MARKETING MANAGEMENT ASSIGNMENT (II)- AIRTEL ANSHUMAN DUTTA 215111070, 2011 -13

CONTENTS INTRODUCTON.3 HISTORY.4 CERTAIN FACTS ON AIRTEL....4 MISSION OF ORGANISATION...5 SERVICES OFFERED5 VALUES OF ORGANISATION....7 EVALUATION OF AIRTEL BRAND ELEMENTS...8 BRAND AWARENESS...9 NEW ADVERTISEMENT....10 BRANDING STRATEGIES..11 REPOSITIONING.12 VALUE ADDED SERVICES13 PROMOTIONS..13 CAMPAIGNS.15 AIRTEL MARKET ORIENTATION..15 GREEN INITIATIVE15 ACQUISITIONS AND MERGERS.16 JOINT VENTURES...17 SALES STRATEGY..19 PRICING STRATEGY.20 RECOMMENDATIONS..21 REFERENCES..22

INTRODUCTION
Airtel is the 3rd largest in-country mobile operator by subscriber base, behind China Mobile and China Unicom. Bharti Airtel Limited (NSE: BHARTIARTL, BSE: 532454), commonly known as Airtel, is an Indian telecommunications company that operates in 20 countries across South Asia, Africa and the Channel Islands. It operates a GSM network in all countries, providing 2G or 3G services is the world's fifth largest telecommunication company and has more than 150 million users in India, 40 million in Africa and another 10 million in Bangladesh and Sri Lanka. In November 2010, Airtel said its subscriber base has crossed the 200 million mark and unveiled a new logo to mark the achievement. The company has a submarine cable landing station at Chennai, which connects the submarine cable connecting Chennai and Singapore.

The logo as shown alongside is a modern representation of the letter 'a' on a bright red background. Here are some notes and comments from Bharti on their design The unique symbol is an interpretation of the a in airtel. The curved shape & the gentle highlights on the red colour make it warm & inviting, almost as if it were a living object. The logo represents a dynamic force of unparalleled energy that brings us and our customers closer," it added. The unboxed having been freed of its rigid boundaries. The colour "Red is part of our heritage and it is the colour of energy & passion that expresses the dynamism that has made Airtel the success it is today, in India, and now on the global stage. The logo has been designed by creative agency BRAND UNION.

- The entire re-branding campaign has apparently cost the company close to Rs 350-Crore. - A new theme tune, composed by A.R Rehman has also been released.

History
Bharti Tele-Ventures was incorporated on July 7, 1995 as a company with limited liability under the Companies Act, for promoting telecommunications services. Bharti Tele-Ventures received certificate for commencement of business on January 18, 1996. The Company was initially formed as a wholly-owned subsidiary of Bharti Telecom Limited. Sunil Bharti Mittal is the Founder, Chairman and Group CEO of Bharti Enterprise.

Certain facts on Airtel

Headquarters New Delhi, India Area served South Asia, Africa and the Channel Islands Key people Sunil Bharti Mittal (Chairman) and (MD) Products Fixed-line and mobile telephony, broadband and fixed-line internet services, digital television and network services Revenue increase US$9.290 billion (2010) Operating income increase $2.313 billion (2010) Profit increase $2.079 billion (2010) Total assets increase $15.527 billion (2010) Total equity increase $9.491 billion (2010) Employees 22,858 (June 2011) Parent Bharti Enterprises (63.45%) SingTel (32.15%) Vodafone (4.4%) Subsidiaries Airtel Africa, Airtel Digital TV Website www.airtel.in

Coverage map of Bharti Airtel across 20 countries

Image Credits- WWW.DINESH.COM

The company is structured into four strategic business units Mobile, Telemedia, Enterprise and Digital TV. The mobile business offers services in India, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh. Telemedia business provides broadband, IPTV and telephone services in 89 Indian cities. 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.

Mission of the Organization

The company meets the mobile communication needs of their customer through Brand identity Error free service delivery Cost efficiency Unified messaging solutions Innovative products and service

Services Offered By the Company

Airtel Prepaid Bharti Enterprises, India's leading integrated telecom service provider gives AirtelPrepaid Ready Cellular Card and Recharge Cards are available, all over the city at our retailoutlets 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! Airtel prepaid card comes without 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 making long distance calls in India and Overseas from 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.
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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 Short Messaging Service (SMS), send messages and jokes to your friends and colleagues, anytime anywhere. SMS based Information Services With Airtel 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 Airtel Postpaid Airtel postpaid connection offers enhanced full rate with distortion free high clarityvoice. It provides seamless, crystal clear no congested, easy accessible, network and finest 24Hours customer service facility.

Easy Billing One can enjoy the luxury of viewing details of your last 3 billing cycles and the convenience of paying your Airtel bill online. 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 Short Messaging Service (SMS), send unlimited messages and jokes to your friendsand 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'tneed 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 areoutside the coverage area. You can listen to your messages whenever you feel like, fromanywhere 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 youto make long distance calls in India and Overseas from your cellular phone. Roaming (National and International) Airtels 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 aswell as across international destinations

Values of the Organizations

Innoventuring To generate and implement entrepreneurial and innovating ideas which continuously creates new growth engines.

Customers first To provide service beyond the expectations of the customers. The quality of the customerresponsiveness clearly differentiates them from others. Performance culture To benchmark the processes and performances against world class standards, to distinguish between performers, by valuing achievements at the individual as well asteam level. Valuing partnership Get committed to building exemplary relationship with partners who stand on the principles of mutual growth and trust. Valuing people To mature as environment where people are respected and their uniqueness is valued. They believe that people are their key differentiator. Responsible Corporate Citizenship Committed for making a positive and pro-active contribution to the society. They will contribute to and abide by environmental and legal norms. Ethical Practices They will uphold the highest ethical standard in all internal and external relationship.

Evaluation of Airtel Brand Elements

Memorability: Easily recognized Easily recalled

The brand elements of Airtel are memorable. It has no complexity in their brand elements. At least people can easily recognize and recall the parent brand Airtel Bharati. Though its sub-brands are little bit tough to recognize and recall. So we can say parent brand are highly memorable. Meaningfulness: Descriptive Persuasive

Brand elements may take on all kinds of meaning, with either descriptive or persuasive content. The brand elements of Airtel have descriptive meaning and suggest something about the product category.

Likability: Fun and interesting Rich visual and verbal imagery Aesthetically pleasing

Airtel uses its parent brand name in different font and style as their logo and symbol of parent brand. Different brands of Airtel Bharti use different brand elements. Brand elements of Airtel are so much likable. It is likable especially to the educated or to the brand loyal people. Transferability: Transferability within and across product category Transferability across geographic boundaries and culture

Transferability means how useful is the brand elements for line or category extension. In general the less specific the name, the more easily it can be transferred across categories. In that sense Airtel Bhartiis successful in terms of transferability. Because it already introduced other products that have been accepted by the customers. Adaptability: Flexible Updatable

The fifth consideration for brand elements is their adaptability over time. The brand Airtel is highlyadaptable and updatable. It was launched in 7 July 1995, and continuing by the same name. It doesnt have to face any problem to change or update the brand elements with the change of time. Protectability: Legally Competitively

This is the final consideration of evaluation criteria. The brand elements of Airtel Bharti are protectable both in a legal and a competitive sense because it is registered with the appropriate legal bodies and vigorously defended trademark from unauthorized infringement.

Airtel Brand Awareness

For a brand to be successful, it must build enduring relationship with different audiences. Integral to this relationship is the visual image of the brand the consumer carries in his/her mind. The Airtel brand image is created through consistent application of a carefully developed visual identity, which helps Airtel distinguish itself in a cluttered market. Airtel visual identity helps to create instant brand recall and strengthens the relationship that it audience have with it.

Brand Slogan aisi azadi aur kahan Signature Tune In 2002, Airtel chose one of the countrys most successful music composers A R Rahman andtune he gives, denote Live every moment Jingles Nigahein nigahon se mila kar to dekho, naye logo se rishta banakar to dekho

Airtel's brand new advertisement

It is based on the easy friendship of college youth, is possibly the most talked-about marketing campaign on air today. It is refreshing, it is different, and it is making waves, big time. The theme of this very catchy advertisement is that every single friend, indeed every type of friend is essential to one's life (Har ek friend zaroori hota hai). The lyrics sing for themselves Koi chat room friend, koi classroom friend Shopping mallwala shopping friend Koi exam hallwala copying friend Movie buddy, groovy buddy Hi buddy bye buddyjoke buddy poke buddy Gaana buddy shaana buddyChaddi buddy yaar buddy Har ek friend zaroori hota hai! The Airtel campaign is a spontaneous celebration of friendship, and it appears to have touched a wonderful chord amongst so many viewers. It has achieved such instant success despite featuring no celebrity, not even a known face. Instead, around 70 young actors inject the film with incredible energy. The key reason for its success: The campaign reflects a deep human insight, that friendship is one of the most endearing and treasured aspects of our lives. Several consumers have commented online that the advertisement evokes wonderful memories of friendship for them, that it makes them hum with the glow of friendship all over again.

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BRANDING STRATEGIES OF AIRTEL

Brand Positioning Airtel positions itself as juvenile brand linkages to celebrities such as SRK and Sachin. Airtel istransforming itself fully into a service led brand. From 'Touch Tomorrow' to 'Live Every Moment' In late-2002, Bharti Cellular Ltd. (Bharti), India's largest cellular telephone company released a television commercial (TVC), which despite using the 'oft-repeated' celebrity endorsement route was unusual in terms of its celebrity selection. Instead of using the usual movie stars/sports celebrities, it chose one of the country's most successful music composers, A.R.Rehman to promote its brand. The campaign attracted considerable media attention because this was the first time Rehman had agreed to do a television commercial and also because, Rehman had been paid Rs 10 million for the campaign, a sum usually unheard of, for celebrity endorsers in India. The campaign received brickbats as well as bouquets in the media, both for the selection of Rehman and the TVC's execution. However, Bharti claimed to have scored an ace in terms of getting Rehman to compose five exclusive symphonies downloadable as ring tones for Airtel users. The TVC was a part of the brand repositioning and restructuring efforts for Airtel, as part of which, Bharti changed the brand's tagline in early-2002 from 'Touch Tomorrow' to 'Live Every Moment. 'The company also decided to undertake a comprehensive brand building program for the company and chose the slogan 'Unlimited Freedom' for the same. Commenting on these changes, company sources said, "Airtel's brand identity and campaign will now have a new younger and international look and feel that builds on the earlier
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positioning."Bharti's massive media expenditure plans were no surprise, considering the fact that it was the largest cellular telecom company in the country - reaching over 600 million people in 16 (out of 29) states of India. The company posted revenues of Rs 8.48 billion and a net loss of Rs.1 billion in the financial year 2000-01. The Airtel brand (and the pre-paid card service brand, Magic) had top-of-the-mind recall amongst cellular phone users and enjoyed a leadership position in most markets. Industry observers primarily attributed it to Bharti's strong brand building and positioning strategies.

Repositioning Airtel
The above realization led to the launch of the 'Leadership Series' campaign, which featured successful men and women with their deluxe cars, carrying laptops and using cell phones. A company source said that the campaign was aimed at positioning Airtel as an inspirational brand, which was meant for leaders and celebrities. Other supportive values associated with the brand-included courtesy, politeness and efficiency. The campaign was reportedly successful and resulted in a marginal improvement in Airtel's performance. By 1999, Bharti had become the leading cellular player in Delhi (its major market) with a subscriber base of over 0.38 million. However, the growth was still much below the companys expectations. Meanwhile, as the competition in the sector intensified, the government also decided to reduce tariff rates. As a result, the players made all efforts to extend their horizons to reach customers across all sections. Essar, the nearest competitor of Airtel, began offering tariff plans, schemes and services that were identical to that of Airtel.

Repositioning Airtel - Once Again!

Due to consistent marketing efforts, the Airtel and Touch Tomorrow campaign became very popular. Therefore, Bharti's decision to withdraw this campaign (Touch Tomorrow) in 2002 came as a surprise to many. The new campaign was accompanied by a change in the logo as well. The idea behind the new logo was to give Airtel a younger look. The logo (with new design and colour pattern) symbolized innovation, energy and friendliness. On 18 November 2010, Airtel rebranded itself in India in the first phase of a global rebranding strategy. The company unveiled a new logo with 'airtel' written in lower case. Designed by London-based brand agency, Brand Union, the new logo is the letter 'a' in lowercase, with 'airtel' written in lowercase under the logo. On 23 November 2010, Airtel's Africa operations were rebranded to 'airtel'. Brand positioning handled by Ogilvy. Sri Lanka followed on 28 November 2010 and on 20 December 2010, Warid Telecom rebranded to 'airtel' in Bangladesh- JWT

The "Value Added Services" provided by Airtel

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. Short Message Service The short message service is like a two-way pager. It gives an option of sending and
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receiving text messages directly from one mobile phone to another without the intervention of an operator. Mobile Fax 1 Data Service This service helps the subscriber to send and receive Faxes, access E-mail, download computerfiles from other systems and remotely log on to another computer and surf the Internet. Cash Card The cash card is a pre-paid and pre-activated card which allows the buyers to buy air time inadvance. All it requires is the payment of an initial amount. This is a useful service for peoplewho travel to Delhi often and those who want to control the expenses on their calls. Caller ID Displays calling person's number. 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. 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 etc. 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. 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 semiautomatically. 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.

Promotional Strategy
Airtel has been dependent on tactical advertising. However, it has 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.
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Airtels Campaign
Delhi half marathon Border-Gavaskar trophy Indian fantasy league Delhi golf tournament $1million sponsorship for CWG Indian Cricket Team Manchester United Football Club Indian Formula One Grand Prix

Airtel's Marketing Orientation

Since this is a high-involvement expensive product, the service provider has to fully take care of the customers. They take personal responsibility to "get" the answer for any problem faced by the customer They anticipate customers' problems and take pro-active steps to prevent them They give answers to the questions & requests, quickly & efficiently. They have a positive tone & manner while interacting with customers. They end the interaction on a positive or a humorous note-making the last 30 seconds count.

Airtel realizes 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

GREEN INITIATIVES
Green Towers P7 program As of today, Bharti Infratel is the only telecom tower company, which has installed almost 3 MWT of solar capacity on their network, generating more than 5 million units of electricity every year. The Green Towers P7 program is scoped for 22,000 tower sites (primarily rural areas having low or no Grid Power availability) out of which 5,500 sites have already been implemented in the first year as a part of this 3-year program. Once completed, the initiative will reduce diesel consumption by 66 million litres per year with a significant carbon dioxide reduction of around 1.5 lac MT per year.

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Bharti Infratel bagged the 2011 'Green Mobile Award ' at the GSMA Mobile World Congress at Barcelona and was also awarded the 2010 innovative infrastructure company of the year award at the CNBC Infrastructure Awards for this ground-breaking initiative. Bharti remains the first company in the world to introduce the practice of sharing of passive infrastructure by collaborating with their competition to share mobile towers and to reduce the collective carbon footprint of the industry. This has become a subject of case studies in institutions including Harvard Business School. Energy conservation The company has installed solar hot water generator at its main campus in Gurgaon for fulfilling the hot water requirement in the cafeteria. Majority of its facilities across NCR region are now equipped with LES (Lighting Energy Savers) which have reduced energy consumption in the lighting system to the tune of 1025%. Variable Frequency Drives installed in AHU (Air Handling Unit) at its campus have helped in enhancing the efficiency of cooling system by 10%. These measures have resulted in a total saving of 8.5 lakh units of electricity per year. Airtel has embarked upon technology related initiatives like virtualization of servers that has helped it release over 500 CPUs. Also the drive of sending e-bills to the post-paid customers is helping save 12,840 trees annually. Within its campus the Secure Print Solution' an automated queue management based secured printing solution has led to an annualized saving of about 8 metric tonnes of paper. Alternate energy sources such as solar energy They have already deployed these at as many as 1050 sites thus saving 6.9 million litres of diesel and approximately Rs. 280 million Energy efficiency measures such as Integrated Power Management Systems and variable speed DC generators It has resulted in the reduction in the rate of diesel consumption by 1.2 million litres. They have already saved Rs. 47 million across nearly 900 sites. Demand side management like Free Cooling Units (FCU) instead of air conditioners It has already been implemented across 3400+ sites, saving consumption of 4.1 million litres of diesel.

Acquisitions and Mergers

MTN In May 2008, it emerged that Bharti Airtel was exploring the possibility of buying the MTN Group, a South Africa-based telecommunications company with coverage in 21 countries in Africa and the Middle East.

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The Financial Times reported that Bharti was considering offering US$45 billion for a 100% stake in MTN, which would be the largest overseas acquisition ever by an Indian firm. However, both sides emphasize the tentative nature of the talks, while The Economist magazine noted, "If anything, Bharti would be marrying up," as MTN has more subscribers, higher revenues and broader geographic coverage.[1] However, the talks fell apart as MTN group tried to reverse the negotiations by making Bharti almost a subsidiary of the new company.[2] In May 2009, Bharti Airtel again confirmed that it is in Talks with MTN and companies have now agreed discuss the potential transaction exclusively by 31 July 2009.[3] Bharti Airtel said in a statement "Bharti Airtel Ltd is pleased to announce that it has renewed its effort for a significant partnership with MTN Group".[4]Talks eventually ended without agreement, due to the South African government opposition.[5] Zain In March 2010, Bharti struck a deal to buy the Kuwait firm's mobile operations in 15 African countries, in India's second biggest overseas acquisition after Tata Steel's $13 billion buy of Corus in 2007. Bharti Airtel completed its $9 billion acquisition of African operations from Kuwait's Zain, making the firm the world's No. 5 wireless carrier by subscribers. Airtel has reported that its revenues for the fourth quarter of 2010 grew by 53% to US$3.2 billion compared to the previous year; newly acquired Zain Africa division contributed US$911 million to the total. However, net profits dropped by 41% from US$470 million last year to US$291 million this year due to a US$188 million increase in radio spectrum charges in India and an increase of US$106 million in debt interest.

Joint ventures
Airtel-Ericsson As per a five-year managed services agreement signed recently. Ericsson will manage and optimize Airtels mobile networks in Africa. Ericsson will modernize and upgrade Airtels mobile networks in Africa with the latest technology including its multi standard RBS 6000 base station. As part of the modernization, Ericsson will also provide technology consulting, network planning & design and network deployment. Ericsson has been the managed services and network technology partner in the Asian operations.

Bharti Airtel and IIT Delhi - Telecom Centre of Excellence[6]

The Bharti-IIT Delhi Telecom Center of Excellence is established as the Bharti School of Telecommunication Technology and Management, IIT Delhi with a vision- To develop telecom leaders through excellence in education and research. The school offers post-graduate programmes, i.e. M.Tech, MBA, MS (Research) and PhD in telecommunication and has a state-of-the-art Teaching and Research infrastructure. An Expression of Interest in this regard was signed between Bharti Airtel and IIT Delhi.
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The Bharti-IIT Delhi Telecom Centre of Excellence is being set up as part of an initiative by the Department of Telecommunications, Government of India. The objective of the Centre is to promote innovation in the telecom sector and capacity building through knowledge towards achieving Telecom Vision 2010 of the Government. The Centre will also work towards providing support to the industry in planning future telecom growth in the country and reducing the rural urban digital divide. It will promote focused R&D in the area of telecom and also work development of India specific telecom applications. This is another major initiative by the Government of India to support growth of telecom sector in India. We are happy to partner Bharti Airtel in setting up this centre and promoting excellence in the area of telecommunications. Prof. Surendra Prasad, Director, IIT Delhi. The India telecom sector is today playing a crucial role in the development and progress of the country. We are delighted to further strengthen our partnership with IIT-Delhi through this major initiative by the DoT to develop India as a world-class telecom hub. Mr. Manoj Kohli, President, Bharti Airtel Ltd.

Airtels mobile subscribers in India[7]

The mobile subscription is exploding in India with 22.62 million mobile phone subscribers added in the month of December alone. Bharti Airtel has the highest wireless mobile subscribers with 152.5 million, followed by Reliance and Vodafone. The Internet and Mobile Association of India (IAMAI) estimated there are around 2 million mobile Internet users and the figure is growing rapidly. It will not be too long before rural India would starts accessing the internet via mobile phones. Herein lies the greatest opportunity for the marketer.

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Sales Department and Strategy

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 themarket.

IDC (indirect Channel) Handling distribution Maintaining records and level check of the channel partner. Laisioning between the channel partner and the company. Target achievement Training the executives of the channel

Distribution Support 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 Rental Provide cellular services (SIM cards) on rent. Provide cellular phones on rent Useful for people visiting Delhi for a short interval. 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. Audit Consultant to the Airtel showrooms. Monitor the operations at the Airtel distribution outlets Organize training. Retail Locate shops to open retail counters. Monitor the retail counters.
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Price and Pricing Policy

Airtel has realized 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 customersGenerally, 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. Pricing strategies of Airtel are Customer based pricing strategies Flexible pricing mechanism Controlled by TRAI

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 realized 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 organized 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. Airtel has also introduced attractive pricing in its broadband segment. At the launch of the third generation services in Chennai and Coimbatore, Mr Atul Bindal, President, Mobile Services, Bharti Airtel, told Business Line, The response has been mind boggling with the total consumption of around 200 GB a day.[8]

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Airtel will offer services such as video call, live streaming of video, high speed Internet, mobile TV entertainment through the 3G technology. Users can also avail themselves of the services through the existing SIM cards. In a bid to attract mass trial and adoption of the service, the company offers packages of up to ten days. For Rs. 8, under the Sachet plan, a user can avail himself of 10 MB of free data (one day validity); and 65 MB for Rs 63 and one day validity. Mr Bindal welcomed Airtels brand ambassador and cine star Karthi on to the Airtel 3G platform as the first 3G customer in the city. For laptop users, Airtel offers 3G dongles, he said In the 72 hours of the service becoming operational in Bangalore, around one lakh customers are enjoying a variety of services, including video call , movies and music, according to a senior company official.

RECOMMENDATIONS
Awareness programs Still more awareness programs have to be implemented in order toattract more customers like: Increase advertisement campaigns. Increase Electronic media usage for the awareness programs. Establishment of Hoardings in rural areas also. Bringing awareness through issue of pamphlets in the newspapers. Consumer Retention: Airtel has to implement some more retention programs like:Extra talk times should be given to the potential customers who are there for more than 2 years in the subscriptions. Some festival offers should be given in order to retain the customers. If more messages and extra talk time benefits are given then it can help for retaining of the customers. Airtel has to increase the customer care centers in order to concentrate more on the customers queries and their problems.

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REFERENCES: [1] "Emerging-market telecoms: Eyes on Africa", The Economist, 6 May 2008 [2] "$50 Billion Telecom Deal Falls Apart", The New York Times, 25 May 2008 [3] TopUpGuru.com (May) Bharti Renews MTN Talks [4] "Topupguru.com". Topupguru.com. Retrieved 2010-08-23. [5] Telecoms.com. 2009-10-01. Retrieved 2010-08-23. [6] www.techwhack.com/ 840-bharti-airtel-iit-delhi.htm [7] http://blog.alivenow.in/2011/02/mobile-subscribers-in-india-on-rise.html ,Thursday, February 17, 2011 [8] http://www.speakchennai.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/01/airtel-3g-chennai-actorkarthi.jpg [9] www.scribd.com/Branding-Strategies-of-Airtel19.htm

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