A

PROJECT REPORT

ON

COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS OF MARKETING STRATEGIES OF RELIANCE

JIO & BHARTI AIRTEL

Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirement for the award of degree of

Masters of Business Administration-Information Technology (B.B.A.) under
BharatiVidyapeeth’s University School of Distance Education Pune.

Submitted by:
Swapnil Mohite

COURSE:

BBA 6 th Semester

BATCH; 2017-2020

PRN NO;

BharatiVidyapeeth’s University School of Distance Education,

Centre Navi Mumbai Sector 8, CBD-Belapur, Navi Mumbai –400614

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DECLARATION
To,

THE DIRECTOR,

BHARATI VIDYAPEETH UNIVERSITY, PUNE

SCHOOL OF DISTANCE EDUCATION, NAVI MUMBAI

Respected Sir,

I undersigned hereby declare that the project report entitled, “----------”

written and submitted under the guidance of Prof. Manisha Waghmodeis my
original work. The empirical findings in this report are based on information
collected by me. I have not copied the information from any report submitted to
BHARATI VIDYAPEETH UNIVERSITY, PUNE, and any other university. I agree that
any such copying is liable for punishment in a way that the university authority
demits this.

PLACE: Yours sincerely,

Date: _____________

BHARATI VIDYAPEETH UNIVERSITY, PUNE

School of Distance Education,

Navi Mumbai Sector 8, CBD-Belapur, Navi Mumbai –400614

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CERTIFICATE
Project Certificate for BBAStudent

This is certify that the Project

entitled“COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS OF MARKETING STRATEGIES
OF RELIANCE JIO & BHARTI AIRTEL

” submitted by -------------------------Seat no. ---

is record of bonafied work carried by him under
my guidance, in partial fulfilment of

BBAdegree (Sem -6). Examination had not been

submitted for any other examination and does not
form part of any other course undergone by the
candidate

It is further certified that he has completed all the

required phases of the project.

Sign of Internal Guide Sign of

External Guide

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 PROJECT REPORT

ON

COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS OF MARKETING STRATEGIES OF RELIANCE

JIO & BHARTI AIRTEL

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INDEX

SR Name of Chapter Page No.

NO.
1. Objective of the study
2. Introduction
3. Company Profile of Reliance Jio &
Airtel
4. History of Reliance Jio & Airtel
5. Marketing Mix (4Ps) Strategy
6. SWOT Analysis
7. Conclusion

OBJECTIVE OF THE STUDY

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Every organization has to achieve its organization goals. For this it is
very essential for an organization to know about the view of
consumers and their competitive products. This survey research may be
also aimed as to estimate potential buyer for the product. The objective
of the study is as under:-

1.To identify the difference between market performance of Reliance

Jio and Bharti Airtel.

2.To study the market of Reliance Jio and Bharti Airtel on big scale
telecommunication sector.

3.To compare various parameters of marketing strategies,

manufacturing process, technology adopted production policy,
advertising, collaboration, export scenario, future prospect for the two
companies and government policies.

4.To study customer buying behavior and factors which influence the
purchase decision process.

5.To know how the company has been successful in encountering the
aggressive marketing strategies of competitors.

INTRODUCTION
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The history of telecommunications in human society is more than 130
years, in recent times telecommunications have developed from basic
needs to 4G and 5G services, whose development India has become the
largest telecommunications sector in the world One has experienced an
impeccable development in the last decade, it is one of the key areas in
terms of economic development and job creation.

Customer satisfaction is the degree of satisfaction provided by the

goods or services of a company according to the number of repeat
customers. The customer satisfaction survey is a process to discover if
the clients of a company are satisfied or not with the client.Products or
services received from the company. It can be done face-to-face, by
phone, by email or online, or on handwritten forms. The answers of the
clients to the questions are used to analyze if it is necessary to make
changes in the commercial operations to increase the general
satisfaction of the clients. It is defined as "the number of clients, or the
percentage of total clients, whose reported experience with a
company, its products or its services exceeds the specified satisfaction
objectives." In a competitive market where companies compete for
clients, satisfaction of the customer is considered a key differentiator
and each time it has become a key element of the business strategy.
The purpose of this study is to compare customer satisfaction with
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Airtel. and Jio services. More specifically, the focus is on examining the
pooled impact of the factors in customer satisfaction.

COMPANY PROFILE OF RELIANCE JIO

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Reliance Jio Infocomm Limited, d/b/a Jio, is an Indian
telecommunications company and wholly owned subsidiary of Reliance
Industries, headquartered in Mumbai, Maharashtra, India. It operates a
national LTE network with coverage across all 22 telecom circles. It
does not offer 2G or 3G service, and instead uses only voice over LTE to
provide voice service on its 4G network.

Type Subsidiary of Reliance Industries

Industry Telecommunications
Founded 15 February 2007; 13 years ago
Founder Mukesh Ambani
Headquarters Maker Chamber ** Expression is faulty **,222
Nariman Point, Mumbai, Maharashtra, India
Key people Mukesh Ambani
(Chairman)
Sandip Das
(Managing Director)
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Products Fixed line telephone
Mobile telephony
Wireless broadband
Internet services
OTT Services
Revenue 11,679 crore
(US$ 1.6 billion)
(Q4 2019)
Operating Income 3,631.2 crore
(US$ 510 million)
(Q4 2019)
Net Income 1,148 crore
(US$ 160 million)
(FY 2019)
Total Assets 187,720 crore
(US$ 26 billion)
(FY 2019)
Total equity 70,864 crore
(US$ 9.9 billion)
(FY 2019)
Members 370.07 million
(31 December 2019)
Parent Reliance Industries
Subsidiaries LYF
Website www.jio.com
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Jio soft launched on 27 December 2015 with a beta for partners and
employees, and became publicly available on 5 September 2016. As of
31 December 2019, it is the largest mobile network operator in India
and the third largest mobile network operator in the world with over
370.07 million subscribers.It is also the fourth largest provider of fixed
telephony in Country.

In September 2019, Jio launched a fiber to the home service, offering

home broadband, television, and telephone services.

COMPANY PROFILE OF BHARTI AIRTEL

Bharti Airtel limited, also known as AirteI,is an Indian global

telecommunications services company based in Delhi, India. It operates
in 18 countries across South Asia and Africa, and also in the Channel
Islands. Airtel provides GSM, 3G, 4G LTE, 4G+ mobile services, fixed line
broadband and voice services depending upon the country of
operation. Airtel had also rolled out its VoLTE technology across all
Indian telecom circles. It is the third largest mobile network operator in

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India and the second largest mobile network operator in the world with
over 411.42 million subscribers. Airtel was named India's 2nd most
valuable brand in the first ever Brandz ranking by Millward Brown and
WPP plc.

Type Public
Traded as BSE: 532454
NSE: BHARTIARTL
BSE SENSEX
Constituent
ISIN INE397D01024
Industry Telecommunications
Founded 7 July 1995; 24 years ago
Founder Sunil Bharti Mittal
Headquarters Bharti Crescent, 1,
Nelson Mandela Road,
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 New Delhi, India
Area served Worldwide
Key people Sunil Bharti Mittal
(Chairman)
Gopal Vittal (MD & CEO)
Products Fixed line telephone
Mobile phone
Broadband
Satellite television
Digital television
Internet television
IPTV
Revenue 807,802 million
(US$ 11 billion)
(2019)
Operating income -17,318 million
(US$-240 million)
(2019)
Net income 4,095 million
(US$ 57 million)
(2019)
Total assets 2,751,975 million
(US$ 39 billion)
(2019)

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Members 411.42 million
(September 2019)
Number of 14,818 (2019)
employees
Parent Bharti Enterprises (64%)
Singtel (36%)
Subsidiaries Airtel India
Airtel Payments
Bank Limited
Airtel digital TV
Airtel Sri Lanka
Airtel Bangladesh
Airtel Africa
Airtel-Vodafone
Wynk
Robi
Website www.airel.com

Airtel is credited with pioneering the business strategy of outsourcing

all of its business operations except marketing, sales and finance and
building the 'minutes factory' model of low cost and high volumes. The
strategy has since been adopted by several operators. Airtel's
equipment is provided and maintained by Ericsson, Huawei, and Nokia

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Networks. whereas IT support is provided by Amdocs. The transmission
towers are maintained by subsidiaries and joint venture companies of
Bharti including Bharti Infratel and Indus Towers in India. Ericsson
agreed for the first time to be paid by the minute for installation and
maintenance of their equipment rather than being paid up front, which
allowed Airtel to provide low call rates of ₹1 (1.4C US)/minute.

History of reliance jio

The company was registered in Ambawadi, Ahmedabad (Gujarat) on 15

February 2007 as Reliance Jio Infocomm Limited. In June 2010, Reliance
Industries (RIL) bought a 95% stake in Infotel Broadband Services
Limited (IBSL) for ₹4,800 crore (US$670 million). Although unlisted, IBSL
was the only company that won broadband spectrum in all 22 circles in
India in the 4G auction that took place earlier that year.

Later continuing as RIL's telecom subsidiary, Infotel Broadband Services

Limited was renamed as Reliance Jio Infocomm Limited (RJIL) in January
2013.

In June 2015, Jio announced that it would start its operations

throughout the country by the end of 2015. However, four months later
in October, the company postponed the launch to the first quarter of
the financial year 2016–2017.

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Later, in July 2015, a PIL filed in the Supreme Court by an NGO called
the Centre for Public Interest Litigation, through Prashant Bhushan,
challenged the grant of a pan-India licence to Jio by the Government of
India. The PIL also alleged that the firm was being allowed to provide
voice telephony along with its 4G data service, by paying an additional
fee of just ₹165.8 crore (US$23 million) which was arbitrary and
unreasonable, and contributed to a loss of ₹2,284.2 crore (US$320
million) to the exchequer. The Indian Department of
Telecommunications (DoT), however, explained that the rules for 3G
and BWA spectrum didn't restrict BWA winners from providing voice
telephony. As a result, the PIL was revoked, and the accusations were
dismissed.

The 4G services were launched internally on 27 December 2015. The

company commercially launched its 4G services on 5 September
2016.Within the first month, Jio announced that it had acquired 16
million subscribers. Jio crossed 50 million subscriber mark in 83 days
since its launch, subsequently crossing 100 million subscribers on 22
February 2017. By October 2017 it had about 130 million subscribers.

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History of Airtel

In 1984, Sunil Mittal started assembling push-button phones in India,

which he earlier used to import from a Taiwan company, Kingtel,
replacing the old fashioned, bulky rotary phones that were in use in the
country then. Bharti Telecom Limited (BTL) was incorporated and
entered into a technical tie up with Siemens AG of Germany for
manufacture of electronic push button phones. By the early 1990s,
Bharti was making fax machines, cordless phones and other telecom
gear. He named his first push-button phones as 'Mitbrau'.

In 1992, he successfully bid for one of the four mobile phone network
licences auctioned in India. One of the conditions for the Delhi cellular
license was that the bidder have some experience as a telecom
operator. So, Mittal clinched a deal with the French telecom group
Vivendi. He was one of the first Indian entrepreneurs to identify the
mobile telecom business as a major growth area. His plans were finally

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approved by the Government in 1994 and he launched services in Delhi
in 1995, when Bharti Cellular Limited (BCL) was formed to offer cellular
services under the brand name AirTel. Within a few years Bharti
became the first telecom company to cross the 2 million mobile
subscriber mark. Bharti also brought down the STD/ISD cellular rates in
India under brand name 'Indiaone'.

In 1999, Bharti Enterprises acquired control of JT Holdings, and

extended cellular operations to Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh. In
2000, Bharti acquired control of Skycell Communications, in Chennai. In
2001, the company acquired control of Spice Cell in Calcutta. Bharti
Enterprises went public in 2002, and the company was listed on
Bombay Stock Exchange and National Stock Exchange of India. In 2003,
the cellular phone operations were re-branded under the single Airtel
brand. In 2004, Bharti acquired control of Hexacom and entered
Rajasthan. In 2005, Bharti extended its network to Andaman and
Nicobar. This expansion allowed it to offer voice services all across
India.

Airtel launched "Hello Tunes", a caller ring back tone service (CRBT), in
July 2004 becoming the first operator in India to do so. The Airtel

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theme song, composed by A.R. Rahman, was the most popular tune in
that year.

In May 2008, it emerged that Airtel was exploring the possibility of

buying the MTN Group, a South Africa-based telecommunications
company with coverage in 21 countries in Africa and the Middle East.
The Financial Times reported that Bharti was considering offering
US$45 billion for a 100% stake in MTN, which would be the largest
overseas acquisition ever by an Indian firm. However, both sides
emphasise the tentative nature of the talks, while The Economist
magazine noted, "If anything, Bharti would be marrying up," as MTN
has more subscribers, higher revenues and broader geographic
coverage. However, the talks fell apart as MTN Group tried to reverse
the negotiations by making Bharti almost a subsidiary of the new
company. In May 2009, Bharti Airtel again confirmed that it was in talks
with MTN and the companies agreed to discuss the potential
transaction exclusively by 31 July 2009. Talks eventually ended without
agreement, some sources stating that this was due to opposition from
the South African government.

In 2009, Bharti negotiated for its strategic partner Alcatel-Lucent to

manage the network infrastructure for the fixed line business. Later,
Bharti Airtel awarded the three-year contract to Alcatel-Lucent for

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setting up an Internet Protocol access network across the country. This
would help consumers access internet at faster speed and high quality
internet browsing on mobile handsets.

In 2009, Airtel launched its first international mobile network in Sri

Lanka. In June 2010, Bhartil acquired the African business of Zain
Telecom for $10.7 billion making it the largest ever acquisition by an
Indian telecom firm. In 2012, Bharti tied up with Wal-Mart, the US retail
giant, to start a number of retail stores across India.[23] In 2014, Bharti
planned to acquire Loop Mobile for ₹7 billion (US$98 million), but the
deal was called off later.

Logo used by Airtel until November 2010

On 18 November 2010, Airtel rebranded itself in India in the first phase

of a global rebranding strategy. The company unveiled a new logo with
'airtel' written in lower case. Designed by London-based brand agency,
The Brand Union, the new logo is the letter 'a' in lowercase, with 'airtel'

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written in lowercase under the logo. On 23 November 2010, Airtel's
Africa operations were rebranded to 'airtel'. Sri Lanka followed on 28
November 2010 and on 20 December 2010, Warid Telecom rebranded
to 'airtel' in Bangladesh.

Acquisitions and mergers

MTN Group merger negotiations

In May 2008, it emerged that Airtel was exploring the possibility of

buying the MTN Group, a South Africa-based telecommunications
company with operations in 21 countries in Africa and the Middle East.
The Financial Times reported that Bharti was considering offering
US$45 billion for a 100% stake in MTN, which would be the largest
overseas acquisition ever by an Indian firm. However, both sides
emphasised the tentative nature of the talks. The Economist magazine
noted, "If anything, Bharti would be marrying up", as MTN had more
subscribers, higher revenues and broader geographic coverage.
However, the talks fell apart as MTN Group tried to reverse the
negotiations by making Bharti almost a subsidiary of the new company.

In May 2009, Airtel confirmed that it was again in talks with MTN and
both companies agreed to discuss the potential transaction exclusively
by 31 July 2009. Airtel said "Bharti Airtel Ltd is pleased to announce
that it has renewed its effort for a significant partnership with MTN

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Group". The exclusivity period was extended twice up to 30 September
2009. Talks eventually ended without agreement.

A solution was proposed where the new company would be listed on

two stock exchanges, one in South Africa and one in India. However,
dual-listing of companies is not permitted by Indian law.

Further information: Zain Group

In Jun 2010, Bharti struck a deal to buy Zain's mobile operations in 15

African countries, in India's second biggest overseas acquisition after
Tata Steel's $13 billion buy of Corus in 2007. Bharti Airtel completed its
$10.7 billion acquisition of African operations from Kuwaiti firm on 8
June 2010, making Airtel the world's fifth largest wireless carrier by
subscriber base. Airtel has reported that its revenues for the fourth
quarter of 2010 grew by 53% to US$3.2 billion compared to the
previous year, newly acquired Zain Africa division contributed US$911
million to the total. However, net profits dropped by 41% from US$470
million in 2009 to US$291 million 2010 due to a US$188 million increase
in radio spectrum charges in India and an increase of US$106 million in
debt interest.[citation needed]

Warid Bangladesh and Robi

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Further information: Warid Bangladesh and Robi (company)

In 2010, Warid Telecom sold a majority 70.90% stake in the company to

Bharti Airtel for US$300 million. The Bangladesh Telecommunication
Regulatory Commission approved the deal on 4 January 2010. Bharti
Airtel Limited took management control of the company and its board,
and rebranded the company's services under its own "airtel" brand
from 20 December 2010. Warid Telecom sold its remaining 30% share
to Bharti Airtel's Singapore-based concern Bharti Airtel Holdings Pte
Limited in March 2013.

On 16 November 2016, airtel Bangladesh was merged into Robi as a

product brand of Robi, where Robi Axiata Limited is the licensee of
airtel brand in Bangladesh. Robi is a joint venture between Axiata
Group holding 68.7%, Bharti Airtel holding 25%, and NTT DoCoMo Inc.
holding 6.3%.

Telecom Seychelles

On 11 August 2010, Bharti Airtel announced that it would acquire 100%

stake in Telecom Seychelles for US$62 million taking its global presence
to 19 countries. Telecom Seychelles began operations in 1998 and
operates 3G, Fixed Line, ship to shore services satellite telephony,
among value added services like VSAT and Gateways for International
Traffic across the Seychelles under the Airtel brand. The company has

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over 57% share of the mobile market of Seychelles. Airtel announced
plans to invest US$10 million in its fixed and mobile telecoms network
in the Seychelles over three years, whilst also participating in the
Seychelles East Africa submarine cable (SEAS) project. The US$34
million SEAS project is aimed at improving the Seychelles' global
connectivity by building a 2,000 km undersea high-speed link to Dar es
Salaam in Tanzania.

Wireless Business Services Private Limited

On 24 May 2012, Airtel announced an agreement to acquire a 49%

stake in Wireless Business Services Private Limited (WBSPL) at an
investment of ₹9.07 billion (US$130 million). WBSPL was a joint
venture founded by Qualcomm, and held BWA spectrum in the telecom
circles of Delhi, Haryana, Kerala and Mumbai.Qualcomm had spent
US$1 billion to acquire BWA spectrum in those 4 circles.The deal gave
Airtel a 4G presence in 18 circles. On 4 July 2013, Airtel announced that
it had acquired an additional 2% equity share capital (making its stake
51%) in all the four BWA entities of Qualcomm, thereby making them
its subsidiaries. On 18 October 2013, Airtel announced that it had
acquired 100 percent equity shares of WBSPL for an undisclosed sum,
making it a wholly owned subsidiary.

Augere Wireless Edit

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Airtel purchased Augere Wireless Broadband India Private Limited, a
company that owned 4G spectrum in the Chhattisgarh-Madhya Pradesh
circle for an undisclosed sum in December 2015. The Economic Times
estimated Augere's spectrum to be worth ₹1.5 billion (US$21 million).
On 16 February 2017, Airtel announced that the merger of Augere
Wireless into Bharti Airtel Limited had been completed.

Telenor India

On 2 January 2017, The Economic Times reported that Airtel had

entered into discussions with Telenor India to acquire the latter.On 23
February 2017, Airtel announced that it had entered into a definitive
agreement to acquire Telenor. As part of the deal, Airtel will acquire
Telenor India's assets and customers in all seven telecom circles that
the latter operates in - Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Maharashtra, Gujarat,
Uttar Pradesh (East), Uttar Pradesh (West) and Assam. Airtel will gain
43.4 MHz spectrum in the 1800 MHz band from the Telenor acquisition.
Business Standard reported that it was a no-cash deal, but would cost
Airtel ₹1,600 crore over a 10-year period due to spectrum licence
payments.

Tikona 4G spectrum Edit

On 23 March 2017, Economic Times reported that Airtel announced

that it had acquired.[58] Tikona Digital Networks Pvt. Ltd to purchase

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the latter's 4G spectrum for approximately ₹1,600 crore. The deal also
includes Tikona's 350 cellular sites in 5 circles. Tikona had purchased 20
MHz of 4G spectrum in the 2,300 MHz band in the 2010 auctions in
Gujarat, Himachal Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh (East), Uttar Pradesh (West)
and Rajasthan for ₹1,058 crore. Prior to the deal, Airtel did not hold any
spectrum in the 2300 MHz band in UP (East), UP (West) and Rajasthan,
and held 10 MHz each in Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh.

Tikona was founded in 2008 by former Reliance Communications

executives Rajesh Tiwari and Prakash Bajpai. Its other investors include
Goldman Sachs, Oak Capital, IFC and Everstone Capital. Tikona will
retain its home broadband wireless business. Rajesh Tiwari, one of the
cofounders of Tikona, though sought to put a spanner in the deal,
slapping a legal notice against both the companies for not providing
details of how the proceeds will be split among shareholders.

Millicom International Cellular SA

Telecom operator Bharti Airtel on 12 December 2017 said that it has

signed an agreement with Millicom International Cellular S.A. to acquire
100 per cent stake in its Rwanda operation which operates under the
brand name of Tigo Rwanda.

Bharti Airtel Limited. has entered into a definitive agreement with

Millicom International Cellular S.A. (Millicom) under which Airtel

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Rwanda Limited will acquire 100 per cent equity interest in Tigo
Rwanda Limited.

Tata Teleservices & Tata Docomo

On October 2017, Bharti Airtel announced that it would acquire the

consumer mobile businesses of Tata Teleservices Ltd (TTSL), Tata
Docomo and Tata Teleservices Maharastra Ltd (TTML) in a debt-free
cash-free deal. The deal will essentially be free for Airtel which will only
incur TTSL's unpaid spectrum payment liability. TTSL will continue to
operate its enterprise, fixed line and broadband businesses and its
stake in tower company Viom Networks.The deal received approval
from the Competition Commission of India (CCI) in mid-November
2017. On 29 August 2018, Bharti Airtel, got its shareholders approval
for the merger proposal with Tata Teleservices. On 17 January 2019
NCLT Delhi gave final approval merger between Tata Docomo and
Airtel.

Airtel's proposed acquisition of consumer mobile business of Tata

Teleservices and Tata Docomo has got DoT's nod for further approval
according to CCI. The Department of Telecom (DoT) has given approval
for the merger of Tata Teleservices (TTSL) with Bharti Airtel, subject to
the condition that the Bharti Airtel firm furnishes Rs 7,200 crore worth

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bank guarantee. On November 2017, Tata Teleservices mobile
customers had started transitioning to the Airtel's network.

On July 1, 2019, The consumer mobile business of Tata Teleservices has

become part of telecom operator Bharti Airtel.

Airtel will absorb the Tata Sons-owned telco's consumer mobile

operations in 19 circles across India — 17 under Tata Teleservices and
two under Tata Teleservices (Maharashtra) Ltd. As part of the proposed
agreement, Airtel will also take over a small portion of the unpaid
spectrum liability of Tata Teleservices. The Bharti Airtel will get an
additional 178.5 MHz of spectrum in three bands—1800 MHz, 2100
MHz and 850 MHz—that are widely used for 4G, an area where Airtel is
expanding fast to keep pace with Reliance Jio Infocomm. Airtel will also
add about 13 million of Tata Tele's mobile subscribers as of April 2019
to its nearly 322 million users. But most of Tata Tele's mobile users are
inactive, as per the regulator.

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Reliance Jio Marketing Mix (4Ps) Strategy

Marketing Mix of Reliance Jio analyses the brand/company which

covers 4Ps (Product, Price, Place, Promotion) and explains the Reliance
Jio marketing strategy. The article elaborates the pricing, advertising &
distribution strategies used by the company.

Let us start the Reliance Jio Marketing Mix:

Product:

The product strategy and mix in Reliance Jio marketing strategy can be
explained as follows:

Reliance Jio is a leading telecom operator in India, which has disrupted

the Indian market with its services. Jio has rolled out a number of
products & services in its marketing mix for the benefit of the Indian

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population including the roll out of Internet services to promote
Internet penetration within the country and promote the digitization
initiatives followed. JioPhone is one of the most popular service rolled
out by Jio, wherein the first affordable 4G phone has been launched by
Reliance which is powered by Kai Operating System. Peripheral services
like messaging and music are offered by the 4G internet services that
Jio offers along with the various data and voice over services. Apart
from this, Jio also produces the LYF smartphones. Even though in the
initial months of its launch agreement with Intex, Jio was supposed to
purchase the smartphones manufactured by Intex, Jio decided on
making its own handsets compatible with the 4G VoLTE technology.
Reliance Jio, prior to its launch of 4G services within the country, also
started providing free hotspots of Wi-Fi in a number of cities within the
country. This initiative was undertaken in an attempt to gauge the
interest in Internet penetration within the country, and develop a
culture wherein people are exposed to Internet usage. More so, in the
month of March 2016, Wi-Fi was provided to spectators in 6 cricket
stadiums that had partnered to host the ICC World Cricket Tournament
matches.

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Price:

Below is the pricing strategy in Reliance Jio marketing strategy:

At the outset, in an attempt to promote Internet usage within the

country and to make the availability of Internet to people from all walks
of life, Reliance Jio undertook the initiative of providing SIMs free of
cost to any individual against their Aadhar number and unique mobile
number identity. It was estimated that Jio was successful in selling up to
14 lakh SIM cards to individuals within the first few days of its launch.
Following the stint of rolling out services free of charge for the users,
Jio has rolled out reasonable pricing plans wherein consumers are
charged reasonably for the data consumption that they undertake.
Voice calling however, is still free for its users who mainly pay for the
data usage. Reliance Jio Phones including the LYF series were priced
affordably with a security deposit of Rs 1500 that could be withdrawn
by the user after usage of the phone for three years. LYF devices start
at prices as low as Rs.2999 and JioFi is priced at ranges as low as
Rs1999.

Place:

Following is the distribution strategy of Reliance Jio:

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Reliance Jio has a strong presence in the Indian subcontinent because
of the extremely well developed infrastructure that the firm offers. The
network is available across all the twenty two telecom sectors in the
country which include regions all across India. All states and major cities
are covered. It has a reach in about 18000 cities and across more than
two lakh villages within the country.

Promotion:

The promotional and advertising strategy in the Reliance Jio marketing

strategy is as follows:

Jio has partnered with a number of organizations and agencies like The
BT group, Millicom, Orange S.A. In September 2016, it even signed a
pact with BSNL for intra-circle roaming services to be offered in
partnership with one another. Jio has also signed up for a partnership
with Samsung for rolling out LTE Advanced Pro and 5G in the country.
Reliance Jio was responsible for launching the much talked about
Augmented Reality game called Pokémon Go, which excited the youth
and revolutionized the way games were thought as. Jio promotes itself
extensively through campaigns on Television, Social Media, print
Media, outdoor media publishing activities and so on. The brand
ambassadors for the brand promotion are the most iconic stars of the
Bollywood film fraternity: Shahrukh Khan and Amitabh Bachchan.

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Since this is a service marketing brand, here are the other three Ps to
make it the 7Ps marketing mix of Reliance Jio.

People:

Jio believes in providing its employees and customers an entire

ecosystem which lets them leverage the digital life to the fullest. A vast
majority of employees who work at Reliance Jio come from a socio-
economic environment that is extremely dynamic and diverse.
Employees are treated with respect and given enough autonomy to
lead processes the way they wish to.

Process:

Jio provides a number of mobile applications that are available for free
download from the Google Play store, which even though free to
download require the presence of a Jio sim that the user should own.
Some of the most popular examples of Jio apps include JioTV,
JioCinema, JioChat Messenger, JioMusic, JioMags and so on. Jio-Fi has
also been launched in select part of the countries which is Jio based Wi-
Fi services at homes and offices.

Physical Evidence:

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Reliance Jio promotes itself with the Jio Digital Life campaign in order to
attract the youth of the country with the broader vision that the
leadership of the country has in terms of Digitizing the Indian Society.
The company mainly appeals to the youth in the age groups of 18-35
years who are looking actively for internet services at affordable prices.
Hence this completes the Reliance Jio marketing mix.

Airtel Marketing Mix (4Ps) Strategy

Marketing Mix of Airtel analyses the brand/company which covers 4Ps

(Product, Price, Place, Promotion) and explains the Airtel marketing
strategy. The article elaborates the pricing, advertising & distribution
strategies used by the company.

Let us start the Airtel Marketing Mix:

Product:

The product strategy and mix in Airtel marketing strategy can be

explained as follows:

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Airtel provides a wide variety of services in the field of telecom. The
summary of the products in the marketing mix of Airtel are described as
below:

• Mobile Services: Airtel provides both voice and data service to its
customers. Currently Airtel has got the largest customer base in India
crossing over 358 million. Airtel was the first one to provide 4G services
in India. Also Airtel provides a variety of low cost plans for its voice and
data services. Airtel mobile service can be classified into:

o Prepaid service eg. Recharge offers , roaming packs, blackberry

packs, Family share pack, Handset pack etc.

o Postpaid service eg. Bill payment, My Plan, Roaming plans, other

special offers etc.

o Other value added service eg. SMS, MMS, Hello tunes, Airtel
Money, Airtel Live, 2G 3G 4G internet, voice mail, DND services etc.

• Telemedia Services: Airtel provides broadband services across 87

cities in India. Some of the products offered are 4G homes internet
service, broadband internet connection, Dongels and routers for 4G
and 3G services.

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• Digital TV services: Airtel TV provides over 540 HD channels with
superior picture quality. Airtel Digital TV+ setup box also allows user to
record TV programs that can be watched later.

• Airtel business: Airtel provides variety of Information and

communication Technology services like data centre, network
integration, tower infrastructure service to other business, government
and carrier customers.

Price:

Below is the pricing strategy in Airtel marketing strategy:

Airtel follows a competitive pricing strategy because of the huge

competition in telecom segment in India from competitors like Reliance
Jio, Vodafone etc. The pricing strategies of all telecom companies are
monitored by Telecom Regulation Authority of India to ensure fair
prices are being charged to all customers. Hence, despite regulation,
the most important aspect in the pricing strategy in the marketing mix
of Airtel is based on competitive pricing strategy. Airtel provides
flexibility to its customer to choose and customize their plan according
to their preference and pay tariff according to chosen pack (eg. MyPlan
service to customer to choose their plan and pay price accordingly). The
aim of Airtel’s pricing strategy is customer retention by providing them
with combo offers to boost revenue. Airtel pricing strategies in

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broadband segment is also of very low cost and attracts huge customer
base to avail affordable plans. Airtel faces tough competition in terms
of price war with other telecom companies like Reliance Jio and the
customer loyalty for any telecom company is nearly zero and entirely
dependent on price of services, so Airtel offers its basic product like
call, data, SMS and other value added services at a cheap rate.

Place:

Following is the distribution strategy of Airtel:

Airtel sells its service through distributers and retailers, which form the
basis of place strategy in the marketing mix of Airtel. Airtel has got a
wide distribution network which spans across 20 countries. Airtel’s
intensive distribution network enables it to cover the remotest area.
Airtel uses retail stores, convenient stores, roadside stalls etc to make
its service available to customers. Airtel makes its service available
through businesses like paan shops, chemist’s shops, groceries shops
etc. Airtel has also launched ‘Project leap’ in the year 2015 to expand
its coverage to over 5 lakh villages. Under this project, Airtel will spend
60 thousand crores over a period of next three years to expand its
network and make its services available across India.

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Airtel also offers a dedicated 24 customer support service team which
can be reached online or through telephone to report any issue or solve
customer queries.

Promotion:

The promotional and advertising strategy in the Airtel marketing

strategy is as follows:

Airtel is an established and well known brand in telecom sector. Airtel

organizes a strong promotional campaigns for its services utilizing all
media channels from TV, print, events, social media etc. Hence the
promotion strategy in the marketing mix of Airtel is extremely
comprehensive i.e. they do a 360 branding. Airtel has used all the big
celebrities to endorse their services like Shahrukh Khan, AR Rehman,
Sachin Tendulkar, Vidya Balan etc. Airtel has also organized some
famous marketing campaigns to target youth audience and build its
brand like ‘Har Ek friend Zaroori hota he’ and ‘Jo Tera Hain Wo Mera
Hain’. Airtel also sponsors various events like Cricket matches, Grand
Prix etc and organized events like Airtel Delhi Half Marathon etc under
their community development programme and brand promotion. Airtel
has also got a good presence on social media like Facebook, Twitter etc.
Which it uses for its service promotion and solve queries of customers.

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Airtel also engages in public relations like Education campaigns, girls
child awareness campaigns etc.

Since this is a service marketing brand, here are the other three Ps to
make it the 7Ps marketing mix of Airtel.

People:

Airtel focuses on ‘Win with people’ approach for its effective business
strategy. Airtel has got an employee base of 18179 with a
commendable employee engagement score of 79%. Airtel invests
heavily in the training and development of the skills of its employees. In
2016, Airtel invested 168 million to nurture talent within its
organization and build high performance culture. Airtel also focuses on
developing a healthy work culture and efficient functioning of its cross
functional teams. Airtel’s Talent First Strategy focuses on building
entrepreneurship and leadership skills in employees. The people
strategy in the marketing mix of Airtel focuses on hiring the right talent,
training them and rewarding them. Airtel also promotes gender
diversity in its organization by promoting women friendly working
policies. Airtel promotes itself as a learning organization where all
employees follow a learning development plan based on their career
aspiration. Airtel also gives rewards and recognition to indentify and
retain talent within organization.

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Process:

Airtel process for providing service to its customer is very easy and
streamlined. Airtel process focuses on providing a reliable and
responsive service to its customers. To get a plan or new connection
the customers can directly go to any Airtel’s service centres or contact
the support service to activate/deactivate a plan. Airtel’s customer can
get their queries resolved 24*7 by contacting the customer support
number from anywhere across India. Airtel also opened India’s first
Open network initiative under Project Leap that displays network
strength across India. This transparent policy allows customer to check
network strength and coverage and report any issue easily. Airtel also
allow its customer easily to identify various plans and pick the most
suitable plan. Airtel customers are free to evaluate the services and
then can carry on or switch to a different brand using number
portability. Airtel focuses on delivering optimal services without loss of
quality through their commitment towards its customers.

Physical Evidence:

Airtel retail outlet and relationship centres serves as a service point to

its customers. The Company-Owned-Company-Operated Airtel stores
try to serve its customer in the best possible way by providing a one
stop solution for all customer needs like instant connection, dongle and

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broadband connection etc. These stores provide a superior customer
experience with excellent look and feel of all the outlets and
convenient location within any city. Airtel products like sim card cover
and recharge vouchers are beautifully designed to appeal to the
customer. Airtel provides its digital TV services through its set top boxes
which are easy to configure and use. All these products acts as a
differentiating factor for Airtel service marketing. Hence, all these help
in summarizing the marketing mix of Airtel.

Strengths in the SWOT analysis of Reliance Jio :

Strengths are defined as what each business does best in its gamut of
operations which can give it an upper hand over its competitors. The
following are the strengths of Reliance Jio:

Strongest Customer Acquisition strategy – Reliance Jio probably has the

best customer acquisition strategy till date. The brand offered their
services for free for 3-6 months to all their users. This resulted in
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millions of users using Reliance Jio and resulted in one of the best
customer acquisition strategy in the history of telecom.

Strong customer base – Jio boasts of a whopping 100 million

subscribers in the first 170 days of its launch a record which no other
provider has been able to register. This has also made Reliance Jio
India’s largest Internet Service Provider.

Technology – Jio currently uses the latest 4 G LTE technology which is

one of the world’s best technologies for the future. This is supported by
Voice over LTE which makes it scalable and supportive of 5G and 6 G
technologies which are expected to be the future in wireless
communication.

Strong backing of parent company Reliance Industries: Reliance

Industries is a credible brand which echoes with Indian sentiments and
has high trust amongst customers. The association of Jio with Reliance
acts as a core strength.

Brand Management – The reason for the huge customer base of

Reliance Jio is the brand management strategies that it has adopted.
The right promotion backed by lucrative offers and credible brand
ambassadors like ShahRukh Khan and Amitabh Bachchan have helped
in building connectivity with the customers.

Weaknesses in the SWOT analysis of Reliance Jio :

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Weaknesses are used to refer to areas where the business or the brand
needs improvement. Some of the key weaknesses of Reliance Jio are:

Late entry into the market: Reliance Jio has made a late forayinto the
market which already had established players like Airtel and Vodafone
who had occupied a place in the minds of the customer.

Activation Issues – Reliance Jio faced numerous gestation issues owing

to not being able to contain the huge volumes of customers it had
acquired. On such was delays in SIM Card activation during the period
that followed its launch.

Pricing Controversies – Reliance Jio was criticised for having lowered its
prices beyond what was ethical to penetrate into the market and this
stirred allegations like corruption and money laundering against them.

Too many freebies – Reliance Jio currently offers many services for free
and this was one reason for share increase in sales. However, the
company may not be able to afford all of them in the long run which
may affect the business negatively.

Data connection poor – The data connection is many times poor from
Reliance Jio and the range is less causing slower loading speeds in
selected regions.

Opportunities for the SWOT analysis of Reliance Jio :

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Opportunities refer to those avenues in the environment that
surrounds the business on which it can capitalize to increase its returns.
Some of the opportunities include:

Future driven technology – Reliance Jio uses VoLTE 4G network which is

scalable to accommodate

5G and 6G technologies.This offers numerous avenues to Jio or future

expansion of bandwidth.

Apps – Reliance Jio has VoLTE which has a lot of scope in terms of
bandwidth.Thus they can offer apps to customers which are chargeable
or even free initially and pay per use later.

Competitive Pricing Strategies – Reliance Jio prides itself on being a

low-cost Internet service provider and mobile operator. This can be
used as a positioning to target more markets and grow their market
share since most of their competitors’ cannot afford their prices.

Expansion to other countries – Currently Reliance Jio is operational only

in India. There is, however, a lot of scope for expansion to foreign
countries at least in the neighboring regions.

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Fast and wide network – Reliance Jio has a presence in all 22 telecom
circles in India and is known to be a robust and fast network with zero
connectivity issues.

Multiple offerings under a single name – Reliance Jio offers a variety of

services like movies, games, shopping, chats, and messenger etc. giving
the customer a lot of options to choose from.

Threats in the SWOT analysis of Reliance Jio :

Threats are those factors in the environment which can be detrimental

to the growth of the business. Some of the threats include:

Risk of loss of customers – Customers prefer Jio primarily because of

the low prices that they offer. At a stage when the company increases
its price there may be a loss of customers.

Removal of free services – Jio currently is associated with a lot of

freebies.Once these are removed there may be a drop in sales for the
company.

Criticism and negative image – Reliance Jio has been embroiled in a lot
of controversies from the time it was started. These have resulted in a
negative brand image for the company.

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Poor Code of ethics – Many of the strategies adopted by Reliance Jio
such as the low pricing, free bandwidth and market penetration
strategies have been showcased as unethical and this may affect the
goodwill of the business in the long run.

Strengths in the SWOT analysis of Airtel

Renowned Telecom company: With its 19+ years of rich experience in

telecom industry this MNC had travelled far to become world’s 3rd
largest telecom operator overseas with operations in nearly 20
countries.

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High Brand Equity: It is one of the pioneer brands in telecommunication
having a high brand recall and with a whopping subscriber base.

Extensive infrastructure: With the formation of Indus tower & due to its
partnership with Idea & Vodafone, the infrastructure of Airtel has
extended in all parts of the country resulting into nationwide
penetration.

Strategic Alliances: The company has top notch stakeholders, namely

Sony Ericsson, Nokia and singtel, and the recent one being Apple. Such
strategic alliances boost the brand equity and the bottom line of the
company.

Torchbearer of the telecom Industry: With its number 1 spot due to its
excellent services in developing economies, Airtel has interconnected
the life of people in an highly efficient way. Thus, where Vodafone is an
external entrant, Airtel is a leading nationwide player in India and the
torchbearer of the telecom industry in India.

Weaknesses in the SWOT analysis of Airtel

Outsourced Operations: Outsourcing operations helped Airtel in

lowering its cost. But on the other hand, they are running the risk of

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being dependent on some other companies which may affect its
operations.

Venturing into African operations: Although it’s been 4 years that Airtel
has acquired Zain’s Africa business, but Airtel is still struggling to turn
around the unit which was bought at a whoppy 9 billion dollars.

High Debt: With its acquisitions turning out to bad investment, and
credit being high and margins being low, Airtel group is under high
debt. Airtel does not have as deep pockets as Vodafone.

Opportunities in the SWOT analysis of Airtel

Strategic Partnership: Partnering with smart phone companies is going

to be a smart strategy as far as MNP (mobile number portability in
India) is concerned. This will ensure fixed cash flows in the future and a
higher customer base.

Market Development: With fierce competition in the telecom industry

& shrinking margins, venturing out in new markets/developing
economies will prove fruitful for the company.

VAS: VAS (Value Added services) is going to future of the

telecommunication industry & by specializing itself in this vertical Airtel
can differentiate itself in highly competitive market. With introduction
of unique services, Airtel can avail higher margins.

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Untapped geography of the current market: Although it is currently
providing 3G & 4G services, but these services are limited to specific
geographical locations. Expansion of these services to most of its
regions will help the company get more margins and customers.

LTE: The whole wireless world is moving towards LTE (long term
evolution or 4G). LTE for mobile broadband can be a good solution for
India where fixed broadband penetration is otherwise low. Airtel has
taken the lead with this version of LTE in 4 cities, but deployment needs
to catch up pace. Despite a weak LTE ecosystem in India, Airtel should
portray itself as the embracer of that technology. The company lacks
nationwide 3G license with spectrum in 13 out of 22 telecom service
areas. Airtel’s LTE network for mobile broadband is still confined to only
4 cities in India.

Threats in the SWOT analysis of Airtel

Government Regulatory Framework: With the auction of spectrum &

change in the government policies on a regular basis, it is a potential
threat to the stability & existence of this industry thereby affecting the
players.

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Competition: Price war in the home market and declining margins due
to this is adversely affecting the overall business of the group.

MNP (Mobile number portability): MNP gives the customer

independence to change the service provider while retaining the
number and as Airtel charges are premium over other service
providers, it can see slump in subscriber base in the next fiscal year
with PAN India MNP applicable from May 3rd 2015.

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