EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

The Indian telecom industry is the fastest growing industry with an addition of 9- 10 million
monthly subscribers. The Indian telecommunications network with over 375 Million subscribers is
second largest network in the world after China.

Major players in this sector are BSNL, MTNL, Airtel, Vodafone, BPL, Tata, Idea, etc. Buyer
power and threat of rivalry is very high in Indian Telecom Sector. Both these factors are
formidable. This could be reason of consolidation in the industry. Companies try to reduce threat
of rivalry by merging or buying out rival companies.

Telecom sector is one of the integrated parts of economy of any country and the Government
regulatory and policy initiatives have also been directed towards establishing a world class
infrastructure in India also. It provides an ideal environment for the investment but it also has a
very complex structure.

The challenges imposed on the Indian telecom market are increasing day by day because of the
new technologies and knowledge. The government has taken many proactive initiatives to
facilitate the rapid growth of the Indian telecom industry. The booming domestic telecom market
has been attracting huge amounts of investment which is likely to accelerate with the entry of
new players and launch of new services. Despite the gloomy outlook owing to the global
recession/slowdown in the economy, the telecom sector of India continues to attract record
number of new subscribers.

The Indian mobile phone operators have been adding about 8-10 million subscribers every
month throughout this year, and the figure has regularly topped the 10 million mark during the
last three-four months. Considering the current pace of fresh additions per month, India has the
potential of taking the total tally of subscribers to 700 million in the next five years from the
current level of about 350 million, second only to China.
INTRODUCTION TO INDIAN TELECOM SECTOR

India's telecom sector is one of the world's fastest growing sectors. The industry has
maintained its growth momentum despite a slowdown seen across various sectors.
India has crossed the 500 million wireless subscriber mark in November last year.
With the increase in the number of players and reduced tariffs, this number is
expected to soar. Overall tele-density has touched 46.32, a whopping 250% jump in
the last four years.

The rapid growth in Indian telecom industry has been contributing to India's GDP at
large. Telecom industry in India started to set up in a phased approach. Privatisation
was gradually introduced, first in value-added services, followed by cellular and basic
services. Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) was established to regulate
and deal with competition (the service providers). This gradual and thoughtful reform
process in India has favoured industry growth. Upcoming services such as 3G and
WiMax will help to further augment the growth rate.

The mobile industry is expected to create a total economic value of Rs 14 trillion

(US$ 217.37 billion) by the year 2020. It would generate around 3 million direct job
opportunities and 2 million indirect jobs during this period@. India has become the
second largest smartphone market in the world as shipments increased 23 per cent
year-on-year in Q3 2017, to reach more than 40 million units@@.

Rise in mobile-phone penetration and decline in data costs will add 500 million new
internet users in India over the next five years creating opportunities for new
businesses. The monthly data usage per smartphone in India is expected to increase
from 3.9 GB in 2017 to 18 GB by 2023.
Data usage on Indian telecom operators' networks (excluding Reliance Jio), doubled
in six months to 359 petabytes or 3.7 million gigabytes per month as 4G data usage
share increased to 34 per cent by the end of June 2017$. According to a report by
leading research firm Market Research Store, the Indian telecommunication services
market will likely grow by 10.3 per cent year-on-year to reach US$ 103.9 billion by
2020.
Overview

India's telecommunication network is the second largest in the world by number of

telephone users (both fixed and mobile phone) with 1.206 billion subscribers as on
30 September 2017. It has one of the lowest call tariffs in the world enabled by mega
telecom operators and hyper-competition among them. India has the world's second-
largest Internet user-base. As on 30 September 2017, there were 324.89 million
internet subscribers in the country.

Major sectors of the Indian telecommunication industry are telephone, internet and
television broadcast Industry in the country which is in an ongoing process of
transforming into next generation network, employs an extensive system of modern
network elements such as digital telephone exchanges, mobile switching
centres, media gateways and signalling gateways at the core, interconnected by a
wide variety of transmission systems using fibre-optics or Microwave radio
relay networks.

The access network, which connects the subscriber to the core, is highly diversified
with different copper-pair, optic-fibre and wireless technologies. DTH, a relatively
new broadcasting technology has attained significant popularity in the Television
segment. The introduction of private FM has given a fillip to the radio broadcasting in
India.

Telecommunication in India has greatly been supported by the INSAT system of the
country, one of the largest domestic satellite systems in the world. India possesses a
diversified communications system, which links all parts of the country by telephone,
Internet, radio, television and satellite.

Indian telecom industry underwent a high pace of market liberalisation and growth
since the 1990s and now has become the world's most competitive and one of the
fastest growing telecom markets. The Industry has grown over twenty times in just
ten years, from under 37 million subscribers in the year 2001 to over 846 million
subscribers in the year 2011. India has the world's second-largest mobile phone user
base with over 1183.04 million users as of September 2017. It has the world's
second-largest Internet user-base with over 324 million as of September 2017.

Telecommunication has supported the socioeconomic development of India and has

played a significant role to narrow down the rural-urban digital divide to some extent.
It also has helped to increase the transparency of governance with the introduction
of e-governance in India. The government has pragmatically used modern
telecommunication facilities to deliver mass education programmes for the rural folk
of India.

According to London-based telecom trade body GSMA, the telecom sector

accounted for 6.5% of India's GDP in 2015, or about ₹9 lakh crore (US$140 billion),
and supported direct employment for 2.2 million people in the country. GSMA
estimates that the Indian telecom sector will contribute ₹14.5 lakh
crore (US$220 billion) to the economy and support 3 million direct jobs and 2 million
indirect jobs by 2020.
Understanding the Public Relation Industry in India

The Indian PR industry has the opportunity to offer integrated solutions because of
an explosion in media

Clients in India will eventually look to their agencies for strategic communications,
not simply for media relations. This is already happening. Companies such
as Wipro ask their agencies to help them understand how best to communicate their
messages and present them in a context that is meaningful for clients, analysts,
investors and journalists.

Since the Indian PR industry is still nascent, there is an opportunity to offer

integrated solutions, especially as the line between public relations, advertising and
digital is already starting to blur.

As a result, many agencies have invested in creative and digital arms. Cost-effective
communications plans — that span advertising, PR and digital media — make sense
to clients too.

With the growing adoption of social media, there is a combination of options

available. Social media is catching up fast with traditional media and is becoming
part of many companies’ communications approach.

PR professionals can create tailored communications strategies and content to reach

audiences and monitor the landscape for stakeholder sentiment.

The approach would, of course, vary from client to client depending on their
communications. For instance, a fast moving consumer goods company would prefer
a combination of advertising and PR, while a technology start-up would use targeted
PR for specific audiences.

This is also a significant opportunity to reposition the industry, from a traditional PR

deliverer to a strategic communications consultant.
Meenu Handa, Microsoft’s director of corporate communications, believes that PR
will be recognised as a strategic tool for two reasons — “One, the implosion of digital
and social media - which is all about two-way engagement, and the PR industry has
always operated in that environment. Two, the imperative need for organisations —
including government, businesses and NGOs — to be extremely transparent in their
communication in order to build and retain trust. Again, that is a space PR has
always operated in.”
Specialty communications

The ‘umbrella’ PR organisation is unlikely to disappear, but it may need to develop

special skills to thrive. PR is as good as your product, service or idea — not the other
way around. Here’s where service innovations will play a critical role.

* Niche PR: This involves the creation of small, specialised teams within organisations
or as separate entities. Niche PR can address the really small segments or have a tiny-
yet-unique offering. For instance, specialists in Indian languages or in developing
content. The current economic crisis might spur the rise of niche PR agencies, offering
communications services in a single sector or aimed at a particular ethnic group.

While such agencies are rare in India, they are making their presence felt abroad. For
instance, Performance PR is a London-based sport and automotive PR specialist that
launched its first office in Dubai a couple of years ago. “We’ve got all the big agencies
and this is the logical step forward, where you will get targeted public relations
companies that give you an expert view on a specific area,” said Noel Ebdon, managing
director of Performance PR Middle East, in ‘The National’ (www.thenational.ae).

His company handles regional clients such as Fast Rent A Car, Protech and Alex
Renner Motors.

The news site also quoted Simon Moyse, Finsbury’s chief executive for the Middle East,
as saying that the disruptive effects of the financial crisis have created opportunities for
such firms. “Companies are increasingly looking for strategic communications advice,
given the effects of the global economic crisis,” Moyse said. This is a phenomenon likely
to be replicated soon in India.

Niche PR provides better value than general-purpose agencies since they are more
targeted. This makes the PR campaign more affordable.

PR professionals with niche experience are viewed as experts because they’ve built up
experience and made important connections in that field.
* Social engagement: Social networks have become ubiquitous, and online behaviour
is having significant impact on the behaviour of consumers and business. Rarely is a
product purchased in urban India unless it is researched online and opinions sought
on social media.

Just as the internet has made the media borderless, online media will become
increasingly important. Such a scenario would make PR more important, as traditional
advertising is reaching fewer people, and the true value of online advertising is yet to be
calculated. Investments in digital infrastructure and skills today will see a big payout in
the future.

Implementing a social engagement strategy is now fundamental to a PR campaign.

Social media campaigns might focus explicitly on connecting clients directly to

consumers or even on building relationships with influencers.

We have already seen examples of brands successfully using social engagement to

achieve different goals in India. For instance, Indian Premier League cricket team Royal
Challengers Bangalore (RCB) ran a talent hunt to select three fans for an online reality
show where they had full access to the players. The objective was to build a highly
engaged community with regular content created by players, experts and fans.
Consequently, the RCB community has more than 5,00,000 fans across channels.

Variations of this model can be applied to campaigns for a variety of goods and services,
from fast moving consumer goods to global events. This can be achieved by becoming
part of the community of your clients’ consumers, joining the conversation to learn more
about their needs. Use the tools that consumers are using, be it Facebook, Twitter,
YouTube, blogs, podcasting, QR code technology or something else.

* Employer branding: It’s not just the PR industry that’s facing a talent crisis. Attracting,
motivating, developing, rewarding and mobilising employees are top priorities for all
businesses.

The term ‘employer brand’ was first used in the early 1990s to denote an organisation’s
reputation as an employer. Since then, it has become a buzzword among global
managers. ‘Employer brand’ can be defined as the image of your organisation as a
‘great place to work’ in the mind of current employees and key stakeholders in the
external market (candidates, clients, customers, key stakeholders).

Just as a customer brand proposition is used to define a product or service, an employer

value proposition (EVP) is used to define an organisation’s employment appeal.
Organisations are increasingly using the marketing techniques of branding and
brand management to attract, engage and retain talented candidates in much the same
way that marketing applies such tools to attracting and retaining customers.

Employer branding is rapidly becoming integral to business strategy.

Since they already have the branding and brand management expertise, PR firms are in
a unique position to take advantage of this opportunity. They simply need to adapt their
expertise and techniques to offer a service that spans employer branding, EVP and
employee engagement. The approaches could be online and offline to help talent
understand the brand experience.

The scope of employer brand management could go beyond communications to

incorporate every aspect of the employment experience, including the
people management processes that shape the perceptions of existing and prospective
employees.

Hot on growth
Despite the global economic troubles, India continues to grow at 7 per cent. Imagine the
growth when the good times return!

Not only will the PR industry continue to grow, it will become critical for established
Indian companies and foreign firms looking to build brands here.

The industry is also discovering new verticals — healthcare, for instance. A Rs 1,62,000
crore ($36 billion) industry today, it is growing at a rate of 15 per cent and is likely to be a
Rs 12,60,000 crore ($280 billion) industry by 2022. With the advent of private players
such as Fortis, Wockhardt and Apollo — all of whom are conscious of their brands and
the need to grow — demand for PR and an integrated strategic communications
approach will be felt strongly.

Media and entertainment is another promising industry, expected to grow at 14 per cent
per annum, according to Deloitte’s ‘Technology, Media and Telecommunications
Predictions 2011 , Indian Perspective’ report.

That apart, the public sector, the environment and corporate social responsibility (CSR)
are all emerging as growth areas.

Globalisation will mean a need to develop a global perspective. As clients look to

expand outside India, PR firms will find themselves becoming global players. This
widens the opportunity in terms of customer base, investors, coverage and acquisition
targets.
Bridging the compensation gap

Many of the industry’s problems are self-inflicted. If clients don’t understand the value of
PR, the industry is clearly not telling the story well enough.

As mentioned earlier, undercutting and poaching of talent are harming the industry. One
results in the retainer threshold remaining low, the other affects the bottom line.

There is an opportunity for industry leaders to get together and agree on the road ahead.

* Agree on certain standards: Agencies don’t need to undercut to survive. There are
enough opportunities for all. Situations where a mid-sized firm responds to requests for
proposal (RFPs) quoting Rs 3,00,000 or more and one of the top five agencies responds
to the same RFP at Rs 1,50,000 damages the industry in the long run.

We must demand transparency from potential clients about PR budgets at the outset. No
business will want to pay more for a service they feel they can get cheaper elsewhere.
The only way the industry can tackle this is by standing united.

* Benchmark salaries: The industry is grappling with a talent shortage. This has
resulted in a bidding war for the talented. This, in turn, has a cost implication and results
in high attrition rates. Industry leaders need to agree on a fair salary range. A strong
industry association could take the lead on this count. While this would not solve the
problem of the corporate world headhunting talent, it would establish an industry
benchmark and would keep employee expectations real. It would also help reduce the
rapid intra-industry movement of talent.

The frequent exit of team members handling a particular account could turn off clients
and create an impression that the agency they’ve hired is unstable. This could affect
their decision to retain the agency once the contract ends or even create doubts that it
can deliver on the brief.
Performance measurement
The first step is to get an industry-wide and deliverables. We need a clear vision on
whether clients see PR agencies as vendors or consultants.

Clarity IMC’s Rajesh Pandey said the need to strengthen our evaluation models can’t be
emphasised enough. “Instead of talking the language of ad-value equivalents, we need
to talk in terms of how a PR campaign changes an entire viewpoint. The ‘creativity’ factor
in developing campaigns should be charged separately just like boutique advertising
agencies do,” he said. There is a need for benchmarks and it is through an industry-wide
debate that a framework for performance measurement can be evolved.

* Why it is needed: Goal-setting and measurement are fundamental to any service.

Goals should be as quantitative as possible and the target audience defined.
Measurement should include traditional and social media, effect on awareness of
stakeholders, as well as impact on business results.

To measure business results for consumer or brand marketing, models that determine
PR’s effects on sales or other business metrics, while accounting for other variables, are
preferred choices.

* Measure outcomes, not outputs: Outcomes include shifts in awareness, behaviour

related to purchases, corporate reputation, employee engagement, public policy and
investment decisions. How you measure the effect on outcomes should be tailored to
the business objectives of the PR campaign. Quantitative measures such as benchmark-
and-tracking surveys are preferable; qualitative methods can supplement them. Such
research can identify the change in purchasing, purchase preference or attitude shifts
resulting from the PR initiatives.

* Media measurement is about quality: Measuring the number of mentions in print or

on the air is generally meaningless. Instead, media measurement should involve
audience impressions, quality of the media coverage (tone, credibility and relevance of
the medium to the audience, message delivery).

* Social media can be measured: There is no single ‘metric’ for social

media measurement. The parameters would depend on the campaign objective. Right
now, it's mostly about statistics such as how many likes have been achieved on
Facebook or the number of Twitter followers.
But it’s not about the numbers; it’s about managing reputations online. The emphasis
should not be on erasing negative comments or mentions, but to respond quickly and
engage. PR practitioners need to listen to conversations and address the issues raised
thoroughly and honestly, not react in a knee-jerk manner.

Businesses need clearly-defined goals and outcomes for social media. Evaluating
quality and quantity is critical, just as it is with conventional media and measurement
must focus on ‘conversations’ and ‘communities’.

* Transparency and reliability: PR measurement should be transparent. For media

measurement, mention clearly the source along with analysis methodology. For surveys,
make clear the methodology (sample, margin of error, geography, etc), the questions
(wording and order) and statistical methodology (how specific metrics are calculated).