Om Prakash

Santosh
Baskar Narayanan
Raj Kumar
Preethi
 Introduction

• Largest Private Integrated Telecom Company in India

• 3rd Largest Wireless Operator in the World

• Largest & Fastest Growing Wireless Operator in India

• Largest Telecom Company listed on Indian Stock

Exchange
 Cellular Position
• When the brand was launched cellular
telephony wasn’t a mass market by any
means. For the average consumer, owning
a cellular phone was expensive as tariff
rates (at ` 8 to 16 per minute, as against `
1.20 for landline communication ) At that
time, Instrument prices were steep high —
sometimes as much as buying a second-
hand car. High Licence Fee for
communication service providers.
 Airtel’s Positioning
• At that time Airtel company redefined the way
cellular services were being marketed in the
country, was made possible due to its innovative
marketing strategies, continuous technological
up gradations, new value added service
offerings and efficient customer service. AirTel
decided to address that benefit of sensory of the
customer and make it as their Business strategy
- main selling approach. The idea was to make a
badge value brand They targeted the elite, up
market professionals and entrepreneurs as
customers – Premium Sector
Price vs. Service Quality
Marketing Research
Analysis

Which card is used.

21% HUTCH

0% AIRTEL
BSNL
50%
TATA INDICOM
29%
IDEA
Market Research cont..

Service provided by the custom er care

4% 4%
yes, I msatisfied.
no, not satisfied.
can't say
92%
Marketing Research
Analysis cont

network connectivity

yes, I m satisfied.
no, not satisfied.
can't say
Porter’s 5 Forces

GROUP 7 9
 1. Threat from Competition
Wireless Market – Top 4 garnering 75%
market share

HIGH

GROUP 7 10
Competitor Analysis

  OP Margin Net Margin

Compan Sep-09 Sep-09 Sep-09 Sep-09
Best OP Margins
y
& Net Profit Bharti 43.00% 38.00% 26.40% 19.30%
Margins among
Rcom 37.90% 31.60% 23.90% 13.20%
Peers
IDEA 32.80% 26.60% 14.10% 6.50%
MTNL 23.70% 22.90% 7.00% 6.80%

Source: CMIE November 2008

GROUP 7 11
 AMOU & ARPU StatsOU & ARPU
Stats Minutes of Usage per Month – Mobile
Services
USA 838
Despite a low teledensity of approximately
India 461 19 percent, India has the second highest
minutes of usage per month. This offers
China 303
huge growth opportunity to telecom
Rus sia 88 companies.

ARPU* in India – Mobile Services

10
ARPU (USD per month)

6 The declining ARPU implies that India Inc. is

4 tapping a large market at the bottom of the
2 pyramid by reducing tariffs; thereby,
0
Q1 2006 Q2 2006 Q3 2006 Q4 2006 Q1 2007
enhancing affordability.
GSM CDMA

GROUP 7 12
 2. Customer Bargaining
Power
 Lack of differentiation among HIGH

Service Providers
 Cut throat Competition
 Low Switching Costs
 Businesses & Consumers

GROUP 7 13
3. Suppliers Bargaining
Power
LOW

GROUP 7 14
 4. Threat of Substitutes
 Landline DIMINISHING HIGH
 CDMA MARKET

 Video Conferencing
BROADBAND
SERVICES
 VOIP - Skype, Gtalk, Yahoo Messenger
 e-Mail & Social Networking Websites

GROUP 7 15
5. Threat of New Entrants
 Huge License Fees to be paid upfront & High
gestation period
LOW
 Entry of MVNOs & WiMAX operators

 Spectrum Availability & Regulatory Issues

 Infrastructure Setup Cost - High

 Rapidly changing technology

GROUP 7 16
SWOT Analysis
Strengths Weakness
• Largest Telecom Player in • Outsourcing of Core
India - ~80Mn, 22.6% Systems
• Strategic Alliance with • Lack of emerging
other stakeholders in market investment
Bharti Airtel include Sony- opportunity
Ericsson, Nokia - and Sing
Tel
• Pan India Presence
• Strong Financials

Source: CMIE Report NOV 08

GROUP 7 17
SWOT Analysis cont
Opportunities Threats
• Bharti Infratel – • India centric – Major
Cutting Down cost in revenues from India
Rural area
• Falling ARPU & AMOU
• Match Box Strategy –
Scale of Penetration • Intense Competition &
• Current Tele-Density – Shortage of Bandwidth
30.6 is still low among
developing countries
• Low Broadband
Penetration, Rural
Telephony
GROUP 7 18
 BCG Matrix for Bharti Airtel
HIGH

Mobile Services
DTH & IPTV

Broad Band
LOW

HIGH LOW
GROUP 7 19
 Leadership Campaign
• AirTel “Leadership series” campaign was
launched showing successful men with their
laptops and in their deluxe cars using the
mobile phone. Airtel was positioned as
aspiration brand that was meant for leaders,
for customers who stood out in a crowd. Brand
— leadership, dynamism and performance Tag
lines like “Airtel - Power to Keep in Touch” and
"Airtel celebrates the spirit of leadership" and
"The first choice of the corporate leaders" .
 Analysis Report
• Airtel team realized that in a business
customer relationship was the core which was
lacked by AIRTEL – a major weakness The
leadership series was okay when you were
wooing the crèmede la crème of society. Once
you reached them you had to expand the
market so there was need to address to new
customers. - Senior executive of Essar  A change
in track was important because this was a time
when the cellular market was changing.
 Analysis Report-cont…
• Surveys showed that the concept of leadership in
the customer’s minds was also changing.
Leadership did not mean directing subordinates
to execute orders but to work along with a team
to achieve common objectives — it was, again, a
relationship game that needed to be reflected in
the AirTel brand. We are adopting a new brand
platform – “Touch Tomorrow” – not only to reflect
our corporate ethos but also business strategy. -
Hemant Sachdev
 Humanized AirTel
• Now, ‘humanize’ brand ‘Airtel’ started to gain
competitive advantage. In August 2000, Bharti
launched its new ‘Touch Tomorrow’ campaign
which aimed at strengthening its relationship
with its customers and highlights the
relationship angle and make the brand ‘softer’
to cater a wide variety of people across the
society. Airtel brand will have the logo in red,
black and white colors, and a lower-case
typography to convey warmth. This has tossed
a challenge: how to bond with consumers
 dil ka rishta hai-Campaign
• In the new thrust, Airtel has also moved down the
socio-economic classification (SEC) from SEC-A to SEC-
B. Mobile telephony is taken for granted - in one
research, consumers have described mobile telephony
as `dil ka rishta hai‘ (as it is kept close to the heart)
Airtel has also undertaken an updating of the entire
Airtel franchised network and company-owned
customer centers. At Airtel Connects, it is creating a
softer ambience with e-kiosks, new signage's, facades,
merchandising material and collaterals; and a color co-
ordination of red, black and white
 Change In Architecture
• The Company adopted a three-tier brand
architecture to expanded its ‘Touch Point’
network. All convergent technologies in
the sphere of telephony will be a part of
the new brand architecture Tier I - Airtel
,Tier II - Basic Telephony,Broadband
Service, Mobile Service, Tier III - Freenet,
Long Distance, Tango- Internet mobile
 Airtel-Strategy
• Ad spend more - doubled to Rs 45 crore. A new
ambience, reinforcing red and black color-co-
ordination, for Airtel shops .The network of Airtel
connects and touch points, were doubled .A push of
products, especially Net-centric ones, was launched
.Network capacity utilization (currently operating at
75 %) was improved by 20 % Number of cellular
lines increased from 2,00,000 to 5,60,000 . First
quarter growth of 25 per cent over the
corresponding period in 1999-00. Airtel Leadership
Programmed in alliance with 50 marketers
Changing colors .
 Airtel Strategy - cont

• In 2002, Airtel signed on music composer AR

Rahman and changed its tune to "Live every
moment": Rahman's signature tune for Airtel is,
perhaps, the most downloaded ringtone in India. But
that was just part of the ongoing communication.
Airtel Ad Campaigns
 P’s of Service Marketing
• Normal 4 P’s:
Product, Price, Promotion, Place
• Extended 8 P’s:
People, Purpose, Positioning,
Partners, Personality, Process,
Physical Evidence, Punch
 8 P’s of Service Marketing
• People - Recruiting the right staff and training
them appropriately – Change them according to
new theme – clothes, attitude.
• Purpose – Emerging Competition and
Government regulation, Capturing more
customers .
• Positioning – positioning in humane way rather
than to commoditization way .
• Partners – Indirect partners – cellular producers –
Nokia, Motorola…
 8 P’s of Service Marketing
• Personality – Showing Airtel in different way -
beyond the current Brand Personality Scale
• Process – Design and approach – 3 tier
• Physical Evidence – people started to feel the
touch of Airtel, they made good judgement
about Airtel
• Punch – The tagline “ Touch Tomorrow”
 
 Teams View
• Brand restructuring helped the company
to broaden its customer base by reaching
more people and offering new services
Airtel was the first cellular service provider
to start customer centers (Airtel
connects), thus setting a trend of effective
and responsive CRM system & it should
be maintained. More focusing on
emotional angle to differentiate the brand,
helps to add more SEC- B customers.
 Success!!
• Merits Targeting different and new customer of
market effectively. “TOUCH TOMORROW” gave
an insight into the needs of tomorrow's
consumer. Customer started to feel the theme
- Humane Demerits Risk of being alienated
from loyal customers Huge promotional costs If
a new positioning fails or not executed
properly brand may suffer a crisis of identity
and dilution of brand image
 Success!!
• Loyal Customers will realize that this change is
inevitable, to grow the company and they will
feel the futuristic aim from the tag line –
Touch Tomorrow Huge Advertise cost will
become meagre when comparing to
increasing customers This campaign make all
to think as a team Humane Approach make
customers to forget the other competing
service providers.
 Conclusion
• AirTel Overcomes all its demerits and positioned the
AirTel as humane service providers as they
Targeted. More customers started to subscribe
AirTel. In telecom industry people live a brand
24X7 ,so AIRTEL restructures the Theme, Logo,
Architecture to broaden its customer base by
reaching more people and offering good services.
AirTel broadens its base and this campaign creates
a confidant among the subscribers that AIRTEL can
do every thing Better.
Thank You !!