ADVERTISING AND SALES MANAGEMENT

1 ANSWER
Advertising Trend in Telecom
Telecom advertising is an overlooked field. Almost all ad agencies would love to have a telecom
operator client as they are among the top 10 advertising spenders in all countries; usually they
regret that afterwards though due to the short lead times, long working hours, and over demanding
clients (mostly from technical backgrounds); all of which result in a relatively low quality end
product.

Telecom advertising is a very specific industry in many ways different from conventional advertising
mostly due to the nature of the beast (it is a media within itself that is constantly expanding to
include more and more industries) and constant evolution. Advertising agencies rarely have such
experts though, due to the high turn-over of people on the accounts, mostly due to the reasons
mentioned in the first paragraph.
Despite their differences all telecom operators require the same campaigns, usually in the following
order from launch date (I will use a mobile operator for the sake of the example as they do the
most advertising):

1. A teaser / announcement to indicate their launch date

2. A brand launches campaign
3. Corporate Social Responsibility campaigns
4. Core Product campaigns (usually prepaid and post-paid)
5. Coverage Campaign (to show that their networks are now complete)
6. Payment methods campaign (listing the channels in which can pay their bills)
7. 3G campaign (focusing on their innovative technology, and claiming first to market)
8. Roaming campaign (mentioning how many operators they have roaming agreements with)

9. Airport campaigns (selling their ‘visitor’ lines, asking inbound roamers to switch to their
networks, promoting their mobile internet roaming capabilities, and mentioning how you can feel at
home while roaming on their network)
10. Store opening campaigns (indicating that new stores are opening and mentioning their
locations)
11. International call rate reduction campaign
12. Tariff reduction campaign
13. Mobile Content campaign (focusing on the mobile portal and what content it includes, mostly
music, ring tones, ring back tones, news etc.)
14. Value added services campaigns (these are dispersed throughout the communication plan
depending on when a new service is rolled out)
15. Mobile Internet campaign (on both accessing the internet through your phone, or data cards
that plug into your laptop)
16. Customer service campaigns
17. Business campaign (launching their business services division)
18. Business product campaigns (mostly data-cards, push email, and closed user groups)
19. Focusing on the Youth segment (through universities, and hip music)
20. High end packages (special numbers / elite services etc)
21. Loyalty programs
22. Bundling of products and services
23. Bouquet ads mentioning all of the offerings of the operator

Usually due to urgency, wanting to communicate so many messages at the same time, and the
need to claim first-to-market (because innovation is a key platform); these operator end up with
badly managed campaigns that are not fully integrated (mostly newspaper ads and mentions on
their website and in stores), and sacrifice on the creative quality of their communications. All of the
above results in a confused customer who knows that an operator has many services but cannot
indicate or quantify them.

Several global learning can be made from the above, these include:-
1. Ideal campaign roll-out plans (starting with print and moving to ambient media, online ads etc)
2. Touch points management (deciding on what to communicate at which touch points)
3. Simple communications (mentioning the key benefit of a service and not listing all of its
attributes)
4. More focus on PR and making most announcements through press releases that induce viral
support
5. Update bulletins on new products and services
6. Developing more target advertising to specific segments
7. Focusing more on direct marketing and database building
8. Creating online forums in which customers can better express their views and usage patterns
9. Creating simple template ads that can be adapted and published as soon as new products and
services are developed and need to be instantly rolled-out for claiming first-to-market.
10. Media management (deciding on what are the best media for each campaign and where each
product is most likely thought of by the customer – i.e. mobile payment at cash registers)
11. Giving autonomy to marketing-communications departments at telecom operators separating
engineers from creative communications

Rural Telecom Market- A Report

More than 60% Mobile Users in Rural India by 2012 Year

According to news which was published in economictimes.indiatimes.com online magazine, in the

rural India more than 60% mobile users will be by 2012 year. It was published in report which was
jointly released by Confederation of Indian Industries (CII) and Ernst & Young.

The trends show in the rural area for mobile phones rather than landlines phones. About 100 million
users of mobile phones are from rural India which are 40% but the trends show that it will increase
to 60% by 2012 year of the total telecom subscriber.

According tot the TRAI (Telecom Regulatory Authority of India), “In the first nine months of 2008,
the four metros together added 10.3 million subscribers, while the rural areas added over 11.3
million.” The news was published by above mentioned online news paper.

Mobile phones users has increased in the third quarter of June in rural area from 13.72% to reach
70.83 million. The growth shows the real concept about the development of 60% mobile phones
users by 2012.

According to Prashant Singhal who is the Ernst & Young telecom analyst said, “The majority of new
wireless subscribers will emerge from circle B and circle C.” With a survey, India is the second
largest mobile phones subscriber after China which has 300 million mobile phones users. It is
estimated that by 2012 the total telecom subscriber will be 700 million in which 650 million will be
wireless users.

India will have 200 mn rural telecom connections by 2012: Ministry Of Communication
September 24th, 2008
New Delhi, Sep 24 (IANS) The government Wednesday expressed concern over the divide between
the urban and rural areas in terms of telecom connectivity, and said the country would have 200
million rural telecom connections by 2012.“We plan to have 200 million rural telecom connections
by 2012 at a penetration rate of 25 percent and will utilise the USO (universal service obligation)
fund for the achievement of this goal,” Communications and IT Minister A. Raja said here.So far,
around 88 million phones have been provided in the rural areas with a tele-density of around 11
percent, he added.
Growth Opportunities For Rural India

How Telecom Offers Growth Opportunities To Rural India?

The report “Emerging Rural Mobile Market in India” reveals that by 2010, India is likely to have
around 539 Million cell phone subscribers at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of nearly 28%.

The significant increase of the of the Indian telecom market means the Asian telecom sector is
expected to have a CAGR of 22% until 2010, overtaking the telecom industries in both Africa and
China. Furthermore, boosting the overall telecom sector in India, the Indian telecommunication
industry is projected to reach $35 billion by 2010, compared to $22 billion in 2007. India is a
republic consisting of 28 states and seven union territories with a parliamentary system of
democracy. It has the world's twelfth largest economy at market exchange rates and the fourth
largest in purchasing power. Economic reforms since 1991 have transformed it into one of the
fastest growing economies.

The rising demand in the Indian mobile phone industry is the main reason for the rapid growth in
the telecom sector of the country. With low priced mobile phones and low-cost cellular services, a
large number of Indian customers are able to afford cell phones. Apart from mobile phones, demand
for personal computers is also increasing at a blistering pace due to rapid industrialization.

In addition to this, the improving infrastructure and the introduction of the latest technologies in the
Indian telecom market , such as WiMAX and 3G, supports growth in the industry. Further
contributing to high growth in the telecom sector is the rising demand for new technological fashion
devices, which are becoming increasingly popular among the young population.

Boom of Telecom Advertising and Its Effects

Telecom advertising, a $1 billion industry globally with a three billion subscriber base, is
set to take off in a big way in India too.

Service providers, market research firms and independent companies, which just focus on this
medium, are all seeing value in the expanding Indian mobile market, estimated to be 500 million
subscribers by 2010.
The market for telecom advertising, which is still at its nascent stage, is estimated to grow to Rs 20-
25 crore by March in the country. It was estimated to be a mere Rs 5-6 crore about six months ago.

Telecom Advertising proved at its best.It is said that main reason behind the success of the sector is
its unconventional strategy and aggression towards target market.

Telecom Advertising has been enormously growing and supporting telecom companies to grow
much more. Reliance Communications, a leading CDMA service provider and a pioneer of mobile
advertising in the country, has effectively offered mobile advertising solutions for more than 20
clients over the past four years. Starting off with LG during World Cup Cricket in 2003, it has since
then handled Cadbury’s, Coke, Maruti, Hyundai and even financial brands like ICICI, Kotak and
HDFC among others.
"With the mobile handset population poised to top 500 million in India by 2010, it has become a
huge and vibrant communication platform, which no brand marketer can afford to ignore," Reliance
Communication Applications & Solutions president Mahesh Prasad told ET.
The growth of 3G networks, IPTV and high-end gaming on mobile phones, is expected to open new
avenues for the medium.According to records "Reliance mobile marketing solutions offer creative
means and focused targeting to reach our more than 37 million subscribers anytime, anywhere in
an non-intrusive manner,".

With the thrust on technology, Kaybase through a tool, Critical Incident Track (CI Track), made use
of the very high mobile penetration in the country, and the relatively non-intrusive nature of an
SMS. "It is a tool to conduct ongoing contact audit of the client’s services. Its chief advantage is the
low cost and the real-time reporting features," said Kaybase director R Ashok. Its effect can be seen
by profit result of companies, and growing awareness and interest of Rural audience. Increasing
demand for telecom has been encouraging its market potential and opportunity as well. Nowadays
there are several advertising Agencies who are given more attention and consideration for making it
bigger for telecom sector.Lowe,O&M,Lintas, Bright Advertising and many more are there who have
been nourishing this sector by their work. The best effect of telecom advertising is Awareness and
concentration among Rural market towards telecom.

Market Potential

India, for the second straight month, added over 9mn mobile subscribers in August 2008, which
boosted the wireless base to over 305mn users while overall tele-density reached about 30%.
August subscriber additions were a tad below July 2008 figure of 9.21mn, and did see incumbents
like Bharti Airtel witness amongst the slowest incremental month on month (mom) additions.
However, we would wait for the growth scenario to evolve further. For now we maintain our FY10E
target of about 448mn wireless subscribers.

Bharti incremental subscriber growth at 0.2% mom; Rcom adds 1.75mn Bharti added 2.7mn
subscribers in August, witnessing one of the slowest incremental increase of 0.2% mom while Rcom
subscriber base increased by 1.75mn, an incremental rise of 0.1% mom. Idea Cellular added
1.03mn, a slight drop of 2.3% from 1.05mn users added in July 2008. We expect Idea user base to
pick up once its Mumbai launch stabilizes and begins operations in new circles.

Vodafone Essar incremental adds rise 3% mom Vodafone Essar netted about 1.81mn users, an
incremental increase of 3% mom while BSNL incremental monthly additions jumped 10.5% to take
its subscriber base to 43.2mn. Spice continued to lose subscribers with another 0.6mn subscribers
knocked off from its total which now stands at 3.6mn

Source:- India info line

Advertising Trends In Indian Telecom

The way telecom firms advertise, gives an approximate idea about the telecom trends. I would try
to uncover some of them, which come to my mind. At the initial launch of the mobile services, they
were advertised as lifestyle products. The message that sought to be conveyed was that if you have
a mobile phone, you have arrived in life. A few well-healed people could afford the high call rates at
that time. It was in no way for the masses. I am sure that the mobile companies made a large profit
out of it. Perhaps for the first time, Indians were exposed to concepts alien to them: Customer Care
Support. It saw a booming of the ancillary services and fresh graduates, stunted in mental
development though, came out in droves for the well-paid jobs.
Airtel then sought the services of Sachin Tendulkar. He was the brand ambassador and saw his
earnings sharply increasing. I saw his picture everywhere exhorting me buy the mobile prepaid
card. After the initial publicity passed away, A.R. Rahman gave his now famous tune. All the other
companies have variously tried other gimmicks to sell their connections.
However, the landscape changed after Reliance came in the mobile services. Mukesh Ambani was
seen telling people about his fathers dream. The initial launch was lackluster. With the launch of the
prepaid services, the punch line was “mujhme hai who baat or I have that thing! how many
people actually signed up after those ads. . Reliance was able to ramp up its numbers. Then came
the ad line Kar lo duniya muthi mein. (Have the world in your fist). Creative heads of the ad agency.

The icing on the cake goes to Hutch. They designed the simple ad with the kid and cute Chinese
Pug. It was a hit of all sorts. It conveyed the effectiveness of the message succinctly. I believe that
it drove Hutch connections across the places where it offered its services. However, it was
considered too elitist for the masses. The advertisement should be able to convey the message
effectively; one with which people could identify with. In this regard, BSNL could claim something.
BSNL advertisements depicted typically government mentality for awarding the contract to lowest in
the tender process. The quality clearly shows. Is there anyway people could identify themselves
with that advertisements? What of those places where BSNL is the sole service provider?
As the title goes, advertising trends are reflective of the current scenario in telecom. Airtel has been
advertising its group card labeled as Friends. In fact, until now, the market was treated as
homogenous. Over the period, classification has been sought to target the specific customers with
specific needs. Airtel took the lead in announcing Senior citizen cards targeted at those above 60.
The Friends card is for those who wish to restrict themselves to their group with low calling rates
and some free messages.
Reliance has realized early on about targeting the businesses. Its offer of flat rate for making STD
calls to anyone across its network is unparalleled. This way it can ensure that there would be higher
converts towards it services. R-Connect is its portal that differentiated Reliance early on from other
operators. It knows that future revenues are going to come from value added services. This way it
has foreseen the development in the industry.

ADVERTISING CHANNELS

Advertising Planning Process

Segregation Of the Telecom Sector

Market segmentation And Target Audience- Telecom Sector

Ultra – Modern Approach of Advertising For Telecom Sector Rural Market

When we talk about ultra-modern approach, it allow us to move ahead with time. Telecom
Advertising has not only succeeded in capturing the market, but also kept a unavoidable impression
upon audience. Target audience leads to plan the specific approach to gain it, but when it comes to
advertising, we need to modify it and represent in such way that it directly goes to ultimate
consumer. For convincing more than 1 million people in same country, telecom companies started
moving and giving heavy attention towards promotional tools. They understood that if they had to
be the leader one, they must have to have total command over market. They focused more and
more on advertisement. But interestingly telecom advertising twisted along with world of thought,
reaching to mob. Telecom advertising represented itself unconventionally and it was coming up to
make rural crowd aware of it.

India’s GDP and growth are strongly based upon agriculture and farming. More than half of crowd
belongs to rural segement in India. Telecom advertising shaped itself to tap them. But how? (see
advertising approach model)

Creativity with unique concept of telecom ad made it powerful. But only creativity with good concept
not helped it out, better execution is must. Telecom advertising used unique concept, creativity,
strong representation and best execution for it. Telecom ads are emotional and very touching which
is key for the advertisers. Vodafone essar utilized a puppy as its brand ambassador but that was not
enough, the concept and presentation of Vodafone ads are remarkable. Airtel, Reliance are also top
players. Reliance communication is the only Company which started capturing rural market
beautifully, with heaviest advertisement and making people aware of the modern technology and its
utilization.

On the contrary Virgin Mobile is Unique among all for its advertisement. Making of an Ad is not the
answer. Telecom advertisement is the best example for execution.They used each and every
possible media channel to make people aware and to build country. In remote areas and villages
where people can not afford expensive things, Advertising made it possible by telling its thousands
of benefits, schemes, tariffs. And by saying that now one can’t be worried for communicating
his/her dear one.

‘Persuasion’ is the result of any advertising .Telecom advertisement was executed so well that it
persuaded its target market to a high extent. And that is one of the biggest reason to increase its
demand.