STUDY OF 7P’s & MARKETING STRATEGIES OFAIRTEL

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SUBMITTED TO :- PROF. A. SRIKANT. IBS, HYDERABAD.

SUBMITTED BY:-[SEAT NO. NAME] 37. SHALINI KESHOTE.52. EKTA SINGS.56. SHUBHAM GARG.71. PRASHANT BHOUTIKA.72. AMBUJ JAIN

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

We are indebted to Prof. A. Srikanth for his valuablecontributions to this work, constant help and encouragement,without which it would have not been possible to completethis Project. We thank him for his exceptional support.While we have attempted to incorporate much of his wisecounsel and information for enhancing this work, we remainsolely responsible for any of its deficiencies.

Shalini Keshote Ekta SinghShubham GargPrashant BhoutikaAmbuj Jain

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INDEX

1. TELECOMMUNICATION SECTOR IN INDIA.........................42. INCEPTION OF AIRTEL.......................................5

2.1 Vision................................................52.2 Mission...............................................62.3 Subsidiary Companies of Airtel........................62.4 Services Offered By Airtel............................6

3. STP ANALYSIS OF AIRTEL....................................73.1 Segmentation..........................................73.2 Targeting.............................................83.3 Positioning...........................................93.4 Branding.............................................10

4. SEVEN P’s OF AIRTEL......................................114.1 PRODUCTS & SERVICES..................................114.2 PRICE................................................134.3 PLACE................................................15

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4.4 PROMOTION............................................154.5 PEOPLE...............................................174.6 PROCESS..............................................174.7 PHYSICAL ENVIRONMENT.................................18

5. PORTER’s FIVE FORCES ANALYSIS............................186. SWOT ANALYSIS............................................207. REFERENCES...............................................20

1.TELECOMMUNICATION SECTOR IN INDIA

India’s telecommunication network is the second largest in the worldbased on the total number of telephone users (both fixed and mobilephone).

It has one of the lowest call tariffs in the world enabled by themega telephone networks and hyper-competition among them.

Major sectors of the Indian telecommunication industry aretelephony, internet and television broadcasting.

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Telephone industry in the country which is in an ongoing process oftransforming into next generation network, employs an extensivesystem of modern network elements such as digital telephoneexchanges, mobile switching centers, media gateways and signalinggateways at the core, interconnected by a wide variety oftransmission systems using optical fiber or microwave radio delaynetworks.

DTH, a relatively new broadcasting technology has attainedsignificant popularity in the television segment. Telecommunicationin India has been greatly supported by the INSAT system of thecountry, one of the largest domestic satellite systems in the world.

Indian telecom industry underwent a high pace market liberalizationand growth since 1990’s and now has become the world’s mostcompetitive and one of the fastest growing telecom markets.

India has the world’s second largest mobile phone user base with over930 million users. It has the world’s third largest internet userbase with over 137 million users.

The total revenue of the Indian telecom sector grew by 7% to 283,207crores for 2010-11 financial year, while the revenues from thetelecom equipment segment stood at 117,039 crores.

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Telecommunication has supported the socioeconomic development ofIndia and has played a significant role to narrow down the rural-urban digital divide to some extent. It has also helped to increasethe transparency of governance with the introduction of e-governancein India.

2.INCEPTION OF AIRTEL

Bharti Airtel limited, commonly known as Airtel, is an IndianTelecommunications services company founded by Mr. Sunil BhartiMittal on July 7, 1995, headquartered at New Delhi, India.

Airtel is the world’s fourth largest mobile telecommunicationscompany with over 261 million subscribers across 20 countries.

It operates in 20 countries across South Asia, Africa and the ChannelIslands.

Airtel has GSM network in all countries in which it operates,providing 2G, 3G and 4G services depending upon the country ofoperation.

It is the largest cellular service provider in India, with 183.61million subscribers.

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Airtel is the third largest in-country mobile operator by subscriberbase, behind China Mobile and China Unicom.

2.1 Vision

By 2015 Airtel will be the most loved brand, enriching the lives ofmillions:

Loved by more customers. Targeted by top talent. Benchmarked by more business.

“Enriching lives means putting the customer at the heart of everythingwe do. We will meet their needs based on our deep understanding oftheir ambitions, wherever they are. By having this focus we willenrich our own lives and those of our other key stakeholders. Onlythen will we be thought of as exciting, innovation, on their side anda truly world class company.”

2.2 Mission Customer Service Focus Empowered Employees Innovative Services Cost Efficiency

2.3 Subsidiary Companies of Airtel Airtel Africa Airtel Sri Lanka Airtel Bangla Airtel Digital TV

2.4 Services Offered By AirtelServices offered by Airtel can be classified into:-

Mobile Services: Based on the number of customers, Airtel is thelargest mobile service operator in India. This company offers

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mobile services based on GSM Technology. For convenience of itscustomers, Airtel has both prepaid and post paid facilities.

Enterprise Business: Airtel provides integrated servicescomprising mobile, telephone, broadband, data and connectivityservices internationally as well as nationally for small, mediumand large scale enterprises. Its carrier service provides networkconnectivity through optic fiber over a distance of more than35,000 km. Airtel is a member of South East Asia- Middle East-Western Europe- 4 consortiums which include 15 globaltelecommunication service providers.

Airtel Telemedia Services: The Company offers high speed broadbandservices through landline in 94 cities.

3.STP ANALYSIS OF AIRTEL

3.1 SegmentationAirtel meticulously segments its market. Apart from the geographicsegmentation, which divides the Indian market into east, west,south, north and central regions, the market is also segmented ineach region on the basis of age and income. The differentgeographic regions are handled independently and differentcampaigns are run according to the tastes and preferences ofpeople in each region. Under each region, age and income play animportant role in determining the extent of mobile usage.

On the basis of GEOGRAPHIC VARIABLES:-

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A) Region wise East Region (West Bengal, Assam, Arunachal Pradesh etc.) West Region (Gujarat, Rajasthan, Maharashtra etc.) South Region (Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala etc.) North Region (Punjab, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh etc.) Central Region (Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand etc.)

B) Density of area Urban (Cities Such As Mumbai, Delhi, Pune, Jaipur etc.) Semi-urban (Nasik, Aurangabad, Ahemadnagar etc.) Rural (Baramati, Khed, Saswad etc.)

On the basis DEMOGRAPHIC VARIABLES:-

A) AGE

From age group  18 <  35 As most of the people start using a mobile from the age of18 so we may make a segment of an age group 18 to 35 as most ofthem will be students and remaining will be young professionalsworking in the industry. So they need SMS plans for chatting andthey also need cheap calling rates. We may provide the FRINDZcard to them.

35 and aboveAs most of these group will be working and don’t use mobile for  SMS

and chatting. So this group needs only the calling facility at areasonable rate. This Group may continue using the general plan.

B) INCOME

PREPAID & POSTPAIDGenerally the mobile service providers plan their marketing

strategies according to the prepaid market and postpaid market.So it basically depends upon the income of the consumer thatwhether he selects the prepaid or postpaid. Generally the

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consumers with low income choose prepaid and consumers with highincome choose postpaid.

On the basis of BEHAVIORAL VARIABLES

Brand Loyalty We can also segment it on the basis of the loyal customers and

non-loyal customers of the brand. We can provide various schemesand offers to the loyal customers to retain him with our product.

3.2 Targeting

Airtel has targeted the premium and upper middle class. Therationale behind it is that only those segments should be targetedwho value time and have the paying capacity. It is also planning totarget the business tourists during their stay in the capital. About60% of the clientele are top executives of corporate houses. About15% are foreign organisations and the rest are professionals andsmall businessmen. During the introduction stage there was intensepressure to get consumers across to hook up with their brand, becausegetting them to switch brand loyalty later would be hard. So farAirtel marketers have been concentrating totally on the businessexecutive class but now that the basic viable volumes has been builtup and prices have declined to a certain extent they are planning toventure further into a new field.

TARGETING STRATEGIES

Professionals by giving free calls in postpaid connections. Entrepreneur by giving various plans in which they may get

internal calling free. Youth with the “FRIENDZ” Scheme. Targeting Students by introducing postpaid connection only for

students and with zero rentals.

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3.3 Positioning

The product is supposed to be a business efficiency tool, alifestyle revolution and a status symbol. The emphasis is to removemisconception that the cell phone is an expensive means ofcommunication. It’s a day to day use commodity and is no more a symbol ofstatus.

When it comes to Airtel who can forget the melodious, sweet music of itcomposed by A.R.Rehman. The music attracts us in various forms such aschorus, whistle, piano and in many other forms. The latest advertisements ofAirtel “Jo tera hai who mera hai” and “Kyun ki hare k friend jaruri hot hai”have created a brand image in the minds of youngsters. This is one of thepositioning strategies of Bharti Airtel.

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3.4 BrandingAirtel as a brand focuses on following characteristics:- Memorability:  

Easily recognized  Easily recalledThe brand elements of Airtel are memorable. People can easilyrecognize and recall the parent brand Airtel Bharati even thoughits sub-brands are little bit tough to recognize and recall.

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Descriptive  PersuasiveBrand elements may take on all kinds of meaning, with eitherdescriptive or persuasive content. The brand elements of Airtel aredescriptive and suggest something about the product category.

Likability :  Fun and interesting Rich visual and verbal imagery  Aesthetically pleasingAirtel uses its parent brand name in different font and style astheir logo and symbol of parent brand. Different brands of AirtelBharti use different brand elements. Brand elements of Airtel areso much likable, especially to the educated and to the brand loyalpeople.

Transferability:   Transferability within and across product category Transferability across geographic boundaries and cultures

Transferability means how useful is the brand elements for line orcategory extension. In general the less specific the name, the moreeasily it can be transferred across categories. In that senseAirtel Bharti is successful in terms of transferability.

Adaptability :  Flexible UpdatableThe fifth consideration for brand elements is their adaptabilityover time. The brand Airtel is highly adaptable and updatable. Itwas launched in 7 July 1995, and is still continuing by the samename.

Protectability:   Legally Competitively

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This is the final consideration of evaluation criteria. The brandelements of Airtel Bharti are protect able both in a legal and acompetitive sense because it is registered with the appropriatelegal bodies and vigorously defended trademark from unauthorizedinfringement.

4.SEVEN P’s OF AIRTEL

4.1 PRODUCTS & SERVICES

Mobile : Experience total cost control, no rentals and easy billingwith Airtel’s postpaid and prepaid services.

Voice Based Services: Voice mail, Call conference, Dial a service. Home Phones : Experience a world class service and cutting edgetechnology with Airtel landline and our feature rich Wireless fixedline. What’s more, calling is made more fun & convenient withservices and entertainment on Airtel. With Airtel you get toexperience superior voice clarity on our fiber-optic framework morethan an ordinary telephone line.

Broadband Services : Airtel Broadband Services, India's mostpreferred high-speed Internet service, redefines your Internetexperience. It is fast, fun, convenient and cost effective.

BlackBerry : BlackBerry from Airtel is an 'always connected'wireless solution providing easy and secure access to your email anddata. Send emails and Receive emails instantly all the emails you'veread, deleted or moved to a folder will show on both your handsetdevice and your desktop. It uses over-the air technology so there'sno need to manually synchronize your message activity.

Email Services : Want to access information on your mobile? Airtelbrings you Email on the go. You can choose from BlackBerry andWindows Mobile5.0 depending upon the usage patterns, requirement andsuitability.

Calling Cards : Airtel’s calling card services connect you to theworld from India and allow a better way to call back India. Theseservices connect you to your friends and friends in India a costeffective and reliable manner.

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Wireless Internet : With Airtel’s Wireless Internet, you have thefreedom to access the Internet anytime, anywhere across India. Itenables Internet, Email, and Office applications with real-timesecure VPN access to corporate applications whilst on the move.Therefore following are the services provided by Airtel.

Fixed lineBlackberry Services

WIRELESS INTERNETAIRTEL T.V

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Other Services : STD / ISD, Airtel roaming, Airtel roaming lite, 32ksincere, easy roam east.

Airtel Prepaid: Airtel Prepaid, the Ready Cellular Card from Airtelcomes to you from Bharti Enterprises, India's leading integratedtelecom service provider. Going mobile with Airtel Prepaid is a newway of life. With a host of great features, also simple to use,Airtel Prepaid makes everything that you dreamt and believed,possible.

Pre activated STD/ISD without deposits or rentals: You can now enjoya pre-activated STD/ISD on your Airtel Prepaid. No more payingdeposits or having a minimum balance in your account to make anSTD/ISD call. Hassle-free calls are here to stay!

Instant Balance and Validity Enquiry: Your account balance isupdated on the screen of your handset at the end of each chargeablecall. You can also call 123 from your mobile phone and listen to thevoice announcement or simply dial *121#, press 'OK' or 'YES' buttonand your account balance will be displayed on the screen of yourhandset.

Recharge your Airtel Prepaid: Recharging is Easy. The calling valueon your card keeps reducing as you make calls or use any otherchargeable service. Choose the Airtel Prepaid Recharge Coupon that’sright for you, from a variety of tailor– made recharge coupons withdifferent denominations, which are available at a number of outletsacross your city.

Prepaid Roaming: Airtel Prepaid comes preactivated with 'NationalRoaming', so you stay connected no matter wherever you are. You canalso send or receive MMS, check your email and access other GPRSservices while roaming in India as you would in your own city. Whiletraveling abroad you can receive calls & send or receive SMS.

Call management Services: Call waiting, call hold, call diverts andCaller Line Identification – all with your Airtel prepaidconnection.

Voice Mail: When your handset is switched off, or you’re too busy toanswer the phone, Airtel Voicemail will answer your calls and recorda message. The best part is that there's no extra monthly cost for

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setting up Voicemail - you just pay for the phone call when you usethe service.

SMS (Short Messaging Service): Send messages quickly and easilyusing text, if it's too noisy to talk or you don't have much time.It's the way to share those interesting one-liners, importantreminders and rib-tickling jokes, with anyone, anytime, anywhere inthe world.

Airtel Live! : Make your mobile the most happening entertainmentdestination with Airtel Live! Airtel brings you the latest inentertainment and information services, right on your phone! Just Dial 56465, and name the service. For e.g. say ring tones todownload your favorite ringtones. You can also choose a variety ofcontent options like Live Cricket Commentary, latest National /International News, Movie Reviews or Stock Market Updates.

Access loads of fun content and exciting services like cricket,stocks, on your phone at the touch of a few buttons with AirtelLive! SIM based Services on your SIM card menu. To download newservices on your Airtel SIM, choose the "What's new" option underthe "Airtel services" menu.

To sum up, services that Airtel provide are: Airtel Pre-paid Airtel Post-paid Business Solutions Blackberry Wireless Handheld Value Added Services (VAS)

The different value added services provided by Airtel are- Instant Balance Enquiry 24Hr recharge Facility Caller line identification Call divert, Call wait & Call Hold Multimedia messaging service (MMS) Airtel Live Portal SMS based Information Service Hello Tunes & Ring Tones Voice Mail Service Easy Post-paid bill collection

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Gifting of Ring Tones & Hello Tunes GPRS

4.2 PRICE

AIRTEL has realised that the Indian market is price sensitive. Therefore it has come up with various innovative tariff schemes to takeneeds of different category of customers-Generally, the cellularservices are more expensive than the landline based telephoneservices. This is due to the reason that the operating companies arerequired to pay a fee to the government for using airtime.

Customer based pricing strategy. Flexible Pricing Mechanism. Controlled by TRAI.

Over the last few years, Airtel has provided its customers various facilities on the price front:

Total Cost Control: Customers can recharge their phones with adenomination of their choice.

Easy Recharge: Airtel was the pioneer of e-recharge facility beingprovided to customers.

24-hour Recharge via ATM: Allows recharge of Airtel Prepaid round-the-clock at nearest ATM.

Internet Recharge: Airtel prepaid can be recharged online. However,customer survey shows that the usability of Airtel’s online rechargeportal is poor as compared to that of its competitors.

Roaming: Airtel was the pioneer in reducing roaming tariffs.

CALL RATES & SCHEMES:

Scheme Monthly plan charges

Call charges Free call value

Power 999 Rs 999 Airtel calls-1p/secOther-1.2p/sec

999(Local+STD) +500(Airtel to Airtel local)

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Basic Value 349 Rs349 All calls at Re.1 and STD @1.50

300(Local+STD)

Power 699 Rs699 Airtel-1p/sec Other-1.2p/sec

649(Local+STD)

SMS: Rs 1/SMS(Local) and Rs 1.50/SMS(National)Other schemes:Package Free SMS ValidityRs11 100(local) 7daysRs 26 500(local or

national/day)10 days

Rs 51 500 local SMS 30 daysRs80 500 local or

national/day30 days

 Pricing strategies:

Price Skimming: Adopted by Airtel during the initial years when competition was limited and scope for expansion was also limited. The brand was projected to the elite and corporate as a symbol of leadership and excellence. The strategy has become irrelevant in recent times on the account of increased number of competitors in the market

Psychological Pricing: Most of the value recharge at smaller denominations i.e. Rs. 10/-, 30/-, 60/- etc .and tariff and broadband plans at Rs 99/-, 999/- etc. are aimed at getting emotional rather than rational appeals.

Perceived value pricing: Airtel has also priced it product on the customer’s perceived value. Perceived value is made of several elements such as the buyer’s image of product performance, the channel deliverables, the warranty quality, customer support, trust worthiness and esteem.

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4.3 PLACE

Airtel's aim is to help customers as quickly and as efficientlyas possible at first point of contact. The customers have the optionto email Airtel directly, useful telephone numbers, quick links tostore locations, payment centers and many other facilities. Themajor point of contact is the Airtel Relationship Centre where onecan get a new Airtel connection, subscribe to any value addedservices and get more information on them, pay bills or get a newhandset. Airtel provides its customers with the followingfacilities-

Extensive presence across 23 circles. Airtel customer care touch points–setting up convenient service

centers in marketplaces helps to increase visibility and improvesaccessibility to customers.

Distributors like grocery stores/ small outlets etc. Internationally offers telecom services in 18 countries across

Indian subcontinent and Africa. It includes three countries in Indian subcontinent: India, Sri

Lanka,  Bangladesh and fifteen African countries, namely:Burkina Faso, Chad, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Republic ofthe Congo, Gabon, Ghana, Kenya, Madagascar, Malawi, Niger,Nigeria, Sierra Leone, Tanzania, Uganda and Zambia.

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4.4 PROMOTION

Large scale print and video advertising. Big celebrities like SRK and Sachin are roped in to endorse the

product. In 2002 Airtel got its Signature tune from A.R. Rehman, this

signature tune is the most downloaded tune in India. Provides innovations such as Bollywood movie premiers, music

services such as ringtones, callertunes and many more.

PUBLICITY AND SPONSORED EVENTS-

Sponsored events Delhi half marathon Delhi golf tournament Sponsored TV shows Big Boss KBC Indian Idol

Airtel is known for being the first mobile phone company in the worldto outsource everything except marketing and sales. Airtel’s marketingteam’s emphasis lies in relating with the customer and his/her idols.Airtel has consciously made an effort to make the best in business itsbrand ambassadors. This is easily visible in the following cases:

Celebrity endorsers like Shah Rukh Khan, AR Rahman, and SachinTendulkar

Bharti Airtel signed a five-year deal with ESPN Star Sports tobecome the title sponsor of the Champions League Twenty20 crickettournament. The tournament itself is named "Airtel Champions LeagueTwenty20."

On May 9, 2009 Airtel signed a major deal with Manchester UnitedFootball Club. As a result of the deal, Airtel gets the rights tobroadcast the matches played by the team to its customers.

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Sponsoring the Champions League is also a conscious effort ofrelating with the champion/best.

Extensive print and video advertising. Tie up with leading handset manufacturers like Nokia, Samsung and

HTC to provide Airtel connections as a part of the package. Sponsoring socially relevant community programs across country, for

example, organizing painting competitions for children, educationalfacilities for marginalized children.

Airtel’s advertisements are always very distinct and present thebrand as very energetic, youthful and essential. Airtel came upwith many ad-specific taglines like 'Kabhi bhi, Kahin bhi', 'TouchTomorrow' and the current tagline 'Express Yourself'. They capturethe importance of Airtel in consumers' lives.

4.5 PEOPLE Airtel provide 24*7 services to their customers. The people who are handling the complaints are well educated andquite cooperative while solving the problems.

Total Employees 35616(Bharti Airtel consolidated) as per Q3 12. Dedicated and passionate workforce. One of the best customer support. Have won 2nd Best employer award in 2004. Top executives are majorly young people.

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4.6 PROCESS

It is very easy to get a connection of AIRTEL services. Card Activation is just done within 24 hours. Customers just need to buy a sim card from any authorized outlet.

In case of payment of monthly mobile bills, it can be paid throughan authorized outlet or through internet by using debit as well as credit card.

Process for services is very easy and customer can avail it very easily.

121 is the customer support no. which can be dialed from anywhere in India.

4.7 PHYSICAL ENVIRONMENT

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In telecom business their exclusive outlets and telecom towers areconsidered as their physical evidence.

Airtel is very good in both the things, wide coverage of towersgive easy connectivity to the customers.

Their outlets are well decorated and attractive to the people.Their outlets are available at almost all the busiest places of thecountry.

5.PORTER’s FIVE FORCES ANALYSIS

Threat from CompetitionWireless Market- Top 4 players garnering 75% market share

Customer bargaining power Lack of differentiation among service providers Cut throat competition Low switching costs Attractive schemes for new connection

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Availability of all operators everywhere Difficulty to differentiate brands Number portability will have negative impact

Supplier Bargaining Power

Threat of Substitutes Landline CDMA World Phone VOIP- Skype, Google Talk, Yahoo Messenger E-mail and Social Networking sites

Threat from New Entrant1.High Because

Entry through 3G New entrants are ready to enter with huge capital investment considering attractiveness of the market.

Increase of FDI to 76% bringing competition from foreign players

2.Low Because

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Rapidly changing technology Infrastructure setup cost is high Spectrum availability and regulatory issues Huge license fees to be paid upfront and high gestation period

6.SWOT ANALYSIS

Strengths Market leader Recognized globally Strong brand Image Strong Financials PAN India presence

Weaknesses Outsourcing of core system Network coverage Untapped rural market

Opportunities Low broadband penetration Telephony Huge Market Untapped rural market

Threats Falling ARPU (Average Revenue per user) Intense competition and shortage of bandwidth New players coming in India Uncertain economic condition

7.REFERENCES

Principles of Marketing by Philip Kotler, Gary Armstrong, PrafullaY. Agnihotri, Ehsan Ul Haque.

http://www.airtel.in/

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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bharti_Airtel/

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