Airtel Project
Airtel Project
Airtel Project
A
Research Project Report
On
Study of Airtel Marketing
Meerut
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
I would like to take an opportunity to thank all the people in collecting the necessary
information and making of the report. I am grateful to all of them for their time and wisdom.
My project becomes a reality only because of cooperation of many people who had helped me
in completing this project. I sincerely extend my gratitude to Dr. Mayank Jain(HOD) who has
given me this golden opportunity to have an insight in the corporate world and who has been a
source of guidance and support.
Nisha Chauhan
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Study of Airtel Marketing
CERTIFICATE
This is to certify that Nisha Chauhan 6th SEM student from IIMT Institute of
Engineering & Technology, Meerut affiliated to C.C.S University, Meerut has completed her
project under my supervision. She made this project to my entire satisfaction and as per
requirement of the course.
Arun Kumar
Project Guide
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Bharti Tele-Ventures
Bharti Tele-Ventures is one of India's leading private sector providers of telecommunications
services based on an aggregate of 28,692627 customers as on September 30, 2006, consisting
of 27,061,349 GSM mobile and 1,631,278 broadband & telephone customers
The businesses at Bharti Tele-Ventures have been structured into three individual strategic units
(SBUs)
1) mobile services
2) broadband and telephone services (B&T)
3) enterprise services
The Mobile services group provides GSM mobile services across India in 23 telecom circles,
while B&T business group provides broadband & telephone services in 94 cities. The
Enterprise Services group has two sub-units carriers (long distance services) and services
top corporates. All these services are provided under the Airtel brand.
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Bharti Enterprises has been at the forefront of technology and has revolutionized
telecommunications with its world class products and services. Established in 1976, Bharti has
been a pioneering force in the telecom sector with many firsts and innovations to its credit.
Bharti provides a range of telecom services, which include Cellular, Basic, Internet and
recently introduced National Long Distance. Bharti also manufactures and exports telephone
terminals and cordless phones. Apart from being the largest manufacturer of telephone
instruments in India, it is also the first company to export its products to the USA.
Bharti is the leading cellular service provider, with a footprint in 16 states covering all four
metros. It has over 12 million satisfied customers
Bharti Enterprises has successfully focused its strategy on telecom while straddling diverse
fields of business. From the creation of 'Airtel', one of India's finest brands, to becoming the
largest manufacturer and exporter of world class telecom terminals under its 'Beetel' brand,
Bharti has created a significant position for itself in the global telecommunications
sector. Bharti Tele-Ventures is today acknowledged as one of India's finest companies, and its
flagship brand 'Airtel', has over 12 million customers across the length and breadth of India.
While a joint venture with TeleTech Inc., USA marked Bhartis successful foray into the
Customer Management Services business, Bharti Enterprises dynamic diversification has
continued with the company venturing into telecom software development. Recently, Bharti has
successfully launched an international venture with EL Rothschild Group owned ELRO
Holdings India Ltd., to export fresh Agri products exclusively to markets in Europe and USA
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Study of Airtel Marketing
"What other operators have achieved in one to two years, Bharti has done in just over a month. In July 2002,
one out of every two people buying a mobile across India chose AirTel. We are truly proud to be spearheading
the mobile revolution in the country."
Vision
AIRTEL
Airtel comes to you from Bharti Tele-Ventures Limited - a part of the biggest private integrated
telecom conglomerate, Bharti Enterprises. A consortium of giants in the telecommunication
business. In it's six years of pursuit of greater customer satisfaction, AirTel has redefined the
business through marketing innovations, continuous technological up gradation of the network,
introduction of new generation value added services and the highest standard of customer care.
Bharti is the leading cellular service provider, with an all India footprint covering all 23
telecom circles of the country. It has over 12 million satisfied customers.
Cellular telephony was introduced in India during the early 1990s. At that time, there were only
two major private players, Bharti (Airtel) and Essar (Essar) and both these companies offered
only post-paid services. Initially, the cellular services market registered limited growth.
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Moreover, these services were mostly restricted to the metros. Other factors such as lack of
awareness among people, lack of infrastructural facilities, low standard of living, and
government regulations were also responsible for the slow growth of cellular phone services in
India.
Although the cellular services market in India grew during the late 1990s (as the number of
players increased and tariffs and handset prices came down significantly) the growth was rather
marginal. This was because the cellular service providers offered only post-paid cellular
services, which were still perceived to be very costly as compared to landline communications.
Following this realization, the major cellular service providers in India, launched pre-paid
cellular services in the late 1990s. The main purpose of these services was to target customers
from all sections of society (unlike post-paid services, which were targeted only at the premium
segment).
Bhartis Mission
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Empowered Employees
Cost Efficiency
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Board of Directors
The Board of Directors of the Company has an optimum mix of Executive and Non-Executive
Directors, which consists of three Executive and fifteen Non-Executive Directors.
The Chairman and Managing Director, Mr. Sunil Bharti Mittal, is an Executive Director and the
number of Independent Directors on the Board is 50% of the total Board strength. The
independence of a Director is determined on the basis that such director does not have any
material pecuniary relationship with the Company, its promoters or its management, which may
affect the independence of the judgment of a Director.
The Board members possess requisite skills, experience and expertise required to take
decisions, which are in the best interest of the Company.
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ACHIEVEMENTS
First to launch Cellular service on November 1995.
First operator to revolutionaries the concept of retailing with the inauguration of AirTel
Connect (exclusive showrooms) in 1995.
First to expand it's network with the installation for second mobile switching center in April,
1997 and the first to introduce the Intelligent Network Platform First to provide Roaming to
its subscribers by forming an association called World 1 Network.
First to provide roaming facility in USA. Enjoy the mobile roaming across 38 partner
networks & above 700 cities Moreover roam across international destinations in 119
countries including USA, Canada, UK etc with 284 partner networks.
BHARTI announces aggrement with VODAFONE marking the entry of the World's Largest
Telecom Operator into India
Bharti Enterprises and AXA Asia Pacific Holdings Limited announce Partnership for a life
insurance joint venture in India
16 states, 600 million people. Only India's leading mobile service offers you the truly
'freedom-packed' Prepaid!
Vodafone to invest approximately Rs. 6,700 crores (approx. USD 1.5 bn.) to acquire
around 10% in Bharti Tele-Ventures Ltd.
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SUNIL BHARTI MITTAL IS THE CEO OF THE YEAR AT THE FROST AND
SULLIVAN ASIA PACIFIC AWARDS 2006 AND BHARTI AIRTEL BAGS
WIRELESS SERVICE PROVIDER OF THE YEAR AND COMPETITVE
SERVICE PROVIDER OF THE YEAR.
Over the last couple of years, the market has grown considerably, with deeper penetration and
wider usage of voice and data services, accompanied by much higher competitive intensity,"
Atul Bindal, chief marketing officer, Bharti TeleVentures, expands on this. "In this context,
differentiating merely on network, coverage and SMS is just not enough. You need to go
beyond all the rational identifiers - which are prerequisites in any case - and connect at a deeper
level. We needed a strong differentiator in an increasingly commoditized and crowded market.
We found this differentiator in a core human truth that defines our category - which is that there
are moments when you need to make your point, when you need to be heard. Expressing and
communicating are perhaps two of the most basic emotions. AirTel enables you to make your
point in the most expressive way, anytime, anywhere. The campaign is towards owning
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For AirTel, the challenge also lay in presenting a unified 'face' to the consumer. This assumes
significance when viewed in the light of the company's pre- and post-paid communication,
which, in the past, had been treated very differently. Brand image, as a result, was being driven
in two different dimensions. "Brand AirTel is a category leader straddling completely different
market segments such as consumer, business and corporate, as well as different voice, data and
payment platforms," says Bindal. "'Express yourself' enables the brand to unify and connect
across the entire base of our existing and prospective customers."
One of the most obvious benefits of owning a property such as 'candid expression' (and 'Express
yourself') is the expansive nature of the thought. "The moment you have as broad a canvas as
'Express yourself', it becomes easy for anyone working on the brand to come up with new ideas
and executions. That's what makes a good campaign idea," observes Rediff's Prashant Godbole,
who, along with creative partner Zarvan Patel, conceived the campaign. This is just the
proverbial tip of the iceberg, Patel adds. "We will be taking the idea forward in many different
ways in the forthcoming work," he informs. Patel also credits his creative team for "fleshing out
the idea".
In October 2002, Magic led the market, with 30% of the market share. Bharti claimed that its
strategies were one of the most ambitious experiments ever in the Indian pre-paid cellular
telephony market. However, given the increasing competitive pressure, doubts were being
expressed regarding the ability of Bharti's marketing initiatives to help Magic retain its 'Magic'
in the future.
AIRTEL BROADBAND
Bharti Televentures is the fixed line operator business of Airtel. In the recent branding exercise,
all the services have been offered under the Airtel brand. Data is the next driver for growth. This
is clear to the operators who have belatedly realized the implications for having a pie in all the
segments of telecommunications. Hence Bharti ventured in the broadband market.
However, the main contention in the broadband market is the price offering which includes the
bandwidth costs as well as the cost of laying down the copper wire. Typically, in the mentality
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of the profit making exercise, Airtel has so far focused only in those areas where it perceives
that a huge market is present. However, I still hold that their thrust should be in smaller towns
and cities where BSNL would ultimately usurp their potential customer base. It seems that their
fancily paid MBAs havent really understood the success of BSNL who focused on the B and C
class cities where it has drawn unparalleled support despite the lousy customer experiences.
This is because of the absence of any other operator.
The current offerings by Airtel does not really enthuse a potential customer who is looking at
sustained data transfer. It is the classic case of having something better than nothing.
Add to the lousy customer care that Airtel is slowly perfecting, it is staffed with people who
usually land up in their jobs with little idea of their job profile. The so-called Tech engineers
have often been unable to help a customer who is facing issues with the connectivity. I have
read first person accounts for the same.
(B&T) & enterprise services. The mobile services group provides GSM mobile services across
India in 23 telecom circles, while the B&T business group provides broadband & telephone
services in 90 cities. The Enterprise services group has two sub-units - carriers (long distance
services) and services to corporates. All these services are provided under the Airtel brand.
Our Services:
Voice Services
Mobile Services
Satellite Services
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PREPAID POSTPAID
SERVICE TYPE OF
DESCRIPTION CHARGES CHARGES
NAME SERVICE
(Rs.) (Rs.)
Calling Line
Automatic only
Identification Displays the callers number on your
for new Rs. 25
Presentation mobile phone screen
acquisitions
(CLIP)
Users can call to get certain information
Automatic only and service. For instance, Dial 604 for
Rs. 2.40 per Rs. 2 per
Dial-a-service for new Infotel, Dial 131 for Railway info. These
minute minute
acquisitions call numbers are available in the phone
book
Automatic only
download exclusive contents from Per content Per content
WAP for new
Airtel's WAP site download download
acquisitions
Automatic only Access internet on the move and GPRS Charges GPRS Charges
GPRS & Masala for new download exclusive contents from - Rs 600 per - Rs 600 per
acquisitions Airtel's WAP site month month
646 Calling Automatic only Users can call into this voice recognition Rs. 6 per Rs. 6 per
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Introducing VQE (Voice Quality Enhancer) for the first time in Kolkata. VQE is a
revolutionary new system that spectrally reduces background noise. It eliminates acoustic echo,
adjusts speech levels in both directions and does away with low or distorted speech so that
every word of your's can be heard clearly, wherever you may be speaking from.
The VQE technology has been sourced from Tellabs of USA, world leaders in Voice Quality
technology. Some of the prominent GSM operators using Tellabs solution in the world are
SingTel, Bell South, Telstra, BT Cell etc. The Tellabs noise reduction technology removes high
background noise from the wireless side of the call thus delivering near wireline clear call
quality
on mobile phones. The Tellabs 3000 series of voice-quality enhancement echo technology also
eliminates the complexity of acoustic echo generated by digital mobiles and hands free kits.
So go ahead. Express yourself and feel the difference on Kolkata's only Non-Stop 2.5G
Network
AIRTEL NEWS
Bharti Airtel inks USD 400 million network expansion contract with NOKIA
.
Bharti Airtel limited: Q2 cash profit exceeds Rs. 1,600 crores, PBT crosses Rs. 1,000 crores.
Notice of postal ballot for seeking consent of the shareholders on scheme of amalgamation
of Satcom Broadband Equipments Limited and Bharti Broadband Limited with Bharti Airtel
Limited.
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PROMOTIONAL STRATEGY
After the liberalization of the Indian Telecom Sector in 1994, the Indian cellular market
witnessed a surge in cellular services. By 2005, there were a total of 12 players in the market
with the five major players being Bharti Tele-Ventures Limited (Bharti), Bharat Sanchar Nigam
Limited (BSNL), Hutchinson-Essar limited (Hutch), Idea Cellular limited (Idea) and Reliance
India Mobile (RIM) (Refer Exhibit I).
All the players except RIM offered services based on the Global System for Mobile (GSM)
technology. RIM provided services based on Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA)
technology as well as GSM.
As competition in the telecom arena intensified, service providers took new initiatives to woo
customers. Prominent among these were - celebrity endorsements, loyalty rewards, discount
coupons, business solutions and talk time schemes. The most important consumer segments in
the cellular industry were the youth segment and the business class segment. The youth segment
was the largest and fastest growing segment and was therefore targeted most heavily by cellular
service providers.
Bharti Tele-Ventures adopted celebrity endorsement as its chief promotional strategy. By 2004 it
emerged the unprecedented leader commanding the largest market share in the cellular service
market. (Refer Exhibit II). Hutch implemented the celebrity endorsement strategy partially,
relying primarily on its creative advertising for the promotion of its brand. BSNL, on the other
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hand, attracted the consumer through its low cost schemes. Being a state owned player, BSNL
could cover rural areas, and this helped it increase its subscriber base. Reliance was another
player that cashed on its innovative promotional strategies, which included celebrity
endorsements and attractive talk time schemes. Idea, relied heavily on its creative media
advertising sans celebrities.
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Cellular service provider AirTel seems to have hit the right note with its new commercial
starring musician A R Rahman. The commercial which is currently on air has a beat which also
doubles up as a ringtone which is ostensibly available only to AirTel users. But the interesting
part is that the ringtone is being flaunted not just by AirTel customers but by customers of rival
service providers like BPL, Orange and Dolphin as well!
We did expect the tune to catch up but this has really exceeded our expectations, admits
Bharti Cellulars chief marketing officer (western region) Pratik Pota. Overall, he explains, it is
a great advertising product for AirTel and works like a walking, talking brand ambassador.
The ringtone which is also the jingle for AirTels TV commercial, is proving to be a potent
advertising tool for the company. It is not very clear what this means for the other cellular
operators. Cellular users have been forwarding the tune to one another, which according to
Mr Pota, has given AirTel a chance to enter the mind of the user irrespective of which service
he opts for.
It gives the user a chance to go back to the AirTel product and acts as a strong reminder
medium, he explains. Marketing professionals like Samsika Marketing Consultants managing
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director Jagdeep Kapoor point to the usage of an audio celebrity as something that is
significant.
The normal practice is to opt for film stars and sportsmen rather than an audio personality he
says.
Rivals, though seemingly unfazed by the phenomenon, seem to be doing their own homework
on this brand of advertising. While none of them commented on AirTels strategy and its impact
on their own subscriber base, one advertising professional working with a rival service provider
opines that the tune is transient and not likely to have any long term impact as a brand
building tool.
Being the latest entrant in the Mumbai circle, AirTel has had to find ways of cutting through the
clutter.
Says Mr Kapoor, AirTel will have try to find ways to attract new customers and convert the
existing ones. Explaining that the usage of an audio celebrity was more strategic than
tactical, he adds that non-AirTel users will have the AirTel brand experience inspite of not
using the service.
While Mr Pota highlights the fact that the usage of the tune by other operators means free
advertising for AirTel and the users having a positive disposition towards the product, the
nature of reaction from competition remains unclear.
Competition will not do well to adopt a knee jerk reaction and will have to come out with
advertising that is well thought out explains Mr Kapoor. He anticipates a situation where the
new entrant (AirTel) will continue to be more aggressive.
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Study of Airtel Marketing
Both Tendulkar and King Khan already share the frame for soft drinks major PepsiCo India.
Tendulkar is not the first cricketer to endorse Bhartis Airtel brand. Indian captain Saurav
Ganguly had done so when Airtel launched its service in the eastern metropolis of Kolkata in
2001.
Though company executives were mum on the value of the Tendulkar deal, those in the
advertising fraternity peg the signing rate for the three-year deal anywhere between Rs 8 crore
and Rs 10 crore.
Both Sachin and Shah Rukh are two of the most sought after celeb endorsers in the country,
with the former edging out the latter in the celeb endorsement race. The Master Blasters
portfolio includes brands like Colgate Pamolive, ESPN-STAR Sports, Pepsi, MRF, Boost, TVS,
Palio, Visa, Adiddas and Britannia. The leading brands endorsed by Khan include Hyundai,
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Pepsi, Airtel, Tag Huer, Clinic All Clear, Bagpiper and Videocon, among others.
According to company executives, the idea of roping in Tendulkar is in line with the groups
strategy to connect to the mass market through celeb endorsers from movies, cricket and music.
For mass connect, Shah Rukh and Sachin are the best bet as brand endorsers, says a senior
company executive. Bharti plans to launch a multimedia campaign targetting its service at the
mass market.
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OBJECTIVE
The objective of my project report is to study the advertising strategy of AIRTEL Cellular
service and its effect on mobile users existing and who are going to use mobile service in future.
In other words, my aim is to study the Advertising Effectiveness of AIRTEL Cellular service.
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DATA SOURCES
Data is collected from both the Primary sources i.e. questionnaire and also from Secondary
sources.
Primary sources:
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Study of Airtel Marketing
The primary source of data collection is through questionnaire. The questionnaires are
distributed among 35 peoples and their view is recorded and used in analyzing the data
Secondary sources :
The secondary sources includes online sites, newspapers and templates from AIRTEL
distributions centers and AIRTEL Customer Care.
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35%Goodwill
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Peoples first choice of cellular service when they want to use mobile phone
AIRTEL 45% HUTCH 30% IDEA 8%
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YES : 85%
NO : 13%
CANT SAY : 2%
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People participate contest offered by AIRTEL like BID TO WIN, LIL CHAMPS
YES : 72%
NO : 28%
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Both : 62%
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AIRTEL is #1 in India
Yes : 95%
No : 5%
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CONCLUSION
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The conclusion of my study is that AIRTELs Advertising has a major impact its users.
People like its schemes very much .AIRTEL had created a very good image on the mind of the
new users of cellular service. AIRTEL has adopted a very good strategy by providing a new
connection with NOKIA who is market leader in mobile set, many new users buy Nokia sets
and they get a free connection of AIRTEL. AIRTEL is successful in capturing the highest
market share by adopting Celebrity Endorsement Strategy. A.R. Rehmaans tune for AIRTEL
worked as free advertising for AIRTEL as another service user uses it too. Other celebrities like
Shahrukh Khan (bollywood) and Sachin Tendulkar (Cricket) has also contributed very much in
AIRTEL.
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RECOMMENDATIONS
AIRTEL should introduce cheaper recharge cards than the other because its
competitor HUTCH had introduced it.
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BIBLIOGRAPHY
ON-LINE WEBSITE :
.
o WWW.GOOGLE.CO.IN
o WWW.AIRTEL.COM
NEWSPAPERS:
BOOKS:
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QUESTIONNAIRE
NAME:
ADDRESS:
OCCUPATION: .
CELLULAR SERVICE USED:.
Goodwill
3. Which was your first choice of cellular service when you want to use mobile phone?
AIRTEL HUTCH IDEA
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11.Do you participate contest offered by AIRTEL like KBC-2 & Indion Idol-2?
YES NO
More validity
Yes No
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