INTRODUCTION.DOC

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INTRODUCTION
The research topic is improving the promotion of Q Student, a product of MobiFone
Company through offering various benefits to different groups of customers.
The reason for the interest in this topic is from the researcher’s situation. Like almost
students in Vietnam, the researcher is very happy when three mobile operators
(Viettel, MobiFone, and Vinaphone) launch a new product which is designed for only
students with a lot of benefits. MobiFone is the provider which offers more benefits
than the two others. However, I feel dissatisfied when I can not take full advantage of
all benefits which this provider offers. For example, I use a normal mobile phone
which only has the basic functions like calling and answering, sending and receiving
messages; so I can not spend 35 free megabytes monthly using GPRS. I had a
question: why I can not receive other benefits such as some free calling minutes?
That is the original idea for my research.
To start the research, there are two research questions that help the researcher
broaden the content of the topic. They include: 1) how many groups are there among
students according to their personal factors relating to using mobile? , 2) which kinds
of promotion should we apply to different groups?
One of the methodologies of this research is analyzing. Through observing the
packages of some mobile operators, the researcher draws some strengths, weaknesses,
and challenges that Q Student has and faces with. As a result, the researcher can
suggest some recommendations to make the product better.
Questionnaire is the second methodology. 200 students at National Economics
University and Hanoi University of Technology were asked to fill out the form. The
result of the survey provides findings on consumer behavior and characteristics on
using mobiles.
The researcher also interviewed 30 students among 200 students above. From their
answers, there was information about their feelings on Q Student and their
recommendations to improve the product.
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CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION OF MOBIFONE COMPANY
WITH THE ISSUES RELATED TO THE
RESEARCH TOPIC
1. Introduction of the company
Official name Vietnam Mobile Telecom Service Company
Short name VMS
Official
address
216 Tran Duy Hung street, Hanoi, Vietnam
Website
Telecom 84 - 4 -38649533
Fax 84 - 4- 38649534
Vietnam Mobile Telecom Services Company – VMS, a state-owned company under
Vietnam Posts and Telecommunications Corporation, was founded in April 16th
1993, VMS has become the first GMS 900/1800 mobile telephony services provider
in the brand name MobiFone, marking the beginning momentum of the mobile
telephony industry in Vietnam. MobiFone specializes in building, developing
network and providing mobile telephony.
Currently, Vietnam Mobile Telecom Services Company has five Mobile Telecom
Services Centers and one Design Factory. Head office is located in Hanoi City.
Mobile Telecom Services Centre I located in Hanoi City, in charge of operating and
doing business in the North. (North areas to Ha Tinh province). Address: 811A Giai
Phong Road, Hoang Mai District, Hanoi City. Mobile Telecom Services Center II,
located in HoChiMinh City, in charge of operating and doing business in the South
(Ninh Thuan province to the Eastern areas and Ho Chi Minh City).Address: MM18
Truong Son Road, Ward 14, District 10, Ho Chi Minh City. Mobile Telecom Services
Center III, located in DaNang City, in charge of operating and doing business in the
Central and Highlands (Quang Binh province to Khanh Hoa and Dac Lak
province).Address: 263 Nguyen Van Linh Road, Da Nang City. Mobile Telecom

Services Center IV, located in CanTho City, in charge of operating and doing
business in ten provinces in the Mekong Delta. Address: No.6, Hoa Binh Avenue, An
Cu Ward, Ninh Kieu District, Can Tho City. Mobile Telecom Services Center V,
located in Hai Phong City, in charge of operating and doing business in 14 Northern
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provinces and cities. Address: No.8, Lot 28, Le Hong Phong Str, Hai Phong City.
Value Added Services Center was established in October 6th 2008, its headquarter is
located in Hanoi City specialized in developing, managing and doing business of
value added services on GSM (including short message, short message based
services, GPRS based services, 3G services and national and international roaming
services).
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Chart-1: Structural organization of Vietnam Mobile Telecom Services
Company
The company has six main kinds of products (these products can be called packages).
They are mobigold, mobicard, mobi4U, mobiQ, mobi365, mobizone. Each product is
designed for one group of target customers which are suitable for customers’ needs,
wants and demands. Mobigold service offers perfect voice quality, wide coverage,
and more value-added services. Customers will enjoy more in daily life. This product
is after-paid package. Customers just present the ID, pay activation fee (99.000 VND/
subscription) and pay the subscription fee (49.000 VND per month). Then they can
get a lot of benefits such as easy to pay bill, national customer care 24 hours/ day, and
enjoy some of utilities services free. With Mobicard, customers can connect in the
quickest way because it offers customers such a high quality of MobiFone network at
a very short time. Mobi4U connects U with friends, family and places at any time. No
limit to whom and what you can connect to. It also offers a wide range of attractie
services for you. MoiQ is for two kinds of customers: student and teenager with two
packages Q Student and Q Teen. This is new type of call package with a lot of

benefits for customers. With Mobi365, customers can have chances of calling with
economical charges. They only pay 200 VND for the the ten seconds. MobiZone is
the newest package designed for customers who want to call mainly within a zone.
The company has received a lot of awards since 2005:
Awards in 2005
- “The best mobile telephony operator in 2005” voted by E-Chip Mobile
Magazine
- “Strong Brand 2005” voted by Vietnam Economic Newspaper.
Awards in 2006
- “The most favourite operator 2006” and “The best customer care
operator 2006” voted by E-Chip Mobile Magazine under the Vietnam Mobile Awards
chain
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- “The famous brand 2006” voted by Vietnam Chamber of Commerce
and Industry
- “Ranked 1st among TOP 10 strong and potential brand of Vietnamese
economy” voted by Le Courierr du Vietnam newspaper on the occasion of APEC
Summit 2006
Awards in 2007
- “The most favorite mobile telephony operator 2007” voted by E-Chip
Mobile Magazine - Vietnam Mobile Awards
- Ranked TOP 20 among 200 biggest businesses in Vietnam by UNDP
- TOP 10 “Strong Brand” in 2006 - 2007 voted by Vietnam Economic
Newspaper
Awards in 2008
- “The excellent ICT business in 2008” voted by PC World’s readers
- “The best quality service provider in 2008” voted by Saigon Tiep Thi
Newspaper
- “The most favorite mobile operator in 2008”; “The best customer care

operator in 2008” voted by Vietnamnet cyber newspaper and E-Chip Mobile
Magazine
- “The excellent mobile operator” granted by Vietnam Ministry of
Information and Communications at Vietnam ICT Awards 2008
- “The best customer care operator in 2008” granted by Vietnam Ministry
of Information and Communications at Vietnam ICT Awards 2008
Awards in 2009
- “The most favorite mobile telephony operator 2009” voted by Vietnam
Mobile Awards
- “The best customer care operator in 2009” granted by Vietnam Ministry of
Information and Communications at Vietnam ICT Awards 2009
The company has developed its market share through the growing number of
subscribers during years. The chart-1 below shows the number of subscriber from
1993 to 2010 (planing). According to the chart, there is a great increase in the
subscribers. Starting with only below 2.000.000 customers at 2002, the number was
11.000.000 in 2007.
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Chart-2: Subscription Growth from 1993 to 2010
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Chart-3: Market share – Quarter I 2009
From the chart-3, MobiFone is the provider who gets the largest market share with
41%. That can be explained for some reasons. The contingent of 3000 MobiFone staff
in ready to effectively meet every demand of customers. MobiFone is the first and
exclusive mobile telephony services provider in Vietnam which is selected as of the
best mobile operator in three consecutive years (from 2005-2008) in the Vietnam
Mobile Awards Ceremony organized by E-chip Mobile Magazine, Especially in
2009, MobiFone was honored to receive the Excellent Operator 2008 granted by

Vietnam Ministry of Information and Communications.
2. Introduction of the research topic
2.1 General information about the product Q student
Q Student is a call package designed for only students at all universities, colleges, and
training schools in Vietnam with a lot of special features. This new package was
introduced on 25th August 2009 after Viettel Telecom (1st June 2009) and before
Vinaphone (1st September 2009). Q Student was developed from package MobiQ
which was for all young customers. This package is only valuable for student time.
After that, customers’ packages would be changed to MobiQ
• Benefits and regulations
* Benefits
Charges:
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Customers will receive VND 25000 monthly during the effective time of the
subscription. If customers do not use all, they can keep extra money until the next
month.
Mobile Internet service
Customer will receive 35 MB using internet free during the effective time of the
subscription. If customers do not use all, they can keep free megabyte until the next
month.
Multimedia message service
Customers will receive 25 free MMS during the effective time of the subscription
including messages with texts or with pictures or sounds. If customers do not use all,
they can not keep free messages until the next month.
* Regulations
Validity days will be 92 for Q Student.
It remains 92 days since customer makes an outgoing call. If customer makes an
outgoing call while a validity day is more than 92, it will be remained. Time out,
customer will get 10 days additional for incoming calls and top-ups. Out of date,

customers' calls will be barred.
Disconnection validity day is 92. Out of date without any top-ups, the subscription
number will be discharged.
Validity days will be added in every top-up.
Tariffs
Table-1 Tariffs of Q Student
List Type Rate (VAT
included)
1 Domestic calls
a) Intra network VND
1.380/minute
First 6 second
bloc
VND 138
Subsequent 1
second
VND 23
b) Other
operators
VND
1.580/minute
First 6 second VND 158
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bloc
Subsequent 1
second
VND 26,33
c) Group calls VND
830/minute

First 6 second
bloc
VND 83
Subsequent 1
second
13,83
3 Short messages
a) Intra network VND 99/SMS
b) Other
operators
VND 250/SMS
(Source: www.mobifone.com.vn)
2.2. Introduction of the research topic
Q Student is really a good package for students. It is the first time Vietnamese
students have such many benefits. Mobifone and two other big operators in Vietnam,
Viettel and Vinaphone have this special package designed for students. They are “I
am student” of Viettel and “Talk student” of Vinaphone. Without mentioning other
features, we just focus on benefits students receive from these operators and then
analyze them.
Table-2 Benefits offered by three operators


Operators
Benefits
Viettel
(1st Jun e 2009)
MobiFone
(25th August 2009)
Vinaphone
(1st September

2009)
Extra charge VND 25000 VND 25000 VND 30000
Free Internet Mobile
service
30 MB 35MB 30MB
Free Multimedia
message service
25 MMS 25 MMS
50 % off to 5 VND 840/minute to
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Group call registered intra
network numbers
5 registered intra
network numbers.
From the figures, we can see that there is no much difference among benefits which
three operators offer to students. To contact with a fixed number, customers only
choose one package from one mobile operator. There is still case when customers
have more than one mobile phone. Whenever it is, they still need one fixed package
to use. That is the chance for MobiFone to make their product different and keep
students as regular customers through particular products. However, MobiFone has
not attracted the whole group of students. MobiFone’s promotion has not effective in
order to satisfy the whole group of customers’ needs wants and demands. MobiFone
has not understood clearly different characteristics of different groups of students.
Thefore, this research is carried out in order to improve the promotion of Q Student
through offering various benefits to different groups of students.
The starting point for this research is the two research questions: the first one is how
many groups are there among students according to their personal factors relating to
using mobile? , and which kinds of promotion should we apply to different groups?
To answer these questions, there was a survey among 200 students at National

Economics University and Hanoi University of Technology. They were asked about
their behavior and demands on using mobile. The scope of this survey is 200 first
year and second year students at two universities. These two universities are near
together, so it is easy for the researcher to implement the survey. In addition, they are
students major in two fields: economics and techonoly, so they can help the
sesearcher a lot in having more ideas for the research. Along with delivering the
questionnaire for students to fill out, the researcher also interviewed 30 students
among 200 students above. From their answers, there was information about their
feelings on Q Student and their recommendations to improve the product. The other
methodology of this research is analyzing. Through observing the packages of some
mobile operators, the researcher draws some strengths, weaknesses, and challenges
that Q Student has and faces with. As a result, the researcher can suggest some
recommendations to make the product better.
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CHAPTER TWO
THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK
To understand different factors that affect consumer behavior, we first identify
consumer needs, wants, and demands. The reason for studying different factors is to
satisfy customers better through understanding their needs, wants and demands.
Needs, wants, and demands are all the core concept of marketing.
According to Philip Kotler in the book named “Principles of Marketing” (1996)
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,
“Human needs are states of felt deprivation”. When you are hungry, you need to eat.
However, when you are sad, you need to someone to share your sadness, for example.
Different people have different kinds of needs. When you can not obtain your need,
you will try your best to have it. People in different situations have their own needs.
Also in this book, Philip Kotler wrote that “Wants are the form taken by human needs
as they are shaped by culture and individual personality”. In this concept, there is the

appearance of culture and individual personality. When we talk about culture, we
think of the differences between countries or even areas in the country. For example,
Vietnamese people living in the south like to eat fried chicken with sweat favor while
people in the north want salty favor. That is the difference in culture between two
areas in a country. Another concept that Philip Kotler introduced in this book is
“demands”. He presented that “When backed by buying power, wants become
demands”. Although you want to have a luxurious car or a modern laptop, but if you
do not afford them, you can not obtain your demands.When studying marketing
subject, the researcher found intertesting information about the customer needs,
wants, and demands at the website . The writer of this
article showed the types of needs and demand which are listed by Kotler, Keller and
Burton.
“1) Stated needs
A customer wants an inexpensive car
2) Real needs
The customer wants a car whose operating cost, not initial price is low.
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The main references of this part are from the book “Principles of Marketing” by Philip Kotler and Gary
Armstrong, seventh editiion, published by Prentice Hall, Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey 07632. Therefore,
when the researcher mentions the writer Philip Kotler, it means the information is from this book in the part
“what is marketing” (page 7), and characteristics affecting consumer behavior ( page 144-154).
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