EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

Brand Positioning can be defined as an activity of creating a brand offer

in such a manner that it occupies a distinctive place and value in the
target customer’s mind. For instance- Bharti Airtel positions itself in the
customer’s mind as one entity- “Airtel ”- which can provide customers
fastest internet download solution for all their needs. It has an unaided top
of mind recall. It intends to stay with the proposition of “Think fast speed
internet, Think Airtel”. The positioning you choose for your brand will be
influenced by the competitive stance you want to adopt.

Brand Positioning involves identifying and determining points of

similarity and difference to ascertain the right brand identity and to create
a proper brand image. Brand Positioning is the key of marketing strategy.
A strong brand positioning directs marketing strategy by explaining the
brand details, the uniqueness of brand and it’s similarity with the
competitive brands, as well as the reasons for buying and using that
specific brand. Positioning is the base for developing and increasing the
required knowledge and perceptions of the customers. It is the single
feature that sets your service apart from your competitors. For instance-
Kingfisher stands for youth and excitement. It represents brand in full
flight.

Brand positioning refers to “target consumer’s” reason to buy your

brand in preference to others. It is ensures that all brand activity has a
common aim; is guided, directed and delivered by the brand’s
benefits/reasons to buy; and it focusses at all points of contact with the
consumer

NEED AND SCOPE OF STUDY.

 Build strong brand that meet real needs
 Build loyal relationships with consumers
 Manages global brands portfolios
 Create competitive advantages when product and services
 Identify competitive weakness to attack
 Identify new opportunities in the market

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OBJECTIVES OF STUDY

Primary objectives
1. To know the perception of people towards AIRTEL COMPANY.

Secondary objectives
2. To know the importance of BRAND POSIONING OF AIRTEL in
the daily life of consumers’ w.r.t credit and debit cards.
3. To study the benefits of consumer and airtel as network company.
4. To find out the market leader among the various NETWORK
companies issuing new plans and policys.
5. To know the problems faced by customer’s using mobile networks.
6. To study the satisfaction level of consumers towards Bharti Airtel
company.

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 INTRODUCTION

Bharti Airtel Limited is an Indian global telecommunications services

company based in New Delhi, India. It operates in 18 countries
across South Asia and Africa. Airtel provides GSM, 3G and 4G
LTE mobile services, fixed line broadband and voice services depending
upon the country of operation. Airtel is also testing Volte technology
across five cities in India and should roll out the technology towards the
end of 2017. It is the l largest mobile network operator in India and
the third largest in the world with 400 million subscribers. Airtel was
named India's second most valuable brand in the first ever Brands ranking
by Millward Brown and WPP plc.

Airtel is credited with pioneering the business strategy of outsourcing all

of its business operations except marketing, sales and finance and
building the 'minutes factory' model of low cost and high volumes. The
strategy has since been adopted by several operators .Airtel equipment is
provided and maintained by Ericsson ,Nokia Solutions and
Networks whereas IT support is provided by IBM. The transmission
towers are maintained by subsidiaries and joint venture companies of
Bharti including Bharti In fratel and Indus Towers in India. Ericsson
agreed for the first time to be paid by the minute for installation and
maintenance of their equipment rather than being paid up front, which
allowed Airtel to provide low call rates of ₹1 (1.6¢ US)/minute.

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HISTORY OF AIRTEL

In 1984 Sunil Mittal started assembling push-button phones in

India. which he earlier used to import from a Taiwan company, King tel,
replacing the old fashioned, bulky rotary phone that were in use in the
country then. Bharti Telecom Limited (BTL) was incorporated and
entered into a technical tie up with Siemens AG of Germany for
manufacture of electronic push button phones. By the early 1990s, Bharti
was making fax machines, cordless phones and other telecom gear.He
named his first push-button phones as 'Mitbrau'.

In 1992, he successfully bid for one of the four mobile phone network
licences auctioned in India. One of the conditions for the Delhi cellular
license was that the bidder have some experience as a telecom operator.
So, Mittal clinched a deal with the French telecom group Vivendi. He
was one of the first Indian entrepreneurs to identify the mobile telecom
business as a major growth area. His plans were finally approved by the
Government in 1994and he launched services in Delhi in 1995, when
Bharti Cellular Limited (BCL) was formed to offer cellular services under
the brand name Airtel. Within a few years Bharti became the first telecom
company to cross the 2-million mobile subscriber mark. Bharti also
brought down the STD/ISD cellular rates in India under brand name
'Indiaone'.

In 1999, Bharti Enterprises acquired control of JT Holdings, and extended

cellular operations to Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh. In 2000, Bharti
acquired control of Skycell Communications, in Chennai. In 2001, the
company acquired control of Spice Cell in Calcutta. Bharti Enterprises
went public in 2002, and the company was listed on Bombay Stock
Exchange and National Stock Exchange of India. In 2003, the cellular

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phone operations were re-branded under the single Airtel brand. In 2004,
Bharti acquired control of Hexa com and entered Rajasthan. In 2005,
Bharti extended its network to Andaman and Nicobar. This expansion
allowed it to offer voice services all across India.

Airtel launched "Hello Tunes", a Caller ring back tone service (CRB), in
July 2004 becoming to the first operator in India to do so. The Airtel
theme song, composed by A.R. Rahman, was the most popular tune on
that year.

In May 2008, it emerged that 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. 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
emphasise 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. However, the talks fell apart as MTN Group tried to reverse the
negotiations by making Bharti almost a subsidiary of the new
company. In May 2009, Bharti Airtel again confirmed that it was in talks
with MTN and the companies agreed to discuss the potential transaction
exclusively by 31 July 2009. Talks eventually ended without agreement,
some sources stating that this was due to opposition from the South
African government.

In 2009, Bharti negotiated for its strategic partner Alcatel-Lucent to

manage the network infrastructure for the fixed line business. Later,
Bharti Airtel awarded the three-year contract to Alcatel-Lucent for setting
up an Internet Protocol access network across the country. This would
help consumers access internet at faster speed and high quality internet
browsing on mobile handsets.

In 2009, Airtel launched its first international mobile network in Sri

Lanka.In June 2010, Bharti acquired the African business of Zain
Telecom for $10.7 billion making it the largest ever acquisition by an
Indian telecom firm In 2012, Bharti tied up with Wal-Mart, the US retail
giant, to start a number of retail stores across India. In 2014, Bharti
planned to acquire Loop Mobile for ₹7 billion (US$110 million), but the
deal was called off later.

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Bharti Airtel Limited ("Airtel"), the world's third largest mobile operator
with operations in 20 countries across Asia and Africa, today said that its
Treasury division has been adjudged as a highly commended winner of
the Top Treasury Team (Asia) Awards at the Adam Smith Asia Award
2015.

Airtel in India.
Airtel India is the largest provider of mobile telephony and second largest
provider of fixed telephony in India, and is also a provider
of broadband and subscription television services. It offers its telecom
services under the "Airtel" brand, and is headed by Sunil Bharti Mittal.

Corporate structure
AIRTEL is credited with pioneering the business strategy of outsourcing
all of its business operations except marketing, sales and finance and
building the 'minutes factory' model of low cost and high volumes. The
strategy has since been adopted by several operators .AIRTEL's
equipment is provided and maintained by Ericsson and Nokia Solutions
and Networks whereas IT support is provided by IBM. The transmission
towers are maintained by subsidiaries and joint venture companies of
Bharti including Bharti In fratel and Indus Towers in India.

Telemedia
The Telemedia segment, Airtel provides broadband internet access
through DSL, internet leased lines as well as MPLS (multiprotocol
label switching) solutions, as well as IPVTand fixed line telephone
services. Until 18 September 2004, Bharti provided fixed line
telephony and broadband services under the Touch Tel brand. Bharti
now provides all telecom services including fixed line services under
a common brand Airtel. As of September 2012, Airtel provides
Telemedia services to 3.3 million customers in 87 cities. As on 30
November 2012, Airtel had 1.39 million broadband subscribers.

Airtel Broadband provides broadband and IPTV services. Airtel provides

both capped as well as unlimited download plans. However, Airtel's
unlimited plans are subject to free usage policy (FUP), which reduces
speed after the customer crosses a certain data usage limit. In most of the
plans, Airtel provides only 512kbit/s beyond FUP, which is lower than
the TRAI specified limit of half the subscriber's original speed. The
maximum speed available for home users under the new V-Fiber program
is 100MBit/s and with DSL is 16Mbit/s

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In May 2012, Airtel Broadband and some other Indian ISPs temporarily
blocked file sharing websites such
as v0imeo.com megavideo.com, thepiratebay.se, etc. without giving any
legal information to the customers. Airtel will be launching
its Voice_over_LTE calling service in Mumbai and Kolkata.

Digital television
The Digital television business provides Direct-to-Home (DTH) TV
services across India under the brand name Airtel digital TV. It started
services on 9 October 2008 and had about 7.9 million customers at the
end of December 2012.

Enterprise
The Enterprise business provides end-to-end telecom solutions to
corporate customers and national and international long-distance services
to telcos through its nationwide fibre optic backbone, last mile
connectivity in fixed-line and mobile circles, VSATs, ISP and
international bandwidth access through the gateways and landing stations.
It has two sections under it.

Mobile data service

The different services under mobile data are BlackBerry services, a web-
enabled mobile email solution working on 'Push Technology', USB
modem that helps in getting instant access to Internet and corporate
applications, Airtel Data Card that gives the liberty to access the internet
anytime, Easy Mail is a platform that provides access to
personal/corporate e-mails independent of handset operating system and
application services that shorten the queues at the billing section, off-load
the pressure on the billing staff and bring convenience to the user.

Enterprise business solutions

There are two kinds of solutions offered by Airtel. One is GPRS Based
Solutions like mobile applications tools for enterprise, Track Mate,
automatic meter reading solutions etc. and the other is SMS Based
Solutions like interactive SMS, bulk SMS, inbound call centre solutions.
The ‘India with Airtel’ package is said to be a one-stop-shop for availing
all telecom and connectivity solutions including mobile and fixed
telephony, global and domestic data capacity and connectivity solutions,
VSAT, Virtual Private Network, data centre and cloud solutions, Value
Added Services and payment and billing integration, machine-to-
machine, and managed service.

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Android-based tablet.
Beetel Teletech Ltd., a unit of Bharti Enterprises Ltd., on 18 August
2011, launched a ₹9,999 (US$160) 7-inch tablet in India based on
Google Inc.'s Android operating system. The offering is intended to
capitalise on the expected demand for cheap computing devices in the
world's fastest-growing and second-largest mobile phone market.

Rebranding

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, The 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'. Sri Lanka followed
on 28 November 2010 and on 20 December 2010, Warid Telecom
rebranded to “Airtel' in Bangladesh.

Sponsorship
On 9 May 2009 Airtel signed a major deal with Manchester United. As a
result of the deal, Airtel gets the rights to broadcast the matches played by
the team to its customers.

Bharti Airtel signed a five-year deal with ESPN Star Sports to become the
title sponsor of the Champions League Twenty20 cricket tournament. But
now the deal is terminated and Karbonn Mobiles is
sponsoring Champions League Twenty20 cricket.

Airtel, also signed a deal to be title sponsor the inaugural Formula

One Indian Grand Prix during the 2011 season.

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Airtel, signed a deal to be title sponsor the I-League for 2013–14 I-
League.
Banking
In collaboration with Kotak Mahindra Bank, Airtel has started Airtel
Bank, targeting it mobile customers.
Signature tune
The signature tune of Airtel is composed by Indian musician A. R.
Rahman. The tune became hugely popular and is the world's most
downloaded mobile music with over 150 million downloads. A. R.
Rahman along with Anu Malik has re-used the same tune in Kannada
movie titled Love. A new version of the song was released on 18
November 2010, as part of the rebranding of the company. This version
too was composed by Rahman himself.

Green initiative
Green Towers P7 program
Bharti In fratel 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
150,000 MT per year. Bharti In fratel received 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
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industry. This has become a subject of case studies in institutions
including the 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 10–25%. Variable frequency drives
installed in the 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 850,000 units of electricity per year.
Airtel has embarked upon technology related initiatives like virtualisation
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
annualised saving of about 8 metric tonnes of paper.
 Alternative energy sources such as solar energy used at 1050 sites
saving 6.9 million litres of diesel and approximately ₹280
million (US$4.4 million).
 Energy efficiency measures such as Integrated Power Management
Systems and variable speed DC generators have resulted in reduction
in the rate of diesel consumption by 1.2 million liters, leading to
savings of ₹47 million (US$730,000) across 900 sites.
 Demand side management like free cooling units instead of air
conditioners has been implemented across 3400+ sites, saving
consumption of 4.1 million liters of diesel.

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Type Public
Traded as BSE: 532454
NSE: BHARTIARTL
BSE SENSEX Constituent
ISIN INE397D01024
Industry Telecommunications
Founded July 7, 1995; 22 years ago
Founder Sunil Bharti Mittal
Headquarters Bharti Crescent, 1, Nelson
Mandela Road, New
Delhi,India [1]

Area served India, Sri

Lanka, Bangladesh,
and Africa
Key people Sunil Mittal (Chairman)
Gopal Vittal (CEO)
Products Fixed line telephone
Mobile phone
Broadband
Satellite television
Digital television
Internet television
IPTV
Revenue ₹955.9
billion (US$15 billion)
(2017)
Operating ₹354
income billion (US$5.5 billion)
(2017)
Profit ₹42.4

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 billion (US$660 million)
(2017)
Total assets ₹2,327
billion (US$36 billion)
(2017)
Total equity ₹743
billion (US$12 billion)
(2017)
Number of 25,400 (2016)
employees
Parent Bharti Enterprises (68%)
SingTel (36.27%)
Subsidiaries Airtel India
Airtel Sri Lanka
Airtel Africa
Wynk
Robi
Telenor India
Website www.airtel.com

Brand poisoning of Airtel.

As large parts of India are graduating towards smartphones, we as an
operator are positioning ourselves as the most preferred network for
smartphones. That is where the next phase of growth will come from,”
says Mohit Beotra, Chief Brand Officer of Bharti Airtel.
The campaign will have two dimensions, says Beotra, and will run till the
end of September.
“We will start the campaign with one thematic ad film, which is the heart
of the campaign. Midway through the campaign, we will launch a second
thematic film. And we will build the campaign through three to five 20-
second films, which will be more rational in content,” he explains. The
rational part of the campaign, which will have more straightforward
messages, will also be extended outdoors.
“As a part of this campaign, we are also changing certain visual elements
of our advertising identity,” says Beotra. The Airtel logo, designed by
London-based agency Brand Union in 2010, will remain the same. While
Beotra declined to comment on the campaign budget, sources say Airtel
earmarked about Rs 40-50 crore for this.
“This time, while the logo remains unchanged, we have tried to make the
look and feel of the brand more youthful, premium, international, to inject
some excitement around Airtel,” he says.
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Wolff Olins first worked with the company in 2007 on Airtel Enterprise
Services when Gopal Vittal, the current CEO, was Director of Marketing
& Communications.
“This time around, our brief was to build on Airtel’s brand, which stands
for human connections and togetherness. The brand needed to be
coherent across the business, consistent within the business, stand out in a
crowded market and make the brand more aspirational,” says Zia Patel,
Director India at Wolff Olins.
As a part of the change, the brand marquee has been modernised by
modifying the visual aspects.
“The brand expression is simpler and cleaner to make it work across
different applications – on screen, on a billboard, on a pack, down to a
recharge card,” says Patel.

BRANDING-
Branding is one of the most important aspects of any business, large or
small, retail or multinational corporations. An effective brand strategy
gives a major edge in increasingly competitive markets. Simply put,
brand is promise to your customer. It tells them what they can expect
from products and services, and it differentiates the offering from that of
competitors’.
To prepare an assignment on a network based product we have chosen
Airtel that comes from Bharti Airtel Limited, one of Asia’s leading
integrated telecom services providers with operations in 19 countries
across Asia and Africa. Information for this assignment is mainly
collected from secondary source. Information are collected from various
websites. At the very beginning of this assignment the concept of
branding is given with its importance to consumers and producers as well
as the concept of brand equity is also given. This assignment contains a
brief description about the selected company with its various services
provided by it. Then the branding of Airtel with its branding strategies are
discussed. To promote, Airtel has been dependent on tactical advertising
However, it has restrained from using comparative advertising Hoardings
has been a very popular medium for carrying the advertisements Airtel
has also been advertising on television using the Bharti Telecom name.
This assignment paper discusses how Bharti constantly positioned its
Airtel brand to expand its market and meet the challenges posed by the
changing trends in the Indian and African cellular market during the late-
1990s and early-2009s. It also critically discusses the rationale behind
Bharti's positioning and restructuring efforts and the effectiveness of
these initiatives. Starting from the name, logo, slogan the Airtel has
created intense brand image by adopting various marketing acting
activities. It truly captured the market and maintaining its brand as a best

13
brand in the market. Though there are spaces for improvement, by
developing effective marketing program those gaps can be filled up.
CONCEPT OF BRANDING
2.1 Defining Branding
Branding has been around for centuries as a means to distinguish the
goods and services of one producer from those of another. In fact, the
word ‘brand’ is derived from the Old Norse word ‘brandr’ which means
“to burn”.
According to the American Marketing Association (AMA), a brand is a
“name, term, sign, symbol, or design, or a combination of them, intended
to identify the goods and services of one seller or group of sellers and to
differentiate them from those of competitors”
In fact, however, many practicing managers refer to a brand as more than
that as something that has actually created a certain amount of awareness,
reputation and prominence and so on in the marketplace.
A formal definition of brand can be put as, ‘Entire process involved in
creating a unique name and image for a product(good or service)in the
consumers' mind, through advertising campaigns with a consistent theme.
Branding aims to establish a significant and differentiated presence in the
market that attracts and retains loyal customers.’
Fundamentally, branding is all about endowing products and services
with the power of brand equity. Consistent, strategic branding leads to a
strong brand equity, which means the added value brought to your
company's products or services that allows you to charge more for your
brand than what identical, unbranded products command.

2.2 Importance of Branding

Branding is one of the most important aspects of any business, large or
small, retail or B2B. An effective brand strategy gives a major edge in
increasingly competitive markets. If consumers recognize a brand and
have some knowledge about it, then they do not have to engage in a lot of
additional thought or processing of information to make a product
decision. Thus, from an economic perspective, brands allow consumers to
lower the search costs for products both internally (in terms of how much
they have to think) and externally (in terms of how much they have to
look around).Branding is important for both consumers and producers for
its following significant functions:
To Consumers:
Identification of source of product
Assignment of responsibility to product maker
Risk reducer
Search cost reducer

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Promise, bond or pact with maker of product
Symbolic device
Signal of quality
To Producers:
Means of identification to simplify handling or tracing
Means of legally protecting unique features
Signal of quality level to satisfied customers
Means of endowing products with unique associations
Source of competitive advantage
Source of financial returns
2.3 Marketing Advantages of Strong Branding
Improved perception of product performance
Greater loyalty
Less vulnerability to competitive marketing actions
Less vulnerability to marketing crisis
Larger margins
More inelastic consumer response to price increases
More elastic response to price decreases
Greater trade cooperation and support
Increased marketing communication effectiveness
Possible licensing opportunities
Additional brand expansion opportunities
2.4 Defining Brand Equity
Brand equity is the added value endowed to products and services. This
value may be reflected in how consumers think feel, and act with respect
to the brand, as well as the prices, market share, and profitability that the
brand commands for the firm. Brand equity is an important intangible
asset that has psychological and financial value to the firm.
2.5 Building Brand Equity
Marketers building brand equity by creating the right brand knowledge
structures with the right consumes. This process depends on all brand-
related contacts whether marketer-initiated or not. From a marketing
management perspective, however, there are three main sets of brand
equity drivers:
The initial choices for the brand elements or identities making up the
brand (e.g., brand names, URLs, logos, symbols, characters,
spokespeople, slogans, jingles, packages, and signage), Old Spice uses
bright-red packaging and its familiar ocean schooner to reinforce its
nautical theme while also launching deodorant and anti perspirant
extensions adding the High Endurance and Red Zone brand names
The product and service and all accompanying marketing activities and
supporting marketing programs.

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Other association indirectly transferred to the brand by linking it to some
other entity(e.g. a person, place, or thing).
2.6 Choosing Brand Elements
Brand elements are those trade mark able devices that serve to identify
and differentiate the brand. Most strong brands employ multiple brand
elements. Nike has the distinctive “swoosh” logo, the empowering “Just
Do It” slogan, and the mythological “Nike” name based on the winged
goddess of victory.
SYMBOL.
Our 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. It represents a dynamic force of
unparalleled energy that brings us and our customers closer.

Our specially designed logo type is modern, vibrant & friendly. It signals
our resolve to be accessible, while the use of all lowercase is our
recognition for the need for humanity.

Red is part of our heritage. It is the color of energy & passion that
expresses the dynamism that has made airtel the success it is today, in
India, and now on the global stage.
Social media campaigns.
Bharti Airtel shows off new brand image

Owners of Zain Africa, India's Bharti Airtel has announced a new brand
identity which it plans to roll-out across its operations in Asia and Africa.

16
This comes days ahead of the rebranding of Zain Ghana to Airtel Ghana
on November 22, 2010.The new brand identity drops the Bharti and the
capital letter for Airtel to create "Airtel". The company also announced
that it has crossed the significant milestone of 200 million customers.
Airtel crossed 50 million customers in October 2007 and 100 million in
May, 2009. The company added the next 100 million customers in just 18
months. For its customers in India, Airtel also announced that it was on
course to launch its 3G services by the end of the year. Announcing this,
MR. Sunil Bharti Mittal, Chairman and Managing Director of Bharti
Airtel said, "fifteen years ago Bharti airtel started its journey in India with
a promise of delivering world class and affordable services. He said
today, as the company expands on the global stage, this new brand
identity gives the company the opportunity to present a single, powerful
and unified face to customers, stakeholders and partners around the
world. MR. Mittal said the new brand identity reinforces airtel's promise
to deliver innovative services and a superior brand experience to their 200
million customers across Asia and Africa.
Airtel changes slogan to "Don't express yourself" to woo Flipkart
back
Mumbai: After getting severe pressure from netizens over the alleged
anti-net neutrality plans laid by TRAI and in turn affecting Airtel Zero,
flipkart has decided to opt out of the deal. In turn, Airtel has changed
their slogan from “Express yourself” to “Don’t express yourself” to bring
back its clients.
“Our slogan was express yourself… ON THE PHONE not against us”,
said a frustrated Airtel employee, “They shouldn’t have expressed
themselves like this to us. Oh come on! We have AR Rehmann’s music
as our theme song”.

Airtel’s new punch line: Don’t Express Yourself!

After Airtel went from hero to (literally) zero with their plan, netizens
have planned to use Skype more than use Airtel’s phone lines. When
asked for comments from Airtel employees many of them started giving
strange stares at the reporters and said “Its #MyChoice to increase rates
before billing, during billing and after billing”.
However, after Airtel realized that people are not accepting their recent
plans including the previous deal to charge for Skype calls etc, they have
changed their motto from “Express yourself” to “Don’t express yourself”
17
to make people to not complain against them often. “I think people are
taking the motto too literally” said a calm Airtel customer care employee
“Now we will ask them not to express their slangs to customer care
personnel also”.
Airtel has repeatedly called Flipkart headquarters to make them
comeback without expressing themselves. “We are pretty sure Airtel
won’t be dealing with us anymore”, said an employee, “We have asked
them to purchase at least one item in our next big discount day without
crashing their browser or servers. We are very confident on our power in
making them not do that”.
After the motto change, people have hesitated to express themselves due
to the ban by Airtel. Airtel ads have come up showing cricket players
getting hit by bouncers and men not proposing his girlfriend for 30 years
with Airtel flashing “Don’t express yourself” to assert their opinion.
Flipkart who were getting single star ratings for their app as a result of
their planned collaboration with Airtel zero are planning to have a Big
Zero discount deal to get their customers back. “We have made a mistake
to join the zero deal” said a Flipkart employee “Now we will give out
things for 0 rupees to get back our customers. Of course the servers and
browsers will be very tricky during the discount day”.
After the flop of Airtel zero, TRAI is indecisive over the Internet
regulations to be taken. Amazon has silently rejoiced at Flipkart’s
overambitious mistake and has planned to conduct a ‘Flipkart’ deal to
annoy its competitors too.

Airtel’s New Logo & Signature Tune–Better Or Worse?

How much importance does a logo or signature tune have for a brand?
And that too for a brand that has established itself in the field of telecom,
which is one of utmost competition with operators making a beeline for
supremacy. Airtel which has established itself as one of the world leaders
in mobile telephony has finally started showing the results of its Rs 300
cr spend for marketing, advertising and branding. The first to change
are the logo and the signature tunes.
Airtel’s previous logo had both white and red colours
interchangeably. The interesting part was that the word ‘Air’ was
written in black with a white background while ‘Tel’ was written in
white on a red background. Sometimes they also included their
slogan “Express Yourself” with the logo.
But today the logo looks more like a curved ‘A’ with little bit of
highlighting to indicate what they call dynamism and the warm and
friendly appeal of Airtel. They have also said that it represents a

18
dynamic force of energy which would bring the management and
customers closer.
If this wasn’t enough, AR Rahman after his debacle with the CWG
tune (though the remix was much better) comes back with a theme
song having a younger and international feel to it. Their new
commercial shows how a couple comes together due to the Airtel 3G
technology which interestingly will be launched in India only by
December.
So now that we have discussed the technical details, the biggest
question is why did Airtel see the importance of such a move?
Airtel is offering services now in 19 Asian and African countries
where truthfully speaking it has not yet reached leadership status
though it’s there on that path. Through their rebranding and
repositioning exercise, they aim to achieve an international appeal
wherein customers not only in India but across the world recall their
brand. With these points in mind, they seem to have embarked on
this ambitious journey.
Airtel’s 4G Girl Is Back With A New Slogan #SwitchToMyPlan
Sasha Chhetri in Airtel’s new postpaid campaign urges customers to
‘Waste Nothing’ and make the most of their mobile expenditure with
MyPlan
PRASANT NAIDUJUNE 16, 2016BRANDS

Why waste when you can choose anything. Airtel India, the country’s
largest telecom carrier has benefits month on month.
With traditional postpaid plans offering pre-defined voice, data and SMS
benefits, customers end up wasting some of these benefits, as their actual
19
requirements may be very different. Airtel recently rolled out a new
marketing campaign keeping in mind the above-mentioned theme. To
execute the new communication the telecom operator has once again
trusted Sasha Chhetri, the Airtel 4G Girl.
In this latest campaign Sasha is telling customers to stop wasting the
benefits that come with traditional postpaid mobile plans and move to
Airtel MyPlan to get the best value for their monthly mobile spends.
According to Airtel the new campaign is based on a simple consumer
insight: a lot of postpaid mobile users end up with plan benefits that they
never fully utilize and end up wasting these
My Plan is designed to simplify the postpaid customer experience and
offers them the flexibility to create their own plans.
For instance, if a Delhi customer is primarily using mobile apps like
WhatsApp or Hike for texting, and has hundreds of free SMS in the plan,
then he can get an option of trading the free 200 SMS of the existing plan
for 90 local minutes or 120 MB 4G/3G data.
Similarly, heavy data users that have too many free calls in the plan can
get an option for trading the extra 450 Local minutes of their plan for 600
MB 4G/3G data through the MyPlan service.
To spread the benefits of MyPlan, Airtel has rolled out a 23-second TVC
with Sasha driving the communications with the help of a slogan. The
Airtel 4G Challenge girl who had earlier kept the Internet busy, is now
being shown as a rebellious character, chanting slogans to stop wasting
and switching to MyPlan. The video is now close to a million views on
YouTube.
Why waste when you can choose anything. Airtel India, the country’s
largest telecom carrier has benefits month on month.
With traditional postpaid plans offering pre-defined voice, data and SMS
benefits, customers end up wasting some of these benefits, as their actual
requirements may be very different. Airtel recently rolled out a new
marketing campaign keeping in mind the above-mentioned theme. To
execute the new communication the telecom operator has once again
trusted Sasha Chhetri, the Airtel 4G Girl.
In this latest campaign Sasha is telling customers to stop wasting the
benefits that come with traditional postpaid mobile plans and move to
Airtel MyPlan to get the best value for their monthly mobile spends.
According to Airtel the new campaign is based on a simple consumer
insight: a lot of postpaid mobile users end up with plan benefits that they
never fully utilize and end up wasting these
MyPlan is designed to simplify the postpaid customer experience and
offers them the flexibility to create their own plans.
For instance, if a Delhi customer is primarily using mobile apps like
WhatsApp or Hike for texting, and has hundreds of free SMS in the plan,

20
then he can get an option of trading the free 200 SMS of the existing plan
for 90 local minutes or 120 MB 4G/3G data.
Similarly, heavy data users that have too many free calls in the plan can
get an option for trading the extra 450 Local minutes of their plan for 600
MB 4G/3G data through the MyPlan service.
To spread the benefits of MyPlan, Airtel has rolled out a 23-second TVC
with Sasha driving the communications with the help of a slogan. The
Airtel 4G Challenge girl who had earlier kept the Internet busy, is now
being shown as a rebellious character, chanting slogans to stop wasting
and switching to MyPlan. The video is now close to a million views on
YouTube.
On social media (Facebook and Twitter) the company has been busy
sharing some interesting visuals and Gif’s. The creative visuals explain
the benefits as well as amplify the brand’s communication.

21
 Twitter Ads info and privacy

Twitter Ads info and privacyForAirtel, Sasha Chhetri’s association with

4G has turned much like bread and butter, after she became a social
media rage. The latest association has been executed well, where the
brand has tried playing with the growing sentiments of present times.
However, not overdoing it, the campaign does the job of getting the
message across wittilFor Airtel, Sasha Chhetri’s association with 4G has
turned much like bread and butter, after she became a social media rage.
The latest association has been executed well, where the brand has tried
playing with the growing sentiments of present times. However, not
overdoing it, the campaign does the job of getting the message across
wittily.Looks like Sasha has grown to be the lucky charm for the operator
in India.

AIRTEL’S MISSION, VISION AND VALUES

THE WAY AHEAD
At airtel, we always put you at the heart of what we do. We strive to
enhance your experience with us and build a lasting
relationship with you by delivering better results every time. And this,
reflects in our mission too.
OUR MISSION
Hunger to win customers for life.
OUR VISION
Our vision is to enrich the lives of our customers. Our obsession is to win
customers for life through an exceptional experience.
OUR VALUES
We aim to work towards our vision, driven by our values of AIR - Alive,
Inclusive & Respectful.
 ALIVE
We are alive to the needs of our customers. We act with passion, energy
and a can-do attitude to help our customers realise their dreams.
Innovation and an entrepreneurial spirit drive us - if it can’t be done,
we’ll find a way.
 INCLUSIVE
Airtel is for everyone - we champion diversity, recognising the breadth
and depth of the communities we serve. We work with them, anticipating,
adapting and delivering solutions that enrich their lives. We do this by
having an open mind and embracing change.
 RESPECTFUL

22
We live the same lives as our customers, sharing the same joys and the
same pains. We never forget that they are why we exist. We act with due
humility, always open and honest, to achieve mutual respect.
Airtel adopts smart positioning with new campaign, cleaner brand look

Leading telecom operator Bharti Airtel is adopting a new positioning in

its advertising and brand communications. For years, its ad campaigns
have been focussed around Airtel being the network that connects people.
With the market evolving from voice-driven offerings to data-led
services, brand Airtel is extending its positioning to become the “most
preferred” network for smartphone users.
The company will unveil a new campaign on July 25 on television and
other media including print, digital and outdoor. The multimedia
campaign has been ideated by Taproot India. The campaign includes
changes in the visual elements of the Airtel brand, which was handled by
leading design company Wolff Olins.
“As large parts of India are graduating towards smartphones, we as an
operator are positioning ourselves as the most preferred network for
smartphones. That is where the next phase of growth will come from,”
says Mohit Beotra, Chief Brand Officer of Bharti Airtel.
The campaign will have two dimensions, says Beotra, and will run till the
end of September.
“We will start the campaign with one thematic ad film, which is the heart
of the campaign. Midway through the campaign, we will launch a second
thematic film. And we will build the campaign through three to five 20-
second films, which will be more rational in content,” he explains. The
rational part of the campaign, which will have more straightforward
messages, will also be extended outdoors.
“As a part of this campaign, we are also changing certain visual elements
of our advertising identity,” says Beotra. The Airtel logo, designed by
London-based agency Brand Union in 2010, will remain the same. While
Beotra declined to comment on the campaign budget, sources say Airtel
earmarked about Rs 40-50 crore for this.

23
“This time, while the logo remains unchanged, we have tried to make the
look and feel of the brand more youthful, premium, international, to inject
some excitement around Airtel,” he says.
Wolff Olins first worked with the company in 2007 on Airtel Enterprise
Services when Gopal Vittal, the current CEO, was Director of Marketing
& Communications.
“This time around, our brief was to build on Airtel’s brand, which stands
for human connections and togetherness. The brand needed to be
coherent across the business, consistent within the business, stand out in a
crowded market and make the brand more aspirational,” says Zia Patel,
Director India at Wolff Olins.
As a part of the change, the brand marquee has been modernised by
modifying the visual aspects.
“The brand expression is simpler and cleaner to make it work across
different applications – on screen, on a billboard, on a pack, down to a
recharge card,” says Patel.
Airtel adopts smart positioning with new campaign, cleaner brand look.

24
 Airtel unveils new youthful and dynamic global identity
 

LIMITATIONS
 
·        A major limitation of this study is that it is very difficult to contact the
concerned person as it was difficult to fix appointments with them due to
their busy schedules due to which the true information cannot be
revealed.
 
·        Retailers were not ready to respond to the questionnaire as they had tie
ups or contracts with other service providers and thus refused to entertain.
 
·        Survey was restricted to customers in Goa region only.
 
CASH MANAGEMENT
 
Objective: To study the Cash management of Bharti Airtel
                                                                                                           
Cash, the most liquid asset and also referred to as the life blood of a
business enterprise is of vital importance to the daily operation of
business firms. Its efficient management is crucial to the solvency of
business because cash is the focal point of the fund flows in a business.
There are two ways of viewing the term ‘cash'. It includes actual cash
in the form of notes and coins and bank drafts held by a firm and the
deposits withdraw able on demand. It also includes marketable securities
which can be easily sold or converted into cash.
 
Need for Cash Management
 
Cash in hand or at bank is the most liquid of all the current assets. Thus
larger cash and bank balances indicate high liquidity position of a
company. Why do companies hold cash? This is an important question to
deal with. Different reason for holding cash are given as
 
Transaction Motive: Airtel has postpaid and prepaid connection. If the
customers uses postpaid connection then sum amount is charged as
service charges to the customer by the company but when the bill is given

25
to the customer then there is always a chances that the customer don't pay
the bill which some time incurs loss to the company,  entering into
transactions with other entities. Transaction means either buying or
selling of different products. While some of these transactions may not
result in immediate inflow/outflow of cash (example credit purchases and
sales), while other transactions cause immediate cash inflow and
outflows. Therefore this company always keeps a certain amount as cash
to deal with routine transactions where immediate payment is required.
 
Precautionary Motive: Contingencies may crop up when they are least
expected to occur. A sudden fire may break out, accidents may happen,
creditors may present bills earlier than expected or debtors may make
payments later than warranted. For all such surprises Bharati Airtel co is
always prepared so as to minimize losses. And therefore this company
maintains certain amount in the form of cash.
 
Speculative Motive: companies also maintain cash balances in order to
take advantages of opportunities that do not take place in the course of
routine business activities. Say suppose there may be sudden decrease the
rental charges of postpaid connection which is not expected to last long.
These are the transactions which are speculative in nature and for which
the company needs cash.
 
Objectives of Cash Management The objective of cash management
can be regarded as one of making of short term forecasts of cash position,
finding avenues for financing during periods when cash deficits are
anticipated and arranging for repayments during periods when cash
surpluses are anticipated with a view to minimizing idle cash as far as
possible. Some of the objectives of cash management are as follows

Cash Forecasting and Budget: it is very important for Bharati Airtel to

carry out proper forecasting for future cash requirements which may be
because of different costs associated with the business proceedings, The
stocks are required to meet the customer requirements as when
demanded. Short-term forecasting is prepared under the receipt and
payment method, showing the time and magnitude of expected cash
payments and receipts.
Airtel - Positioning (And Repositioning): From 'Touch Tomorrow' to
'Live Every Moment'
In late-2002, Bharti Cellular Ltd. (Bharti),
India largest cellular telephone company
released a television commercial (TVC),
which despite using the 'oft-repeated'
26
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 Rahman (Rahman) to
promote its brand.

The campaign attracted considerable media

attention because this was the first time
Rahman had agreed to do a television
commercial and also because, Rahman had
been paid Rs 10 million1 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 Rahman and the
TVC's execution. However, Bharti claimed
to have scored an ace in terms of getting
Rahman 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 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.
MARKETING MIX OF AIRTEL

27
With a Pan-India presence, Airtel an established player in providing 3G
services is not planning aggressively to roll out its 4G services in a
phased manner. These services are now available in metros and big cities
like Bangalore and Mumbai. The company also provides world class
landline telephone and broadband services and the enterprise unit across
95 cities in India. 
Products in the marketing mix of Airtel
The company provides a wide array of products and services. In order to
retain the maximum number of customers, Airtel has tried to provide as
many products and services as possible in order to keep the customers.
The following is a list of its products:
 Airtel Pre-paid services
 Blackberry Wireless Handheld
 Airtel Post-paid services
 Value added services like instant balance inquiry, caller line
identification, 24 hour recharge facility, multimedia messaging
service, call wait & call Hold, Caller divert, Airtel Live portal
 SMS based information services
 Voice mail services
 Hello tunes, Ring tones
 Ringtones and hello tunes offers
 Easy post-pay bill payment solutions
 Enterprise Solutions
Place in the marketing mix of Airtel
Airtel’s penetration in India is quite impressive because the services and
networks can be found even in India’s remotest regions. Currently, gross
subscriber base has pass the 200 million mark while the total wireless
subscriber base for CDMA, GSM and WLL is about 162 million. Clearly,
the customer base of Airtel is strong in India. It is also worth mentioning
that millions of the network’s lines are added per year.
Airtel enjoys a well distributed network of distributors including even
businesses like groceries and chemist outlets. One of the things that have
made Bharti Airtel a force to reckon in telecommunication industry in
India and Africa is that it has the strategy of making the first moves and
emerging as a winner. It has managed to buy Kuwait’s Zain and Tata
steel  in the past, making it a top 5 wireless carrier in the world by
subscription.

• Wider distribution network as compared to competitors

• Network is widespread bringing many customers daily to Airtel
• Fourth largest mobile operator in the world with presence in 20
countries
Promotion in the Marketing mix of Airtel
28
Airtel engages in aggressive marketing strategy ranging from traditional
print media to social network marketing. However, the company’s recent
rebranding efforts bombed in the market and were not received
positively. The company also engages in large scale TV and print
advertising. The company frequently uses big celebrities who endorse the
services. The company also managed to create its signature tune from
Oscar winning musician A.R.Rahman which has become one of the most
downloaded tunes in India.
It is also interesting to note that even such seemingly redundant activities
like providing wallpapers and screensavers to computer users has proved
a very effective marketing strategy. The company also offers special
discounts and offers to its subscribers.
Apart from that Airtel has been hiring several figures from Bollywood
right from the legendary Amitabh Bachhan to Vidya Balan as their brand
ambassadors. The God of cricket, Sachin Tendulkar too has been a part of
their advertisement campaigns too. The advantage of Airtel is that I goes
regional with its advertisement efforts.
Some salient points about the promotions of Airtel are
• Uses ATL and BTL activities
• Makes an effort to go regional
• Recent rebranding effort has failed in the market
•Has good word of mouth and a good brand image second only to
Vodafone.
Price in the marketing mix of Airtel
The company uses competitive pricing strategy just like any other
network providers because of the competition which is present in this
sector. However, Airtel also provides flexible pricingmechanism
depending on the prevailing market conditions. For instance, when the
company relaxes taxation, it also reduces its prices across all affected
products. The make my plan introduced by Airtel was a smart strategy as
customers could now modify their plan as they see fit.
Product:
Airtel provides a wide variety of services in the field of telecom. The
summary of the products in the marketing mix of Airtel are described as
below:
Mobile Services: Airtel provides both voice and data service to its
customers. Currently Airtel has got the largest customer base in India
crossing over 358 million. Airtel was the first one to provide 4G services
in India. Also Airtel provides a variety of low cost plans for its voice and
data services. Airtel mobile service can be classified into:
Prepaid service eg. Recharge offers , roaming packs, blackberry packs,
Family share pack, Handset pack etc.

29
Postpaid service eg. Bill payment, My Plan, Roaming plans, other
special offers etc.
Other value added service eg. SMS, MMS, Hello tunes, Airtel Money,
Airtel Live, 2G 3G 4G internet, voice mail, DND services etc.
Telemedia Services: Airtel provides broadband services across 87 cities
in India. Some of the products offered are 4G homes internet service,
broadband internet connection, Dongels and routers for 4G and 3G
services.
Digital TV services: Airtel TV provides over 540 HD channels with
superior picture quality. Airtel Digital TV+ setup box also allows user to
record TV programs that can be watched later.
Airtel business: Airtel provides variety of Information and
communication Technology services like data centre, network
integration, tower infrastructure service to other business, government
and carrier customers.
Price:
Airtel follows a competitive pricing strategy because of the huge
competition in telecom segment in India from competitors like Reliance
Jio, Vodafone etc. The pricing strategies of all telecom companies are
monitored by Telecom Regulation Authority of India to ensure fair
prices are being charged to all customers. Hence, despite regulation, the
most important aspect in the pricing strategy in the marketing mix of
Airtel is based on competitive pricing strategy. Airtel provides flexibility
to its customer to choose and customize their plan according to their
preference and pay tariff according to chosen pack (eg. MyPlan service to
customer to choose their plan and pay price accordingly). The aim of
Airtel’s pricing strategy is customer retention by providing them with
combo offers to boost revenue. Airtel pricing strategies in broadband
segment is also of very low cost and attracts huge customer base to avail
affordable plans. Airtel faces tough competition in terms of price war
with other telecom companies like Reliance Jio and the customer loyalty
for any telecom company is nearly zero and entirely dependent on price
of services, so Airtel offers its basic product like call, data, SMS and
other value added services at a cheap rate
Place:
Airtel sells its service through distributers and retailers, which form the
basis of place strategy in the marketing mix of Airtel. Airtel has got a
wide distribution network which spans across 20 countries. Airtel’s
intensive distribution network enables it to cover the remotest area. Airtel
uses retail stores, convenient stores, roadside stalls etc to make its service
available to customers. Airtel makes its service available through
businesses like paan shops, chemist’s shops, groceries shops etc. Airtel
has also launched ‘Project leap’ in the year 2015 to expand its coverage

30
to over 5 lakh villages. Under this project, Airtel will spend 60 thousand
crores over a period of next three years to expand its network and make
its services available across India. Airtel also offers a dedicated 24
customer support service team which can be reached online or through
telephone to report any issue or solve customer queries.
Promotion:
Airtel is an established and well known brand in telecom sector. Airtel
organizes a strong promotional campaigns for its services utilizing all
media channels from TV, print, events, social media etc. Hence the
promotion strategy in the marketing mix of Airtel is extremely
comprehensive i.e. they do a 360 branding. Airtel has used all the big
celebrities to endorse their services like Shahrukh Khan, AR Rehman,
Sachin Tendulkar, Vidya Balan etc. Airtel has also organized some
famous marketing campaigns to target youth audience and build its brand
like ‘Har Ek friend Zaroori hota he’ and ‘Jo Tera Hain Wo Mera Hain’.
Airtel also sponsors various events like Cricket matches, Grand Prix etc
and organized events like Airtel Delhi Half Marathon etc under their
community development programme and brand promotion. Airtel has
also got a good presence on social media like Facebook, Twitter etc.
Which it uses for its service promotion and solve queries of customers.
Airtel also engages in public relations like Education campaigns, girls
child awareness campaigns etc.
Since this is a service marketing brand, here are the other three Ps to
make it the 7Ps marketing mix of Airtel.
People:
Airtel focuses on ‘Win with people’ approach for its effective business
strategy. Airtel has got an employee base of 18179 with a commendable
employee engagement score of 79%. Airtel invests heavily in the training
and development of the skills of its employees. In 2016, Airtel invested
168 million to nurture talent within its organization and build high
performance culture. Airtel also focuses on developing a healthy work
culture and efficient functioning of its cross functional teams. Airtel’s
Talent First Strategy focuses on building entrepreneurship and leadership
skills in employees. The people strategy in the marketing mix of Airtel
focuses on hiring the right talent, training them and rewarding them.
Airtel also promotes gender diversity in its organization by promoting
women friendly working policies. Airtel promotes itself as a learning
organization where all employees follow a learning development plan
based on their career aspiration. Airtel also gives rewards and recognition
to indentify and retain talent within organization.

Process:

31
Airtel process for providing service to its customer is very easy and
streamlined. Airtel process focuses on providing a reliable and responsive
service to its customers. To get a plan or new connection the customers
can directly go to any Airtel’s service centres or contact the support
service to activate/deactivate a plan. Airtel’s customer can get their
queries resolved 24*7 by contacting the customer support number from
anywhere across India. Airtel also opened India’s first Open network
initiative under Project Leap that displays network strength across India.
This transparent policy allows customer to check network strength and
coverage and report any issue easily. Airtel also allow its customer easily
to identify various plans and pick the most suitable plan. Airtel customers
are free to evaluate the services and then can carry on or switch to a
different brand using number portability. Airtel focuses on delivering
optimal services without loss of quality through their commitment
towards its customers.
Physical Evidence:
Airtel retail outlet and relationship centres serves as a service point to its
customers. The Company-Owned-Company-Operated Airtel stores try to
serve its customer in the best possible way by providing a one stop
solution for all customer needs like instant connection, dongle and
broadband connection etc. These stores provide a superior customer
experience with excellent look and feel of all the outlets and convenient
location within any city. Airtel products like sim card cover and recharge
vouchers are beautifully designed to appeal to the customer. Airtel
provides its digital TV services through its set top boxes which are easy
to configure and use. All these products acts as a differentiating factor for
Airtel service marketing. Hence, all these help in summarizing the
marketing mix of Airtel.

CUSTOMER RELATION MANAGEMENT (CRM)

CRM is a customer-focused business strategy designed to maximize
revenue, profitability, and customer loyalty. It helps companies to be
more customer centred organization by putting customer at the centre of
all information and allowing access to this information only to its
authorized people. By implementing a CRM strategy, an organization can
improve the business processes and technology solutions around selling,
marketing and servicing across all spheres. There are mainly two types of
CRM .
Operational CRM – It provides support for day to day operations of
various business processes such as sales, marketing and services. At
Airtel it is about helping their call centres in the workflow part, helping
them in their day-to-day activities.
32
 Analytical CRM – relates to data mining and interpretation of data
collected about customers for business development. At Airtel it
provides staff with the required information on customers and this is used
for business development activities. Together they help Bharti Airtel to
provide better services to its customers. In today’s world CRM has gained
a lot of importance and it is very much needed by each growing
organization to maintain their customer base because in this world of
innovation, technology is changing very rapidly and it has resulted in a
short life cycle of products as all the companies are coming up with their
products shortly after the release of first one. So, it is very important for
the organizations to maintain their loyal customer base as owning a
customer is much costlier than retaining the customer.
3 Steps Involved in CRM
1. Identify your Target Customers This is the first step in a
CRM Process. It is very much important for each and every
organization to know about their customer base as this will
help them to retain the customers. Categorize customer
according to their loyalty & respective profits from them to
the organization. For example, categorize customers as : A,
B, & C. “A” would be your most valuable customer. “B”
would be second priority, etc. Customer A- Repeat Buyers
(Conversion rate of 70%) Customer B- Subscribed to Email
List (Conversion rate of 20%) Customer C- Walk-in
Customer (Conversion rate of 10%) Knowing customer base
is very much important. 2. Define your overall CRM
strategy and overall cost
.
2. Second step is to define the overall CRM strategy according
to the business you are running and according to the
suitability of the customers as this will help to know your
customers in a better way. Also different CRM framework
will have different prices. So, it become necessary to
evaluate the different option on the basis of cost so that it
will suit your business model. One of the CRM strategy
could be setting of social portal to interact with the
customers.

3. Third stepDefine how each customer type will be handled

Considering the customer profiles .

Define how each customer type will be handled throughout the

CRM process. For example, customers which are more profitable
to organization can be handled in different manner & company can
33
afford to spend more on them by providing them high quality
services as compare to the services provided to the customers
which are not very much profitable.
Select a CRM software to measure performance. Finally business
can select CRM software to measure the performance of their
strategy. Continue to Re-engage Customer. In order to retain the
customers it is very much important to engage them with the
organizations. There can be lot of ways to engage them. For
example, by sending them weekly newsletter or by sending them
SMS stating the new offers available on the product or through
various promotional activities Airtel Prior to implementation of
CRM In 1995, operations of airtel were started and they were
completely manual. Most of the customer related issues were not
resolved. Airtel was able to resolve only 40 % customer related
issue. The services provided by Airtel were not up to the mark and
hence customer loyalty was becoming one of the major issues.
Airtel was also facing problem in handling the growing customer
base. Airtel was not able to centralize the services and hence
people in different places used to get different services. Due to
decentralization of services customers were not able to recharge
amounts anywhere in India & same was the problem in bill
payment. Customer Retention was also one of the major concerns.
4 At that time Vodafone was considered to be far superior in the
services as compared to the Airtel. Hence, Airtel was not left with
any other alternative but to implement the CRM. CRM Technology
architecture implemented at Airtel: Issues Faced during
Implementation: Resistance from Employees: Problems in getting
user community (employees) to accept it Re-work required at
initial stages: Users forced to work harder to create processes and
reengineer systems around the new implementation Imperative
Training Schedule: CRM Training for all related employees, as
even best in class products are known to fail because of poor
training Scale of Operations: Integration of services across all 23
circles and upgrading the organization to provide newer services
like up selling of relevant schemes, customized SMS burst etc.
Maintaining service levels during implementation: Maintaining the
service levels at the same time enabling transition to CRM
implementation. Integration of large independent systems: Airtel
had many independent systems, which had to be integrated. This
also involved porting data from each system which totally went to
terabytes. Knowledge sharing practices: Facilitation of knowledge
sharing within the organization was a challenge. Post
Implementation Benefits of implementing CRM in Airtel

34
Focussed and accurate upselling and cross-selling- Cross-selling
and upselling of relevant schemes was made possible by
implementing CRM in Airtel. Segmentation of Customers- Market
analytics like records of customer profiles, profits , payment
history etc. used to segment customers. Using this data, customized
offers based on usage profiles could be done. Discounts recharge
offers, invitations to movie screenings and events etc. to target
customers. Using CRM Analytics, generation of accurate leads-
Generation of accurate leads is done through the customer
database, thereby helping Airtel proactively address the needs of its
customers. Reduction and regulation of back-end traffic- The
CRM does not only reduce back-end traffic, it also regulates it.
Service requests, like issuing a duplicate bill, are now sent to
backend have a cut-off time. 99% queries can be easily answered
at all times –As all the customer information is available online,
thus 99% of the queries can easily be answered at all times.
Defensive actions against customers- CRM helps Airtel to track
billing activities and take defensive action against customers they
suspect are either misusing Airtel’s services or are not planning to
pay for them. Reduction in churn- A tremendous reduction in
churn has taken place through CRM implementation. First time
resolution has increased from 40% to more than 90%. CRM
automatically suggests products to customers when they announce
to leave Airtel. Increase in revenues from value-added services-
Better value added services were provided since implementation of
CRM took place in Airtel. Recommendations: In August 2012,
Airtel came out with the quarterly reports showing loss for tenth
time in a row. In order to fight back and remain as the top brand in
the industry, here are some of the suggestions that could help
Airtel.
. Focus on core competencies and outsource the rest Airtel core
competencies include Marketing, Value added services (VAS),
Pricing. Hence the company should only focus on these areas and
the remaining should be outsourced like the operational features
etc. Just recently Airtel outsourced its ‘advertising inventory 6
management’ to Mogac Media, which will now sell all the possible
advertising space on mobile, DTH and Broadband. Same it has also
signed a five year contract with Avaya, to enhance its customer
capabilities.
. Staying ahead through smart and innovative commercials
Airtel add ‘ Jo tera hai wo mera hai’ won the best add of the
year. Likewise Airtel will have to keep on coming with smart and
innovative advertisement to beat the competition from Vodafone

35
 and others. Vodafone’s ZOOZOS gave a though competition to
Airtel adds.
Lowering call rates and service charges Some peoples still feel
that Airtel call plans are costly and could be reduced further.
Proper internal marketing at all centres Airtel should also include
its employees in the decision making process making them feel
important, this could actually result into more customer
satisfaction.
Monitoring changes in customer needs Time to time the wants of
customer changes, hence Airtel should be keeping tab on what’s
NEW.
New channel for new services Airtel can either choose to be
content with network and VAS or seize opportunities to discover
new revenues streams and build them.
Moving to ecosystem oriented operational style Traditional modes
of communication is being complemented and supplemented. If not
replaced with new business forms, the ecosystem will become
complex. Airtel will have to add in new partners along with older
ones. It should now approach the customer with a ‘solution based
approach’ rather than a traditional ‘product based approach’.
SWOT ANALYSIS
Airtel SWOT analysis – SWOT analysis of Airtel

One of the top telecommunication companies in India, Airtel has spread

across far and wide in the last 2 decades of its existence. The company is
known for its availability and its smart range of value added services.
Here we present you the SWOT analysis of Airtel to understand the
strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats for the company.
Strengths in the SWOT analysis of Airtel
1.Renowned Telecom company: With its 19+ years of rich experience in
telecom industry this MNC had travelled far to become world’s 3rd
largest telecom operator overseas with operations in nearly 20 countries.
2.High Brand Equity: It is one of the pioneer brands in
telecommunication having a high brand recall and with a whopping
subscriber base.

36
3.Extensive infrastructure: With the formation of Indus tower & due to its
partnership with Idea & Vodafone, the infrastructure of Airtel has
extended in all parts of the country resulting into nationwide penetration.
4.Strategic Alliances: The company has top notch stakeholders, namely
Sony Ericsson, Nokia and sing tel, and the recent one being Apple. Such
strategic alliances boost the brand equity and the bottom line of the
company.
5.Torchbearer of the telecom Industry: With its number 1 spot due to its
excellent services in developing economies, Airtel has interconnected the
life of people in an highly efficient way. Thus, where Vodafone is an
external entrant, Airtel is a leading nationwide player in India and the
torchbearer of the telecom industry in India.
Weaknesses in the SWOT analysis of Airtel
1.Outsourced Operations: Outsourcing operations helped Airtel in
lowering its cost. But on the other hand, they are running the risk of being
dependent on some other companies which may affect its operations.
2.Venturing into African operations: Although it’s been 4 years that
Airtel has acquired Zain’s Africa business, but Airtel is still struggling to
turn around the unit which was bought at a whoppy 9 billion dollars.
3.High Debt: With its acquisitions turning out to bad investment, and
credit being high and margins being low, Airtel group is under high debt.
Airtel does not have as deep pockets as Vodafone.
Opportunities in the SWOT analysis of Airtel
1.Strategic Partnership: Partnering with smart phone companies is going
to be a smart strategy as far as MNP (mobile number portability in India)
is concerned. This will ensure fixed cash flows in the future and a higher
customer base.
2.Market Development: With fierce competition in the telecom industry
& shrinking margins, venturing out in new markets/developing
economies will prove fruitful for the company.
3.VAS: VAS (Value Added services) is going to future of the
telecommunication industry & by specializing itself in this vertical Airtel
can differentiate itself in highly competitive market. With introduction of
unique services, Airtel can avail higher margins.
4.Untapped geography of the current market: Although it is currently
providing 3G & 4G services, but these services are limited to specific
geographical locations. Expansion of these services to most of its regions
will help the company get more margins and customers.
5.LTE: The whole wireless world is moving towards LTE (long term
evolution or 4G). LTE for mobile broadband can be a good solution for
India where fixed broadband penetration is otherwise low. Airtel has
taken the lead with this version of LTE in 4 cities, but deployment needs
to catch up pace. Despite a weak LTE ecosystem in India, Airtel should

37
portray itself as the embracer of that technology. The company lacks
nationwide 3G license with spectrum in 13 out of 22 telecom service
areas. Airtel’s LTE network for mobile broadband is still confined to only
4 cities in India.
Threats in the SWOT analysis of Airtel
1.Government Regulatory Framework: With the auction of spectrum &
change in the government policies on a regular basis, it is a potential
threat to the stability & existence of this industry thereby affecting the
players.
2.Competition: Price war in the home market and declining margins due
to this is adversely affecting the overall business of the group.
3.MNP (Mobile number portability): MNP gives the customer
independence to change the service provider while retaining the number
and as Airtel charges are premium over other service providers, it can see
slump in subscriber base in the next fiscal year with PAN India MNP
applicable from May 3rd 2015.

SWOT Analysis of Airtel with USP, Competition, STP (Segmentation,

Targeting, Positioning) - Marketing Analysis One of the top
telecommunication companies in India, Airtel has spread across far and
wide in the last 2 decades of its existence. The company is known for its
availability and its smart range of value added services. Here we present
you the SWOT analysis of Airtel to understand the strengths, weaknesses,
opportunities and threats for the company.
Strengths in the SWOT analysis of Airtel
1.Renowned Telecom company: With its 19+ years of rich experience in
telecom industry this MNC had travelled far to become world’s 3rd
largest telecom operator overseas with operations in nearly 20 countries.
2.High Brand Equity: It is one of the pioneer brands in
telecommunication having a high brand recall and with a whopping
subscriber base.
3.Extensive infrastructure: With the formation of Indus tower & due to its
partnership with Idea & Vodafone, the infrastructure of Airtel has
extended in all parts of the country resulting into nationwide penetration.
4.Strategic Alliances: The company has top notch stakeholders, namely
Sony Ericsson, Nokia and singtel, and the recent one being Apple. Such
strategic alliances boost the brand equity and the bottom line of the
company.
5.Torchbearer of the telecom Industry: With its number 1 spot due to its
excellent services in developing economies, Airtel has interconnected the
life of people in an highly efficient way. Thus, where Vodafone is an
external entrant, Airtel is a leading nationwide player in India and the
torchbearer of the telecom industry in India.

38
Weaknesses in the SWOT analysis of Airtel
1.Outsourced Operations: Outsourcing operations helped Airtel in
lowering its cost. But on the other hand, they are running the risk of being
dependent on some other companies which may affect its operations.
2.Venturing into African operations: Although it’s been 4 years that
Airtel has acquired Zain’s Africa business, but Airtel is still struggling to
turn around the unit which was bought at a whoppy 9 billion dollars.
3.High Debt: With its acquisitions turning out to bad investment, and
credit being high and margins being low, Airtel group is under high debt.
Airtel does not have as deep pockets as Vodafone.
Opportunities in the SWOT analysis of Airtel
1.Strategic Partnership: Partnering with smart phone companies is going
to be a smart strategy as far as MNP (mobile number portability in India)
is concerned. This will ensure fixed cash flows in the future and a higher
customer base.
2.Market Development: With fierce competition in the telecom industry
& shrinking margins, venturing out in new markets/developing
economies will prove fruitful for the company.
3.VAS: VAS (Value Added services) is going to future of the
telecommunication industry & by specializing itself in this vertical Airtel
can differentiate itself in highly competitive market. With introduction of
unique services, Airtel can avail higher margins.
4.Untapped geography of the current market: Although it is currently
providing 3G & 4G services, but these services are limited to specific
geographical locations. Expansion of these services to most of its regions
will help the company get more margins and customers.
5.LTE: The whole wireless world is moving towards LTE (long term
evolution or 4G). LTE for mobile broadband can be a good solution for
India where fixed broadband penetration is otherwise low. Airtel has
taken the lead with this version of LTE in 4 cities, but deployment needs
to catch up pace. Despite a weak LTE ecosystem in India, Airtel should
portray itself as the embracer of that technology. The company lacks
nationwide 3G license with spectrum in 13 out of 22 telecom service
areas. Airtel’s LTE network for mobile broadband is still confined to only
4 cities in India.
Threats in the SWOT analysis of Airtel
1.Government Regulatory Framework: With the auction of spectrum &
change in the government policies on a regular basis, it is a potential
threat to the stability & existence of this industry thereby affecting the
players.
2.Competition: Price war in the home market and declining margins due
to this is adversely affecting the overall business of the group.

39
3.MNP (Mobile number portability): MNP gives the customer
independence to change the service provider while retaining the number
and as Airtel charges are premium over other service providers, it can see
slump in subscriber base in the next fiscal year with PAN India MNP
applicable from May 3rd 2015.

SWOT Analysis of Airtel with USP, Competition, STP (Segmentation,

Targeting, Positioning) - Marketing Analysis
Airtel
Parent Company Bharti
Category Mobile service provider
Sector Telecommunication
Tagline/ Slogans Express yourself; The best network for your
smartphone; Har ek friend zaroori hota hai
USP Airtel is a top telecom brand in India with a huge
customer base
Airtel STP
Segment People looking for an efficient telecom service
Target Group Middle and upper class above 18 years age;
YUPS(Young Upward Professionals)
Positioning Aspirational and lifestyle brand offering excellent
telecom service
Airtel SWOT Analysis
Strengths 1. Airtel is one of the largest cellular service
provider in India, with over 260 million subscribers  
2. Largest Telecom operator in the world with 200+
million subscribers across 19 countries make Airtel
a strong brand
3. Airtel is the only Indian operator, with VSNL,
that has an international submarine cable
4. High brand visibility of Airtel
5. Strong advertising with celebrity brand
ambassadors has boosted the brand
6. Airtel has great value added services like Airtel
money, online recharges, bill payments
7. Airtel stores, kiosks, sponsorships etc have

40
 boosted the brand presence worldwide
8. Countries like Srilanka, Bangladesh, Africa have
a strong subsciber base
Weaknesses 1.Price competition from other telecom players
means limited market share.
2.User privacy is an allegation which the brand has
had to face
Opportunities 1.Fast expanding cellular market can be tapped
by Airtel
2.Latest and low cost technology can be used
by Airtel due to its strong presence
3.Untapped rural market
Threats 1.New entrant's low price offering can reduce
market share
2.Saturation point in basic telephony service can be
tapped by Airtel
3.Mobile Number Portability can be used by the
company to tap competitor subscribers
Competition
Competitors 1. Reliance Jio
2. Idea
3. Vodafone
4. Tata Docomo
5. Reliance Communications
6. MTNL
7. BSNL
8. Uninor
9. Tata Indicom
10. Virgin Mobile
11. Aircel

41
Competition brings some price bumps, compression: Airtel CEO
Gopal Vittal

Gopal Vittal

COMPARSION WITH COMPETITORS.

NEW DELHI, NOVEMBER 1:  
The advent of Reliance Jio has stirred things up in the telecom market,
most visibly in a torrent of free and low-price services and a war for
customers.
Established telecom players are for now being compelled to play that
game even if they are not convinced it’s the best way to respond. Free
services, says Gopal Vittal, Managing Director and Chief Executive
Officer (India and South Asia) of Bharti Airtel, “will not run forever,
because... everyone wants a return from investment.”
In an interview to BusinessLine, Vittal said the only way to compete with
‘free’ is to adopt a similar strategy, but “that’s not a great way for us.
That’s not how we operate. We’ll wait and watch.”
Although he clearly did not want to be drawn into any kind of verbal duel
when reacting to the strategies adopted by Mukesh Ambani’s Reliance
Jio, it was hard to avoid the subject.
“Competition has always been there in the industry. People are coming in
well-capitalised, making network investments… Every time a new
entrant comes in we have bumps — ups and downs — and some
compression in pricing…” Vittal noted.
“Will we see some bumps around the price circles? The answer is yes, we
may,” he added.
Before the launch of Jio, Vittal had said he hoped Reliance would not opt
for “irrational” pricing. Asked to define “irrational”, he said, “What is
irrational for us could be very rational for a new entrant because, from a
new entrant’s perspective, there is capex, and you would look at pricing
as a lever to get customers.”
However, beyond that, “we have to ask ourselves: what’s our purpose?”
Vittal said. At Airtel, he says, it’s very clear: to earn customers for life
and grow market share.

42
43
We do what is necessary to compete: Airtel CEO

GOPAL VITTAL Managing Director and CEO (India and South Asia),
Bharti Airtel
NEW DELHI, NOVEMBER 1:  
Not wanting to let go of its position in the country’s telecom space,
Bharti Airtel has been launching a new plan almost every Wednesday,
since a month.
Airtel, is also one of the players that was recently penalised ₹1,050 crore
by TRAI on the interconnect issue with Relaince Jio. But neither the
competition nor the regulatory hiccups have deterred its confidence.
Airtel feels that it will overcome such issues peacefully.
In an interview with BusinessLine, Gopal Vittal, Managing Director and
Chief Executive Officer (India and South Asia) of Bharti Airtel, gives a
sneak peak on where the company gets its confidence from. Excerpts:
Does the word ‘free’ worry you?
As far as ‘free’ is concerned, it will not run forever; at the end of the day,
everyone wants returns on investments. The fact is, we have got to ask
ourselves – what is our game plan? In the last a year or so, we made a bet
on rolling out 4G well ahead of the curve, even before the ecosystem was
developed.

44
Against all odds we went ahead and did it because we felt that it was an
important lead to take.
Besides, we also launched a whole bunch of apps – music, movies, games
and other services. We also did pricing bands – the voice was made free
at a certain price with bundles of data thrown in. Now the question is if
the price point comes down, is it innovation? No, it is not. We are here to
grow our market share. We do what is necessary to compete.
So you want to wait and watch before reacting to the competitor’s
(Reliance Jio’s) strategy?
I just want to make one thing very clear – we are not obsessed by our
competitors. We are obsessed by our customers – to make customers for
life. But, we do observe our competitors and learn from them. We have
learnt how to be frugal from one, learnt how to be drive a stronger post-
paid business from another, and how to run an enterprise business from
the third.
A penalty has been imposed on you for not augmenting PoIs to Jio.
Do you think it is justified?
We have made our points: number one is the pace of augmentation – it is
a regulatory obligation. We have done it for the past 20 years and we will
always abide by that. We have literally within 90 days of launch (Jio), put
out almost 2,000 PoIs and in five weeks, we offered staggering pace of
augmentation.
Normally, as per the regulator, they allow 90 days to do this, but we have
done that in five weeks. The extent of augmentation we have provided is
more than two-and-a-half times that of an equivalent size of an operator
for the same set of customers. It takes two parties to do point of
interconnect. You offer it and the other party that needs it has to be ready
to access transmission links coming to your switch centre – those were
also not ready in many cases. It is an ongoing dialogue and we are
confident that finally an objective outcome will emerge of it.
What if the decision is not in your favour?
We are pretty confident that we will see an objective outcome and I don’t
get ahead of ourselves that “what will happen if it doesn’t”.
Does ‘free’ service impact the quality?
Anything free impacts quality of course. And, anything free determines
the nature of customer you get, because you start to acquire more low-end
customers who use a lot and degrade the quality.
That’s how I see from our business perspective.
Taking about quality, how have you improved your services?
There has been a lot of improvement in the last 100 days, and in the next
100 you will see more improvement because we have more spectrum in
the 2100 MHz band. We have optimised around 40,000 cell sites, put in a

45
lot of investments, and are working with the government to put more
sites.
Besides we have launched ‘open network’. All these have led to reduction
of anywhere between 15 and 30 per cent of call drops.

What according to you is the right approach for the 700 MHz band?
For the 700MHz, we have always said that it was not affordable. We also
feel that the eco-system is still nascent and we are hopeful that there will
be sensible pricing for this spectrum overtime.
We think that the eco-system needs to ripen a bit before the 700MHz is
put on the block. Ultimately, the capacity of this industry to roll out
networks has to been seen…if you do not have the investments for capex,
then this spectrum is just sitting in your bag. If you look at the return of
investment, it is less than one per cent for the whole industry, and we as a
leader are on less than eight per cent, which is an abysmally low rate on
return (in fact lower than some fixed deposits). Therefore, you need to get
a reasonable rate of return for reasonable investment. That is why the cost
of spectrum should come down.
How are apps like Wynk Music/Movies doing?
Our music business has done really well. We have bundled it with
MyAirtel and its growing very well. One of the big challenges in the
music business generally is piracy, and we believe that it is important to
kill piracy in order to make sure labels and content providers get their fair
share. On the video service, it’s been a relatively slow start, but we are
now looking at how to scale it up. We are confident that we will lead that
market as well. We have also got bunch of alliances like for book
services, TV services and we have some of our apps as well. It is a
combination of our own as well as with alliances.
Reliance Jio is becoming a formidable player in the telecom sector even
before the complete roll out of its services.
In a move to counter Reliance Jio, telecom major Bharti Airtel has
slashed 4G and 3G mobile Internet charges by up to 80% to as low as Rs
51 per gigabyte (GB) under a special scheme.
To avail this benefit, Airtel customers will have to recharge with Rs 1,498
against which they will get 1GB of 4G or 3G mobile internet usage valid
for 28 days, the company said in a statement.
Post exhaustion of 1GB data limit, the customers can get 1GB 4G or 3G
recharges for just Rs 51 over a period of 12 months and there is no limit
on the number of recharges during the period.
At present, Airtel offers 1GB of 3G or 4G mobile internet for Rs 259
valid for 28 days.

46
The company is also set to launch a similar scheme in lower
denomination of Rs 748. Under this scheme, Airtel customers will get
1GB of 4G for Rs 99 over a period of six months.
"These prepaid packs are live in Delhi and will get launched across
circles by Aug 31, 2016," the statement said.
"With these innovative packs, we are redefining the value proposition on
our data packs and allowing our customers get a lot more within the same
budget," Bharti Airtel Director Operations (India & South Asia) , Ajai
Puri said.
Airtel in July started offering up to 67% more data in existing 4G and 3G
schemes which was followed by Idea Cellular and Vodafone.
In August, Airtel made voice calling free even in roaming under a new
plan for Rs 1,199 which also included 1GB of 3G or 4G data depending
on availability of network.
Players like Airtel and Idea have upped the ante in mobile data pricing
ahead of the upcoming commercial launch by Reliance Jio. The company
had said it has over 1.5 million test users on its network.
Reliance Jio, which is gearing up to launch its 4G services, had also said
during the recently-concluded quarter, it extended its trial services to all
LYF devices users under the Jio LYF Preview Offer.

Public Relation of airtel.

Airtel- The Story to Tell Through a Tale
The unprecedented growth in the mobile market is, perhaps, the most
vivid facet of India's economic transformation since the mid 1990s.
Mobile technology and services came to India just about a decade ago. In
the early days, a mobile was seen to be a fashion statement for the rich.
Today, it is accepted as a basic communication medium for all socio-
economic segments. The Indian mobile market is, today, amongst the
fastest growing and the most competitive in the world. Today India has
approximately 100 million phone connections as on July 2005 (
Source: Cellular Operators' Association of India and Association of Basic
Telecom Operators
). Out of which a little over half comprise of mobile subscribers. Airtel is
one brand which has been instrumental in building up a vast subscriber
base for itself. Airtel's journey to leadership began in Delhi in 1995.Since
then, Airtel has established itself pan-India targeting the entire population
if India. In the last ten years Airtel has achieved many firsts and unique
records: it was the first to launch nationwide roaming operations, it was
the first to cross the one million and the five million customer marks. It
was also the first to launch services overse as. Today, Airtel innovates in
almost everything that it presents to the market. An excellent example is
Easy Charge - India's first paperless electronic charging facility for

47
prepaid customers. For theses endeav ours, Airtel has also been conferred
with numerous awards. It won the prestigious Techies Award for 'being
the best cellular services provider' for four consecutive years
between1997 and 2000 - a record that is still unmatched. And in 2003, it
received theVoice & Data Award for being 'India's largest cellular service
provider', amongst others. Bharti’s true calling came in the mid 1990s
when the government opened up the sector and allowed private players to
provide telecom services. Bharti Enterprises accepted every opportunity
provided by this new policy to evolve in to India's largest
telecommunications company and one of India's most respected brands.
Airtel was launched in 1995 in Delhi. In the ensuing years, as the Airtel
network expanded to several parts of India, the brand came to symbolise
the very essence of mobile services. Airtel provides a host of voice and
data products and services, including high-speed GPRS services. Airtel
also offers a wide array of 'postpaid' and' prepaid' mobile offers, with a
range of tariff plans that target different segments. A comprehensive
range of value-added, customised services are part of the unique package
from Airtel. The company's products reflect a desire to constantly
innovate. Some of these are reflected in the fact that Airtel was the first to
develop a 'single integrated billing system'
Evolution of Airtel as a Brand
Bharti Enterprises wished to transform itself from a Delhi operator to a
pan Indian telecom operator. The company worked on a three-layered
branding architecture:
•To create specific brands for each of its services
•Build sub-brands within each of these services
•Use Bharti as the umbrella brand The brands identified to be retained for
theses services were – Airtel for its mobile operations, Touchtel – for its
fixed line phones, India One for its NLDoperations. In early 2001, The
Bharti Mobile promoted Airtel cellular service went in for repositioning
of its brand image. The new brand ethos it portrayed was in two distinct
fashions - the tag line "Touch Tomorrow", which unders cored the
leading theme for the new brand vision, followed by "The Good Life",
which underscored a more caring, more customer centric organization.
This was aimedat re-engineering its image as just simply a cellular
service provider to an all out information communications services
provider, Touch Tomorrow 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
was to potray new dimension in the cellular category. It went to
symbolize something beyond the Internet, SMS, roaming, IVRS, etc. It
symbolized the whole gamut of wireless digital broadband services that

48
constitutes tomorrow’s cellular services. This branding came up with
Touch Tomorrow
From 'TOUCH TOMORROW' To 'LIVE EVERY MOMENT’
In late-2002, Bharti Cellular Ltd. released a television commercial
(TVC),which despite using the 'oft-repeated' celebrity endorsement route
was unusualin 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 Rahman (Rahman) to promote its
brand. The campaign attracted considerable media attention because this
was the first time Rahman had agreed to do a television commercial and
also because, Rahman 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 Rahman and the TVC's execution. However, Bharti claimed to haves
cored an ace in terms of getting Rahman 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 positioning.
"Bharti's massive media expenditure plans were no surprise, considering
the fact that it was the largest cellular telecom company in the country -

49
reachingover 600 million people in 16 (out of 29) states of India.. 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.
Amalgamation of the Brands
It was September 2004, when Bharti undertook yet another repositioning
exercise. BTVL decided to unify its entire gamut of telecom services
under the Airtel Brand. This was done with an intention to be seen as an
integrated telecom services player rather than just operating in the mobile
space. It was an attempt to change the perception from "Airtel equals
mobile" to "Airtel equals telecom", and position Airtel as a complete
telecom services brand. The company’s telecom were clubbed under four
heads -- Airtel mobile services, Airtel telephone & broadband services,
Airtel long distance services and Airtel enterprise services. With Airtel’s
launch of Rs 200 denomination cards in early 2005, Airtel has targeted
the low usage segment, thereby offering services to cater to all segments.
The strategy of Airtel is gradually shifting to the mass market. By
targeting the segment of lower income group the brand is also changing
its communication strategy from the premium brand or the brand for high
class society to the brand for all segments.
Airtel as a brand seems busy in building a mass franchisee for its target
market. But Mr Sunil Mittal wants this brand to grow as the ‘Most
Preferred and Respected Brand of India’. The sales driven
communication has a limited ability to promote the brand as the ‘Most
Preferred and Respected Brand of India’. One needs to use neutral
methods of communication and public relation tools for building this
level of brand recognition.. Industry observers primarily attributed it to
Bharti's strong brand building and positioning strategies.
Amalgamation of the Brands
It was September 2004, when Bharti undertook yet another repositioning
exercise. BTVL decided to unify its entire gamut of telecom services
under the Airtel Brand. This was done with an intention to be seen as an
integrated telecom services player rather than just operating in the mobile
space. It was an attempt to change the perception from "Airtel equals
mobile" to "Airtel equals telecom", and position Airtel as a complete
telecom services brand. The company’s telecom were clubbed under four
heads -- Airtel mobile services, Airtel telephone & broadband services,
Airtel long distance services and Airtel enterprise services. With Airtel’s
launch of Rs 200 denomination cards in early 2005, Airtel has targeted
the low usage segment, thereby offering services to cater to all segments.
The strategy of Airtel is gradually shifting to the mass market. By
targeting the segment of lower income group the brand is also changing

50
its communication strategy from the premium brand or the brand for high
class society to the brand for all segments.
Airtel as a brand seems busy in building a mass franchisee for its target
market. But Mr Sunil Mittal wants this brand to grow as the ‘Most
Preferred and Respected Brand of India’. The sales driven
communication has a limited ability to promote the brand as the ‘Most
Preferred and Respected Brand of India’. One needs to use neutral
methods of communication and public relation tools for building this
level of brand recognition.
Marketing strategy of Airtel – Airtel marketing strategy

Airtel is the world’s 3rd largest mobile telecommunication Indian MNC

operating in 20 countries across Asia & Africa. Airtel has presence in 22
telecom circles across India & is India’s largest integrated telecom
service provider.
Segmentation, targeting, positioning in the Marketing strategy of Airtel
Airtel uses mix of segmentation strategies to segment its offerings like
basic Call /SMS plans, prepaid / Post-paid plans, VAS – Data, caller
tunes etc. Apart from geographically segmenting the market in East,
West, North, South & central, the market is also segmented in each
region on the basis of demographic variables like age, Income, Social
groups.
Different geographic regions are handled independently and different
campaigns are run according to the preferences of people in each region.
Airtel has targeted the generation Z of 15-25 ages, generation X & baby
Boomers by using different campaigns over the period of time i.e.
campaign like “Har Ek friend Jaruri hota hai”/ “Jo tera hai wo mera hai ”
to target Gen Z and recently launched campaign of “one touch internet”
targeting Gen X & baby boomers.
Airtel has been successful in top-of-the-mind recall amongst cellular
phone users and is enjoying a leadership position in most markets. After
changing its logo it has repositioned itself as Young, Energetic &
International brand. It has evolved itself as a torch bearer of the telecom
industry in India.
Marketing mix – Click here for Marketing mix of Airtel
SWOT analysis – Click here for SWOT analysis of Airtel
Mission –“Hunger to win customers for life.”
Vision- “Our vision is to enrich the lives of our customers. Our obsession
is to win customers for life through an exceptional experience.”
Tagline – “The smartphone Network”.
Competitive advantage in the Marketing strategy of Airtel – With the
formation of Indus tower & partnering with Idea & Vodafone for Indian
Operations, Airtel has extended its infrastructure in the extreme parts of

51
the country for nationwide penetration, creating competitive edge over
other players in terms of low operational cost, better network
connectivity, coverage, low call drops & better customer service.
Airtel developed a sustainable advantage through its excellent network of
telecom towers. In many locations, newer entrants found it cheaper to
rent Airtel’s existing infrastructure rather than setup new towers. Also
spending extensively on advertising & promotions helped it to become a
market leader. Word of mouth is one of the strongest forms of promotions
& Airtel has completely leveraged that. Airtel is always known for its
innovation and some of its products were the life time prepaid, Airtel live,
Hello tunes, My Plans, M-check are pioneer strategies & the list is never
ending.
BCG Matrix in the Marketing strategy of Airtel- Airtel have 4 SBU’s
(Strategic business unit) which occupies different places in BCG matrix
namely
Mobile services are stars, as it is operating in 22-telecom circles of India
and is the largest mobile service provider in the country, based on the
number of customers & (22.7 %) market share.
Tele-media services – fixed-line services are dogs since there is a
phenomenal decrease in the services in the industry as a whole.
High-speed broadband which is question mark since it has best in class
network with 126,357Rkm of fibre laid down but still they have presence
in only 87 metros & tier-1 city further investment can increase their
market share & will help it to move to stars.
Airtel business to large enterprise is question mark, although it provides a
broad port folio of services to large Enterprise, Government, Small &
Medium businesses and carrier customers but the services offered by
Airtel are expensive as compared to other players.
Digital TV services are stars, Airtel have 18% market share in the DTH
services second to only Dish TV & have head on competition with TATA
sky.
Distribution strategy in the Marketing strategy of Airtel – It has wide
spread simple and effective channel structure. Company uses 2-Tier & 3-
tier distribution network system.
Under 2-tier distribution network, company appoints UD (urban
distributors) & RS (Rural Suplliers). UD distribute the items to retailers
according to the demand & transfer easy balance to retailer through FOS
(Field officer Sales) SIM who work under UD’s.

Under 3-tier distribution RS (rural supers) distributes the items to RD

(Rural Distributors) & transfer easy balance into RD’s SIM, who then
distribute it to Retailers.

52
Apart from all these company also uses Airtel Relationship centres under
franchised model & company officials for corporate sales.
Brand equity in the Marketing strategy of Airtel – High TOMA (Top of
mind awareness), ARPU (average revenue per user), and extensive
distribution system & as high as 300+ million subscribers has helped
Airtel in crafting market leader position for itself over the years. Also
Airtel has shifted from a technological brand to a communication brand
through its continuous evolving branding & marketing efforts. It has
rechristened its logo to make it more of international, young & Energetic
brand.
Competitive analysis in the Marketing strategy of Airtel– Being the
torchbearer of the telecom industry in India it has reshaped the telecom
industry over the years. From tele-density of just 18.3 % in FY’07 to 75.2
FY’14 (DOT data), industry has seen a high growth momentum. Reliance
which initially targeted the B & C customer segments, lost its market
share to new & existing players like Idea, Vodafone, Tata-Docomo, and
BSNL etc. due to Network & customer service issue. In wireless data
services players like MTS, TATA Indicom have high market share in the
selected circles whereas Airtel is still figuring out to establish itself due to
High data charges.
Market analysis in the Marketing strategy of Airtel – In the highly
competitive telecom market where each company is trying hard to retain
their customers & increase ARPU (Average return per user), Airtel is
facing stiff competition from small & local players like Uninor, Aircel
who are present in few circles. Also players like Vodafone who are
fighting head on to emerge as a market leader possess a serious threat to
the company.
Connectivity, data services & VAS (Value added services) will be the
driving force of the telecom industry.
Customer analysis in the Marketing strategy of Airtel – Customers group
consist of all 3 segments A, B & C with their distinctive needs but
majorly it is targeting B segment which is Middle class with aspirational
needs & is the fastest growing segment. To cater the corporates clients &
A-class they have dedicated workforce. Airtel deals in both B2C & B2B
customers.
BRAND IMAGE

53
Brand Airtel: Wake-up call?

Just when Bharti Airtel got itself a consistent branding with instant recall,
it lost the architect behind it all - Bharat Bam bawale, the then-brand
director for the company - in March, this year. Under him, Airtel pushed
its "friendship" plank to connect with the youth across countries. The
success is already showing signs of wear and tear with a recent
independent valuation done by Brand Finance, the London-based
advisory, stating that Airtel's brand value has slid a few notches.

The fourth-largest telecom service operator in the world can not afford a
decrease in brand valuation as it consolidates its business in emerging
markets, while positioning itself as a global brand. Airtel's branding
issues are complicated as it is a leader brand in India, while in emerging
markets such as Africa, it is a challenger brand. Over the last two years
Airtel, has expanded to 19 countries across Asia and Africa with a
customer base of 260 million. Its entry in markets abroad has exposed it
to the challenges of establishing a global brand at a time when there is
margin pressure back home due to rising input costs.Brand Finance in its
2013 list of the leading 500 global companies in brand value, has
captured Airtel's brand value dropping from $5.2 billion in 2012 to $3.7
billion in 2013; its rank has gone down from 187th to 313th in the same
period. (See chart). Brand Airtel has seen better days: Between 2010 and
2012, its rank in the pecking order on the same list had shown a steady
improvement from 287th (in 2010), 283rd (in 2011) to 187th in 2012.
The annual valuation by Brand Finance calculates brand value using the
'Royalty Relief' method which presumes a brand as not being owned by
the company but as if it was licensed from another for a royalty. Airtel's
brand strength decreased in 2013 over 2012 as the royalty rate went
down. Factors such as falling revenues, high discount rates, a drop in
short-term fore cast revenues, poor long-term growth prospects, or even
unfavourable change in tax rates where a brand is present can all drag
down its value.
In its analysis, Brand Finance mentions that the risk associated with
operating in Africa is considerably higher than in India which has caused

54
a jump in discount rates. The long-term growth took a hit, largely due to
the pessimistic forecast for the Indian economy. Quoting institutional
brokers' estimate system, Brand Finance notes that Bharti Airtel's pre-tax
margins have decreased over the last two years, and are not expected to
recover in the next three years. Bharti Airtel has seen 12 consecutive
quarters of drop in net profit. These cumulatively caused a net drop in
brand value of $1.47billion, from $5.22billion in 2012 to $3.74billion in
2013.
When contacted, Airtel refused to comment on the implications of the
Brand Finance report.
Impact on the brand
The jury, comprising the advertising fraternity, brand specialists, and
telecom sector analysts, appear divided on the impact of the fall in the
brand value on how Airtel is perceived by consumers.
Amandeep Khurana, former chief operating officer, Madison Media
Plus, points out, "Any brand valuation exercise is balance-sheet oriented."
With the telecom market in a flux, brand valuations can then fluctuate
with business performance. "The unpredictability of business in emerging
markets is a given. But Bharti Airtel's management had not given it
adequate weightage," says an analyst with a Mumbai-based broking firm.
Telecom analysts say they don't take into account changes in brand value
while making recommendations on the stock.
However, as Ravi Rao, leader (South Asia), Mindshare, notes, "Currently
there is no effect on Airtel's brand perception for the man on the street.
But if negative news continue, perceptions can change very fast."
Marketing professionals feel that any successful brand has to be backed
by addressing the issues in customer-servicing. Lloyd Mathias, founder-
director, Green Bean Ventures, who has been in the senior management
at telecom companies such as Tata Teleservices and Motorola India, says
the current regulatory logjam has stalled innovations in the last two-three
years: "At the time when consumer expectations were raised by the
launch of services like 3G, the servicing failed to create an impact in
people's lives". This creates customer discontent.
Santosh Sood, professor of marketing at Fortune Institute of International
Business, who had earlier worked closely on Airtel during his stint with
the advertising industry, points to the changing rules of engagement for
telecom operators: "It is no longer about selling a connection but an
experience which is a combination of service, data, quality of network,
region-specific tariff packages, applications, music, and social media".
The branding so far
Airtel's communication seems to be on the right track. It has found a
sweet spot in the friendship theme, on which rides several of its recent
advertising campaigns - 'Har friend zaroori' and 'Jo mera hain wo tera

55
 hai'. In November, last year, the "friendship" bandwagon rolled into
Africa with a campaign around a young Nigerian singer, Half Dollar. The
brand has also homed in on youth-centric events like cricket, soccer and
Formula One racing for visibility.
Ravi Kiran, ex-CEO (South Asia) of Star com Media Vest Group, who
now runs a venture fund, feels Airtel's youth connect with its friendship
campaigns is something the brand lacked before 2010 and that "should
keep on being refreshed".
According to telecom analysts, growth of telecom services will be linked
to the use of data, and the youth are the biggest drivers of data
consumption and sharing. "Communication for the youth also has an
appeal across markets. So, they can build on the friendship theme across
markets," points out Rohit Ohri, chairman, Delhi India.
Brand experts say that any brand-building exercise takes up to three years
to accrue benefits to the company as customers look for consistency in
brand experience and benefits from a brand association. This year will be
the year of reckoning for Brand Airtel's friendship drive then. Eventually,
it will have to be wary of what Harish Bijoor Consults Inc CEO Harish
Bijoor warns: "The classic problem that many telecom brands face when
they become too big is not being specific to anyone." It will be over to
Airtel's newly-appointed India-CEO Gopal Vittal to take it forward from
here. Bharti unveils new corporate brand philosophy Launches new
corporate identity programme
Bharti unveils new corporate brand philosophy Launches new corporate
identity programme
  New corporate brand philosophy - An extension from high growth
group re-structuring announced recently.

  Launches new credo of "Building Telecom. Building Partnerships".

  New corporate philosophy - A commitment to further strengthen
relationships with stakeholders . . . . including customers
  New brand philosophy inspired by the global telecom revolution that
brings the world together as 'one'
  Bharti brand identity and campaign to have a new younger and global
look & feel
New brand architecture showcases the Airtel brand as the lead driver
for all telecom services in the group.

56
New Delhi, February 26, 2001 : Bharti Enterprises today unveiled the
new group corporate identity and corporate brand philosophy. This
unveiling is really an extension of the group's major restructuring
exercise in August lastyear.

The new look and feel of Bharti brand identity is based on the vision that
the telecom companies of the future will have to operate in a radically
different environment. Bharti believes that building corporations that
build infrastructure and hence build nations begin with building strong
relationships and partnerships with all its stakeholders viz. employees,
customers, joint venture partners, financial institutions, government and
industry.

This strategic move also takes forward the ethos of change and the trends
emerging from change :

     1. Geographical barriers are diminishing every day.

     2. Convergence in technologies, services and products.

     3. The key differentiator for business success will be the relationship
we
         share with our stakeholders - with an emphasis on employees and
         customer.

     4. Telecommunications infrastructure will define a nations knowledge

         resource.

According to Mr. Sunil Bharti Mittal, Chairman & Group Managing

Director, Bharti Enterprises "At Bharti we have always believed that
partnerships are the real value creators of a successful enterprise. Today
as telecom and IT, the pillars of infrastructure and key builders of nations
converge to create a 'one world', Bharti's new corporate brand philosophy
and corporate identity epitomize the spirit of 'global oneness' and the
spirit of partnership."
The new corporate brand philosophy at Bharti.

With the trends for the future very clearly outlined, Bharti has set for
itself the vision of making a big difference in the lives of it's stakeholders
by building strong partnerships.

57
"It's about an energized team
It's about initiatives that build the future.
It's about speed of response by getting there first.
It's about working together as one.
Reaching out. Touching. Communicating.
Building telecom. Building partnerships.
To build a better world."

Adds Mr. Hemant Sachdev, Director, Marketing & Corporate

Communications, Bharti Enterprises "At Bharti we have always been
committed to offer the best consumer value by building strong leadership
brands. Our basket of leadership brands . . . . Airtel, Mantra Online,
Magic & Beetel are true symbols of the fine relationships we enjoy with
our customers. Bharti's new identity today further re-in forces our
commitment to strengthen our relationships, our partnerships to build a
better world for all our customers . . . and stakeholders"

Bharti's New Brand Identity : Rationale

"The Bharti Orbit of Partnerships" - All perceptions begin with the eye.
The new corporate brand identity is really symbolic of a new beginning.

The yellow colour reflects vibrancy and energy. The black of the
lettering reflects solidity and resolve to make a difference.

       A friendly and open approach is reflected by the lower case type
style in Helvetica 95.

The orbit that envelopes the logo - 'the orbit of partnerships' as

we term it with a hint of asymmetry evokes a sense of expanse
with a touch of excitement of the fast changing canvas ahead.

The symbol with the Bharti Orbit of partnerships represents the qualities
and attributes that are key to a successful communications based
company, strength, vision, resolve, strategy, team and sensitivity. The
logo will also carry under it a new credo, "Building Telecom. Building
Partnerships", which will not only highlight what the group does best, but
where the focus will be.
58
Bharti Enterprises - A profile

Bharti Enterprises, India's leading telecom conglomerate, has been at the

forefront of technology and has revolutionised telecommunications with
its world-class products and services. Established in 1976, Bharti
Enterprises has been a pioneering force in the telecom sector with many
firsts and innovations to its credit. Bharti has many joint ventures with
telecom leaders like SingTel, Singapore; British Telecom, UK;
E.M.Warburg Pincus, USA; Intel, USA; Telia, Sweden and New York
Life International, USA.

Bharti Enterprises has many firsts to its credit, ranging from being the
first cellular service in Delhi, first private basic telephone service
provider in the country, first Indian company to provide comprehensive
telecom services outside India (Seychelles), fastest growing VSAT
company in India, and first multinational Internet Service Provider.
Airtel, the premier cellular service from Bharti in Delhi, Himachal
Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka, has defined the cellular business
through continuous marketing and technological innovations, consistently
setting the benchmark for the Indian cellular industry. Airtel has the
unique distinction of having been named India's best cellular service for
four years in a row by receiving the Techies '97, Techies '98, Techies '99
and Techies 2000. Today, Bharti is India's largest telecom services
company in the private sector.
Mantra Online, under which Bharti-BT provides Internet services, is the
first multi-national Internet service provider in the country. Bharti Tele
net created history with the launch of the first private sector fixed line
service in the state of Madhya Pradesh, which is today India's largest
private basic telephone service. Bharti-BT VSAT is the fastest growing
VSAT company in India, expanding the market through innovation and
service leadership.
Bharti Enterprises also plans to add long distance telephony and
broadband services to its existing telecommunications portfolio in
addition to extending its mobile and fixed line services to new markets
within India.
Bharti Enterprises also manufactures and exports telephone terminals and
cordless phones. Apart from being the largest manufacturer of telephone
instruments, it is also the first company to export its products to the USA.
Bharti is today recognized as a true infrastructure builder of the nation.
Amongst it's series of rewards & recognitions, Bharti was recently
awarded the first National Infrastructure Development Finance
Corporation (IDFC) award for "Excellence in Infrastructure - 2000".

59
QUESTIONAIRE

Brand Positioning Of Airtel

Dear sir/madam,
I am basically doing a project on topic "brand positioning of airtel" kindly
help me me out with my research project by filling this form. the basic
purpose of this sevrvey is to gather genral information about your
experiencs of these mobile network service provider.

Name 

Age Group 

 Under 16
 16-25
 25-35
 35-50
 Above 50

Do You Have A Mobile? 

 Yes
 No

Which Network Do You Use?

• Airtel
• Vodafone
• Jio
• Reliance

Which Services Do You Think AIRTEL Provides The Best? 

 Airtel 4G
 Airtel Money

60
  Airtel Open Network
 Family Plan

From Which Source Did You Get To Know About Airtel? 

 Television
 Internet
 Newspapers
 Friends & Relatives
 Direct Sales Executive

What Do You Look Out When You Choose A Network Provider? *

 Cost
 International/Domestic Calling Plans
 Internet Plans
 Free Incoming/Outgoing Plans

How Long Have You Been Using This Service Provider? *

 1-5years
 5-10years
 More than 10years

Do You Think Bharti Airtel Network Enjoys Brand Loyalty? *

 Yes
 No

On A Scale 1 to 5 What Would You Rate Airtel? *

o 1
o 2
o 3
o 4
o 5

Q1. Age Group *

Under 16
 16-25

61
  25-35
 35-50
 Above 50

SY

62
Q2. Do You Have A Mobile? *
 Yes
 No

63
Q3. Which Network Do You Use?

• AIRTEL
• VODAFONE
• JIO
• RELIANCE

64
Q4. Which Services Do You Think AIRTEL Provides The Best? *
 Airtel 4G
 Airtel Money
 Airtel Open Network
 Family Plan

65
Q5. From Which Source Did You Get To Know About Airtel? *
 Television
 Internet
 Newspapers
 Friends & Relatives
 Direct Sales Executive

66
Q6. What Do You Look Out When You Choose A Network Provider? *
 Cost
 International/Domestic Calling Plans
 Internet Plans
 Free Incoming/Outgoing Plans

67
Q7. How Long Have You Been Using This Service Provider? *

 1-5years
 5-10years
 More than 10years

68
Q8. Do You Think Bharti Airtel Network Enjoys Brand Loyalty? *
 Yes
 No

69
Q9. On A Scale 1 to 5 What Would You Rate Airtel? *
o 1
o 2
o 3
o 4
o 5

70