airtel marketing myopia

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 !!