marketing, planning and strategy of airtel

8/9/2019 Marketing, Planning and strategy of Airtel

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A Project report on

(Airtel application world)

Submitted By:

Jigar Rathod

Ridhima Bhanot

Sruti Ray

Sambedana Samal

Snigdha Solanki

Vijay Kumar Gupta

Submitted To:

Ms. Sufia Khan

(Faculty, MOS)

Mr. Aayushman Gupta

(Faculty, MPS)


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Airtel comes to you from Bharti Airtel

Limited, one of Asias leading integratedtelecom services providers with operations in

India, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh. Bharti Airtel

since its inception has been at the forefront

of technology and has pioneered several

innovations in the telecom sector.

The company is structured into four strategic

business units - Mobile, Telemedia, Enterpriseand Digital TV. The mobile business offers

services in India, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh.

The Telemedia business provides broadband,

IPTV and telephone services in 94 Indian

cities. The Digital TV business provides Direct-

to-Home TV services across India. The

Enterprise business provides end-to-end telecom solutions to corporate

customers and national and international long distance services to telcos.

However, as a new service, we plan to enter

the product diversification, and introduce a

whole new service called AIRTEL Application

World in which we would be having tie up with

Mobile companies like Nokia and Samsung.

While using their Operating Systems, we plan

to provide our applications utilizing 3G

network. Unlimited data transfer betweenthe company's server and unlimited data

storage will be USP of our service using cloud

computing concept. Applications like on-line

multiplayer gaming, encrypted push mail services, live messenger and high speed

internet will give single portal access for ever requirement. The concept of cloud


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computing and application pack with monthly rental could do the cost cutting and

provide application on fixed cost basis while avoiding fake applications and

unwanted viruses.


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After launching of 3G in India, mobile internet users are increasing day by day.

When mobile companies are providing high speed internet at reasonable rates

due to cut throat competition, every tech savvy person is switching to 3G services.

Airtel is well known for its mobile and broadband service. Also Airtel has started

service names NET PC using cloud computing service. Airtel application world can

prove to be one of the most useful VAS made to fulfill all requirements of smart

phone users. Airtel application world will serve their users virus free application

encyclopedia along with unlimited storage and encrypted push mail service to

cater all aspects from business to leisure.

Airtel application world will serve in

following particular areas.

1) Business applications2) Online gaming3) Music4) Leisure5) Education

While more and more no. of people are using internet, when internet is inevitable

part of education, Airtel application world will be portrayed in users mind as

Aladdins magical Lamp. Starting from business applications like virtual meeting

place and push mail service to 3D multiplayer gaming, this application world will

give magical experience to its users at very affordable price. When cybercriminals


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are major threat for any internet user, Airtel application world will provide

unbeatable security with encrypted data transfer and proxy servers. Also, first

time in mobile world, Airtel will use cloud computing concept to remove barrier

of storage limitation. With application packs at monthly rental, service users will

get their required software applications at affordable rate and without a fear of

fake applications. With latest technology and secured high speed data transfer,

Airtel application world will create benchmark in application world as an initiator

and innovator.


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Bharti Airtel, a leading mobile service provider in India is Bharti Enterprises'

flagship company. According to Forbes Global 2000 list, Bharti Airtel, India's

pioneering private telecommunication service provider is ranked #826.

This integrated telecom service provider operates three strategic business units

covering 23 telecommunication circles. These three strategic businesses are

mobile business, enterprise business, and Airtel Telemedia business. Their mobile

business comprising fixed wireless and mobile services is spread over 23 telecom

circles, whereas their Airtel Telemedia business provides telephone and

broadband services to clients in 94 cities. International and domestic long

distance services and end to end telecommunication solution for companies are

included in Airtel enterprise businesses.

Brief history

Bharti Airtel was established as Bharti Tele-Ventures Limited in 1985. This

telecommunication company is a joint stock holding enterprise headquartered in

New Delhi. Bharti Airtel, commonly called 'Airtel' is among largest mobile service

operator with a subscriber base of nearly 75 million. Airtel has a submarine cable

landing station in Chennai connecting this South Indian city to Singapore.

Products and services

Services offered by Bharti Airtel can be classified into:
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Mobile services Based on number of customers Bharti Airtel is largest mobile

service operator in India. This company offers mobile services based on GSM

technology. For convenience of its customers Bharti Airtel has both pre- paid and

post paid facilities.

Enterprise business Bharti Airtel provides integrated services comprising mobile,

telephone, broadband, data and connectivity services internationally as well as

nationally for small, medium and large scale enterprises. Its carrier service

provides network connectivity through optic fiber over a distance of more than

35,000 km. Bharti Airtel is a member of South East Asia Middle East Western

Europe 4 consortiums which include 15 global

telecommunication service providers.

Airtel Telemedia Services This Company offers high speed broadband services

through landlines in 94 cities.

Financials

Bharti Airtel till March 2008 had assets worth US $6.61 billion. During period

between April 2007 March 2008, it achieved sales amounting to US $6.61 billion

and profits of US $0.94 billion.

Awards and recognition

Bharti Airtel was adjudged 'Best Carrier India' at 2008 Telecom Asia. It was

recognized as 'Best Cellular Service Provider

' and 'Best Broadband Service Provider' at V&D 100 awards for 2008. In 2007,

Bharti Airtel won 'Business Leadership Award' from NDTV Profit.
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Strengths:

Bharti Airtel has more than 65 million customers (July 2008). It is the largestcellular provider in India, and also supplies broadband and telephone

services - as well as many other telecommunications services to both

domestic and corporate customers.

Other stakeholders in Bharti Airtel include Sony-Ericsson, Nokia - and SingTel, with whom they hold a strategic alliance. This means that the business

has access to knowledge and technology from other parts of the

telecommunications world.

The company has covered the entire Indian nation with its network. Thishas underpinned its large and rising customer base.

Weakness:

An often cited original weakness is that when the business was started bySunil Bharti Mittal over 15 years ago, the business has little knowledge and

experience of how a cellular telephone system actually worked. So the

start-up business had to outsource to industry experts in the field.

Until recently Airtel did not own its own towers, which was a particularstrength of some of its competitors such as Hutchison Essar. Towers are

important if your company wishes to provide wide coverage nationally.

The fact that the Airtel has not pulled off a deal with South Africa's MTNcould signal the lack of any real emerging market investment opportunity

for the business once the Indian market has become mature.

Opportunities:

The company possesses a customized version of the Google search enginewhich will enhance broadband services to customers. The tie-up with

Google can only enhance the Airtel brand, and also provides advertising

opportunities in Indian for Google.


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Global telecommunications and new technology brands see Airtel as a keystrategic player in the Indian market. The new iPhone will be launched in

India via an Airtel distributorship. Another strategic partnership is held with

BlackBerry Wireless Solutions.

Despite being forced to outsource much of its technical operations in theearly days, this allowed Airtel to work from its own blank sheet of paper,

and to question industry approaches and practices - for example replacing

the Revenue-Per-Customer model with a Revenue-Per-Minute model which

is better suited to India, as the company moved into small and remote

villages and towns.

The company is investing in its operation in 120,000 to 160,000 smallvillages every year. It sees that less well-off consumers may only be able to

afford a few tens of Rupees per call, and also so that the business benefits

are scalable - using its 'Matchbox' strategy.

Bharti Airtel is embarking on another joint venture with Vodafone Essar andIdea Cellular to create a new independent tower company called Indus

Towers. This new business will control more than 60% of India's network

towers. IPTV is another potential new service that could underpin the

company's long-term strategy.

Threats:

Airtel and Vodafone seem to be having an on/off relationship. Vodafonewhich owned a 5.6% stake in the Airtel business sold it back to Airtel, and

instead invested in its rival Hutchison Essar. Knowledge and technology

previously available to Airtel now moves into the hands of one of its

competitors.

The quickly changing pace of the global telecommunications industry couldtempt Airtel to go along the acquisition trail which may make it vulnerableif the world goes into recession. Perhaps this was an impact upon the

decision not to proceed with talks about the potential purchase of South

Africa's MTN in May 2008. This opened the door for talks between Reliance

Communication's Anil Ambani and MTN, allowing a competing Inidan


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industrialist to invest in the new emerging African telecommunications

market.

Bharti Airtel could also be the target for the takeover vision of other globaltelecommunications players that wish to move into the Indian market.

Effect of SWOT on new service launch

Strengths:

Ready customer database Old strategic tie-ups with

mobile companies

Pan India coverage

Weakness:

Airtel did not own its owntowers

Opportunity:

Customized Google searchengine

joint venture with VodafoneEssar and Idea Cellular to

create a new independent

tower company called IndusTowers

Threats:

other companies likeVodafone and RIM

quickly changing pace of theglobal telecommunication

Major Challenges :

Getting a Disproportionate Share of customers

Plan and Deploy network Distribution through a hub and spoke model

Build Relevance for its products and services- Network & affordability

Build Capability to Make Scale an Advantage


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Segmentation( consumer, trade) and segmented delivery Technology automation Building internal people capabilities like restructuring of the marketing

team which was carried out recently.

Delight current customers

Build trust- lead simplification of tariff, customer touch points Drive innovation- Data and services which would be user friendly.

Future Challenges-

Mobile number portability (MNP) is a facility given by operators where asubscriber can move from one service provider to another without

changing the number allocated to the subscriber.

Thus, under MNP, a subscriber will have the option of retaining the samephone number issued by the old operator even with the new operator.

To achieve the successful implementation of MNP, operators shouldconsider carrying out a comprehensive cost-benefit analysis to ascertain

whether or not the implementation of the technology would prove to be

profitable for the operator.

Future Strategies-

Translate its expertise in Indian markets to other emerging economies. Thiscould call for acquisitions globally.

Technology leadership is a must Airtel must ensure that its reliance onGSM technology does not render it obsolete.

Indian market in spite of being the worlds largest is still not matured.Opportunities abound in the hinterland which must be exploited.


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The Service:

Airtel application world is going to cater the service packs and application combos

at never before rates and price. With entry of 3G, this revolutionized telecom

world will take new directions to achieve new heights with high data transfer

rates and immense opportunities. As in past scenario, every company used to

provide mobile internet and VAS as a separate thing along with company

download center. Now, with new technologies like cloud computing and 3G,

companies and third party software providers are designing their software again

to meet high quality standards and

requirements. This will act as an add-

on to all the existing services that are

being provided by AIRTEL to its

customers with a minimal additional

price. The already existing services

include-

Instant Balance Enquiry 24Hr recharge Facility Caller line identification Call divert, Call wait & Call Hold


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Multimedia messaging service (MMS) Airtel Live Portal SMS based Information Service Hello Tunes & Ring Tones Voice Mail Service Easy Post-paid bill collection Gifting of Ring Tones & Hello Tunes GPRS Business Solutions

USP of the service:

USP of this service will be cloud computing principles in mobile services, 3D

multiplayer mobile gaming and many more. Company will provide service like

encrypted push mail service to keep pace with other service providers like

blackberry. Also, unlimited online storage, 3D multiplayer online gaming, virtual

meeting place, customized google search engine and ready to access online

software pool will add on to customers ease of access and companys

profitability. Also while customers will use all applications online, one can avoid

problems related to platform of software as many mobile just supports java based

software only. So mobiles will become virtually platform free.

Pricing strategy:

Pricing strategy will be unique than other service providers as company is going to

launch this new service. Company will provide unlimited data transfer to its


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central server for accessing Airtel applications and song jukebox at a fixed

monthly rental. Gaming pack will come on monthly rental and on one time use

basis. Online application pool access will give customers flexibility to choose from

various applications and just pay for them to access online. Customers will receive

client software which will retrieve software from online database as per

customers subscription.

Sales and Distribution plan:

As company is having large customer base and pan India footprint, distributors of

Airtel telecom will help to distribute this new product. Also customers will get an

option to subscribe online from Airtel website. USPs of companys new service

will help company to attract new customers which are currently using 2G service.

Advertisement and Promotion:

As this new service will cost bit higher

than normal service to the customers,company will do aggressive but

focused marketing. Viral marketing

through emails and advertisements on

social networking sites like orkut,

Facebook and Linked-In will play a

vital role in spreading a word to

customers. Every Airtel customer care

center will display advertisement of

this new service along with free demo

inside customer care center. New customers subscribing for this service will get


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free application pack access for one month with a single condition that customers

have to subscribe for at least 3 months. Also, per month 2 hours of free music

library access will help to attract music lovers. Large scale print and video

advertising. Big celebrities like SRK and Sachin are roped in to endorse the new

service to have a better connect. Moreover some innovations such as Bollywood

movie premiers, music services such as ring back tones & many more.

For the specific customers like youth, tech savvy people and children the

promotion would be through some of the already existing strategies like


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Process:

Company will launch this service as multilayer stage to pinpoint faults in new

service and curing them too provide complete satisfaction. Test market will be

metro cities. Company will start launching it from Bangalore which is well known

for Silicon Valley and Indias first Wi-Fi city. Successful adaptation by customer will

lead company toward launching it to new cities. In first phase, all metro cities will

be covered then company will cover main cities of every states followed by

smaller cities.

People:

This product is targeted mainly towards business class and college students.

Company will provide virtual meeting place for organizations that will pay fixed

monthly rental. Also, chat rooms in messengers will be replaced by this meeting

places which will be provided for free and open for all. Other applications will

include virtual tutor and library which will help both students and corporates to

learn new things using pre designed training programs stored in Airtel server.

Current billing centers will play a role of service center as this new service is

available online. These centers will help customers to activate new application

and pay bills for monthly usage.

Target market will be employees of MNCs and other corporates who uses 24X7

Internet for email & intranet access and young age group particularly with age 18-

30 who plays maximum online gaming and uses other online applications.

Applications provided by this service will target this customer group only.

Physical Environment-


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Subscription would be available at all airtel offices and outlets.


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MARKET PENETRATION STRATEGY

(Increase Market Share)

Attract users of competitors products : Full Talk time Convert nonusers into users :Lifetime plans to attract low income groups Increase product usage : Easy Recharges Increase the frequency of purchase : Recharge through ATM ; Internet

based recharging through leading banks ; Products available on India times

shopping and Rediff shopping Find new applications for current users: Collaboration with banks to

facilitate fund transfer through mobile; Global Money Transfer.

NEW PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT

Product quality improvement strategy: Good mobile coverage. Product feature additionsstrategy: Wap Services; EDGE Service; Airtel Live

(Cricket news, downloads, astrology, travel etc.);

New product developmentstrategy : BlackberryMARKET DEVELOPMENT

(Intensive)

Expand geographically : Entering new markets in the west (U.K) ; Launchingmobile services in Sri Lanka ; GSM license in Bhutan

Target new segments: Call Home service for NRIs living in USA to be intouch with their loved ones.

DIVERSIFICATION

Broadband Services. Telephone Services - Touchtel. Consultancy services to industry verticals like Banking, Financial services.


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RivalryAmongFirms

NewEntrants

Suppliers

Substitute

Products

Customers

Bargaining power of Suppliers:

As Airtel was using mobile towers of other companies, that companies can ask for

more rent as Airtel is going to use 3G network. Though Airtel is starting own

mobile tower company, but installation across India may take time so we can

consider this factor here. Also Airtel application world will include most of the

applications from third party application developers. These developers may deny

designing software compatible with Airtel application world.


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Bargaining power of buyers:

Because of changing pace of mobile industry, prices of mobile services are rapidly

decreasing. May be customer can ask same service at lower price or switch to

other services as loyalty remains very low when many substitutes are available.

Threat of new entrants:

Airtel is one of the telecom giants but there are other players also like Vodafone

and Reliance. As many companies are going to start 3G service, this may prove to

be a threat to new service. Threat from new entrant in telecom sector is low as

following factors affects very much

Huge License Fees to be paid upfront & High gestation period Entry of MVNOs & WiMAX operators Spectrum Availability & Regulatory Issues Infrastructure Setup Cost - High Rapidly changing technology

Substitute Products:

Laptops and netbooks are major substitute for mobile services. Launce of i-pad

also create new substitute as all of these devices comes with Wi-Fi access and

different application set. May be user of iPad dont like access of same

applications on small mobile screen.


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Main reasons of failure may include following reasons in this service

Failure due to platform incompatibility Network connectivity failure Application error Coding error in software

Company can take security measures to avoid this problem. When users are trying

to use Airtel service that is incompatible with users mobile, application may show

error. Like while mobile user is using mobile phone with Symbian OS and his

mobile is not able to support java based applications, it may show error while

accessing software developed in Java. To avoid this, company can provide

compatibility information while user subscribes for particular service

Another failure may occur due to network connectivity. At first stage, while

company is going to launch this product in metro cities, may be customers will

never face this problem but to avoid this type of failure in smaller cities, survey by

company is necessary for better connectivity at every corner.

Application errors may occur in primary stage while adding new application to

database. Company may give notice showing beta version before putting it for

open access. And from failure reports of breakdown of software, company can

improvise the software.


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Coding error is also one of the most common errors in software world well known

by the name bug. To remove this type of errors, company can give patch or

fixes to users or replace it with new software versions.

Airtel is already having huge network of service centers and customer care

centers for their different products. Company can train their people to deal with

any kind of software errors occurring while usage of this service. Or company can

outsource servicing to any call centers to ensure smooth functioning of service.


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While this new era of telecom is ready to make footprints in world of 3G service,

high speed internet and fast data transfer will become a reality from a dream.

India is developing country overall but developed country from technological

point of view. People of India are able to adopt any changes made due to

improved technology. Users of internet are increasing day by day. This new

service launch by Airtel will prove 3G services usefulness to every class of people

from students to high end professionals. May be it will take time to recognized by

customers but once successful, it will become Nicotine for tech savvy people.

marketing, planning and strategy of airtel

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