A

PROJECT REPORT

ON

“Employing the potential of Retail chain distribution

of Tata Tele Services

In partial fulfillment in award of PGDM

Two Year Full Time Programme

COMPANY GUIDEFACULTY GUIDE Mr. Neeraj Agrawal Mr. VIPUL SIR Assistant manager Sales & Marketing SUBMITTED BY TARA CHAND SAINI PGDM 4TH SEM (2009-2011) PRESIDENCY INSTITUTE INTERNATIONAL MANAGEMENT

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PREFACE

The successful completion of this project was a unique experience for me

because by visiting many place and interacting various person ,I achieved a

better knowledge about sales . The experience which I gained by doing this

project was essential at this turning point of my carrer this project is being

submitted which content detailed analysis of the research under taken by me.

The research provides an opportunity to the student to devote his/her skills

knowledge and competencies required during the technical session.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

I express my sincere gratitude to my industry guide Mr. Neeraj Agrawal,

Assist .manager – Sales & Marketing, Tata Teleservices Limited for his able

guidance, continuous support and cooperation throughout my training,

without which the present work would not have been possible.

I would also like to thank the entire team of Tata Teleservies Limited, for

their constant support and help in the successful completion of this

project.

Last but not least I would like to thank to all those who have directly or

indirectly helped me in successful completion of my training.

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CERTIFICATE OF ORIGINALITY

I, Tara Chand Saini S/o Shri Paras Ram saini, having Roll no. 1031 of Batch

2009-11, do hereby certify and declare that this research report titled

employing the potential of Retail chain distribution of Tata Tele Services

Is the result of my own work? This report contains no materials or

information which has been previously submitted for any other academic

diploma or degree, except where indicated otherwise.

Date : Signature of the

student :

APPROVAL PAGE

This report, entitled, employing the potential of Retail chain

distribution of Tata Tele Services, prepared and submitted by, Tara

Chand Saini, in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the

degree of PGDM is hereby accepted

Mr. Vipul

(Faculty Guide)

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

S. No. PARTICULARS PAGE NO-

1 INTRODUCTION OF COMPANY 5-9

2 CELLULAR TECHNOLOGY 10-15

3 LIST OF DOCUMENTS 16-17

4 HANDSETS 18-19

5 ADVANTAGES 20-23

1. INDIA TELECOM MARKET 24-30

2. INTRODUCTION TO THE INDUSTRY 31-39

3. MARKETING STRATEGY 40-48

4. BRAND AMBASSADORS & AWARENESS 49-54

5. RESEARCH METHOLOGY 54-57

6. DATA ANALYSIS 58-65

7. CONCLUSION 67-68

8. SWOT ANALYSIS & BIBILIOGRAPHY 69-71

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INTRODUCTION TO THE COMPANY

TATA Group

Major Milestones

Year 1903: Started India’s first chain of luxury hotels with The Taj Mahal

hotel in Mumbai.

Year 1907: Pioneered India’s steel industry with Tata Steel set up in

Jamshedpur.

Year 1910: Started first power plant in India.

Year 1932: Pioneered civil aviation in India.

Year 1945: Led commercial vehicle production.

Jamsetji Nusserwanji Tata(1839-1904)

Sir Dorabji Tata JRD Tata(1904-1993)

Sir Ratan Tata(1871-1918)

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Year 1968: Led India’s first software development company.

Year 1998: Launched India’s first passenger car.

The Tata Group comprises 93 operating companies in seven business sectors:

information systems and communications; engineering; materials; services;

energy; consumer products; and chemicals. The Group was founded by Jamsetji

Tata in the mid 19th century, a period when India had just set out on the road to

gaining independence from British rule. Consequently, Jamsetji Tata and those

who followed him aligned business opportunities with the objective of nation

building. This approach remains enshrined in the Group's ethos to this day.

The Tata Group is one of India's largest and most respected business

conglomerates, with revenues in 2004-05 of $17.8 billion (Rs 799,118 million),

the equivalent of about 2.8 per cent of the country's GDP.

Tata companies together employ some 215,000 people. The Group's 32 publicly

listed enterprises — among them standout names such as Tata Steel, Tata

Consultancy Services, Tata Motors and Tata Tea have a combined market

capitalisation that is the highest among Indian business houses in the private

sector, and a shareholder base of over 2 million. The Tata Group has operations

in more than 40 countries across six continents, and its companies export

products and services to 140 nations

About TTSL

Tata Teleservices is part of the INR 76,930 Crore (US$17.10 billion)  Tata Group,

that has over 90 companies, over 220,000  employees and more than 2  million

shareholders. With an investment of over INR 9,000 Crore (US$ 2 billion) in

Telecom, the Group has a formidable presence across the telecom valuechain.

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Tata Teleservices spearheads the Group's presence in the telecom sector.

Incorporated in 1996, Tata Teleservices was the first to launch CDMA mobile

services in India with the Andhra Pradesh circle.

Starting with the major acquisition of Hughes Tele.com (India) Limited [now

renamed Tata Teleservices (Maharashtra) Limited] in December 2002, the

company has swung into expansion mode. Tata Teleservices operates in 20

circles i.e. Andhra Pradesh, Chennai, Gujarat, Karnataka, Delhi, Maharashtra,

Mumbai, Tamil Nadu, Orissa, Bihar, Rajasthan, Punjab, Haryana, Himachal

Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh (E), Uttar Pradesh (W), Kerala, Kolkata, Madhya

Pradesh and West Bengal. The investment in Tata Teleservices Limited

(including Tata Teleservices (Maharashtra) Limited) as of March 2005 totals INR

14,446 Crores (US$ 3.21 billion)

Having pioneered the CDMA 3G1x technology platform in India, Tata

Teleservices has established a robust and reliable telecom infrastructure that

ensures quality in its services. It has partnered with Motorola, Ericsson, Lucent

and ECI Telecom for the deployment of a reliable, technologically advanced

network.

The company, which heralded convergence technologies in the Indian telecom

sector, is today the market leader in the fixed wireless telephony market with a

customer base of over 2.8 million for the period ended September05.

Tata Teleservices' bouquet of telephony services includes Mobile services,

Wireless Phones, Public Telephony Booth, and Wireline services. Other services

include value added services like voice portal, roaming, 3-way conferencing,

group calling and data services.

The company has launched Prepaid FWP and Public phone booths, a range of

new handsets, new voice & data services such as BREW games, picture

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messaging, polyphonic ring tones, interactive applications like news, cricket,

astrology, etc. These are in addition to its existing services of Postpaid Mobile,

Prepaid Mobile & Postpaid FWP.

Today, Tata Teleservices Limited along with Tata Teleservices (Maharashtra)

Limited serve more than 7 million customers in 1700 towns and aims at 4000

towns by March'06. With an ambitious rollout plan both within existing circles and

across new circles, Tata Teleservices is offering world-class technology and

user-friendly services in 20 circles.

Values

Fairness through meritocracy.

Trust based on accountability.

Tenacity for results.

Pioneering spirits.

Excellence in execution.

Leadership with humanity.

Mission

To empower every Indian to connect with the world affordably.

Vision

Trusted service 100 million happy customers by 2011.

The sectors, in which the TATA GROUP is into, are the following, namely:

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Agricultural appliances (Tata Agrico), agrochemicals (Rallis), books(Tata

Mc Graw Hill), cellular products and services(Tata Indicom), ceramics (Tata

Ceramics), charter flights( Taj Air), cooling appliances(Voltas), credit

cards(Tata Sons), fertilizers(Tata Chemicals), financial services(Tata Asset

Management, Tata Investment Corporation), food products(Tata tea, Tata

coffee), garments and home products(Westside), holiday homes, home

appliances(Tata BP Solar), hotels, fertilizers (Tata chemicals),

insurance(Tata AIG Life Insurance, Tata AIG General Insurance), jewellery(

Tanishq), multi utility vehicles and passenger cars (Tata Motors),

telecommunications(Tata Indicom), watches (Titan) etc.

The board of directors comprises of Mr. Ratan N. Tata

Mr. N.A. Soonawala

Dr. J.J. Irani

Mr. J.K.Setna

Mr. V.R.Mehta (Institutional Representative)

Mr. R.Gopalakrishnan

Mr. Nusli N.Wadia

Mr. Helmut Petri

Mr. S.A.Naik

Mr. Ravi Kant

Dr. V.Sumantran

Mr. P.P.Kadle

Mr. P.K.M.Fietzek

9

10

CELLULAR TECHNOLOGIES

OverviewWireless communications use the radio-frequency spectrum for

transmitting and receiving voice data and video signals for

communications. The common element of all wireless radio services is

that they use a radio frequency or channel of a wire communicate to

and from one or more locations.

EVOLUTION OF CELLULAR TECHNOLOGIES

Wireless mobile telephone systems have evolved through three

generations:

First Generation (I G) Analog Systems

Second Generation (2G) Digital Systems-GSM, TDMA,

CDMA

Third Generation (3G) Digital Systems

First Generation Systems (1G): 1980s-PresentThe first generation cellular systems (1G), introduced. in the 1980s and

early 1 990s, used analog cellular and cordless telephone technology.

Networks based on 1 G analog dominated the majority of cellular

networks till the early 1990s. Analog systems still operate in the US,

with an estimated 49% of the end- 1999 subscriber base of 86.05

million. Other major countries where analog systems still predominate

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include Canada (63% of end 1999 subscriber base), Brazil (34% in

1999), the Philippines (52% in 1999), and Thailand (56% in 1999).

However, by end 1999, subscriber base on analog technologies was

only an estimated 177% of the global cellular subscriber base.

Analog systems are more prone to interference, static, eavesdropping

and cloning than digital systems.

They also have several limitations, including lack of privacy and limited

capacity. The traditional analog cellular systems, such as those based

on the AMPS and TACS, use Frequency Division Multiple Access

(FDMA). The FDMA technique enables multiple users to share the same

region of spectrum, This standard supports clear communication and

inexpensive mobile telephones, but the transmissions are easy to

intercept on a standard radio receiver and therefore are susceptible to

eavesdropping. Although technically simple to implement, FDMA is

wasteful of bandwidth. Moreover, it cannot handle alternate forms of

data, only voice transmissions. Significantly, the analog systems used

one centrally located transmitter site, usually mounted very high up to

achieve the greatest possible range. For the mobiles to transmit this

far, they needed very high power.

Because of this power requirement, hand held devices were out of the

question, and portable ones filled a briefcase.

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Second Generation Digital Systems (2G): Early 1990s-PresentDuring the early 1980s, even as analog cellular systems were first

going into service, research and development of digital cellular

systems were in progress. Digital cellular communications (2G Digital

Systems) convert all voice transmissions to computer language (zeros

and ones, or "binary" language) and then reconstruct them into the

original voice format at the other end.

Digital technology offers many advantages over analog

technology, including:

Efficient use of available spectrum and substantially enhanced

network capacity, due to

TDMA and CDMA, which allow a more efficient use of radio

spectrum than the previous FDMA technology.

Easy integration with personal communication systems (PCS)

devices, Superior quality of voice transmission over long

distances.

Difficult to decode, enabling voice privacy. Can use lower

average transmitter power, Enables smaller and less expensive

individual receivers and transmitters.

Opportunity to provide improved data transmissions in addition

to voice because of digital transmission over a radio channel.

Enables long term digital handset cost reductions with

economies of scale, since digital handsets have a lower power

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consumption and their functional intelligence can be squeezed

onto fewer semiconductor chips.

As a result, digital systems are currently the technology of choice

throughout the world, with an estimated 82.3% of the global subscriber

base by end- 1999

Two types of 2G Higher Tier systems were standardized and deployed

in the 1990s. One is the cellular mobile systems which are more

prevalent today and are characterised by the division of a geographical

area into cells, typically 3-5 kms in radius, served by a radio station at

its centre. The other are the Personal Communication Systems (PCS),

which have much smaller cells, typically 200-500 meters in radius, and

are supposedly more economical and better in quality.

Personal Communication Systems (PCS)

They have much shorter distances between mobile phones and the

nearby radio station, which reduces the power required to transmit

signals from the mobile phones, improving the voice quality and

increasing data speed. However, in order to cover the same area, a

larger number of cells (and radio stations) is required, thus making it

suitable to more densely populated metropolitan areas. PCS has

several advantages over existing cellular telephone service. They

include better service quality through use of digital technology, more

compact radio interface equipment, increased mobility, enhanced

service features, and price.

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Third Generation Systems (3G): 2000 Onwards

In 1985, the original concept for 3G wireless systems merged from an

ITU initiative known as the Future Public Land Mobile

Telecommunication System (FPLMTS). In 1996, FPLMTS was re-

designated as International Mobile Telecommunications-2000 (IMT-

2000). The number 2000 was chosen, because the ITU's timetable

called for a standard to be defined by the year 2000.

IMT-2000/3G is best understood as a minimum set of capabilities for

delivering communications services. IMT-2000 does not define the air

interface that will deliver the services, nor does it specify what the IMT-

2000 services will be. 3G is an open, packet-based, networking

strategy that enables integration of voice, data, and multimedia for

wireless mobile networks worldwide. It would support higher data rates

than do 2G systems and yet be less expensive. The IMT-2000

recommendations call for a wireless data speed of 144 kbps for high-

speed mobile users, 384 kbps for users moving at pedestrian speeds,

and 2 mbps for stationary users. The indoor radio channels typically

support higher data rates with better reliability than does the outdoor

channel used by persons moving rapidly. 3G would also advance other

aspects of wireless communications by reducing equipment size,

extending battery life, and improving ease of operation. The key

features of IMT-2000 are high degree of commonality of design

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worldwide; compatibility of services within IMT-2000 and with the fixed

network; superior two-way voice communication quality; small

terminals for worldwide use; worldwide roaming capability; and

capability for multimedia applications and a wide range of services

(e.g. video-teleconferencing, high speed Internet, speech and high rate

data).

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List of documents :

List of Documents needed for a connection: The various documents that are

needed for a post paid walky and mobile connection from Tata Indicom are

the following:

For the connection that is to be installed at residence :

1. Identity Proof (anyone):

Driving license

Voter’s identity card

Passport

Bank Pass Book, with a stamped a photo on it

Photo credit card.

Arms and Ammunition license

2. Proof of Residence (Anyone):

Passport

Driving license

Paid telephone bills (not more than 4 months old)

Paid electricity bills (not more than 4 months old)

Paid water bill (not more than 4 months old)

Vehicle registration certificate

Ration card

Municipal tax payment receipt

3. PAN Card or Form 60.

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For a connection that is to be installed at a shop or any

business related location:

1. Proof of identity (Anyone)

Shops and Establishment Registration Certificate

Municipal Registration Proof

Sales Tax Registration Certificate

Memorandum of Association

Government Document sent from a government office

2. Proof of Address (Anyone)

Memorandum of Association signed by the Director

Sales Tax Registration Certificate

Municipal Registration Proof

Shops and Establishment Certificate

Telephone Bills (Not more than 4 months old)

Government document sent from the government office

Original Bank Statement attested is a bank official.

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HANDSETS

Huawei 2285

Kyocera K122

Samsung Hero NXT

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Availability on Postpaid Yes Yes

Availability on Prepaid Yes Yes Yes

Unique feature Speaker phone & voice recorderBrew 2.1.1.2/ Candy Bar/ B&W

Display with Colour FilterMobile Tracker,Emergency SOS

alert ,T9 Hindi&LMS

B & W // Color B&W B/W with Colour Filter 4 Gray B&W

T-Sim / Non T-Sim T-Sim NA T-SIM

Display Size Type CSTN Monochrome, FSTN 1.33" , FSTN

Screen Resolution standardised format ( 128 X 90 etc)

96x65 96x64 128x128

SMS Yes Yes (50)100 (Inbox,OutBox& Draft)+ 20

Templates

MMS NA No NA

Ring tone type - Polyphony 32-Poly MIDI-1212 Poly -30 Embeded ringtones&

Tata Zone

FM Radio No NA No

Speaker phone Yes NA No

Games (2~3) No 1 2

Phone book memory 500 No

Data Modem No

Applications Platform No BREW BREW Lite

Browser No NA No

PC Sync No Phonebook Only Available

Camera No NA No

Video Capture No NA No

Zoom No NA No

MP3/ AAC Support No NA No

Bluetooth No NA No

Infrared Port No NA No

External Memory Slot No NA No

Email No NA No

Touch Screen No NA No

Touch Keypad No NA No

Handwriting recognition No NA No

Operating System REX Rex REX

Document viewer No NA No

Tata Zone support No YesRigtones download & SMS based

services

Battery Capacity 600mAh 900 mAh 800mAh

Talk time 3-4 hrs 3.5 Hrs 3Hrs

Stand-by time 150-190 Hrs 200 Hrs 215 Hrs

Weight about 80g 78 gms 76.2 gms

Video Streaming No

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Advantages of using TATA Indicom:

Tata Indicom provides various facilities to its walky and mobile users. The

various advantages are:

Phone book: The phone has a vast memory and can store up to 500

numbers, and in the models Axxestel and LG LSP 350 T, the phone book

has a memory of 500 names and in front of each name, four numbers can

be stored. So, it makes up to 2000 numbers.

Display: The display screen is wide that helps the customers to see

clearly.

Large call history: The call book is very large, as it enables to check

the call history, that is all 60 last dialed numbers, missed calls, as well as

received calls.

Phone lock system: The customer can bar all the local as well as the

STD calls being made from the phone by locking the phone by dialing

the number given to the subscriber at the time of connection.

Caller Line Identification Process or CLIP facility: The user of the

phone can identify the caller through this facility as the number from

which a person is calling is displayed on the screen of the user.

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Call waiting and Voice mail facility: If the user is busy talking to a

particular number, and any other person is trying to call him then the

third number from which the user is getting a call will be displayed on

the screen, along with a beep.

Closed user group: This facility is provided to only those customers

who subscribe in bulk. If there are more than ten connections at a time by

any person, or any society or even corporate, then they are given some

special facilities in the form of concessions in the call charges, like the

intra group calling will be free, and activation charges, like the amount

needed for the activation of the phone will be wavered, i.e. it will be

either reduced or there would be no deposits and no activation charges

etc.

Voice mail: The user can use this facility and keep receiving the call

indirectly, i.e., the message of the caller to that number will be recorded

in the phone and the user can refer to it, afterwards according to his/her

convenience.

There are some other facilities also that are provided by the company,

along with the above mentioned ones which are listed below. Those are:

Call forward: If a person wants to receive the call from other

number, then the call can be forwarded to his/ her number through this

facility.

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Internet facility: A customer can access Internet through the

phones, with a speed of 120 kbps.

Hot line facility: This facility can be used in case of emergencies.

For this a number is fed as “hot line number”. If the receiver is off the

hook for one minute, then there is automatically calling to a number that

has been fed as the hot line number.

Off hook facility: In this, the customer can receive a call even when

the receiver is kept off the hook, i.e. if the receiver is not kept properly,

then the line for this number will be engaged for first three numbers, and

the fourth number which is being dialed to this particular number, will

start ringing. There will be a beep, and then the phone will start working

normally automatically. This is helpful as many-a-times the receiver is

not kept properly by mistake. So, in those cases, this facility helps.

Call restriction: If the customer doesn’t want to receive a call from

a particular number, then he/ she can block the number by calling to the

customer care centre. Again, if he/she can block the calls from a

particular city, or state just dialing the STD code of that particular place.

The person who will be calling to these numbers will always find the

numbers engage.

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Three way conference: A person can talk with up to one thousand

people at a time. This can be achieved by just dialing the number and

you can invite

another person to talk to you. So, the chain can go on increasing till the

total number of people who are on line is one thousand.

Pooling facility: This facility is provided mainly to the corporate or

those customers who install more than five phones line connection from

the company. In this facility, there is a sharing of the bills amongst these

numbers. For example, if there are three departments in a office with

different requirements and intensity for calling. And if the customer has

subscribed to a plan in which he gets a free talk time of Rs.500. Now if

department A has a monthly expenditure for Rs.800, department B has a

monthly expenditure of Rs.200, and department C has a monthly calling

of Rs 500. Then, the balance amount of Rs.500 of department A will be

adjusted to the charge of department and, the subscriber would not have

to pay the extra amount for the unutilized amount of the free talk time of

department of as it automatically gets adjusted in department A’s

account. Thus, this facility gives the customer value for money.

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Indian Telecom Market

Indian telecom market has shown excellent performance in the fiscal 2005-06.

Tele-density in India is galloping.

The number of telecom subscribers in India grew by 41.2 million in 2005-06 to

touch 140 million. According to the data, during 2005-06 the teledensity in the

country grew 12.73 per cent.

The large chunk of telecom subscribers are in the mobile phone category with

the customer base in this segment growing 37 million to touch 90 million,

according to the Telecom Regulatory authority of India (TRAI).

The total subscriber base of fixed line phones stood at 49 million by the end of

2005-06.

For mobile segment 5.03 million subscribers have been added during March

2006. The mobile additions consist of 3.78 million GSM subscribers and 1.25

million CDMA subscribers as against 3.17 million GSM and 1.11 million CDMA

subscribers in the previous month. The total mobile subscribers at the end of

March 2006 touched 90 million.

In the fixed segment a total of 0.30 million subscribers were added during March

2006. With this the total subscriber base of fixed lines reached around 49.75

million.

In fiscal '06, the increase was more than entire user base as recently as five

years ago. The teledensity in India is still much less than the developed countries

such as UK (102%) and USA (60%). India still lags China (23%). But it is

catching up fast. This increase has been brought about mainly by the explosion

in mobile subscriptions. Most of the recent growth has been in the mobile user

base.

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In fiscal '01, out of the total increase of almost 7 million users, 6 million was for

fixed line connections. The trend started shifting from fiscal '02, when the number

of new connections added started to go down for fixed line and increased

exponentially for mobile services. In fiscal '06, the number of new mobile

connections added was close to 38 million, while the number of fixed line went up

by only 3.8 million. That is almost 10 times more! But fixed line connections are

going up again.

Within the wireless space, the GSM segment still leads in absolute numbers. The

GSM subscriber base continues to be more than 3 times the CDMA subscriber

base.

At the end of fiscal '06, the total number of GSM subscribers was close to 69

million users, while CDMA had close to 23 million. However, CDMA continues to

grow at much faster rates than GSM. During the fiscal '06, GSM subscriptions

grew at 68%, while CDMA connections grew at 86%.

The largest mobile operator continues to be Bharti with 19.6 million subscribers,

followed by Reliance Communications Venture Ltd with 17.4 million mobile users.

State-owned Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd has 17.2 million subscribers and is third

in the race at the end of March.

At the end of April 2006, the total fixed-line telephone subscribers were about

47.51 million (against 46.78 million in March), taking the combined base of

mobile and fixed telephony subscribers to 144.43 million.

With the addition of 4.6 million new customers added in April, gross telecom

subscriber base in India has grown to 144 million pushing the tele-density to

13.16 per cent. The tele-density was 12.73 per cent in March 2005.

26

Operations in UP West [Dehradun Cluster]

TTSL products offered in UP West Circle are CMO i.e. Mobile Service (Prepaid

and Postpaid service), Walky (Fixed Wireless Phone) and PTB (Public

Telephone Booth).

These products are each being handled by separate departments. The UP West

and Uttaranchal is further subdivided into smaller clusters which are :

1. Meerut.

2. Dehradun

3. Agra

27

Demographic Details of major cities in UP West Circle

Product Contribution – UP West

28

UP West

24%

8%

6%62%

Walky Post Walky Pre CMO Post CMO Pre

Role of Distributor:

The responsibilities of Distributor towards the Retailer’s are:

1. Providing the retailers with the required stock to allow their proper

functioning.

2. Keeping the retailers updated about changes in Changes in Tariff,

Services and company’s policy of operation.

3. Timely collection of CAF from the retailers and submitting them to the

customer care division of the company.

4. Providing the retailer with POP material to help them attract more

customers.

5. Passing on the benefits given by the company to the retailers.

The responsibilities of Distributor towards the Company are:

1. To maintain a stock of handsets for 15 – 21 days and that of RCV

(Recharge Coupon Vouchers) for 7 – 14 days as directed by Tata

Indicom.

2. To ensure placements of Indicom’s products so as to increase the

availability and visibility.

3. To keep up superior relationship with all its retailers this would

eventually lead to sales with recommendations from retailer.

4. Achieving the secondary sales targets given by the company.

5. Opening up on new retail outlets in order to increase the availability

and penetration of company’s products and services.

6. Timely investment into business.

29

Beat Plan

Beat Plan is a schedule designed to make sure a certain number of visits to

retailers by the FOS over a week. These visits depend on the number of

handsets sold per month which are the basis for classification of retail outlets.

Classification of Retail Outlets

While preparing beat plan it becomes important to classify the retail outlets on

the basis of volume of sales they provide. All the retail outlets of Tata Indicom

were classified in four categories as under:

Category Monthly Sales Frequency of FOS visits

A Sales of > 15 handsets / month Daily

B Sales of 10 – 14 handsets / month Once in 2 days

C Sales of 5 – 9 handsets / month Once in 3 days

D Sales of 1 - 4 handsets / month Weekly

Class A retailers form only about 15% of all outlets but in terms of sales value

they provide 60% – 70% of business. Thus a Class A retailer is precious to Tata

indicom and needs to be given individual attention. Such a retail outlet is usually

provided with better schemes, is more often visited by the FOS and is provided

with the best POP (Point of Purchase) merchandise.

For Sample Beat Plan please refer to Appendix C.

Role of FOS

The FOS (Feet on Street) is a person trained by the company who works with the

distributor to make secondary sales, i.e. sales made by the distributor to the

30

retailers. The FOS is responsible for product presentation, order taking, stock

checking and collections on credit sales due to the distributor.

Each FOS is accountable for 3 beats, each of 30 – 35 retailers. These beats are

geographically allocated to different FOSs. The FOS makes visits to the retailers

under his territory according to the beat plan, which specifies which all retailers

are to be met on a given day. On these visits the FOS makes product

presentation, highlighting the benefits of Tata Indicom over its competitors. He

also lets the retailer know about the current promotional offers being floated by

Indicom for its retailers and customers. The FOS provides the retailer with

company merchandise and POP material, which increases the visibility of Tata

Indicom, its products and schemes. This also helps the retailer make sales easily

and earn a significant margin.

Another key task performed by the FOS is “Order taking”, which includes the

confirmation about the volume and value of the stock ordered and entering so in

the order book. The FOS also handles the duty of stock checking, where he

verifies the opening stock, the number of activations, stock of recharge coupons

and the closing stock. He is also expected to have a fair idea about the

competitor’s stock, number of activations and schemes as well.

On the Distributor end the FOS is responsible for timely submission of the

retailer’s orders and is liable to specify any special commitments made by him.

31

INTRODUCTION TO THE INDUSTRY

Telecommunications

One of the fastest growing sectors in the country,

telecommunications has been zooming up the growth curve at a

feverish pace in the past few years.

The number of mobile phones (including 20.8 million WLL

(M)) as on January 31, 2006, was about 83 million, which is

over 63 per cent of the total number of phones in the

country.

Over 32 million new telephones were added during April-

January of the current financial year, with five million

additions occurring in January alone, taking the total

number of phones in the country to 130.8 million as on

January 31, 2006.

Tele-density has increased from 8.8 per cent in January

2005 to 11.7 per cent at the end of January 2006.

According to the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India

(TRAI's) quarterly performance indicators, Internet user

base has grown 15 per cent from September 2004 to

September 2005, with private operators accounting for 2.6

million users.

32

The gross subscriber base of the fixed and mobile services

together reached 113.07 million at the end of the quarter

July-September 2005, from 104.22 million as on June 2005,

registering an increase of 8.49 per cent during the quarter.

Under the Bharat Nirman Yojana, a total 66,822 villages are to be

provided with village public telephones (VPT) by November 2007.

Destination India

The growth statistics of the sector combined with the

government's decision to increase the foreign direct investment

cap in the sector to 74 per cent is generating interest among

global investors. India, one of the fastest growing countries in

telecom manufacturing in the world, will attract another US$ 855

million as foreign investment over the next two years.

India has become the ‘crown jewel’ in Hong Kong-based

Hutchison Telecom, contributing about 41 per cent of the

group's total revenues of US$ 3.1 billion in 2005. This

amounted to more than half of Hutch International’s gross

profit.

Nokia calls India its stepping stone to success. It said that

convergence and 3G products will increase exponentially

33

from 2005-07 in Asia with key drivers being India along with

Brazil and China.

The China-headquartered Haier group, with a global

presence in home appliances and consumer electronics, has

set up a joint venture for telecom in India for the handset

and equipment business.

Nortel, North America's biggest telecommunications

equipment provider, has signed a five-year deal to provide

call centre services for Bharti, which has a more than 22 per

cent market share of the mobile phone market in India.

Israeli telecommunications equipment maker ECI Telecom

opened a new research and development centre in India in

an effort to reduce the time to market new products.

Global forays

India offers an unprecedented opportunity for telecom service

operators, infrastructure vendors, manufacturers and associated

services companies. With global telecom bigwigs keenly looking

at the fast-growing Indian market, domestic majors are busy

dialing in new deals and expanding overseas.

34

Bharti, which has been offering telecom services in

Seychelles for the last seven years under the brand Airtel

Seychelles Ltd., announced that it would soon launch next

generation 3G services there with an initial investment of

US$ 968,309.

Videsh Sanchar Nigam Ltd (VSNL) has said that SNO

Telecommunications (PTY) Ltd, in which the company is a

principal shareholder, has received a telecom licence to

operate in South Africa.

The Tata Group will invest more than US$ 230-million in

South Africa over the next three years to develop and

operate telecommunication services.

Reliance Infocomm has joined hands with China

Telecommunications to provide direct telecom connectivity

for the first time between the two countries. It will now

route communications traffic between India and China on a

global network of its group company Flag Telecom.

35

Telecommunication in India

The Indian telecommunications Network with 77m telephone

connections is the fifth largest in the world and is the second

largest among the emerging economies of Asia. Today it is the

fastest growing market in the world and represents unique

opportunities for UK companies in the stagnant global scenario.

Tele-density, which was languishing at 2% in 1999, has shown an

impressive jump to 7% in 2005 and is set to increase to 20% in

the next five years beating the Govt. target by three years.

Accordingly, India requires incremental investments of USD

10-15 bln for the next five years.

Private operators have made mobile telephony the fastest

growing (over 164% p.a.) in India. With more than 33 million

users (both CDMA and GSM), wireless is the principal growth

engine of the Indian telecom industry. Given the current growth

trends, cellular connections in India will surpass fixed line by late

2004/early 2005. Intense competition between the four main

private groups - Bharti, Hutch, Tata and Reliance and with the

State sector incumbents-BSNL and MTNL has brought about a

significant drop in tariffs. There has been almost 74% in cell

36

phone charges, 70% in ILD calls and 25% drop in NLD charges,

resulting in a boom time for the consumers.

The Government has played a key enabling role by deregulating

and liberalising the industry, ushering in competition and paving

the way for growth. While there were regulatory irregularities

earlier, resulting in litigation, these have all been addressed now.

Customs duties on hardware and mobile handsets have been

reduced from 14 percent to 5 percent.

The Indian government has merged the IT and Telecom Ministries

to speed up reforms and decision on the Communication

Convergence Bill to enable the common regulation of the

Internet, broadcasting and telecoms will be taken after the new

Government assumes responsibilities in may this year. An

independent regulatory body (TRAI) and dispute settlement body

(TDSAT) is fully functional.

37

INDIAN CELLULAR MARKET

The Bharti Group, which operates in 15 circles, continues to be

the country's largest cellular operator, with 30.71 lakh

subscribers. BSNL, which operates in 17 circles, has a subscriber

base of 22.56 lakh subscribers. Thus BSNL stands second largest

cellular operator in terms of subscriber base at the end of the

fiscal ending March 31, 2005, displacing Hutchison from the

second position.

Hutch, which operates in only seven circles, is the third largest

operator with a subscriber base of 21.64 lakh. Unlike fellow public

sector undertaking, MTNL, which operates in Mumbai and Delhi,

BSNL has been a very aggressive player in the market. "Cellular

operators who expected BSNL to go the MTNL way, were taken by

surprise and did not take effective steps to counter it, till it was

too late in the day," said a telecom analyst.

Belying fears of a slowdown in cellular subscriber acquisitions,

the cell club has reported a 7.92% growth, the highest growth in

any month so far, during March 2005. Year-on-year, the cellular

subscriber base in the country has almost doubled to 1.27 crore

38

in March 2005, a 97.29% growth over 0.64 crore in March 2004.

The subscriber base was 0.36 crore in March 2003.

The cellular subscriber club expanded by 9.31 lakh last month.

This is much higher than 5.9 lakh subscribers added in February

2005 and 2.13 lakh in January 2005. Idea, which operates in five

circles, is the fourth largest operator with a subscriber base of

12.80 lakh, higher than BPL's 11.31 lakh subscribers across four

circles. The subscriber numbers per operator drop sharply with

the sixth largest operator, Spice Communications, having a

subscriber base of 6.40 lakh, followed by Escotel with a base of

5.87 lakh and Reliance Telecom's 5.41 lakh subscribers.

MTNL is the ninth largest operator, with a base of 2.92 lakh

subscribers, followed by Aircel's 2.3 lakh subscribers and Aircel

Digilink's 1.83 lakh subscribers. RPG Cellular is the 12th largest

operator with 1.79 lakh subscribers, followed by Hexacom's 1.32

lakh subscribers.

The growth in the cellular subscriber base was seen to have

slowed down in the past two months because of the hype created

by limited mobility. Before that, monthly additions in the last

three months of calender year 2004 averaged around 6.75 lakh.

39

While the subscriber base-jumped by 3.38% to 44.39 lakh in the

metros, subscriber base of category A circles of Maharashtra,

Gujarat, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu jumped by

10.18 % to reach 43.64 lakh. Category B circles of Kerala, Punjab,

Haryana, Uttar Pradesh (West), Uttar Pradesh (East), Rajasthan,

Madhya Pradesh and West Bengal recorded a jump of 10.69%,

with a total base of 33.74 lakh subscribers. Circle C has reported

12.74 % growth with subscriber numbers jumping to 5.08 lakh.

Among the metros, while Mumbai added 63,180 subscribers,

higher than the 58,646 added by Delhi, the Capital's cellular

subscriber base of over 18 lakh is still higher than Mumbai's

16.89 lakh. Last year, the cellular subscriber base had grown by

79.78%, thus reaching 64.3 lakh, compared to 35.77 lakh in the

year ending March 2001. While the cellular industry has been on

roll for the first three quarters of the previous financial year with

an average of 6.75 lakh monthly additions in the third quarter,

the first two months of 2005 had seen the growth slowing down.

40

MARKETING STRATEGY ADOPTED BY TATA INDICOM

Tata-Indicom has spent a considerable amount on advertising its

mobile phone service, Tata-Indicom. Besides print advertising,

the company had put up large no of hoardings and kiosks in and

around Delhi.

The objective behind designing a promotion campaign for the

‘Tata-Indicom’ services is to promote the brand awareness and to

build brand preferences.

It is trying to set up a thematic campaign to build a stronger

brand equity for Tata-Indicom. Since the cellular phone category

itself is too restricted, also the fact that a Cellular phone is a high

involvement product, price doesn't qualify as an effective

differentiator. The image of the service provider counts a great

deal. Given the Cell phone category, it is the network efficiency

and the quality of service that becomes important. What now the

buyer is looking at is to get the optimum price-performance

package. This also serves as an effective differentiator Brand

awareness is spread through the' campaigns and brand

41

preference through brand stature. Tata-Indicom's campaign in

the capital began with a series of 'teaser' hoardings across the

city,' bearing just the company's name and without explaining

what Tata-Indicom was. In the next phase the campaign

associated Tata-Indicom with Cellular only thereafter was the

Tata-Indicom Cellular connection brought up. Vans with Tata-

Indicom logos roamed the city, handing out brochures about

the company and its services to all consumers. About

50,000 direct callers were sent out. When the name was well

entrenched in the Delhiites’s mind, the Tata-Indicom campaign

began to focus on the utility of Cellphone. In the first four

months alone

Tata-Indicom 's advertisement spend exceeded Rs. 4 crores.

As of today the awareness level Is 60% unaided. This implies

that if potential or knowledgeable consumers are asked to name

a Cellular phone service provider that is on the top of his/her

mind 60% of them would name Tata-Indicom. As for aided it -is

100% (by giving clues and hints etc.).

Brand strength of a product or the health of a brand is measured

by the percentage score of the brand on the above aided and the

42

unaided tests. The figures show that Tata-Indicom is a healthy

and a thriving brand.

Every company has a goal, which might comprise a sales target

and a game plan with due regard to Its competitor. Tata-

Indicom's campaign strategy is designed keeping in mind its

marketing strategy. The tone, tenor and the stance of the visual

ads are designed to convey the image of a market leader in

terms of its market share. It tries to portray the image of being a

"first mover every time" and that of a "market leader".

The status of the product in terms of its life cycle has just

reached the maturity stage in India. It is still on the rising part of

the product life cycle curve in the maturity stage.

The diagram on the left hand side shows the percentage of the

users classified into heavy, medium and low categories. The

right hand side shows the revenue share earned from the three

types of users.

Tata-Indicom, keeping in mind the importance of the customer

retention, values its heavy users the most and constantly

indulges in service innovation. But, since heavy users comprise

only 15 - 20% of the population the other segment cannot be

neglected.

43

The population which has just realised the importance of cellular

phones has to be roped in. It is for this reason that the service

provider offers a plethora of incentives and discounts. Concerts

like the "Freedom concert" are being organised by Airtel in order

to promote sales. The media channel is chosen with economy in

mind. The target segment is not very concrete but, there is an

attempt to focus on those who can afford. The print

advertisements and hoarding are placed in those strategic areas

which most likely to catch the attention of those who need a

cellular phone. The product promise (which might cost different

1 higher) is an important variable in determining the target

audience.

Besides this, other promotional strategies that Tata-Indicom has

adopted are :

(i) People who have booked Tata-Indicom services have been

treated to exclusive premiers of blockbuster movies. Tata-

Indicom has tied up with Lufthansa to offer customer bonus

miles on the German airlines frequent flier's programs.

(ii) There have been educational campaigns, image campaigns,

pre launch advertisements, launch advertisements,

congratulatory advertisements, promotional advertise-

44

ments, attacking advertisements and tactical

advertisements.

Operations in UP West [Dehradun Cluster]

45

TTSL products offered in UP West Circle are CMO i.e. Mobile Service (Prepaid

and Postpaid service), Walky (Fixed Wireless Phone) and PTB (Public

Telephone Booth).

These products are each being handled by separate departments. The UP West

and Uttaranchal is further subdivided into smaller clusters which are :

1. Meerut.

2. Dehradun

3. Agra

Demographic Details of major cities in UP West Circle

Product Contribution – UP West

46

DISTRIBUTION

Company

Franchisee Distributor

Dealer Dealers

Customer Customer

The- company whose operations are concentrated in and around

Delhi. It 27 Franchisees and 15 Distributors- They also have 8

'instant access cash card counters- Each franchises or distributor

can have any number of dealers under him as long as the person

47

UP West

24%

8%

6%62%

Walky Post Walky Pre CMO Post CMO Pre

is approved by the Tata-Indicom authority. Each franchises has

to invest Rupees Ten Lakhs to obtain a franchise and should

employ an officer recruited by Tata-Indicom. This person acts as

an liaison between the company and the franchises. The

franchises can it any number of dealers as long as their territories

do not overlap. But unfortunately Tata-Indicom has not been

very successful in controlling territorial overlaps of dealers. The

franchises can carry out his 1 her own promotional strategy. For

this the. company contributes 75% of the money and the

franchises contributes 25% of the money. The dealers under the

franchisee receive the same commission. The franchises and the

dealer obtain the feedback from the customers and they are sent

through the liaison officer on a day-to-day basis to Tata-Indicom.

The dealer has to invest Rupees. One Lakh as an initial

investment. The dealer of Tata-Indicom are not allowed to

provide any other operators' service.

Target set for distributors and the dealers is 100 -150 activations

per month. Hence the dealers can also go for their own

promotions like banners and discounts on festivals etc. The

dealer provides service promptly. The consumer on providing the

bill of purchase for the handset and proof of residence has only to

48

wait an hour before getting connected. The staff of the dealers

and the franchisees are provided training by the Tata-Indicom

personnel.

The complaints encountered by the franchisees and dealers are

either handset being non-functional or the SIM Card not getting

activated. Anything more complicated is referred to the main

Tata-Indicom office in Delhi.

49

TATA INDICOM OFFERS

With Tata-Indicom, the subscriber wouldn't just get a personal

phone that lets him/her be in touch, always, but also gets a host

of benefits that let him/her manage his/her time like never

before.

An Tata-Indicom subscriber is provided with a Subscriber Identity

Module Card (SIM card) - that is the key to operating his/her

cellular phone. His card activates Tata-Indicom cellular services

and contains a complete micro-computer chip with memory to

enable one to enjoy one's cellular phone thoroughly. Each SIM

card contains a PIN code (Personal Identity Number) which may

be entered by one. Just plug your SIM card into your cellular

phone, enter the PIN code and it becomes 'your' personal phone'.

50

Brand ambassadors:

Global companies have long understood the power and impact of associating

popular personalities with their brand name and products. Most will agree

that a successful brand ambassador can make or break a new product launch,

or even catapult a company into a new era of exponential revenues after a

long drought of fading brand clout. But these days choosing a brand

ambassador isn’t what it used to be. Now, with the rapid diffusion of

information made possible through the Internet, companies are seeing the

dangers of making hasty decisions to link their products to public figures. In

the past, reputations were not etched in stone, but were relatively stable and

slow to change. Conversely, these days what goes around still comes around,

only now this happens at the speed of light and travels to the ends of the

world.

The primary role of the brand ambassador is to personify the values intrinsic

to the brand and evoke the dreams associated with owning the product. As

such, he or she must demonstrate a trend of increasing popularity and

notoriety in the markets where the advertising and promotion will be visible

in order to reach the projected target groups effectively. The notoriety of the

ambassador would be the magnet to attract a qualified target group to

appropriate the brand. The conversion process would start with a prospect’s

desire to purchase a certain type of product. The consumer’s ultimate choice

of brand and model would then be influenced to some degree by

identification with the brand ambassador.

51

Tata has always associated itself with success. It has tried deliberately to be

in the minds of the customers as the numero uno. For the same reasons, it

has selected the

most successful captain of Indian cricket team, Saurav Ganguly, s its brand

ambassador.

Saurav Ganguly can be associated with fame, success and glory. He brings

leadership and experience with his image. Again the other brand

ambassadors of the company are Narain Karthikeyan, Irfan Pathan, an d

Sania Mirza. These are the youth icons, and the rationale behind employing

them as brand ambassador is that they bring fresh energy as well as

enthusiasm with in the mind of the customers. They are the voice and the

face for Tata Indicom. Narain Karthikeyan is considered to be rationale.

His is synonymous to speed and efficiency, and accuracy. Indicom intends to

set a similar picture of its own in the minds of the customers.

Irfan Pathan and Saurav Ganguly advertised for the prepaid sector, while

Ajay Devgan and Kajol promote the post-paid sector of Tata Indicom.

This couple is now one of the most popular couple in the glam world. They

represent a happy go lucky, carefree, yet successful pair. At the same time,

the company portrays the couple as very conscious about choosing the right

thing out of the available choices. They always mention in the

advertisements that this is the most cost effective and the most suitable

telephonic service that one can chose.

52

Brand awareness of Indicom

Brand awareness is when people recognize your brand as yours. This does

not necessarily mean they prefer your brand (brand preference), attach a

high value to, or associate any superior attributes to your brand, it just means

they recognize your brand and can identify it under different conditions.

Brand awareness consists of both brand recognition, which is the ability of

consumers to confirm that they have previously been exposed to your brand,

and brand recall, which reflects the ability of consumers to name your brand

when given the product category, category need, or some other similar cue.

.

.

53

The benefits of a strong brand

Here are just a few benefits people will enjoy when company create a

strong brand:

A strong brand influences the buying decision and shapes the

ownership experience.

Branding creates trust and an emotional attachment with the company

or with the product. This attachment then helps the company to make

decisions based, at least in part, upon emotion-- not necessarily just

for logical or intellectual reasons.

A strong brand can command a premium price and maximize the

number of units that can be sold at that premium.

Branding helps make purchasing decisions easier. In this way,

branding delivers a very important benefit. In a commodity market

where features and benefits are virtually indistinguishable, a strong

brand will help the customers to trust the company and create a set of

expectations about the company’s products without even knowing the

specifics of the product features.

Branding will help the company to "fence off" the customers from the

competition and protect the market share of the company while

building mind share. Once the company has mind share, the customers

54

will automatically think of the company and its products first when

they think of buying the necessary product.

A strong brand can make product features virtually significant. A

solid branding strategy communicates a strong, consistent message

about the value of the company. A strong brand helps the company to

sell the values and tangibles that surround the products of the

company.

A strong brand signals that the company wants to build customer

loyalty, not just to sell the products. A strong branding campaign will

also signal that the company is serious about marketing and that it is

intended to be around for a while. A brand impresses the company’s

firm identity upon potential customers, not necessarily to capture an

immediate market but rather to build a lasting impression of the

company and the products.

Branding builds name recognition for the company or the product.

A brand will help the company to articulate the company's values and

explain why the company is competing in the market.

55

Tata Indicom has also concentrated on this aspect and thus has done a lot of

things to create strong brand awareness for the company. For example, it has

painted the entire exterior of local trains, giving its advertisements on them.

The idea is about surrounding the consumer in 360 degrees. As consumers

move away from conventional media, this kind of fragmentation and micro

targeting is bound to happen in many ways.

Again, in smaller towns, it has advertised heavily in the market places. Even

it has used a large number of billboards, banners, and occupied space in the

print media advertisements.

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

Title : Marketing Strategies of Tata Indicom

Data Collection

The methodology adopted for this project is exploratory in

nature since there is no hypothesis that has to be tested.

The conclusions have been drawn by exploratory research

work.

There have been two sources of information collected:

a) Primary Sources

56

I have met retailers of the Tata-Indicom of the company

and have been able to get first hand information

regarding the product, its features and the buying

patterns of the product. Their input has been valuable.

b) Secondary Sources

Secondary source has played a vital role to play in this report. A

good amount of data has been collected from various published

articles and reports found in magazines and journals. Another

vital source has been the Internet and particularly the companies

own website.

Objectives of the study

To study the importance and development of tele –

communication industry in today’s scenario.

To understand the various Marketing Strategies which

Tata Indicom has adopted to survive in highly competitive cell

phone industry.

To make a comparative study of the major players in Indian

Service Provider.

57

Scope of the study

To identify the marketing programs being run by Tata Indicom

and to study the impact of marketing strategies on Tata

Indicom.

SIGNIFICANCE FOR THE RESEARCH :

To facilitate in appreciative of marketing situation of Tata

Indicom.

RESEARCH TECHNIQUES

SAMPLING METHODOLOGY

Sampling Unit : Individuals & Families

Sampling Techniques : Convenient Sampling and judgmental sampling

Sampling Area : Dehradun

Sample Size : 200

58

LIMITATIONS

The company officials also too tend to give biased answers, as they

always want to give a rosy picture of their company.

The responses can be biased, as some of the respondents may not have

revealed the true pictures.

The managers were reluctant to give information about the product.

The sample was restricted to the Dehradun region only

59

DATA ANALYSIS

QUESTIONNAIRE ANALYSIS

Q1. Do you have a mobile phone ?

a) Yes b) No

Q2. Are you aware about

telecommunications service?

a) Yes b) No

if yes, then which operators

service do you use

a) Tata Indicom

b) Vodafone

c) Airtel

d) BSNL

e) Reliance

Q3.Which of the following services do you

use of Tata Indicom?

60

a) Prepaid

b) Postpaid

Q4. Which services are more helpful to

you while using Tata Indicom services ?

a) Call rates b) sms service

c) Network d)Value added services

Q5. Give your suggestions to help in services

you better

Name : ------------------

Age: ----------- Year

Sex: Male/ Female

Contact No. ----------

Signature : --------------

USAGE OF CELLPHONE

61

How long you are using Tata Indicom?

62

63

Services provided by the Tata Indicom

64

Rating of Existing Service Provider on the basis of prompt

service provided to the customer

65

Best feature of your TATA INDICA

66

What problem do you find on your mobile?

67

CONCLUSION

The promotional strategies, I got to learn at Tata Indicom gave me an

in-depth knowledge about application of Marketing Strategies in real

terms. I could understand better the role of different strategies at

different stages of evolution of business. Training at Tata Indicom gave

me ample opportunity to apply my skill and knowledge in dealing with

customers, channel partners, managing office and also field work.

Through keen observation, I found that all the Promotional Strategies

are inter-related with each other and there is a greater role of timing

which mainly decides the success or failure of it in the long run. The

actions or strategies of the competitor are very keenly observed and

corrective action taken from time to time. The knowledge of the

industry and a regular update is quite essential to survive in this

changing business arena.

Moreover, I got to understand that in today’s telecom market, the tariff

plan must be so prepared that it can meet the requirements of

different sections of the society.

The company should roll-out ant future service only when it is fully

satisfied with the complete working of the same otherwise it will create

negative publicity as in the earlier stages of its commercial launch of

services.

68

Employees also believe that integration of sales, marketing and

customer services function is must for achieving better relationship

with the customers.

Despite industry skepticism and tightening budgets, insurers will

continue to invest in CRM with the pre-requisite that vendors are

able to demonstrate that significant returns can be achieved.

Investments through 2002 and 2003 will be focussed on: smaller

scale projects to leverage greater returns out of existing systems,

the development of operational CRM to improve distribution

strategies, and the integration of core processes such as claims. In

the highly competitive insurance landscape, the main objective of

insurers is increasing the value of their customer base. Customer

Relationship Management (CRM) is pivotal in achieving this.

A reliable, efficient Customer Relationship Management (CRM) solution

makes it easy to build lasting customer relationships, gives executives

the necessary resources to maximise their organisation.

In service sector like telecom, it is the quality which is important but

today’s market goes to those who can provide quality service at

affordable price. Here only the differentiator lies.

Finally, I concluded that it is the human effort which is responsible for

ultimate successes or failure. There is no limit to success and, so, as

it’s rightly said,

“If you think you can --- you can”.

69

SWOT ANALYSIS

STRENGTHS

Cost advantage

Current leaders in quality service

Largest distribution network

Ability to constantly innovate

Highly skilled workforce

Entrepreneurial zeal

Tata’s increased equity and market cap.

WEAKNESSES

To prove credibility

Price pressures

Need for Government support

Awareness

Sales and Marketing

70

OPPORTUNITIES

To sustain passion and commitment

Tata’s market share increasing at other service provider

expense. Thus opportunity to wipe it out.

Attain higher value services

Collaborative business needs to be explored

Vertical repeatable solutions.

Low penetration level in rural markets.

THREATS

Foreign investment

Global trends moving from GPS to WLL.

Lack of global parity in telecom tariff

Other competition

71

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Kotler, Philip; Amstrong, Garg. Principles of Marketing,

Millennium Edition, Prentice Hall of India Ltd., New Delhi,

2002.

Tata Indicom. Sales guides

Business World

Times of India

The Economic Times

Web portals (customer helpdesk).

www.bsnl.com

www.mit.gov.in

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