NTT DoCoMo: Case Submission

Submitted to
Prof. Prof. Prakash Bagri

In partial fulfillment of the requirements of the course

Strategic Marketing

By
Group 10
ABHINAV SHARMA (155003)
AMIT BHAGAT (144011)
KUNTAL DEKA BARUAH (155064)
MUKESH REGAR (155074)
SAMBHAV KANULLA (155113)
SHUBHANGI TRIBHUVAN (155141)
SREEPADA SAIRAM VIJAI (155134)

On

10-11-2016

Introduction: i-mode is a wireless Internet service offered in Japan by NTT DoCoMo. In just
three years, the service has won over 30 million subscribers and achieved a 60% share of Japan's
mobile Internet market, making it the most successful mobile data service in the world. It is now
early 2002 and Keiichi Enoki, managing director of NTT DoCoMo's i-mode service, faces
following two challenges.
On the domestic front, i-mode must fend off two strong competitors while managing the
migration of i-mode's existing customer base to DoCoMo's new 3G (third-generation) wireless
service.
On the international front, the company must figure out a way to bring the i-mode
model to U.S. and European markets, where consumers appear reluctant to adopt the mobile
Internet.
Issue of managing customer migration and maintain market share: The customer is
interested in quality of access and cost so retaining the customer base NTT DoCoMo should not
limit its services based on type and quality of the receiving handset or phone, not by whether
access is through GSM or CDMA. Low-end phones cannot access the same range of services.
Keeping the customers interests should be prime focus of NTT DoCoMo. This can be achieving
through integration and enhancement of services by leveraging the organizations assets.
DoCoMo should integrate its services (particularly value-added services), products and online
services and use these strengths to offer customers a unique telecom experience. It should focus
on innovation, quality and range of services has attracted customers to company. Companys
growth strategy should align to secure emerging opportunities in the rapidly-growing segment.
The company should use most of its wide range of products and services and reaching out to

customers. Company should expand into the CDMA and 3G space. Company should provide a
single-point interface for providing a seamless user experience to its customer.
Marketing Focus: DOCOMO is already an established brand so it should be on the forefront of
innovation and creativity in terms of the products, services and customer packages. DoCoMo
should concentrate on becoming more accessible to its customers. Company should formulate to
retain its youthful profile of its customers. It could be seen that (from exhibit 7 & 8) percentage
of female users have risen considerably from May 1999 to December 2001, 18% to 42%. Also
the percentage of 40+ age group people using i-mode has risen to about 35%, leaving the youth
population behind. Since DoCoMo targeted the youth, they now have to shift their segment
towards the 40+ people and the female users. These people might be the business people who
have to transfer data frequently and remain connected. So, DoCoMo should focus on these
people and give them some premium benefits. They should price the FOMA keeping these
people in consideration.
On the International font - DoCoMos i-mode subscriber alone comprises of 30-35% of the
total global mobile internet installed base. In the Europe market, there is 70% penetration of
internet in the market, but still the wireless internet connection is yet to catch up. This is because
customers are charged per minute fee for the WAP services they use which are expensive.
DoCoMo can introduce their i-mode or the FOMA services for which they charge at a monthly
rate according to the data the customers use and not on the duration of time the service is being
used. To introduce the service in the European market, DoCoMo also have to look for better
content provider for the customers to embrace their service. This can be done by providing the
content providers with a share of the profit that DoCoMo makes in its penetration period, after
which they can discontinue the service and come up with other plans.
In the American market, since people are skeptical about the use of internet in the 2 inch mobile
phones, DoCoMo could manufacture a bigger screen size mobile phone for the customers. Also
they should target the early adaptors for the launch of their service. Since the Americans prefer a
fixed monthly charge instead of a fee based on the usage, DoCoMo should provide the options of
customizing the users need and charging on the basis of that which should be lower than what
they pay for the fixed monthly rate.

To be sustainable in the long run, in both the markets, DoCoMo should not only target the
business users and the early adopters, they should also cater to other sections of users. DoCoMo
can segregate the needs of all the sections and provide customized services to them. This could
be done by opening the platform for more numbers of content providers to provide content to
their platform. With this, customers can easily pick up the services they need from a wide variety
of options. In this way, DoCoMo can cater to every section of people and be profitable in the
market.