An evaluation of the TVC of GrameenPhone Internet Submitted this report for Integrated Marketing Communication (IMC) coure under MBA Program

1. Background of the Advertisement
Internet is the most convenient medium of information, through which people can enhance
their knowledge, spread the same from one corner of the globe to whichever place they wish
with a single click.
Communication solutions developed by Grameenphone across all the media have always
focused one single thing – to help people stay close to their dear ones and to enlighten their
lives through free and flawless access to information. Grameenphone internet is another step
towards fulfilling this goal. With this step, Grameenphone promises to enlighten the lives of 20
million people by providing easier and faster access to information than ever before.
Grameenphone so far brought Internet to people in the following ways:
 Desktop and Laptop browsing: by using the mobile as modem or by internet modem
 Mobile screen browsing: WAP/internet browsing on the mobile
 CIC: More than 550 CICs all over the country for those who do not have access to PC or
other facilities.
Grameenphone is looking to expand further into the digital world by expanding its internet
platforms and developing more internet related products, thus becoming the biggest Internet
Service Provider of Bangladesh.
Grameenphone Ltd. kicked off a new journey towards improving the life of Bangladeshi people
through internet service, with the pledge that "Light will find its way," on 11 February 2009.
And with it, the advertisement of Grameenphone internet—―Allo Ashbei‖ was also broadcasted.
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2. 01. What is the target market? How do you know?
The main concept of this advertisement is reflected in a wider
aspect. There are so many people who are shown in this
advertisement as their target market. As we focus in this
advertisement we can see that they have shown us:
 Person who wants information in the very morning.
 Students who need information in every steps of their
life.
 Elder people who needs information for knowing the
country.
 A corporate person who need information in their every
steps.
 Children who will use this in their near future.
 Religious people can also get the light of the knowledge.
 Village people
From this advertisement they tried to show us that they
targeted the mass people. This is the information we found
from the employees of Grameenphone. They told us that, the
target market is rural people who are not yet been in the touch
of internet technology & urban people who need to know more
about it.
But at a close look on this advertisement we can’t find that
urban people get any supportive knowledge form this
advertisement. In a very little aspect they showed the touch of
internet in the rural area.
02. What is the main message of the advertisement (positioning)?
Its main message is: “Grameenphone internet has reached to 20 million people as the light of knowledge”.
It means that, by using the internet one can get the light of knowledge. Internet can help them
to know the world around them. They can easily access to the big world of information.
Grameenphone is providing this internet service to the subscribers that they can easily get this
light of internet. Through this advertisement they try to portray that the light will find its way.
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3. 03. Is the advertisement in the right medium given the target
market? Why?
The target market of this advertisement is diversified as well as the medium of the
advertisement. Though we are discussing the TV commercial but Grameenphone has
communicated this advertisement and the message through radio, billboards and newspapers
along with TV commercial. The urban segment is being covered by television, radio, billboards
and newspaper advertisements. And the rural segment is covered by basically radio
advertisements and Community Information Centre (CIC) which provides access to the Internet
for the rural people. But the contradiction is such a diversified target segment cannot be
covered by a single medium. So a combination is needed to cover the whole target segment.
But the internet users are basically from the urban area and in urban areas it is easy to
communicate with people through television. That’s why we can consider this; the
advertisement is in the right medium.
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4. 04. What design elements have they used to get the target
market's attention?
The elements of an advertisement have strong influential effect on the target market. These
attention getting points can be divided into two parts. Some of the elements of advertising
design are mentioned as follows :
Direct Attention Subconscious Minded
Stimulating Points Attention Stimulating Points
Concept Line
Color Logo
Models Variety
Music Rhythm
Direct Attention Stimulating Points:
Concept:
A concept is a potent idea that can be best expressed in a few words, but no more than a few
sentence. The concept of this advertisement is related with different facets of life & ultimate
focus is on creating awareness for learning. And the appeal is emotional and a reflection of
real life scenes. These are the different aspects we have picked up from this advertisement:
The basic concept of this advertisement is showing the internet as a light of knowledge in the
people’s life. The concept is wonderful. But as their target market is mass people, this basic
concept is convincingly meaningful to them. Very few literate people have really understood
the actual concept of this advertisement. So we can say that though the concept is wonderful
but there should be an understandable meaning for target people.
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5. Color:
Colors are considered in terms of intensity and brightness. How color is used in the advertising
design can have a big impact on how it is interpreted by the customers. The utilization of
mixture of various colors with its proper blend with the emotional aspects worked like magic.
Models:
The models in this advertisement are real life people who
can be seen in reality. For this purpose there is no celebrity
endorsement needed.
 The students in library and in the staircase
 The little girl
 The huzur and students of madrasa
 The boys playing with glasses,
 The dancing girls
 a man in the foot over bridge
 The old man with newspaper
 The lady smiling in the field etc.
These people are
real life
character. The
reason behind
not using the
celebrities is that,
those real life
characters can
make target
people feel
that they are
one of them
and who are actually using the internet and become
benefited.
But there are some problems in this advertisement
regarding the usage of models. There are several
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6. character is this advertisement who has a very confusing role in this advertisement. Those
characters are the dancing girls, a man in the road or flyover or foot over bridge. The actual
meanings of these characters are not clear. There may be some relation of this advertisement
with those characters but those can’t be easily defined by the target people.
Music:
The musical aspect makes the emotional appeal stronger. There has been a use of
instrumental music first with a vocal of a female singing ―alo ashbei‖. The music can create a
fantasy like feeling in the consumer mind. The music of this advertisement actually is one of
the strongest elements. Because, this is the music that makes some people to actually
understand this advertisement. And this is the music that actually creates some sort of
emotional appeal in the consumers mind.
Subconscious Minded Attention Stimulating Points:
Some points may seem like technical terms but in reality theses influences the consumer’s
subconscious minds towards having a positive or negative point of views about an
advertisement. Some of these factors related with this ad are:
Line:
A line is exactly what you think it is – a continuous mark connecting two points. In the
advertisement there is proper sequence of connecting one aspect with another story. As all the
scenes are related to our daily life scenarios the lines between them have appropriateness.
Rhythm:
Rhythm gives the advertising design the feeling of movement or action. The artist places
objects or creates patterns so that the eyes of the consumers can follow a path. The path the
eye follows in advertising is very important, because it creates a relationship between the
consumer and the advertisement.
In this advertisement we can find rhythm by movement of light, a boat in the river, a busy
student life, dancing girls, playful children and so many other ways.
Variety:
Variety describes the complexity of a work. In this advertisement a diversified amount of
variety kept the consumer engaged and involved with the piece thus creating emotional
attachment which is being successfully used in this advertisement.
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7. Logo:
The logo of Grameenphone has a positive effect on consumer mindset. The logo is of blue
color which creates a sense of reliability, trust, security, and technology. Blue also signifies
coolness and belonging. The never ending cycle of the logo points toward the assurance of
continuous improvement in service given by GP.
In terms of this advertisement, this logo actually puts very little mark in terms of time of
showing. But still, it played an imperative part of the advertisement since it is used on the
entire television screen. The logo was shown twice going from the left corner to the right side.
That attracted the sight of viewers. And at the last shot, the logo appears with the brand name
as it does in other advertisements.
05. Are the visuals clear?
The visuals can be explained in two terms:
Technically:
The technical aspects explain the advertisements
perfection and clarity in terms of technical expertise. The
visualization and scenes are without any doubt very clear.
In between the transaction a blur effect is created to make
it more effective.
Aesthetically:
The aesthetical clearance means the combination of the
clearance of audio and video with contrast of the message
that have to be delivered to the consumer mind. The
targeted customers should understand what message is
given with each sight and word.
The consumers also have to get a clear understanding of
the theme of the advertisement. Which is missing in this
advertisement maybe only intellectuals or special
segment can understand the meaning of this
advertisement so aesthetically the message is not clear.
Most of the slice of life shown in the advertisement has such double meanings. The scenes in
the madrasa and the dancing girls are the examples of this aesthetical blockage.
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8. 06. Is the advertisement easy to understand?
The main theme of this advertisement is not easily understood to everyone. The main theme of
this ad is spreading the light of education and knowledge through internet and there product
focus is GP internet and modem. There are so many aspects and situations shown in a short
period that it is very confusing for an average person to understand at a first look. Basically
this ad aimed at mass people but a very few people have the power to understand it properly.
In our study, we have found that only 36 percent of people (18 individuals) have understood
the message. Among them, 61 percent (11 individuals) were unable to recall the message
before watching the advertisement.
07. Is there effective branding?
Grameenphone is the market leader in telecommunication sector and with this advertisement
they have successfully enhanced their brand. But with this ad the mother brand GP is getting
all attention. At the end they provided a message, ―Grameenphone internet has reached to 20
million people as the light of knowledge‖. Through this message they mentioned that they
have 20 million subscriber and they showed that those subscribers are the mass people by the
advertisement.
The advertisement was made for mass people but is understandable to some extent. They
basically tried to create an emotional appeal through this advertisement as they always do with
their advertisement. They always successfully create those emotional appeals with an
appropriate message of their offer. But this time they failed to do that thing. They create an
emotional appeal but failed to provide the message in an easy way. So there is confusion about
the brand being effectively communicated which results a communication failure.
08. Is the advertisement memorable? Why?
Grameenphone tried to do something different to capture the attention of the customers. They
always are being able to create memorable advertisement of their product. Their creativity has
always are being appreciated by the users.
People memorize those things that have significance or have some difference. Memories of
best and worst are always along with people mind. This advertisement of Grameenphone is not
memorable on that context. People can recognize or memorize an advertisement because of its
loud jingle, message, color, celebrity endorsement. For example, Philips advertisement with a
time braking messages that ―Maser raja Ilish, Batir raja Philips.‖ But in this ad Grameenphone
tried to attract the audience through a philosophical theme. They can’t become able to make
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9. that significance or difference that led to people remembers. People can’t recall easily this
advertisement.
One major reason of disregarding this advertisement, as we found, is the number of new ad
exposure. In the competitive market arena, companies are continuously introducing new
advertisement to attract the target segments and we are watching new ads in almost every day.
Moreover, this specific advertisement is not targeting any specific market segment, rather
targeting the entire market having no specialized concept. That’s why, although being a
pleasant advertisement to watch, this advertisement does not seems to be very much
memorable.
Thorough the research, we found some interesting responses like some people mentioned that
they liked celebrity endorsement on this advertisement. But in reality there is no celebrity
endorsement on this advertisement.
Rather than these things there is a communication lacking in the process of communication.
Maybe the consumers liked the musical aspect of this advertisement or the visuals and
situations in it. But the communication aspect in the message is not communicated properly.
So in general perspective the advertisement may have positive thinking about GP but is not
that much memorable for the consumers.
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10. 09. Do you think the advertisement is effective? Why or why not?
From the point of view of Mass People
In our opinion the advertisement is not that much effective because it’s an emotional thematic
advertisement targeted for mass people. But basically the theme is not expressed properly.
The people of Bangladesh have less expectancy due to illiteracy and if this advertisement is
made for mass people its vague because this can’t signify its motto. The focus of this
advertisement is diversified and made a confused poisoning of the brand and products. GP
branding is present in this advertisement but product focus is missing.
The advertisement is aimed at mass people but is not easily understandable. It may have
expressed its inner meaning to intellectual people who may already have internet facilities
available to them. So the direct sales will not be influenced as an output of this advertisement.
From the point of view of Product Life Cycle
From the perspective of product life cycle GP internet is now in a growth stage and consumers
are aware of the competitive scenario of the market. So to be successful in this stage there
should be competitive advertisements focusing on the products attributes.
From the point of view of Implication Level
Grameenphones main purpose for making this advertisement was to create awareness about
the thought-"Light will find its way" & learning. The advertisement was jointly aligned with
Brisho Shahitto Kendro as a CSR activity by Grameenphone which basically focus on the
spreading the light of education and knowledge on the minds of mass people. If this
advertisement is made for the purpose of creating awareness for gaining knowledge with the
help of internet, then why is it not communicated properly? In a real sense this advertisement
just touches consumers mind for a few seconds and fades out without creating any spot for
learning or anything.
From Image Building Perspective
Grameenphone has its own brand identity in the market as well as in consumer mind. Thus in
brand building perspective this advertisement is completely successful and can be considered
as another good and thoughtful advertisement created by Grameenphone and nothing more
than this.
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