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A Marketing Report on

Eco (North South University)

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A Marketing Report on
BrickMate Concrete
Hollow Block

Submitted to:
Mr. Riasat Muhammad Amir
Senior Lecturer
Department of Marketing and International Business
North South University

Course: MKT 202

Section: 04
Submission Date: 19/12/19

Submitted By:

Name ID
Fahim Shahriar 1913063630
Samir Faraz Ocean 1912001030
Allama Mubarrat Bin Masum 1912250030

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Letter of Transmittal

19/12/2019
Mr. Riasat Muhammad Amir
Senior Lecturer
Department of Marketing and International Business
School of Business and Economics
North South University

Subject: Letter of Transmittal

Dear Sir,

It has been a great pleasure and a great opportunity to have completed this course under your
supervision. We have prepared this report in accordance with the instructions has been
provided by you. We are, hereby, submitting our assignment on ‘Marketing Plan’ as a part of
our course requirement of MKT202. By doing this project we have learned a lot about
concrete block’s marketing structure, market development, market segmentation of an
organization.

This report has provided us learning opportunities and we are truly thankful for that. We hope
we have done justice to this report and we apologize beforehand for any kind of silly mistake
we have made in this report.

Sincerely,
Name ID
Fahim Shahriar 1913063630
Samir Faraz Ocean 1912001030
Allama Mubarrat Bin Masum 1912250030

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Acknowledgement

Firstly, we would like to give thanks to the Almighty Allah for all the countless blessings for
giving us the strength to complete our project without making any delay “Alhamdulillah”.
Then we would like to give thanks to our honorable course instructor Mr. Riasat Muhammad
Amir Sir, senior lecturer department of marketing and international business, who has
advised us throughout the whole process and without his help our project would have been
almost impossible. After that, we want to convey thanks to our beloved group members for
devoting their full support and cooperation for giving valuable time to this project work.

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Table of Contents

Topic Topic Name Page

Numbe
r
01 Executive Summary 04
02 Introduction 05
03 The New-Product Development Process 06
04 Current Market Situation & Competitor Annalists 07
05 Product Review 08
06 SWOT Analysis 10
07 Channels and logistics Review 11
08 Distribution Strategy 12
09 Marketing Strategy 13
10 Marketing Communication Strategy 14
11 Pricing 14
12 Action Program 15
13 Elimination of Social Problem 16
14 Conclusions 16

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1. Executive Summary

BlockMate is a concrete block industry in Bangladesh that manufactures different sizes and
shapes of concrete blocks for the building industry. This paper focuses on a Marketing Plan to
the employment of marketing strategy and activities for a new business organization to offer
concrete hollow blocks in Bangladesh. Marketing is the process of improving new goods or
services in a market, but it very hard to ensure that a new product is easily captured in real
market. As our paper is written based on a concrete block industry, it is focuses on both direct
marketing and indirect marketing factors and uses a range of customer choice and preference
to connect businesses within our customers.
Ensuring a strong marketing, it’s very important to have a good presentation of marketing
tools and structured plan. In this case, we try to find out a new service.

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2. Introduction

BrickMate is a concrete hollow block industry in Bangladesh established in 2019. While the
country is still depending on red bricks to use in construction, we are proudly presenting
concrete hollow blocks in market that is cheaper, stronger and more environmental friendly.
Concrete hollow blocks have an important place in modern building industry. We produce
different sizes and types of block by changing moulds such as hollow block, solid brick
porous brick, interlock brick. So there have several types of concrete hollow block machines
that make different type of blocks and different structures of blocks. Concrete hollow block
machine and the materials mixing step is very important for making a block durable. Some
different type of block machine have different type of work for some example ‘Hollow
Cement Block Machine’ has a heavy-duty machine frame, which uses high intensity steel and
heat treatment. Concrete hollow blocks are cost effective and better alternative to burnt clay
bricks by virtue of their good durability, fire resistance, partial resistance to sound. Hollow
blocks is larger in size than the normal clay building bricks thus faster construction can be
achieved.

Building construction with concrete hollow blocks provides facility for enwrapping electrical
conduit, water and sewer pipes wherever so desired and requires less plastering.

2.1 Mission

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Our mission is to make home-ownership a joyful experience.

2.2 Vission

Our vision is to provide solutions to construction segment of our country.

2.3 Core Values

1. Win the customer's heart.

2. Work harder than everyone else and strive to be the best.

3. Maintain an entrepreneurial spirit.

4. Respect, develop, and empower our people.

5. High morals, honesty and integrity.

3. The New-Product Development Process

New Product development process means developing or offering a new product and services
in a market to solve a problem. There are some steps of the new product development
process.

1. Idea Generations: Idea Generation means is to create a large number of ideas to

solve particular problem. Bangladesh has the most polluted air in the world and there
are more than 8,000 traditional brick kilns active in Bangladesh which are considered
as the major sources of air pollution in the country. On the other hand, concrete
hollow block are completely made using machines so it doesn’t cause any harm to the
environment.

2. Idea Screening: To run this business, top management identifies the best idea to solve
lodging service in our country. Air pollution is a big problem in Bangladesh. So,
BrickMate decides to run an business operation to solve this problem by producing
concrete hollow blocks and this blocks are completely made using machines in a safe
way which does not emit toxic fumes and it is also beneficial to the environment.
Technological advantage is developing day by day. So, concrete hollow blocks is
very preferable for Brickmate.

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3. Concept Development and Testing: Firstly, Information have been collected from
specific areas to know customer opinions, are customers preferring to our services.
After analysing customers opinions, Brickmate designed a business function,
including service activities, our mission & vision, pricing etc. And customers are
informed about service activities to test Brickmate’s service in particular areas.

4. Marketing strategy development: Marketing strategy development means the initial

marketing strategy for introducing the product to the market.

i. Description of the target market: BrickMate’s management and

operation management decided to run their business in Dhaka and later
on services will be provided in other cities.

ii. Value proposition: BrickMate’s main aim is to offer environment

friendly building products and producing high quality concrete hollow
blocks to reduce pollution and make buildings more durable.

iii. Sales and profit goals: Offering best product at reasonable cost and
profit maximization.

5. Test Marketing: Primarily Brick mate decided to test this business by offering
samples to the developers of Dhaka to know how people are adopting our services.

6. Commercialization: After analyzing the test market, we will try to offer our services
in the whole Dhaka city and then the whole country.

4. Current Market Situation & Competitor Annalysis

Bangladesh is a developing country. When we say a developing country, an image comes to

our mind with large building .As a developing country we are constructing buildings every
other day using the old red brick and polluting our environment. Bangladesh is the fourth
largest producer and consumer of bricks in Asia after China, India, Pakistan and Vietnam,
according to various industry studies. There are more than 6000 traditional brick kilns which
cater for 99 per cent of the 17 billion pieces of the country's annual brick requirement. In the
process, the kilns emit large quantities of environmental pollutants into the atmosphere
causing harmful impact on agricultural yields, climate and health. Although the traditional

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brick sector contributes about 1 per cent of the country's $246 billion GDP, it is characterised
by low energy efficiency due to outdated technology, prevalence of small-scale kilns with
limited financial capacity, overuse and dependence on a single raw material. Therefore,
developmental transformation is urgently needed in the brick industry by gradually shifting it
towards cleaner processes, efficient technology and better product portfolio.
Given this backdrop, non-fired bricks/blocks (often cited as alternative bricks or AB) have the
required potential to become the next phenomenon in the brick field industry of Bangladesh.

4.1 Current Market Scenario of Alternative Bricks: For sometime now, the
government's Housing and Building Research Institute (HBRI) has been actively
involved in conducting experiments on a diverse range of alternatives to traditional
kiln bricks. Moreover, a number of private sector entrepreneurs who are now
commercially engaged in AB started experimenting on this sector in the late 90s.
Almost 5-6 years later the next group of entrepreneurs emerged. Officially, there are
around 15 organised alternative brick (AB) manufacturing companies in the country at
present, of which top 5 companies are controlling most of the market share. Market
situation concrete hollow block doesn’t have that much competitor so we will be able
to make huge amount of profit. We want to start our business to give a good product
and service to our all type of consumer.

4.2 Competitor Annalists: As it is newly introduced in our country it does not have
much competitors but they are doing really well in this business segment. There are
few companies who are market leaders in concrete block business. They are bti, Mir
Concrete and Eco Blocks Limited. They have good brand image and popularity. Their
marketing strategy also best in the market. We need to focus variation of strategy that
we think hard for us, but we will try our best.

5. Product Riview
BrickMate’s concrete hollow blocks offer multi-faceted benefits. Besides reducing
construction cost by around 20-25 per cent, it also provides positive environmental impact,
structural integrity and high durability. The buildings constructed with our product will be
resistant to temperature which makes them less susceptible to temperature fluctuations. For

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this reason, users of the buildings can lower heating and cooling bills by up to 25 per cent.
Here are some key features of our product:
 Light Weight:- Light weight saves cost in transportation, labor expenses and
increases chances of survival during seismic activity. Also it makes the building
lighter.
 Shape & Sizes:- Larger sized block leads to faster masonry work. Faster construction
than the red brick. Size of one “Brick Mate” equals to the size of eight red brick. One
BrickMate’s hollow block weights around 5 to 12 kg where as eight red brick can
weight up to 15 to 26 kg for the same volume. Also customers are getting a large list
of options to choose from. Here is the options we are providing:

 Water Absorption: Less moisture absorption than the red brick. So using out concrete
block you can also save water.
 Compressive strength and workability: High compressive strength than the red brick
workability allows easy and accurate cutting which minimizes the generation of solid
waste during use.
 Thermal Efficiency: Improved thermal efficiency reduces the heating and cooling
load in buildings.
 Durability: One of the major advantages of our concrete hollow blocks is their high
durability. Concrete hollow blocks are compacted by high pressure and vibration,
which make the blocks very strong and able to withstand a high level of loading. They
also have high fire resistance and no salinity which reduces their maintenance cost.
 Cost Effective: BrickMate’s one concrete hollow block replaces five traditional bricks,
causing reduction in the construction cost. Hollow block construction also requires
less mortar and saves labor hours, reducing both mortar and labor costs
 Environmentally Friendly: BrickMate’s concrete hollow blocks are very environment-
friendly. Unlike traditional brick manufacture, which releases harmful fumes, hollow
blocks are machine-made, thus saving our environment.

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 Greater Earthquake Resistance: BrickMate’s concrete hollow block offers great

earthquake resistance. Due to its light weight, it is more durable during the earth
quake.

6. SWOT Analysis
SWOT analysis means strengths, weakness, opportunities and threats. SWOT analysis
presents a brief overview of the strength, weakness, opportunities and threats. It is a short
view of the internal and external environment. Strengths, Weakness is Internal analysis and
Opportunity and Threat are External analysis. Here is the SWOT analysis of our product:

Strength

 Environment Friendly: Concrete hollow block do not make any pollution and easy to
produce by hollow block machine.
 Cost Effective : Every class of people can afford to buy blocks in reasonable price.
 Highly Durable : One hollow block is very much strong than one brick and make
stronger the building structure.
 Speedy Construction : Hollow block machine take few time to make block because of
new machine and successfully crate building.
 Better sound proof and temperature proof.
 Block are less weighted than brick.
 The labor costs and materials used to construct homes with hollow blocks are cheaper.

Weakness
 Block is not insulated for northern climates because of the frame wall are not
being insulated. Therefore ,the cold air from the outside will transfer into the
house
 Block is not vulnerable to fire, mole and termites.
 Continuous increase in costs of raw materials and labour costs
 Block is new in market causing a need of huge amount of investment in
promotion.

Opportunities

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 Company may grow their economy states if they can maintain the market strategy
and they could have contest with competitors
 Income level is at a constant increase if the market does not change
 Attend in New market and easily growth their sales because market has very few
competitors and new company easily can enter the market.

Threat
 If the market Growing competitor it can be effect on economic states and
company may down or lower profitability .
 In the market have so many competitors that’s why company make Price
variation for reduce other competitors from market and changing for many
competitor in the market
 Increasing rates of tax may come as a threat for company
 Global Economy : market strategy changing day by day also competitor
increasing in the market. Now company want to stay in the market and they
decreasing their product price for stay in market and that’s why global
economy crisis can arise.
 Financial Capacity : some company come with a very new product and need
huge investment but at a time that company do not contest with other company
so the new company must leave the market because they don’t have the
financial capacity to join competition in the market.
 Increase Labor Costs: Economic strategy changing and people’s demand also
increasing so labor cost increasing their cost but it is a come as a threat to the
company.

7. Channels and logistic

Concrete hollow block is a product that is very accessible for making a building durable and
provide a strong structure. In this business our company BrickMate chooses some of channel
which will help to make strong relationship with many type of customers. So in this part our
company try to make a strong communication which will also help to promote our product to

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different type of people and they will know more about our product that is why concrete
hollow block is more important than normal bricks .

 Government: We may create a channel with government. There are so many

government works (such as hospital, official building) that are given to the
agencies, so our company may communication with government and make
agreement of supplying concrete hollow blocks. Also government try to done
there work within lowest cost. If government agree to deal with our company
it will help use to make a good relation with government
 Private company : Many privet companies such as builders will be contacted
and convinced to use our hollow block. They will also be provided with
samples so that they can assure the benefits of our product.
 Retail consumer: Some of the people like to buy products in low cost but also
has to be a good in quality. So we also may target those people for making our
sales larger by providing our products to the retailers.

8. Distribution Strategy

A distribution channel is the path or route decided by the company to deliver its good or
service to the customers. The route can be as short as a direct interaction between the
company and the customer or can include several interconnected intermediaries like
wholesalers, distributors, retailers, etc. There are basically 3 ways by which we can distribute
our product:

1) Direct selling: Selling the blocks directly to the end customer.

Example- The end customer may come to our office & directly order the quantity of blocks
he/she needs.

2) Selling Through Intermediaries: Wholesalers buy the bulk from the manufacturers, breaks
it down into small packages and sells them to retailers who eventually sell it to the end
customers. Goods which are durable, standardized and somewhat inexpensive and whose
target audience isn’t limited to a confined area use two-level channel of distribution.

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Example- we can introduce bonuses for wholesalers, who can sell a specific quantity of our
product, hence they will try to sell this product more.

3) Dual Distribution: Dual distribution describes a wide variety of marketing arrangements by

which the manufacturer or wholesalers uses more than one channel simultaneously to reach
the end user. They may sell directly to the end users as well as sell to other companies for
resale. Using two or more channels to attract the same target market can sometimes lead to
channel conflict.

Example- BrickMate will sell the blocks to other companies who can resale the product.
Companies like bti and other developer companies will be our priorities.

9. Marketing Strategy

Now, as we all know that there are certain requirements and boundaries which are needed to
be followed to again the highest market shares, we need to follow some marketing strategies.
They are:

1. Market Segmentation: Diving markets according to needs, characteristics and

geodemographic location based. The specialized sound proof brick won’t be needed in a
village but buildings in a city like Dhaka has requirements like this. So BrickMate’s first
approach will be Dhaka.
2. Market segment: Market segment is based on those, where and whom we should sell our
product. So, BrickMate’s service randomly selected a few areas. We mainly chose the
builders and the the retailer who sells construction materials.
3. Market targeting: Process to evaluate each market segment’s focuses. Builder companies
focuses on buying a good quality brick at a cheap price in a regular basis where as a person
buying bricks to build his own building has a higher chance of coming once, so the target
should be building companies. So BrickMate’s target market is formed with the retailers.
4. Market positioning: It refers to the customer’s perception of a brand or product in relation
Market positioning is the way of product is defined by consumers on important attributes. In
positioning there are five variations - product differentiation, service differentiation, channel
differentiation, people differentiation and image differentiation. From these five positioning
parts, BrickMate defined two types: Product and Service Differentiation. By these two types

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differentiation people know our service and if the service is helpful, they spread it to the
people they know. Also our product being environment friendly and durable as well
compared to the red flamed bricks, people will not think twice to come to us to buy our
concrete hollow block.

10. Marketing Communication Strategy

BrickMate’s promotion team will be following some communications strategy to promote its
product. These are as follows.
 Online Advertising: Ads will be put up on different platforms of the internet like
Facebook, Instagram, Youtube etc. Also, a Facebook page will be created to post all
relative information about BrickMate so that the market stay up to date with it.
 Sponsorship: Deals will be made with different builders and real estate developer
companies. Our company name will be in the banner or leaflets of these company’s
events.
 Print Advertising: Different types of banners will be given to the companies and
banks that provide home loan. Also we will promote our product by using billboards.
 Events: We will organize events to let people know why they should use Brickmate’s
concrete hollow blocks. We will also participate with other company’s events to
promote our product in the market.

11. Pricing

Now the price will be varied by the shapes of BrickMate’s concrete hollow blocks and the
amount of the purchase. On an average the price will be:

Size Weight Average Price

390mm x 190mm x 110mm 12 KG BDT40 to BDT60/Piece
390mm x 190mm x 100mm 11.50 KG BDT35 to BDT55/Piece
390mm x 190mm x 90mm 9.38 KG BDT30 to BDT50/Piece
195mm x 190mm x 90mm 4.70 KG BDT20 to BDT40/Piece

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This pricing table depends on the cost of the raw material, labor cost and other relatable costs.
So the actual price of BrickMate’s concrete hollow block is not fixed and might change
accordingly. But as a single hollow block replaces 4 to 8 usual sized red bricks, it is still cost
efficient if we compare the pricing criteria.

12. Action Program

The very first step of the Company BrickMate will be locating the area where most people
are going to build their new destinations for last one year. The task of the company is to
communicate more and more people, because connecting with people can bring some unique
and helpful information for the company. First of all, they have to communicate with the
builders with the proper information, government for certification and to the stores of
different area where most people are reaching for building their new homes and properties.
They must ensure the safety of the furniture, family and the building. When at least those
major terms have done the company should take some attempts.

In this regard, the BrickMate Company will perform the following action programs during
the first three months of its opening.
 January, 2020: A team from the Company will go to different places of Dhaka to talk
with different builders, to the banks that provide home loans to make a deal of renting
their products to the customers in return for 50% commission. . Once that deal is
made, The Company will fix the locations and put it on the leaflets and every other
selected advertising places.

 February, 2020: The most favorable and attracting advertising media nowadays are
Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, YouTube and other websites like online shop, online
stores and such. The official advertisements will be published in the most popular
national and building related pages.

 March, 2020: After the time, when the Company will get some attention from the
people it’ll be high time to build own company website, mobile app and policies with
proper certification and meaningful information so that people can easily get the
favorable information what they wanted and some booking methods. Different

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promotional campaigns will be started to attract the audience towards the business
like, sponsorships, print advertisement etc.

13. Elimination of Social Problems

Our company BrickMate is well associated with the social problem that includes
unemployment, environmental disaster etc. happening in Bangladesh. So we also try to solve
few of them through our product.
 Unemployment: Since BrickMate has it’s own concrete hollow block factory, it
requires a large amount of workers to work in the factory. In this case, we hire young
workers and train them properly. So the unemployed young unemployed people can
work in our factory. Our company also hires architect engineers, civil engineers,
business graduates and it helps them to start or build their career.
 Preventinf Pollution: BrickMate’s factory does not use any kind of non-renewable
energy. Also it is more environmental friendly because of zero use of fire. Unlike
traditional brick manufacture, which releases harmful fumes, hollow blocks are
machine-made, thus saving our environment.

14. Conclusions
With the overall perspective view the company BrickMate that brings concrete hollow blocks
to the new generation also brings some benefits that can make a happy smile on customer
faces and alongside of this it’ll also bring some loyal group of customers. Hollow Blocks
comes with superior earthquake resistance, cost efficient, speedy construction, comfortable
interior, eco-friendly, high durability. Also, this company will recruit many educated people
and unemployed people will get jobs and help the county to boost its economy.

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