Project Report-I on

“Comparative analysis of marketing strategy with refrece to

Airtel and Jio company”

Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the requirement for the

Award of the Degree of
Bachelor in Business Administration (General/Banking and
Insurance)

Submitted To: Submitted By:

Mr. Paramveer Singh Akash
Assistant Professor,MSI BBA(B&I)
02614901821

BATCH 2021-2024

DEPARTMENT OF BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION

Maharaja Surajmal Institute

Recognized by UGC u/s 2(f), NAAC Accredited ‘A’ Grade
Affiliated to Guru Gobind Singh Indraprastha
University,Delhi
C-4, Janakpuri, New Delhi-110058

1
 Certificate

This is to certify that Project Report entitled “COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS

OF “MARKETING STRATEGY WITH REFRECE TO AIRTEL AND JIO
COMPANY” which is submitted by AKASH(02614901821), BBA(B&I) in
partial fulfillment of the requirement for the award of degree Bachelor in
Business Administration/ Bachelor in Business Administration (Banking
and Insurance) to Maharaja Surajmal Institute Affiliated to Guru
Gobind Singh Indraprasth University, C-4, Janakpuri, New Delhi-
110058 is a record of the candidate own work carried out by him under my
supervision. The matter embodied in this report is original and has not been
submitted for the award of any other degree.

Signature
Mr. Paramveer Singh
(ASSISTANT
PROFESSOR)

2
 Acknowledgement

Project work is never the accomplishment of an individual rather it is

an amalgamation of the efforts, ideas, and cooperation of number of
entities.
The completion of the project study that follows, seemed to be distant
goal had it not been for the contribution of Mr. PARAMVEER SINGH,
(ASSISTANT PROFESSOR), department of business administration,
Maharaja Surajmal Institute for allowing me to work on a very intrinsic
topic i.e. ―COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS OF MARKETING STRATEGY
WITH REFRECE TO AIRTEL AND JIO COMPANY.
I thank him for the ideas and basic concepts he delivered and shared
with me, as they helped me a lot in accomplishing this project of mine.

AKASH
BBA (B&I)
02614901821

3
 TABLE OF CONTENT

S NO. PARTICULARS PAGE NO.

1 Title page
2 Certificate
3 Acknowledgment
Chapter 1: Introduction 1-4
• Objective of the study
• Research methodology
• Limitation of study
4 Chapter 2 : Profile of the organization 5-18
• Company profile of JIO
• History of Jio
• Company profile of AIRTEL
• History of Airtel

5 19-32
Chapter3:Comparative
analysis of marketing
strategy of both
companies

• Jio mix marketing

strategy
• Airtel mix
marketing
strategy
• SWOT analysis of
Jio

4
 • SWOT analysis of
Airtel

6 Chapter 4: Conclusion 33
7 Bibliography 34

5
6
 COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS
OF
MARKETING STRATERGY OF AIRTEL AND JIO

7
 Chapter I: INTRODUCTION

The history of telecommunications in human society is more than 130 years,

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

Customer satisfaction is the degree of satisfaction provided by the goods or

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

1
 OJECTIVE OF THE STUDY

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

1.To identify the difference between market performance of Reliance Jio

and Bharti Airtel.

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

3. To Compare manufacturing various parameters of marketing strategies,

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

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

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

2
 RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

Research design

My research design will be descriptive followed by partially exploratory

because the entire project will be based on the data collected from internet,
reports, journal sand analysis so that the detailed and clear description will
be there in the project, so there is a mix of explanation and description
design. It will cover all the major information about blockchain and will
give a clearer view to the reader how it works

Source of data

The main source of information in my project will be based on secondary

data like facts, figures, graphs collected from internet, which will be
analyzed and summarized in the form of this project report.

3
 LIMITATIONS OF STUDY

• the secondary data collected might consist of manipulations, which

might have given bias in the result.
• The lack of experience in preparing the project report.
• Lack of time for completion of the project.
• the method lacks flexibility. In case of inadequate or incomplete
information the result may deviate.
• It is very difficult to check the accuracy of the information provided
• Documents may lack authenticity parts of the document might be
missing, and we might not even be to verify the document, meaning
we cannot check whether biased or not.
• the way things are measured may change over time, making historical
comparisons difficult as a project report the area of study is vast and
may be not enough for to give0 any limitation.

4
 Chapter 2: PROFILE OF THE ORGANISATION

PROFILE OF JIO COMPANY

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

5
Type Subsidiary of Reliance Industries

Industry Telecommunications

Founded 15 February 2007; 15 years ago

Founder Mukesh Ambani

Headquarters Reliance Corporate Park, Ghansoli, Navi

Mumbai, Maharashtra
,
India

• Akash Ambani
Key people
(Chairman)[1]
• Sandip Das
(Managing Director)
Products • Fixed line telephone
• Mobile phones
• Wireless broadband
• Internet services
• OTT Services
Revenue ₹90,287 crore (US$12 billion)
(FY 2020–21)
Operating ₹34,035 crore (US$4.5 billion)
income (FY 2020–21)[2]
Net income ₹12,537 crore (US$1.6 billion)
(FY 2020–21)[2]
Total assets ₹305,965 crore (US$40 billion)
(FY 2020–21)[2]
Members 42.62 crore (426.2 million)
(31 March)[2][3]
Parent Jio Platforms[4]
Subsidiaries LYF
6
Jio was launched on 27 December 2015 with a beta for partners and
employees, and became publicly available on 5 September 2016. As of 31
December 2019, it is the largest mobile network operator in India and the
third largest mobile network operator in the world with over 370.07 million
subscribers. It is also the fourth largest provider of fixed telephony in
Country. In September 2019, Jio launched a fiber to the home service,
offering home broadband, television, and telephone services.

HISTORY OF JIO
The company was registered in Ambawadi, Ahmedabad (Gujarat) on 15
February 2007 as Reliance Jio Infocomm Limited. In June 2010, Reliance
Industries (RIL) bought a 95% stake in Infotel Broadband Services Limited
(IBSL) for ₹4,800 crore (US$670 million). Although unlisted, IBSL was the
only company that won broadband spectrum in all 22 circles in India in the
4G auction that took place earlier that year. Later continuing as RIL's
telecom subsidiary, Infotel Broadband Services Limited was renamed as
Reliance Jio Infocomm Limited (RJIL) in January 2013. In June 2015, Jio
announced that it would start its operations throughout the country by the
end of 2015. However, four months later in October, the company postponed
the launch to the first quarter of the financial year 2016–2017.
Later, in July 2015, a PIL filed in the Supreme Court by an NGO called the
Centre for Public Interest Litigation, through Prashant Bhushan, challenged
the grant of a pan-India license to Jio by the Government of India. The PIL
also alleged that the firm was being allowed to provide voice telephony
along with its 4G data service, by paying an additional fee of just ₹165.8
crore (US$23 million) which was arbitrary and unreasonable, and
contributed to a loss of ₹2,284.2 crore (US$320 million) To the exchequer.
The Indian Department of Telecommunications (DoT), however, explained
that the rules for 3G and BWA spectrum didn't restrict BWA winners from
providing voice telephony. As a result, the PIL was revoked, and the
accusations were dismissed. The 4G services were launched internally on 27
December 2015. The company commercially launched its 4G services on 5
September 2016.Within the first month, Jio announced that it had acquired
16 million subscribers. Jio crossed 50 million subscriber mark in 83 days

7
since its launch, subsequently crossing 100 million subscribers on 22
February 2017. By October 2017 it had about 130 million subscribers.

8
PROFILE OF AIRTEL COMPANY
Bharti Airtel limited, also known as AirteI, is an Indian global
telecommunications services company based in Delhi, India. It operates in
18 countries across South Asia and Africa, and also in the Channel Islands.
Airtel provides GSM, 3G, 4G LTE, 4G+ mobile services, fixed line
broadband and voice services depending upon the country of operation.
Airtel had also rolled out its VoLTE technology across all Indian telecom
circles. It is the third largest mobile network operator in India and the second
largest mobile network operator in the world with over 411.42 million
subscribers. Airtel was named India's 2nd most valuable brand in the first
ever Brandz ranking by Millward Brown and WPP plc.

9
 Type Public

Traded as • BSE: 532454

• NSE: BHARTIARTL

• BSE SENSEX
Constituent

• NSE NIFTY 50
Constituent

ISIN INE397D01024

Industry Telecommunications

Founded 7 July 1995; 27 years ago[1]

Founder Sunil Bharti Mittal

Headquarters Nelson Mandela Road, New

Delhi, India[1]

Area served Worldwide

Key people • Sunil Bharti

Mittal (Chairman)

• Gopal Vittal (MD &

CEO)

Products • Fixed line telephone

• Mobile phone

• Broadband

10
 • Satellite television

• Payment bank

• Digital television

• Internet television

• IPTV

Revenue ₹117,081
crore (US$15 billion) (2022)[2]

Operating ₹10,059
income crore (US$1.3 billion) (2022)[2]

Net income ₹5,882

crore (US$770 million) (2022)

Total assets ₹416,413

crore (US$55 billion) (2022)

Total equity ₹66,554

crore (US$8.7 billion) (2022)

Owners Bharti Enterprises (35.85%)

Singtel (31.7%)
Google (1.28%)

Members 474 million

(June-2021)

Number of 32,780 (2021)

employees

11
Subsidiaries • Airtel India

• Airtel Payments Bank

• Airtel digital TV

• Airtel Sri Lanka

• Airtel Africa

• Airtel-Vodafone (50%)

• Robi (28.18%)

• Wynk

12
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 up front, which allowed Airtel to provide low call rates of ₹1
(1.4C US)/minute.

HISTORY OF AIRTEL COMPANY

In 1984, Sunil Mittal started assembling push-button phones in India, which
he earlier used to import from a Taiwan company, Kingtel, replacing the old
fashioned, bulky rotary phones that were in use in the country then. Bharti
Telecom Limited (BTL) was incorporated and entered into a technical tie up
with Siemens AG of Germany for manufacture of electronic push button
phones. By the early 1990s, Bharti was making fax machines, cordless
phones and other telecom gear. He named his first push-button phones as
'Mitbrau'. In 1992, he successfully bid for one of the four mobile phone
network licences auctioned in India. One of the conditions for the Delhi
cellular license was that the bidder have some experience as a telecom
operator. So, Mittal clinched a deal with the French telecom group Vivendi.
He was one of the first Indian entrepreneurs to identify the mobile telecom
business as a major growth area. His plans were finally approved by the
Government in 1994 and he launched services in Delhi in 1995, when Bharti
Cellular Limited (BCL) was formed to offer cellular services under the
brand name AirTel. Within a few years Bharti became the first telecom
company to cross the 2 million mobile subscriber mark. Bharti also brought
down the STD/ISD cellular rates in India under brand name 'Indiaone'.

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

cellular operations to Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh. In 2000, Bharti
acquired control of Skycell Communications, in Chennai. In 2001, the
13
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
emphasise the tentative nature of the talks, while The Economist magazine
noted, "If anything, Bharti would be marrying up," as MTN has more
subscribers, higher revenues and broader geographic coverage. However, the
talks fell apart as MTN Group tried to reverse the negotiations by making
Bharti almost a subsidiary of the new company. In May 2009, Bharti Airtel
again confirmed that it was in talks with MTN and the companies agreed to
discuss the potential transaction exclusively by 31 July 2009. Talks
eventually ended without agreement, some sources stating that this was due
to opposition from the South African government. In 2009, Bharti negotiated
for its strategic partner Alcatel-Lucent to manage the network infrastructure
for the fixed line business. Later, Bharti Airtel awarded the three-year
contract to Alcatel-Lucent for setting up an Internet Protocol access network
across the country. This would help consumers access internet at faster
speed and high quality internet browsing on mobile handsets. In 2009, Airtel
launched its first international mobile network in Sri Lanka. In June 2010,
Bhartil acquired the African business of Zain Telecom for $10.7 billion
making it the largest ever acquisition by an Indian telecom firm. In 2012,
Bharti tied up with Wal-Mart, the US retail giant, to start a number of retail
stores across India.[23] In 2014, Bharti planned to acquire Loop Mobile for
₹7 billion (US$98 million), but the deal was called off later.

Logo used by Airtel until November 2010 On 18 November 2010, Airtel

14
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 2008, it emerged that Airtel was
exploring the possibility of buying the MTN Group, a South Africa-based
telecommunications company with operations in 21 countries in Africa and
the Middle East. The Financial Times reported that Bharti was considering
offering US$45 billion for a 100% stake in MTN, which would be the
largest overseas acquisition ever by an Indian firm. However, both sides
emphasised the tentative nature of the talks. The Economist magazine noted,
"If anything, Bharti would be marrying up", as MTN had more subscribers,
higher revenues and broader geographic coverage. However, the talks fell
apart as MTN Group tried to reverse the negotiations by making Bharti
almost a subsidiary of the new company. In May 2009, Airtel confirmed that
it was again in talks with MTN and both companies agreed to discuss the
potential transaction exclusively by 31 July 2009. Airtel said "Bharti Airtel
Ltd is pleased to announce that it has renewed its effort for a significant
partnership with MTN Group". The exclusivity period was extended twice
up to 30 September 2009. Talks eventually ended without agreement.

A solution was proposed where the new company would be listed on two
stock exchanges, one in South Africa and one in India. However, dual-listing
of companies is not permitted by Indian law. Further information: Zain
Group In Jun 2010, Bharti struck a deal to buy Zain's mobile operations in
15 African countries, in India's second biggest overseas acquisition after
Tata Steel's $13 billion buy of Corus in 2007. Bharti Airtel completed its
$10.7 billion acquisition of African operations from Kuwaiti firm on 8 June
2010, making Airtel the world's fifth largest wireless carrier by subscriber
base. Airtel has reported that its revenues for the fourth quarter of 2010 grew
by 53% to US$3.2 billion compared to the previous year, newly acquired
Zain Africa division contributed US$911 million to the total. However, net
profits dropped by 41% from US$470 million in 2009 to US$291 million
2010 due to a US$188 million increase in radio spectrum charges in India

15
and an increase of US$106 million in debt interest.[citation needed] Warid
Bangladesh and Robi Further information: Warid Bangladesh and Robi
(company) In 2010, Warid Telecom sold a majority 70.90% stake in the
company to Bharti Airtel for US$300 million. The Bangladesh
Telecommunication Regulatory Commission approved the deal on 4 January
2010. Bharti Airtel Limited took management control of the company and its
board, and rebranded the company's services under its own "airtel" brand
from 20 December 2010. Warid Telecom sold its remaining 30% share to
Bharti Airtel's Singapore-based concern Bharti Airtel Holdings Pte Limited
in March 2013. On 16 November 2016, airtel Bangladesh was merged into
Robi as a product brand of Robi, where Robi Axiata Limited is the licensee
of airtel brand in Bangladesh. Robi is a joint venture between Axiata Group
holding 68.7%, Bharti Airtel holding 25%, and NTT DoCoMo Inc. holding
6.3%. Telecom Seychelles On 11 August 2010, Bharti Airtel announced that
it would acquire 100% stake in Telecom Seychelles for US$62 million
taking its global presence to 19 countries. Telecom Seychelles began
operations in 1998 and operates 3G, Fixed Line, ship to shore services
satellite telephony, among value added services like VSAT and Gateways
for International Traffic across the Seychelles under the Airtel brand. The
company has over 57% share of the mobile market of Seychelles. Airtel
announced plans to invest US$10 million in its fixed and mobile telecoms
network in the Seychelles over three years, whilst also participating in the
Seychelles East Africa submarine cable (SEAS) project. The US$34 million
SEAS project is aimed at improving the Seychelles' global connectivity by
building a 2,000 km undersea high-speed link to Dar es Salaam in Tanzania.
Wireless Business Services Private Limited On 24 May 2012, Airtel
announced an agreement to acquire a 49% stake in Wireless Business
Services Private Limited (WBSPL) at an investment of ₹9.07billion
(US$130 million). WBSPL was a joint
venture founded by Qualcomm, and held BWA spectrum in the telecom
circles of Delhi, Haryana, Kerala and Mumbai.Qualcomm had spent US$1
billion to acquire BWA spectrum in those 4 circles.The deal gave Airtel a
4G presence in 18 circles. On 4 July 2013, Airtel announced that it had
acquired an additional 2% equity share capital (making its stake 51%) in all
the four BWA entities of Qualcomm, thereby making them its subsidiaries.
On 18 October 2013, Airtel announced that it had acquired 100 percent
equity shares of WBSPL for an undisclosed sum, making it a wholly owned

16
subsidiary. Augere Wireless Edit Airtel purchased Augere Wireless
Broadband India Private Limited, a company that owned 4G spectrum in the
Chhattisgarh-Madhya Pradesh circle for an undisclosed sum in December
2015. The Economic Times estimated Augere's spectrum to be worth ₹1.5
billion (US$21 million). On 16 February 2017, Airtel announced that the
merger of Augere Wireless into Bharti Airtel Limited had been completed.
Telenor India On 2 January 2017, The Economic Times reported that Airtel
had entered into discussions with Telenor India to acquire the latter.On 23
February 2017, Airtel announced that it had entered into a definitive
agreement to acquire Telenor. As part of the deal, Airtel will acquire Telenor
India's assets and customers in all seven telecom circles that the latter
operates in - Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Maharashtra, Gujarat, Uttar Pradesh
(East), Uttar Pradesh (West) and Assam. Airtel will gain 43.4 MHz spectrum
in the 1800 MHz band from the Telenor acquisition. Business Standard
reported that it was a no-cash deal, but would cost Airtel ₹1,600 crore over a
10-year period due to spectrum licence payments. Tikona 4G spectrum Edit
On 23 March 2017, Economic Times reported that Airtel announced that it
had acquired.[58] Tikona Digital Networks Pvt. Ltd to purchase the latter's
4G spectrum for approximately ₹1,600 crore. The deal also includes
Tikona's 350 cellular sites in 5 circles. Tikona had purchased 20 MHz of 4G
spectrum in the 2,300 MHz band in the 2010 auctions in Gujarat, Himachal
Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh (East), Uttar Pradesh (West) and Rajasthan for
₹1,058 crore. Prior to the deal, Airtel did not hold any spectrum in the 2300
MHz band in UP (East), UP (West) and Rajasthan, and held 10 MHz each in
Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh. Tikona was founded in 2008 by former
Reliance Communications executives Rajesh Tiwari and Prakash Bajpai. Its
other investors include Goldman Sachs, Oak Capital, IFC and Everstone
Capital. Tikona will retain its home broadband wireless business. Rajesh
Tiwari, one of the cofounders of Tikona, though sought to put a spanner in
the deal, slapping a legal notice against both the companies for not providing
details of how the proceeds will be split among shareholders. Millicom
International Cellular SA Telecom operator Bharti Airtel on 12 December
2017 said that it has signed an agreement with Millicom International
Cellular S.A. to acquire 100 per cent stake in its Rwanda operation which
operates under the brand name of Tigo Rwanda. Bharti Airtel Limited. has
entered into a definitive agreement with Millicom International Cellular S.A.
(Millicom) under which Airtel Rwanda Limited will acquire 100 per cent

17
equity interest in Tigo Rwanda Limited. Tata Teleservices & Tata Docomo
On October 2017, Bharti Airtel announced that it would acquire the
consumer mobile businesses of Tata Teleservices Ltd (TTSL), Tata Docomo
and Tata Teleservices Maharastra Ltd (TTML) in a debt-free cash-free deal.
The deal will essentially be free for Airtel which will only incur TTSL's
unpaid spectrum payment liability. TTSL will continue to operate its
enterprise, fixed line and broadband businesses and its stake in tower
company Viom Networks.The deal received approval from the Competition
Commission of India (CCI) in mid-November 2017. On 29 August 2018,
Bharti Airtel, got its shareholders approval for the merger proposal with Tata
Teleservices. On 17 January 2019 NCLT Delhi gave final approval merger
between Tata Docomo and Airtel. Airtel's proposed acquisition of consumer
mobile business of Tata Teleservices and Tata Docomo has got DoT's nod
for further approval according to CCI. The Department of Telecom (DoT)
has given approval for the merger of Tata Teleservices (TTSL) with Bharti
Airtel, subject to the condition that the Bharti Airtel firm furnishes Rs 7,200
crore worth bank guarantee. On November 2017, Tata Teleservices mobile
customers had started transitioning to the Airtel'snetwork.

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

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

18
Chapter 3: COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS OF MARKETING
STRATEGY OF BOTH COMPANIES

Reliance Jio Marketing Mix (4Ps) Strategy

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

Let us start the Reliance Jio Marketing Mix:

Product:

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

Reliance Jio is a leading telecom operator in India, which has disrupted the
Indian market with its services. Jio has rolled out a number of products &
services in its marketing mix for the benefit of the Indian population
including the roll out of Internet services to promote Internet penetration
within the country and promote the digitization initiatives followed.
JioPhone is one of the most popular service rolled out by Jio, wherein the
first affordable 4G phone has been launched by Reliance which is powered
by Kai Operating System. Peripheral services like messaging and music are
offered by the 4G internet services that Jio offers along with the various data
and voice over services. Apart from this, Jio also produces the LYF
smartphones. Even though in the initial months of its launch agreement with
Intex, Jio was supposed to purchase the smartphones manufactured by Intex,
Jio decided on making its own handsets compatible with the 4G VoLTE
technology. Reliance Jio, prior to its launch of 4G services within the
country, also started providing free hotspots of Wi-Fi in a number of cities
within the country. This initiative was undertaken in an attempt to gauge the
interest in Internet penetration within the country, and develop a culture
wherein people are exposed to Internet usage. More so, in the month of
March 2016, Wi-Fi was provided to spectators in 6 cricket stadiums that had
partnered to host the ICC World Cricket Tournament matches.
19
Price:

Below is the pricing strategy in Reliance Jio marketing strategy:

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

Place:

Following is the distribution strategy of Reliance Jio:

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

Promotion:

The promotional and advertising strategy in the Reliance Jio marketing

strategy is as follows:

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

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

People:

Jio believes in providing its employees and customers an entire ecosystem

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

Process:

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

Physical Evidence:

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

Hence this completes the Reliance Jio marketing mix.

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Airtel Marketing Mix (4Ps) Strategy
Marketing Mix of Airtel analyses the brand/company which covers 4Ps
(Product, Price, Place, Promotion) and explains the Airtel marketing
strategy. The article elaborates the pricing, advertising & distribution
strategies used by the company.

Let us start the Airtel Marketing Mix:

Product:

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

Airtel provides a wide variety of services in the field of telecom. The

summary of the products in the marketing mix of Airtel are described as
below:

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

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

packs, Family share pack, Handset pack etc.

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

special offers etc.

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

• Telemedia Services: Airtel provides broadband services across 87

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

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

• Airtel business: Airtel provides variety of Information and

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

Price:

Below is the pricing strategy in Airtel marketing strategy:

Airtel follows a competitive pricing strategy because of the huge

competition in telecom segment in India from competitors like Reliance Jio,
Vodafone etc. The pricing strategies of all telecom companies are monitored
by Telecom Regulation Authority of India to ensure fair prices are being
charged to all customers. Hence, despite regulation, the most important
aspect in the pricing strategy in the marketing mix of Airtel is based on
competitive pricing strategy. Airtel provides flexibility to its customer to
choose and customize their plan according to their preference and pay tariff
according to chosen pack (eg. MyPlan service to customer to choose their
plan and pay price accordingly). The aim of Airtel’s pricing strategy is
customer retention by providing them with combo offers to boost revenue.
Airtel pricing strategies in broadband segment is also of very low cost and
attracts huge customer base to avail affordable plans. Airtel faces tough
competition in terms of price war with other telecom companies like
Reliance Jio and the customer loyalty for any telecom company is nearly
zero and entirely dependent on price of services, so Airtel offers its basic
product like call, data, SMS and other value added services at a cheap rate.

Place:

Following is the distribution strategy of Airtel:

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

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

Promotion:

The promotional and advertising strategy in the Airtel marketing strategy is

as follows:

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

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

Which it uses for its service promotion and solve queries of customers.

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

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

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People:

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

Process:

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

Physical Evidence:

Airtel retail outlet and relationship centres serves as a service point to its
customers. The Company-Owned-Company-Operated Airtel stores try to
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serve its customer in the best possible way by providing a one stop solution
for all customer needs like instant connection, dongle and broadband
connection etc. These stores provide a superior customer experience with
excellent look and feel of all the outlets and convenient location within any
city. Airtel products like sim card cover and recharge vouchers are
beautifully designed to appeal to the customer. Airtel provides its digital TV
services through its set top boxes which are easy to configure and use. All
these products acts as a differentiating factor for Airtel service marketing.
Hence, all these help in summarizing the marketing mix of Airtel.

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Strengths in the SWOT analysis of Reliance Jio :

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

Strongest Customer Acquisition strategy – Reliance Jio probably has the

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

Strong customer base – Jio boasts of a whopping 100 million subscribers in

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

Technology – Jio currently uses the latest 4 G LTE technology which is one
of the world’s best technologies for the future. This is supported by Voice
over LTE which makes it scalable and supportive of 5G and 6 G
technologies which are expected to be the future in wireless communication.

Strong backing of parent company Reliance Industries: Reliance Industries

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

Brand Management – The reason for the huge customer base of Reliance Jio
is the brand management strategies that it has adopted. The right promotion
backed by lucrative offers and credible brand ambassadors like Shah Rukh
Khan and Amitabh Bachchan have helped in building connectivity with the
customers.

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Weaknesses in the SWOT analysis of Reliance Jio :

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

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

Activation Issues – Reliance Jio faced numerous gestation issues owing to

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

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

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

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

Opportunities for the SWOT analysis of Reliance Jio :

Opportunities refer to those avenues in the environment that surrounds the

business on which it can capitalize to increase its returns. Some of the
opportunities include:

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

scalable to accommodate

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

expansion of bandwidth.

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

Competitive Pricing Strategies – Reliance Jio prides itself on being a low-

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

Expansion to other countries – Currently Reliance Jio is operational only in

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

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

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

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

Threats in the SWOT analysis of Reliance Jio :

Threats are those factors in the environment which can be detrimental to the
growth of the business. Some of the threats include:

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

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

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

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

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

Poor Code of ethics – Many of the strategies adopted by Reliance Jio such as
the low pricing, free bandwidth and market penetration strategies have been

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showcased as unethical and this may affect the goodwill of the business in
the long run.

Strengths in the SWOT analysis of Airtel

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

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

High Brand Equity: It is one of the pioneer brands in telecommunication

having a high brand recall and with a whopping subscriber base.

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

Strategic Alliances: The company has top notch stakeholders, namely Sony
Ericsson, Nokia and singtel, and the recent one being Apple. Such strategic
alliances boost the brand equity and the bottom line of the company.

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

Weaknesses in the SWOT analysis of Airtel

Outsourced Operations: Outsourcing operations helped Airtel in lowering its

cost. But on the other hand, they are running the risk of being dependent on
some other companies which may affect its operations.

Venturing into African operations: Although it’s been 4 years that Airtel has
acquired Zain’s Africa business, but Airtel is still struggling to turn around
the unit which was bought at a whoppy 9 billion dollars.
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High Debt: With its acquisitions turning out to bad investment, and credit
being high and margins being low, Airtel group is under high debt. Airtel
does not have as deep pockets as Vodafone.

Opportunities in the SWOT analysis of Airtel

Strategic Partnership: Partnering with smart phone companies is going to be

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

Market Development: With fierce competition in the telecom industry &

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

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

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

Untapped geography of the current market: Although it is currently

providing 3G & 4G services, but these services are limited to specific
geographical locations. Expansion of these services to most of its regions
will help the company get more margins and customers.

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

Threats in the SWOT analysis of Airtel

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Government Regulatory Framework: With the auction of spectrum & change
in the government policies on a regular basis, it is a potential threat to the
stability & existence of this industry thereby affecting the players.

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

MNP (Mobile number portability): MNP gives the customer independence

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

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 Chapter 4: CONCLUSION

This research report is conducted to compare the two biggest competitors in

all time in the telecom sector. In this research we find that the both Jio and
Airtel are the well established companies in the market. Customers are
aware about the name of both the companies. They prefer to buy both.

Airtel is more popular than Jio. Airtel is preferred by the ever class and it
established itself as a better qualiy and better service provider than its
competitors.

But Jio is no fear of it because the young customers are more attracted by it,
now the Jio takes over Airtel and now they give the new schemexs in the
market and for the customers.

Last but not the least, we can say that the both the Airtel and the Jio are
going equally to the customer and they choose and at the time of purchasing.
The result is that the Jio is better than the Airtel in the Roorkee region. The
customers in Roorkee thinks that the connectivity and network of Airtel is
good but Jio services are better than Jio.

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 BIBLIOGRAPHY

TEXTBOOK

• Dr. Amit Kumar (Marketing Management)

• C.R. Kothari(Research Methodology)

WEBSITES

• www.jio.com
• www.airtel.com
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jio
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bharti_Airtel

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