MARKETING PROJECT

MARKETING STRATEGIES OF AIRTELTELECOM INDUSTRY

Submitted to : Ms. Jyoti Sikka Date : 22.03.2010

Presented By: Aneesha Mathur(8068) Nivedita Parashar(8079) Aditi Gupta(8071)

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BBS 1-B Acknowledgement

We would like to take this opportunity to thank our Marketing teacher Ms Jyoti Sikka for being the guiding force behind this project. Her inputs have been well incorporated and have proved to be very helpful. Maam, it would have been difficult to complete this project without your constant support. Thanking you Yours sincerely Aneesha Mathur(8068) Aditi Gupta(8071) Nivedita Parashar(8079)

Table Of Contents

SNO. TOPIC 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY BACKGROUND/OBJECTIVE INTRODUCTION LITERATURE REVIEW MARKETING MIX SEGMENTATION,TARGETING,POSITIONING NEWS UPDATES CONCLUSION BIBLIOGRAPHY

PAGE NO 4 6 7 11 15 28 35 40 41

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

Airtel comes to us from Bharti Airtel Limited - a part of the biggest private integrated telecom conglomerate, Bharti Enterprises. Bharti provides a range of telecom services, which include Cellular, Basic, Internet and recently introduced National Long Distance. Bharti also manufactures and exports telephone terminals and cordless phones. Apart from being the largest manufacturer of telephone instruments in India, it is also the first company to export its products to the USA. Bharti has also put its footsteps into Insurance and Retail segment in collaboration with Multi- National giants. Bharti is the leading cellular service provider, with a footprint in 23 states covering all four metros and more than 50 million satisfied customers. The businesses at Bharti Airtel have been structured into three individual strategic business units (SBUs:

Mobile services Mobile and fixed wireless services

Airtel telemedia Broadband, Telephone services & DTH

Enterprise services End-to-end data and enterprise services to the corporate customers through its nationwide fiber optic backbone

But being diversified into 3 business units we are focusing in our project only on Airtel Mobile services which includes Mobile and fixed wireless services.

Background of the Study The cellular phone industry is considered to be the fastest growing industry in India. It is believed that the high and accelerated growth of cellular market has eventually added to the worth of Indian economy. Cellular industry came into existence nearly in mid 1990s and since then the average growth rate per annum has been about 85 percent. By the end of 2002, the total number of cellular subscribers in the country increased to about 10 million subscribers. The National Telecom Policy 1999 also played an important role in the development of the industry. In the years ahead, there was more of competition between cellular service providers. The key factor contributing to the increased growth is the rising standard of income. The industry is also eyeing rural areas of the country as new opportunities to prosper. Millions of subscribers are increasing every month including the rural areas. Still, more growth is expected in the future years. Though cellular service providers are facing various challenges today, they are working hard to overcome them. The biggest challenge is the diversity of language in the country. Not all Indians know Hindi or English and not all understand the regional languages. So, these days the service providers are coming up with innovative ways to spread various dialects under one umbrella of mobile industry. Another challenge is the low population density in rural areas that requires higher towers which eventually is raising the cost. The mobile companies are trying to maintain a reasonable cost and still building higher altitudes tower so that more number of people can enjoy the reach of mobiles in the country. Some of the biggest mobile service providers in the country are Airtel, Vodafone, Idea, BSNL, Reliance, Tata Indicom, Spice, and BPL. All these companies are continuously in competition with each other to gain a higher share of the mobile market. According to industry reports, it is believed that nearly about 6.8 million new subscribers have registered themselves as mobile users in November 2007. With this, India will soon surpass China as the fastest-growing mobile phone market in the world.

Objective of the Study:

A feasibility study is defined as an evaluation or analysis of the potential impact of a proposed project or program. A feasibility study is conducted to assist decision-makers in determining whether or not to implement a particular project or program. 6

1. To understand the marketing mix of Airtel and thus the marketing strategies adopted by Airtel to survive in the Industry. 2. To find out new opportunities for Airtel.

INTRODUCTION

Airtel (Bharti Airtel Ltd)

Bharti Airtel Limited was incorporated on July 7, 1995 for promoting investments in telecommunications services. Its subsidiaries operate telecom services across India. Bharti Airtel is India's leading private sector provider of telecommunications services based on a strong customer base consisting of 50 million total customers, which constitute, 44.6 million mobile and 5.4 million fixed line customers, as of March 31, 2007. India's largest and world's third largest cellular service provider with more than 82 million subscribers Bharti Airtel is a merger between Bharti Group and Airtel its a well know Ned brand in India as well as Asia . Owned by Mr. Sunil Bharti Mittal. Telecom giant Bharti Airtel is the flagship company of Bharti Enterprises. Bharti has recently forayed into retail business as Bharti Retail Pvt. Ltd. under a
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MoU with Wal-Mart for the cash & carry business. Bharti Airtel offers GSM mobile services in all the 23-telecom circles of India and is the largest mobile service provider in the country, based on the number of customers. The group offers high speed broadband internet with a best in class network. With Landline services in 94 cities we help you stay in touch with your friends & family. 2nd most trusted service brand in India by ET survey - when ET did survey at that time they found that its a most trusted brand of India .After BSNL people trust at Airtel Services. Mr. Mittal awarded by Padama Bhashan in 2007 and GSM Association chairmans award in 2008.

GSM MARKET IN INDIA

India is potentially one of the most exciting GSM markets in the world. After two rather difficult years, the past 12 months have seen the region's promise beginning to come to fruition. Much of this success can be attributed to the stabilisation of the licensing and regulatory environment. India's telecommunications have undergone a steady liberalisation since 1994 when the Indian government first sought private investment in the sector. More significant liberalisation followed in 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
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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.' One of the challenges facing GSM operators in India is the diversity of the coverage regions from remote rural regions to some of the most densely populated metropolitan areas in the world. India has 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. WAP services have already been launched in the subcontinent and the first GPRS networks are in the process of being rolled out. In the year ahead, GSM India will work with its members to realise the potential of early packet services in anticipation of the award of 3GSM licences. DOES GSM HAVE THE EDGE?

7.09% 14.90%

3.94% 1.33%

0.72% 32.29%

Bharti Airtel Vodafone Essar BSNL IDEA Aircel Reliance Telecom MTNL
TRAI

24.16%

15.57%

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. Global mobile Suppliers Association (GSA) now believes that even though India will primarily remain a voice traffic-led market in next two-three years, the data traffic component will grow by 25-30 per cent, an optimism that its trying to make GSM operators feel as well.

THE CDMA CHALLENGE

CDMA players had launched their services with CDMA 2000 1Xbased networks, which can give hi-speed, always-on connectivity to 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.Only Airtel, Vodafone, BPL Mobile and Idea Cellular had launched
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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.

Will GSM maintain its headstart?

At the GSM Evolution Forum held in New Delhi, GSA president Alan Hadden predicted that GSM growth will far outstrip CDMA as was happening globally. He felt India could have as many as 200 million GSM subscribers by 2007-2008, up from nine million in December 2004. According to GSA, there are over 1.1 billion GSM subscribers worldwide as against 250 million CDMA customers. The revenue of top 25 global operators from data averages 18 per cent and 22 of these operators run GSM networks. Overall, there are 76 operators in 50 countries that have committed to deploy EDGE. People are using their phones for much more than voice. Fifteen networks have commercially launched EDGE as it can run 3G like services in the existing spectrum for the operators without needing a 3G license. Even the migration to a full-fledged 3G level of Wideband CDMA (WCDMA) will be smooth with EDGE, said Hadden. Besides, the automatic roaming provided by GSM networks in almost 200 countries is a power that CDMA doesnt give you.

End sum game

When the networks deploy EDGE, subscribers can expect the delivery of advanced mobile services such as easy downloading of video and music clips, full multimedia messaging, besides high-speed Internet and e-mail access, provided their handset supports all this. But the real cruncher will be the migration at a later stage to 3G technologies such as WCDMA, EV-DO or EV-DA as and when the government decides what to do with the 3G licences. WCDMA for example promises delivery of a phenomenal 2 megabytes per second (mbps), equivalent to what a leased line in many middle level corporates gives. GSM lobby may continue to remain gung ho over the future of their technologies over that boosted by the American firms Qualcomm and Motorola, but Indian market could well throw an interesting scenario that industry experts will do well to watch. In the coming months, Reliance plans to offer its CDMA subscribers much more than what GSM players intend to deliver through their EDGE for their subscribers. Who succeeds in this battle for mobile customers eyeballs is most difficult tpredict. A Korea and Japan may not be waiting to happen in India, but India will probably be more like the Chinese market with both standards co-existing. For now, GSM rules.

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LITERATURE REVIEW
SERVICES:

Airtel Prepaid
Airtel Prepaid, the Ready Cellular Card from Airtel comes to you from Bharti Enterprises, India's leading integrated telecom service provider. Going mobile with Airtel Prepaid is a new way of life. With a host of great features, also simple to use, Airtel Prepaid makes everything that you dreamt and believed, possible.

Total Cost Control

You can control your Airtel Prepaid like never before. No more rentals or deposits simply recharge as much as you need to from as low as Rs. 10, to as high as Rs. 10,000.

Pre activated STD/ISD without deposits or rentals

You can now enjoy a pre-activated STD/ISD on your Airtel Prepaid. No more paying deposits or having a minimum balance in your account to make an STD/ISD call. Hassle-free calls are here to stay!

Strong Network Coverage

Enjoy complete clarity when calling with Airtels world-class technology and unbreakable network coverage that spans over 23 circles across the country.

Instant Balance and Validity Enquiry

Your account balance is updated on the screen of your handset at the end of each chargeable call. You can also call 123 from your mobile phone and listen to the voice announcement or simply dial *123#, press 'OK' or 'YES' button and your account balance will be displayed on the screen of your handset.
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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.

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.

Subscription Alerts
Get regular alerts on news, jokes, business, health and films on your Airtel mobile phone with Subscription Services. SMS <SUB NEWS> to 3333 for News, <SUB JOKE> for Jokes, <SUB BIZ> for Business News, <SUB SPO> for Sports Alerts & <SUB VAASTU> for Vaastu tips.

MMS (Multi-media Messaging Service):

Jazz up your messages with pictures, images and video clippings, with MMS from Airtel! To activate MMS on your phone, SMS 'MMS' to 56465 and save service settings.

Airtel Live!
Make your mobile the most happening entertainment destination with Airtel Live! Airtel brings you the latest in entertainment and information services, right on your phone!

Airtel Live! WAP Services

Download the latest ring tones, games, wallpapers, videos and much more. You can also get news clips, watch live TV and download full songs on your phone. To get Airtel Live! settings on your phone, SMS 'Live' to 56465 and save the settings that you receive as your preferred connection. Airtel Live! Portal can be accessed from you GPRS enabled phone, by sending a SMS 'FUN' to 56465.

Hello Tunes

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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.

Buy Music - Airtel Music Shops

Buying your favorite Hello Tune or Ring tone is as simple as recharging your phone with talk time. Simply walk into your nearest Airtel Shop and walk out with your favorite song. Choose from Bollywood Hits to Indipop Remixes, Hard Rock to Gujrati Garba, Bhajans to Jazz, Bhangra Beats to foot tapping Tamil Hits from a list of more than 18000 songs.

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
To give you the unlimited freedom to reach out to your special people in your special way. Easy Billing Enjoy a host of rich features only with Airtel e-bill. Register free on My Airtel section and view your monthly bill with call details for last three months. Sort your calls between personal and official or analyze your usage, at the click of a button. To change your tariff plan call our IVR at 121 and leave a request.

Long Distance Calling Facility

Call long distance calls in India and Overseas with STD / ISD facility on your Airtel phone.

Widest Roaming - National and International

Airtel's roaming service allows you to stay connected and use your mobile phone to make or receive calls from almost anywhere in India and also over 160 countries, abroad.

Other Services
Get the EDGE

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Browse the internet on your mobile phone with Airtel's EDGE services. Enjoy live TV, enhanced WAP experience and Airtel Data Cards on their high speed network.

Airtel Live! Voice Services:

Just Dial 56465 and say the name of the service. For e.g. say Ring tones to download your favourite ring tones. You can also choose a variety of content moptions like Live Cricket Commentary, latest National / International News, Movie Reviews or Stock Market Updates

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MARKETING MIX
The term "marketing mix" was first used in 1953 when Neil Borden, in his American Marketing Association presidential address, took the recipe idea one step further and coined the term "marketing-mix" "Marketing mix" is a general phrase used to describe the different kinds of choices organizations have to make in the whole process of bringing a product or service to market.

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1. Product:
Airtel Pre-paid Airtel Post-paid Blackberry Wireless Handheld Value Added Services (VAS) The different value added services provided by Airtel are Instant Balance Enquiry 24Hr recharge Facility Call divert, Call wait & Call Hold Multimedia messaging service (MMS) Airtel Live Portal SMS based Information Service Hello Tunes & Ring Tones Voice Mail Service Easy Post-paid bill collection GPRS Business Solutions

2. Price:

Customer based pricing strategies. Flexible pricing mechanism Controlled by TRAI.

3. Place:
It has wide and extensive presence even in the remotest areas Airtel Customer Care Touch Points Distributors like E.g. Paan shops, grocery stores, chemists, outlet etc.

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4. Promotion:
Large scale print and video advertising. Big celebrities like SRK and Sachin are roped in to endorse the product because it . In 2002 Airtel got its Signature tune from A.R. Rehman, this signature tune is the most downloaded tune in India. Provides innovations such as Bollywood movie premiers, music services such as ring back tones & many more.

Recently launched promotional activities

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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 reengineering 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 but which engulfs the whole gamut of wireless digital broadband services that will constitute tomorrows cellular services. The new campaign is in two phases - the first of which will communicate overall brand philosophy and the second products and services. According to Mr. Jagdish Kini, Chief Operating Officer, Bharti Mobile Limited, Karnataka "We are adopting a new brand-platform - Touch Tomorrow not only to reflect our corporate ethos but also business strategy". The new identity will have the logo in Red, Black and White colours along with lower case typography to convey warmth. AirTel will incorporate the latest branding in all of its communication and will soon be going in for an enhanced promotional drive to establish the brand's presence. Innovation

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5. People:
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Total Employees 25616( Bharti Airtel consolidated) as per Q3 08. Dedicate and passionate workforce. One of the best customer support. Have won 2nd Best employer award in 2004.

6. Process:
Process for services is very easy and customer can avail it very easily. 121 is the customer support no. which can be dialed from anywhere in India.

7. Physical Environment : The Airtel Logo

The Airtel logo is a strong, contemporary and confident symbol for a brand that is always ahead of the rest. It is a specially drawn word mark. The Airtel Image style The Airtel Typographical style The Airtel Colour Palette

It incorporates two solid, red rectangular forms whose counter-form creates an open doorway.

The title case lettering with its capital A reinforces our leadership position. The red dot cues in our focus on innovation. The following year Airtel adopted the "Express yourself" positioning, which is also its current tagline. Now, the emotional angle was predominant - and stark, black and white imagery to stand out in what was becoming a highly commoditised, crowded market

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Power to keep in touch (1995)

Elite and premium brand

Touch tomorrow (1999)

With NTP99 ,prices could be dropped,started looking from regional to pan india position

Live every moment (2002)

To catch some emotions and feelings,brand of the masses

Express yourself (2003-2009)

To strengthen the emotional connect of customers,wanted a fresh and contemporary idea that built a brand their customers could identify with

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Unity In Diversity CONNECTING PEOPLE

o
Touching Life Of Every Indian: Winning at Every Moment Of Truth

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SWOT ANALYSIS
STRENGTHS
VERY FOCUSED ON TELECOM Bharti Airtel is largely focused on the telecom, around 93%
of the total revenue comes from telecom(Total telecom revenue Rs 3,326).

LEADERSHIP IN FAST GROWING CELLULAR SEGMENT Airtel is holding leadership position in

cellular market.. Bharti Airtel is one of India's leading private sector providers of telecommunications services based on an aggregate of 27,239,757 customers as on August 31, 2006, consisting of 25,648,686 GSM mobile and 1,591,071 broadband & telephone customers.

PAN INDIA FOOTPRINT Airtel offers the most expansive roaming network. Letting you
roam anywhere in India with its Pan-India presence, and trot across the globe with International Roaming spread in over 240 networks. The mobile services group provides GSM mobile services across India in 23 telecom circles, while the B&T business group provides broadband & telephone services in 92 cities.

THE ONLY OPERATOR IN INDIA OTHER THAN VSNL HAVING INTERNATIONAL SUBMARINE
CABLES. Airtel, the monopoly breaker shattered the Telecom monopoly in the International Long Distance space with the launch of International Submarine cable Network i2i jointly with Singapore Telecommunications Ltd. in the year 2002. This has brought a huge value to the IPLC customers, delivering them an option besides the incumbent carrier, to connect to the outside world.

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WEAKNESSES
1. An often cited original weakness is that when the business was started by Sunil Bharti Mittal over 15 years ago, the business has little knowledge and experience of how a cellular telephone system actually worked. So the start-up business had to outsource to industry experts in the field. 2. Until recently Airtel did not own its own towers, which was a particular strength of some of its competitors such as Hutchison Essar. Towers are important if your company wishes to provide wide coverage nationally. 3. The fact that the Airtel has not pulled off a deal with South Africa's MTN could signal the lack of any real emerging market investment opportunity for the business once the Indian market has become mature.

OPPORTUNITIES
1. The company possesses a customized version of the Google search engine which will enhance broadband services to customers. The tie-up with Google can only enhance the Airtel brand, and also provides advertising opportunities in Indian for Google. 2. Global telecommunications and new technology brands see Airtel as a key strategic player in the Indian market. The new iPhone will be launched in India via an Airtel distributorship. Another strategic partnership is held with BlackBerry Wireless Solutions. 3. Despite being forced to outsource much of its technical operations in the early days, this allowed Airtel to work from its own blank sheet of paper, and to question industry approaches and practices - for example replacing the RevenuePer-Customer model with a Revenue-Per-Minute model which is better suited to India, as the company moved into small and remote villages and towns. 4. The company is investing in its operation in 120,000 to 160,000 small villages every year. It sees that less well-off consumers may only be able to afford a few tens of Rupees per call, and also so that the business benefits are scalable - using its 'Matchbox' strategy. 5. Bharti Airtel is embarking on another joint venture with Vodafone Essar and Idea Cellular to create a new independent tower company called Indus Towers. This new business will control more than 60% of India's network towers. IPTV is another potential new service that could underpin the company's long-term strategy.

THREATS
1. Airtel and Vodafone seem to be having an on/off relationship. Vodafone which owned a 5.6% stake in the Airtel business sold it back to Airtel, and instead invested in its rival Hutchison Essar. Knowledge and technology previously available to Airtel now moves into the hands of one of its competitors.

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2. The quickly changing pace of the global telecommunications industry could tempt Airtel to go along the acquisition trail which may make it vulnerable if the world goes into recession. Perhaps this was an impact upon the decision not to proceed with talks about the potential purchase of South Africa's MTN in May 2008. This opened the door for talks between Reliance Communication's Anil Ambani and MTN, allowing a competing Inidan industrialist to invest in the new emerging African telecommunications market. 3. Bharti Airtel could also be the target for the takeover vision of other global telecommunications players that wish to move into the Indian market.

Porters Generic StrategiesCustomer Bargaining Power

Threat of New Entrants

Threat from Competition

Threat of Substitutes

Supplier Bargaining Power

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1. Threat from Competition 2. Customer Bargaining Power Lack of differentiation among Service Providers Cut throat Competition Low Switching Costs Number Portability will have Ve Impact Businesses & Consumers

3. Suppliers Bargaining Power

4. Threat of Substitutes

\ Landline CDMA Video Conferencing VOIP - Skype, Gtalk, Yahoo Messenger e-Mail & Social Networking Websites

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5. Threat of New Entrants

Huge License Fees to be paid upfront & High gestation period Entry of MVNOs & WiMAX operators Spectrum Availability & Regulatory Issues Infrastructure Setup Cost - High Rapidly changing technology

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BCG Matrix for Bharti Airtel

Stars Mobile Services Bharti Infratel

? Broad Band Insurance Retail Fixed Line Services

Cows

Dogs DTH

BCG Matrix is used to find out the relative growth prospects of the product line. Within the Airtel product line leased, private, circuit are among star. Airtel is going to have a submarine cable between Singapore and Chennai with the collaboration of singtel. This wills airtel to maintain its position in IPLC market. Right in India only VSNL have such cables.

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Ansoff's Product/Market Matrix

To portray alternative corporate growth strategies, Igor Ansoff conceptualized a matrix that focused on the firms present and potential products and markets / customers. He called the four product-market strategic alternatives market penetration [existing market + existing product], market development [existing product + new market], product development [existing market + new product], and Diversification [new product + new market]. The company should follow all four strategies depending on the demand and product as indicated in the matrix. The company perhaps needs to focus more on the comparatively neglected area of diversification.

MARKET PENETRATION: Airtel entered in broadband and fixed phone line market. PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT: IPLC products MARKET DEVELOPMENT: Airtel is now looking for overseas market. Company has already make his presence in Nigeria and Seychelles DIVERSIFICATION : Airtel has now outsourcing sum of its services like customer services with IBM

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SEGMENTATION,TARGETING & POSITIONING

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. In evaluating different market segments the company looks at two factors The overall attractiveness of the segments and the company's objectives & resources The present market for Cellular phones, pagers and conventional phones is as follows Premium Middle Economy Upper Lower Upper Lower Upper Lower

Cellular Phones X X Pager X X Conventional Phones XX

X X X

X X

X Market Segment Targeted GEOGRAPHICAL SEGMENTATION

Basic segmentation is done on the basis of regulatory norms-Telecom Circles. Then the state is divided into 3 categories on the basis of Geography: class A, class B, class C

CUSTOMER SEGMENTATION

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Customer Groupings

Note: True Friends : Invest maximum time & effort to serve these customers.
Communicate frequently. Demographic Segmentation

Classification of Indian Population

21%

38%

Aspires Seekers & Strivers Global Indians

41%

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Targeting
Airtel has targeted the premium and upper middle class. The rationale behind it is that only those segments should be targeted who value time and have the paying capacity. It Is also planning to target the business tourists during their stay in the capital. About 60% of the clientele are top executives of corporate houses. About 15% are foreign organizations and the rest are professionals and small businessmen. During the introduction stage there was intense pressure to get consumers across to hook up with their brand, because getting them to switch brand loyalty later would be hard. So far Airtel marketers have been concentrating totally on the business executive class but now that the basic viable volumes has beer) built up and prices have declined to a certain extent they are planning to venture further afield.

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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 cell phone is an expensive means of communication and drive home the point that the cell phone is actually a day-to-day utility. Tagline- power to keep in touch Positioned in premium category aimed at elite class of society. Perception of aspirational and lifestyle brand. Airtel decided that the brand should always connote leadership- be it in network, offerings, innovations or services. Sponsored games like Golf, Champions League and also held the Airtel Marathon as well. The various campaigns were : Airtel Jai Hai Campaign Leadership Campaign Quality Time Say Hello Launch Campaign Magic hai to Mumkin Hai Campaign

Re- Positioning
Tagline-touch tomorrow Started to capture mass market New look and feel of the brand logo indicates the core values of the brand-leadership, performance and dynamism.

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Again Re- Positioning

Tagline-live every moment Brand Ambassadora. Shahrukh Khan b. Kareena Kapoor c. Sachin Tendulkar

Again Re- Positioning

Tagline-express yourself Changed its logo to give more energetic and younger look Advertisements in regional languages with emotional touch. Advertisements were made to highlight the capability of Airtels network coverage. In 2002 Airtel signed on music composer A.R Rehman and changed its tune to Live every Moment. Used 360 degree marketing- example organised Airtel Scholar Hunt with NDTV.

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PEST ANALYSIS OF AIRTEL: 1. Political: Governmental & Legal issues affecting how the company operates. Regulation: Dominating Brand Banning of phone use in certain circumstances. 2. . Economic: Factors influencing the purchasing power of customers and the companys cost of capital: Cost of 3G licenses: lowering down Cost of calls being driven down Worldwide recession: both boon and bane Third world countries: new opportunity 3. Social: Demographic and cultural aspects of the environment which influence the customer needs and market size. a. Health issues b. Social trends c. Demographics d. Mobile etiquette e. Technological f. Strong connect g. Picture phones 4. Technological: a. b. c. d. e. Equipped with new technology Fastest to launch new series Strong NLD optical fibre network E-commerce portal Efficient customer care service

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RURAL MARKETING NEWS UPDATES

Airtel announces foray into rural telecom market:

ndian telecom company Bharti Airtel has announced a major foray into the rural telecommarket with the setting up of 4,000 Airtel Service Centres (ASCs) in the remotest villages of Maharashtra and Goa telecom circles. The strategy includes a combination of distribution and service under iServe Airtel Service Centre. ASCs are an important step in Airtels objective of expanding its rural base across India. Today, over 50% of our business comes from rural areas and going forward, a major percentage of newacquisitions are expected from the rural market, said Manu Talwar, CEO (mobility), Bharti Airtel Ltds Maharashtra and Goa telecom circles. The first ASC centre was opened at Ausarikurd near Pune on Friday. Undertaken primarily to address the needs of the largely unorganised rural market, the ASC model includes identification and training of entrepreneurs in villages who run a multi-brand retail outlet in a good location with easy access, preferably located in the main market of a village with a high footfall to facilitate new connection, recharges and accessories. These centres are empowered to sell and exchange sim cards, activate, reactivate, recharge and provide other suitable value added services, said Talwar. Out of a total presence in 24,000 villages covering over 65% of the population in Maharashtra, 4,000 large villages have been identified for Airtel Service Centres. Initially, Airtel plans to make 1,700 centres operational by March while rest would be active by August 2009. The company plans to penetrate into villages with a population of 3,000 in Maharashtra. This unique rural model of distribution and service has evolved out of consumer studies which reflect that not only are these consumers hesitant to speak with machines, but are also not comfortable in talking to call centre agents or sending SMS. Therefore, our agents at the ASCs would help them in solving all their queries and problems related to the cell phone, said Talwar..

Bharti Airtel launches Grameen Mobile Puratchi, a rural campaign (India)

Bharti Airtel has unveiled the Grameen Mobile Puratchi campaign for the rural market, ET reports. After doing a pilot study in January this year, we are formally inaugurating the campaign in Tamil Nadu Bharti Airtel Ltd Chief Executive Officer (Mobile Services) Tamil Nadu region Rajiv Rajagopal said.

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He added to his statement the campaign, which is being launched at the National level in 14 states, will target the rural areas for wider penetration. The states that will be a part of this campaign are Andhra Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand, West Bengal and Chandigarh. Airtel has tied up with Indian Farmers Fertiliser Cooperative Ltd (IFFCO) and formally inaugurated the campaign under the IFFCO Kisan Sanchar Ltd (IKSL).According to Bharti Airtel COO (Mobile Services) Tamil Nadu, Anirban Ghosh, that there are 27 million mobile subscribers in the state out of 7 million are from rural areas. This scheme, according to the COO, will benefit nearly 45 lakhs members of IKSL and the farmers would have five free Value Added Services under this scheme. The farmers will have five free voice messages on mandi prices, farming techniques, weather forecasts, dairy farming, animal husbandry, rural health initiatives on a daily basis,he added. He also said, apart from this they would also be able to call a helpline, 534351 for any queries. The pack for farmers ranges between Rs 1,299 and Rs 4,000 along with the mobile phone.

Airtel pins hopes on rural market for growth

Bharti Airtel, the nation's largest mobile operator, hopes the rural people, youth and small and medium enterprises (SMEs) to be its key growth drivers in Orissa. While the tele-density in the urban areas has increased tremendously, there is vast scope for growth in the rural market, a senior executive of the company said here.

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We will focus on the rural market as the tele-density in the urban areas has increased significantly. Youth and the SME segment are expected to be the other major contributor to growth in Orissa Deepak Srivastav, Chief Operating Officer (COO) for Orissa, West Bengal and Kolkata, Bhartai Airtel said. Talking to the media, he said, of the 3.7 million customer of the company in the state, about 80 percent are rural based. So the company, which enjoys 36 per cent market share in Orissa, now focusing on these areas. Srivastav said, Airtel is empowering the customers to choose for himself any plan whenever and wherever he wants. The recent launch of the Freedom Plan where customers will be charged 1 paise per second for all local and STD calls to Airtel numbers and 1.20 paise per second for local and STD calls to other network, will make the company more competitive. As the leader in the telecom industry of the country, we are committed to delight our customers through superior network, great customer service and best value for money. Today, our network covers 110 million customers in the country, he added. It has covered about 35,000 villages across Orissa with almost all the census towns being covered under its service. The company has more than 2800 Base Transmission Stations (BTS) in the state.

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NEWS UPDATES-2010 AIRTEL Bharti Airtel Submits Bid For 3G Spectrum According to reports, Indias largest private telecom major Bharti Airtel has submitted its bid for 3G spectrum, for which the auction will start from April 9. Friday is the last day for submitting application to participate in the auction. The government of India is selling three to four slots of spectrum across the nation. It has fixed Rs 3,500 crore as the reserve price for pan-India spectrum. As per the Notice Inviting Applications (NIA) for 3G spectrum auction, there will be a total of 22 circles in five states for auction and the states like Punjab, Bihar, West Bengal, Himachal Pradesh and Jammu and Kashmir will have four private players each. The 3G mobile services has become an important platform to offer high-speed broadband services. As per the government notification, the successful bidders would be permitted to offer commercial 3G services in the country from September 1, 2010. Earlier, the auction of 3G spectrum has been postponed many times owing to indecisiveness of the government over various matters. According to reports, Bharti Airtel will be bidding for pan-India spectrum. And, the other major players like Vodafone-Essar, Tata Teleservices, RCom and Aircel are also likely to submit their applications by Friday. The Union government expects to collect Rs 35,000 crore from the sale of 3G spectrum and Boradband Wireless Access (BWA). Bharti Airtel Hopes To Seal Zain Africa Deal By Mar 25 According to reports, Bharti Airtel hopes to conclude the deal with Zain's African assets by March 25. On Monday, the Indian telecom operator had confirmed that it was in exclusive talks with Zain's African assets to buy the assets in a deal worth $10.7 billion.. "We are currently doing the last round of due diligence, and I am sure we can complete the process in the short and tight deadline that we have," Chairman and Managing Director Sunil Bharti Mittal said to the reporters. He also said that a number of announcements on the deal would also be made over the next few days. The two companies have set March 25 as the deadline for the final negotiations. When asked about the financial constraints, Mittal said that it would not put a strain on the companys balance sheet. "The financial plans will be laid out in totality over the coming days," he said. "All I can say is that funding has never been an issue and will never be an issue for Bharti. We have obviously gone into the deal with our eyes open....," he also said. It is said that Bharti is likely to finance nearly all the deal's purchase with foreign currency loans. Mittal coined the recent criticisms on the high price as fairy tale. He also said, We don't look at analysts' views of cost per customer but the growth potential that Africa offers.

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Airtel Broadband Upgrade To 2MBPS For IPL 2010 YouTube

Considering that IPL 2010 is underway, it is more appropriate for Indian service providers to cash in on the frenzy. However, one provider is actually giving away more to users to enjoy the IPL 2010 season on their personal computers.

Bharti Airtel India is offering free upgrades to a 2MPBS connection to enjoy the IPL frenzy. The upgrade is available specifically for youtube.com/ipl for Airtel Broadband customers so that they can enjoy live cricketing action from IPL 2010. Current or new users of Airtel Broadband will get the free upgrade to a 2MBPS connection between March 12th and April 25th, which is the IPL 2010 season tenure. Users will be able to watch the matches from the 3rd season of IPL on their computers in high speed, the package will include all the 60 matches from IPL 2010. However, the upgrade is only available for the IPL channel on YouTube, the other content on YouTube will be entitled to regular broadband charges. Also, no other sites are being offered in this package. Nevertheless, considering that IPL has gained a cult status in India and elsewhere in the world, this move is definitely a smart one from Airtel.

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CONCLUSION
The conclusion of my study is that AIRTELs Advertising has a major impact its users. People like its schemes very much .AIRTEL had created a very good image on the mind of the new users of cellular service. AIRTEL has adopted a very good strategy by providing a new connection with NOKIA who is market leader in mobile set, many new users buy Nokia sets and they get a free connection of AIRTEL. AIRTEL is successful in capturing the highest market share by adopting Celebrity Endorsement Strategy. A.R. Rehmaans tune for AIRTEL worked as free advertising for AIRTEL as another service user uses it too. Other celebrities like Shahrukh Khan (bollywood) and Sachin Tendulkar (Cricket) has also contributed very much in AIRTEL.

Advantage #1: Speed No matter which plan of airtel you use, you are definitely assured speeds, since Airtel commits to 1:1 speeds for all plans upto 256kbps. Advantage #2: Other Perks Did you know that if you are a customer of Airtel, you are eligible for a free copy of McAfee Anti-virus? With free updates and a personal firewall, you are sure to be safe from hackers and other malicious softwares. Advantage #3: Free Phone If you take an internet connection from airtel, you get a phone free with it, with a few or no free calls. Advantage? use it for incoming purposes and you will not be charged a paisa/cent, Ever! Advantage #4: Gamer Delights If you are a avid gamer, Airtel has what you require to quench to play. If you visit the official Airtel Broadband site, you will see a Games On Demand link, use it to register and play unlimited games 247 for just Rs. 199 per month. Cheap considering the variety of games you can play and the number of games available. Findings: Airtel enjoys high market share Network connectivity Attractive Advertisements Good market image Airtels success-Word of Mouth

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BIBLIOGRAPHY
www.wikipedia.org www.airtel.in Hindu Business Line www.oppapers.com/essays

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