STUDY OF 7P’s & MARKETING STRATEGIES OF AIRTEL

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

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 We are indebted to Prof. A. Srikanth for his valuable contributions to this work, constant help and
encouragement, without which it would have not been possible to complete this Project. We thank him for his
exceptional support. While we have attempted to incorporate much of his wise counsel and information for
enhancing this work, we remain solely responsible for any of its deficiencies.

INDEX

1. TELECOMMUNICATION SECTOR IN INDIA .................................................................................... 3

2. INCEPTION OF AIRTEL......................................................................................................................... 4
2.1 Vision .................................................................................................................................................. 5
2.2 Mission ................................................................................................................................................ 5
2.3 Subsidiary Companies of Airtel .......................................................................................................... 5
2.4 Services Offered By Airtel .................................................................................................................. 5
3. STP ANALYSIS OF AIRTEL .................................................................................................................. 6
3.1 Segmentation ....................................................................................................................................... 6
3.2 Targeting ............................................................................................................................................. 7
3.3 Positioning ........................................................................................................................................... 7
3.4 Branding .............................................................................................................................................. 8
4. SEVEN P’s OF AIRTEL ........................................................................................................................... 9
4.1 PRODUCTS & SERVICES ................................................................................................................ 9
4.2 PRICE ................................................................................................................................................ 12
4.3 PLACE .............................................................................................................................................. 13

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 4.4 PROMOTION ................................................................................................................................... 13
4.5 PEOPLE ............................................................................................................................................ 15
4.6 PROCESS.......................................................................................................................................... 15
4.7 PHYSICAL ENVIRONMENT ......................................................................................................... 16
5. PORTER’s FIVE FORCES ANALYSIS ................................................................................................ 16
6. SWOT ANALYSIS ................................................................................................................................. 18
7. REFERENCES ........................................................................................................................................ 18

1. TELECOMMUNICATION SECTOR IN INDIA

 India’s telecommunication network is the second largest in the world based on the total number of
telephone users (both fixed and mobile phone).
 It has one of the lowest call tariffs in the world enabled by the mega telephone networks and hyper-
competition among them.
 Major sectors of the Indian telecommunication industry are telephony, internet and television
broadcasting.

 Telephone industry in the country which is in an ongoing process of transforming into next generation
network, employs an extensive system of modern network elements such as digital telephone exchanges,

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 mobile switching centers, media gateways and signaling gateways at the core, interconnected by a wide
variety of transmission systems using optical fiber or microwave radio delay networks.
 DTH, a relatively new broadcasting technology has attained significant popularity in the television
segment. Telecommunication in India has been greatly supported by the INSAT system of the country,
one of the largest domestic satellite systems in the world.
 Indian telecom industry underwent a high pace market liberalization and growth since 1990’s and now
has become the world’s most competitive and one of the fastest growing telecom markets.
 India has the world’s second largest mobile phone user base with over 930 million users. It has the
world’s third largest internet user base with over 137 million users.
 The total revenue of the Indian telecom sector grew by 7% to 283,207 crores for 2010-11 financial year,
while the revenues from the telecom equipment segment stood at 117,039 crores.

 Telecommunication has supported the socioeconomic development of India and has played a significant
role to narrow down the rural-urban digital divide to some extent. It has also helped to increase the
transparency of governance with the introduction of e-governance in India.

2. INCEPTION OF AIRTEL

 Bharti Airtel limited, commonly known as Airtel, is an Indian Telecommunications services company
founded by Mr. Sunil Bharti Mittal on July 7, 1995, headquartered at New Delhi, India.
 Airtel is the world’s fourth largest mobile telecommunications company with over 261 million
subscribers across 20 countries.
 It operates in 20 countries across South Asia, Africa and the Channel Islands.
 Airtel has GSM network in all countries in which it operates, providing 2G, 3G and 4G services
depending upon the country of operation.
 It is the largest cellular service provider in India, with 183.61 million subscribers.
 Airtel is the third largest in-country mobile operator by subscriber base, behind China Mobile and China
Unicom.
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2.1 Vision

By 2015 Airtel will be the most loved brand, enriching the lives of millions:
 Loved by more customers.
 Targeted by top talent.
 Benchmarked by more business.

“Enriching lives means putting the customer at the heart of everything we do. We will meet their
needs based on our deep understanding of their ambitions, wherever they are. By having this focus
we will enrich our own lives and those of our other key stakeholders. Only then will we be thought
of as exciting, innovation, on their side and a truly world class company.”

2.2 Mission
 Customer Service Focus
 Empowered Employees
 Innovative Services
 Cost Efficiency

2.3 Subsidiary Companies of Airtel

 Airtel Africa
 Airtel Sri Lanka
 Airtel Bangla
 Airtel Digital TV

2.4 Services Offered By Airtel

Services offered by Airtel can be classified into:-
 Mobile Services: Based on the number of customers, Airtel is the largest mobile service operator
in India. This company offers mobile services based on GSM Technology. For convenience of its
customers, Airtel has both prepaid and post paid facilities.
 Enterprise Business: Airtel provides integrated services comprising mobile, telephone, broadband,
data and connectivity services internationally as well as nationally for small, medium and large scale
enterprises. Its carrier service provides network connectivity through optic fiber over a distance of
more than 35,000 km. Airtel is a member of South East Asia- Middle East- Western Europe- 4
consortiums which include 15 global telecommunication service providers.
 Airtel Telemedia Services: The Company offers high speed broadband services through landline
in 94 cities.

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3. STP ANALYSIS OF AIRTEL

3.1 Segmentation
Airtel meticulously segments its market. Apart from the geographic segmentation, which divides
the Indian market into east, west, south, north and central regions, the market is also segmented in
each region on the basis of age and income. The different geographic regions are handled
independently and different campaigns are run according to the tastes and preferences of people in
each region. Under each region, age and income play an important role in determining the extent of
mobile usage.

 On the basis of GEOGRAPHIC VARIABLES:-

A) Region wise
 East Region (West Bengal, Assam, Arunachal Pradesh etc.)
 West Region (Gujarat, Rajasthan, Maharashtra etc.)
 South Region (Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala etc.)
 North Region (Punjab, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh etc.)
 Central Region (Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand etc.)

B) Density of area
 Urban (Cities Such As Mumbai, Delhi, Pune, Jaipur etc.)
 Semi-urban (Nasik, Aurangabad, Ahemadnagar etc.)
 Rural (Baramati, Khed, Saswad etc.)

 On the basis DEMOGRAPHIC VARIABLES:-

A) AGE

 From age group 18 < 35

As most of the people start using a mobile from the age of 18 so we may make a segment of
an age group 18 to 35 as most of them will be students and remaining will be young professionals
working in the industry. So they need SMS plans for chatting and they also need cheap calling
rates. We may provide the FRINDZ card to them.

 35 and above
As most of these group will be working and don’t use mobile for SMS and chatting. So this group needs
only the calling facility at a reasonable rate. This Group may continue using the general plan.

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 B) INCOME

 PREPAID & POSTPAID

Generally the mobile service providers plan their marketing strategies according to the prepaid
market and postpaid market. So it basically depends upon the income of the consumer that whether
he selects the prepaid or postpaid. Generally the consumers with low income choose prepaid and
consumers with high income choose postpaid.

 On the basis of BEHAVIORAL VARIABLES

 Brand Loyalty
We can also segment it on the basis of the loyal customers and non-loyal customers of the
brand. We can provide various schemes and offers to the loyal customers to retain him with our
product.

3.2 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 organisations 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 been built up and prices have declined to a certain extent they are planning to venture further
into a new field.

TARGETING STRATEGIES

 Professionals by giving free calls in postpaid connections.

 Entrepreneur by giving various plans in which they may get internal calling free.
 Youth with the “FRIENDZ” Scheme.
 Targeting Students by introducing postpaid connection only for students and with zero rentals.

3.3 Positioning

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 The product is supposed to be 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. It’s a day to day use commodity and is no more a symbol of status.

When it comes to Airtel who can forget the melodious, sweet music of it composed by A.R.Rehman. The music
attracts us in various forms such as chorus, whistle, piano and in many other forms. The latest advertisements of Airtel “Jo
tera hai who mera hai” and “Kyun ki hare k friend jaruri hot hai” have created a brand image in the minds of youngsters.
This is one of the positioning strategies of Bharti Airtel.

3.4 Branding
Airtel as a brand focuses on following characteristics:-
 Memorability:
 Easily recognized
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  Easily recalled
The brand elements of Airtel are memorable. People can easily recognize and recall the parent brand
Airtel Bharati even though its sub-brands are little bit tough to recognize and recall.

 Meaningfulness:
 Descriptive
 Persuasive
Brand elements may take on all kinds of meaning, with either descriptive or persuasive content. The
brand elements of Airtel are descriptive and suggest something about the product category.

 Likability:
 Fun and interesting
 Rich visual and verbal imagery
 Aesthetically pleasing
Airtel uses its parent brand name in different font and style as their logo and symbol of parent brand.
Different brands of Airtel Bharti use different brand elements. Brand elements of Airtel are so much
likable, especially to the educated and to the brand loyal people.

 Transferability:
 Transferability within and across product category
 Transferability across geographic boundaries and cultures
Transferability means how useful is the brand elements for line or category extension. In general the
less specific the name, the more easily it can be transferred across categories. In that sense Airtel
Bharti is successful in terms of transferability.

 Adaptability:
 Flexible
 Updatable
The fifth consideration for brand elements is their adaptability over time. The brand Airtel is highly
adaptable and updatable. It was launched in 7 July 1995, and is still continuing by the same name.

 Protectability:
 Legally
 Competitively
This is the final consideration of evaluation criteria. The brand elements of Airtel Bharti are protect
able both in a legal and a competitive sense because it is registered with the appropriate legal bodies
and vigorously defended trademark from unauthorized infringement.

4. SEVEN P’s OF AIRTEL

4.1 PRODUCTS & SERVICES

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 Mobile: Experience total cost control, no rentals and easy billing with Airtel’s postpaid and prepaid
services.
 Voice Based Services: Voice mail, Call conference, Dial a service.
 Home Phones: Experience a world class service and cutting edge technology with Airtel landline and
our feature rich Wireless fixed line. What’s more, calling is made more fun & convenient with services
and entertainment on Airtel. With Airtel you get to experience superior voice clarity on our fiber-optic
framework more than an ordinary telephone line.
 Broadband Services: Airtel Broadband Services, India's most preferred high-speed Internet service,
redefines your Internet experience. It is fast, fun, convenient and cost effective.
 BlackBerry: BlackBerry from Airtel is an 'always connected' wireless solution providing easy and
secure access to your email and data. Send emails and Receive emails instantly all the emails you've
read, deleted or moved to a folder will show on both your handset device and your desktop. It uses
over-the air technology so there's no need to manually synchronize your message activity.
 Email Services: Want to access information on your mobile? Airtel brings you Email on the go. You
can choose from BlackBerry and Windows Mobile5.0 depending upon the usage patterns, requirement
and suitability.
 Calling Cards: Airtel’s calling card services connect you to the world from India and allow a better
way to call back India. These services connect you to your friends and friends in India a cost effective
and reliable manner.
 Wireless Internet: With Airtel’s Wireless Internet, you have the freedom to access the Internet
anytime, anywhere across India. It enables Internet, Email, and Office applications with real-time
secure VPN access to corporate applications whilst on the move. Therefore following are the services
provided by Airtel.

Fixed line Blackberry Services

WIRELESS INTERNET AIRTEL T.V

 Other Services: STD / ISD, Airtel roaming, Airtel roaming lite, 32k sincere, easy roam east.

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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.

 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!
 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 *121#, press 'OK' or 'YES' button and your account balance will be
displayed on the screen of your handset.
 Recharge your Airtel Prepaid: Recharging is Easy. The calling value on your card keeps reducing as
you make calls or use any other chargeable service. Choose the Airtel Prepaid Recharge Coupon that’s
right for you, from a variety of tailor– made recharge coupons with different denominations, which are
available at a number of outlets across your city.
 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 diverts and Caller Line Identification – all
with your Airtel prepaid connection.
 Voice Mail: When your handset is switched off, or you’re 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.
 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!
 Just Dial 56465, and name the service. For e.g. say ring tones to download your favorite ringtones.
You can also choose a variety of content options like Live Cricket Commentary, latest National /
International News, Movie Reviews or Stock Market Updates.
 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.

To sum up, services that Airtel provide are:

 Airtel Pre-paid
 Airtel Post-paid
 Business Solutions
 Blackberry Wireless Handheld
 Value Added Services (VAS)
The different value added services provided by Airtel are-

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  Instant Balance Enquiry
 24Hr recharge Facility
 Caller line identification
 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
 Gifting of Ring Tones & Hello Tunes
 GPRS

4.2 PRICE

AIRTEL has realised that the Indian market is price sensitive. Therefore it has come up with
various innovative tariff schemes to take needs of different category of customers-Generally, the cellular
services are more expensive than the landline based telephone services. This is due to the reason that the
operating companies are required to pay a fee to the government for using airtime.

 Customer based pricing strategy.

 Flexible Pricing Mechanism.
 Controlled by TRAI.

Over the last few years, Airtel has provided its customers various facilities on the price front:

 Total Cost Control: Customers can recharge their phones with a denomination of their choice.
 Easy Recharge: Airtel was the pioneer of e-recharge facility being provided to customers.
 24-hour Recharge via ATM: Allows recharge of Airtel Prepaid round-the-clock at nearest ATM.
 Internet Recharge: Airtel prepaid can be recharged online. However, customer survey shows that the
usability of Airtel’s online recharge portal is poor as compared to that of its competitors.
 Roaming: Airtel was the pioneer in reducing roaming tariffs.

Pricing strategies:

 Price Skimming: Adopted by Airtel during the initial years when competition was limited and scope
for expansion was also limited. The brand was projected to the elite and corporate as a symbol
of leadership and excellence. The strategy has become irrelevant in recent times on the account of
increased number of competitors in the market

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 Psychological Pricing: Most of the value recharge at smaller denominations i.e. Rs. 10/-, 30/-, 60/-
etc .and tariff and broadband plans at Rs 99/-, 999/- etc. are aimed at getting emotional rather than
rational appeals.

 Perceived value pricing: Airtel has also priced it product on the customer’s perceived value.
Perceived value is made of several elements such as the buyer’s image of product performance, the
channel deliverables, the warranty quality, customer support, trust worthiness and esteem.

4.3 PLACE

Airtel's aim is to help customers as quickly and as efficiently as possible at first point of contact.
The customers have the option to email Airtel directly, useful telephone numbers, quick links to store
locations, payment centers and many other facilities. The major point of contact is the Airtel
Relationship Centre where one can get a new Airtel connection, subscribe to any value added services
and get more information on them, pay bills or get a new handset. Airtel provides its customers with
the following facilities-

 Extensive presence across 23 circles.

 Airtel customer care touch points–setting up convenient service centers in marketplaces helps
to increase visibility and improves accessibility to customers.
 Distributors like grocery stores/ small outlets etc.
 Internationally offers telecom services in 18 countries across Indian subcontinent and Africa.
 It includes three countries in Indian subcontinent: India, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and fifteen
African countries, namely: Burkina Faso, Chad, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Republic of
the Congo, Gabon, Ghana, Kenya, Madagascar, Malawi, Niger, Nigeria, Sierra Leone,
Tanzania, Uganda and Zambia.

4.4 PROMOTION

 Large scale print and video advertising.

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  Big celebrities like SRK and Sachin are roped in to endorse the product in the past but airtel
predominantly promoted through an unknown face
 In 2002 Airtel got its Signature tune from A.R. Rahman, this signature tune is the most
downloaded tune in India.
 Provides innovations such as Bollywood movie premiers, music services such as ringtones,
callertunes and many more.

PUBLICITY AND SPONSORED EVENTS-

 Sponsored events
 Delhi half marathon
 Delhi golf tournament
 Sponsored TV shows
 Big Boss
 KBC
 Indian Idol

Airtel is known for being the first mobile phone company in the world to outsource everything except
marketing and sales. Airtel’s marketing team’s emphasis lies in relating with the customer and his/her idols.
Airtel has consciously made an effort to make the best in business its brand ambassadors. This is easily
visible in the following cases:

 Celebrity endorsers like Shah Rukh Khan, AR Rahman, and Sachin Tendulkar
 Bharti Airtel signed a five-year deal with ESPN Star Sports to become the title sponsor of the
Champions League Twenty20 cricket tournament. The tournament itself is named "Airtel Champions
League Twenty20."
 On May 9, 2009 Airtel signed a major deal with Manchester United Football Club. As a result of the
deal, Airtel gets the rights to broadcast the matches played by the team to its customers. Sponsoring
the Champions League is also a conscious effort of relating with the champion/best.
 Extensive print and video advertising.
 Tie up with leading handset manufacturers like Nokia, Samsung and HTC to provide Airtel
connections as a part of the package.
 Sponsoring socially relevant community programs across country, for example, organizing painting
competitions for children, educational facilities for marginalized children.
 Airtel’s advertisements are always very distinct and present the brand as very energetic, youthful and
essential. Airtel came up with many ad-specific taglines like 'Kabhi bhi, Kahin bhi', 'Touch Tomorrow'
and the current tagline 'Express Yourself'. They capture the importance of Airtel in consumers' lives.

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4.5 PEOPLE
 Airtel provide 24*7 services to their customers.
 The people who are handling the complaints are well educated and quite cooperative while solving
the problems.
 Total Employees 35616(Bharti Airtel consolidated) as per Q3 12.
 Dedicated and passionate workforce.
 One of the best customer support.
 Have won 2nd Best employer award in 2004.
 Top executives are majorly young people.

4.6 PROCESS

 It is very easy to get a connection of AIRTEL services.

 Card Activation is just done within 24 hours. Customers just need to buy a sim card from any
authorized outlet.
 In case of payment of monthly mobile bills, it can be paid through an authorized outlet or through
internet by using debit as well as credit card.
 Process for services is very easy and customer can avail it very easily.
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  121 is the customer support no. which can be dialed from anywhere in India.

4.7 PHYSICAL ENVIRONMENT

 In telecom business their exclusive outlets and telecom towers are considered as their physical
evidence.
 Airtel is very good in both the things, wide coverage of towers give easy connectivity to the customers.
 Their outlets are well decorated and attractive to the people. Their outlets are available at almost all
the busiest places of the country.

5. PORTER’s FIVE FORCES ANALYSIS

 Threat from Competition

Wireless Market- Top 4 players garnering 75% market share

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  Customer bargaining power
 Lack of differentiation among service providers
 Cut throat competition
 Low switching costs
 Attractive schemes for new connection
 Availability of all operators everywhere
 Difficulty to differentiate brands
 Number portability will have negative impact

 Supplier Bargaining Power

 Threat of Substitutes
 Landline
 CDMA
 World Phone

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  VOIP- Skype, Google Talk, Yahoo Messenger
 E-mail and Social Networking sites

 Threat from New Entrant

1. High Because
 Entry through 3G
 New entrants are ready to enter with huge capital investment considering attractiveness of
the market.
 Increase of FDI to 76% bringing competition from foreign players
2. Low Because
 Rapidly changing technology
 Infrastructure setup cost is high
 Spectrum availability and regulatory issues
 Huge license fees to be paid upfront and high gestation period

6. SWOT ANALYSIS

 Strengths
 Market leader
 Recognized globally
 Strong brand Image
 Strong Financials
 PAN India presence
 Weaknesses
 Outsourcing of core system
 Network coverage
 Untapped rural market
 Opportunities
 Low broadband penetration
 Telephony
 Huge Market
 Untapped rural market
 Threats
 Falling ARPU (Average Revenue per user)
 Intense competition and shortage of bandwidth
 New players coming in India
 Uncertain economic condition

7. REFERENCES

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 Principles of Marketing by Philip Kotler, Gary Armstrong, Prafulla Y. Agnihotri, Ehsan Ul Haque.
 http://www.airtel.in/
 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bharti_Airtel/

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