Project Report on Airtel

Marketing Strategies
Submitted To: Submitted By:

XXXXXXXXXXX XXXXXXXXXXX

In Partial Fulfillment of the

Requirements of MBA Program
Batch (2022-2024)
 Acknowledgement
The satisfaction and euphoria that accompany the successful completion
of any work would be incomplete unless we mention some of the
persons, as an expression of gratitude, which made it possible, whose
constant guidance and encouragement served as a beckon light and
crowned the efforts and success.

We take this opportunity of expressing our gratitude to Dr. Jayasree

who has always been of immense help during the making of this project,
which helped us a great deal in enhancing our knowledge by virtue of
practical application. Her guidance and support carried us all through
the preparation of this project.

Last but not the least I would also like to acknowledge

contributions of various official websites and books named in the
references for helping me with the data collection and analysis which
have provided me with the relevant information for me to successfully
complete my Project Report.
 Table of Contents

S.No CONTENTS
1. Introduction

2. Research Methodology

3. Company Profile

4.
Review of Literature
6.
Critical Analysis &
Observations, Recommendations
 Chapter – 1
Introduction
The project aims at understanding the Marketing strategies at Airtel and its impact on the

perception of Airtel Cellular Services.

Research has demonstrated conclusively 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. The research was done for the corporate clients of Bharti Airtel. My job was not
only to represent the Corporate Sales Dept. and collect the feedback from the clients but also to
get the major complaints resolved through internal counselling. 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 retain the existing customers but also to expand the business to new
horizons.
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 emphasising 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 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
 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.
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 Economy

Upper Lower Upper Lower Upper Lower

Cellular Phones X X X - - -

Pager X X X X - -

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 misconception that the cellphone is an expensive
means of communication and drive home the point that the cellphone 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 recognised 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 optimise the price performance package by offering suitable "product
bundling".

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

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.

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 cellphones would be used buy]

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.

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 realises 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 realised 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.
This is due to the reason that the operating companies are required to pay a fee to the government
for using airtime
 Chapter – 2

Research Methodology
Research methodology is a way to systematically solve the research problem. It deals with the

objective of a research study, the method of defining the research problem, the type of

hypothesis formulated, the type of data collected, method used for data collecting and analyzing

the data etc. The methodology includes collection of primary and secondary data.

TYPE OF RESEARCH

DESCRIPTIVE RESEARCH

The study follows descriptive research method. Descriptive studies aims at portraying

accurately the characteristics of a particular group or situation. Descriptive research is concerned

with describing the characteristics of a particular individual or a group. Here the researcher

attempts to present the existing facts by collecting data.

RESEARCH DESIGN

A research design is a basis of framework, which provides guidelines for the rest of

research process. It is the map of blueprint according to which, the research is to be conducted.

The research design specifies the method of study. Research design is prepared after formulating

the research problem.

SOURCES OF DATA

Data are the raw materials in which marketing research works. The task of data collection begins

after research problem has been defined and research design chalked out. Data collected are

classified into primary data and secondary data

 PRIMARY DATA

Questionnaires were used for collecting primary data

 SECONDARY DATA

Secondary data were collected from the company’s annual publications, memorandums

of settlements, newspapers, journals, websites, and from library books

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.
 Chapter – 3
Company Profile
Bharti Airtel Limited, commonly known as (d/b/a) Airtel, is an
Indian multinational telecommunications services company based in New Delhi. It operates in 18
countries across South Asia and Africa, as well as the Channel Islands. Currently, Airtel
provides 4G and 4G+ services all over India and 5G service in selected cities. Currently offered
services include 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 second largest mobile network operator in India and the second largest mobile network
operator in the world.  Airtel was named India's 2nd most valuable brand in the first ever Brandz
ranking by Millward Brown and WPP plc.

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 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 upfront, which allowed Airtel to provide low call rates
of ₹1 (1.3¢ US)/minute.

In 1984, Sunil Mittal started assembling push-button phones in India, which he earlier used to

import from a Singaporean company, Singtel, 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 the 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 phone as 'Mitbrau'.

In 1992, he successfully bid for one of the four mobile phone network licenses auctioned
in India. One of the conditions for the Delhi cellular licenses 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 approved by the Government in
1994[12] 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 the brand name 'India one'.

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 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 emphasize 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.[16] 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 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, Bharti
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. In 2014, Bharti planned to acquire Loop
Mobile for ₹7 billion (US$88 million), but the deal was called off later.

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' 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 2005, 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 emphasized 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
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.

Airtel India

Main article: Airtel India

Bharti Telecom (BTL) is a holding company of Bharti Airtel with Bharti Enterprises
and Singtel owning 50.56 percent and 49.44 percent, respectively, in BTL, which in turn owns
35.80 percent of Bharti Airtel.

Airtel India is the second largest provider of mobile telephony after Jio and the second largest
provider of fixed telephony in India and is also a provider of broadband and subscription
television services. It offers its telecom services under the Airtel brand, and is headed by Sunil
Bharti Mittal.

Broadband

Airtel provides broadband internet access through DSL, internet leased lines and MPLS
(multiprotocol label switching) solutions, as well as IPTV and fixed line telephone services.
Until 18 September 2004, Bharti provided fixed line telephony and broadband services under the
Touchtel brand. Bharti now provides all telecom services including fixed line services under the
common brand Airtel. As of June 2019, Airtel provides Telemedia services; in 99 cities. [74] As on
30 June 2019, Airtel had 2.342 million broadband subscribers.

Airtel Broadband provides broadband and IPTV services. Airtel provides both capped as well as
unlimited download plans. However, Airtel's unlimited plans are subject to free usage policy
(FUP), which reduces speed after the customer crosses a certain data usage limit. In most of the
plans, Airtel provides only 64KByte/second beyond FUP which is equal to other competitors'
tariffs. The maximum speed available for home users under the new V-Fiber program is up to
300Mbit/s and with DSL is 16Mbit/s.
In May 2012, Airtel Broadband and some other Indian ISPs temporarily blocked file sharing
websites such as vimeo.com, megavideo.com, and thepiratebay.se, without giving any legal
information to customers.

In June 2011, The Economic Times reported that the Telemedia business was merged with
Mobile and DTH businesses.

Digital television
Main article: Airtel digital TV

The digital television business provides Direct-to-Home (DTH) TV services across India under

the brand name Airtel digital TV. It started services on 9 October 2008 and had about
16.027 million customers at the end of June 2019.

Banking
Main article: Airtel Payments Bank

Airtel Payments Bank was launched in January 2017.

Business

Airtel Business consists largely of six products: cloud and managed services, digital signage,
NLD/ILD connectivity (VSAT / MPLS / IPLC and Ethernet products), Wi-Fi dongles, voice
solutions (like toll-free numbers, TracMate, and automated media reading) and conferencing
solutions (VoIP, audio, video, and web conferencing), serving industry verticals like BFSI,
IT/ITeS, manufacturing, hospitality and government.

Airtel Business, the B2B arm of Bharti Airtel, has rolled out a first of its kind dedicated digital
platform to serve the growing connectivity, communication and collaboration requirements of
emerging businesses, including SMEs and startups. The digital platform will offer solutions [ to
emerging enterprises to enable ease of business and faster time to market.[81]

Android-based tablet[

Beetel Teletech Ltd., a unit of Bharti Enterprises Ltd., on 18 August 2011, launched
a ₹9,999 (US$130) 7-inch tablet in India based on Google Inc.'s Android operating system. The
offering is intended to capitalise on the expected demand for cheap computing devices in the
world's fastest-growing and second-largest mobile phone market.[82]
One Network

One Network is a mobile phone network that allows Airtel customers to use the service in a
number of countries at the same price as their home network. Customers can place outgoing calls
at the same rate as their local network, and incoming calls are free. [98] As of 2014, the service is
available in Bangladesh, Burkina Faso, Chad, Democratic Republic of Congo, Congo
Brazzaville, Gabon, Ghana, India, Kenya, Madagascar, Niger, Nigeria, Rwanda, Seychelles,
Sierra Leone, Sri Lanka, Tanzania, Uganda, and Zambia only for international roamers
from Airtel Africa[99]

Joint ventures and agreements

Airtel-Vodafone
Main article: Airtel-Vodafone

On 1 May 2007, Jersey Airtel and Guernsey Airtel, both wholly-owned subsidiaries of the Bharti
Group, announced they would launch mobile services in the British Crown Dependency islands
of Jersey and Guernsey under the brand name Airtel-Vodafone after signing an agreement
with Vodafone. Airtel-Vodafone operates a 4G network in Jersey and Guernsey.

Airtel-Ericsson

In July 2011, Bharti signed a five-year agreement with Ericsson, who will manage and optimize
Airtel's mobile networks in Africa. Ericsson will modernize and upgrade Airtel's mobile
networks in Africa with the latest technology including its multi-standard RBS 6000 base station.
As part of the modernization, Ericsson will also provide technology consulting, network
planning & design and network deployment. Ericsson has been the managed services and
network technology partner in Asian operations.

Sponsorship

On 9 May 2009, Airtel signed a major deal with Manchester United. As a result of the deal,
Airtel had the rights to broadcast the matches played by the team to its customers.

Bharti Airtel signed a five-year deal with ESPN Star Sports to become the title sponsor of
the Champions League Twenty20 cricket tournament.

Airtel also signed a deal to be the title sponsor of the Formula One Indian Grand Prix.
Airtel sponsored the 2018–21 FIA GT World Cup.

Airtel signed a deal to be the title sponsor of the I-League for 2013–14 I-League.

Airtel is also the main sponsor of Airtel Super Singer and Airtel Super Singer Junior since 2006,
which are currently broadcast on Vijay TV.

Signature tune

The signature tune of Airtel is composed by Indian musician A. R. Rahman. The tune became
hugely popular and is the world's most downloaded mobile music, with over 150 million
downloads. Rahman along with Anu Malik re-used the same tune in a 2004 Kannada
movie Love. A new version of the song was released on 18 November 2010, as part of the
rebranding of the company. This version was also composed by Rahman.

Controversies

Net neutrality debate

Further information: Net neutrality in India

In February 2014, Gopal Vittal, CEO of Airtel's India operations, said that companies offering
free messaging apps like Skype, Line and WhatsApp should be regulated similar to telecom
operators. In August 2014, TRAI rejected a proposal from telecom companies to make
messaging application firms share part of their revenue with the carriers or the government. In
November 2014, TRAI began investigating if Airtel was implementing preferential access by
offering special internet packs which allowed WhatsApp and Facebook data at rates that were
lower than its standard data rates. The statements of Chua Sock Koong, Group CEO
of Singtel and also a shareholder (32.15%) of Bharti Airtel share similar statements about the
Anti-Net Neutrality position.

In December 2014, Airtel changed its service terms for 2G and 3G data packs so that VoIP data
was excluded from the set amount of free data. A standard data charge of 4 paise (0.050¢ US)
per 10 KB for 3G service and 10 paise (0.13¢ US) per 10 KB (more than ₹10,000 (US$130) for
1 GB) for 2G service was levied on VoIP data. A few days later, Airtel announced a separate
internet pack for VoIP apps, it offered 75 MB for ₹75 (94¢ US) with a validity of 28 days. The
TRAI chief Rahul Khullar said that Airtel cannot be held responsible for violating net neutrality
because India has no regulation that demands net neutrality. Airtel's move faced criticism on
social networking sites like Facebook, Twitter and Reddit. Later on 29 December 2014, Airtel
announced that it would not be implementing the planned changes, pointing out that there were
reports that TRAI would be soon releasing a consultation paper on the issue.

In April 2015, Airtel announced the "Airtel Zero" scheme. Under the scheme, app firms will sign
a contract and Airtel will provide the apps for free to its customers. The reports of Flipkart, an e-
commerce firm, joining the "Airtel Zero" scheme drew negative response. People began to give
the one-star rating to its app on Google Play. Following the protest, Flipkart decided to pull out
of Airtel Zero. The e-commerce giant confirmed the news in an official statement, saying, "We
will be walking away from the ongoing discussions with Airtel for their platform Airtel Zero."

In October 2016, India's telecom regulator TRAI recommended imposing a combined penalty
of ₹3,050 crore (equivalent to ₹37 billion or US$470 million in 2020) on three mobile network
operators — Vodafone, Bharti Airtel and Idea Cellular — for denying interconnection to
Reliance Jio Infocomm (Jio), the latest entrant into India's telecom service.

User privacy

In June 2015, a code used by the company was accused of compromising subscribers' privacy.
 Chapter – 4 (Literature Review)
Marketing Strategy of 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 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
Cellphone. In the first four months alone Airtei'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.

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 realised 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 organised 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.

(ii) There have been educational campaigns, image campaigns, pre launch advertisements,
launch advertisements, congratulatory advertisements, promotional advertise-ments,
attacking advertisements and tactical advertisements.
 DISTRIBUTION

Company

Franchisee Distributor

Dealers
Dealer

Customer
Customer

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 franchises has to invest Rupees Ten Lakhs. to obtain a franchise and should
employ an officer recruited by Airtel. This person acts as an 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 has not been very successful in controlling territorial overlaps
of dealers. The franchises can carry out his 1 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.

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 cellphone 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

MARKETING OBJECTIVES

Create product awareness Maximise market share Maximise profits whole

and trial defending market share

Strategies

Product Offer a basic Offer value added Increase in number

product/ service. services of value added
services.

Price Charge cost- plus Price to penetrate Price to match or

market best competitors

Distribution Build selective Build Intensive Build more

distribution distribution. intensive
distribution.

Advertising Build product Build awareness Stress brand

awareness among and interest in the differences and
early adopters and mass market benefits.
dealers.

Sales Promotion Use heavy sales Increase to build Increase to

promotion to entice and maintain encourage brand-
people to subscribe. relationships with switching.
customers.
 OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY

Objectives:

 To study the importance and development of tele – communication 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.

 Chapter – 5
Analysis & Conclusion
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.
 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
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.

References
 Bernard J. T. Mallinder. Specification Methodology Applied to the GSM System. In
EUROCON 88, June 2005.

 Seshadri Mohan and Ravi Jain. Two User Location Strategies for Personal Communication
Services. IEEE Personal Communications. 1(1), 1994.

 Moe Rahnema. Overview of the GSM System and Protocol Architecture. IEEE
Communications Magazine. April 1993.

 C. Watson. Radio Equipment for GSM. In D.M. Balston and R.C.V Macario, editors,
Cellular Radio Systems, Artech House, Boston, 1993.

Robert G. Winch. Telecommunication Transmission Systems. McGrawHill New York, 1993