IIPM

INTERNATIONAL INSTITUTE OF
PLANNING & MANAGMENT

PROJECT REPORT
BHARTI AIRTEL
(INDIA)

Submitted To:
Prof. SUNIL KUMAR

Submitted By:
Ajeet Jain
Samit Hemnaney
Sahil Seth
Sudhish Nambiar
 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

WE hereby take this opportunity to thank INTERNATIONAL

INSTITUTE OF PLANNING & MANAGEMENT (PUNE)
me an opportunity to do a research project on BHARTI
AIRTEL.

I express my sincere gratitude to my mentor and guide,

MR.SUNIL KUMAR who always provided me with necessary
inputs, guidance and direction to carry out this project.

Last but not the least, my million thanks to all the people whom I
have conversed with and taken inputs from, to complete this
project.
 UNDERTAKING

I hereby declare that the Project work entitled_______________________________

________________________________________________ submitted by me for the partial

fulfillment of the Post Graduate Diploma in Business Management Program to

INTERNATIONAL INSTITUTE OF PLANNING & MANAGEMENT (PUNE) is my own

original work and has not been submitted earlier. I also declare that no chapter of this manuscript

in whole or in part is lifted and incorporated in this report from any earlier / other work done by

me or others.

Place :

Date : Signature of Student

Name of Student : _____________________________

Address : _____________________________

______________________________________
 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

Mobile penetration is currently exploding in India and Bharti Airtel has been
riding the crest of the huge mobile industry wave that has been formed. Vast
market opportunities have now opened up the playing field in Indian telecom
market and also have made it much more competitive. In this type of competitive
environment it will be interesting to find out how AIRTEL advertisements have
helped it to retain its number one position.

The objective of the study is to find out how the different advertisements of
AIRTEL are impacting the viewers to use AIRTEL and what type of Media
startegies AIRTEL adopted to make itself the most successful company in India in
the last decade.

INTRODUCTION
Airtel is one of India’s leading providers of telecommunication services with a nationwide
presence in all the 23 licensed jurisdictions (also known as Telecom Circles). Airtel served an
aggregate of 105 million customers as of July 2009; of who 101,650,733 subscribe to our GSM
services and 2,619,461 use our Telemedia Services either for voice and/or broadband access
delivered through DSL. Airtel is the largest wireless service provider in the country, based on the
number of subscribers as of July 2009. Airtel also offer an integrated suite of telecom solutions
to enterprise customers, in addition to providing long distance connectivity both nationally and
internationally. Airtel have recently forayed into media by launching its DTH and IPTV
Services. All these services are rendered under a unified brand “Airtel”. The company also
deploys, owns and manages passive infrastructure pertaining to telecom operations under its
subsidiary Bharti Infratel Limited. Bharti Infratel owns 42% of Indus Towers Limited. Bharti
Infratel and Indus Towers are the two top providers of passive infrastructure services in
India.

Successful businesses have extensive knowledge about their customers and competitors.
Getting accurate and specific information about your customers and competitors is a critical first
step in market investigation and development of a marketing plan. Accurate market assessment
and development of an effective plan is critical to the success of both new and existing
businesses. The market impacts and directs all aspects of the company's activities and ultimately
will lead to success or failure of the business.

In developing a market plan, your primary functions are to understand the needs and desires of
your customer select or develop a product or service that will meet customer needs, develop
promotional material that will make the customer aware, and ensure product or service delivery.
 OBJECTIVE OF THE STUDY

The objective of the study is to find out:

• The organizational & operational structure of BHARTI AIRTEL.

• Overall review of Indian Telecom Sector

• What are the different Strategies Used by Bharti Airtel to Fight competition

• Analysis of its financial performance with that of its competitors.

• Analysis of its Advertising strategies & that of its competitors.

Theoretical overview

Incorporated on July 7, 1995, bharti AIRTEL is a division of Bharti enterprises. The

businesses of Bharti Airtel are structured into two main strategic groups
 • Mobility
• Infotel
The mobility business provides gsm mobile services in all 23 telecom circles in india.while
infotel business group provides telephone services and internet access over dsl in 15 circles. The
company complements its mobile, broadband and telephone services with national and
international long distance services. The company also has a submarine cable landing station at
Chennai which connects the submarine cable connecting Chennai with Singapore.
Bharti tele-ventures provides end to end data and enterprise services to corporate customers by
leveraging its nationwide fiber-optic backbone, last mile connectivity in fixed line and mobile
circles.VSATs,ISP and international bandwidth access through the gateways and landing station.
All of Bharti-ventures services are provided under airtel.in 2008; bharti Airtel attained its 90
million customer mark. The equity shares of Airtel are listed on the national stock exchange and
Bombay stock exchange.
Sunil Bharti mittal, the founder chairman of Bharti enterprises (who owns Airtel) is today the
most celebrated face of the telecom sector in india.He symbolizes the adage that success comes
to those who dream big and work assiduously to deliver it. Sunil Bharti mittal began his journey
manufacturing spare parts for bicycles in late 1970s.his strong entrepreneurial instincts gave him
a unique flair for sensing new business opportunities. In the early years, bharti established itself
as a supplier of basic telecom equipment. His true calling came in the mid 1990s when the
government opened up the sector and allowed private players to provide telecom services.
Bharti enterprises accepted every opportunity provided by this new policy to evolve into India’s
largest telecommunications company and one of the India’s most respected brands. Airtel was
launched in 1995 in delhi.As the Airtel network expanded to several parts of India; the brand
came to symbolize the very essence of mobile services. Since then, Airtel has established itself
across India in most of the states covering a population of over 600 million people. Airtel will
soon cover the entire country through a process of acquisitions and green field projects. With a
presence in over 2,000 towns, Airtel today has the largest network capacity in the country.
In the last nine years Airtel has achieved many firsts and unique records: it was the first to
launch nationwide roaming operations, it was the first to cross the one million and the five
million customer marks. It was also the first to launch services overseas. There are other 'firsts'
credited to Airtel - many of them in the area of innovative products and services. Today, Airtel
innovates in almost everything that it presents to the market. An excellent example is Easy
Charge - India's first paperless electronic recharging facility for prepaid customers. As evidence
of its fine record, Airtel has also been conferred with numerous awards. It won the prestigious
Techies Award for 'being the best cellular services provider' for four consecutive years between
1997 and 2000 - a record that is still unmatched. And in 2003, it received the Voice & Data

Award for being 'India's largest cellular service provider', amongst others. Bharti Airtel has

enjoyed an excellent run ever since the telecom sector opened. It has managed to hold on to its
leadership position in spite of the presence of other players with deep pockets – Ambani’s,
Tata’s, Birla’s and Vodafone. Has coped well with regulatory changes. It continues to attract and
delight customers.it has also started making its presence felt worldwide also. Recently AIRTEL
has become the third largest telecom player in the world.
Bharti Enterprises has successfully focused its strategy on telecom while straddling diverse fields
of business. From the creation of 'Airtel', one of India's finest brands, to becoming the largest
manufacturer and exporter of world class telecom terminals under its 'Beetel' brand, Bharti has
created a significant position for itself in the global telecommunications sector.

Board of Directors

The Board of Directors of the Company has an optimum mix of Executive and Non-Executive
Directors, which consists of three Executive and fifteen Non-Executive Directors.
The Chairman and Managing Director, Mr. Sunil Bharti Mittal, is an Executive Director and the
number of Independent Directors on the Board is 50% of the total Board strength. The
independence of a Director is determined on the basis that such director does not have any
material pecuniary relationship with the Company, its promoters or its management, which may
affect the independence of the judgment of a Director.
The Board members possess requisite skills, experience and expertise required to take decisions,
which are in the best interest of the Company. The composition of the Board is as under:
➢ Sunil Bharti Mittal
➢ Rajan Bharti Mittal
➢ Akhil Gupta
➢ Rakesh Bharti Mittal
➢ Chua Sock Koong
➢ N. Kumar
➢ Kurt Hellstorm
➢ Donald Cameron
➢ Paul O’Sullivan
➢ Professor V.S. Raju
➢ Pulak Chandan Prasad
➢ Bashir Abdullah Currimjee
➢ Gavin Darby
➢ Syeda Imam
➢ Ajay Lal
➢ York Chye Chang
➢ Paul Donovan
➢ Arun Bharat Ram

Organization Structure
OPERATIONAL STRUCTURE
 Bharti Airtel Products & Services

Bharti Airtel Ltd formerly known as (Bharti Tele-Ventures Ltd), incorporated in 7th
July, 1995 is part of Bharti Enterprises and is India’s Leading provider of Telecom
Services. Bharti Airtel has been structured into 3 individual SBU’s.
 PRODUCTS
The Company is a part of Bharti Enterprises, and is India's leading provider of
telecommunications services. The businesses at Bharti Airtel have been structured into three
individual strategic business units (SBU's) - mobile services, broadband & telephone services
(B&T) & enterprise services. The mobile services group provides GSM mobile services across
India in 23 telecom circles, while the B&T business group provides broadband & telephone
services in 90 cities. The Enterprise services group has two sub-units - carriers (long distance
services) and services to corporate. All these services are provided under the Airtel brand. Its
include
 Voice Services
Mobile Services
Satellite Services
Managed Data & Internet Services
Managed e-Business Services

Voice Services
Bharti Airtel became the first private fixed-line service provider in India. It is now promoted
under the Airtel brand. Recently, the Government opened the fixed-line industry to unlimited
competition. Airtel has subsequently started providing fixed- line services in the four circles of
Delhi, Haryana, Madhya Pradesh, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu & UP (West). Airtel Enterprise
Services believes that these circles have high telecommunications potential,
especially for carrying Voice & Data traffic. These circles were strategically selected so as to
provide synergies with Airtel's long distance network and Airtel's extensive mobile network.
Airtel Enterprise Services, India's premium telecommunication service, brings to you a whole
new experience in telephony. From integrated telephone services for Enterprises and small
business enterprises to user-friendly plans for Broadband Internet Services (DSL), we
bring innovative, cost-effective, comprehensive and multi-product solutions to cater to all your
telecom and data needs.

Mobile Services

Airtel's mobile footprint extends across the country in 21 telecom circles. It's service
standards compare with the very best in the world. In fact, that’s how Bharti has managed
to win the trust of millions of customers and makes it one of the top 5 operators in the world, in
terms of service and subscriber base. The company has several Firsts to its credit:
• The First to launch full roaming service on pre-paid in the country.
• The First to launch 32K SIM cards.
• The First in Asia to deploy the multi band feature in a wireless network for
Efficient usage of spectrum.
 • The First to deploy Voice Quality Enhancers to improve voice quality and
Acoustics.
• The First telecom company in the world to receive the ISO 9001:2000
Certification from British Standards Institute

Satellite Services
Airtel Enterprise Services provides you connectivity where ever you take your
Business. Satellite Services bring you the benefits of access in remote
Locations. Airtel Enterprise Services is a leading provider of broadband IP
Satellite services and DAMA/PAMA services in India.

Managed data & internet services

Airtel enterprises services bring a comprehensive suite of data technologies. So Airtel is able to
support all types of networks and ensure the customers can manage their network to the future
seamlessly. These services include: leased lines, customized solutions, metro Ethernet.

Managed e-business services

Airtel enterprise services offer an internationally benchmarked, carrier class hosting, storage and
business continuity services. A huge range of services help the customers run their business the
way they want. All this is possible because of world class high

Bharti Airtel -present positioning in the world and India

 AIRTEL GROWTH STRATEGY
MANTRA: Focus on Core Competencies and outsource the rest!
Airtel has partnered with leading players in telecommunication sector across the globe. It has
managed to work with the best of domain specialists globally and emerge as a world class entity.
Partnerships include operational contracts with marquee vendors and strategic investors ranging
from private equity investors to global telecom giants. Following are the major partnerships of
AIRTEL:

• Warburg Pincus – a celebrated PE investor held a stake for a substantial period of

time and was instrumental in providing Airtel support in its early stages.

• Vodafone was a strategic investor in Airtel. The investment made by Vodafone in

BHARTI is one of the largest investments made in Indian telecom sector.

• Temasek – the Singapore based investor holds a considerable stake in it.

• Ericsson was given the mandate to provide, manage and maintain the equipment as
well as provide quality assurance in Airtel‘s then 13 mobile circles.

• IBM was given the mandate to handle the back office requirements of Airtel’s
presence in India

• The company has a strategic alliance with Singtel.The investment made by SingTel is
one of the largest investment made in the world outside Singapore.

• In the case of broadband and telephone services and enterprise services, equipment
suppliers include Siemens, Nortal and corning.

• The call centre operations for the mobile services have been outsourced to IBM
Daksh, Mphasis and Hinduja TMT.

ACHIEVEMENTS
 • First to launch Cellular service on November 1995.
• First operator to revolutionaries the concept of retailing with the
inauguration of Airtel Connect (exclusive showrooms) in 1995.
• First to introduce push button phone in India.
• First to expand its network with the installation for second mobile switching
center in April, 1997 and the first to introduce the Intelligent Network
Platform. First to provide Roaming to its subscribers by forming an
association called World 1 Network.
• First to provide roaming facility in USA. Enjoy the mobile roaming across
38 partner networks & above 700 cities Moreover roam across international
destinations in 119 countries including USA, Canada, and UK etc with 284
partner networks.

• It is also the first company to export its products to the USA.

Bharti’s Mission
• To be globally admired for telecom services that delight customers.

We will meet global standards for telecom services that delight customers through:

• Customer Service Focus

• Empowered Employees
• Cost Efficiency
• Unified Messaging Solutions
 • Innovative products and services
• Error- free service delivery

Bharti’s Vision
BY 2010 AIRTEL WILL BE THE MOST:

• ADMIRED BRAND IN INDIA.

• LOVED BY MORE CUSTOMERS.
• TARGETED BY TOP TALENT.
• BENCHMARKED BY MORE BUSINESS.

Core Values

• Empowering People - to do their best

• Being Flexible - to adapt to the changing environment and evolving customer needs
• Making it Happen - by striving to change the status quo, innovate and energize new ideas with
a strong passion and entrepreneurial spirit
• Openness and transparency - with an innate desire to do good
• Creating Positive Impact – with a desire to create a meaningful difference in society.

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.
 Financial Analysis

SEGMENT WISE CONTRIBUTION OF REVENUE

W
MARKET SHARE

SUBSCRIBER BASE

Largenumber
 PROMOTIONAL STRATEGY

After the liberalization of the Indian Telecom Sector in 1994, the Indian cellular market
witnessed a surge in cellular services. By 2005, there were a total of 12 players in the market
with the five major players being Bharti Tele-Ventures Limited (Bharti), Bharat Sanchar Nigam
Limited (BSNL), Hutchinson-Essar limited (Hutch), Idea Cellular limited (Idea) and Reliance
India Mobile (RIM) (Refer Exhibit I).

All the players except RIM offered services based on the Global System for Mobile (GSM)
technology. RIM provided services based on Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA)
technology as well as GSM.

As competition in the telecom arena intensified, BHARTI AIRTEL took new initiatives to woo
customers. Prominent among these were - celebrity endorsements, loyalty rewards, discount
coupons, business solutions and talk time schemes. AIRTEL has used most number of celebrities
for advertisements. The list includes-Sachin, Shahrukh, Rehmaan, Saif Ali Khan, Kareena
Kapoor, Zaheer Khan Etc.The most important consumer segments in the cellular industry were
the youth segment and the business class segment. The youth segment was the largest and fastest
growing segment and was therefore targeted most heavily by cellular service provider.

Bharti Tele-Ventures adopted celebrity endorsement as its chief promotional strategy. By 2004 it
emerged the unprecedented leader commanding the largest market share in the cellular service
market. Hutch implemented the celebrity endorsement strategy partially, relying primarily on its
creative advertising for the promotion of its brand. BSNL, on the other hand, attracted the
consumer through its low cost schemes. Being a state owned player, BSNL could cover rural
areas, and this helped it increase its subscriber base. Reliance was another player that cashed on
its innovative promotional strategies, which included celebrity endorsements and attractive talk
time schemes. Idea relied heavily on its creative media advertising sans celebrities.
 Airtel Positioning

Initial Positioning
• 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
. Airtel was positioned as an aspiration land lifestyle brand .

• The taglines like "Airtel celebrates 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.
 TIME LINE
➢ 1995: BSNL, BPL, Hutch-Max touch AirTel enters

“Power to keep in touch”

• Positioned in premium category aimed at elite class of society
• Convey power of instant communication
• Perception of aspirational and lifestyle brand
• Airtel decided that the brand should always connote leadership–be it in network,
innovations, offerings, services
• Sponsored games like Golf

➢ 2000: TRAI introduces revenue sharing; drop in tariffs AirTel targets new markets

“Touch tomorrow”
• New campaign launched to facilitate entry into new markets
• Started to capture mass market
• A new logo for Airtel- Red , black and white colors with ‘Airtel’ enwrapped in an
eclipse.
Logo indicated core value of the brand: leadership, performance and dynamism
 ➢ 2002: Reliance targets lower income group, AirTel launches Prepaid

“Live every moment”

• Launched to capture the imagination of the customer
• Projects a persons desire to spontaneously communicate through words, emotions, sights,
sounds, thoughts and actions over boundaries, distances and geographies

➢ 2003: Incoming free, AirTel launches “Express Yourself” campaign to promote

VAS services

“Express Yourself”
• In 2003, Airtel repositioned its brand with “Express yourself” campaign
• Changed its logo to give more energetic and younger look
• Highlight capability of Airtel’s performance and network coverage
• Launched in regional language
• Youth icons like Shahrukh khan and Sachin were brought in as brand ambassadors to
attract youngsters

Message Strategy

SIGNIFICANCE OF EACH TAGLINE

‘Power to keep in Touch’

YEAR- 1995-1998
SIGNIFICANCE-
• The tag line 'Power to keep in Touch' used in the brand promise was designed to make
the user feel 'in control…powerful'
• Positioned in premium category aimed at elite class of society.
• Perception of aspirational and lifestyle brand
REASON FOR CHANGE-
• Now, cellular service operators could drop their prices and target new customer
segments.
• As the category developed with prices going down sharply, Airtel began talking to a
wider spectrum of potential users. This gives the birth to the new Tagline.
‘Touch tomorrow’
 YEAR- 1999-2001
SIGNIFICANCE–
• Airtel started talking to new segments by positively positioning and establishing itself as
a brand that improved the quality of life.
• New look and the feel of the brand tagline indicated the core values of the brand i.e.
leadership, performance and dynamism.
REASON FOR CHANGE-
• Airtel started to look from a regional level to pan India position
• Rediffussion DY&R, which is the ad agency that took charge of revamping Airtel's brand
image thought, To become a Indian leader, Airtel need to change its tagline .

'Live Every Moment'

YEAR– 2002-2003
SIGNIFICANCE—
• This was the first time A R Rehman had agreed to work for any brand, anywhere in the
world. The music from the commercial became the most downloaded ring tone in the
history of telecommunications.
• Tagline denotes that each and every person in India live every moment (emotions,
feelings etc.) of the life with Airtel.
REASONS FOR CHANGE–
• Rediffussion DY&R, which is the ad agency that took charge of revamping Airtel's brand
image again changed the tagline to give better tagline to Airtel which catches some
emotional appeal.

‘Express yourself’
YEAR- 2003…….
SIGNIFICANCE—
• 'Express yourself' was successfully launched taking the ownership of the entire space of
communication and strengthening the emotional bond Airtel enjoys with its customers
• The masterminds behind the 'Express Yourself' campaign are the joint vice-presidents:
Mr. Prashant Godbole and Zarwan Patel.
• Airtel is a market leader in the cellular network and they wanted a very fresh and
contemporary idea to build a brand image which their customers could identify"
 SIGNATURE TUNE
WHY AIRTEL NOT SWITCHED TO ANY OTHER TUNE APART FROM A. R
REHMAN?

This tune used for BRAND RECALLABILITY.

➢ It was the most popular tune among the people.
➢ People hear this tune and immediately associate it with the brand.
➢ It was most downloaded ringtone in India.

NOW WE ARE LOOKING FORWARD TO COME UP WITH ANOTHER TUNE…MAY BE

IN 2009.

JINGLES & TAGLINES OF THE BRAND

“Nigahhein nigahon se mila kar to dekho, Naye logo se rishta banakar to
dekho…..”
• With this the focus have shifted to vibrating the innermost core of a viewer’s heart.The ad is
made up of five snippets, each one displaying the importance of reaching out to others.
• In this Ad, there is the range of situations/relationships covered, from two little girls in the first
one to an aged couple in the next one to the young lovers and then to student-teacher pair.
Best part about the ad is that it never shows anyone using a cellphone !!

This is definitely one of the best ads of recent times. It certainly makes you believe in the line –
“Aasman simat jaayega tumhare aaghosh mein, chahat ki baahen phaila kar
tho dekho ’’

“AISI AZADI AUR KAHAN”

Through this slogan Airtel wants to convey the message to the customers that
“There is no other telecom operator other than Airtel, who gives premium services”

To justify this, Airtel launched 2 campaigns-

SAY HELLO CAMPAIGN

MAGIC HAI TO MUMKIN HAI.

“BARRIERS BREAK WHEN PEOPLE TALK”

“KUCH BANDHAN ATOOT HOTE HAIN”

BRAND LOGO
 MEANING BEHINED AIRTEL LOGO

The Airtel logo is a strong, contemporary and confident symbol for a brand that is
always ahead of the rest.

• The Airtel Image style- It incorporates two solid, red rectangular forms whose
counter form creates an open doorway.
• The Airtel Typographical style- The title case lettering with its capital 'A' was
deliberately chosen to reinforce the brand's leadership position. The red dot on the
letterform 'I' cues Airtel's focus on innovation.. The words 'Express Yourself' are very
much part of the brand identity.
• The Airtel Colour Palette- The lettering is grey so that the pure black of Airtel is
visually unharmed.

BRAND COLOUR

COMBINATION OF RED AND BLACK

• The idea was just to refresh the brand and to give it a a classic and stylish look.

○ Changed COLOUR to give more energetic and younger look.

○ Indicated the core values of the brand were leadership, performance, enthusiam and
dynamism.

Media Strategy
• Airtel Uses Social Media Marketing Strategy for putting across its message to its
customers.

• Built around a very strong social object like :

– Lifestyle
– Passion
– Cause
– Patriotism
– Family Bonding.
Creating Perception & Value Delivery

Creating Perception & Delivering Value as per Gap Analysis.

MEDIA Types & Vehicles

• Airtel Uses 360` degree of media advertising using all types of

medium like:

• Television
• Print
• Radio
• Billboards
• Internet
• Others

AIRTEL ADVERTISEMENT & ITS PERFORMANCE:-

• Airtel basically uses two appeal to connect to the users

– Emotional
– Humorous

• Total advertising budget of Airtel is Rs.150 cr. for the year 2009.
The Ad diagnostics score helps to understand how far the Ad has been able to break the clutter
Bharti Airtel Ltd’, ‘Vodafone Essar Ltd’ and ‘Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd’ the Top 3 key players
of ‘Telecommunication Services’ together accounted for 65% share on TV during Q1 ‘09.
 Billboards
• Bharti Airtel, telecom partner of Kaun Banega Crorepati, also happens to be endorsed by
the anchor of the show, Shah Rukh Khan (SRK). Portland India, the Out-of-Home
partner of Bharti Airtel, has put up a cutout of SRK holding a rotating ‘crorepati’ coin in
one hand and an Airtel mobile in the other.

• The creative is a two-sided display catering to morning and evening traffic which is on
display from January 25, 2007. The idea behind this creative was to leverage the fact that
host SRK is also brand ambassador for Airtel. The creative has also been adapted on
hoardings with some modifications as part of the Airtel-KBC campaign.

Word of Mouth

INTERNET ADVERTISING
Massive advertising through :-
• Google AdSense
• BidVertisers
• Sponsor online games at Zapak.com

PUBLICITY AND EVENTS

 Other Media Vehicles

Competitors Analysis
 SHARE PRICE (IN RS)

MARKET CAPITALIZATION (IN RS. CR.)

SALES TURNOVER RATIO (IN RS. CR.)

 NET PROFIT (IN RS. CR.)

VODAFONE

• Vodafone’s entry in Indian telecom market posed 1st real threat to BAL’s supremacy.
• Vodafone planned to invest $ 2 billion to establish and introduce new 3G technologies.
• Vodafone’s application of allocation of spectrum to expand from 16 to 23 telecom
circles.
Vodafone entry increased competition and better services to customer.

RELIANCE AND TATA

• GoI’s approval to companies to provide both GSM & CDMA.
• Entry of new players like Reliance and Tata in GSM.
• New player expected to break oligopoly on market.
• Due to competition slashing down of tariff rates which were already lowest in world.
• BAL did not have plans to start CDMA.
• GoI plan to allow more players to enter to reduce rates.
• BSNL, Reliance, Tata are players in both GSM & CDMA.
• Steady fall in BAL’s ARPU.

Competitors positioning V/s Airtel

VODAFONE

“POWER TO YOU”

• Vodafone tries to use diff erention strategy compared to its competitor the focus is to
position itself a different type of brand compared to its competitors.
• Theses we can see through its ads & message it tries to give through them.
• Its tagline “POWER TO YOU” nothing but giving customer the choice to try out
different services it offer according to their TASTE & LIKING.\

RELIANCE
 “SIMPLY RELIANCE”

• Reliance position itself as low cost operator providing high quality at low prices.
• The focus is to generate more volume & less profit.
• Through its ads it always tries to tell about its large network cover, better sound quality
& lower tariffs plan.
• The focus is to make itself as a peoples brand & reach out to as many customers as
possible.
IDEA

“An !DEA CAN CHANGE YOUR LIFE”

• The focus is come up with new offerings time & again for its customer through its ads &
services.
• It keep on inventing so the it is able to offer new products & services time & again.
• Its tagline “An !DEA CAN CHANGE YOUR LIFE” that it requires a just small
idea to change your & peoples life.
• The ads of idea are more humorous in nature & also many a times tries to give some kind
of a social message through it.

AIRCEL
 • Aircel tries to promote itself as a brand which offers its customer the best value added services
compare to its customer.
• The focus is to make people more & more use its value added services like internet browsing,
downloading, etc.
• This is probably because the profit margin from the normal voice business are shrinking day by
day & that’s why Aircel is focusing more on high end services then on low end one.
Airtel – Strategy

NEW ADVERTISING STRATEGY.

• ‘Kuch Bandhan atoot hote hain …’

• ‘Barriers break when people talk’

NEW SALES STARATEGY

• Special tariff plan for youth- Youtopia

• Reduced tariffs, access to cell phones
• 14-19 years of age
• Expand customer base (limited to the older age groups till now)
• Deviation from earlier positioning for older people symbolizing dignity and power
• Re 0.25 for 30 seconds- night!, special bidding portal, music download facilities, SMS at
affordable prices
• “Friendz” pre-paid plan
• “Ladies special” plan
• “Senior citizen” plan
 VALUE ADDED SERVICES & NEW INNOVATIONS

THE FIRST MOVER ADVANTAGE

• Electronic recharge
• Hello tunes
• Airtel Live!
• Portfolio manager
• Song catcher
• Easy music
• Black berry handsets
• M-cheques
 SHARE OF VOICE
A Share of Voice is a brand's or group of brands' advertising weight expressed as a percentage of
a defined total market or market segment in a given time period. The weight is usually defined in
terms of expenditure, ratings, pages, poster sites etc.

Share of voice = One brands advertising expenditures in a medium

Total product category advertising expenditure in a medium

This calculation can be done for all advertising by a brand in relation to all advertising in a
product category, or it can be done to determine a brand’s share of the product category spending
on a particular advertising medium, such as network television or magazines.

SOV of Airtel = 150cr. X 100 = 12.5%

1200cr.

SOV of Vodafone = 200cr. X 100 = 16.7%

 1200cr

RECOMMENDATIONS

➢ Along with using various celebrities for endorsements, AIRTEL should try to introduce
advertisements with some sort of humor.

➢ The majority of perspective customers are teenagers, so AIRTEL ads should be more
focused around them

➢ The people now days have started using more and more internet, so along with TV
advertisements, AIRTEL should give more attention to online advertisements.

➢ People give very less attention to the print ads, so these ads should be mainly informative
ads i.e. the ads giving information about new schemes and recharge coupons etc.
 Bibliography
www.google.com

http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/

www.rediff.com

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

www.airtel.in

http://www.tamindia.com/tamindia/Adex_News_TV.htm

4P’s magazine.