Advertising:

Airtel spends Crores of rupees every year in advertisements in all

avenues of mass communication. While radio happens to be the
cheapest means of mass communication, the most widely preferred
mode is that of television. Though advertising on Television via
commercials is the costliest prospect among all the modes of
communication. Print media is also used by Airtel to aggressively
advertise its products/offerings. Advertisements serve a dual purpose for
the company. Namely:
It creates Pervasiveness, allows Airtel to be in the eyes of the audience
all the time. Even though the audience is not obligated to pay heed to
the advertisements, the high creativity quotient of the Airtel Ads makes it
virtually impossible for the audience to turn a blind eye to them. Various
market experts have rated the Airtel ads very highly.
It also amplifies the message that Airtel wants to send to the audiences.
The Ads are very high on the use of imagery and music. In fact
the catch tune of Airtel is among the most
recallable tunes in India. The genius of the Oscar winning music director A. R.
Rahman is the man
behind the catchy tune.
Advertisements either induce the customer to go for the product immediately or
help retaining the
brand name in the customer‟s mind which would help in taking decision when a
time comes to choose
the product. Airtel is amazing when it comes to ads. Airtel advertises
more on its brand and its values than its products and services. Most
ads just establish the value and beliefs of Airtel than establishing its
services like mobile, telephone, or broadband. The trust factor of Airtel
amplifies greatly with the caliber of its brand ambassadors. The likes of
Sachin Tendulkar, Shah Rukh Khan, Saif Ali Khan, Kareena Kapoor,
Vidya Balan, A R Rahman have all been brand ambassadors of Airtel at
some point or the other.
One of the key reasons for the lasting impact of the Airtel ads is the reinvention
of the content
Barriers Break When People Talk” having the portrayal of two separate instances, One
between a newly married husband and wife (played by Abhay Deol and
Raima Sen) second between a father and a son (played by Sreyas
Talpade) have surely made a lasting emotional effect in the minds of the
audiences. The romantic advertisements between Vidya Balan and
Madhavan have won accolades all over. Essentially the theme of all the
advertisements is to establish a connect with the audience and thereby
with the present and the prospective service users.
AIRTEL: The Communication Campaign
Marketing Management Group Project 3 - Trimester 1
5
Public Relations and Publicity:
With the increase in competition, the stake of credibility of any company is the
highest. It is even more
important in the case of the service Industry. A few write-ups by some
renowned newspapers and magazines for or against a company can
drastically influence the brand equity of that company. As established by
now, Airtel is a maverick of sorts in product communication. It has most
definitely made great inroads into the avenues of Public relations and
Publicity.
PR serves a three way objective for Airtel. It helps in increasing the
credibility of Airtel as a brand. It also creates a certain sense of aura
around the Airtel products, clearly underlining the fact that they are a cut
above the rest. PR is a potent communications tool to catch some
buyers off-guard who have an aversion in trusting
the credibility of the Television Commercials. Some of the key PR and
publicity planks employed by Airtel are as follows: The tagline of Airtel,
„Express Yourself‟ is extremely well portrayed in all its campaigns. The
recent collection of articles that Saif Ali Khan wrote in the Times of India
for a week or so to essentially promote Airtel Digital TV was highly
innovative and grabbed many eyeballs.
Sales Promotion:
Companies generally use sales promotion tools to draw a stronger,
quicker audience response to the products. The objective of this mode of
communication is primarily to enhance the communication between the
audiences/customers and the company so that the prospect of future
customers is
maximized.
Sales promotion also acts a source of incentive to all prospective
customers to try the product. It also passes a passive invitation to the
customers to try the products. Airtel is in a strategic alliance with various
mobile stores in India. Infact there are over 500 Airtel Stores across
India
 The objectivity behind these stores is to increase the base of potential
customers. As an example, with every new mobile phone that is brought
in The Mobile Store, an Airtel GSM is gifted for free.
Every day and across
the various shopping malls in india, Airtel organizes promotional events.
All this is done to attract the youth. Since, in India today, the youth
constitutes over half the country‟s total population.
These are a more subtle form of communication. Herein, the
indirect/implicit mode of campaign is adopted. Companies
generally look at these avenues as vital means of brand building as well
a good mode of selling the products. The objectives served by the above
are primarily toinvo lv e the audiences. Ideally, when an event has the
audience engrossed, a heightened level of emotional connect is created.
Thus, an involved audience, engulfed with relevant events and
experiences is prone to develop a liking for the parameters associated
with the event.
Airtel is a pioneer in being a part of events and experiences. Indian Idol,
Cricket, KBC, among many are examples. Airtel also sponsors various
tournaments and events, which implicitly help promote the sales of Airtel.
The Airtel Delhi Half Marathon is also an example.
Direct and interactive marketing:
Ideally the objectives of direct and interactive marketing are to
use customized, up-to-date and anin t eract iv
e mode of communication campaign. Airtel uses the above strategy so
that a two way purpose can be served. Firstly, it helps in drastically
decreasing post purchase
dissonance. Secondly, it facilitates word-of-mouth publicity. Airtel seeks
to give its customers a very high quality after sales service, this helps the
company retain potential customers and also penetrate newer markets.
It keeps the customers up-to-date about the various new schemes and
promotions. The Airtel executives personally call the customer and
potential customer for suggestions and upgradations. They also give
special benefits to the existing customers which in turn drive their sales
even more upwards.
Word of Mouth Marketing:
This mode of communication is perhaps one of the
most effective ones. The objectives are to create a
positive buzz about the quality of service provided by Airtel. In a service
industry people play a very vital role. They can be messiahs as well as
destructors. Brand equity is quite in there hands. Hence, credibility,
timeliness of advice and personal connect go a long way in catapulting
the importance of word of Mouth Marketing. The inroads that Airtel has
made into the Indian rural market is largely attributed to this mode of
communication. In fact, as a general observation, while buying a mobile
connection, the inputs of the local vendor is sought and many-a-times
they can cause all the difference. The marketing strategy of Airtel has a
well defined clause for the vendors and this goes a long way in
establishing the goodwill of the brand. This goodwill eventually translates
into sales
Target Audiences:
A target audience is the primary group of people that something, usually
an advertisement is aimed at appealing to. A target audience can be
people of a certain age group, gender, marital status etc. (ex: teenagers,
females, single people, etc.) Without knowing the target audience, a
company's advertising and the selling efforts can become difficult and
very expensive.
A Target Audience can be selected on the basis of
following parameters:


Age


Location (where they live)



Gender


Marital Status
Bharti airtel has a huge customer base in India. They basically target
customers on the basis of age and occupation.
Some of the types of telecom communications
provided by Airtel are:


Prepaid connections: Age-18-25(college

going students)


Post paid connection: Working people (age>

25)-middle income-higher income group

SMS schemes: 15-24(college students)


Special plans: a specific group (Special 5)

Prepaid connections: Airtel basically targets college students for these
connection but many people whose age is greater than 25 also take this
connection. So they are secondary audience.
Post paid connection: they target working people but many
house wife and college going students use this connection.
SMS schemes many aged people use this feature but they are
not targeted by company.
Secondary target audience
Secondary audience is the area of the population that one can
identify and target, but does not hold the same significance (in
size) when compared to the primary (core) demography
effect of these advertisements has been phenomenal. The inherent strength of
the Airtel
advertisements in this media comes from the creativity put into the
advertisements that has let them
create an identity of a provider who is dependable, reliable, and in a
sense “THE BEST”. Very importantly, all these ads have been
supplemented positively by giving the best service among all the
networks. On the flip side, the weakness of this media is in the relative
high cost and the number of irrelevant audience reached as Airtel has
positioned itself as a comparatively premium product.
The second important communication tool would be outdoor advertising.
It is generally more suitable for brand enhancement and reinforcement
that it is for a new product setting feet in the market. This is one area
where Airtel has shown real innovation and at times out of the box
thinking. Consider for instance making letter boxes in the shape of Airtel
SIM cards, or lamp posts with the lamps enclosed
in huge SIM cards. Or just picture a train
running across cities and painted all over with the Airtel logo. It grabs
instant attention. Airtel invests heavily in the outdoor advertisements in
all the cities and towns across India. Its advertisements can be
prominently seen across billboards and hoardings. These billboards
often have stills that remind of the latest Airtel ads being run on
television. They are an efficient way of constantly reminding of the value
enforced by the TV commercial. The main advantage is the cost
effectiveness as compared to TV, but they don‟t enjoy as high an exposure
as TV ads do. Airtel puts in a lot of effort in its outdoor publicity. It is
evident from the uniqueness in their ways of
advertisement.
As a method for its brand reinforcements, Airtel has often tied up with TV
shows ranging from the biggest of all KBC, to Indian Idol and many
others. Other than that it has been a major sponsor of many prominent
cricketing events
too. Airtel hasn‟t been a just a dormantsponso r
whose name will be seen only in advertisements, but it has made sure
its presence was felt during the on time of the show as well. For an
example, whenever a contestant used to phone a friend in a KBC show,
instantly the Airtel tune got on, the logo got displayed on the screen and
the host
very politely mentioned that the call is getting connected owing to the Airtel
network. Such indirect
form of advertisement has a huge advantage in the sense that the attention of the
audience doesn‟t
have to be solicited; instead the target customer is already all eyes and
ears to the television. But the disadvantage crops up from the fact that
almost negligible information can be conveyed about the product per
say. But as the main objective of this form of indirect advertising is in
reminding the audience about the presence of the brand, it solves its
main purpos