Analyze the effectiveness of integrated marketing communications (IMC) in Banglalink's brand repositioning: From telecom operator to digital service brand

Abstract

This internship report provides a detailed study of how effective Integrated Marketing Communications (IMC) is in the continuous brand repositioning process of Banglalink Digital Communications Ltd., a traditional telecom operator to a modern digital service brand. The research has been done during internship period in Employer Branding and Marketing Communications in Banglalink, secondary data and primary data (qualitative and quantitative) has been verified in the research. The main data was collected from a structured survey conducted with 55 Banglalink users to understand their brand awareness, channel exposure, message consistency, perception of digital services and overall perception of the repositioning effort. This is followed by semi-structured interviews with four employees of Banglalink who work in the talent management and brand marketing departments, who offer an insight into the company's internal communication strategy, brand identity and consumers' reactions to their campaigns throughout the analysis. The results show that while Banglalink has managed to reach its users well (87.3% of the surveyed users had received the re-brand signal and 90.9% noticed the change in the appearance of the brand), the user perception has not been completely transformed yet, as 43.6% of the users view Banglalink as just a telecom/SIM card company. The awareness of the brand's flagship digital products (Toffee 58.2%, MyBL Super App 50.9%) is reasonably good, while RYZE — the company's AI-powered digital lifestyle brand — is only recognized by 30.9% of respondents, which indicates that the communication investments made in newer digital products are not commensurate with their strategic roles. The largest single group (38.2%) reports “somewhat consistent” messages across channels, which is similar to the number of internal acknowledgements of “partial integration” in the IMC framework. The report makes five recommendations: direct messaging of “before-and-after” contrast images, centralizing a message governance structure to address the consistency gap, making use of the MyBL app's narrative “connective tissue,” RYZE, adding emotional storytelling to functional touchpoints of the MyBL app, and formalizing word-of-mouth as a structured communication channel through reference mechanisms within the MyBL app. Overall, from the data gathered and the perspectives of the internal staff, this report finds that Banglalink's IMC strategy is effective as a signal-sending exercise but not so effective as a meaning-changing exercise. The evidence shows that the process of brand repositioning is a long term process, and Banglalink is roughly half through a process that will need to invest in the brand through consistent, strategic communications to achieve it.