A Review of TM Positioning Marketing Strategy as The Market Leader of Telecommunication Industry in Malaysia
Abstract
This paper presents a comprehensive review of the marketing positioning strategy of Telekom Malaysia (TM), the longest-established and most dominant telecommunications company in Malaysia. Since its inception in 1946, TM has evolved into the market leader in fixed-line and broadband services, positioning itself as a pioneer in technological innovation and customer-centric service delivery. The study aims to explore how TM sustains its leadership status amid increasing market liberalization and growing competition from mobile and fiber broadband providers. Drawing on extensive literature and corporate data, the research adopts a quantitative methodology to analyze TM’s strategic positioning efforts. The findings reveal that TM leverages its extensive infrastructure, government-linked status, and brand legacy to maintain a near-monopoly, especially in last-mile connectivity. However, the rise of competitors such as Maxis and DIGI poses a strategic challenge. The study concludes that TM must innovate continuously, invest in customer experience, and modernize its infrastructure to preserve its competitive edge in the rapidly evolving telecommunications sector. Recommendations for enhancing TM’s strategic agility and service differentiation are provided to support long-term sustainability in a competitive regional market.
References
G. Armstrong, P. Kotler, and Z. He, Marketing: An Introduction, 2000.
A. E. Aydın, "A Conceptual Framework of Positioning Strategies: The Role of Product Category, Stage of Life Cycle and Brand Equity," in 12th International Conference, Aug. 2009, p. 24.
C. Blankson, "Testing a newly developed typology of positioning strategies in South Africa," Journal of African Business, vol. 8, no. 1, pp. 67–97, 2007.
P. H. Botha, The Building of Customer Relations within the Retail Industry, Doctoral dissertation, RAND Afrikaans University, 1999.
J. D. Carroll, P. E. Green, and A. Chaturvedi, Mathematical Tools for Applied Multivariate Analysis, rev. ed., Academic Press, 1997.
A. Kalra and R. C. Goodstein, "The impact of advertising positioning strategies on consumer price sensitivity," Journal of Marketing Research, pp. 210–224, 1998.
P. Kotler, Marketing Management: Analysis, Planning, Implementation and Control, Millennium ed., 2000.
M. D. Hutt and T. W. Speh, "Business marketing education: A distinctive role in the undergraduate curriculum," Journal of Business-to-Business Marketing, vol. 5, no. 1-2, pp. 103–126, 1998.
P. S. Manhas, "Strategic Brand Positioning Analysis through Comparison of Cognitive and Conative Perceptions," Universidad ESAN, vol. 15, no. 29, Dec. 2010.
M. E. Porter, "What is strategy?," Published Nov. 1996.
A. Ries and J. Trout, "Marketing warfare," Journal of Consumer Marketing, vol. 3, no. 4, pp. 77–82, 1986.
TM, "About Us," TM official website, 2014. [Online]. Available: https://www.tm.com.my/
D. Aaker and E. Joachimsthaler, Brand Leadership, New York: Free Press, 2000.
K. Keller, Strategic Brand Management, 3rd ed., Prentice Hall, 2008.
M. Solomon, G. Marshall, and E. Stuart, Marketing: Real People, Real Choices, 7th ed., Pearson Education, 2011.
Copyright (c) 2025 Laith Ali Zgair Gharan, Oday Lateef Mahmood, Baraa Shaalan Amir
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
In submitting the manuscript to the Central Asian Journal of Innovations on Tourism Management and Finance, the authors certify that:
- They are authorized by their co-authors to enter into these arrangements.
- The work described has not been formally published before, except in the form of an abstract or as part of a published lecture, review, thesis, or overlay journal.
- That it is not under consideration for publication elsewhere,
- The publication has been approved by the author(s) and by responsible authorities – tacitly or explicitly – of the institutes where the work has been carried out.
- They secure the right to reproduce any material that has already been published or copyrighted elsewhere.
- They agree to the following license and copyright agreement.
License and Copyright Agreement
Authors who publish with Central Asian Journal of Innovations on Tourism Management and Finance agree to the following terms:
- Authors retain copyright and grant the Central Asian Journal of Innovations on Tourism Management and Finance right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY 4.0) that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgment of the work's authorship and initial publication in this journal.
- Authors can enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the non-exclusive distribution of the Central Asian Journal of Innovations on Tourism Management and Finance published version of the work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or edit it in a book), with an acknowledgment of its initial publication in this journal.
- Authors are permitted and encouraged to post their work online (e.g., in institutional repositories or on their website) before and during the submission process, as it can lead to productive exchanges, as well as earlier and greater citation of published work.
