Tutorial 1

How does audience equal profit?

Southeast Asia context: Brunei

Mass media audience: The mass media audiences would be the locals, tourist who read newspaper, watching television, social networking or websites to check out the latest news in their country.

Demographic: The population of Brunei Darussalam is estimated at 348,200. Population growth averages at 2.2% per year. 

Sex	%
Male	53
Female	47

Psychographic:

As an Islamic country, alcohol consumption in public is banned and there is no sale of alcohol in Brunei. Non-Muslims are allowed to purchase a limited amount of alcohol from their point of embarkation overseas for their own private consumption.

Most households own the latest electronic home entertainment systems. Concerts that are held in the country are usually organised or sponsored by different embassies and private companies. The cinemas in the country are popular with teenagers and foreign workers.

The Yayasan Complex has numerous shops selling a variety of branded goods. Although other departmental stores cum supermarkets like Hua Ho, Tiong Hin, Liang Toon and Supa Save offer consumer goods, people in Brunei may travel overseas to Singapore, Kuala Lumpur and the neighbouring towns of Labuan, Miri and Limbang for shopping, entertainment and other leisure pursuits.

Distribution system:

Brunei Darussalam has no personal income tax. There are no export, sales, payroll and manufacturing taxes. The profits of pioneer industries are exempted from tax depending on the amount of capital investment. The company tax is 30% of profit. All companies contribute 10% of local employee salaries to the Employees Provident Fund.

Analysis:

Economical: To boost economic growth, privatization is being introduced to improve efficiency and reliable services. Privatization will be implemented if it will benefit consumers, promote development of financial services and ease the financial and administrative burden of the government.

The 8th NDP has allocated 15.45% or B$1,127.6 million of the total development budget for the industry and commerce sector. Out of this total, the industrial development sector gets B$832.5 million or 11.49%.

Political: The political system in the country is governed by the constitution and the tradition of the Malay Islamic Monarchy, the concept of “Melayu Islam Beraja” (MIB). The three components of MIB cover Malay culture, Islamic religion and the political framework under the monarchy.

Educational:  Malay is the national language and is promoted as a medium of instruction in non-technical subjects. English remains the language of business and education in Brunei Darussalam. Free education is provided to all citizens from pre-school onwards. Amongst the English-medium first degrees which can be obtained from the University of Brunei Darussalam (UBD) are Education, Mathematics & Computer Science, Electronics & Electrical Engineering, Geography/Economics Major, Management Studies and Public Policy & Administration.

References: http://www.bruneipress.com.bn/brunei/brunei.html