Turning of “Warid” into “Airtel” | BackBenchers

Thesis

On

Brand Management

Submitted to : Mr. Rafiuddin Ahmed

Assistant Professor

Department of Marketing

Faculty of Business Studies

University of Dhaka

Submitted By : BackBenchers

4th Year 1st Semester

Section: A

Department of Marketing

Faculty of Business Studies

University of Dhaka

Date of Submission

16th April 2011

 Group Profile

Group Leader ID

Taufique Haque Ashique 113

Members ID

Mohammad Rashed Bin Enam 001

Md. Fazle Rabbi Khadem 093

Seamat Sultana 137

Md. Moshiur Rahaman Rony 171

Faisal Bin Haque 175

S.M Mehedi Hasan 177

“Turning of Warid into Airtel Bangladesh: Customer impact”

Study 1:

Mukto, a 4th year student of Dhaka University, says “I am using warid from the inception of warid
telecom in Bangladesh. When Airtel purchased the 70% stake and changed the name from Warid to
Airtel, it was a bit weird. Till now, I use Warid whenever I have to refill my balance or purchase
cards. “Airtel” triggers nothing in my head.”

Study 2

Enamul Haque, a government employee, says “All of the carriers in Bangladesh are operated by
renowned foreign mobile service provider companies except TeleTalk. So it was the same when
“Warid” was “Warid”. Personally I hate Indian goods, I don’t know why. When the name changed to
“Airtel”, I stopped using the product.”

Study 3

Mehedi, an executive of a private service firm, says “As you know, Airtel is a pioneer of mobile
telephony in South- Asia. May be one of the most pronounced words in South- Asia. My reaction was
OK! Since childhood, we are bombarded by the ‘Airtel’ word, thanks to the Indian channels!

Intro

Airtel Bangladesh is the sixth mobile phone carrier to enter the Bangladeshi market, and launched
commercial operations on May 10, 2007. Warid Telecom International LLC sold a majority 70% stake
in the company to India’s Bharti Airtel Limited for US$ 300 million. Airtel rebranded all of Warid’s
products from December 20, 2010. Bharti Airtel is making a fresh investment of US$300 million to
rapidly expand the operations of Warid Telecom and have management and board control of the
company.

Customer Impact

Rebranding requires a great deal of effort and commitment towards the existing customers. Warid
entered the market in 2005 and was well branded, thanks to some rumors early in 2005. Since then
Warid Telecom tried to capture the market, especially the niche market of youths. On the other
hand, djuice was and still the leader in case of capturing the youth market. But it was warid who
really started the price war among the phone carriers. What Warid was short of is the network.
That’s why people from remote areas never heard of Warid Telecom and its services.

On the other hand, Airtel incepted in 1995 in India. When Airtel purchased the majority stake and
rebranded it was a mixed impact among the people, precisely the customers.
Was the reaction “Good”?

Certainly, Airtel passed the hurdle of rebranding. I heard some people exclaimed “My God, Airtel!”.
The sentence says it all. We can call it a successful transition. Mostly the reaction was good. Here are
the reasons:

1. Airtel is in the telephony market for over 15 years. People in Bangladesh love to watch hindi
serials, I wonder why they watch such filthy materials. Remembering that, in clutter you’ll
find at least one Airtel advertisement. People are used to it. So when rebranded there were
no negative impact among people in Bangladesh.
2. Recently Airtel introduced 3G in India. Some was hopeful that Airtel is going to introduce it
in Bangladesh market.
3. Usually Airtel provides flat rates on calls in India. Remembering this in mind, some
welcomed the transition from warid to Airtel.

Whatever the reasons are, Airtel was welcomed warm heartedly because of the fact that Airtel has
already a huge customer base. It rare that a person never heard of Airtel in his/ her life. This was one
the strong points of Airtel to gamble in the super- high competitive mobile market.

Negative Reaction

‘আগে তো জানতাম শুধু আমাদের নেত্রী ইন্ডিয়ান সবকিছু ভালবাসেন। বানংঙালী যেই
ভাবে ইন্ডিয়ান পণ্য ব্যবহার শুরু করছে কয়েকদিন পর না বাংলাদেশ এর নাম
পরিবর্ত ন হয়ে যায় অথবা ইন্ডিয়ান কোন প্রদেশ হয়ে যায়। ইন্ডিয়ান পণ্য নিয়ে এত
মাতামাতি কেন? সব Company তো বাই i রের। ওয়ারিদ ব্যবহার করতে কোন সমস্যা
ছ iিl ল না। আর যাই হোক, ইন্ডিয়ান প্রোডাক্ট আমি ব্যবহার করব না”