Price

Style
Design
Quality
Warmth
Fun
Excitement
Security
Social
Approval
Self Respect

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Low