airtel marketing myopia
TRANSCRIPT
Om Prakash
Santosh
Baskar Narayanan
Raj Kumar
Preethi
Introduction
• Largest Private Integrated Telecom Company in India
• 3rd Largest Wireless Operator in the World
• Largest & Fastest Growing Wireless Operator in India
• Largest Telecom Company listed on Indian Stock Exchange
Cellular Position
• When the brand was launched cellular telephony wasn’t a mass market by any means. For the average consumer, owning a cellular phone was expensive as tariff rates (at ` 8 to 16 per minute, as against ` 1.20 for landline communication ) At that time, Instrument prices were steep high — sometimes as much as buying a second-hand car. High Licence Fee for communication service providers.
Airtel’s Positioning• At that time Airtel company redefined the way
cellular services were being marketed in the country, was made possible due to its innovative marketing strategies, continuous technological up gradations, new value added service offerings and efficient customer service. AirTel decided to address that benefit of sensory of the customer and make it as their Business strategy - main selling approach. The idea was to make a badge value brand They targeted the elite, up market professionals and entrepreneurs as customers – Premium Sector
Price vs. Service Quality
Marketing Research Analysis
Which card is used.
50%
29%
0%0%
21% HUTCH
AIRTEL
BSNL
TATA INDICOM
IDEA
Market Research cont..
Service provided by the customer care
92%
4% 4%yes, I m satisfied.
no, not satisfied.
can't say
Marketing Research Analysis cont
network connectivity
yes, I m satisfied.
no, not satisfied.
can't say
Porter’s 5 Forces
GROUP 7 9
1. Threat from Competition
GROUP 7 10
Wireless Market – Top 4 garnering 75% market share
HIGH
Competitor Analysis
GROUP 7 11
OP Margin Net Margin
Company Sep-09 Sep-09 Sep-09 Sep-09
Bharti 43.00% 38.00% 26.40% 19.30%
Rcom 37.90% 31.60% 23.90% 13.20%
IDEA 32.80% 26.60% 14.10% 6.50%
MTNL 23.70% 22.90% 7.00% 6.80%
Best OP Margins & Net Profit Margins
among Peers
Source: CMIE November 2008
AMOU & ARPU StatsOU & ARPU Stats
GROUP 7 12
838
461
303
88Russia
China
India
USA
0
2
4
6
8
10
Q1 2006 Q2 2006 Q3 2006 Q4 2006 Q1 2007
AR
PU
(U
SD
per
mon
th)
GSM CDMA
Minutes of Usage per Month – Mobile Services
ARPU* in India – Mobile Services
Despite a low teledensity of approximately 19 percent, India has the second highest minutes of usage per month. This offers huge growth opportunity to telecom companies.
The declining ARPU implies that India Inc. is tapping a large market at the bottom of the pyramid by reducing tariffs; thereby, enhancing affordability.
2. Customer Bargaining Power
Lack of differentiation among
Service Providers
Cut throat Competition
Low Switching Costs
Businesses & Consumers
GROUP 7 13
HIGH
3. Suppliers Bargaining Power
GROUP 7 14
LOW
4. Threat of Substitutes
Landline CDMA
Video Conferencing
VOIP - Skype, Gtalk, Yahoo Messenger e-Mail & Social Networking Websites
GROUP 7 15
BROADBAND SERVICES
DIMINISHING MARKET HIGH
5. Threat of New Entrants
Huge License Fees to be paid upfront & High
gestation period
Entry of MVNOs & WiMAX operators
Spectrum Availability & Regulatory Issues
Infrastructure Setup Cost - High
Rapidly changing technology
GROUP 7 16
LOW
SWOT Analysis
Strengths• Largest Telecom Player in
India - ~80Mn, 22.6%• Strategic Alliance with other
stakeholders in Bharti Airtel include Sony-Ericsson, Nokia - and Sing Tel
• Pan India Presence• Strong Financials
Weakness• Outsourcing of Core
Systems• Lack of emerging market
investment opportunity
GROUP 7 17
Source: CMIE Report NOV 08
SWOT Analysis cont
Opportunities• Bharti Infratel – Cutting
Down cost in Rural area• Match Box Strategy – Scale
of Penetration• Current Tele-Density – 30.6
is still low among developing countries
• Low Broadband Penetration, Rural Telephony
Threats• India centric – Major
revenues from India• Falling ARPU & AMOU• Intense Competition &
Shortage of Bandwidth
GROUP 7 18
BCG Matrix for Bharti Airtel
GROUP 7 19
LOWHIGH
HIG
HLO
W
Mobile Services
DTH & IPTV
Broad Band
Leadership Campaign
• AirTel “Leadership series” campaign was launched showing successful men with their laptops and in their deluxe cars using the mobile phone. Airtel was positioned as aspiration brand that was meant for leaders, for customers who stood out in a crowd. Brand — leadership, dynamism and performance Tag lines like “Airtel - Power to Keep in Touch” and "Airtel celebrates the spirit of leadership" and "The first choice of the corporate leaders" .
Analysis Report
• Airtel team realized that in a business customer relationship was the core which was lacked by AIRTEL – a major weakness The leadership series was okay when you were wooing the crèmede la crème of society. Once you reached them you had to expand the market so there was need to address to new customers. - Senior executive of Essar A change in track was important because this was a time when the cellular market was changing.
Analysis Report-cont…
• Surveys showed that the concept of leadership in the customer’s minds was also changing. Leadership did not mean directing subordinates to execute orders but to work along with a team to achieve common objectives — it was, again, a relationship game that needed to be reflected in the AirTel brand. We are adopting a new brand platform – “Touch Tomorrow” – not only to reflect our corporate ethos but also business strategy. - Hemant Sachdev
Humanized AirTel• Now, ‘humanize’ brand ‘Airtel’ started to gain
competitive advantage. In August 2000, Bharti launched its new ‘Touch Tomorrow’ campaign which aimed at strengthening its relationship with its customers and highlights the relationship angle and make the brand ‘softer’ to cater a wide variety of people across the society. Airtel brand will have the logo in red, black and white colors, and a lower-case typography to convey warmth. This has tossed a challenge: how to bond with consumers
dil ka rishta hai-Campaign• In the new thrust, Airtel has also moved down the
socio-economic classification (SEC) from SEC-A to SEC-B. Mobile telephony is taken for granted - in one research, consumers have described mobile telephony as `dil ka rishta hai‘ (as it is kept close to the heart) Airtel has also undertaken an updating of the entire Airtel franchised network and company-owned customer centers. At Airtel Connects, it is creating a softer ambience with e-kiosks, new signage's, facades, merchandising material and collaterals; and a color co-ordination of red, black and white
Change In Architecture
• The Company adopted a three-tier brand architecture to expanded its ‘Touch Point’ network. All convergent technologies in the sphere of telephony will be a part of the new brand architecture Tier I - Airtel ,Tier II - Basic Telephony,Broadband Service, Mobile Service, Tier III - Freenet, Long Distance, Tango- Internet mobile
Airtel-Strategy• Ad spend more - doubled to Rs 45 crore. A new
ambience, reinforcing red and black color-co- ordination, for Airtel shops .The network of Airtel connects and touch points, were doubled .A push of products, especially Net-centric ones, was launched .Network capacity utilization (currently operating at 75 %) was improved by 20 % Number of cellular lines increased from 2,00,000 to 5,60,000 . First quarter growth of 25 per cent over the corresponding period in 1999-00. Airtel Leadership Programmed in alliance with 50 marketers Changing colors .
Airtel Strategy - cont
• In 2002, Airtel signed on music composer A R Rahman and changed its tune to "Live every moment": Rahman's signature tune for Airtel is, perhaps, the most downloaded ringtone in India. But that was just part of the ongoing communication.
Airtel Ad Campaigns
P’s of Service Marketing
• Normal 4 P’s: Product, Price, Promotion, Place • Extended 8 P’s:
People, Purpose, Positioning, Partners, Personality, Process, Physical Evidence, Punch
8 P’s of Service Marketing
• People - Recruiting the right staff and training them appropriately – Change them according to new theme – clothes, attitude.
• Purpose – Emerging Competition and Government regulation, Capturing more customers .
• Positioning – positioning in humane way rather than to commoditization way .
• Partners – Indirect partners – cellular producers –Nokia, Motorola…
8 P’s of Service Marketing
• Personality – Showing Airtel in different way - beyond the current Brand Personality Scale
• Process – Design and approach – 3 tier • Physical Evidence – people started to feel the
touch of Airtel, they made good judgement about Airtel
• Punch – The tagline “ Touch Tomorrow”
Teams View
• Brand restructuring helped the company to broaden its customer base by reaching more people and offering new services Airtel was the first cellular service provider to start customer centers (Airtel connects), thus setting a trend of effective and responsive CRM system & it should be maintained. More focusing on emotional angle to differentiate the brand, helps to add more SEC- B customers.
Success!!
• Merits Targeting different and new customer of market effectively. “TOUCH TOMORROW” gave an insight into the needs of tomorrow's consumer. Customer started to feel the theme - Humane Demerits Risk of being alienated from loyal customers Huge promotional costs If a new positioning fails or not executed properly brand may suffer a crisis of identity and dilution of brand image
Success!!
• Loyal Customers will realize that this change is inevitable, to grow the company and they will feel the futuristic aim from the tag line – Touch Tomorrow Huge Advertise cost will become meagre when comparing to increasing customers This campaign make all to think as a team Humane Approach make customers to forget the other competing service providers.
Conclusion
• AirTel Overcomes all its demerits and positioned the AirTel as humane service providers as they Targeted. More customers started to subscribe AirTel. In telecom industry people live a brand 24X7 ,so AIRTEL restructures the Theme, Logo, Architecture to broaden its customer base by reaching more people and offering good services. AirTel broadens its base and this campaign creates a confidant among the subscribers that AIRTEL can do every thing Better.
Thank You !!