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

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
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14 Northern 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 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

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
8
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

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

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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3) Unstated needs
The customer expects great service from the car salesman.
4) Delight needs
The customer would like the dealer to include a GPS.
5) Secret needs
The customer wants friends to see her as a savvy consumer.”

And then the eight types of demands
“1) Negative demand
Consumers dislike the product and may even pay a price to avoid it.
2) Nonexistent demand
Consumers may be unaware of uninterested in the product.
3) Latent demand
Consumers may share a strong need that cannot be satisfied for an existing product.
4) Declining demand
Consumers begin to buy the product less frequently or not at all.
5) Irregular demand

p. 182).”
After understanding customers’ needs, wants, and demands, this part will give
characteristics influencing consumer behavior. “Consumer behaviour is the study of
when, why, how, and where people do or do not buy product”, footnote number
one. Consumer behaivor relates to buying behavior. That is the decision process for
consumers to buy a product. Decision process includes problem recognition,
information search, and evaluation of alternatives, purchase decision, purchase, and
post-purchase evaluation.
It is also useful to know customers’ demands. According to Philip Kotler, there are
four main factors. They are cultural factors, social factors, personal factors, and
psychological factors. Philip Kotler summerised these factors in the following
figure:
Cultural
Culture
Subculture
Social class
Social
Reference groups
Family
Roles and status
Personal
Age and lifecycle
stage
Occupation
Economic situation
Lifestyle
Personality and
Self-concept
Psychological
Motivation

clothes, whereas executives buy more business suits. Economic situation: A
consumer’s economic situation will affect product choice. If economic indicator
point to recession, marketers can take steps to redesign, reposition, and reprice their
products closely. Lifestyle: people coming from the same subculture, social class,
and occupation may have quite different lifestyles. Lifestyle is a consumer’s pattern
of living as expressed in his or her psychographics. It involves consumer’s
activities, interest and opinions. When used carefully, the lifestyle concept can help
the marketer changing consumer values and how they affect buying behavior.
Personality and self concept: each consumer’s distinct personality influences his or
her buying behavior. Personality refers to the unique psychological characteristics
that lead to relatively consistent and lasting response to one’s own environment. For
example, coffee marketer have discovered that heavy coffee drinker tend to be high
on sociability. Thus Starbucks and other coffee houses create environments in
which people can relax and socialize over a cup of steaming coffee.
We can now appreciate the many forces acting on consumer behavior. The
consumer’s choice results from the complex interplay of cultural, social, personal,
and psychological factors. Although many of these factors cannot be influenced by
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the marketers, they can be useful in identifying interested buyers and in shaping
products and appeals to serve consume needs better.
CHAPTER THREE
FINDINGS ON CHARACTERISTICS AND
DEMANDS OF THE STUDENTS ABOUT Q
STUDENT
1. General analysis
1.1 Some features that Q Student are good at understanding students’
characteristics
MobiFone offered the largest number of Student Sims (375000 cards) at 300
universities, colleges, and training schools in the school year 2009-2010. This large
number of Sims enables more students to have chance to use mobile phones easily

Staffs that are responsible for doing this task are not really helpful. Most students
felt uncomfortable when they worked with these staffs. Some students complained
that they had to wait for a long time to register while some staffs talked with their
co-workers and did nothing. They did not really show their respect to customers.
There were only a few people replying hundreds of students.
Benefits that the company offers students monthly are not effective. Many students
do not have chance to use modern mobiles to use GPRS or send multimedia
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messages. They have other demands like talking for long hours or sending more
short messages. The company has not care much about student’s needs, wants, and
demands when providing benefits monthly. Students account for a large number of
customers who are not only students for long time but become business men, staffs
or even leader in the future. Therefore, grouping students is a necessary task to
provide suitable promotion programs monthly.
1.3 Opportunities the company can get through developing Q Student
The first thing that is the company can get the larger market share. We can use the
figure of the year 2008 to analyze. According to General Statistics Office, the
number of students at universities, and colleges, were 1675700 (that number did not
include students at training schools) whereas the number of subscribers at
MobiFone company was 21000000. Moreover, more and more students are using
mobile phones. In recent years, the prices of mobile phones have been reducing.
The needs of using mobiles to contact are increasing. These prove that students
account for the large number of customers in telecommunication market. If
MobiFone can attract this group of customers, they can develop more their market
share.
Secondly, improving Q Student is a good opportunity for MobiFone to advertise
their brand name. Students are people who have much time and knowledge to study
products before deciding to buy them. Once MobiFone shows its impression on
students’ minds, it will be interested in by following generations as well as other
group of customers. As a result, MobiFone can confirm their brand to compete well

message service
25 MMS 25 MMS
Group call
50 % off to 5
registered intra
network
numbers
VND 840/minute
to 5 registered
intra network
numbers.
The first challenge is that Viettel is the first operator which offers this new student
package. It started on 1st June 2009 while Q Student began more than two months
later on 25th August 2009. Being the first mover, Viettel has more advantages when
accessing the market earlier. To be the second operator providing the student
package, MobiFone has to think of strategies which need to attract student more and
make them become the regular customers. It is difficult for MobiFone when
customers do not want to change their existing numbers because not many students
have more than one mobile and it will take a long time to inform their friends and
relatives the new numbers.
Vinaphone is the latest mobile operator providing student package until now.
However, this provider has some interesting benefits such as it offers students more
money than the two other operators above. While MobiFone offers VND 25000,
Vianphone provides VND 30000. Most students like having more money to do
anything they like. Therefore, this benefit makes students feel more attractive.
1.4.2 Challenges from new mobile operators
Nowadays there are some new mobile providers in the market. These new mobile
providers are owned by foreign investors who have a lot of experience in the
telecommunication area and much capital.
Firstly, we can talk about Vietnammobile. By March 2009, The Company got GSM

Then, Beenline is a new competitor. This mobile provider has a very interesting
package named “Big Zero”. The competitive feature of this package that can attract
students is the low intra network charges. With the package “Big Zero”, customers
can call cheaply with only 0 Vnd for on-net calls from 3rd minute. This package
seems to be competitive with Q Student when customers only spend 1199 VND
calling other intra network numbers for long time as they like.
Prices Validity period
Local outgoing calls
Calls to Beeline numbers
0 VND/min - from 3rd minute of talk
1199 VND - first 2-min and from 21st min *
Calls to other network 1199 VND / min *

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Local SMS
SMS to Beeline numbers 250 VND
SMS to other networks 350 VND
International Calls 4114 VND / minute
International SMS 2500 VND
GPRS – Internet 5 VND / KB
(Souce: />In addition, SFone has one package named “One VND”, in which customers can
call to other SFone numbers at one VND per minute from the second minute. The
first six second bloc costs VND 216 for intra network numbers and subsequent one
second costs VND 16.
In the future, new mobile operators may come to Vietnamese market. These new
companies with their new strategic products will be MobiFone’s direct competitors.
It is not surprising when they choose youngsters as their target customers. Students,
of course, will be potential customers. Their promotion campaigns focusing on
these customers will affect Q Students.
In general, all new mobile providers in Vietnamese markets have their own

Students have different styles and various purposes of using mobile. 42 percent
used mobiles to call most; 21 percent sent messages the most; 13 percent usually
answered phones from their relatives or friends; the last one used phones for other
purposes. Besides using basic functions such as calling and listening, sending and
receiving messages, 75 percent of students (most of them used one mobile) told that
they did not have any other demand, 25 percent liked using multimedia services like
chatting, sending email, reading newspapers, playing games online and so on. Most
of them have high tech mobile. We can easily understand these numbers through
the pie chart -3 below.
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92 percent of students using mobile phones said that they usually knew about
promotion programs through short messages of the mobile operators. 5 percent got
information when they accessed Internet and the others knew the news through their
friends.
2.2 Consumer demands on using mobile
All students liked to get VND 25000 monthly because they said that they could do a
lot of things out of this amount of money.
It is clear that different people with various purposes of using mobiles have their
different preferences on promotion programs. 23 percent of 200 students wanted to
get free calling minutes, 21 showed their interests on free short messages, 13
percent liked to have more free megabyte to use GPRS, 8 percent preferred to send
some multimedia messages freely; the others got the idea of receiving extra money
for their listening minutes, or using some value added services freely. The
interesting point is almost people called the most want to get more free calling
minutes or a large number of sending short messages the most like to get more free
short messages instead of sending MMS. These figures prove that the researcher is
correct in the first part of the task when students have different demands for their
choices. Let draw a table to summarise the wants of different small groups of
students:
Main purpose Wants

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CHAPTER FOUR
RECOMMENDATIONS TO IMPROVE
PROMOTION PROGRAMS FOR Q STUDENT
The general idea of this recommendation is to offer various benefits to different
kinds of students. Different kinds of students are grouped as the table above. In
addition to groups divided, the company should notice three kinds of student
customers: pre-students, the ones who are going to become students, students, and
graduates. However, the main scope of this research is students. Therefore,
recommendations to improve the promotion of product Q Student focus on students.
With the two other kinds, the researcher only gives basic recommendations which
need to be developed more.
1. Recommendations to develop the promotion of Q
Student to students
These customers already have their choices. It means they are the company’s
customers. The company controls their buying behavior through customer care
centre. Therefore, the company’s task is to make them trust the company more
through the things the company have done and will do. As the result of the survey,
97% of students have time to search information about the products they are using.
They almost (100% among students) believe in the short messages from the
operator. Therefore, with these kinds of students, we only need the cheapest way to
offer promotion programs.
According to the result of the survey, the content of the promotion for this group of
students depends on the purpose of their using mobile.The fixed amount of money
which the company provides students is still the same. This is very necessary for
students because they have basic needs for that amount of money. Besides, the
company should offer them additional benefits which are suitable for different
people.
• Firstly, company should offer free calling minutes monthly for students who
mainly call during the month. The number of minutes depends on the cost