Rural Mobile Marketing

Prepared by:
Nilesh Kumar Soni
MBA 2nd sem ‘A’

1 nilesh.k.sony@gmail.com
 Indian Telecom - Scenario
India – Fastest growing market in World
– more than 242 mn subscribers
4th largest mobile market growing at 8
mn Sub/month
A one per cent increase in rural
connectivity can generate 0.5 per cent
economic growth.
Paying highest taxes and regulatory
charges; Variable License fee, spectrum
fee etc. Rs. 145 billion per annum.
rural subscribers formed a formidable
block of 21.31% or over one-fifth of the
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total mobile user base in India
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Next 250 mn users who will go mobile,
 Mobile subscriber base in India

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 Rural-Urban divide
Rural Urban
Mobile Phones 0.01 75.685
Fixed lines 13.9 36.988
Private Operator 0.01% 53.54
Share
PCO’s Approx 20 Lakh Approx 35 Lakhs
Total no. of phones Approx 14 mn Approx 112 mn
Teledensity Approx 2% Approx 31%
Teledensity Targets 15% (by 2007) 43%

Source: Gupta Rahul. (2006). Rural India Calling. Voice and

Data. June.

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 Why mobile penetration is slow
in india?
 Although mobile appears like a easy thing to
use, for most of rural Indians it is a tough nut
to crack (training is needed)
 keypads are very uncomfortable (keypad
should have common standards and language
one is much comfortable to educated people)
 Good plan, in turn selecting a service provider,
is virtually impossible to decide (easy plans are
needed)
 Electricity outages/load shedding makes it a
relatively less useful one (good battery power
is needed)
 Signal unavailability (towers are needed)
 Affordability of the service (keep the plans
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using the data the way they use it)
 Telecom giant Bharti Airtel is the flagship
company of Bharti Enterprises.
Airtel comes to you from Bharti Airtel
Limited, India’s largest integrated and the
first private telecom services provider with
a footprint in all the 23 telecom circles.
The businesses at Bharti Airtel have been
structured into three individual strategic
business units (SBU’s) –
 Mobile Services,
Airtel Telemedia Services
 Enterprise Services.
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 Market Share in GSM

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 Be Global Act Rural…….
Airtel has devised business plans for
growth in the rural areas as it aims to
increase its reach to majority of the
villages. Presently it covers three lakh
villages out of six lakh villages.  
 Sanjay Kapoor, joint president, mobility,
Bharti Airtel, agrees with the trend and
says his company had enjoyed a growth of
166 per cent in June of 2005-06 in circle C
towns, as compared to a growth of 65 per
cent in metros.
Infrastructure development (network
connectivity) in rural areas Airtel is
8 investing $1.5 billion, for chhattisgarh Rs.
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 Role of Distribution in
Services
Marketing channels serve the following:
2.Make the product or service available to
the customers in their geographic vicinity.
3.Make the service more widely available
without greater business capital.
4.Develop and put into effect promotional
efforts
5.Gather data about the current and potential
customers, competitors and other
important players who shape the market
place.
6.Provide local knowledge for dealing
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effectively with customers in line with local
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expectations and practices.
 Retailer: as a route to the
rural Market
The task before the marketer are:
To ensure that the product reaches the rural
retail markets to stock
To motivate the retailer in rural markets to
stock a product or a brand
Important influences on distribution:
Purchase behavior of consumers
Characteristics of retailers and
Behavior of the channel.

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 Objective of the Project
“A comprehensive study of Scope and
Potential of Tele-Retail solutions in rural
market of Durg District with special
reference to Airtel” has following
objectives:
To study and measure the potential of
mobile service market in rural areas of
Durg district.
To measure and spread of the awareness
about the brand Airtel.
Approaching existing and new customers
and providing them services by appointing
new retailers for Airtel.
Finding new retail solutions with respect to
11 meeting the
nilesh.k.sony@gmail.com requirements of rural
customers.
 Sample Design:
Universe- Rural area of Durg district.
Sample unit- shop owners in rural areas of
Durg district
Sampling frame- Customer’s identification
form (for existing mobile
customers) and census 2001 for non
customers.
Sample size- 300
Sampling technique- direct interview
method
Method of data collection-
Primary data will be collected through a
questionnaire which is mixture of
dichotomous & multiple choice answers.
12 Provision for indications of uncertainty will be
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made because rural people may not be able
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 Issues in Rural Marketing:
Availability the first A is about making the
product reach the consumers and in the
case of telecom services studies have
shown this to be the biggest barrier to be
overcome .
Acceptability issues would include issues
needed to be addressed to improve the
willingness to consume, distribute or sell a
product.

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 Continued:
Affordability issues in telecom would
include two sets of issues
 the first being a fixed cost and an initial
barrier for a villager to start with the service
needs to be brought down and many
companies including the market leader Nokia
are working on low cost handsets which could
be of use in rural areas.
 The second component of recharge also
needs to be tailored according to the needs
of rural masses.
The last A, Awareness is linked to the
issues of promotion of telecom services in
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rural areas.
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 Findings:
82% of the respondent said, there is no
retailer of Airtel in their village. So
appointment of new retailers is necessary.
Life time validity SIM is more popular than
normal SIM.
 Small amount top-up
coupons(Rs.10,24,55) are more popular.
Average monthly usage is at the lower side.
Airtel have 27% market share in rural area
of Durg district
Main Reason for dissatisfaction is due to
network problem.
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16 33% respondent(mobile users+non users)
 Suggestations:
Appointment of the new retailers where
their own store transactions are more.
Small recharge coupons should be in
sufficient quantity in the retail shelf.
The promotion of the services also needs to
be adapted to the village environment; the
language and means of communication
used should be in the local language.
Bundle offers (handset+sim) should be
promoted to lessen the affordability issue.
Low cost handset from Airtel should be
available on the retail stores.
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