Marketing Strategy of Airtel

THE INDIAN INSTITUTE OF PLANNING AND MANAGEMENT
NEW DELHI
THESIS ON
“MARKETING STRATEGY OF AIRTEL”
SUBMITTED TO:
PROF. SUMANTA SHARMA
UNDER THE GUIDANCE OF:
PROF. DIPTI SHARMA MR. ASHWANI RANA

(INTERNAL GUIDE) (EXTERNAL GUIDE)
SUBMITTED BY:
HARISH KUMAR
ALUMNI ID NUMBER: DS/09/11-M-047
The Indian Institute of Planning & Management, New Delhi
BATCH: PGP/SS/2009-11
ABSTRACT
The project is an extensive report on how the Airtel company markets its strategies and
how the company has been able in tackling the present tough competition and how it is
cooping up by the allegations of the quality of its products. The report begins with the
history of the products and the introduction of the Airtel company. This report also
contains the basic marketing strategies that are used by the Airtel company of
manufacturing process, technology, production policy, advertising, collaboration, export
scenario, future prospect and government policies. The report includes some of the key
salient features of market trend issues.
In today’s world of cutthroat fierce competition, it is very essential to not only exist but
also to excel in the market. Today’s market is enormously more complex. Hence forth, to
survive in the market, the company not only needs to maximize its profit but also needs
to satisfy its customers and should try to build upon from there.
BATCH: PGP/SS/2009-11 ii ALUMNI ID NO.: DS/09/11-M-047

SIGNATORY PAGE
TO WHOMESOEVER IT MAY CONCERN
This is to confirm that Mr. Harish Kumar, student of IIPM, NEW DELHI, is doing a
live project(Thesis) on the topic “Marketing Strategy of Airtel ” under my guidance
and that the work being done by the candidate is original and is of the standard expected
by an MBA student.
May god bless him with all success in his career.
Warm regards
Ashwani Rana
BATCH: PGP/SS/2009-11 iii ALUMNI ID NO.: DS/09/11-M-047

TOPIC APPROVAL LETTER
From: Thesis <thesis@iipm.edu>

Date: Mon, 27 Dec 2010 11:57:51 +0530
Subject: Thesis Topic Approval (M) SS 09-11
To: thakur.dh@gmail.com
Dear Harish Kumar,
This is to inform that your thesis proposal on "Marketing Strategies of Airtel", to be

conducted under the guidance of Mr. Ashwani Rana is hereby approved and the topic
registration id number is DS/09/11-M-047
Make it a comprehensive thesis by ensuring that all the objectives as stated by you in
your synopsis are met using appropriate research design; a thesis should aim at adding
value to the existing knowledge base.
You are required to correspond with your internal guide Prof. Dipti Sharma at
dipti.sharma@iipm.edu Ph.-0124-3350713 by sending at least six response
sheets (attached along with this mail) at regular intervals before the last
date for thesis submission.
NB:
1) A thesis would be rejected if there is any variation in the topic/title

from the one approved and registered with us.
2) The candidate needs to handwrite at least 1200 to 1500 words on the

summary of thesis at the time of viva
Regards,
Prof .Sumanta Sharma
Dean (Projects)
IIPM
Sumanta.sharma@iipm.edu
Phone:
+91 0124 3350701 (D)
+91 0124 3350715 (Board)
BATCH: PGP/SS/2009-11 iv ALUMNI ID NO.: DS/09/11-M-047

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
It is well-established fact that behind every achievement lays an unfathomable sea of

gratitude to those who have extended their support and without whom the project would
never have come into existence.
I express my gratitude to IIPM, New Delhi for providing me an opportunity to work on

this thesis as a part of the curriculum.
Also, I express my gratitude to Prof. Sumanta Sharma and Prof. Dipti Sharma on the
completion of my project and I am very thankful to Mr. Ashwani Rana my external
mentor for his excellent guidance and kind cooperation throughout the work.
BATCH: PGP/SS/2009-11 v ALUMNI ID NO.: DS/09/11-M-047

APPROVED THESIS SYNOPSIS
Name: Harish Kumar

Section: SF-1
Batch: PGP/SS/2009-11
Phone Number: 9971555307
Email Address: thakur.dh@gmail.com
Specialization: Marketing & Finance
Desire Area of Student to do research:

Marketing
Title of the thesis:

“HOW DOES AIRTEL KEEP HOLD OF ITS MARKET BECAUSE OF ITS GREAT
MARKETING STRATEGIES?”
Problem definition/Hypothesis:
• Effective marketing strategy makes the business profitable
• Marketing strategy is important for attracting customer towards business
Research Objective:
This study will try to analyze how Airtel keeps hold of its market because of its great
marketing strategies with the following objectives:
• To identify the factors considered by the Airtel in making the marketing strategies
for their business
• To identify how effectively Airtel is currently using his marketing strategies to
attract new customers
• To identify the current marketing strategies of Airtel
• To suggest them effective marketing strategies to get success in the current
competitive environment in the telecommunication industry
Introduction to the area of research:
BATCH: PGP/SS/2009-11 vi ALUMNI ID NO.: DS/09/11-M-047

Marketing strategy is a process that can allow an organization to concentrate its limited
resources on the greatest opportunities to increase sales and achieve a
sustainable competitive advantage. A marketing strategy should be centered on the key
concept that customer satisfaction is the main goal. Marketing strategy is a method of
focusing an organization's energies and resources on a course of action which can lead to
increased sales and dominance of a targeted market niche. A marketing strategy
combines product development, promotion, distribution, pricing, relationship
management and other elements; identifies the firm's marketing goals, and explains how
they will be achieved, ideally within a stated timeframe. Marketing strategy determines
the choice of target market segments, positioning, marketing mix, and allocation of
resources.
Research Methodology:
First I will review the existing literature concerned with how Airtel keeps hold of its
market because of its great marketing strategies. Once I am through with the subject I
will have a better understanding of it. A thorough research will be conducted among the
executives in the company. The primary as well as secondary data collection method will
be used in this research.
Primary Data:
Primary data will be collected by structured interviews. Executives will be interviewed
with the help of questionnaire. I will be interviewing Airtel employees. The questionnaire
will be close ended question as per my mentor’s guidance Analyzing quantitative data
will be presented with the help of bar graphs and charts. Quantitative data can also be
analysed through statistical tools eg sorting your data into categories and locating subset
of these of these data according to its criteria.
Secondary Data:
BATCH: PGP/SS/2009-11 vii ALUMNI ID NO.: DS/09/11-M-047

The secondary data in this research will be collected through news articles, journals,
magazine, peer reviews and published databases. A comprehensive of the collected data
will be presented with the help of tables, charts and graphs.
Sample Size:
To conduct this research work the researcher has taken 30 manager level employees
Sampling Area: Company executives who have good knowledge about marketing
strategy of the company
Scope of the work:

A detailed study on estimated sales current market size is essential. This can be arrived at
by reviewing statistical data and figures and by discussions with distributors and sales
representatives. Market surveys will help identify customer base and loyalty to products
and services currently in the market and will help gauge customer response to new
product launches. A clear cut agenda to generate awareness of company's products and
services is an absolute must to hold your own against competition. Visibility is the need
of the hour and hence, use of strategic tactics like participation in trade shows,
promotional offer campaigns, public relations exercises contribute to the growth of the
company. It is therefore of key relevance to factor in advertising and promotional
expenditure in the expenses portfolio.
Justification of choosing the topic:

I have chosen this research work to suggest the best ways of marketing by which
company can increase its customer satisfaction and this will also assist them in retaining
their market share. This research work would present the effectiveness of marketing
strategy used by the Airtel. The main factors considered when making a successful
marketing strategy. A marketing strategy often integrates an organization's marketing
goals, policies, and action sequences (tactics) into a cohesive whole. Similarly, the
various strands of the strategy, which might include advertising, channel
marketing, internet marketing, promotion and public relations, can be orchestrated.
BATCH: PGP/SS/2009-11 viii ALUMNI ID NO.: DS/09/11-M-047

CONTENT
ABSTRACT.................................................................................................ii
COMPLETION LETTER FROM EXTERNAL GUIDE...........................iii
TOPIC APPROVAL LETTER...................................................................iv
ACKNOWLEDGMENT..............................................................................v
APPROVED THESIS SYNOPSIS.............................................................vi
1. INTRODUCTION ................................................................................................1
2. RESEARCH OBJECTIVE & METHODOLOGY..............................................11
3. LITERATURE REVIEW....................................................................................13
COMPANY PROFILE........................................................................................31
MARKETING STRATEGY OF AIRTEL..........................................................36
4. PRIMARY FINDING AND ANALYSIS...........................................................72
5. RECOMMENDATION.......................................................................................86
6. CONCLUSION & IMPLICATIONS..................................................................87
7. BIBLIOGRAPHY...............................................................................................88
8. COPY OF QUESTIONNAIRE...........................................................................89
BATCH: PGP/SS/2009-11 ix ALUMNI ID NO.: DS/09/11-M-047

The Indian Institute of Planning & Management, New Delhi 1
INTRODUCTION
The telecom industry is one of the fastest growing industries in India. India has nearly
200 million telephone lines making it the third largest network in the world after China
and USA. With a growth rate of 45%, Indian telecom industry has the highest growth rate
in the world. History of Indian Telecommunications started in 1851 when the first
operational land lines were laid by the government near Calcutta (seat of British power).
Telephone services were introduced in India in 1881. In 1883 telephone services were
merged with the postal system. Indian Radio Telegraph Company (IRT) was formed in
1923. After independence in 1947, all the foreign telecommunication companies were
nationalized to form the Posts, Telephone and Telegraph (PTT), a monopoly run by the
government's Ministry of Communications. Telecom sector was considered as a strategic
service and the government considered it best to bring under state's control.
The first wind of reforms in telecommunications sector began to flow in 1980s when the
private sector was allowed in telecommunications equipment manufacturing. In 1985,
Department of Telecommunications (DOT) was established. It was an exclusive provider
of domestic and long-distance service that would be its own regulator (separate from the
postal system). In 1986, two wholly government-owned companies were created: the
Videsh Sanchar Nigam Limited (VSNL) for international telecommunications and
Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Limited (MTNL) for service in metropolitan areas. In
1990s, telecommunications sector benefited from the general opening up of the economy.
Also, examples of telecom revolution in many other countries, which resulted in better
quality of service and lower tariffs, led Indian policy makers to initiate a change process
finally resulting in opening up of telecom services sector for the private sector. National
Telecom Policy (NTP) 1994 was the first attempt to give a comprehensive roadmap for
the Indian telecommunications sector. In 1997, Telecom Regulatory Authority of India
(TRAI) was created. TRAI was formed to act as a regulator to facilitate the growth of the
telecom sector. New National Telecom Policy was adopted in 1999 and cellular services
were also launched in the same year.
BATCH: PGP/SS/2009-11 ALUMNI ID NO.: DS/09/11-M-047

Telecommunication sector in India can be divided into two segments: Fixed Service
Provider (FSPs), and Cellular Services. Fixed line services consist of basic services,
national or domestic long distance and international long distance services. The state
operators (BSNL and MTNL), account for almost 90 per cent of revenues from basic
services. Private sector services are presently available in selective urban areas, and
collectively account for less than 5 per cent of subscriptions. However, private services
focus on the business/corporate sector, and offer reliable, high- end services, such as
leased lines, ISDN, closed user group and videoconferencing.
Cellular services can be further divided into two categories: Global System for Mobile
Communications (GSM) and Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA). The GSM sector
is dominated by Airtel, Vodafone-Hutch, and Idea Cellular, while the CDMA sector is
dominated by Reliance and Tata Indicom. Opening up of international and domestic long
distance telephony services are the major growth drivers for cellular industry. Cellular
operators get substantial revenue from these services, and compensate them for reduction
in tariffs on airtime, which along with rental was the main source of revenue. The
reduction in tariffs for airtime, national long distance, international long distance, and
handset prices has driven demand.
Fixed/Basic Network Services
Although nearly a decade has elapsed since India laid out a regulatory framework for the
liberalization of basic telecom services, competition in fixed local loop telephone
services, so far, extends to only a fraction of the total population. Competitive entry has
focused principally on services for urban customers in relatively affluent areas. Even the
pattern of switching capacity (which indicates the capacity in a circle) indicates that
around 57% of the switching capacity of the private operators at end-September 2003
was in metros and Category A circles. Further, an estimated 68% of the fixed network
telephone connections of private operators at end-March 2004 were in metros and
Category circles.

In terms of subscriber connections, private operators had a market share of around 5.5%
at end-FY2004, as compared with 2.3% at end-FY2003, and 1.5% at end- FY2002. While
private operators accounted for 25% of subscriptions in urban areas at end-March 2004
(17% at end-September 2003), their market share in rural areas was negligible at 0.2%
(0.2% at end-September 2003). Because subscriber density and income (and ability to
pay) are low, providing access in rural areas is unprofitable because of the higher costs
and lower revenues. The cost of providing telephone service in rural areas is much higher
than in urban or suburban areas. The demand for profitable long distance services and
value -added fax and Internet services is insignificant in rural areas. Above -cost long
distance services are often bundled with cheaper local services in urban areas.
Cellular Services
For cellular GSM and CDMA services, there presently exists significant extent of
competition in nearly all service areas. In GSM services, during January 2005, of the 23
service areas (reduced from 24 after the merger of A&N Islands into the WB circle),
fourteen service areas had 4 operators, seven service areas had 3 operators, and two
service areas had 2 operators, and one had only one licensed operator. However, the
intensity of competition is higher in Metros and Category A circles, which have higher
potential and penetration. For example, all the four metros and five Category A service
areas had four licensed operators. By comparison, six out of 8 Category B circles, and
none of Category C circles had four operators.
Increasingly GSM service providers are facing competition digital CDMA based wireless
services.
Unlike GSM, which offers seamless national and international roaming, WLL-LM
services did not offer roaming. However, CDMA mobile services are, currently,
competitive on product offerings and prices as compared with cellular GSM services. At
end-2004, there were an estimated 11.08 million CDMA mobile connections, as
compared with 37.38 million cellular subscriptions. Thus, CDMA subscriptions

accounted for 22.9% of the total wireless mobile connections in India at end-December
2004.
National Long Distance
The Indian NLD market was estimated at around Rs. 50 billion during FY2004. Because
of the significant decline in prices of NLD services caused by regulatory interventions
and market competition, the NLD market has declined from around Rs. 59 billion during
FY2003. Though the number of minutes of NLD traffic has increased, the market has
shrunk because of intense competition between the various operators—BSNL, BIL, RIL,
and VSNL.
Competition is steadily leading to a decline in NLD prices as they more accurately reflect
true costs. However, long-distance service hinges on access to local networks, which for
now is controlled by BSNL, MTNL, and private operators such as BTV, and Reliance.
Long-distance service hinges on access to local networks. Thus, new entrants without a
significant fixed/cellular local access customer base will have to use the customer access
networks of the existing local access network operators (fixed and cellular) to originate
and terminate their traffic.
International Long Distance
The Indian ILD market was estimated at around Rs. 43 billion during FY2004. Because
of the significant decline in prices of ILD services caused by regulatory interventions and
market competition, the ILD market has declined from around Rs. 50 billion during
FY2003.
Though the number of minutes of ILD traffic has increased from 3.7 billion during
FY2003 to 5.2 billion during FY2004, the market has declined in value terms because of
intense competition between the various operators—VSNL, DAIL, BIL, and RIL
• In the pre-reform period, growth was primarily driven by public sector

monopoly showing very marginal growth.

• Reform process was started with new telecom policy 1994.
• When telecom reforms were initiated in 1994, there were three incumbents in
the fixed service sector, namely DoT (Department of Telecom), MTNL and VSNL.
• Of these, DoT operated in all parts of the country except Delhi and Mumbai.
MTNL operated in Delhi and Mumbai and VSNL provided international telephony.
New Telecom Policy’ 94
• In 1994, the Government announced the National Telecom Policy which defined
certain important objectives, including availability of telephone on demand, provision
of world class services at reasonable prices, ensuring India’s emergence as major
manufacturing / export base of telecom equipment and universal availability of basic
telecom services to all villages.
• NTP 1994 also recognized that the required resources for achieving these targets
would not be available only out of Government sources and concluded that private
investment and involvement of the private sector was required to bridge the resource
gap. The Government invited private sector participation in a phased manner from the
early nineties, initially for value added services such as Paging Services and Cellular
Mobile Telephone Services (CMTS) and thereafter for Fixed Telephone Services
(FTS). After a competitive bidding process, licenses were awarded to 8 CMTS
operators in the four metros, 14 CMTS operators in 18 state circles, 6 BTS operators
in 6 state circles and to paging operators in 27 cities and 18 state circles. VSAT
services were liberalised for providing data services to closed user groups. Licences
were issued to 14 operators in the private sector out of which only nine licensees are
operational.
New Telecom Policy’ 99
• Access to telecommunications is of utmost importance for achievement of the

country's social and economic goals. Availability of affordable and effective

communications for the citizens is at the core of the vision and goal of the telecom
policy.
• Strive to provide a balance between the provision of universal service to all

uncovered areas, including the rural areas, and the provision of high-level services
capable of meeting the needs of the country's economy;
• Encourage development of telecommunication facilities in remote, hilly and tribal

areas of the country;
• Create a modern and efficient telecommunications infrastructure taking into

account the convergence of IT, media, telecom and consumer electronics and thereby
propel India into becoming an IT superpower; .
• Transform in a time bound manner, the telecommunications sector to a greater

competitive environment in both urban and rural areas providing equal opportunities
and level playing field for all players;
• Strengthen research and development efforts in the country and provide an

impetus to build world-class manufacturing capabilities.
• Enable Indian Telecom Companies to become truly global players.
In line with the above objectives, the specific targets that the NTP 1999 tried to achieve
were:
• To encourage development of telecom in rural areas making it more affordable by

suitable tariff structure and making rural communication mandatory for all fixed
service providers.
• To increase rural teledensity from the current level of 0.4 to 4 by the year 2010
and provide reliable transmission media in all rural areas.

• Achieve telecom coverage of all villages in the country and provide reliable
media to all exchanges by the year 2002.
Fig: Tele-Density
Growth Post-Reform
From the above graph we see that:
• Growth started in phase I of the reform 1998-2003.
• Growth during phase I was not exponential due to the apprehensions private
players had for the government policies.
• Phase II growth was mobile driven and was consequent to certain decisions taken
by the govt.
 TRAI facilitated huge reduction in forborne tariffs in 2003-05.
 Allowed handsets sales in instalments.
• The growth in tele-density each year in 2003-04 (2%) and 2004-05 (2%) has been
greater than the growth in the last 50 years 1948-98.
• In phase III each year the growth has been greater than 4.5%
Michael Porter’s “Five forces model” describes the threats to a company’s competitive
advantage in an industry. Here is a breakdown of the "five forces model:”
1. Degree of rivalry of existing industry competitors.

2. Degree of barriers to entry by new competitors in the industry.
3. Threat of substitute products/services.
4. Bargaining power of buyers.
5. Bargaining power of suppliers.
Below are five areas that exemplify the concepts of the “five forces” and show how
trends can really be pressures on an organization’s competitive nature:
• Industry Consolidation: As in the wireless / cellular service provider market,

this can mean threats from existing companies who consolidate their position and
acquire additional market share by purchasing their competition (Rivalry).
• Wireless Local-Area Networks: The Internet and broadband-based VoIP market

could soon face competitors from the wireless / cellular service providers
(Substitutes) via wireless local area networks, WLANs.
• Security/Fraud: When we think about using a free VoIP service, like Skype, we
do not necessarily think about fraud. However, when you start looking at the pay
VoIP services, fraud becomes a much larger issue (Barriers to Entry).
• Pricing: Wireless / cellular and traditional phone service providers have seen
demands from consumers drive their price per minute via lower tiered minute and
flat rate plans. Pay VoIP providers are entering not at the top, but closer to the
bottom of these pricing levels (Buyers).
• Broadband Access: The penetration rate of broadband access, the lifeblood of

pay VoIP services, is around 55 to 60 percent. This effectively caps the number of
customers that have access to VoIP services and places more power in the hands
of the broadband access providers (Suppliers).

These conditions create a highly competitive environment particularly for the pay VoIP
market. However, in this highly lucrative industry; telecom service providers need to
create a competitive advantage to become or stay successful.
The Telecom sector in India exhibits the features of an oligopoly form of market
structure.
Key Features of Oligopoly
• A few firms selling similar product
• Each firm produces branded products
• Likely to be significant entry barriers into the market in the long run which allows
firms to make supernormal profits.
• Interdependence between competing firms. Businesses have to take into account

likely reactions of rivals to any change in price and output.
Major Players
There are three types of players in telecom services:
• State owned companies (BSNL and MTNL)
• Private Indian owned companies (Reliance Infocomm, Tata Teleservices,)
• Foreign invested companies (Hutchison-Essar, Bharti Tele-Ventures, Escotel,

Idea Cellular, BPL Mobile, Spice Communications)
1) The Indian Telecom sector is controlled by a few major players Bharti Airtel,
Vodafone (Earlier Hutch), Idea Cellular, BSNL, Tata Tele Services and Reliance
Infocomm. Players like Bharti Airtel, Vodafone, Idea Cellular, regional players
like Spice, Aircel, BPL, etc sell similar products SIM (Subscriber Identity
Module) cards for mobile phones. They also provide Value Added Services such

as ring tones, news, etc by charging some price. Companies like Reliance
Infocomm and Tata Tele Services are CDMA providers.
Fig: Market share of the top telecom players (%)
Concentration Ratio: The degree by which an industry is dominated by a few large

firms. Calculation of four- firm concentration ratio:

RESEARCH OBJECTIVE AND METHODOLOGY
Research Objective:
This study will try to analyze how Airtel keeps hold of its market because of its great
marketing strategies with the following objectives:
• To identify the factors considered by the Airtel in making the marketing strategies
for their business
• To identify how effectively Airtel is currently using his marketing strategies to

attract new customers
• To identify the current marketing strategies of Airtel
• To suggest them effective marketing strategies to get success in the current

competitive environment in the telecommunication industry
Research Methodology:
First I will review the existing literature concerned with how Airtel keeps hold of its
market because of its great marketing strategies. Once I am through with the subject I
will have a better understanding of it. A thorough research will be conducted among the
executives in the company. The primary as well as secondary data collection method will
be used in this research.
Primary Data:
Primary data will be collected by structured interviews. Executives will be interviewed

with the help of questionnaire. I will be interviewing Airtel employees. The questionnaire
will be close ended question as per my mentor’s guidance Analyzing quantitative data
will be presented with the help of bar graphs and charts. Quantitative data can also be

analysed through statistical tools eg sorting your data into categories and locating subset
of these of these data according to its criteria.
Secondary Data:
The secondary data in this research will be collected through news articles, journals,
magazine, peer reviews and published databases. A comprehensive of the collected data
will be presented with the help of tables, charts and graphs.
Sample Size:
To conduct this research work the researcher has taken 30 manager level employees
Sampling Area: Company executives who have good knowledge about marketing
strategy of the company

LITRATURE REVIEW
"Marketing" is an instructive business domain that serves to inform and educate target
markets about the value and competitive advantage of a company and its products.
“Value” is worth derived by the customer from owning and using the product.
“Competitive Advantage” is a depiction that the company or its products are each doing
something better than their competition in a way that could benefit the customer.
Marketing is focused on the task of conveying pertinent company and product related
information to specific customers, and there are a multitude of decisions (strategies) to be
made within the marketing domain regarding what information to deliver, how much
information to deliver, to whom to deliver, how to deliver, when to deliver, and where to
deliver. Once the decisions are made, there are numerous ways (tactics) and processes
that could be employed in support of the selected strategies. As Marketing is often
misinterpreted as just advertising or sales, Chris Newton, in What is marketing?
(Marketing Help Online, 2008), defined marketing as every strategy and decision made in
the following twelve areas:
 Identifying and quantifying the need in the marketplace
 Identifying and quantifying the target markets
 Identifying the optimum cost effective media – online and offline - to reach the
target markets
 Reviewing the priorities of the product offering in your overall product mix
‘matrix’
 Identifying and developing the most effective distribution channels, be they

wholesaler networks, partnering alliances, franchising, or any number of conduits
to the market.

 Testing different ways of packaging the concepts or products to find their most
'easy-to-sell' form
 Testing to find the optimum pricing strategies
 Developing effective promotional strategies and effective advertising and

supporting collateral, offers, and launch strategies
 Developing and documenting the sales process
 Finding the optimum execution of the sales process – through testing of selling
scripts, people selection, supporting collateral, skills and attitudinal training,
tracking, measuring and refining
 Ensuring that sales projections reflect realistic production capacities
 Developing nurture programs to optimise the lifetime value of the customer
The goal of marketing is to build and maintain a preference for a company and its
products within the target markets. The goal of any business is to build mutually
profitable and sustainable relationships with its customers. While all business domains
are responsible for accomplishing this goal, the marketing domain bears a significant
share of the responsibility. Within the larger scope of its definition, marketing is
performed through the actions of three coordinated disciplines named: “Product
Marketing”, “Corporate Marketing”, and “Marketing Communications
Two levels of marketing
Strategic marketing: attempts to determine how an organization competes against its

competitors in a market place. In particular, it aims at generating a competitive advantage
relative to its competitors. Operational marketing: executes marketing functions to attract
and keep customers and to maximize the value derived for them, as well as to satisfy the
customer with prompt services and meeting the customer expectations. Operational
Marketing includes the determination of the porter's five forces.

4 Ps
In the early 1960s, Professor Neil Borden at Harvard Business School identified a
number of company performance actions that can influence the consumer decision to
purchase goods or services. Borden suggested that all those actions of the company
represented a “Marketing Mix”. Professor E. Jerome McCarthy, also at the Harvard
Business School in the early 1960s, suggested that the Marketing Mix contained 4
elements: product, price, place and promotion. In popular usage, "marketing" is the
promotion of products, especially advertising and branding. However, in professional
usage the term has a wider meaning which recognizes that marketing is customer-
centered. Products are often developed to meet the desires of groups of customers or
even, in some cases, for specific customers. E. Jerome McCarthy divided marketing into
four general sets of activities. His typology has become so universally recognized that his
four activity sets, the Four Ps, have passed into the language.
Product: The product aspects of marketing deal with the specifications of the actual
goods or services, and how it relates to the end-user's needs and wants. The scope of a
product generally includes supporting elements such as warranties, guarantees, and
support.
Pricing: This refers to the process of setting a price for a product, including discounts.
The price need not be monetary - it can simply be what is exchanged for the product or
services, e.g. time, energy, psychology or attention.
Promotion: This includes advertising, sales promotion, publicity, and personal selling,
branding and refers to the various methods of promoting the product, brand, or company.
Placement (or distribution): refers to how the product gets to the customer; for
example, point of sale placement or retailing. This fourth P has also sometimes been

called Place, referring to the channel by which a product or services is sold (e.g. online
vs. retail), which geographic region or industry, to which segment (young adults,
families, business people), etc. also referring to how the environment in which the
product is sold in can affect sales. These four elements are often referred to as the
marketing mix, which a marketer can use to craft a marketing plan. The four Ps model is
most useful when marketing low value consumer products. Industrial products, services,
high value consumer products require adjustments to this model. Services marketing must
account for the unique nature of services. Industrial or B2B marketing must account for
the long term contractual agreements that are typical in supply chain transactions.
Relationship marketing attempts to do this by looking at marketing from a long term
relationship perspective rather than individual transactions.
As a counter to this, Morgan, in Riding the Waves of Change (Jossey-Bass, 1988),

suggests that one of the greatest limitations of the 4 Ps approach "is that it unconsciously
emphasizes the inside–out view (looking from the company outwards), whereas the
essence of marketing should be the outside–in approach". Nevertheless, the 4 Ps offer a
memorable and workable guide to the major categories of marketing activity, as well as a
framework within which these can be used.
7 P’s
As well as the standard four P's (Product, Pricing, Promotion and Place), services
marketing calls upon an extra three, totaling seven and known together as the extended
marketing mix. These are:
People: Any person coming into contact with customers can have an impact on overall
satisfaction. Whether as part of a supporting service to a product or involved in a total
service, people are particularly important because, in the customer's eyes, they are
generally inseparable from the total service . As a result of this, they must be
appropriately trained, well motivated and the right type of person. Fellow customers are
also sometimes referred to under 'people', as they too can affect the customer's service
experience, (e.g., at a sporting event).

Process: This is the process(es) involved in providing a service and the behaviour of
people, which can be crucial to customer satisfaction.
Physical evidence: Unlike a product, a service cannot be experienced before it is

delivered, which makes it intangible. This, therefore, means that potential customers
could perceive greater risk when deciding whether to use a service. To reduce the feeling
of risk, thus improving the chance for success, it is often vital to offer potential customers
the chance to see what a service would be like. This is done by providing physical
evidence, such as case studies, testimonials or demonstrations.
Personalization: It is here referred customization of products and services through the

use of the Internet. Early examples include Dell on-line and Amazon.com, but this
concept is further extended with emerging social media and advanced algorithms.
Emerging technologies will continue to push this idea forward.
Participation: This is to allow the customer to participate in what the brand should stand
for; what should be the product directions and even which ads to run. This concept is
laying the foundation for disruptive change through democratization of information.
Peer-to-Peer: This refers to customer networks and communities where advocacy

happens. The historical problem with marketing is that it is “interruptive” in nature,
trying to impose a brand on the customer. This is most apparent in TV advertising. These
“passive customer bases” will ultimately be replaced by the “active customer
communities”. Brand engagement happens within those conversations. P2P is now being
referred as Social Computing and is likely to be the most disruptive force in the future of
marketing.
Predictive modeling: This refers to algorithms that are being successfully applied in
marketing problems (both a regression as well as a classification problem).
Product
Steps in product design

 Design and development of product ideas.
 Selection of and sifting through product ideas.
 Design and testing of product concept.
 Analysis of business instead of product concept.
 Design and testing of emotional product.
Packaging
 Requirements of good packaging
 Functional - effectively contain and protect the contents
 Provide convenience during distribution, sale, opening, use, reuse, etc.
 Be environmentally responsible
 Be cost effective
 Appropriately designed for target market
 Eye-catching (particularly for retail/consumer sales)
 Communicate attributes and recommended use of the product and package
 Compliant with retailers' requirements
 Promotes image of enterprise
 Distinguishable from competitors' products
 Meet legal requirements for product and packaging

 Point of difference in service and supply of product.
 For a perfect product, perfect colour.
Forms of packaging
 Specialty packaging — emphasizes the elegant character of the product
 Packaging for double-use
 Combination packaging two or more products packaged in the same container
 Kaleidoscopic packaging — packaging changes continually to reflect a series or

particular theme
 Packaging for immediate consumption — to be thrown away after use
 Packaging for resale — packed, into appropriate quantities, for the retailer or
wholesaler
Trademarks
 Significance of a trademark
 Distinguishes one company's goods from those of another
 Serves as advertisement for quality
 Protects both consumers and manufacturers
 Used in displays and advertising campaigns
 Used to market new products

Brands
A brand is a name, term, design, symbol, or other feature that distinguishes products and
services from competitive offerings. A brand represents the consumers' experience with
an organization, product, or service. A brand has also been defined as an identifiable
entity that makes a specific promise of value. Co-branding involves marketing activity
involving two or more products
Pricing
Pricing refers to the amount of money exchanged for a product. This value is determined
by utility to the consumer in terms of money and/or sacrifice that the consumer is
prepared to give for it.
 Increase sales volume
 Increase revenue
 Achieve or increase profits
 Increase or maintain market share
 Eliminate competition
 Achieve advantages of mass production
 Factors influencing price-determination
 Production and distribution costs
 Substitute goods available
 Normal trade practices
 Fixed prices

 Reaction of distributors
 Reaction of consumers
 Nature of demand:
 elastic/inelastic
 Form of market:
 Perfect competition
 Monopolistic competition
 Monopoly
 Oligopoly
 Steps to determine price
 Determine market share to be captured
 Set up price strategy
 Estimate demand
 Evaluate competitors' reactions
 Channels
 Manufacturer to consumer (most direct)
 Manufacturer to wholesaler to retailer to consumer (traditional)
 Manufacturer to agent to retailer to consumer (current)

 Manufacturer to agent to wholesaler to retailer to consumer
 Manufacturer to agent to customer ( ex : DCL,AMWAY )
 Manufacturers
 Reasons for direct selling methods
 Manufacturer wants to demonstrate goods.
 Wholesalers, retailers and agents not actively selling.
 Manufacturer unable to convince wholesalers or retailers to stock product.
 High profit margin added to goods by wholesalers and retailers.
 Middlemen unable to transport
 Reasons for indirect selling methods
 Manufacturer does not have the financial resources to distribute goods.
 Distribution channels already established.
 Manufacturer has no knowledge of efficient distribution.
 Manufacturer wishes to use capital for further production.
 Too many consumers in a large area; difficult to reach.
 Manufacturer does not have a wide assortment of goods to enable efficient

marketing.
 Direct on-selling advantages.
Reasons for using wholesalers

 Bear risk of selling goods to retailer or consumer
 Storage space
 Decrease transport costs
 Grant credit to retailers
 Able to sell for the manufacturers
 Give advice to manufacturers
 Break down products into smaller quantities
 Reasons for bypassing wholesalers
 Limited storage facilities
 Retailers' preferences
 Wholesaler cannot promote products successfully
 Development of wholesalers' own brands
 Desire for closer market contact
 Position of power
 Cost of wholesalers' services
 Price stabilisation
 Need for rapid distribution
 Make more money

 Ways of bypassing wholesalers
 Sales offices or branches
 Mail orders
 Direct sales to retailers
 Travelling agents
 Direct Orders
Agents
 Commission agents work for anyone who needs their services. They do not
acquire ownership of goods but receive del credere commission.
 Selling agents act on an extended contractual basis, selling all of the products of
the manufacturer. They have full authority regarding price and terms of sale.
 Buying agents buy goods on behalf of producers and retailers. They have an
expert knowledge of the purchasing function.
 Brokers specialize in the sale of one specific product. They receive a brokerage.
 Factory representatives represent more than one manufacturer. They operate

within a specific area and sell related lines of goods but have limited authority
regarding price and sales terms.
Marketing communications

Marketing communications breaks down the strategies involved with marketing messages
into categories based on the goals of each message. There are distinct stages in
converting strangers to customers that govern the communication medium that should be
used.
Advertising
 Paid form of public presentation and expressive promotion of ideas
 Aimed at masses
 Manufacturer may determine what goes into advertisement
 Pervasive and impersonal medium
 Functions and advantages of successful advertising
 Task of the salesman made easier
 Forces manufacturer to live up to conveyed image
 Protects and warns customers against false claims and inferior products
 Enables manufacturer to mass-produce product
 Continuous reminder
 Uninterrupted production a possibility
 Increases goodwill
 Raises standards of living (or perceptions thereof)
 Prices decrease with increased popularity

 Educates manufacturer and wholesaler about competitors' offerings as well as

shortcomings in their own.
 Objectives
 Maintain demand for well-known goods
 Introduce new and unknown goods
 Increase demand for well-known goods/products/services
 Requirements of a good advertisement
 Attract attention (awareness)
 Stimulate interest
 Create a desire
 Bring about action
 Eight steps in an advertising campaign
 Market research
 Setting out aims
 Budgeting
 Choice of media (television, newspaper, radio)
 Choice of actors (New Trend)
 Design and wording
 Co-ordination

 Test results
 Personal sales
Oral presentation given by a salesman who approaches individuals or a group of potential

customers:
 Live, interactive relationship
 Personal interest
 Attention and response
 Interesting presentation
 Sales promotion
 Short-term incentives to encourage buying of products:
An example of this is coupons or a sale. People are given an incentive to buy, but it does
not build customer loyalty, nor encourage repeat buys in the future. A major drawback of
sales promotion is that it is easily copied by competition. It cannot be used as a
sustainable source of differentiation.
 Marketing Public Relations (MPR)
 Stimulation of demand through press release giving a favourable report to

a product
 Higher degree of credibility
 Effectively news
 Boosts enterprise's image
 Customer focus

Many companies today have a customer focus (or customer orientation). This implies that
the company focuses its activities and products on consumer demands. Generally there
are three ways of doing this: the customer-driven approach, the sense of identifying
market changes and the product innovation approach. In the consumer-driven approach,
consumer wants are the drivers of all strategic marketing decisions. No strategy is
pursued until it passes the test of consumer research. Every aspect of a market offering,
including the nature of the product itself, is driven by the needs of potential consumers.
The starting point is always the consumer. The rationale for this approach is that there is
no point spending R&D funds developing products that people will not buy. History
attests to many products that were commercial failures in spite of being technological
breakthroughs.
A formal approach to this customer-focused marketing is known as SIVA Solution,

Information, Value, Access). This system is basically the four Ps renamed and reworded
to provide a customer focus. The SIVA Model provides a demand/customer centric
version alternative to the well-known 4Ps supply side model (product, price, place,
promotion) of marketing management.
Product -> Solution
Promotion -> Information
Price -> Value
Place ->Access
The four elements of the SIVA model are:
Solution: How appropriate is the solution to the customer's problem/need?
Information: Does the customer know about the solution? If so, how and from whom do
they know enough to let them make a buying decision?
Value: Does the customer know the value of the transaction, what it will cost, what are
the benefits, what might they have to sacrifice, what will be their reward?

Access: Where can the customer find the solution? How easily/locally/remotely can they
buy it and take delivery?
This model was proposed by Chekitan Dev and Don Schultz in the Marketing
Management Journal of the American Marketing Association, and presented by them in
Market Leader - the journal of the Marketing Society in the India.
Product focus
In a product innovation approach, the company pursues product innovation, then tries to
develop a market for the product. Product innovation drives the process and marketing
research is conducted primarily to ensure that a profitable market segment(s) exists for
the innovation. The rationale is that customers may not know what options will be
available to them in the future so we should not expect them to tell us what they will buy
in the future. However, marketers can aggressively over-pursue product innovation and
try to overcapitalize on a niche. When pursuing a product innovation approach, marketers
must ensure that they have a varied and multi-tiered approach to product innovation. It is
claimed that if Thomas Edison depended on marketing research he would have produced
larger candles rather than inventing light bulbs. Many firms, such as research and
development focused companies, successfully focus on product innovation (Such as
Nintendo who constantly change the way Video games are played). Many purists doubt
whether this is really a form of marketing orientation at all, because of the ex post status
of consumer research. Some even question whether it is marketing. An emerging area of
study and practice concerns internal marketing, or how employees are trained and
managed to deliver the brand in a way that positively impacts the acquisition and
retention of customers (employer branding). Diffusion of innovations research explores
how and why people adopt new products, services and ideas.
A relatively new form of marketing uses the Internet and is called Internet marketing or
more generally e-marketing, affiliate marketing, desktop advertising or online marketing.
It typically tries to perfect the segmentation strategy used in traditional marketing. It
targets its audience more precisely, and is sometimes called personalized marketing or

one-to-one marketing. With consumers' eroding attention span and willingness to give
time to advertising messages, marketers are turning to forms of permission marketing
such as branded content, custom media and reality marketing.
The use of herd behavior in marketing.
The Economist reported a recent conference in Rome on the subject of the simulation of
adaptive human behavior.[5] Mechanisms to increase impulse buying and get people "to
buy more by playing on the herd instinct" were shared. The basic idea is that people will
buy more of products that are seen to be popular, and several feedback mechanisms to get
product popularity information to consumers are mentioned, including smart-cart
technology and the use of Radio Frequency Identification Tag technology. A "swarm-
moves" model was introduced by a Princeton researcher, which is appealing to
supermarkets because it can "increase sales without the need to give people discounts."
Large retailers Wal-Mart in the United States and Tesco in Britain plan to test the
technology in spring 2009. Other recent studies on the "power of social influence"
include an "artificial music market in which some 14,000 people downloaded previously
unknown songs" (Columbia University, New York); a Japanese chain of convenience
stores which orders its products based on "sales data from department stores and research
companies;" a Massachusetts company exploiting knowledge of social networking to
improve sales; and online retailers who are increasingly informing consumers about
"which products are popular with like-minded consumers" (e.g., Amazon, eBay).

COMPANY PROFILE
Airtel comes to you from Bharti Airtel Limited, one of Asia’s leading integrated telecom
services providers with operations in India and Sri Lanka. Bharti Airtel since its
inception, has been at the forefront of technology and has pioneered several innovations
in the telecom sector.
The company is structured into four strategic business units - Mobile, Telemedia,
Enterprise and Digital TV. The mobile business offers services in India and Sri Lanka.
The Telemedia business provides broadband, IPTV and telephone services in 95 Indian
cities. The Digital TV business provides Direct-to-Home TV services across India. The
Enterprise business provides end-to-end telecom solutions to corporate customers and
national and international long distance services to telcos.
Highlights
REC signs multi-year contract with Airtel for Network Management services
Issued in public interest by Bharti Airtel
Bharti Airtel to Observe Silent period from December 31, 2009
Airtel digitial TV replaces Worldspace radio channels
Bharti Airtel’s Middle East Connect Network to serve global carriers in the region
Bharti Airtel presents India’s First Mobile Phone Usage Survey
Our Brand
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.
Airtel, in just ten years of operations, rose to the pinnacle to achivement and continues to

lead.
As India's leading telecommunications company Airtel brand has played the role as a
major catalyst in India's reforms, contributing to its economic resurgence.
Today we touch peoples lives with our Mobile services, Telemedia services, to
connecting India's leading 1000+ corporates. We also connect Indians living in USA, UK
and Canada with our callhome service.
Our Vision & promise
“We at Airtel always think in fresh and innovative ways about the needs of our customers
and how we want them to feel. We deliver what we promise and go out of our way to
delight the customer with a little bit more”
For Your Business
Airtel is proud to be the trusted communications partner to India’s leading organisations,

working for them to meet the challenges of growth. Across India. Beyond India.
We offer a full suite of business communication services across data, voice and managed
services. Our solutions are tailored to fit your particular needs.
We are a part of the Bharti Group. We have always been challenging the limits of
innovation and striving to find new and better ways of doing things.
Our people are committed to helping you succeed. We will stick with you through thick
and thin.
Innovation Fund

“Innovation has been at the core of our company's DNA-be it our unique business model
based on outsourcing or world-class products and services. The Bharti Airtel Innovation
Fund is a pioneering step to promote innovation and help budding entrepreneurs realise
the dream of running their own enterprise. We are confident that this initiative will
promote the twin pillars of innovation and entrepreneurship to usher in path breaking
changes in the sector.”
Bharti Airtel Innovation Fund (BAIF or the Fund) is aimed at promoting entrepreneurship
and innovation in the field of telecommunication services. The objective of the Fund is to
give opportunities to budding entrepreneurs with a vision to build businesses based on
innovation. The Fund has an initial corpus of Rs 200 crores. BAIF provides seed money
to entrepreneurs who may not otherwise be able to access funds to realize their dreams.
Certified Organisation
Bharti Airtel, Asia's leading integrated telecom services provider announced that it is now
a fully ISO 27001:2005 Certified Organization. The ISO 27001:2005 certification from
BSI: British Standards Institute ensures a high quality information security environment
in Airtel and is one of the most stringent information security standards in the world.
With this achievement, Bharti Airtel has successfully institutionalized a strong security
foundation based on a robust Information Security Management System that is process
oriented, person-independent and self-sustaining.
With a total of 29 certificates awarded under the ISO 27001:2005 Certification Program,
Airtel has the unique distinction of being awarded the largest number of certificates to
any company in India across sectors and is amongst one of the largest in the world. The
ISO 27001:2005 certification program encompassed all strategic business units - Mobile
Services, Enterprise Services and Telemedia Services, covering around 300 locations.
The scope included all central and zonal office locations, data centers, network zones,
landing stations, switch locations and Airtel Center. In terms of personnel, the scope
included all employees of Bharti Airtel.

"The completion of the program is a significant milestone in the journey towards our
2010 vision of being the most admired brand in India. With around 40,000 information
assets under security management, it is a momentous achievement by the team at Airtel
to have made this certification program a huge success" said, Dr Jai Menon, Director
Technology & Customer Service, Airtel. He added, "This certification will help build
trust and confidence amongst our customers and further enhance the confidence of our
employees in operational processes."
The journey to be a ISO 27001:2005 compliant organizations began with the BISP
(Bharti Information Security Policy) being launched in 2003, followed by a great deal of
technology rollout through outsourcing beginning 2004, and a systemized approach for
certification starting 2005 with the first certification being awarded in 2006. Airtel
achieved complete enterprise-wide certification in February, 2009.
ISO develops and publishes standards that establish best practices across a variety of
industries. The ISO 27001:2005 certification is an endorsement of Bharti Airtel
commitment to deliver managed and monitored security solutions that are benchmarked
to the highest international standards.
About Bharti Airtel Limited
Bharti Airtel Limited, a group company of Bharti Enterprises, is Asia's leading integrated
telecom services provider with operations in India and Sri Lanka with an aggregate of
over 91 million customers as of end of January 2009, consisting of 88.38 million mobile
customers. Bharti Airtel Limited has been voted as India's most innovative company, in a
survey conducted by The Wall Street Journal.
Bharti Airtel is structured into three strategic business units - Mobile services, Telemedia
services and Enterprise services. The mobile business offers services in India and Sri
Lanka. The Telemedia business provides broadband and telephone services in 95 cities,
DTH services and has recently forayed into the IPTV services. The Enterprise business
provides end-to-end telecom solutions to corporate customers and national and
international long distance services to carriers. All these services are provided under the

Airtel brand. Airtel's high-speed optic fibre network currently spans over 90,205 kms
covering all the major cities in the country. The company has two international landing
stations in Chennai that connects two submarine cable systems - i2i to Singapore and
SEA-ME-WE-4 to Europe.

MARKETING STRATEGY OF AIRTEL
Search engine marketing
Search engine marketing, or SEM, is a form of Internet marketing that seeks to

promote websites by increasing their visibility in search engine result pages (SERPs)
through the use of paid placement, contextual advertising, and paid inclusion.
Search engine optimization consultants expanded their offerings to help businesses learn
about and use the advertising opportunities offered by search engines, and new agencies
focusing primarily upon marketing and advertising through search engines emerged.
Advertise on 2800 keywords
• 30% of total signups coming from Google SEM for all the countries.
• Real-time monitoring to optimise traffic
• Cost per click
Five buckets of advertising on SEM
• Airtel brand terms- all possible permutations and combinations around the word
Airtel
• Calling cards – keywords around two main theme Call India and India Calling
Card
• Competition – keep track and update any new competitors aggressively on SEM
• Context- the ad appears when a person is reading articles about call india etc.
• Long tail keyword themes – innovative keyword themes

Third Party Ad Serving – What Is It?
Third party ad serving is the technology that pushes ads out to websites and allows
advertisers to track the performance of these ads. Almost every banner ad, interstitial, or
paid search listing is delivered by or tracked by a third party ad server.
Why do advertisers rely on third party ad serving technology?
A third party ad server allows advertisers to know how many times an advertisement has
been served, the number of clicks associated with the ad, conversions resulting from the
ad, etc…And these sites are Google, Yahoo, MSN, BloomsandBulbs.com, and
FlowerPower.net. I want to buy search ads (text listings on Google, Yahoo, and MSN)
and banner ads on BandB.com and FP.net. I could create text ads for Google, Yahoo,
and MSN and have them link directly to jimsflowerpots.com, I could also do the same for
the banner ads for BandB.com and FP.net.
3rd Party Advertising
- Innovations give better CTR (click through rate)
- Text ads on rediff and other sites give better CTR as compared to flash banners
- Deeper penetration by using regional sites like Dinamalar, Divya bhaskar etc as
well as ad networks
Affiliate marketing
Affiliate Marketing is an Internet-based marketing practice in which a business rewards

one or more affiliates for each visitor or customer brought about by the affiliate's
marketing efforts.Affiliate marketing overlaps with other Internet marketing methods to
some degree, because affiliates often use regularadvertising methods. Those methods
include organic search engine optimization, paid search engine marketing, e-mail
marketing, and in some sense display advertising.
The Affiliate Marketing industry has four core players at its heart: the Merchant (also
known informally as 'Retailer' or 'Brand'), the Network, the Publisher (also known

informally as 'the Affiliate') and the Customer, Affiliate marketing—using one website to
drive traffic to another—is a form of online marketing, which is frequently overlooked by
advertisers. [1] While search engines, e-mail, and website syndication capture much of the
attention of online retailers.
Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is the process of improving the quality and quantity
of traffic to a web site from search engines via "Organic", "Algorithmic" or "Natural"
search results rather than Pay Per Click (PPC).Traffic exists on Google as well as the
other major search engines.Search Engine Optimization is the process of studying that

traffic for a specific keyword, theme or area. We can then ascertain your ROI(Return on
Investment) before any work is carried out.
Once we know the traffic volumes available for your business area, we can make
amendments to your site in order to position it it the traffic stream for the highest traffic,
themed keywords.This ensures that once your site reaches the top ten for each keyword
your site will receive a know volume of traffic on a daily basis.
Ninety Nine percent of Web Site Design is carried out by designers who know little if
anything about Search Engines or Optimization. This can create major problems for
their customers who initially fail to realise that the construction of their website will
effect its ability to rank well in the major Search Engines.
Airtel
CallHome
Airtel CallHome Ranking in Google.com Ranking in
Keywords Position Keywords Position Google.com
Call India from USA 1 calling cards from india 5
airtel calling cards 1 phone cards india 6
airtel calling card 1 calling card india 6
airtel call to india 1 calling cards for india 8
airtel call india 1 call usa to india 8
india calling card 2 call to india from usa 8
call to india 2 india prepaid cards 9
call india 2 cheap calling cards india 9
calling to india 3 cheap call india 9
calling india 3 calling cards to india 9
calling cards india 3 cheap india calling cards 10

call india usa 3 calling card to india 14
calling card for india 15
airtel international calling card 3 India phone cards 20
india call card 4 cheap calling card 23
Online Reputation Management
ORM is the practice of consistent research and analysis of one’s personal or professional,
business or industry reputation as represented by the content across all types of online
media.
Why ORM

• Influence consumer perception
• Respond to / protect against negative reviews
• Thwart competitor attacks and bogus reviews
• Improve online brand / service awareness
3 steps of ORM
1. Monitor: Monitor and track what is Being Said Online
2. Analyze: Analyze How the visible information affects your Brand, your reputation.
3. Influence: Influence the results by participating in the conversation and eliminating

negative Sites.

Ranking of Negative postings in Google.com
22- 02-Jan-
Keywords URL Oct-08 09
Positio Positio
n n
AirtelCallHo http://blog.amanthan.com/2006/12/airtelcallhome-sucks-big- Remov

me time.html 2 ed
AirtelCallHo www.complaintsboard.com/complaints/airtel-call-home- Remov

me c44386 3 ed
AirtelCallHo
me http://blog.amanthan.com/category/airtelcallhome 4 20
AirtelCallHo http://www.consumercomplaints.in/complaints/airtelcallhom Remov

me e-c28730.html 5 ed
AirtelCallHo http://www.consumercomplaints.in/bycompany/airtelcallho Remov

me me-a17214.html 6 ed
AirtelCallHo www.consumercomplaints.in/complaints/airtelcallhome- Remov

me c105314.html 12 ed
AirtelCallHo www.complaintsboard.com/complaints/poor-service- Remov

me c36248.html 14 ed
AirtelCallHo http://pratti.wordpress.com/2006/12/23/airtel-call-hell-aka- Remov

me airtelcallhome/ 18 ed
AirtelCallHo www.complaints.com/2006/december/19/Airtel_call_home_
me service_15051 19 27
AirtelCallHo garvitindian.sulekha.com/blog/post/2006/12/beware-of- Remov

me airtelcallhome.htm 20 ed
AirtelCallHo http://www.desifans.com/calling_cards/phone_cards/index.p Remov

me hp?post=13 22 ed
AirtelCallHo http://www.desifans.com/calling_cards/phone_cards/index.p
me hp?post=4 16 10
Social Networking Sites

A social network service focuses on building and reflecting of social networks or social
relations among people, e.g., who share interests and/or activities. A social network
service essentially consists of a representation of each user (often a profile), his/her social
links, and a variety of additional services. Most social network services are web
based and provides means for users to interact over the internet, such as e-
mail and instant messaging. Although online community services are sometimes
considered as a social network service in a broader sense, social network service usually
means an individual-centered service whereas online community services are group-
centered.
The main types of social networking services are those which contain category divisions
(such as former school-year or classmates), means to connect with friends (usually with
self-description pages) and a recommendation system linked to trust. Popular methods
now combine many of these, withFacebook, Bebo and Twitter widely used
worldwide; MySpace and LinkedIn being the most widely used in North America;
Nexopia (mostly inCanada); Bebo, Hi5, StudiVZ (mostly in Germany), iWiW (mostly in
Hungary), Tuenti (mostly in Spain), Decayenne, Tagged, XING; Badoo and Skyrock in
parts of Europe; Orkut and Hi5 in South America and Central America; and Friendster,
Mixi, Multiply, Orkut, Wretch, Xiaonei andCyworld in Asia and the Pacific Islands and
Orkut and Facebook in India.
Typical structure
In general, social networking services allow users to create a profile for themselves, and
can be broken down into two broad categories: internal social networking (ISN); and
external social networking (ESN) sites such as MySpace, Facebook, Twitter and Bebo.
Both types can increase the feeling of community among people. An ISN is a
closed/private community that consists of a group of people within a company,
association, society, education provider and organization or even an "invite only" group
created by a user in an ESN. An ESN is open/public and available to all web users to
communicate and are designed to attract advertisers. ESN's can be smaller specialised
communities (i.e. linked by a single common interest eg The Social Golfer,

ACountryLife.Com, Great Cooks Community) or they can be large generic social

networking sites (eg MySpace, Facebook etc).
Social networking sites typically have a section dedicated to comments by friends. On

Friendster, this section is called "Testimonials". On Facebook, this section is called "The
Wall". In the beginning, this was a feature that encouraged people to write messages
about the person in the profile. But over time, people started writing creative testimonials
back, creating a form of conversation
Social network hosting service
A social network hosting service is a web hosting service that specifically hosts the user
creation of web-based social networking services, alongside related applications.
Business model
Few social networks currently charge money for membership. In part, this may be
because social networking is a relatively new service, and the value of using them has not
been firmly established in customers' minds. Many do not charge money because these
social networks are not much more novel than the forums.
Facebook
Facebook is a social networking website that is operated and privately owned by

Facebook, Inc. Users can add friends and send them messages, and update their personal
profiles to notify friends about themselves. Additionally, users can join networks
organized by city, workplace, school, and region. The website's name stems from the
colloquial name of books given at the start of the academic year by university
administrations with the intention of helping students to get to know each other better.
Orkut

Orkut is a social networking website that is owned and operated by Google Inc. The
service is designed to help users meet new friends and maintain existing relationships
Although Orkut is less popular in the United States than competitors Facebook and
MySpace, it is one of the most visited websites in India and Brazil. In fact, as of
December 2009, 51.09% of Orkut's users are from Brazil, followed by India with 20.02%
and United States with 17.28%
Email Marketing
E-mail marketing is a form of direct marketing which uses electronic mail as a means of
communicating commercial or fundraising messages to an audience. In its broadest sense,
every e-mail sent to a potential or current customer could be considered e-mail
marketing. However, the term is usually used to refer to:
 sending e-mails with the purpose of enhancing the relationship of a merchant with
its current or previous customers and to encourage customer loyalty and repeat
business,
 sending e-mails with the purpose of acquiring new customers or convincing

current customers to purchase something immediately,
 adding advertisements to e-mails sent by other companies to their customers, and
 sending e-mails over the Internet, as e-mail did and does exist outside the Internet
(e.g., network e-mail and FIDO).
Researchers estimate that United States firms alone spent US$400 million on e-mail
marketing in 2006
Advantages
E-mail marketing (on the Internet) is popular with companies for several reasons:

 A mailing list provides the ability to distribute information to a wide range of

specific, potential customers at a relatively low cost.
 Compared to other media investments such as direct mail or printed newsletters,

e-mail is less expensive.
 An exact return on investment can be tracked ("track to basket") and has proven
to be high when done properly. E-mail marketing is often reported as second only
to search marketingas the most effective online marketing tactic.[2]
 The delivery time for an e-mail message is short (i.e., seconds or minutes) as
compared to a mailed advertisement (i.e., one or more days).
 An advertiser is able to "push" the message to its audience, as opposed to website-

based advertising, which relies on a customer to visit that website.
 E-mail messages are easy to track. An advertiser can track users

via autoresponders, web bugs, bounce messages, unsubscribe requests, read
receipts, click-throughs, etc. These mechanisms can be used to measure open
rates, positive or negative responses, and to correlate sales with marketing.
 Advertisers can generate repeat business affordably and automatically.
 Advertisers can reach substantial numbers of e-mail subscribers who have opted
in (i.e., consented) to receive e-mail communications on subjects of interest to
them.
 Over half of Internet users check or send e-mail on a typical day.[3]
 Specific types of interaction with messages can trigger (1) other messages to be
delivered automatically, or (2) other events, such as updating the profile of the
recipient to indicate a specific interest category.
 E-mail marketing is paper-free (i.e., "green").

 Tracking and response metrics enables tuning and optimisation of the E-mail
marketing channel by a process of testing different variants and calculation of
statistically significant results.
 E-mail is popular with digital marketers, rising an estimated 15% in 2009 to

£292m in the UK.
Airtel generally get 25% response in our promotional campaigns, we use Cheetah
Mail for our campaigns that tell us:
- mails opened
- mails bounced
- URLs and Buy Now clicked
- complete tracking
Mobile service provider Airtel which claims to have a strong footprint in 20 states in the
country, has forged a strategic mobile alliance with online destination MSN India and
Mobile 365 which deals with mobile messaging services. Airtel customers will now be
able to access their MSN Hotmail accounts via two-way short message service (SMS), as
well as send and receive messages using MSN Messenger via their Airtel mobile phone.
With this new service, users of MSN Hotmail will have the option to receive email sent
to their MSN Hotmail accounts via SMS on their Airtel mobile phones whenever and
wherever they are. They will also be able to reply to those email messages directly to the
senders inbox using SMS, as well as perform other common tasks directly from their
phone. The 'MSN Messenger over SMS' service is also a form of two-way SMS, which
enables users and their MSN Messenger buddies to keep in touch with each other at any
time via a PC and any mobile phone that supports SMS technology.

PRODUCT OFFERING
• My Plan – 299
• 249 Delight
• Supersaver 399
• 399 full value
• All-in-one 699
• 1299 pack
• 2499 pack
• 125 pack (for government employee)
Corporate plan:
• CUG-EMI-249
• CUG-249 (R1)
• CUG- 249 AES
• CUG Gold- 299
• CUG platinum- 399
Toppings Available
• Local Mobile pack
• Local Airtel pack
• Local Landline pack

• Night pack
• STD pack
• Local SMS pack
• Local + National SMS pack
• International pack
SITE MAP OF ORGANIZATION
At present, AirTel has been operating with a footprint in 15 states covering all 4 metros
providing with a choice of postpaid, prepaid, short messaging service and Multi media
Service.
Following are the states where AirTel has been working:
Andra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Gujarat, Punjab, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Karnataka,
Kerala, Madhya Pradesh, Maharastra, and Uttar Pradesh, Orissa and West Bengal.
Delhi, Mumbai, Calcutta and Chennai(4 Metro Cities).

Services of the organization
AirTel provides a host of value added services. These services are divided in to six
headings as per customer needs:
 Fun Unlimited
• Voice unlimited.
• Ring tones and downloads.
• AirTel messengers.
 Mobile Plus
• Dial a service.
• Short Message Service (SMS).

• Information Service.
• Send and receive E-Mail.
• Mobile Banking.
 Anytime anywhere
• Reach me.
• Roaming.
 Business on the Move
• GPRS
• AirTel Tango WAP Services
• Multimedia Service (MMS)
• FAX & Data Services
 Call Management
• Call line identification (CLIP).
• Call line identification Restriction (CLIR).
• Call Waiting.
• Call Divert.
 Others

• STD / ISD Facility.
• Safe Custody.
• Itemized Billing.
Services offered by the company
1. AirTel Prepaid
Bharti Enterprises, India's leading integrated telecom service provider gives AirTel
Prepaid Ready Cellular Card and Recharge Cards are available, all over the city at our
retail outlets including 24 hour outlets. AirTel gives maximum benefits as it has no rental,
no bills, and no deposits. It gives crystal clear communication all over the cities in
Karnataka.
• Total Cost Control
Enjoy the liberty of total cost control with your AirTel Pre-paid! Re-charge as much as
you feel the need to! Now that's what we call complete freedom!
• No Rentals and No deposits
Buy an AirTel prepaid card without having to pay any rentals!. Your AirTel prepaid card
comes without you having to pay hefty deposits!
• STD /ISD facility till the last rupee
Now experience complete freedom like never before with AirTel! Our STD / ISD facility
allows you to make long distance calls in India and Overseas from your cellular phone!
• Instant Balance Inquiry

Check your talk-time instantly by calling our toll-free number!
• 60 second pulse
AirTel provides you with a 60-second pulse rate! Freedom for you to experience like
never before!
• Instant Recharge
Avail of instant recharge on your AirTel prepaid card with just a few simple steps!
• 24-hour recharge facility
With our round-the-clock recharge facility, recharge you AirTel prepaid card anytime,
anywhere!
• Caller Line Identification
Call Line Identification gives you the power to know the phone number of the calling
party even before you answer the call, thus giving you the choice to either reject or take
the call. It provides the added advantage of saving the incoming number directly in the
Handset Phone Book. So that the next time you want to call the same person, you don't
need to retype his number, simply use your phone book.
Call Divert, Call Hold and Call Wait
Avail of special services like call waiting, call hold and call divert – all with your AirTel
prepaid card!
• Short Messaging Service (SMS)
With AirTel’s Short Messaging Service (SMS), send messages and jokes to your friends
and colleagues, anytime anywhere!
• SMS based Information Services

With AirTel’s SMS based information services; you can get up to-the-minute cricket
scores, order flowers as well as send couriers or check your daily horoscope!
• Voice Mail service
Voice Mail lets you receive messages even when your handset is switched off or when
you are outside the coverage area. You can listen to your messages whenever you feel
like, from anywhere in the world. Voice Mail can store up to 75 messages.
• Widest availability
AirTel prepaid ready cellular card are available all over the city at over 7000 retail outlets
including 24 hours outlets.
Incoming, out going Rates And Rate Plan
• Easy Talk Plan
Pulse Rate 60 seconds
Incoming Calls (Rs.) Free
LOCAL CALLS
To GSM Mobile/WLL (Rs.) 1/min
To Landline (Rs.) 1/min
To AirTel (Rs.) 1/min
STD (To GSM and WLL-M)
All India(Rs.) Rs. 1.50/min
To AirTel (Rs.) Rs. 1.50/min
STD (To Landline)

All India(Rs.) Rs. 1.50/min
ISD
America, Europe, Asia, Oceania, Rs. 6.40 /min

Canada (Rs.)
Gulf countries & Africa Rs. 9.20 /min

& SAARC countries(Rs.)
Other countries(Rs.) Rs.9.20 /min
SMS
SMS Local(Rs.) Re.1/msg ,
SMS National(Rs.) Rs. 1.50/message
SMS International(Rs.) Rs. 5/message
Value Added Services(Rs.) Rs. 3/message
SMS to local CDMA at Rs.1/msg. In case the customer would like to cancel the daily
rental, customer to send "AirTel One Cancel" as SMS to 222 and will be migrated to the
"AirTel Easy Talk" tariff plan without daily rentals.
AirTel Postpaid
AirTel postpaid connection offers enhanced full rate with distortion free high clarity
voice. It provides seamless, crystal clear noncongested, easy accessible, network and
finest 24 Hours customer service facility.
Experience complete freedom

AirTel welcomes you to a vibrant world of unlimited opportunities. More exciting,

innovative yet simple new ways to communicate, just when you want to, not just through
words but ideas, emotions and feelings. To give the unlimited freedom to reach out to
special people in special way.
As an AirTel Post-paid customer you can enjoy the following facilities -
• Easy Billing
Now enjoy the luxury of viewing details of your last 3 billing cycles and the convenience
of paying your AirTel bill online! Experience complete freedom with AirTel!
• Call Divert, Call Hold and Call Wait
Avail of special services like call waiting, call hold and call divert – all with your AirTel
postpaid connection!
• Short Messaging Service (SMS)
With AirTel’s Short Messaging Service (SMS), send unlimited messages and jokes to
your friends and colleagues, anytime anywhere!
• Caller Identification
Call Identification gives you the power to know the phone number of the calling party
even before you answer the call, thus giving you the choice to either reject or take the
call. It provides the added advantage of saving the incoming number directly in the
Handset Phone Book. So that the next time you want to call the same person, you don't
need to retype his number, simply use your phone book.
• Voice Mail

Voice Mail lets you receive messages even when your handset is switched off or when
you are outside the coverage area. You can listen to your messages whenever you feel
like, from anywhere in the world. Voice Mail can store up to 75 messages, with each
message of two-minute duration.
• STD/ISD Facility
Now experience complete freedom like never before with AirTel! Our STD/ISD facility
allows you to make long distance calls in India and Overseas from your cellular phone!
• Roaming (National and International)
AirTel’s Roaming service allows you to use your mobile phone to make or receive calls
from almost anywhere in India and abroad! Enjoy roaming within the country as well as
across international destinations!
Incoming, out going Rates & Rate Plan
• AirTel One 250 SUK
Pulse Rate 60 sec
Incoming Calls(Rs.) 1/min
Making Calls(Rs.) 1.50/min
STD (To GSM and WLL-M)
All India (Rs.) Rs.1.50 /min
To AirTel (Rs.) Rs. 1.50 /min
STD (To landline)
All India (Rs.) Rs.1.50/min

ISD
America, Europe, Asia, Oceania & Canada (Rs.) Rs.16.99
Other countries, & SAARC countries (Rs.) Rs.40.00
SMS
SMS Local(Rs.) 50 ps
SMS National(Rs.) Rs.1.50ps
SMS International(Rs.) Rs.5
Value Added Services(Rs.) Rs.3
SMS to local CDMA (Reliance, Tata Indicom) at Rs.1msg.
In case the customer would like to cancel the daily rental, customer to send "AirTel One
Cancel" as SMS to 222 and will be migrated to the "AirTel Easy Talk" tariff plan without
daily rentals.

GROWTH AND STATUS OF THE ORAGANIZATION
AirTel has an aggregate of 4.5 million customers during the period of 2003-2004. The
market share of the company is 26 %. In June 2003 the company made gross investment
of over 10,650 crore (US$ 2.3 billion) in building telecom in India during the year ended
June 30 2003 mobile services represented approximately 63% of their total revenue.
According to the survey conducted by economic times “Most Trusted Brands” 2003.
AirTel stands in the third position among all the telecom.
Consequently for 4 years 1997 to 2000, AirTel has been noted as the best Cellular service
in the country and won the Techies award. The Asia pacific award for the most
innovative human resources practices in 2000. The Golden Peacock National Training
Award for excellence in training practices in 2000. The Golden Peacock National Quality
Award in 2001.
PROMOTIONAL STRATEGY
Airtel to “Touch Tomorrow” with a new brand vision
The Bharti Mobile promoted AirTel cellular service will go in for repositioning of its
brand image. The new brand ethos is portrayed in two distinct fashions - the tag line
"Touch Tomorrow", which underscores the leading theme for the new brand vision,
followed by "The Good Life", which underscores a more caring, more customer centric
organization. Aimed at re-engineering its image as just simply a cellular service provider
to an all out information communications services provider, Touch Tomorrow is meant to
embrace the new generation of mobile communication services and the changing scope of
customer needs and aspirations that come along with it
The new communication is about a new dimension in the cellular category that goes
beyond the Internet, SMS, roaming, IVRS, etc but which engulfs the whole gamut of
wireless digital broadband services that will constitute tomorrows cellular services. The
new campaign is in two phases - the first of which will communicate overall brand
philosophy and the second products and services. According to Mr. Jagdish Kini, Chief

Operating Officer, Bharti Mobile Limited, Karnataka "We are adopting a new brand-
platform - Touch Tomorrow - not only to reflect our corporate ethos but also business
strategy".
The new identity will have the logo in Red, Black and White colours along with lower
case typography to convey warmth. AirTel will incorporate the latest branding in all of
its communication and will soon be going in for an enhanced promotional drive to
establish the brand's presence.
Life time Plan
PRE-PAID card users need not worry anymore about recharging their coupons every
month. Company has launched a plan that allows users to take a pre-paid connection with
lifetime validity for a one time payment of Rs. 999. Subscribers availing themselves of
this scheme will also get full talk time for the recharge coupon they purchase and also
have the option to buy Taiwanese manufactured Bird mobile handsets for as low as Rs.
1,399.
The move is aimed at stopping the churn in the pre-paid subscriber base. Once a
subscriber takes this plan, he will always be an Airtel subscriber whether the mobile is
being used or not.
MARKET SITUATION
At the time of launch
The first mover in the market was Airtel which launched its services in Delhi in Aug
1995 (Informal launch). Essar Cellphone followed by launching its services informally
in Oct 95. At this point of time, the market was at a nascent stage, awareness level was
low and both operators independently tried to spread awareness and educate the people
Once the networks were commercially launched, it became a number game with a
multitude of schemes being offered to woo customers Initially the cellphone was
perceived as a status symbol and utility took a back seat The target segment in Delhi were

corporate and the high income group. The average capacity installed was for 1.5 lakh
subscribers. This coupled with the steep license fee paid to DOT put pressure on the
operators to break-even by rapidly expanding their markets. In the first two years, this
led to a number of schemes being offered and prices crashing.
COMPETITIVE SITUATION.
Airtel launched its services before Essar and skimmed the market picking up the bulk of
the high usage premium clients. This is a very competitive industry with the two
companies differentiating either on value-added services or price. Airtel is perceived as
the high quality provider and has a premium image. Essar, on the other hand, is
perceived as the lower end service provider. Airtel positions itself as the market leader
on the basis of the number of subscribers. Essar is trying to counter this by emphasising
on the reach of its network and the quality of its service. However, Essar is somewhat
not been very successful largely due to the inconsistency in advertising
To promote themselves, both the players have been dependent on tactical advertising
However, they have restrained from using comparative advertising Hoardings have been
a very popular medium for carrying the advertisements Airtel has also been advertising
on television using the Bharti Telecom name.
SALES DEPARTMENT AND STRATEGY
A. Major Accounts (Direct Channel)
• Handles corporate (named and famed) accounts
• Forecasting of sales
• Mapping the accounts
• Providing after sales support to the subscribers.
• Maintaining call reports for records.

• Providing Feedback to the marketing department regarding the requirement of the

market.
B. IDC (indirect Channel)
• Handling distribution
• Maintaining records and level check of the channel partner
• Liaisoning between the channel partner and the company.
• Target achievement
• Training the executives of the channel
C. Distribution Support
1. Logistics
• Monitor handset and SIM card requirements of channel partners and co-
ordinate with stores
• Settle areas of concerns such as incentive claims of channel partners
2. Rental
• Provide cellular services (SIM cards) on rent.
• Provide cellular phones on rent
• Useful for people visiting Delhi for a short interval.
3 Telesales
• Call customers and generate sales lead.
• Follow up with the customers, if they need any assistance

• Pass on the sales lead to the channel department.
4 Audit
• Consultant to the AirTel showrooms.
• Monitor the operations at the AirTel distribution outlets Organize training.
5. Retail
• Locate shops to open retail counters.
• Monitor the retail counters.
MARKET SEGMENTATION
Segmentation is beneficial because of better predictability of the target consumer group,

minimization of risk exposure, better ability to fine-tune a product / service to the
requirement of target buyer and the resultant ease in designing a proper designing
marketing mix strategy In this case segmentation is on the bade of income.
In evaluating different market segments the company looks at two factors The overall
attractiveness of the segments and the company's objectives & resources The present
market for Cellular phones, pagers and conventional phones is as follows
Premium Middle Economy
Upper Lower Upper Lower Upper Lower
Cellular Phones X X X - - -
Pager X X X X - -
Conventional Phones X X X X X -
X Market Segment Targeted

TARGET MARKET SEGMENT
Airtel has targeted the premium and upper middle class. The rationale behind it is that
only those segments should be targeted who value time and have the paying capacity. It
Is also planning to target the business tourists during their stay in the capital
About 60% of the clientele are top executives of corporate houses. About 15% are
foreign organisations and the rest are professionals and small businessmen. During the
introduction stage there was intense pressure to get consumers across to hook up with
their brand, because getting them to switch brand loyalty later would be hard
So far Airtel marketers have been concentrating totally on the business executive class
but now that the basic viable volumes has beer) built up and prices have declined to a
certain extent they are planning to venture further a field.
POSITIONING
The product is sought to be positioned as a business efficiency tool. a lifestyle revolution

and a status symbol The emphasis is to remove misconception that the cellphone is an
expensive means of communication and drive home the point that the cellphone is
actually a day-to-day utility
PRODUCT POLICY AND PLANNING
The product or service is the heart of the marketing mix. Without a product or a service
customers' needs cannot be satisfied.
The basic product promise by Airtel is mobility. Airtel's main marketing strategy is to be
a first mover all the time. It has recognised the significance of making the first move--
because in the field of Communication & Information Technology changes occur at a
tremendous pace.
Effective product segmentation has to be carried on continuously because basic services

can be and will be copied and in time become expected component of the product. Airtel

seeks to carry out this segmentation through provision of new information services and
making new facilities available. The product policy and planning depends on the stage of
the product life cycle. At present the cellular phone market has reached the maturity
stage. Since, the premium segment is nearing saturation the company targeting the upper
middle and middle-middle class. In order to do so Airtel is trying to optimise the price
performance package by offering suitable "product bundling".
This involves the selection of the suitable hardware (handset) and its software (its
services.) with reasonable price in order to deliver maximum price performance to its
customers. In addition, it offers free Airtime services and other concessions to make the
prices and thus the product more attractive. It has also opened a 24 hours customer
service.
Only price doesn't serve as an effective differentiator, value added services become the
effective differentiator.
The "Value Added Services" provided from Airtel are:-
1) Voice Mail service
This system is similar to the answering machine - if the user is not able to answer a call
for some reason the caller can leave messages in the voice mail box which can be later
retrieved by the user
2) Short Message Service
The short message service is like a two-way pager. It gives an option of sending and
receiving text messages directly from one mobile phone to another without the
intervention of an operator.
3) Mobile Fax 1 Data Service
This service helps the subscriber to send and receive Faxes, access E-mail, download
computer files from other systems and remotely log on to another computer and surf the
Internet.

4) Cash Card
The cash card is a pre-paid and pre-activated card which allows the buyers to buy air time
in advance. All it requires is the payment of an initial amount. This is a useful service
for people who travel to Delhi often and those who want to control the expenses on their
calls.
5) Caller ID
Displays calling person's number.
6) Outgoing call restriction
To prevent or limit outgoing calls, for example, in peak hours. Also possible to exclude
one or several countries, or any geographical region, to permit only local calls, or to limit
the outgoing calls to a listed number.
7) Call forward
Incoming calls can be forwarded to another fixed or mobile phone.
Besides these some other services provided by Airtel are - Call conferencing, Call
Broadcast et cetera.
It is in the operators -Interest that they not only get many subscribers but also get them to
use the mobile facility frequently. In the early stages getting increases to subscribe may
be easier than getting them to talk since they will find it costlier to use the mobile phone
as compared to a conventional phone [if is believed that initially cellphones would be
used buy]
8) Roaming Facility
Roaming facility is available while the subscriber is travelling. The billing is done in the
home network (Delhi). Roaming facility is available manually* as well as semi-
automatically. Once a subscriber is In any other city or country, where a GSM network is

available, simply insert the SIM card of the local operator Into your handset and start
talking.
* Manual Roaming means a separate SIM card is provided for each city
** Semi automatic roaming means one card has the facility for different cities.
AIRTEL'S MARKETING ORIENTATION.
Since this is a high-involvement expensive product, the service provider has to fully take
care of the customers.
a) They take personal responsibility to "get" the answer for any problem faced by
the customer
b) They anticipate customers' problems and take pro-active steps to prevent them
c) They give answers to the questions & requests, quickly & efficiently.
d) They have a positive tone & manner while interacting with customers.
e) They end the interaction on a positive or a humorous note-making the last 30

seconds count.
Airtel realises that attracting people 'Is easy but converting them into loyal customers is
hard, hence emphasis is on maintaining a 'Smiling and a Friendly Atmosphere' to please
and retain the customer.
PRICE AND PRICING POLICY
AIRTEL has realised that the Indian market is price sensitive. Therefore it care of the
has come up with various innovative tariff schemes to take needs of different category of
customers- Generally, the cellular services are more expensive than the land line based
telephone services. This is due to the reason that the operating companies are required to
pay a fee to the government for using airtime.

Marketing Strategy Adopted by Bharti
Bharti has spent a considerable amount on advertising its mobile phone service, Airtel.
Besides print advertising, the company had put up large no of hoardings and kiosks in
and around Delhi.
The objective behind designing a promotion campaign for the ‘Airtel’ services is to
promote the brand awareness and to build brand preferences.
It is trying to set up a thematic campaign to build a stronger brand equity for Airtel.
Since the cellular phone category itself is too restricted, also the fact that a Cellular phone
is a high involvement product, price doesn't qualify as an effective differentiator. The
image of the service provider counts a great deal. Given the Cell phone category, it is the
network efficiency and the quality of service that becomes important. What now the
buyer is looking at is to get the optimum price-performance package. This also serves as
an effective differentiator
Brand awareness is spread through the' campaigns and brand preference through brand
stature. Airtel's campaign in the capital began with a series of 'teaser' hoardings across
the city,' bearing just the company's name and without explaining what Airtel was. In the
next phase the campaign associated Airtel with Cellular only thereafter was the Bharti
Cellular connection brought up. Vans with Airtel logos roamed the city, handing out
brochures about the company and its services to all consumers. About 50,000
direct callers were sent out. When the name was well entrenched in the Delhiites’s mind,
the Airtel campaign began to focus on the utility of Cellphone. In the first four months
alone Airtei's advertisement spend exceeded Rs. 4 crores.
As of today the awareness level Is 60% unaided. This implies that if potential or
knowledgeable consumers are asked to name a Cellular phone service provider that is on
the top of his/her mind 60% of them would name Airtel. As for aided it -is 100% (by
giving clues and hints etc.).

Brand strength of a product or the health of a brand is measured by the percentage score
of the brand on the above aided and the unaided tests. The figures show that Airtel is a
healthy and a thriving brand.
Every company has a goal, which might comprise a sales target and a game plan with due
regard to Its competitor. Airtel 's campaign strategy is designed keeping in mind its
marketing strategy. The tone, tenor and the stance of the visual ads are designed to
convey the image of a market leader in terms of its market share. It tries to portray the
image of being a "first mover every time" and that of a "market leader".
The status of the product in terms of its life cycle has just reached the maturity stage in
India. It is still on the rising part of the product life cycle curve in the maturity stage.
The diagram on the left hand side shows the percentage of the users classified into heavy,
medium and low categories. The right hand side shows the revenue share earned from
the three types of users.
Airtel, keeping in mind the importance of the customer retention, values its heavy users
the most and constantly indulges in service innovation. But, since heavy users comprise
only 15 - 20% of the population the other segment cannot be neglected.
The population which has just realised the importance of cellular phones has to be roped
in. It is for this reason that the service provider offers a plethora of incentives and
discounts. Concerts like the "Freedom concert" are being organised by Airtel in order to
promote sales. The media channel is chosen with economy in mind. The target segment
is not very concrete but, there is an attempt to focus on those who can afford. The print
advertisements and hoarding are placed in those strategic areas which most likely to catch
the attention of those who need a cellular phone. The product promise (which might cost
different 1 higher) is an important variable in determining the target audience.
Besides this, other promotional strategies that Airtel has adopted are .

(i) People who have booked Airtel services have been treated to exclusive premiers
of blockbuster movies. Airtel has tied up with Lufthansa to offer customer bonus miles
on the German airlines frequent flier's programs.
(ii) There have been educational campaigns, image campaigns, pre launch
advertisements, launch advertisements, congratulatory advertisements, promotional
advertise-ments, attacking advertisements and tactical advertisements.
DISTRIBUTION
Company
Franchisee Distributor
Dealers
Dealer
Customer
Customer
The- company whose operations are concentrated in and around Delhi. It 27 Franchisees
and 15 Distributors- They also have 8 'instant access cash card counters- Each franchises
or distributor can have any number of dealers under him as long as the person is approved
by the Airtel authority. Each franchises has to invest Rupees Ten Lakhs. to obtain a
franchise and should employ an officer recruited by Airtel. This person acts as an liaison
between the company and the franchises. The franchises can it any number of dealers as
long as their territories do not overlap. But unfortunately Airtel has not been very
successful in controlling territorial overlaps of dealers. The franchises can carry out his 1
her own promotional strategy. For this the. company contributes 75% of the money and
the franchises contributes 25% of the money. The dealers under the franchisee receive
the same commission. The franchises and the dealer obtain the feedback from the

customers and they are sent through the liaison officer on a day-to-day basis to Airtel.
The dealer has to invest Rupees. One Lakh as an initial investment. The dealer of Airtel
are not allowed to provide any other operators' service.
Target set for distributors and the dealers is 100 -150 activations per month. Hence the
dealers can also go for their own promotions like banners and discounts on festivals etc.
The dealer provides service promptly. The consumer on providing the bill of purchase
for the handset and proof of residence has only to wait an hour before getting connected.
The staff of the dealers and the franchisees are provided training by the Airtel personnel.
The complaints encountered by the franchisees and dealers are either handset being non-
functional or the SIM Card not getting activated. Anything more complicated is referred
to the main Airtel office in Delhi.
WHAT DOES AIRTEL OFFER?
With Airtel, the subscriber wouldn't just get a personal phone that lets him/her be in
touch, always, but also gets a host of benefits that let him/her manage his/her time like
never before.
An Airtel subscriber is provided with a Subscriber Identity Module Card (SIM card) -
that is the key to operating his/her cellular phone. His card activates Airtel cellular
services and contains a complete micro-computer chip with memory to enable one to
enjoy one's cellular phone thoroughly. Each SIM card contains a PIN code (Personal
Identity Number) which may be entered by one. Just plug your SIM card into your
cellular phone, enter the PIN code and it becomes 'your' personal phone'.
PRODUCT LIFE CYCLE
The pattern of cellphone subscriber growth observed elsewhere in the world reveals that
the growth in the market is Initially slow followed by a sharp acceleration, but so far that
has not happened in India. As far as the Product Life Cycle is concerned. Indians are at
the beginning of the maturity stage.

introduction growth maturity
Marketing Objectives
Create product awareness Maximise market share Maximise profits whole

and trial defending market share
Strategies
Product Offer a basic Offer value added Increase in number

product/ service. services of value added
services.
Price Charge cost- plus Price to penetrate Price to match or

market best competitors
Distribution Build selective Build Intensive Build more

distribution distribution. intensive
distribution.
Advertising Build product Build awareness Stress brand

awareness among and interest in the differences and
early adopters and mass market benefits.
dealers.
Sales Promotion Use heavy sales Increase to build Increase to

promotion to entice and maintain encourage brand-
people to subscribe. relationships with switching.
customers.

PRIMARY FINDING AND ANALYSIS
1. Age Group:
No. of Respondents
Age group
30
25
20
15
10
5
0
10-20 20-40 Above 40
Age
2. Gender:
Gender
42% Male
58% Female

3. Which type of connection do you prefer?
Connec tion
42% Prepaid
58% Postpaid
Through the above analysis we can easily find out that, majority of the people still prefer
prepaid connections more. There are 58% people who prefer prepaid connections
whereas 42% people prefer postpaid connection in west Nagpur area. shows that there is
tough competition for prepaid. It is because of billing problems in postpaid connections.
4. Whose service(s) are you rendering now?
Airtel
50% 50% Idea
Through the above analysis it is found that 50% people prefer Airtel connection and 50%
people prefer Idea connection.

5. How long have you been using this connection of your service provider?
12
10
No. of Respondents
8
Airtel
6
Idea
4
0
Less than 3-6 6-12 1-2 years 2-3 years More than
3 months months months 3 years
Duration
The above graph shows that more no. of people is keeping Airtel and Idea connection
from 1-2 years. These factors are responsible to gain the market share over the
competitor. Whereas there are few who are associated with service provider less than 3
months.

6. What are the key factors/reasons for your association with current cellular service
provider?
9
No. of Respondents
8
7
6
5 Airtel
4 Idea
3
2
1
0
Recommended
Recommended
Other Reasons
Advertisement
Awareness of
the service
Friends
Retailer
Influenced
provider
Factors/Reasons
From the above graph it is clear that people are using Airtel because their friends had
recommended. Whereas people are using Idea because of advertisement attraction. After
that awareness of the service provider is the factor which influenced customer to render
the service.

7. How do you find the behavior of customer care executives of your service provider?
9
No. of Respondents
8
7
6
5 Airtel
4 Idea
3
2
1
0
Professional & Warm & Not Lazy & slow
prompt helpful Responding
Behavior
Acceptance or rejection of any product is largely depended on the services provided by

the customer care which is also known as after sales service or Customer Relationship
Management (CRM). If a company provides better services to the customer by solving
their queries, it can be successful to retain them. Similarly, in case of the telecom service
providers play a major role to retain customers by solving their problems.
As per the survey conducted and its findings, it was concluded that Airtel is the leader in
maintaining the good relations with its customers and it solves customers’ problems
efficiently and effectively than Idea. But still people feel that customer care executives
are not responding and lazy & slow.

8. What kind of expectations do you have from your service provider?
Cheap
Roaming Improved
charges Service
8% 14%
Cheap SMS
22%
Good Network
24%
Cheap Call
rates
32%
As per the research, the people of west Nagpur are more inclined towards cheap call rates
of their service providers followed by the good network. After that people expects cheap
SMS, improved service and cheap roaming charges from their service provider.

9. Rate your satisfaction level with your service provider
12
10
Airtel
6
Idea
0
Very Good Good Satisfied Bad Very Bad
Customers’ satisfaction plays a crucial role for the service provider. It is found that more
number of people are satisfied with Idea whereas same number of people thinks that
Airtel and Idea is good. It shows that satisfaction level of Airtel and idea is near about
same.

10. How much do you spend per month on your mobile connection?
12
10
8
Airtel
6
Idea
4
0
Rs.100 Rs. 200 Rs. 500 More than Rs.
500
Spending pattern is also another criterion which is crucial for any telecom service
providers. Customers’ spending habits ultimately help in deciding their loyalty towards
the product. For example, if a customer frequently spends money on the same product
then it shows that he prefers to buy that product than other products which ultimately
leads to his loyalty towards that brand.
Above graph shows that more no. of people spend more than Rs. 500 for their mobile
connection. Then the people are spending upto Rs. 500.

11. Given a choice with same number, which service provider will you select?
10
9
8
7
6
Airtel
5
Idea
4
3
2
1
0
Reliance Vodafone BSNL Tata Indicom
As per the above chart suggests and as per the findings, it can be seen that Airtel people
have Vodafone as preference opinion whereas Idea people have both Reliance and Tata
Indicom because of their good network coverage.

12. How do you find STD rates of your service provider?
16
14
12
10
Airtel
8
Idea
6
0
Costly Affordable Economical Unaffordable
As the above chart shows both Airtel and Idea customers find the STD rates of both
service providers are costly. Whereas few customers feel that STD rates are affordable,
economical and unaffordable.

13. Do you find availability of network of your service provider at following area?
16
14
12
10
Airtel
8
Idea
6
0
Remote Area Hill Stations Outskirts
As per the findings, it was found that Idea has very good network coverage in remote
area. Airtel and Idea shoes very close competition for coverage. Because in Hill stations
and outskirts it more or less same.

14. What are the different schemes provided by your service provider?
14
12
10
8 Airtel
6 Idea
0
SMS Talktime Festival Other
Schemes
As the graph shows, the customers’ preferences in case of Idea and Airtel is same with
both the schemes SMS and talk time as the preference is same for both.

15. How long do you have to wait in customer care?
14
12
10
8 Airtel
6 Idea
0
Up to 1 2 minutes 3-5 minutes 6-10 11 minutes
minute minutes or more
The customer’s liking about a particular service provider is also depended on how the
customer care executive solves his problem and how much time he takes to reach the
customer. So, here the data is collected on the basis of how much a customer has to wait
while calling the customer care.
The data reveals that majority of the customers have to wait for 6-10 minutes. Then some
customers have to wait for 3-5 minutes. There are less number of customers who have to
wait for 11, 2 and upto 2 minutes.

16. Are you aware of 3G technology?
20
18
16
14
12
Yes
10
No
8
6
4
2
0
Airtel Idea
There are new inventions and technologies come up in the market to enhance the
competition and make the usage much faster and also useful as well as easy to use. 3G
technology is one of those technologies. In the survey, it was asked to the customers
whether they are aware of new 3G technology or not. The results are mentioned in the
above chart. Airtel customers are aware about 3G than Idea customers. It can be seen that
there is very less difference between awareness about 3G in Airtel and Idea customers.

RECOMMENDATION
On the basis of the primary research and secondary research, the following
recommendations can be concluded:
 Lowering the tariff plans of service providers will increase more competition.
 Bringing more up gradation in VAS for the betterment of the users.
 Improvement of network infrastructure in both the urban and the rural areas.
 Reducing the STD and ISD charges for the users.
 Companies can provide new and different schemes to their customers.
After talking to customer care executives of telecom sector, the following

recommendations can be concluded as a part of their strategies for acquiring or retaining
new customers:
 The telecom operators should take less time for the solving customer’s queries.
 Majority of the operators focus on the special occasions to launch new schemes
but they can also launch schemes on weekly or monthly basis to attract new
customers.
 Customer care executives should concentrate more on pre-paid connections for

the price sensitive customers and post-paid connections for business class people
or high class people. They should use their media tools accordingly.
 They should concentrate more on the attributes like talk-time facility, network,
voice clarity etc apart from SMS, VAS and schemes.
 They should focus more on VAS like GPRS facilities, games, astrology, and
music for young people and business news for business people.
 They should also focus on new technologies like 3G.

 They should also focus on pilot projects before launching a product, especially in
case of rural areas.
CONCLUSION AND IMPLICATION
India has one of the world’s largest telecommunication networks. The telecom story
continues to be the best evidence of the efficacy of the reforms process. In just six years,
the number of mobile subscribers has gone up from just about one million to 100 million,
a subscriber base that only four other countries China, the US, Japan and Russia can
boast of. None can doubt the correlation between this explosive growth in numbers and
the steep decline in the cost of the mobile phone and of its usage.
After analyzing the findings of the research, it can conclude that Airtel is the leader in
customer service and availability. The maximum no. of people who use the mobile is in
the age group of 20 to 28. Prepaid is popular type of mobile connections, as they are
consumer friendly and recharging the connection is not a problem. People do not prefer
postpaid because of billing problems.
Maximum no. of people spends more than Rs 500 on their connections. As Airtel is the
only company having the maximum no of mobile connections so it must seriously look
into the loop holes of the existing customer service department.
We can say that in spite of so many competitors in the market Airtel is having a good
position just because every time, it tries its best to understand the need of its important
customers.
Idea is having particular customer potential. Mostly it is preferred by business class

people because of availability of network. Idea provides the same scheme as that of
Airtel. People also spend more money on Idea connection.
Considering both Airtel and Idea have same features and benefits. Only the difference is
between the subscriber base. Airtel has more subscriber base than that of Idea.

Recently both Airtel and Idea has launched 1 paisa / second scheme to compete with
TATA DOCOMO. This shows that service providers are more into competition trend
which should be followed by them to sustain in the market.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
 Reports:
1. DoT Report 2008-09
2. TRAI Report 2008-09
3. TRAI Report 2007-08
4. COAI Report 2008
5. COAI Report 2009
 Articles:
1. Bernhard Goldberger- 19th Bled e-Conference eValues
2. The Economic Times
 Websites:
1. www.airtel.in
2. www.ideacellular.com
3. www.dot.gov.in
4. www.wikipedia.org
5. www.micrositemobile.com

COPY OF QUESTIONNAIRE
Put a tick ( ) for the right option.
1. Age Group: 10-20 20-40 Above 40
2. Gender: Male Female
3. Which type of connection do you prefer?
Pre-paid Post-paid
4. Whose service(s) are you rendering now?
Airtel Idea
5. How long have you been using this connection of your service provider?
Less than 3 months 6-12 months
3-6 months 1-2 years
2-3 years More than 3 years
6. What are the key factors/reasons for your association with current cellular service
provider?
Awareness of the service provider Friends Recommended
Retailer Influenced Advertisement Recommended
Other Reasons
7. How do you find the behavior of customer care executives of your service provider?

Professional & prompt Not Responding
Warm & helpful Lazy & slow
8. What kind of expectations do you have from your service provider?
_______________________________________________________________________
_
_______________________________________________________________________
_
9. Rate your satisfaction level with your service provider.
Very Good Good Satisfied Bad Very Bad
10. How much do you spend per month on your mobile connection?
_______________________________________________________________________
_
11. Given a choice with same number, which service provider will you select?
Tata Indicom BSNL
Reliance Vodafone
12. How do you find STD rates of your service provider?
_______________________________________________________________________
_
13. Do you find availability of network of your service provider at following area?
Remote Area Hill Stations Outskirts
14. What are the different schemes provided by your service provider?

SMS Talk-time Festival Schemes Other
15. How long do you have to wait in customer care?
Up to 1 minute 3-5 minutes
2 minutes 6-10 minutes
11 minutes or more
16. Are you aware of 3G technology?
Yes No

Marketing Strategy of Airtel

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THE INDIAN INSTITUTE OF PLANNING AND MANAGEMENT

PROF. SUMANTA SHARMA

UNDER THE GUIDANCE OF:

PROF. DIPTI SHARMA MR. ASHWANI RANA

BATCH: PGP/SS/2009-11 ii ALUMNI ID NO.: DS/09/11-M-047

TO WHOMESOEVER IT MAY CONCERN

May god bless him with all success in his career.

BATCH: PGP/SS/2009-11 iii ALUMNI ID NO.: DS/09/11-M-047

TOPIC APPROVAL LETTER

From: Thesis <thesis@iipm.edu>

Dear Harish Kumar,

This is to inform that your thesis proposal on "Marketing Strategies of Airtel", to be

1) A thesis would be rejected if there is any variation in the topic/title

2) The candidate needs to handwrite at least 1200 to 1500 words on the

BATCH: PGP/SS/2009-11 iv ALUMNI ID NO.: DS/09/11-M-047

It is well-established fact that behind every achievement lays an unfathomable sea of

I express my gratitude to IIPM, New Delhi for providing me an opportunity to work on

BATCH: PGP/SS/2009-11 v ALUMNI ID NO.: DS/09/11-M-047

APPROVED THESIS SYNOPSIS

Name: Harish Kumar

Desire Area of Student to do research:

Title of the thesis:

BATCH: PGP/SS/2009-11 vi ALUMNI ID NO.: DS/09/11-M-047

BATCH: PGP/SS/2009-11 vii ALUMNI ID NO.: DS/09/11-M-047

Scope of the work:

Justification of choosing the topic:

BATCH: PGP/SS/2009-11 viii ALUMNI ID NO.: DS/09/11-M-047

COMPLETION LETTER FROM EXTERNAL GUIDE...........................iii

TOPIC APPROVAL LETTER...................................................................iv

APPROVED THESIS SYNOPSIS.............................................................vi

2. RESEARCH OBJECTIVE & METHODOLOGY..............................................11

MARKETING STRATEGY OF AIRTEL..........................................................36

4. PRIMARY FINDING AND ANALYSIS...........................................................72

6. CONCLUSION & IMPLICATIONS..................................................................87

BATCH: PGP/SS/2009-11 ix ALUMNI ID NO.: DS/09/11-M-047

BATCH: PGP/SS/2009-11 ALUMNI ID NO.: DS/09/11-M-047

Fixed/Basic Network Services

BATCH: PGP/SS/2009-11 ALUMNI ID NO.: DS/09/11-M-047

BATCH: PGP/SS/2009-11 ALUMNI ID NO.: DS/09/11-M-047

National Long Distance

International Long Distance

• In the pre-reform period, growth was primarily driven by public sector

BATCH: PGP/SS/2009-11 ALUMNI ID NO.: DS/09/11-M-047

• Reform process was started with new telecom policy 1994.

New Telecom Policy’ 94

New Telecom Policy’ 99

• Access to telecommunications is of utmost importance for achievement of the

BATCH: PGP/SS/2009-11 ALUMNI ID NO.: DS/09/11-M-047

• Strive to provide a balance between the provision of universal service to all

• Encourage development of telecommunication facilities in remote, hilly and tribal

• Create a modern and efficient telecommunications infrastructure taking into

• Transform in a time bound manner, the telecommunications sector to a greater

• Strengthen research and development efforts in the country and provide an

• Enable Indian Telecom Companies to become truly global players.

• To encourage development of telecom in rural areas making it more affordable by

BATCH: PGP/SS/2009-11 ALUMNI ID NO.: DS/09/11-M-047

From the above graph we see that:

• Growth started in phase I of the reform 1998-2003.

 TRAI facilitated huge reduction in forborne tariffs in 2003-05.

 Allowed handsets sales in instalments.

1. Degree of rivalry of existing industry competitors.

BATCH: PGP/SS/2009-11 ALUMNI ID NO.: DS/09/11-M-047