IMKT Team Project Final Report Team Members: 1. Mohammed Abdoh Salem 2. Basel Al-kamarani 3. Mohamed Al-shami 4.

. Mohammed Al-Sharafi 5. Khaled Musheeb

According to a research about Yemen, there are many families who have relatives living abroad in the countries in which Zain is already operating in . Even though there are already three GSM operators in Yemen, Mobile telecommunication and services are still bad and expensive. Therefore, Yemen is considered to be a good market opportunity for Zain to operate in despite of the barriers that could make Zain to fail entering Yemen. This report is going to shadow Yemen as a good market opportunity for Zain operate in.

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Introduction
Zain is the pioneer of mobile telecommunications in the Middle East and Africa. It began life in 1983 in Kuwait as the regions first mobile operator, and since the initiation of its expansion strategy in 2003, it has expanded rapidly. They strive to become the preferred choice for voice, messaging, multimedia, call management, data and other services in 22 countries in the Middle East and Africa. In 2007, they were qualified to win a license to operate as a new GSM operator in Saudi Arabia. They are installing the latest advanced technology to their network to overcome competitive forces. However, human recourses have been playing the major role in the successful achievements in Zain.

Zian in Yemen
Zain company could think of entering the Yemeni market as an international GSM operator that has large experience of providing telecommunication services in good number of Middle Eastern and African countries. According to a research about Yemen, there are many families who have relatives living abroad in the countries in which Zain is already operating in . Even though there are already three GSM operators in Yemen, Mobile telecommunication and services are still bad and expensive. Therefore, Yemen is considered to be a good market opportunity for Zain to operate in despite of the barriers that could make Zain to fail entering Yemen.

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Market Entry
Due to the Yemeni law and regulations that forbid any foreign or global company from owning a full investment in the country, investment via equity stake might be the only and best way to enter Yemen. This investment can take the form of merger with one of the three GSM operators in Yemen, Sabafon, MTN Yemen, or Y. It will be so difficult for Zain to merge with either MTN or Sabafon because both of them have good market share and making good profit unlike Y company that failed in the Yemeni market. Therefore, merger with Y company is the best choice for Zain to enter the Yemeni market but there are many things should be done to achieve that merger. The first thing is that Zain will have to purchase 50% maximum of Y stocks that are hold by many businessmen. However, before that step there should be a merger contract done by both sides. Purchasing 50% of Y stocks might costs over 250$ million. The second thing is that Zain will have to and sign agreements with some of the governmental insituations such as the General Investment Authority and Ministry of Telecommunication in order to get a new investment license.

Legal, Regulatory, and Social Environment

The new company who is going to have the name (Zain Yemen) will have to pay 10% of its sales as a yearly fixed tax to Yemeni government. The social responsibility requires Zain- to spend 5% of its profits for social activities such building training , health centers, and offering scholarships for students.
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Costs Control
Because the company will be under the pressure of lowering its cost it will have to recruit employees from the local market and train them instead of bringing professional one from overseas, also finding suppliers who will manufacture scratch cards locally will help to cut the cost , reach and fulfill costumers needs .

Brand
Zain is an international brand which is standardized for all international markets that Zain operate in. Zain also can extend its brand to some new markets like Yemen, however they should adapt the Yemeni culture and needs by changing the company's communication and service strategies. Thus, all the activities related to promotion should correspond with the Yemeni tradition, values and beliefs in order to build a good brand image for Zain in the Yemenis' mind.

Services
Zain is going to offer many excellent services for the company's subscribers. However, the most important service is called one network call which enables a Zain subscriber in Yemen to call a Zain subscriber in any country with the same price. Third-generation services will also be adapted by Zain such as the video calling which enables subscribers to see each other through mobiles' screens that support this service and sending files. High speed Internet also will be a
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service offered by Zain Yemen with reasonable price. Zain will not stop until that, many services also will be offered after the launch of the company based on the market needs and completive advantages.

Marketing
In order to gain a big share of the Yemeni market, the company will have to study the countrys economy. Zain will also have to study the other competitors prices, services, and local suppliers and distribution costs. All these factors will help the company to make the right decision about the price is going to offer for the local costumers. The company will establish new distributing channels for its pre paid and bills cards this by finding skilled intermediaries who know the local market or finding new distributing points, and will directly represent its services. This strategy will help the company to get closer to the local costumers and feel any responded sensitively to its services. As the company will trade locally, the currency will be in Yemeni Rial and will be used in the official commercial contracts with local suppliers, distributors, and resellers. Because the company is still new, the sales strategy will be concentrated on account of intermediaries until becoming known in the market.

Pricing strategy:
Based on the fact that there are already two main competitors operating in the Yemeni
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market, the company will follow the penetration pricing strategy in order to gain a big market share. The second strategy will be used to reach those people who are willing to pay a premium price for particular mobile numbers, golden numbers (repeated numbers) , and list of services like video calls , record your own song instead of choosing songs from the menu and different bands services ectra,

Operations Challenges:
Zain will have to cope with many challenges that could lead to loses. One of the challenges is the fluctuation of the Yemeni Rial vs. the US dollar and Kuwaiti Dinar. The company will have to trade with the local currency so it will be difficult to collect its shares profits and transfer it to home land, so there is no other way but investing locally by buying new assets and establishing new centers. Other challenge is the stander of living in Yemen will force it to lower its prices to fit the local consumer income to solve this issue the company will have to make more effort to attract more customers so it can maintain its investment and start to make profit. Finally the government controls and regulations, Zain understands that with its competitive prices will compete Yemen mobile and Tele Yemen who are companies owned by the government and can also be accused in Dumping, but it is depending on the World trade organization laws that forbids the monopolistic act of Tele Yemen, and might sale one present of its shares that can make it avoid any accusations of dumping. Also there is the competitive behavior of the market with existence of two other companies one of them operates globally (MTN) and the other is operating locally (Saba Phone) and both of them are sourcing in Lower cost country the company as mentioned before will have to cut prices to stay competitive and depend on its own sourcing
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components as the wildest mobile network in the middle East and Africa .

Distribution Objective:
Zains believes in reaching all the costumers and provide them with its services. The company will have services centers in the main cities of Yemen. Those centers will be located in the most important and active areas inside each city beside building selling boxes in visible places inside malls, entertainment parks, and big supermarkets.

Distribution Intermediaries
Zain as a new company in Yemen, will need help to cover all the areas by finding intermediaries, the company will have to choose carefully some agents are skilled and trustable. These agents will help Zain in distributing its services. Zain will have to put some standards before selecting new agents. Zain will also have to set a rewarding strategy for its active and hardworking agents.

Global advertising

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Zain has been flowing a mix of standardized and localized strategies for its advertising. The same strategies will be applied to Yemen. An example of a standardized strategy is choosing a global madian to deliver massages to all Zain subscribers around the globe such as MBC2 or CNN TV channels. Another example of standardization is the Slogan A Wonderful World which has been standard for all countries that Zain operating in. The same slogan can be used for future markets in other countries including Yemen. One more dimension of standardization is the unified color system that Zain has which is a mix of black and purple. The Yemeni culture does not have any sensitivity against those colors, so it is possible to use them in advertisements. However, some localization strategies is needed for Yemen, such as the Arabic translation of the slogan. Selecting local median to deliver the company massages is also another dimension of localization. Zain can advertise in the local TV channels such as Yemen TV, AlSaeeda and Suhail . It can also advertise in the local newspapers or magazines such as Althawrra, 26 sptemper, Alnajah mag. Moreover, some new advertisements should be created specially for the Yemeni markets in order to show the social responsibility of Zain and to make Yemenis think about Zain as a local company.

Conclusion
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Zain tries to achieve the customer wants, so they try to flatten the world to their customer by using one small charge for their costumer no matter what country is he\she living or he\she is going as long as the company its located in that country, for example many Yemeni people go to Jordan for medical care, so they dont have to change their phone number because of the one-network telecommunications already solve that problems for their customer. Yemeni people also can call their relatives or friends who are living in the countries in which Zain is operating. Zain offers stocks for sale which allow people to invest their money in Zain and that will be useful for people to circulate their money and invest it