Escolar Documentos
Profissional Documentos
Cultura Documentos
ON
MARKETING STRATEGIES OF AIRTEL
SUBMITTED UNDER PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE
REQUIREMENT FOR
TRAINING SUPERVISOR:
PROJECT ADVISOR:
SUBMITTED BY:
SESSION:
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
I acknowledge the sincere assistance provided to me from several
rather unexpected quarters during the course of execution of this
study. It would be a mammoth task to place on record my gratitude
to each and every one of them but a whole hearted attempt would
be made nevertheless, least I be branded ungrateful.
I am extremely thankful to Mr.Abhishek Yadav, (Unit Advisor) for
giving me an opportunity to undergo training in BHARTI AIRTEL
MARKETING and making my stay at AIRTEL MARKETING a
memorable learning experience.
Where the emotions are involved words cease to work. I am deeply
indebt to ---------------------- for her encouragement, affections,
valuable advice and guidance that helped me to complete this
project successfully.
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
satisfaction.
The
focus
of
my
research
was
the
TABLE OF CONTENTS
1.
2.
3.
INTRODUCTION
4.
PROMOTIONAL STRATEGY
5.
MARKET SITUATION
6.
COMPETITIVE SITUATION
7.
8.
OBJECTIVE
9.
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
10.
LIMITATION
11.
SWOT ANALYSIS
12.
CONCLUSION
81
83
10
1996 with the licensing of new local fixed line and mobile service
providers. However, it has been the government's New Telecom
Policy (1999) that has had the most radical impact on the
development of GSM services. 'The policy's mission statement is
'affordable communications for all', There is a genuine commitment
to creating a modern and efficient communications infrastructure
that takes account of the convergence of telecom, IT and media. In
addition, the policy places significant emphasis on greater
competition for both fixed and mobile services.'
12
more than 40 networks, which cover the seven largest cities, over
7000 towns and several Lacs villages. Such depth of coverage has
required enormous investment from India's operators. It is
estimated that more than Rs200 billion had been invested in
India's GSM industry by mid-2000, a figure that is set to be
supplemented by a further Rs. 300 billion over the next five years.
13
14
but said future growth rates could slow because of heavy taxes on
the nascent industry. Although Indias mobile sector is the worlds
fastest growing major wireless market, it is amongst the highest
taxed industries in the country. Mobile carriers pay as much as 25
percent of their revenue as licence fee, spectrum charges and other
taxes. The Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI) said
revenue for fiscal 2003/04 stood at 83.08 billion rupees ($1.86
billion) compared with 64 billion rupees a year earlier. According to
T.V. Ramachandran, director general at COAI,
These revenue
15
among
The
companies.
association
has
Growth
not
slowing,
included
the
demand
financial
16
Airtel
Ltd,
28
percent
owned
by
Singapore
Telecommunications, Reliance Infocomm Ltd and the Indian GSMunit of Vodafone group battle in the hotly competitive sector.
17
GSM operators are not the only ones who are worried about the
rapid strides made by CDMA mobile players Reliance Infocomm
and Tata Indicom in the Indian cellular market?
The GSM suppliers both handset and equipment - who
incidentally also have their other foot firmly placed in the CDMA
pie, are beginning to lose some sleep over what was earlier termed
as `niche and `minuscule data carriage market by the operators
Apart from the strong success of the two CDMA operators whose
networks are based on code division multiple access (CDMA), the
18
19
the Internet, and other data services. GSM operators, on the other
hand, have had to migrate from the frustrating experience of WAP
(wireless application protocol) to GPRS, which has not significantly
improved the subscribers experience of surfing the Net on/from
mobile.
The top brass of GSA, an organisation comprising Nokia, Siemens,
Ericsson, Alcatel and Lucent Technologies - met on Tuesday in the
capital to persuade the operators to adopt EDGE (Enhanced Data
rates for GSM Evolution) and leave GPRS behind as a dream gone
sour.
Only Airtel, Vodafone, BPL Mobile and Idea Cellular had launched
GPRS, but the data transfer speeds of GPRS have been abysmal.
The field trials gave a speed of around 54 kbps, but the actual
speeds have not exceeded 14-18 kbps, a major reason why GPRS
growth has been so slow. As against the total GSM cellular base of
5.61 crore, the country has between 2,80,000 lakh GPRS users
only. In comparison, the two CDMA operators have about 120 lakh
connections. All these sets are data compliant. Though no figures
are available as to how many use these for data services, the figure
is believed to be respectable as a percentage ratio for CDMA.
20
EDGE holds the promise of delivering data speeds of around 170180 kbps (as against the theoretical speed of around 380 kbps)
which, if achieved, promises the launch of many data applications.
The scalable cost of migrating from GPRS to EDGE is not too high
and mainly comprises software upgrades in case of a modern
network such as Bharti and Hutch, claimed chairman of GSA India
chapter Rakesh Malik.
21
22
23
What will matter a lot in this war will be the availability of EDGE
compliant handsets at affordable rates. While the two CDMA
operators have been giving out handsets that can give hi-speed
data transfer, same has not been the case with GSM. Even now,
GPRS handsets have not become commonplace and GPRS feature
is found only in mid and high-end segment handsets.
24
25
INTRODUCTION
investments
in
telecommunications
services.
Its
26
integrated
telecom
conglomerate,
Bharti Enterprises.
27
28
Prepaid Roaming
Airtel Prepaid comes preactivated with 'National Roaming', so you
stay connected no matter wherever you are. You can also send or
receive MMS, check your email and access other GPRS services
while roaming in India as you would in your own city. While
traveling abroad you can receive calls & send or receive SMS.
Other Services
29
Airtel brings you, a wide range of Services that will change the way
you communicate. Try them and discover a whole new world of fun
and excitement.
Call management Services
Call waiting, call hold, call divert and Caller Line Identification
Presentation all with your Airtel prepaid connection.
Voice Mail
When your handset is switched off, or youre too busy to answer
the phone, Airtel Voicemail will answer your calls and record a
message. The best part is that there's no extra monthly cost for
setting up Voicemail - you just pay for the phone call when you use
the service.
SMS (Short Messaging Service)
Send messages quickly and easily using text, if it's too noisy to talk
or you don't have much time. It's the way to share those interesting
one-liners, important reminders and rib-tickling jokes, with
anyone, anytime, anywhere in the world.
Subscription Alerts
30
Airtel Live! Voice Services: Just Dial 56465, and name the
service. For e.g. say ring tones to download your favorite ring
tones. You can also choose a variety of content options like Live
Cricket Commentary, latest National / International News, Movie
Reviews or Stock Market Updates.
Airtel Live! SIM Services: Access loads of fun content and
exciting services like cricket, stocks, on your phone at the touch of
a few buttons with Airtel Live! SIM based Services on your SIM
card menu. To download new services on your Airtel SIM, choose
the "What's new" option under the "Airtel services" menu.
Airtel Live! SMS Services: You can enjoy a host of services by
sending a keyword as an SMS to 56465! Choose Astrology /
Horoscope, Cricket, Bollywood / Hollywood / Indi Pop Ring tones.
In case you need assistance SMS, Help to 56465.
32
Hello Tunes
Tired of that boring old tring tring on your phone? Well now when
a friend calls, you can make them groove to the hottest new tracks
burning up the music charts with Hello Tunes from Airtel! You get
a wide choice of songs in the Popular & New Arrivals categories
that are updated regularly. What's more you can directly call the
number for your kind of music, e.g. call 678005 for English New
and 678001 for Hindi New. This would directly take you to your
favorite artist's Hello Tunes listing.
Copy a Hello Tune
Get the tune you want, all you have to do is call 55055 and follow
the simple voice instructions to copy your favorite Hello Tunes.
Once inside the copy feature, just key in the 10-digit Airtel mobile
number you want to copy the Hello Tune from and you get the
same Hello Tune assigned to your number.
Gift a Hello Tune
Forget gifting chocolates, flowers and greeting cards. Say it with a
song instead! Gift a Hello Tune to that special someone. Just call
55055 and choose the song that you want to gift. Follow the simple
33
also
send
us
an
SMS
to
121
or
us
at
121@airtelindia.com.
*In case of email, mention your mobile no. like, 9810012345, in
the subject of the mail for a quicker response.
Airtel Postpaid
34
35
36
37
our
convenient
payment
method
of
Credit
38
Card
Standing
39
Airtel brings you a wide range of Services that will change the way
you communicate. Try them and discover a whole new world of fun
and excitement.
Call management Services
Call waiting, call hold, call divert and Caller Line Identification
Presentation, help you do more with your Airtel Postpaid
connection!
Conference call
You can hold a teleconference with 5 people simultaneously with
Call Conferencing service from Airtel. In fact, you can set up a
conference even when the other five are using a landline phone. To
know more, call customer service at 121.
Missed call alert
A missed call alert is a SMS that you will receive for all the calls
that you missed. The SMS will detail the CLI and the time when
the call was made. To activate, dial *135*2# then press the call
button and wait for the request to be completed.
Voice Mail
40
41
42
43
44
45
46
PROMOTIONAL STRATEGY
Airtel to Touch Tomorrow with a new brand vision
The Bharti Mobile promoted AirTel cellular service will go in for
repositioning of its brand image. The new brand ethos is portrayed
in two distinct fashions - the tag line "Touch Tomorrow", which
underscores the leading theme for the new brand vision, followed
by "The Good Life", which underscores a more caring, more
customer centric organization. Aimed at re-engineering its image
as just simply a cellular service provider to an all out information
communications services provider, Touch Tomorrow is meant to
embrace the new generation of mobile communication services and
the changing scope of customer needs and aspirations that come
along with it
The new communication is about a new dimension in the cellular
category that goes beyond the Internet, SMS, roaming, IVRS, etc
47
48
49
MARKET SITUATION
At this
installed was for 1.5 lakh subscribers. This coupled with the steep
license fee paid to DOT put pressure on the operators to breakeven by rapidly expanding their markets.
50
COMPETITIVE SITUATION
Airtel launched its services before Essar and skimmed the market
picking up the bulk of the high usage premium clients. This is a
very competitive industry with the two companies differentiating
either on value-added services or price. Airtel is perceived as the
high quality provider and has a premium image.
Essar, on the
Forecasting of sales
51
Handling distribution
Target achievement
C.
Distribution Support
1.
Logistics
Monitor
handset
of
2.
Rental
Audit
5.
Retail
MARKET SEGMENTATION
Segmentation is beneficial because of better predictability of the
target consumer group, minimization of risk exposure, better
ability to fine-tune a product / service to the requirement of target
buyer and the resultant ease in designing a proper designing
marketing mix strategy In this case segmentation is on the bade of
income.
53
Premium
Upper Lower
X
X
X
X
X
X
Cellular Phones
Pager
Conventional
Phones
X Market Segment Targeted
Middle
Upper
X
X
X
Lower
X
X
Economy
Upper Lower
X
-
54
POSITIONING
The product is sought to be positioned as a business efficiency
tool. a lifestyle revolution and a status symbol The emphasis is to
remove misconception that the cellphone is an expensive means of
communication and drive home the point that the cellphone is
actually a day-to-day utility
Airtel's main
It has
55
At
present the cellular phone market has reached the maturity stage.
Since, the premium segment is nearing saturation the company
targeting the upper middle and middle-middle class. In order to do
so Airtel is trying to optimise the price performance package by
offering suitable "product bundling".
This involves the selection of the suitable hardware (handset) and
its software (its services.) with reasonable price in order to deliver
maximum price performance to its customers. In addition, it offers
free Airtime services and other concessions to make the prices and
thus the product more attractive. It has also opened a 24 hours
customer service.
56
It gives an
57
58
than getting them to talk since they will find it costlier to use the
mobile phone as compared to a conventional phone [if is believed
that initially cellphones would be used buy]
viii) Roaming Facility
Roaming facility is available while the subscriber is travelling. The
billing is done in the home network (Delhi).
Roaming facility is
Once a
**
Semi automatic roaming means one card has the facility for
different cities.
59
b)
c)
d)
e)
They end the interaction on a positive or a humorous notemaking the last 30 seconds count.
Airtel realises that attracting people 'Is easy but converting them
into loyal customers is hard, hence emphasis is on maintaining a
'Smiling and a Friendly Atmosphere' to please and retain the
customer.
60
61
MARKETING STRATEGY
ADOPTED BY BHARTI
Bharti has spent a considerable amount on advertising its mobile
phone service, Airtel. Besides print advertising, the company had
put up large no of hoardings and kiosks in and around Delhi.
The objective behind designing a promotion campaign for the
Airtel services is to promote the brand awareness and to build
brand preferences.
It is trying to set up a thematic campaign to build a stronger brand
equity for Airtel.
The
image of the service provider counts a great deal. Given the Cell
phone category, it is the network efficiency and the quality of
service that becomes important. What now the buyer is looking at
is to get the optimum price-performance package. This also serves
as an effective differentiator
Brand awareness is spread through the' campaigns and brand
preference through brand stature. Airtel's campaign in the capital
began with a series of 'teaser' hoardings across the city,' bearing
62
just the company's name and without explaining what Airtel was.
In the next phase the campaign associated Airtel with Cellular only
thereafter was the Bharti Cellular connection brought up. Vans
with Airtel logos roamed the city, handing out brochures about
the company and its services to all consumers. About 50,000
direct callers were sent out. When the name was well entrenched
in the Delhiitess mind, the Airtel campaign began to focus on the
utility of Cellphone.
thriving brand.
Every company has a goal, which might comprise a sales target
and a game plan with due regard to Its competitor.
63
Airtel 's
The tone, tenor and the stance of the visual ads are
Concerts
64
promote sales.
mind.
attempt
to
focus
on
those
who
can
afford.
The
(ii)
launch
advertisements,
launch
advertisements,
65
DISTRIBUTION
Company
Franchisee
Distributor
Dealers
Dealer
Customer
Customer
commission.
from the customers and they are sent through the liaison officer on
a day-to-day basis to Airtel. The dealer has to invest Rupees. One
Lakh as an initial investment. The dealer of Airtel are not allowed
to provide any other operators' service.
Target set for distributors and the dealers is 100 -150 activations
per month. Hence the dealers can also go for their own promotions
like banners and discounts on festivals etc. The dealer provides
service promptly. The consumer on providing the bill of purchase
for the handset and proof of residence has only to wait an hour
before getting connected. The staff of the dealers and the
franchisees are provided training by the Airtel personnel.
The complaints encountered by the franchisees and dealers are
either handset being non-functional or the SIM Card not getting
activated. Anything more complicated is referred to the main Airtel
office in Delhi.
67
68
69
Introduction
Growth
Maturity
MARKETING OBJECTIVES
Create product
Maximise market
Maximise profits
share
whole defending
market share
Strategies
Product
Offer a basic
Offer value
Increase in
product/
added services
number of value
service.
Price
Distribution
added services.
Charge cost-
Price to
Price to match
plus
penetrate
or best
market
competitors
Build selective
Build Intensive
Build more
distribution
distribution.
intensive
distribution.
Advertising
Build product
awareness
and interest in
differences and
among early
the mass
benefits.
adopters and
market
70
dealers.
Sales Promotion
Increase to
Increase to
promotion to
build and
encourage
entice people to
maintain
brand-
subscribe.
relationships
switching.
with customers.
71
Objectives:
To
study
the
importance
and
development
of
tele
72
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
The methodology adopted for this project is exploratory in nature
since there is no hypothesis that has to be tested. The conclusions
have been drawn by exploratory research work.
There have been two sources of information collected:
a) Primary Sources
I have met retailers of the Airtel of the company and have been able
to get first hand information regarding the product, its features
and the buying patterns of the product. Their input has been
valuable.
b) Secondary Sources
Secondary source has played a vital role to play in this report. A
good amount of data has been collected from various published
articles and reports found in magazines and journals. Another vital
source has been the Internet and particularly the companies own
website.
73
LIMITATIONS
Every attempt will be taken to obtain the error free and meaningful
result but as nothing in this world is 100% perfect I believe that
there will still the chance for error on account of following
limitations(1)
Respondents unavailability.
(2)
(3)
Courtesy bias.
74
SWOT ANALYSIS
STRENGTHS
Cost advantage
Entrepreneurial zeal
WEAKNESSES
To prove credibility
Price pressures
Awareness
75
76
OPPORTUNITIES
THREATS
Foreign investment
Other competition
77
CONCLUSION
messaging
service
and
free
voice
78
service.
Call
79