SUMMER TRAINING PROJECT REPORT

ON

“MARKETING STRATEGIES OF AIRTEL

AT BHARTI AIRTEL, LUCKNOW”

SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS

FOR THE MASTER’S DEGREE IN BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION

OF

UTTARAKHAND TECHNICAL UNIVERSITY, DEHRADUN

SUBMITTED TO:

INTERNAL GUIDE EXTERNAL GUIDEName NameDesignation DesignationIMS Company NameDehradun Location

SUBMITTED BY:

ADITYA BHATT

(MB12FA33)

INSTITUTE OF MANAGEMENT STUDIES, DEHRADUNBATCH 2012-14

ii

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

I acknowledge the sincere assistance provided to me from several rather

unexpected quarters during the course of execution of this study. It would

be a mammoth task to place on record my gratitude to each and every

one of them but a whole hearted attempt would be made nevertheless,

least I be branded ungrateful.

I am extremely thankful to Mr. PAVEL RAJ, for giving me an opportunity

to

undergo training in MARKETING STRATEGIES OF AIRTEL and making

my stay at bharti airtel a memorable learning experience.

I am deeply thankful to Dr. Vishal Shukla (Internal guide) for his

encouragement, affections, valuable advice and guidance that helped me

to complete this project successfully.

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CERTIFICATE

I have the pleasure in certifying that Mr. Aditya Bhatt is a bonafide student of IInd Semester of the Master’s Degree in Business Administration (Batch 2012-14), of Institute of Management Studies, Dehradun under Uttarakhand Technical University Roll No. 120140500014

He has completed his project work entitled “Marketing Strategies of Airtel” under my guidance.

I certify that this is his/her original effort & has not been copied from any other source. This project has also not been submitted in any other Institute / University for the purpose of award of any Degree.

This project fulfils the requirement of the curriculum prescribed by this Institute for the said course. I recommend this project work for evaluation & consideration for the award of Degree to the student.

Signature : ……………………………………Name of the Guide : ……………………………………Designation : ……………………………………Date : ……………………………………

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PREFACE

In the present scenario marketing and sales is a major challenge for

seasoned professional. And it is no surprise that Marketing is a tough

concept to understand. Marketing is the activity, set of institutions, and

processes for creating, communicating, delivering, and exchanging

offerings that have value for customers, clients, partners, and society at

large.

The project report consists of detailed Study of “MARKETING

STRATEGIES OF AIRTEL” A sincere effort has been made to analyze

working pattern of Mobile Services.

The report further provides information regarding Bharti Airtel, its

financial position, infrastructure with its product and services offered by

them, which facilitate the buyer effectively. It is very important that

trained marketing professionals who are able to communicate specific

features of the services should sell the products. In the millennium all

these activities would play a crucial role in the overall development and

maturity of the organization.

I hope that the research work made by me will be of great help to get the

comprehensive knowledge of the organization.

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EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

The present business scenario is totally customer oriented. Each company

faces stiff competition from its competitors, each provides the best

services at competitive rates. As a result customer has lot of choices to

get the best with least cost. To face this competition, it is very important

to know customer’s behavior towards different products and services.

This project is aimed at understanding the Marketing strategies adopted

by Airtel and its impact on the perception of Airtel Customers.

Research has showed that it is far more costly to win a new customer than

it is to maintain an existing one, and there is no better way to retain a

customer than to exceed his expectations. For this purpose it is essential

to know the level of customer satisfaction. The focus of my research was

the measurement of customer satisfaction level for the services provided

by Bharti Airtel. My job was to collect the feedback from the distributors

and also to get their suggestions about the other products. There can be

no better opportunity to interact with the external as well as the internal

customers of an organization. Finally the results of the research verify the

fact that keeping the customer satisfied is the best strategy to not only

retains the existing customers but also to expand the business to new

horizons.

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

1. TELECOMMUNICATION MARKET IN INDIA 1

2. GSM MARKET IN INDIA 5

3. INTRODUCTION 16

4. TARIFF STRUCTURE 31

5. PROMOTIONAL STRATEGY 39

6. MARKET SITUATION 41

7. COMPETITIVE SITUATION 42

8. MARKETING STRATEGY ADAPTED BY BHARTI 50

9. OBJECTIVE 58

10. RESEARCH METHODOLOGY 59

11. LIMITATION 60

12. SWOT ANALYSIS 68

13. CONCLUSION 70

14. BIBLIOGRAPHY 71

15. QUESTIONNAIRE 72

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LIST OF TABLES & FIGURES

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OBJECTIVE OF THE STUDY

The objective behind this research project is to study about the

importance and development of telecommunication industry in today’s

scenario.

To understand the Marketing strategies which are used by Bharti Airtel to

Survive in highly competitive cell phone market and different services

which are offered by Bharti Airtel. An overview of the Indian

telecommunication market is also given, along with the growing GSM

market and challenges before the CDMA market in India. A brief

introduction about Bharti Airtel has also been given, covering all the

services provided by Bharti Airtel.

It also includes Indian market study, Bharti Airtel Corporate Study. Under

this research project following points about Bharti Airtel are covered:

Promotional Strategy

Market Situation

Competitive Situation

Market segmentation

Positioning

Pricing Policy

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1

INTRODUCTION

The Indian telecommunications Network is the second largest in the world

860.9 million telephone connections 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. It has the world’s third-largest Internet user-base with over 137

million as of June 2012. Major sectors of the Indian telecommunication

industry are telephone, Internet, and television broadcasting. Today it is the

fastest growing market in the world with 8.35 million monthly additions.

Telephone density 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, mobile

switching centre’s, media gateways and signaling gateways at the core,

interconnected by a wide variety of transmission system using fibre-optics or

Microwave radio relay networks. The access network which connects the

subscriber to the core, is highly diversified with different copper-pair, optic-

fibre and wireless technologies. DTH, a relatively new broadcasting

technology has attained significant popularity in the Television segment. The

introduction of private FM has given a fillip to the radio broadcasting in India.

Telecommunication in India has greatly been supported by the INSAT system

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of the country, one of the largest domestic satellite systems in the world.

India

possesses a diversified communications system, which links all parts of the

country by telephone, Internet, radio, television and satellite. Indian telecom

industry underwent a high pace of market liberalization and growth since

1990s and now has become the world's most competitive and one of the

fastest growing telecom markets. The Industry has grown over twenty times

in just ten years, from under 37 million subscribers in the year 2001 to over

846 million subscribers in the year 2011. India has the world's second-

largest mobile phone user base with over 929.37 million users as of May

2012.[6] It has the world's third-largest Internet user-base with over 137

million as of June 2012. The total revenue of the Indian telecom sector grew

by 7% to  283207 crore (US$48 billion) for 2010–11 financial year, while

revenues from telecom equipment segment stood at 

117039 crore (US$20 billion). 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 also has helped

to increase the transparency of governance with the introduction of e-

governance in India. The government has pragmatically used modern

telecommunication facilities to deliver mass education programs for the rural

folk of India. Indian Tele-density, which was languishing at 2% in 1999, has

shown an amazing jump to 47.89 in 2010 and is set to increase by 20% in

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the next five years. Accordingly, India requires incremental investments of

USD 20-25 billion for the next five years.

Private operators have made mobile telephony the fastest growing (over

164% p.a.) in India. With more than 930 million users (both CDMA and GSM),

wireless is the principal growth engine of the Indian telecom industry.

Intense competition between the four main private groups - Bharti,

Vodafone, Tata and Reliance and with the State sector incumbents-BSNL and

MTNL has brought about a significant drop in tariffs. There has been almost

74% in cell phone charges, 70% in ILD calls and 25% drop in NLD charges,

resulting in a boom time for the consumers.

The Government has played a key enabling role by deregulating and

liberalizing the industry, ushering in competition and paving the way for

growth. While there were regulatory irregularities earlier, resulting in

litigation, these have all been addressed now. Customs duties on hardware

and mobile handsets have been reduced from 14 percent to 5 percent.

The Indian government has merged the IT and Telecom Ministries to speed

up reforms and decision on the Communication Convergence Bill to enable

the common regulation of the Internet, broadcasting and telecoms will be

taken after the new Government assumes responsibilities in may this year.

4

An independent regulatory body (TRAI) and dispute settlement body (TDSAT)

is fully functional.

INDIAN CELLULAR MARKET

The Bharti Group, which operates in 23 circles, continues to be the country's

largest cellular operator with over 191 million subscribers. RIM, which

operates in 23 circles, is the second largest operator with a subscriber base

of 150 million. Vodafone, which operates in 23 circles, has a subscriber base

of 142 million subscribers. Thus VODAFONE stands third largest cellular

operator in terms of subscriber base at the end of the fiscal ending March 31,

2011, displacing BSNL from the third position. Unlike fellow public sector

undertaking, MTNL, which operates in Mumbai and Delhi, BSNL, has been a

very aggressive player in the market. "Cellular operators who expected BSNL

to go the MTNL way, were taken by surprise and did not take effective steps

to counter it, till it was too late in the day," said a telecom analyst.

Belying fears of a slowdown in cellular subscriber acquisitions, the cell club

has reported a 8.92% growth, the highest growth in any month so far, during

March 2011. Year-on-year, the cellular subscriber base in the country has

almost doubled in March 2012, and is expanding at the rate of 20% per year

thereafter.

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The cellular subscriber club expanded by 17.46 million last month. This is

much higher than 15 million subscribers added in June 2013 and. Idea, which

operates in 22 circles, is the fifth largest operator with a subscriber base of

91 million, higher than BSNL’S 98 million subscribers across 22 circles. The

subscriber numbers per operator drop sharply with the sixth largest

operator, TataDocomo, having a subscriber base of 43 million, followed by

Uninor Communications with 26 million subscribers and Aircel. MTNL is the

ninth largest operator, with a base of 11 million subscribers.

While the subscriber base-jumped to 229 million in the metros, subscriber

base of category A circles of Maharashtra, Gujarat, Andhra Pradesh,

Karnataka and Tamil Nadu jumped by 30.18 %. Category B circles of Kerala,

Punjab, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh (West), Uttar Pradesh (East), Rajasthan,

Madhya Pradesh and West Bengal recorded a jump of 26 %. Circle C has

reported 19.74% growth.

Among the metros, while Mumbai added 3 million subscribers, higher than

the 1.9 million added by Delhi, the Capital's cellular subscriber base is still

higher than Mumbai. While the cellular industry has been on roll for the first

three quarters of the previous financial year with an average of 30 lakh

monthly additions in the third quarter, the first two months of 20011 had

seen the growth slowing down.

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GSM MARKET IN INDIA

Regional Interest Groups - GSM India

With a population of around 1.3 billion growing at roughly 1.9 per cent a

year, India is potentially one of the most exciting GSM markets in the world.

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 all’; There is a genuine commitment to creating a modern and efficient

communications infrastructure that takes account of the convergence of

7

telecom, IT and media. In addition, the policy places significant emphasis on

greater competition for both fixed and mobile services.'

Competition in the mobile sector has already had a visible impact on prices

with calls currently costing less than 9 cents per minute. This means that

service costs have fallen by 60 per cent since the first GSM networks became

live in 1995. It also helps explain why a recent Telecom Asia survey revealed

that more than 70 per cent of Indian mobile subscribers felt that prices were

now at a reasonable level.

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.

The good news is that subscriber growth is beginning to look healthy. With

India's low PC penetration and high average Internet usage -at 14-20 hours

a

month per user it is comparable to the US -the market for mobile data and

m-commerce looks extremely promising. WAP services have already been

launched in the subcontinent and the first GPRS networks are in the process

8

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.

India fastest growing GSM market

The Cellular Operators Association of India (which includes most of India’s

GSM telecom operators), has reported an addition of 3.50 million GSM

connections in April 2013, closing in at 664.4 million subscribers, a 0.53%

increase from 660.9 million subscribers in the previous month.

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Globally, the GSM market reached 3.9 billion users in February 2013, adding

GSM accounted for 80 per cent of the new subscriber growth in 2012."Almost

every Latin American operator has chosen GSM. In North America GSM

growth is bigger than CDMA (code division multiple access)," he said.

Commenting on

the raging debate over GSM versus CDMA in mobile services arena, Hadden

said: "GSM is the world's most successful mobile standard with over 2 billion

users, and is an open mobile standard. It also supports automatic

international roaming, which is a major contributor to business plans."

India’s GSM mobile firms’ revenue up 30 percent

India’s private telecoms firms offering GSM-based mobile services reported a

21 percent rise in revenue in the year to March 2012 but said future growth

rates could slow because of heavy taxes on the nascent industry. Although

India’s mobile sector is the world’s fastest growing major wireless market, it

is amongst the highest taxed industries in the country. Mobile carriers pay as

much as 25 percent of their revenue as licence fee, spectrum charges and

other taxes. The Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI) said revenue

for fiscal 2003/04 stood at 83.08 billion rupees ($1.86 billion) compared with

64 billion rupees a year earlier. According to T.V. Ramachandran, director

general at COAI, “These revenue growth rates cannot be maintained unless

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there is a concerted effort by the government to cut excessive levies and

allow sharing of infrastructure”

“But the potential to do much better exists as there is still huge demand in

the sector.” Ramachandran said the sector was still losing money but

declined to elaborate. Sales jumped because of a doubling of the GSM

( Global System of Mobile Communications ) user base as more people

entered the flourishing

market thanks to one of the lowest call rates in the world. But the monthly

average revenue per user, a key measure of profitability, declined 17.4

percent to 432 rupees in the fourth quarter compared with 523 rupees in the

first quarter due to a cut in tariffs and excessive competition among

companies. Growth slowing, demand untapped: The association has not

included the financial performance and the GSM-user base of state-run firms

Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd, the second-ranked player, and Mahanagar

Telephone Nigam Ltd, Ramachandran said. There are 650 million GSM

customers and more than 96 million users of the rival CDMA-based mobile

services in the country.

The pace of growth in monthly additions is increasing after just 8.25 million

users took up the service in April compared with 6.9 million in the previous

month. Ramachandran blamed the slowdown on a majority of small GSM

operators being unable to expand networks into rural swathes where

demand remained largely untapped.

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“Our surpluses are not enough to cover costs of network expansion and

financing charges on loans. We are making money only to cover operating

expenses,” he said. Carriers are now subsidising handset costs to woo users

into the underpenetrated industry forecast to have more than 750 million

customers by 2014.

THE CDMA CHALLENGE

CDMA players had launched their services with CDMA 2000 1X-based

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 subscriber’s

experience of surfing the Net on/from mobile.

12

The top brass of GSA, an organisation comprising Nokia, Siemens, Ericsson,

Alcatel and Lucent Technologies - met on Tuesday in the capital to persuade

the operators to adopt EDGE (Enhanced Data rates for GSM Evolution) and

leave GPRS behind as a dream gone sour.

Only Airtel, Vodafone, BPL Mobile and Idea Cellular had launched 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 40 crore, the country has between 9 crore GPRS

users only. In comparison, the two CDMA operators have about 23 crore

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 600 million GSM subscribers by 2012-

2013 . According to GSA, there are over 2.7 billion GSM subscribers

worldwide as against 1.3 billion 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.

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Almost every country has a GSM-based network and even those US

operators, which operated on now-defunct TDMA technology, were migrating

gradually to GSM, not CDMA, pointed out Hadden at the GSM Evolution

Forum. The Forum is a global GSA program to assist the operators for

evolution to third generation (3G) technologies. “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 doesn’t give you. We know for sure that

almost 20-25 per cent of the revenue for some GSM operators comes from

roaming customers,” he added. But CDMA is no pushover with Korea and

Philippines as the shining jewels in its crown. The first CDMA 2000 1X was

commercially deployed in October 2000.

Already, 81 operators have launched 77 CDMA 2000 1X networks whereas

nine have launched services based on 1xEV-DO platform across Asia, the

Americas and Europe. At least, 16 new 1X and six 1xEV-DO networks are

scheduled to be deployed in 2004, according to CDMA Development Group.

EV-DO and EV-DV are the next level of evolution on the CDMA 2000 1X

platform, capable of delivering services comparable to 3G WCDMA.

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Where are the models? 

What will matter a lot in this war will be the availability of EDGE compliant

handsets at affordable rates. While the two CDMA operators have been

giving out handsets that can give hi-speed data transfer, same has not been

the case with GSM. Even now, GPRS handsets have not become

commonplace and GPRS feature is found only in mid and high-end segment

handsets. 

 

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.

More importantly, WCDMA will spawn a whole new range of full motion

audio-video applications, including video telephony. GSM lobby may continue

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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 customer’s eyeballs is most difficult to

predict. 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!

Airtel (Bharti Airtel Ltd.)

Bharti Airtel Limited is a leading global telecommunications company with

operations in 20 countries across Asia and Africa. Headquartered in New

Delhi, India, the company ranks amongst the top 4 mobile service providers

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globally in terms of subscribers. In India, the company's product offerings

include 2G, 3G and 4G wireless services, mobile commerce, fixed line

services, high speed DSL broadband, IPTV, DTH, enterprise services including

national & international long distance services to carriers. In the rest of the

geographies, it offers 2G, 3G wireless services and mobile commerce. Bharti

Airtel had over 269 million customers across its operations at the end of

March 2013.

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.

S E R V I C E S

Mobile Services

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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.

3G

Airtel 3G services are available in 200 cities through its network and in 500

cities through intra-circle roaming arrangements with other operators. Airtel

had about 5.4 million 3G customers of which 4 million are 3G data customers

as of September 2012

4G

Airtel launched 4G services using TD-LTE technology in Kolkata, becoming

the first company in India to offer 4G services. Airtel had 20,000 4G

subscribers as of March 2013.

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WiFi

Airtel has plans to launch WiFi services in India. It intends to start offering

WiFi services in Delhi NCR, Mumbai and Bangalore in initial phase. All plans

will be on secure wireless broadband internet with unlimited usage and will

be session or time based. Users can use the service by finding a hotspot,

selecting airtel WiFi Zone', activating the voucher and then login to start

browsing. Airtel intends to partner with establishments to set up hotspots

which will be termed WiFi Hangout for an establishment owner and WiFi

Partner for the cafe and restaurant owners. Airtel WiFi Partners can offer

services at zero investments and can earn commission on every WiFi session

sold.

Airtel Money

Airtel has started a new mCommerce platform called Airtel Money in

collaboration with Infosys and SmartTrust (now Giesecke & Devrient). The

platform was launched on 5 April 2012, at Infosys' headquarters in

Bangalore. Using Airtel Money, users can transfer money, pay bills and

perform other financial transactions directly on the mobile phone.

Smart Drive

SmartDrive is navigation app exclusive to Airtel customers. The app features

voice-based turn by turn navigation, real time information update on traffic,

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approximate time of the travel on the basis of the traffic situation on the

various routes and also lets uers see their location on the map and plan

the journey accordingly. It also suggests the subscriber an alternate route in

case of traffic congestion on the normal route.

Network Experience Centre

Airtel has a Network Experience Centre (NEC) which observes end to end

customer experience, in near real time, along with the standard network

elements on Airtel's operations. The NEC is located in Manesar, Haryana and

went live on 31 October 2012. It is the first such facility in India and will be

able to monitor Airtel's network performance across mobile, fixed line,

broadband, DTH,  M-Commerce, enterprise services, International Cable

Systems and internet peering points from a single location. It will monitor all

Airtel and partner NOCs. In case of an emergency, the NEC will enable the

operator to prioritize actions to restore normalcy and reduce resolution time.

iPhone

The iPhone 3G was rolled out in India in 2008 by Airtel. However, high prices

and contract bonds discouraged consumers and it was not as successful as

the iPhone is in other markets of the world. Airtel introduced the iPhone 4 on

27 May 2011 and the iPhone 5 on 2 November 2012.

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Strong Network Coverage

Enjoy complete clarity when calling with Airtel’s 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.

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. Simply follow the procedure mentioned below, to

recharge your phone.

Prepaid Roaming

Airtel Prepaid comes pre activated with 'National Roaming', so you stay

connected no matter wherever you are. You can also send or receive MMS,

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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.

Other Services Airtel brings you, a wide range of Services that will change

the way you communicate. Try them and discover a whole new world of fun

and excitement.

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 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.

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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 you 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.

Airtel Live! Voice Services: Just Dial 56465, and name the service. For e.g.

say ring tones to download your favorite ring tones. You can also choose a

23

variety of content options like Live Cricket Commentary, latest National /

International News, Movie Reviews or Stock Market Updates.

Airtel Live! SIM Services: 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".

Airtel Live! SMS Services

You can enjoy a host of services by sending a keyword as an SMS to 56465!

Choose Astrology / Horoscope, Cricket, Bollywood / Hollywood / Indi Pop Ring

tones. In case you need assistance SMS, Help to 56465.

Hello Tunes

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.

Copy a Hello Tune

24

Get the tune you want, all you have to do is call 55055 and follow the simple

voice instructions to copy your favorite Hello Tunes. Once inside the

copy

feature, just key in the 10-digit Airtel mobile number you want to copy the

Hello Tune from and you get the same Hello Tune assigned to your number.

Gift a Hello Tune

Forget gifting chocolates, flowers and greeting cards. Say it with a song

instead!

Gift a Hello Tune to that special someone. Just call 55055 and choose the

song that you want to gift. Follow the simple voice instructions and key in the

10-

digit Airtel mobile number that you want to gift the Hello Tune to. You will

get an SMS notification upon successful receipt of that gift.

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.

Reach us Anytime Anywhere

25

In case you need assistance, dial '121' - our toll-free number, accessible from

anywhere in the country, even while roaming. You can also send us an SMS

to 121 or mail us at 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

Airtel welcomes you to a vibrant world of unlimited opportunities. More

exciting, innovative yet simple new ways to communicate, just when you

want to, not just through words but ideas, emotions and feelings. 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.

Easy Payment Options. Anytime Anywhere

You can choose from a host of convenient payment options only with Airtel.

Walk into any Airtel relationship centre and make your payments by cash or

credit card. Drop a cheque at any of the drop boxes for making payments or

26

simply log on to My Airtel section and pay instantly through your credit card.

You can also opt for easy payment options like:

Standing Instructions

You can give us standing instructions to debit your credit card account for

your monthly Airtel bills. All you have to do is fill the Standing Instruction

Form and mail, fax it to us or drop it any of our relationship centre’s.

Electronic Clearing System

Fill an ECS form and mail, fax it to us or drop it any of our relationship

centres to directly debit your bank account for your monthly Airtel bill.

Pay while roaming

Airtel has introduced 'anywhere payment' that offers you the convenience of

making payments while you roam. Walk in to any Airtel Relationship Centre

in the country, make payments by cash or credit card and enjoy

uninterrupted Airtel Services.

Credit limit

Your pre-set credit limit mentioned on your monthly bill helps you keep your

mobile charges in control, keeps track of your usage and ensures that your

mobile phone is not misused. Should you exceed your credit limit, you will be

informed via a voice or a non-voice message to make an interim payment

and reduce your account balance below your credit limit. You may also

27

choose to pay us an additional refundable deposit to enhance your credit

limit or opt for our convenient payment method of Credit Card Standing

instruction .You can also make use of ECS facility.

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.

GPRS - Roaming

Use Airtel Postpaid GPRS services, while roaming, to access the internet and

office mails (e.g. BlackBerry services), from almost anywhere in India and

abroad.

Say it. In more than just words, with Services from Airtel

Airtel brings you a wide range of Services that will change the way you

communicate. Try them and discover a whole new world of fun and

excitement.

Call management Services

Call waiting, call hold, call divert and Caller Line Identification Presentation,

help you do more with your Airtel Postpaid connection!

28

Conference call

You can hold a teleconference with 5 people simultaneously with Call

Conferencing service from Airtel. In fact, you can set up a conference even

when the other five are using a landline phone. To know more, call customer

service at 121.

Missed call alert

A missed call alert is a SMS that you will receive for all the calls that you

missed. The SMS will detail the CLI and the time when the call was made. To

activate, dial *135*2# then press the call button and wait for the request to

be completed.

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,

29

important reminders and rib-tickling jokes, with anyone, anytime, anywhere

in the world.

Subscription Alerts

Get regular alerts on news, jokes, business, health and films on your Airtel

mobile phone with Subscription Services. SMS <SUB NEWS> for News,

<SUB JOKE> for Jokes, <SUB BIZ> for Business News, <SUB SPO> for Sports

Alerts & <SUB VAASTU> for Vaastu tips to 3333.

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 ringtones, 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

30

your preferred connection. Airtel Live! Portal can be accessed from you GPRS

enabled phone, by sending a SMS 'FUN' to 56465.

Airtel Live! Voice Services: Just Dial 56465 and say the name of the

service. For e.g. say ‘Ring tones’ to download your favorite ring tones. You

can also choose a variety of content options like Live Cricket Commentary,

latest National / International News, Movie Reviews or Stock Market Updates.

Airtel Live! SIM Services: 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.

Airtel Live! SMS Services: You can enjoy a host of services by sending a

keyword as an SMS to 56465! Choose Astrology / Horoscope , Cricket,

Bollywood / Hollywood / Indi Pop Ring tones. In case you need assistance

SMS ‘Help’ to 56465.

GPRS (General Packet Radio Services)Log on to the internet, with GPRS

that allows data transmission at a higher speed. Access e-mails and internet

across Airtel's pan-India presence using 'Mobile Office' with your phone or a

phone and laptop both.

Get the EDGE

31

Browse the internet on your mobile phone with Airtel's EDGE services. Enjoy

live TV, enhanced WAP experience and Airtel Data Cards on our high speed

network.

Hello Tunes

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.

Copy a Hello Tunes

Like a tune you want, all you have to do is call 55055 and follow the simple

voice instructions to copy your favorite Hello Tunes. Once inside the copy

feature, just key in the 10-digit Airtel mobile number you want to copy the

Hello Tune from and you get the same Hello Tune assigned to your number.

Gift a Hello Tunes

Forget gifting chocolates, flowers and greeting cards. Say it with a song

instead! Gift a Hello Tune to that special someone. Just call 55055 and

32

choose the song that you want to gift. Follow the simple voice instructions

and key in the 10-digit Airtel mobile number that you want to gift the Hello

Tune to. You will get an SMS notification upon successful receipt of that gift.

Buy Music - Airtel Music Shops

Buying your favorite Hello Tune or Ringtone 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 Indi pop Remixes,

Hard Rock to Guajarati Garba, Bhajans to Jazz, Bhangra Beats to foot tapping

Tamil Hits from a list of more than 18000 songs.

Reach us, Anytime Anywhere

In case you need assistance, dial '121' - our toll-free number, accessible from

anywhere in the country, even while roaming. *In case of email, mention

your mobile no. like 9810012345 in the subject of the mail for a quicker

response. TARIFF

33

PROMOTIONAL STRATEGY

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 re-engineering 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

34

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 color 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.

MARKET SITUATION

At the time of launch

The first mover in the market was Airtel which launched its services in Delhi

in Aug 1995 (Informal launch). Essar Cell phone followed by launching its

services informally in Oct 95. At this point of time, the market was at a

nascent stage, awareness level was low and both operators independently

tried to spread awareness and educate the people

Once the networks were commercially launched, it became a number game

with a multitude of schemes being offered to woo customers Initially the cell

phone was perceived as a status symbol and utility took a back seat The

target segment in Delhi were corporate and the high income group. The

35

average capacity installed was for 1.5 lakh subscribers. This coupled with

the steep license fee paid to DOT put pressure on the operators to break-

even by rapidly expanding their markets. In the first two years, this led to a

number of schemes being offered and prices crashing.

COMPETITIVE SITUATION

Airtel launched its services before Essar and skimmed the market picking up

the bulk of the high usage premium clients. This is a very competitive

industry with the two companies differentiating either on value-added

services or price. Airtel is perceived as the high quality provider and has a

premium image. Essar, on the other hand, is perceived as the lower end

service provider. Airtel positions itself as the market leader on the basis of

the number of subscribers. Essar is trying to counter this by emphasizing on

the reach of its network and the quality of its service. However, Essar is

somewhat not been very successful largely due to the inconsistency in

advertising

To promote themselves, both the players have been dependent on tactical

advertising However, they have restrained from using comparative

advertising Hoardings have been a very popular medium for carrying the

36

advertisements Airtel has also been advertising on television using the Bharti

Telecom name.

SALES DEPARTMENT AND STRATEGY

A. Major Accounts (Direct Channel)

Handles corporate (named and famed) accounts

Forecasting of sales

Mapping the accounts

Providing after sales support to the subscribers.

Maintaining call reports for records.

Providing Feedback to the marketing department regarding the

requirement of the market.

B. IDC (indirect Channel)

Handling distribution

Maintaining records and level check of the channel partner

Liaisoning between the channel partner and the company.

Target achievement

Training the executives of the channel

C. Distribution Support

1. Logistics

Monitor handset and SIM card requirements of channel partners

and co-ordinate with stores

37

Settle areas of concerns such as incentive claims of channel

partners

2. Rental

Provide cellular services (SIM cards) on rent.

Provide cellular phones on rent

Useful for people visiting Delhi for a short interval.

3 Telesales

Call customers and generate sales lead.

Follow up with the customers, if they need any assistance

Pass on the sales lead to the channel department.

4 Audit

Consultant to the AirTel showrooms.

Monitor the operations at the AirTel distribution outlets Organize

training.

5. Retail

Locate shops to open retail counters.

Monitor the retail counters.

38

MARKET 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 EconomyUpper Lower Upper Lower Upper Lower

Cellular Phones X X X - - -Pager X X X X - -

39

Conventional Phones

X X X X X -

X Market Segment Targeted

TARGET MARKET SEGMENT

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 beer) built up and

prices have declined to a certain extent they are planning to venture further

a field.

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

40

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

PRODUCT POLICY AND PLANNING

The product or service is the heart of the marketing mix. Without a product

or a service customers' needs cannot be satisfied.

The basic product promise by Airtel is mobility. Airtel's main marketing

strategy is to be a first mover all the time. It has recognized the significance

of

making the first move-- because in the field of Communication & Information

Technology changes occur at a tremendous pace.

Effective product segmentation has to be carried on continuously because

basic services can be and will be copied and in time become expected

component of the product. Airtel seeks to carry out this segmentation

through provision of new information services and making new facilities

available. The product policy and planning depends on the stage of the

product life cycle. At present the cellular phone market has reached the

maturity stage. Since, the premium segment is nearing saturation the

company targeting the upper middle and middle-middle class. In order to do

so Airtel is trying to optimize the price performance package by offering

suitable "product bundling".

41

This involves the selection of the suitable hardware (handset) and its

software (its services.) with reasonable price in order to deliver maximum

price performance to its customers. In addition, it offers free Airtime

services and other concessions to make the prices and thus the product

more attractive. It has also opened a 24 hours customer service.

Only price doesn't serve as an effective differentiator, value added services

become the effective differentiator.

The "Value Added Services" provided from Airtel are:-

1). Voice Mail service

This system is similar to the answering machine - if the user is not able to

answer a call for some reason the caller can leave messages in the voice

mail box which can be later retrieved by the user

ii) Short Message Service The short message service is like a two-way pager.

It gives an option of sending and receiving text messages directly from one

mobile phone to another without the intervention of an operator.

iii) Mobile Fax 1 Data Service

42

This service helps the subscriber to send and receive Faxes, access E-mail,

download computer files from other systems and remotely log on to another

computer and surf the Internet.

iv) Cash Card

The cash card is a pre-paid and pre-activated card which allows the buyers to

buy air time in advance. All it requires is the payment of an initial amount.

This is a useful service for people who travel to Delhi often and those who

want to control the expenses on their calls.

v) Caller ID

Displays calling person's number.

vi) Outgoing call restriction

To prevent or limit outgoing calls, for example, in peak hours. Also possible

to exclude one or several countries or any geographical region, to permit

only local calls, or to limit the outgoing calls to a listed number.

viii) Call forward

Incoming calls can be forwarded to another fixed or mobile phone.

43

Besides these some other services provided by Airtel are - Call conferencing,

Call broadcast et cetera.

It is in the operators -Interest that they not only get many subscribers but

also get them to use the mobile facility frequently. In the early stages

getting increases to subscribe may be easier than getting them to talk since

they will find it costlier to use the mobile phone as compared to a

conventional phone [if is believed that initially cell phones would be used by]

viii) Roaming Facility

Roaming facility is available while the subscriber is travelling. The billing is

done in the home network (Delhi). Roaming facility is available manually* as

well as semi-automatically. Once a subscriber is In any other city or country,

where a GSM network is available, simply insert the SIM card of the local

operator Into your handset and start talking.

* Manual Roaming means a separate SIM card is provided for each city

** Semi automatic roaming means one card has the facility for different

cities.

AIRTEL'S MARKETING ORIENTATION.

Since this is a high-involvement expensive product, the service provider has

to fully take care of the customers.

44

a) They take personal responsibility to "get" the answer for any problem

faced by the customer

b) They anticipate customers' problems and take pro-active steps to

prevent them

c) They give answers to the questions & requests, quickly & efficiently.

d) They have a positive tone & manner while interacting with customers.

e) They end the interaction on a positive or a humorous note-making the

last 30 seconds count.

Airtel realizes that attracting people 'Is easy but converting them into loyal

customers is hard, hence emphasis is on maintaining a 'Smiling and a

Friendly Atmosphere' to please and retain the customer.

PRICE AND PRICING POLICY

AIRTEL has realized that the Indian market is price sensitive. Therefore it

care of the 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 land line based telephone services.

45

MARKETING STRATEGY ADOPTED BY BHARTI AIRTEL

Bharti has spent a considerable amount on advertising its mobile phone

service, Airtel. Besides print advertising, the company had put up large no of

hoardings and kiosks in and around Delhi.

The objective behind designing a promotion campaign for the ‘Airtel’

services is to promote the brand awareness and to build brand preferences.

It is trying to set up a thematic campaign to build a stronger brand equity for

Airtel. Since the cellular phone category itself is too restricted, also the fact

that a Cellular phone is a high involvement product, price doesn't qualify as

an effective differentiator. The image of the service provider counts a great

deal. Given the Cell phone category, it is the network efficiency and the

quality of service that becomes important. What now the buyer is looking at

is to get the optimum price-performance package. This also serves as an

effective differentiator

Brand awareness is spread through the' campaigns and brand preference

through brand stature. Airtel's campaign in the capital began with a series of

'teaser' hoardings across the city,' bearing just the company's name and

without explaining what Airtel was. In the next phase the campaign

associated Airtel with Cellular only thereafter was the Bharti Cellular

connection brought up. Vans with Airtel logos roamed the city, handing out

46

brochures about the company and its services to all consumers. About

50,000 direct callers were

sent out. When the name was well entrenched in the Delhiites’s mind, the

Airtel campaign began to focus on the utility of Cell phone. In the first four

months alone Airtel's advertisement spend exceeded Rs. 4 crores.

As of today the awareness level is 60% unaided. This implies that if potential

or knowledgeable consumers are asked to name a Cellular phone service

provider that is on the top of his/her mind 60% of them would name Airtel.

As for aided it -is 100% (by giving clues and hints etc.).

Brand strength of a product or the health of a brand is measured by the

percentage score of the brand on the above aided and the unaided tests.

The figures show that Airtel is a healthy and a thriving brand.

Every company has a goal, which might comprise a sales target and a game

plan with due regard to its competitor. Airtel’s campaign strategy is

designed keeping in mind its marketing strategy. The tone, tenor and the

stance of the visual ads are designed to convey the image of a market leader

in terms of its market share. It tries to portray the image of being a "first

mover every time" and that of a "market leader".

The status of the product in terms of its life cycle has just reached the

maturity stage in India. It is still on the rising part of the product life cycle

curve in the maturity stage.

47

The diagram on the left hand side shows the percentage of the users

classified into heavy, medium and low categories. The right hand side shows

the revenue share earned from the three types of users.

Airtel, keeping in mind the importance of the customer retention, values its

heavy users the most and constantly indulges in service innovation. But,

since heavy users comprise only 15 - 20% of the population the other

segment cannot be neglected.

The population which has just realized the importance of cellular phones has

to be roped in. It is for this reason that the service provider offers a plethora

of incentives and discounts. Concerts like the "Freedom concert" are being

organized by Airtel in order to promote sales. The media channel is chosen

with economy in mind. The target segment is not very concrete but, there is

an attempt to focus on those who can afford. The print advertisements and

hoarding are placed in those strategic areas which most likely to catch the

attention of those who need a cellular phone. The product promise (which

might cost different 1 higher) is an important variable in determining the

target audience.

Besides this, other promotional strategies that Airtel has adopted are .

(i) People who have booked Airtel services have been treated to exclusive

premiers of blockbuster movies. Airtel has tied up with Lufthansa to

offer customer bonus miles on the German airlines frequent flier's

programs.

48

(ii) There have been educational campaigns, image campaigns, pre launch

advertisements, launch advertisements, congratulatory

advertisements, promotional advertise--ments, attacking

advertisements and tactical advertisements.

DISTRIBUTION

The- company whose operations are concentrated in and around Delhi. It 27

Franchisees and 15 Distributors- They also have 8 'instant access cash card

counters- Each franchises or distributor can have any number of dealers

under him as long as the person is approved by the Airtel authority. Each

franchise has to invest Rupees Ten Lakhs. To obtain a franchise and should

employ an officer recruited by Airtel. This person acts as a liaison between

the company and the franchises. The franchises can it any number of

dealers as long as their territories do not overlap. But unfortunately Airtel

Company

Franchisee Distributor

Dealers Dealer

Customer Customer

49

has not been very successful in controlling territorial overlaps of dealers.

The franchises can carry out his/her own promotional strategy. For this the.

company contributes 75% of the money and the franchises contributes 25%

of the money. The dealers under the franchisee receive the same

commission. The franchises and the dealer obtain the feedback from the

customers and they are sent through the liaison officer on a day-to-day basis

to Airtel. The dealer has to invest Rupees. One Lakh as an initial investment.

The dealer of Airtel are not allowed to provide any other operators' service.

Target set for distributors and the dealers is 100 -150 activations per month.

Hence the dealers can also go for their own promotions like banners and

discounts on festivals etc. The dealer provides service promptly. The

consumer on providing the bill of purchase for the handset and proof of

residence has only to wait an hour before getting connected. The staff of the

dealers and the franchisees are provided training by the Airtel personnel.

The complaints encountered by the franchisees and dealers are either

handset being non-functional or the SIM Card not getting activated. Anything

more complicated is referred to the main Airtel office in Delhi.

50

WHAT DOES AIRTEL OFFER?

With Airtel, the subscriber wouldn't just get a personal phone that lets

him/her be in touch, always, but also gets a host of benefits that let him/her

manage his/her time like never before.

An Airtel subscriber is provided with a Subscriber Identity Module Card (SIM

card) - that is the key to operating his/her cellular phone. His card activates

Airtel cellular services and contains a complete micro-computer chip with

memory to enable one to enjoy one's cellular phone thoroughly. Each SIM

card contains a PIN code (Personal Identity Number) which may be entered

by one. Just plug your SIM card into your cellular phone, enter the PIN code

and it becomes 'your' personal phone'.

PRODUCT LIFE CYCLE

The pattern of cellophane subscriber growth observed elsewhere in the world

reveals that the growth in the market is initially slow followed by a sharp

acceleration, but so far that has not happened in India. As far as the Product

Life Cycle is concerned. Indians are at the beginning of the maturity stage.

Introduction Growth Maturity

51

MARKETING OBJECTIVES

Create product

awareness and trial

Maximize market

share

Maximize profits

whole defending

market share

Strategies

Product Offer a basic

product/

service.

Offer value

added services

Increase in

number of

value added

services.

Price Charge cost-

plus

Price to

penetrate

market

Price to match

or best

competitors

Distribution Build selective

distribution

Build Intensive

distribution.

Build more

intensive

distribution.

Advertising Build product

awareness

among early

adopters and

dealers.

Build

awareness and

interest in the

mass market

Stress brand

differences and

benefits.

52

Sales

Promotion

Use heavy sales

promotion to

entice people

to subscribe.

Increase to

build and

maintain

relationships

with customers.

Increase to

encourage

brand-

switching.

53

OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY

Objectives:

To study the importance and development of telecommunication industry

in today’s scenario.

To understand the various Marketing Strategies which Airtel has adopted

to survive in highly competitive cell phone industry.

To make a comparative study of the major players in Indian Service

Provider.

54

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

The methodology adopted for this project is exploratory in nature since there

is no hypothesis that has to be tested. The conclusions have been drawn by

exploratory research work.

There have been two sources of information collected:

a) Primary Sources

I have met retailers of the Airtel of the company and have been able to get

first hand information regarding the product, its features and the buying

patterns of the product. Their input has been valuable.

b) Secondary Sources

Secondary source has played a vital role to play in this report. A good

amount of data has been collected from various published articles and

reports found in magazines and journals. Another vital source has been the

Internet and particularly the companies own website.

55

LIMITATIONS

Every attempt will be taken to obtain the error free and meaningful result

but as nothing in this world is 100% perfect I believe that there will still the

chance for error on account of following limitations-

(1) Respondent’s unavailability.

(2) Time pressure and fatigue on the part of respondents and interviewer.

(3) Courtesy bias.

56

FINDINGS

1. Do you believe that India is potentially one of the most exciting

mobile service providers in the world?

Company Yes No

Airtel 4 1

Vodafone 4 1

Idea 4 1

MTNL 4 1

As according to the above table 16 (80%) out of the total 20 interviewed

people in all the above four specified Indian mobile service providers are of

belief that India is potentially one of the most exciting mobile service

providers in the world, whereas some 4 (20%) of them do not agree to this

view.

Yes

No

0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18

4

1

4

1

4

1

4

1

AirTel Vodafone Idea MTNL

57

2. Do you find that the government’s telecom policy has had the

most radical impact on the development of mobile service

providers?

Company Yes No

Airtel 4 1

Vodafone 3 2

Idea 3 2

MTNL 5 3

As according to the above table 15 (75%) out of the total 20 interviewed

people in all the above four specified Indian mobile service providers find

that the government’s telecom policy has had the most radical impact on the

development of mobile service providers, whereas some 5 (25%) of them

deny this.

Yes

No

0 1 2 3 4 5 6

Chart Title

MTNLIDEAVodafoneAirTel

58

3. Do you believe that one of the challenges facing mobile operators

in India is the diversity of the coverage regions?

Company Yes No

Airtel 2 3

Vodafone 3 2

Idea 3 2

MTNL 2 3

As according to the above table 10 (50%) out of the total 20 interviewed

people in the mobile service providers are of belief that one of the

challenges facing mobile operations in India is the diversify of the coverage

regions, whereas interestingly another 10 (50%) of them deny this.

Yes

No

0 0.5 1 1.5 2 2.5 3 3.5

MTNL

Idea

Vodafone

AirTel

59

4. To what extent, does you find that mobile service providers is a

very complex standard?

Company To some extent

(1-5)

To great extent

(6-10)

Airtel 3 2

Vodafone 2 3

Idea 2 3

MTNL 3 2

As according to the above table 10 (50%) out of the total 20 interviewed

people in all the above four major the mobile service providers in Indian

Cellular industry find only to some extent that GSM is a very complex

standard, whereas the another 10 (50%) respondents find to great extent

that mobile service providers is a very complex standard.

Yes

No

0 0.5 1 1.5 2 2.5 3 3.5

MTNL

Idea

Vodafone

AirTel

60

CONSUMER LEVEL

1. Do you believe that mobile service providers comes close to

fulfilling the requirements for a personal communication system?

Company Yes No

Airtel 9 1

Vodafone 8 2

Idea 8 2

MTNL 5 5

As the above shows 30 (75%) out of total 40 respondents are of the belief

that mobile service providers comes close to fulfilling the requirements for a

personal communication system, whereas 10 (25%) of them are in no way to

this belief.

Yes No

3

2

3

2

3

22

3

AirTel

Vodafone

Idea

MTNL

61

2. Do you find that mobile service providers as the most exciting

and satisfying mobile standard?

Company Yes No

Airtel 9 1

Vodafone 7 3

Idea 8 2

MTNL 8 2

As the above shows 32 (80%) out of total 40 respondents find that mobile

service providers as the most exciting and satisfying mobile standard,

whereas the remaining 8 (10%) respondents deny this.

Yes

No

0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35

9

1

7

3

8

2

8

2

AirTel Vodafone Idea MTNL

62

3. Do you believe that your service provider has a genuine

commitment to creating a modern and efficient communications?

Company Yes No

Airtel 10 --

Vodafone 8 2

Idea 10 --

MTNL 8 2

As the above shows 36 (90%) out of total 40 respondents are of the belief

that their service providers have a genuine commitment to creating a

modern and efficient communications whereas the remaining 4 (10%)

respondents deny this.

Yes

No

10

0

8

2

10

0

8

2

MTNLIdeaVodafoneAirTel

63

SWOT ANALYSIS

STRENGTHS

Cost advantage

Current leaders in quality service

Largest distribution network

Ability to constantly innovate

Highly skilled workforce

Entrepreneurial zeal

Airtel’s increased equity and market cap.

WEAKNESSES

To prove credibility

Price pressures

Need for Government support

Awareness

Sales and Marketing

OPPORTUNITIES

To sustain passion and commitment

Airtel’s market share increasing at other service provider expense. Thus

opportunity to wipe it out.

64

Attain higher value services

Collaborative business needs to be explored

Vertical repeatable solutions.

Low penetration level in rural markets.

THREATS

Foreign investment

Global trends moving from GPS to WLL.

Lack of global parity in telecom tariff

Other competition

65

CONCLUSION

From above the details I conclude that 70% Airtel users preferred to remain

with Airtel. Also good no. of users who were willing to switch from their

respective subscribers showed interest in Airtel. Hence, these statistics imply

a bright future for the company. Also the company is now providing more

services like the door to door services which is you dial the Airtel customer

care and would like to send someone flowers the Airtel Company delivers

those flowers to the person concerned. Also Airtel is providing free text

messaging service and free voice mail service. Call conferencing is also

another feature Airtel provides.

66

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Robert G. Winch. Telecommunication Transmission Systems. McGraw-Hill

New York, 1993.

Bernard J. T. Mallinder. Specification Methodology Applied to the GSM

System. In EUROCON 88, June 2005.

Moe Rahnema. Overview of the GSM System and Protocol Architecture.

IEEE Communications Magazine. April 1993.

Seshadri Mohan and Ravi Jain. Two User Location Strategies for Personal

Communication Services. IEEE Personal Communications. 1(1), 1994.

C. Watson. Radio Equipment for GSM. In D.M. Balston and R.C.V Macario,

editors, Cellular Radio Systems, Artech House, Boston, 1993.

Vodafone

Airtel

Idea

MTNL

67

QUESTIONNAIRE

NAME: ____________________________________

ADDRESS: ____________________________________

OCCUPATION: ____________________________________

1. Which Among The Following is potentially one of the most

exciting mobile service providers in the world?

Company Yes No

Airtel

Vodafone

Idea

MTNL

2. Do you find that the government’s telecom policy has had the

most radical impact on the development of mobile service

providers?

Company Yes No

Airtel

Vodafone

Idea

MTNL

68

3. Do you believe that one of the challenges facing mobile operators

in India is the diversity of the coverage regions?

Company Yes No

Airtel

Vodafone

Idea

MTNL

4. To what extent, does you find that mobile service providers is a

very complex standard?

Company To some extent

(1-5)

To great extent

(6-10)

Airtel

Vodafone

Idea

MTNL

69

CONSUMER LEVEL

1. Do you believe that mobile service providers comes close to

fulfilling the requirements for a personal communication system?

Company Yes NoAirtelVodafoneIdeaMTNL

2. Do you find that mobile service providers as the most exciting

and satisfying mobile standard?

Company Yes NoAirtelVodafoneIdeaMTNL

3. Do you believe that your service provider has a genuine

commitment to creating a modern and efficient communications?

Company Yes NoAirtelVodafoneIdeaMTNL