Running head: SERVICES MARKETING

Services marketing

Name of the Student:

Name of the University:

Author note:

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1.0 Executive Summary:

The following report deals with the Singaporean telecommunication provider StarHub Pvt. Ltd.,

which is one of the largest telecommunication networks in the country. The introduction of the

company is provided along with the positioning map of the company. The internal environment

of the company has been evaluated with the help of SWOT analysis and recommendations have

been provided so that the threats can be avoided. The target market, positioning and the

marketing objectives of the company is also provided. The report also has an audit part that

contains the theories of service marketing and the perceived price fairness, integrated marketing

communications, perception and satisfaction and zone of tolerance. It also contains the

recommendations that are needed for the company to survive in the competitive market. The

SWOT analysis has helped in identifying the strengths that it was the first to launch a streaming

service and it provided the customers with free-caller ID. The weaknesses of the company were

that the internet suffered severe service disruption and it has put less emphasis on the retention of

the customers. The opportunities of the company were that it has the scope of building a 24 hours

message platform that will help in solving the queries of the customers. The threats of the

company is that it has to follow the rules and regulations that has been laid down by the

government. The recommendation for the company due to the DDoS attack is that the company

needs to compete with the upcoming competitors so that it can maintain a strong position in the

market. It needs to expand its area of service and provide adequate service to all the areas that

the company covers. This will help the company is widening the base of the customers. The

company needs to highlight the product, which is the service that they are providing to the

customers. This will help in covering a long range of customers and will help in increasing the

profits of the company. The design of the product for the company needs to be of a good quality

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so that the company can shell out different plans for the customers to choose from, which will

help in retaining the customers. They need to provide complimentary services to the customers

so that they are satisfied and stay loyal towards the company. In this way, the company can

retain most of its customers. The guarantee and the warranty period that the company will

provide to the customers for the products should include a exchange policy that needs to be free

of cost.

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Table of Contents 1.0 Executive Summary: ................................................................................................................. 1

2.0 Introduction: .............................................................................................................................. 5

2.1 Positioning map ........................................................................................................................ 6

3.0 Situational Analysis .................................................................................................................. 7

3.1 SWOT Analysis .................................................................................................................... 7

3.1.1 Strength: ............................................................................................................................. 7

3.1.2 Weaknesses ........................................................................................................................ 8

3.1.3 Opportunities...................................................................................................................... 8

3.1.4 Threat ................................................................................................................................. 8

3.2 Target market ............................................................................................................................ 9

3.3 Positioning .......................................................................................................................... 10

3.4 Marketing Objectives .......................................................................................................... 10

4.0 Audit ....................................................................................................................................... 11

4.1 Perceived Price Fairness ..................................................................................................... 11

4.2 Integrated Marketing Communications .............................................................................. 12

4.3 Perception and Satisfaction ................................................................................................. 13

4.4 Zone of Tolerance ............................................................................................................... 13

5.0 Recommendations ................................................................................................................... 14

6.0 Conclusion .............................................................................................................................. 17

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References: .................................................................................................................................... 18

Bibliography ................................................................................................................................. 20

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2.0 Introduction:

In this competitive world, all the companies and the organizations that exist today need to

perform in an efficient manner to ensure that it stays ahead of the competition. In order to stay

ahead of the competition, a company needs to device an efficient marketing plan (Lovelock,

Christopher and Patterson 2015). An efficient marketing plan is important in the day and world

of today as there are many companies all over the world that provides similar products. The

companies need to strategize a competent marketing plan in order to publicize and inform the

consumers or the customers about the product or the services offered by the company to the

customers. A sound marketing plan is required also in order to attract the attention of the

consumers. This report discusses the marketing plan for Star Hub Limited, a company based in

Singapore. The write up mentions the positioning map of the company and provides the

situational analysis for the company. It discussed the target market of the company, then moving

on to the positioning part. The write up then discusses the marketing objectives of the Singapore

based company. The report then discusses the audit for the company before moving on to

recommendations and conclusion.

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2.1 Positioning map

Positioning Map

(Source: Created by author)

Expensive

Less expensive

High speed

of service

delivery Low speed of delivery

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The positioning map of a company is a tool that helps the marketing team of a company

to deal with the product that they are marketing a specific product (Kotler 2012). The positioning

map helps to strategize and develop a marketing strategy for a new product. In Singapore, the

leading telecommunication companies are Singtel, M1, Star Hub, Q Max, Bluefish, Alcom,

Brocade, AlcaTel Lucent, Absolute Telecom and 3R communication. The positioning map for

Star Hub Limited indicates that the company provides adequate service to all areas and at a

cheaper price range. Star Hub Limited is a company that provides high speed of delivery and is

less expensive.

3.0 Situational Analysis

3.1 SWOT Analysis

Star Hub Limited is one of the three major telecom companies of Singapore. A service-

marketing plan is required to analyze and device a plan for guaranteeing better options for

attracting and luring the consumers to opt for the services of the company. The SWOT analysis

of the company is essential for finding out the strengths, weaknesses, threat and opportunities of

the company while working in the global scenario. SWOT analysis is a useful technique that is

used for identifying, understanding and analyzing the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and

threats (Armstron et al. 2014).

The SWOT analysis of Star Hub Limited lists the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and

threats of the company.

3.1.1 Strength:

Star Hub Limited was the first to launch streaming service

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It has many reward points and loyalty program

There is a free caller ID for the youth plan ("Starhub Ltd Official Website" 2017).

The company was the first to offer bundling services ("Starhub Ltd Official Website" 2017).

3.1.2 Weaknesses

One of the main weaknesses of the company lies in the fact that it has a disruption of internet

broadband service.

The taxes that are levied by the government towards the companies, act as a hindrance to the

company. It blocks the smooth flow of the business that could be achieved if severe

restrictions and taxes were not imposed on the company.

3.1.3 Opportunities

There are many new opportunities in the form of new markets in which the company can

expand its business with the help of mergers and acquisitions.

The company has a 24 hours enquiry message platform.

3.1.4 Threat

The stricter regulation of the government act as a threat to the company.

New Telco competitors have emerged in the market that provide similar services like Star

Hub Limited.

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Strengths Weaknesses

1. Star Hub Limited was the first to launch

streaming service.

2. The company has many rewards point

and loyalty programmes

3. The company provided free caller-ID for

youth plan

4. It was the first to offer bundling services

1. Internet broadband service disruption is

one of the weaknesses of the company

that plagues the company.

2. The company puts less emphasis on the

customer retention aspect

Opportunities Threats

1. There is a scope to build 24 hours

enquiry message platform for the

company.

2. There is a lot of opportunities for the

company to achieve a lot through

merger and acquisition.

1. The major threat that Star Hub Limited

faces is the existence and emergence of

new Telco competitors in the market that

provide similar services like StarHub

Limited.

2. Stricter regulation from the government

often act as a threat to the company.

(Source: created by author)

3.2 Target market

Each and every company in this world needs to identify and analyze its target market. By

identifying and analyzing the target market, the company can spread its operations to that

specific market and thus contribute and add to the profitability and development of the company.

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Star Hub Limited strives to achieve the target market of entire Singapore. It does so by acquiring

new companies whose services are similar or complimentary to the company (Gordon 2012).

3.3 Positioning

The vision of the company is to be the first choice of communication, information and

entertainment services for the consumers in Singapore. The mission of the company is to provide

all the businesses, houses and every citizen in Singapore with best in class services with respect

to multimedia. The core values of the company are to work with integrity supported by

teamwork and continuous creativity in the process, which will help in providing excellent service

to the customers (De Prato and Jean-Paul 2013).

3.4 Marketing Objectives

The company generates its revenues mainly from five segments that are cable TV, fixed network,

and broadband, sales of equipment and mobile. The company follows a strategy known as

Hubbing, which helps them to grow in each of the business segments individually. The Hubbing

strategy helps the company to reduce the churn rate, which measures the amount of customers

who has stopped using the service that is provided by the company. The strategy helps the

customers to subscribe to the services of the company and is unwilling to shift to other service

providers (Singh, Pangarkar and Heracleous 2014). It also helps in maintaining the cost

efficiency of the company as it promotes many services to take place simultaneously with a

single advertisement. It enables the company to perform cross selling to its existing customers,

which helps them in maintaining low marketing cost. The company also earns better average

revenue for the number of customers that subscribe to their services (Huang et al. 2014).

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4.0 Audit

The main problem of the distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) is that it causes huge spike

in the internet traffic as the access is done through many infected computers. This causes the

network to slow down and get access in to various servers. The problem started because of the

two attacks that happened on Friday in the United States. The company endorsed the fact that

these attacks were done because of an incident that happened in US. The Cyber Security Agency

and the Infocomm Media Development Authority had confirmed the attack as it happened to

Dyn, an US-based Domain Name System (DNS) (Alharbi, Ahamed and Hang 2017). The

company gave a press release as a word of mouth that they were inspecting the networking logs

and were confirmed that the DDoS attack was intentional and malicious in nature. It caused some

issue regarding the connection of web for some of the customers who had access to broadband.

The company mitigated the attack by considering the restoration of the service within a

stipulated time that was around two hours. The customers were constantly updated about the

progress in the work via the social media and the hotlines. The company filtered the unwanted

traffic that was present in the network and even increased the capacity of the DNS, which helped

in managing the internet load (Collins and Shah 2016).

4.1 Perceived Price Fairness

Fairness is usually associated with the judgment of an outcome that whether the process

that is implemented to reach the outcome is acceptable and reasonable or not. This helps in

getting a fair judgment about the prices with respect to the standard products. Secondly, the

evaluations of the price and the assessment regarding the fairness of the price can be compared.

This pricing policy helps in maintaining the relationship with the customers and the company.

This help the customers, as they receive rewards from the company because of the relationship

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they have invested in the company (Aghaei et al. 2014). The company stands a chance to gain at

the same time because it lets them to increase their customer base. The theory helps in

comparing the influence of perceived fairness with the exchanged relationship between the

customer and the company. The customer attributions and the distribution between the cost and

profit helps in establishing distinction between the transactions. The company is transparent

about the price that it gives to the customers. This helps them in keeping a wide base of

customers and they become loyal to the company because of the no hidden cost in the pricing

policy of the company (Kwak, Marina and Joseph 2015).

4.2 Integrated Marketing Communications

The Integrated Marketing Communications (IMC) is the coordination of the different

promotional elements and various other activities that are related to marketing, which helps in

communicating with the customers of the firm. It is a continuous process in business that helps in

tackling the different activities of communication strategically. It helps in recognizing the

relevant persons that form an important part of the communication network. The external

customers who form a part of this chain are the prospective customers, investors, suppliers, the

interested groups and the public. Most of the companies have realized that effective

communication network with various stakeholders and customers are more than the traditional

tools that are used in the communication process. This communication network helps in avoiding

the duplication of the products and the strategies and develops an efficient and effective

marketing communication programs. The company, StarHub maintains a transparent

communication pattern with the investors and the customers because it helps them to provide

support to the customers with their pricing policy. The investors are also aware of the amount

that they are investing in the company by keeping a track of the financial activities of the

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company. This helps in building trust and relationship with the customers and the investors

(Belch et al. 2014).

4.3 Perception and Satisfaction

Perception is what the customer and various investors see and understand about the

company or the organization. They associate the company along with the products that are given

by the company. This helps the company in establishing a brand image in the minds of the

customers and giving them the benefit of using their products. The company gains as they stand

to make profits because of a large number of goods sold. Customer satisfaction is the feeling or

the pleasure that the customer derives after using the products or services that is being provided

by the company. This helps the company in rising up to the expectations of the customers.

Service providers depend mainly on the customer satisfaction process and make it their topmost

priority, as it helps in retaining the customers for a longer period. This customer satisfaction

process leads to frequent visits to the stores repeatedly by the customers so that they can

purchase more of the same products. This helps to increase its customer base and maximize its

profit making capability. The customers who are satisfied will stay for a longer period with the

company and is likely to invest more amounts in that particular company in the future (Bansal

and Shirley 2015).

4.4 Zone of Tolerance

The tolerance zone is divided in to three parts that are more than acceptable that is

equivalent to delight, acceptable that is equivalent to satisfaction and unacceptable, which

amounts to dissatisfaction in the end. The customers that have a wide zone of tolerance level due

to low involvement in the strategical process will directly have a wide tolerance level with

respect to performance. This will result in either high levels of dissatisfaction or satisfaction. The

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four variables in the creation of satisfaction helped in concluding that the tolerance zone with

respect to the responses of the behaviors leads to a disconfirmation of expectations. When the

customer progresses in the service system, it helps them in differentiating the poor and the good

quality with respect to the service. The tolerance level of the customers for the StarHub

Company is very high, as the customers receive high quality of service from the company. The

complaints that the customers place in the company is immediately dealt with, which helps them

in satisfying the customers largely (Hseih et al. 2013).

5.0 Recommendations

Star Hub Limited as a company is one of the leading telecom companies of Singapore. It

faced a serious issue of distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) during the period of the attack on

the twin towers in New York City. The Star Hub Limited is a leading telecom companies of

Singapore that falls under the purview of the telecommunication infrastructure of Singapore. The

Singapore Telecommunications Law is strict and has many regulatory bodies that control the

business operations of the companies that fall under the purview of the Singapore

Telecommunications and Media regulatory framework. One of the leading telecom companies of

Sinapore, Star Hub Limited depends largely on the local and domestic business for its revenue

generation. The company however faces few weaknesses and threats that need to be dealt with

using the help of few recommendations and strategies. Thus, the two recommendations for the

company are as follows:

1. The company, Star Hub Limited must compete with the new and upcoming

competitors in order to maintain its position in the market. The company should

increase its area of service as well as provide a strong and adequate service to all the

areas that are covered by Star Hub Limited (Sharma and Lambert 2013). By acquiring

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new companies like Cyberway, Star hub Limited has broadened its horizon of service.

The company need to device and formulate newer and innovative ways by which they

can hold on to its consumer base. The company has to adopt a consumer oriented

service-marketing plan in order to increase the profitability of the company. In the

sector of services marketing, the business to consumers is important as consumers

form a large part of such businesses ("Starhub Ltd Official Website" 2017). The

business should look into the components of the marketing mix, that is the seven Ps

(Huang, Rong and Sarigöllü 2014). The seven Ps consist of components like price,

product, place, people, promotion, process and physical evidence (Khan 2014). All

these factors are important in achieving the desired profitability in a company, which

is based on the service sector entirely. The company, Star Hub Limited, also should

keep in mind the seven Ps of the marketing mix and achieve a higher productivity.

The marketing mix consists of 4Ps and 7Ps. Star Hub Limited must concentrate its

energy in the two Ps, namely, promotion and product. The promotion refers to the

communications related to marketing. It may comprise components like PR,

advertising, direct marketing and sales promotion. The company should concentrate

on these steps in order to gain recognition from the consumers as well as from the

market. The promotional mix of PR, advertising, sales promotion and direct

marketing must be there to maximize the effect of the promotion. The message

strategy has to be deviced that highlights the part that is to be communicated. The

company should employ the channel /media strategy in order to reach the target

audience. It should create appropriate and effective advertising campaigns. The

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message frequency should be decided as to in what frequency the message is to be

communicated.

2. The product of the company, which is, in this case, the service that is provided by the

company is the main highlight of the company. So, in order to attract the consumers

and thus increase the revenue, the company should concentrate on the product design,

prdoduct assortment, branding, services, returns, managing products guarantees and

warrantees and packaging and labeling. The product design of Star Hub Limited

should consist of a good quality and well planned out service for the customers

especially based on the needs of the consumers. The product assortment of the

company should bring out different plans and services that the customers can use and

enjoy. The branding of the product is of the utmost importance in this competitive

world as without a good brand name, no customer is going to have the confidence to

try out a new product or service. The packaging and labeling of the product is also

very important in the present day and age. The packaging of the product should

attract the attention of the customers and the consumers, which will thus lead to

higher revenue. The complimentary services like after sales service is also necessary

to keep the consumers happy and satisfied and thus help the company to gain

customer retention. The guarantees and warranties of a product is necessary as it

helps to provide a refund or an exchange or a free of cost servicing of the product. It

is important to keep the customers satisfied and get their value for money. The returns

are also important for any product in the market. In the case of Star Hub Limited also,

it is important as it provides the capacity to get return the product or services that they

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do not like. The company should manage the products through the life-cycle of the

product.

The Singaporean company, Star Hub Limited, is often affected by the rules, regulations and

restrictions imposed by the government. This often hinders with the business operations.

Therefore, the solution to this problem is that the company can expand its business ventures

overseas that can bring with it lesser hassles like this. Overseas investment is important for any

company in the world of today. Thus, it is important for Star Hub Limited, too, to expand its

business operations on a global scale.

6.0 Conclusion

In the world of today, companies need to find out ways and methods to achieve maximum

output and productivity. The ways and methods that need to be adopted by a company in order to

increase the profitability and productivity of the company include various means and steps. Some

of them involve a robust sales plan, or a marketing plan, or a very adequate service plan. Star

Hub Limited is one of the leading telecom companies of Singapore after Singtel and M1. It faced

many problems but found appropriate solutions for tackling those. The company should focus its

marketing strategy towards focusing towards the seven Ps (Wilson and Gilligan 2012).

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