Airtel positioning and repositioning a case study

Harsh,mayank atul

According to bharti:
Airtel was born free, a force unleashed into the market with a relentless and unwavering determination to succeed. A spirit charged

with energy, creativity and a team driven to seize the day with an ambition to become the most globally admired telecom service.

Initial branding
In the initial days due to high tariff rates cellular players had to

impose high call charges on their customers and the handsets were costly. Naturally, they targeted the elite, up market professionals and entrepreneurs as customers . Airtelwas positioned as an aspirationaland lifestyle brand . It was pitched not merely as a mobile service, but as something that gave consumer a badge value. The Brand was developed to connote leadership in network, innovations, offerings and services. The taglines like "Airtelcelebrates the spirit of leadership" and "The first choice of the corporate leaders" emphasized that stance. The Leadership campaign was reportedly successful and resulted in a marginal improvement in Airtel performance.

Leadership to Touch Tomorrow

Conti..
In early 2000 it was observed through market surveys

that the concept of leadership was undergoing a transformation resulting in it being a moderate success. Hence Bharti decided to humanize the brand Airtel to gain competitive advantage. In august 2000 Bharti launched its new Touch Tomorrow campaign which aimed at strengthening its relationship with its customers and make the brand softer to cater a wide variety of people across the society. The Company adopted a three-tier brand architecture to expanded its Touch Point network.

 The focus now was on the endless possibilities of technology to make life good and advertising became two-pronged: a

product-driven communication that showcased new offerings like the Magic prepaid card, and an emotional communication that showed younger people

Touch tomorrow to LIVE EVERY MOMEMT

Airtel logo

Meaning behind the logo

Airtel logo is a strong,contempory, a confident symbol of a brand that is always ahead of the rest , always In-touch and on customers side.
It incorporates two solid, red rectangular forms whose counter-form creates an open doorway. The title case lettering with its capital A reinforces our leadership position. The red dot cues in our focus on innovation.

 In 2002, Airtel signed on music composer A R Rahman and changed its tune to "Live every moment": Rahman's signature tune for Airtel

is, perhaps, the most downloaded ringtone in India. But that was just part of the ongoing communication.
Live every moment

Live Every Moment to Express Yourself

 The following year Airtel adopted the "Express yourself" positioning, which is also its current tagline. Now, the emotional angle was predominant and stark, black and white imagery to stand out in what was becoming a highly

commoditised, crowded market

Express Yourself

Taglines of brands
Power to keep in touch (1995)
Elite and premium brand

Touch tomorrow (1999)

With NTP99 ,prices could be dropped,started looking from regional to pan india position

Live every moment (2002)

To catch some emotions and feelings,brand of the masses

Express yourself (2003-2009)

To strengthen the emotional connect of customers,wanted a fresh and contemporary idea that built a brand their customers could identify with

To justify taglines tv ad campaigns were launched

 Youth icons like Shahrukh khan and Sachin were brought in as brand ambassadors to attract youngsters

Umbrella branding

Co-branding