Degree
Master of Business Administration
Faculty / School
Faculty of Business Administration (FBA)
Advisor
Dr. Amber Gul Rashid, Assistant Professor, Department of Marketing
Project Coordinator (Internal)
Sumayyah Khurshid Khan, Lecturer, Department of Marketing
Project Coordinator (External)
Shabana A. Khan
Committee Member 1
Dr. Amber Gul Rashid, Advisor, Director QEC, IBA Karachi
Committee Member 2
Sumayyah Kursheed, Lecturer, Department of Marketing, IBA Karachi
Project Type
MBA Research Project
Keywords
https://ir.iba.edu.pk/do/search/?q=Layton%20Rahmatulla%20Benevolent%20Trust&start=0&context=8598587&facet=">Layton Rahmatulla Benevolent Trust, Marketing strategy, Brand awareness, Brand Personality, Urban region, Target audience
Abstract / Summary
The Layton Rahmatulla Benevolent Trust (LRBT) is a professionally managed, non-profit organization set up in December 1984, by the late Graham Layton and Zaka Rahmatulla’ which today is providing free eye treatment to the poor & underprivileged citizens across the length & breadth of Pakistan so that no Pakistani would go blind just because he/she could not afford the treatment.
During the year ending June 2018, 3 million patients visited LRBT’s 19 hospitals and 56 Community Eye Health Centers, a growth of 4% over the previous year. During the same period 273,296 major & minor surgeries were performed. Growth in major surgeries was 2% over last year. Cataract, which is the leading cause of curable blindness constituted 90% of major surgeries. Other surgeries included vitreo-retinal procedures, Trabulectomy, Cornea transplants, DCR, Squint etc. (LRBT Annual Report 2018).
The LRBT’s aim to cover as many patients as possible has been consistent throughout its journey. But with the growing need to give appropriate financial and treatment resources like latest equipment, qualified staff salaries, medicines etc. it has become difficult for LRBT to continue its operations with available funding.
Here, LRBT invites IBA students to provide them assistance in formulation of a marketing strategy in light of donors and potential donors’ preferences that must be viable and effective enough to cater said problem thereby increasing donations. We, with no hesitation, accepted this task. With our first meeting with the client, we were able to know that the Ramadan is a month where most of the donations comes in at LRBT. The funds collected during this month covers 40% (approx.) of the budget estimated by LRBT management for the year. All funding is from within Pakistan. Hence foreign funding area is totally untouched. It is to mention here that foreign funding has been huge boost for many welfare institutions like Shaukat Khanam Hospital. Moreover, during discussion, it was revealed that a lot of people are not even aware of the infrastructure that LRBT has in Karachi. Mostly people were found to be aware of the Korangi hospital only, whereas LRBT, in Karachi, has a number of other operational facilities serving hundreds of patients as well. Similarly, residents of Lahore were found to have the perception that LRBT is a Lahore-only charitable organization with one hospital in the city and nothing else.
Thus, a problem ahead was “What should be a marketing strategy for LRBT in order to increase its brand awareness and recognition within the urban region of Pakistan with target audience males aged 30-55 years?” By increasing brand awareness and recognition, we believe that more funds could be generated for LRBT. One might get intrigued that why the gender and age band are defined? The notion behind it is most of breadwinners are male and hence possess decision power where to donate and where not to. Also, the people belonging to mentioned age band has been seen to be involved in huge donations. These facts were also supplemented by LRBT data and project external advisor.
To find a solution to a said problem, we set objectives i.e. to do comprehensive study of LRBT as a brand, to analyze donors and potential donors’ liking/disliking while donating to charitable institutions, to study donors’ awareness for LRBT Zakat/funding spending, to understand LRBT’s brand positioning in a competitive environment. Research questions are also developed to help us in achieving these objectives. Those research questions pertain to donor awareness about LRBT operations (scope), finding feasibility of running marketing ad/campaign other than Ramadan i.e. more than once a year, donors awareness about the size of a problem, how other competitive welfare institutes able to generate ample funds commensurate with their needs, how conventional and unconventional means could be effectively utilized to spread LRBT brand and recognition.
The results also show that public at large are unaware of LRBT and those who knows about it does not the LRBT scope and its mission. Due to its very high unawareness, people were almost neutral in our questionnaire sections pertaining to LRBT. Hence, we are very much inconclusive while drawing any aspect for LRBT operation since responses are majorly neutral. Thus, a strategy has been devised majorly focusing on brand awareness follow by initiatives to be taken by LRBT to raise donations. A model, ARAVIND Case Model, has been referred herein which can help LRBT to generate more funds.
Recommended Citation
Yousuf, F., Zoeb, H., Ali, M., Zahid, S., Baig, U. A., & Mughal, U. H. (2019). Marketing and resource development strategy (Unpublished graduate research project). Institute of Business Administration, Pakistan. Retrieved from https://ir.iba.edu.pk/research-projects-mba/221
