INTRODUCTION

Telecom Sector In India:

The Indian telecommunication industry, with about 525 million mobile phone connections as
of Dec. 2009 is the third largest telecommunication network in the world and the second
largest in terms of number of wireless connections The Indian telecom industry is one of the
fastest growing in the world and is projected that India will have 'billion plus' mobile users by
2015.Projection by several leading global consultancies is that India’s telecom network will
overtake China’s in the next 10 years For the past decade or so, telecommunication activities
have gained momentum in India. Efforts have been made from both governmental and non-
governmental platforms to enhance the infrastructure. The idea is to help modern
telecommunication technologies to serve all segments of India’s culturally diverse society,
and to transform it into a country of technologically aware people

The rapid growth in the telecom sector can be attributed to the various pro-active and positive
policy measures taken by the government as well as the dynamic and entrepreneurial spirit of
the various telecom service providers both in private and public sector. The telecom sector
has shown impressive growth during the past decade.

Two striking features of this growth viz. increasing preference for mobile phones and
higher contribution of private sector in the incremental growth have predominated the
telecom sector.

Network Expansion: The total number of telephone subscribers has reached 525
million marks on Dec 2009 as compared to 232.87 million in

July 2007. The overall Teledensity has increased to 44.85% in Jan2010 as compared
to 21.20% in August 2007.

Wireless Service: The wireless segment saw a surge of 37.06 million subscribers in
the month of December 2009 as compared to 8.17 million in December2007.

[1]
Teledensity: The gross subscriber base reached 525 million at the end of Dec 2009.
The Teledensity is 44.85% at the end of January 2010 as compared to 18.31% at the
end of March 2007.

Increasing Role of Private Sector: The private sector has played a significant role in
the growth of telecom sector.

Tariff Rebalancing Measures: There has been a dramatic fall in the tariffs due to
increased competition. The minimum effective charges for local calls have fallen
considerably in recent months especially for cellular service. The long distance
domestic as well as international charges have also fallen considerably.

Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI): TRAI was established under the
Telecom Regulatory Authority of India Act, 1997 enacted on March 28, 1997. The
goals and objectives of TRAI are focused towards providing a regulatory framework
that facilitates achievement of the objectives of New Technology Policy (NTP)
1999. TRAI has endeavored

to encourage greater corporation in the telecom sector together with better quality and
affordable prices.

Telecommunication Sector Opportunities in India have grown phenomenally in

the past 3 years as has been surveyed by Indian Ministry of Communications and
Information Technology in New Delhi very recently. The telecom sector is one of the
leading contributors to India's flourishing economy.

According to the report presented by taking into account the statement of Indian
Ministry of Communications and Information Technology, the telecom opportunities
in India has been growing by 20 to 40 percent every year since past 3 years. The
telecom services in India have been recognized as a world-class tool for the socio-
economic development in India. India is known to rank fourth in the telecom industry
in Asia after China, Japan, and South Korea and the telecom network in India is
known to stand in the eighth position across the globe and second among the
emerging economies.

The tele-density has grown leaps and bounds in the past few years from 2.3 percent in
1999 to 4.8 percent in 2002. The world average percentage for the telecom industry as

[2]
against the Indian average is 7.5 times while the Asian average against the same was
4.5 times. The current market range of the telecommunication industry in India has
been estimated to USD 8 billion and this is expected to undergo an accretion by the
end of 2012.
The growth witnessed by the telecom market in India has increased the number of
opportunities for the industry and this has been fueled by the growing mobile sector,
which has attained the consumer level of 10 million by the end of December 2002 that
was almost 100 percent in the year. This outstanding growth in the mobile sector
explains the advent of digital cellular technology and reduced tariffs as a consequence
of competitive pressures. The growth in the cellular subscribers has surpassed the
benchmark of subscriber base. The telecom market has increased dramatically with
the advent of Wireless in Local Loop Technology.
Telecommunication Sector Opportunities in India assures a transparent, safe, and
secured ambiance for the telecom market. Around 300 million population of highly
consumable middle-class status that is advantageous for the industry surrounds the
telecom sector in India. This is because, in some of the Indian that possess land line
telephones can be substituted by mobile phones that is very unlike the developed
countries. Therefore, it adds up to the growth in mobile sector in Indian telecom
industry.
Few more Telecommunication Sector Opportunities in India include introduction of
Internet telephony services, privatization of VSNL, and introduction of a number of
international long distance services sector. The opportunities in the Indian telecom
sector is increasing at a massive pace with the introduction of newer and innovative
schemes in various sectors and at present the telecom sector in India is claimed to be
one of the major contributors in India's flourishing economy.

[3]
Airtel:

“Refine your processes, strive for dominance and build a brand”

Bharti Airtel formerly known as Bharti Tele-Ventures LTD (BTVL) is the largest cellular
service provider in India, with more than 124 million subscribers as of February 2010.With
this, Bharti is now the world's third-largest, single-country mobile operator and sixth-largest
integrated telecom operator. It also offers fixed line services and broadband services. It offers
its TELECOM services under the Airtel brand and is headed by Sunil Bharti Mittal. The
company also provides telephone services and broadband Internet access (DSL) in top 95
cities in India. It also acts as a carrier for national and international long distance
communication services.

The businesses at Bharti Airtel have always been structured into three individual strategic
business units (SBU's)

1. Mobile Services,

2. Airtel Telemedia Services

3. Enterprise Services.

The mobile business provides mobile & fixed wireless services using GSM technology across
23 telecom circles while the Airtel Telemedia Services business offers broadband &
telephone services in 95 cities and has launched a Direct-to-Home (DTH) service, Airtel
Digital TV. Shahrukh Khan is the brand embassador of the mobile company and Kareena
Kapoor and Saif Ali Khan are the brand embassadors of the DTH company.

Globally, Bharti Airtel is the 3rd largest in-country mobile operator by subscriber base,
behind China Mobile and China Unicom. In India, the company has a 24.6% share of the
wireless services market, followed by 17.7% for Reliance Communications and 17.4% for
Idea Essar.

[4]
Airtel was born free, a force unleashed into the market with a relentless and
unwavering determination to succeed. A spirit charged with energy, creativity and a
team driven “to seize the day” with an ambition to become the most admired telecom
service provider globally. airtel, in just ten years of operations, rose to the pinnacle of
achievement and continues to lead.
As India's leading telecommunications company, airtel brand has played the role of a
major catalyst in India's reforms, contributing to its economic resurgence.
Today we touch people's lives with our Mobile services, Telemedia services, to
connecting India's leading 1000+ corporates. We also connect Indians living in USA,
UK and Canada with our callhome service.

History:

Sunil Bharti Mittal founded the Bharti Group. In 1983, Mittal was in an agreement
with Germany's Siemens to manufacture push-button telephone models for the Indian
market. In 1986, Mittal incorporated Bharti Telecom Limited (BTL), and his
company became the first in India to offer push-button telephones, establishing the
basis of Bharti Enterprises. By the early 1990s, Sunil Mittal had also launched the
country's first fax machines and its first cordless telephones. In 1992, Mittal won a
bid to build a cellular phone network in Delhi. In 1995, Mittal incorporated the
cellular operations as Bharti Tele-Ventures and launched service in Delhi. In 1996,
cellular service was extended to Himachal Pradesh. 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 phone
operations were rebranded under the single Airtel brand. In 2004, Bharti acquired
control of Hexacom and entered Rajasthan. In 2005, Bharti extended its network to
[5]
Andaman and Nicobar. This expansion allowed it to offer voice services all across
India. In 2009, Airtel launched its first international mobile network in Sri Lanka. In
2010, Airtel

Today, Airtel is the largest cellular service provider in India and the fourth largest in
the world.

Organization structure:

The organisational structure that existed until recently concentrated on the hierarchy
of the operations inside the company as a whole. The structure depicts the
corresponding operation/region of different in-charges and it didn't hold anyone
responsible for each of its services. So, the company found it better to restructure its
organizational chart. The transformed organisational structure will have two distinct
Customer Business Units (CBU) with clear focus on B2C (Business to Customer) and
B2B (Business to Business) segments. Bharti Airtel's B2C business unit will
comprehensively service the retail consumers, homes and small offices, by combining
the erstwhile business units—Mobile, Telemedia, Digital TV, and other emerging
businesses (like M-commerce, M-health, M-advertising etc.). The B2C organization
will consist of Consumer Business and Market Operations. It is the largest
telecommunication company in India.

3G:

On May 18, 2010, 3G spectrum auction was completed and Airtel will have to pay the Indian
government 122.95 billion (US$2.45 billion) for spectrum in 13 circles, the most amount
spent by an operator in this auction. Airtel won 3G licences in 13 telecom circles of
India: Delhi,Mumbai, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Uttar Pradesh (east),
Rajasthan, West Bengal, Himachal Pradesh, Bihar, Assam, North East, and Jammu &
Kashmir. Airtel also operates 3G services in Maharastra, Goa, Kanpur and Kolkata through

[6]
an agreement withVodafone and in Gujarat through an agreement with Idea. This gives Airtel
a 3G presence in 15 out of 22 circles in India.

On September 20, 2010, Bharti Airtel said that it has given contracts to Ericsson India, Nokia
Siemens Networks (NSN) and Huawei Technologies to set up infrastructure for providing 3G
services in the country. These vendors will plan, design, deploy and maintain 3G–HSPA
(third generation, high speed packet access) networks in 13 telecom circles where the
company has won 3G licences. While Bharti Airtel has awarded network contracts for seven
3G circles to Ericsson India, NSN would manage networks in three circles. Chinese telecom
equipment vendor Huawei Technologies has been introduced as the third partner for three
circles.

On January 24, 2011, Airtel launched 3G services in Bangalore, Karnataka—its largest circle
by revenue. With this launch, Airtel became the third private operator (fifth overall) to launch
its 3G services in the country following Reliance Communications and Tata Docomo. [22] On
January 27, 2011, Airtel launched 3G in Chennai and Coimbatore.

On July 27, 2011 Airtel launched 3G in three major cities in Kerala (Trivandrum, Cochin and
Calicut).

Airtel plans to cover 1,500 cities across 13 circles by the end of March 2012. The company,
which has 3G licences for 13 circles, is also in talks with other service providers to roll out
the services in the remaining 10 circles as part of its roaming offerings.

Airtel had about 3 million 3G subscribers as of May 2011.

Subscriber Base in India:

Metros

 Hyderabad −8,947,870
 Chennai – 2,947,870

 Delhi – 7,420,171

[7]
 Mumbai – 3,263,688

 Kanpur - 3,259,687

 Kolkata – 3,181,073

"A" Circle

 Andhra Pradesh – 15,329,598

 Gujarat – 5,980,024

 Karnataka – 14,004,247

 Maharashtra – 7,865,425

 Tamil Nadu – 9,157,295

"B" Circle

 Haryana – 1,856,093
 Kerala – 3,383,097

 Madhya Pradesh – 8,527,584

 Punjab – 5,946,742

 Rajasthan – 12,001,442

 Uttar Pradesh (East) – 11,455,638

 Uttar Pradesh (West) – 5,475,843

 West Bengal – 7,592,487

"C" Circle

[8]
 Assam – 2,828,490
 Bihar – 13,901,163

 Himachal Pradesh – 1,528,727

 Jammu and Kashmir – 1,879,828

 North Eastern States – 1,748,202

 Orissa – 4,989,102

Airtel is the market leader in India with about 181 million subscribers in India
or about 27.22% market share at the end of March 2012.
The Brand Trust Report [39] published by Trust Research Advisory, places
Airtel as the only mobile operator in the top 10 most trusted brands in India.

Sponsorship:

On 9 May 2009 Airtel signed a major deal with Manchester United Football Club. 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 Nokia
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.

[9]
[10]
Fact Sheet:

Name

Bharti Airtel Limited.

Business description

Provides GSM mobile services in all the 22 telecom circles in India, Srilanka,
Bangladesh and now in 16 countries of Africa.

Provides telemedia services (fixed line and broadband services through DSL)
in 87 cities in India.

Provides an integrated suite of Enterprise solutions, in addition to providing

long distance connectivity both Nationally and Internationally.

We also offer DTH and IPTV Services

Established

July 07, 1995, as a Public Limited Company

ISIN
[11]
INE397D01024

Proportionate revenue

Rs. 184,767 million (ended December 31, 2011-Audited)

Rs. 157,721 million ( ended December 30, 2010-Audited)
As per IFRS Accounts

Proportionate EBITDA

Rs. 59,584 million ( ended December 31, 2011 - Audited)

Rs. 50,072 million ( ended December 31, 2010- Audited)
As per IFRS Accounts

Shares in issue

3,797,530,096 as at December 31, 2011

Listings

[12]
Bombay Stock Exchange Limited (BSE)
National Stock Exchange of India Limited (NSE)

Stock exchange symbol

NSE – BHARTIARTL
BSE – 532454

Customer base

India & South Asia: 182,000,000

GSM mobile, 3,317,000 ,Telemedia customers and 7,069,000 Digital TV
Services
(status as on December 31, 2011)
Africa: 50,949,000 GSM mobile customers.
(status as on December 31, 2011)

Registered office

Bharti Airtel Limited

(A Bharti Enterprise)
Bharti Crescent, 1 Nelson Mandela Road,
Vasant Kunj, Phase II,
New Delhi - 110 070.
Tel. No.: +91 11 4666 6100

[13]
 Fax No.: +91 11 4666 6411

Idea Essar:

Idea is a cellular operator in India that covers 23 telecom circles in India Despite the
official name being Idea, its products are simply branded Idea. Idea is owned by
Aditya Birla group. It offers both prepaid and postpaid GSM cellular phone coverage
throughout India and is especially strong in the major metros. Idea provides 2G
services based on 900 MHz and 1800 MHz digital GSM technology, offering voice
and data services in the country's 23 license areas.

IDEA Cellular is a publicly listed company, having listed on BSE & NSE in March
2007. It is the 3rd largest mobile services operator in India with wireless revenue
market share at 13.9 % in Q1 FY2012. Idea has join the select global operator’s club
servicing over 100 million subscribers, as of September 2011. Idea is a pan-India
integrated GSM operator and has its own NLD and ILD operations, and ISP license.

[14]
With traffic in excess of a billion minutes a day, Idea ranks among the Top 10
country operators in the world. Idea operates across all 22 service areas with 2G
services, and 3G services are being progressively rolled out to cover over 3,000 towns
by FY 2012.

Idea has a network of over 70,000 cell sites covering the entire length and breadth of
the country. Idea has over 3,000 Service Centres servicing Idea subscribers across the
country, including 450 special Experience Zones for 3G promotion. Idea’s service
delivery platform is ISO 9001:2008 certified, making it the only operator in the
country to have this standard certification for all 22 service areas and the corporate
office.

Idea’s strong growth in the Indian telephony market comes from its deep penetration
in non-urban & rural markets. It has the highest share of rural subscribers as a
percentage of total subscribers, amongst other GSM players. In fact, 2 out of every 3
new Idea subscribers come from rural/ semi-urban India.

Idea is the winner of ‘The Emerging Company of the Year Award’ at The Economic
Times Corporate Excellence Awards 2009. IDEA Cellular also received the
prestigious Avaya GlobalConnect Award for being the ‘Most Customer Responsive
Company’ in the Telecom sector in the year 2010. The company has received several
other national and international recognitions for its path-breaking innovations in
mobile telephony products & services. It won the GSM Association Award for ‘Best
Billing and Customer Care Solution’ for 2 consecutive years. It was awarded ‘Mobile
Operator of the Year Award – India’ for 2007 and 2008 at the Annual Asian Mobile
News Awards.

IDEA Cellular is an Aditya Birla Group Company, India’s first truly multinational
corporation. The group operates in 33 countries, and is anchored by more than
132,000 employees belonging to 42 nationalities.

[15]
History:

In 2000, Tata Cellular was a company providing mobile services in Andhra Pradesh.
When Birla-AT&T brought Maharashtra and Gujarat to the table, the merger of these
two entities was a reality. Thus Birla-Tata-AT&T, popularly known as Batata, was
born and was later rebranded as IDEA.

Then Idea set sights on RPG’s operations in Madhya Pradesh which was successfully
acquired, helping Batata have a million subscribers, and the licence to be the fourth
operator in Delhi was clinched.

In 2004, Idea (the company had by then been rechristened) bought over the Escorts
group’s Escotel gaining Haryana, Uttar Pradesh (West) and Kerala — and licences for
three more — UP (East), Rajasthan and Himachal Pradesh. By the end of that year,
four million Indians were on the company’s network. In 2005, AT&T sold its
investment in Idea, and the year after Tatas also bid good bye to pursue an
independent telecom business. And Idea was left only with one promoter, the AV
Birla group. Rs 2,700 crore adding Punjab and Karnataka circles. Modi’s joint venture
partner, Telekom Malaysia, invested Rs 7,000 crore for a 14.99% stake in Idea. Just
around then, Idea’s subsidiary, Aditya Birla Telecom sold a 20% stake to US-based
Providence Equity Partners for over Rs 2,0000 crore.

Holdings:

Initially the Birlas, the Tatas and AT&T Wireless each held one-third equity in the company.
But following AT&T Wireless' merger with Cingular Wireless in 2004, Cingular decided to
sell its 32.9% stake in Idea. This stake was bought by both the Tatas and Birlas at 16.45%
each.

Tata's foray into the cellular market with its own subsidiary, Tata Indicom, a CDMA-based
mobile provider, cropped differences between the Tatas and the Birlas. This dual holding by
the Tatas also became a major reason for the delay in Idea being granted a license to operate
inMumbai. This was because as per Department of Telecommunications (DOT) license
norms, one promoter could not have more than 10% stake in two companies operating in the

[16]
same circle and Tata Indicom was already operating in Mumbai when Idea filed for its
licence.

The Birlas thus approached the DOT and sought its intervention, and the Tatas replied by
saying that they would exit Idea but only for a good price. On 10 April 2006, the Aditya
Birla Group announced its acquisition of the 48.18% stake held by the Tatas at Rs. 40.51 a
share amounting to Rs. 44.06 billion. While 15% of the 48.14% stake was acquired
by Aditya Birla Nuvo, a company in-charge of the Birlas' new business initiatives, the
remaining stake was acquired by Birla TMT holdings Private Ltd., an AV Birla family-
owned company. Currently,Aditya Birla Group holds 49.1% of the total shares of the
company. Malaysia based Axiata controls a 14.99% stake in the company.

3G:

On 19 May 2010, the 3G spectrum auction in India ended. Idea paid 5768.59 crores for
spectrum in 11 circles. The circles it will provide 3G in are Andhra
Pradesh, Gujarat, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu & Kashmir, Kerala, Madhya
Pradesh, Maharashtra & Goa, Punjab,Uttar Pradesh (East) and Uttar Pradesh (West). On 28
March 2011, Idea launched 3G services in Gujarat, Himachal Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh.
[5]
The launch cities were Ahmedabad,Shimla and Indore. This makes Idea the sixth private
operator (eighth overall) to launch its 3G services in the country following Tata
Docomo,Reliance Communications, Airtel, Aircel and Vodafone.

Idea currently supports up to 21.1 Mbit/s over 2G speeds of 256 kbit/s. However, different
handsets support different speeds, from 384 kbit/s, 3.6 Mbit/s, 7.2 Mbit/s or 21.1 Mbit/s.
Speeds also depend on the 3G plan/recharge that users opt for.[6]

The operator announced that IDEA 3G services will be available in 200 towns of 11 3G
circles by mid-April 2011, progressively growing at the rate of ten towns per day to cover
750 towns by mid-2011 and 4000 towns by the end of 2012.

[17]
3G Smart Phones:

On 23 November 2011 Idea Cellular launched two affordable 3G handsets in India:

Idea 3G Smartphone Blade priced at 7,992 and Idea 3G Smartphone priced at
5,850. Both handsets are based on Android 2.2 Froyo.

Airtel, Vodafone and Idea have begun collaborating to provide 3G coverage to their
customers pan India. The agreement aims to provides for these companies to offer 3G
services to their customers in circles where they have not won any spectrum. It is
expected that the 3 companies will be able to provide 3G services in all circles in
India except orissa where the three have not won any spectrum.

Idea’s 3G service is currently available in the following cities in 11 telecom circles:

 Andhra Pradesh

 Gujarat

 Haryana

 Himachal Pradesh

 Jammu & Kashmir

 Madhya Pradesh

 Chhattisgarh

 Maharashtra

 Goa

 Punjab

 Kerala

 Delhi

 Kolkata

 Kanpur

 Eastern Uttar Pradesh

[18]
Fact Sheet:

Type Public
BSE: 532822
NSE: IDEA

Industry Telecommunications

Founded 1995

Headquarte Santacruz East, Mumbai,

rs India[1]

Key people Kumar Mangalam Birla

(Chairman)

Products Mobile telephony, Wireless

broadband

Revenue 15,389.00 crore (US$3.07

billion)(2011)[2]

Operating 2,879.33 crore (US$574.43

income million)(2011)

Net income 844.60 crore (US$168.5

million)(2011)

Total assets US$5.334 billion (2010)

Owner(s) Aditya Birla Group

[19]
Employees 6,481 (2010)

Parent Aditya Birla Group (49.05%)

Axiata Group Berhad (15%)
Providence Equity (10.6%)

Website www.ideacellular.com

[20]
 COMPARISON OF MARKETING STRATEGIES BETWEEN

BHARTI AIRTEL & IDEA

Purpose of comparison

 The sub main purpose of this report is to compare the marketing Strategies adopted by
Bharti Airtel and its rival Idea

 The comparison shows how both of the companies have been challenging each other
to gain market shares.

Why comparison with Idea

 Bharti Airtel is the leader in telecommunication sector.

 Bharti Airtel holds the lion share of market of communication sector.

 However, Idea has been giving tough competition to Bharti Airtel.

 Idea is the second largest player and share holder in Communication sector.

 Since its launch Idea has been adopting aggressive marketing strategies.

 With a different technology Idea creates its own market.

 Idea Today deals in every business of communication sector.

 Idea making and changing the strategies to capture the market shares

[21]
 Marketing Strategies of Idea:

Idea target the rural India

The main targeted customers of Idea are from rural India.

By offering cheap and light mobile sets Idea attracts most of the customers of small
villages and towns.

Offering cheap handsets

Idea offers cheap and free connections to all customers.

Free support and services

In every district and big towns Idea opens its service centers to provide better support
and services.

Strong logistics and supply chain

Idea has a strong logistic and supply all over India.

In every small town the potential customers can easily purchase the Idea SIM & Sets.

Targeting youngsters in metropolitans

Idea attracts youngsters by offering colorful handset at very low prices.

Brand Positioning by Idea:

Market segmentation

 Geographical segment (rural India)

[22]
 Demographic segment - middle income groups

Target marketing

 People living in small towns and villages.

 Poor and middle income groups.

 Youngsters in big cities.

 Businessmen

Positioning

 Creating brands

 Ads and promotions

Marketing mix

 Price : low price strategy

 Place : maximum outlets and service centers

 Product : verities available for various groups

 Promotion: various schemes for pre-paid and post-paid

Marketing Strategies by Airtel:

Vision:

The Company has developed the following strategies to achieve its strategic objective:

 Focus on maximizing revenues and margins;

[23]
 Capture maximum telecommunications revenue potential with minimum geographical
coverage;

 Offer multiple telecommunications services to provide customers with a "one-stop

shop" solution;

 Position itself to tap data transmission opportunities and offer advanced mobile data
services;

 Focus on satisfying and retaining customers by ensuring high level of customer

satisfaction;

 Leverage strengths of its strategic and financial partners; and

 Emphasize on human resource development to achieve operational efficiencies.

Businesses

Bharti Tele-Ventures current businesses include -

 Mobile services

 Fixed-line

 National and international long distance services

 VSAT, Internet services and network solutions

 Broadband services with DSL and Wi-Fi network

 IPTV services and DTH operations.

Competitive Strengths

Bharti Tele-Ventures believes that the following elements will contribute to the
Company's success as an integrated telecommunication services provider in India and
will provide the Company with a solid foundation to execute its business strategy:
[24]
 Focus on telecommunications to enable the Company to better anticipate industry
trends and capitalize on new telecommunications-related business opportunities

 Focus on VAS market in India which is upcoming adventure and highly profitable
line of business. .

 The strong brand name recognition and a reputation for offering high quality service
to its customers.

 Quality management team with vision and proven execution skills.

 The Company's strong relationships with international strategic and financial

investors such as SingTel, Warburg Pincus, International Finance Corporation, Asian
Infrastructure Fund Group and New York Life Insurance.

Brand Strategy:

To understand the brand strategy, let’s first look at the brand building exercise associated
with Airtel — a brand that had to be repositioned recently to address new needs in the market.

When the brand was launched, cellular telephony wasn’t a mass market by any means. For
the average consumer, owning a cellular phone was expensive as tariff rates (at Rs 8 a
minute) as well as instrument prices were steep — sometimes as much as buying a second-
hand car.

Bharti could have addressed the customer by rationally explaining to him the economic
advantage of using a mobile phone. But such a strategy would not have worked for the simple
reason that the value from using the phone at the time was not commensurate with the cost..

These were valuable qualities, but they only took Airtel far enough to establish its presence in
the market. As tariffs started dropping, it became necessary for Airtel to appeal to a wider
audience. And the various brand-tracking exercises showed that despite all these good things,
there was no emotional dimension to the brand — it was perceived as cold, distant and
efficient.

[25]
The reason with tariffs identical to competitor Idea telecomm and roughly the same level of
service and schemes, it had now become important for Bharti to “humanize” Airtel and use
that relationship as a major differentiation.

Also, a survey showed that 50 per cent of the new customers choose a mobile phone brand
mostly through word-of-mouth endorsements from friends, family or colleagues. Thus,
existing customers were an important tool for market expansion and Bharti now focused on
building closer relationships with them.

As it looks to expand its cellular services nationwide — Bharti is now realizing that there are
new compulsions to rework the Airtel brand, and a new exercise is being launched to this
effect. Broadly, the focus is on positioning Airtel as a power brand with numerous regional
sub-brands reflecting customer needs in various parts of the country.

If Airtel is becoming more humane and more sensitive as a brand, Bharti has also understood
that one common brand for all cellular operations might not always work in urban markets
that are now getting increasingly saturated.

To bring in new customers, the company decided that it needed to segment the market. One
such experiment, launch of Youtopia, a brand aimed at the youth in the 14 to 19 age bracket
and for those who are “young at heart”. With its earlier positioning, Airtel was perceived as a
brand for the well-heeled older customer; there was nothing for younger people. With
Youtopia, Airtel hoped to reverse that.

The company also looked at offering other services at affordable prices to this segment which
include music downloads on the mobile and bundling SMS rates with normal calls to make it
cheaper for young people to use.
There were several targets that Bharti Airtel chased-- MTN of South Africa to
acquire; footprint in emerging markets like Sri Lanka to expand; DTH (direct-to-
home), IPTV and broadband operations to ramp up and mobile telephone services to
grow in a crowded market.

Unknown to the rest of the world, another target on its crosshairs is to make Airtel the
most-admired brand in the country by 2010. A recent survey had slotted it at number
two after the state-owned Life Insurance Corporation.

[26]
 "The brand Airtel is our most valuable asset after our people. We have built it with a
lot of passion," says Bharti Airtel CEO and Joint Managing Director Manoj Kohli.

"Airtel is all about trust, innovation and ownership bundled with an emotional
connection. I can think of very few brands in the whole world which straddle so many
categories and talk to so many different economic groups."

Other Brand Building Initiatives:-

The main idea is to stay ahead of competition for at least six months. Working on the above
game plan Bharti is constantly coming up with newer product offerings for the customers.

The focus, of course, is to offer better quality of service.

 To make the service simpler for customers using roaming facilities, Airtel has devised
common numbers for subscribers across the country for services like customer care, food
services and cinema amongst others.

 It has also launch a unified billing system across circles so, customers moving from one
place to another do not have to close and then again open new accounts at another place.

 To assist customer care personnel to deal with subscriber queries, a storehouse of 40,000
frequently asked questions and their answers have been stored on the computers.

 Bharti expects that most of its new customers (one estimate is that it would be 65 to 75
per cent of the total new subscriber base) would come from the pre-paid card segment. So,
they must be given value-added products and services which competitors don’t provide.

 The company offers multi-media messaging systems under which customers having a
specialized phone with an in-built camera can take pictures and e-mail it to friends or store it
in the phone. The cost per picture is between Rs 5.

 Bharti is also aware that it has to make owning a ready-to-use cellular service much easier
than it is today. A key area is to increase the number of activation

 centers. Earlier Bharti had 250 Airtel Connect stores which were exclusive outlets (for its
services) and about 250 Airtel Points which were kiosks in larger

[27]
 shops. Now activation can be done by all of them, and not only by Connect outlets, all
within 15 to 20 minutes. In comparison, the competition takes two to four hours.

 Pre- paid cards are really catching up with the mobile phone users and it is actually
helping the market to increase. First, they are easier to obtain and convenient to use. Unlike
post-paid, one need not pay security deposits for picking up a pre-paid card. It is often
available even with paanwalas. As befits a fast-moving consumer service, the game is now
moving beyond price to expanding distribution reach and servicing a well-spread-out clientele
with technology and strategic alliances. Bharti is focusing on two factors to make pre-paid
cards more attractive. Keeping the entry cost low for consumers and making recharging more
convenience.

 Bharti Televentures has tied up with 'Waiter on wheels,' a company delivering food at
home, to reach its Magic pre-paid cards to subscribers' doorsteps. The company is also joining
hands with local grocery shops which will enable users to recharge their cards by just making
a phone call to the shop. Apart from improving the convenience of recharging, mobile
operators are beefing up their distribution channels. The company is constantly innovating to
enhance the value proposition for its pre-paid service. They are leveraging technology to
expand their distribution network and deliver round-the-clock recharge options to its MOTS
(Mobile on the Spot) subscribers.

 Bharti Cellular is working with a special service, CareTouch, for high-value, corporate
customers, providing them with instant, single-point access for any assistance they require.
Customers can dial 777 and enjoy services, which include easier payment of bills, service on
priority basis, and value-added services without any additional paper work. Bharti Cellular is
offering a range of services without going through an interactive voice recorder ensuring that

 they save time. Dedicated ‘CareTouch’ executives are expected to assist customers with
any service on priority basis. Besides the regular proactive reminder calls for bill payment,
customers can also call CareTouch for bill payments at free of cost.

 Bharti Airtel signed a five-year deal with ESPN Star Sports to become the title sponsor of
the Champions League Twenty20 cricket tournament. The tournament itself is named "Airtel
Champions League Twenty20."

[28]
Services provided by Bharti Airtel

 Mobile services with GSM technology

 Fixed-line connections

 National and international long distance services

 VSAT, Internet services and network solutions

 Broadband services

Services provided by Idea.

 mobile services with GSM technology

 fixed-line telephone services

 Universal Internetworking

 VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol)

 Interactive Television

 Visual Communication

 Broadband Portal

 Telecommuting

[29]
 Brand positioning by Bharti Airtel:

Market segmentation

 Geographical segment (metropolitans & cities India)

 Demographic segment - middle income groups

 People age group of 20 to 28 year

Target marketing

 People who live in cities and towns.

 Poor or middle income group people.

 Youngsters in big cities.

 Businessmen

Positioning

 Creating brands (Sharukh khan, R.Madhvan, A R Rehman, etc.)

 Ads and promotions

 Promotion for study of poor children.

Marketing mix

 Price: low price strategy

 Place: maximum outlets and service centers

 Product: verities available for various groups

 Promotion: various schemes for pre-paid and post-p

[30]
 SCOPE OF STUDY

# To conduct this research the target population was the mobile users, Who are using
GSM technology.

# Targeted geographic area of Delhi/ NCR. Sample size of 50 persons was taken.

# To these 50 people a questionnaire was given; the questionnaire was a combination

of both open ended and closed ended questions.

# The date during which questionnaires were filled.

# Some dealers were also interviewed to know their prospective. Interviews with the
managers of GSM service providers were also conducted.

# Finally the collected data and information was analyzed and compiled to arrive at
the conclusion and recommendations given.

Sources of secondary data

Used to obtain information on, Bharti’s history, current issues, policies, procedures
etc, wherever required.

# Internet

# Magazines

# Newspapers

# Journals

# Bharti News Letters

#Idea Store

[31]
 OBJECTIVE OF THE STUDY

Every organization has to achieve its organization goals. For this it is very essential
for an organization to know about the view of consumers and their competitive
products. This survey research may be also aimed as to estimate potential buyer for
the product. The objective of the study is as under:-

1. To study the level of customer satisfaction in Airtel & Idea.

2. To study consumer preferences.

3. To study competitive marketing strategies adopted by Airtel and Idea.

[32]
 RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

The research methodology adopted is basically based on primary data via which the
most recent and accurate piece of first hand information could be collected.
Secondary data has been used to support primary data wherever needed.

Primary data was collected using the following techniques:

 Questionnaire Method

 Direct Interview Method and

 Observation Method

The main tool used was, the questionnaire method. Further direct interview method,
where a face-to-face formal interview was taken. Lastly observation method has been
continuous with the questionnaire method, as one continuously observes the
surrounding environment he works in.

Type of Research Methodology:

Exploratory:

Type of research carried out was exploratory in nature; the objective of such research
is to determine the approximate area where the drawback of the company lies and also
to identify the course of action to solve it. for this purpose the information proved
useful for giving right suggestion to the company.

[33]
 Data collection method

There are two types of method of data collection.

 primary data
 secondary data

Primary data:

primary data is that which is the collected for the fist time and thus happen to be
original in character.

Primary data was collected using the following techniques

Questionnaire Method

Direct Interview Method and

Observation Method

Questionnaire survey:

In the study a questionnaire is prepared. the questionnaire consists of 15

questions.

secondary data:

secondary data refer to the data that has been already collected .the secondary data,
which has been used to carry out this study, are as follow:
 books, journals, magazines, newspapers
 industry reports
 company’s internet site
 some other relevant study material and websites.

[34]
 sample unit:
unit: -

Delhi & ncr. The research process was done by interacting with number of customers
during the activities performed, which included, markets, cold calling, canopies, etc.
sample design consists of random sampling.

Sample size:
size: - 50 people

Population:- 80 people

Method of collection:
collection: -

field procedure for gathering primary data included observation and interview
schedule in which the questionnaires were filed by the interviewer.

personal interviews through self administered survey was done to collect the data,
market research was undertaken, that was accomplished by performing various
activities designed.

Research instrument:
instrument:

Questionnaire

the questionnaire was formulated by keeping in mind the following points:

points: -

 giving the respondents. clear comprehension of the question.

 inducing the respondents to co-operate.
 giving instructions as to what is needed.
 identifying the needs to be known.

[35]
 DATA ANALYSIS & INTERPRETATION

Market players in tele communication:

OPERATOR SUBSCIBER BASE

Bharti Airtel 118,864,031

Reliance Communications 93,795,613

Vodafone 91,401,959

BSNL 62,861,214

Idea Cellular 57,611,872

Tata Teleservices 57,329,449

Aircel 31,023,997

MTNL 4,875,913

MTS India 3,042,741

Loop Mobile India 2,649,730

Uninor 1,208,130

HFCL Infotel 341,862

Stel 141,411

[36]
 All India 525,147,922

Findings and analysis:

Age Group Graph

As we can see from the above graph, the people who are in the age group of 21-28
years are the ones who are the maximum users of mobile phones. This segment is the
one which gives maximum business to the mobile operators. This segment constitutes
the young executives and other office going people. They are 65% of the total people
who were interviewed. The next age group are the

people who are 28-35 years old. They are 20% of the total. They are those who are at
home or have small business units etc. And the next age group is the youngest
[37]
generation who are 15-21 years old. They are school and college going students and
their role as customers is gaining more and more significance in this industry. They
are 15% of the total interviewed people.

Occupation Graph

As the above graph shows that 55% of the total people interviewed are working. So,
these people are the ones who are the maximum users of mobile phones. They are the
young executives, managers, Tele - callers etc. who require mobile for their official
purposes. The next category is the households, who are either housewife, small units
which operate from their homes etc. They are 20% of the whole. The next segment is
the students. They are 15% of the whole. And 10% of the whole is categories who are
the professionals.

Service Provider Graph

[38]
These are the total market share of mobile user or people captured by the mobile
provider company. There two major company in mobile phone service sector Idea and
Airtel who respectively hold the market share with other company as 17% and 20% of
total market user segment of mobile customer.

[39]
Customer Service At Airtel Graph

As the above graph clearly shows that customer services at Airtel seems poor. 60% of
the people are dissatisfied with the customer services provided by Airtel. They are the
ones who have the maximum share in the market but they are lagging behind in the
customer services. 10% of the people were fully dissatisfied with the customer
services of Airtel. This could leave an impact on the mind of the consumer. He can
even switch over his brand. 20% of the people seemed partially satisfied with the
customer services and only 10% seem to be fully satisfied with Airtel’s customer
services, which is a very small amount.

[40]
Monthly expense graph

People on an average spend RS 500 per month as their mobile phone expense. 64%

people spend this amount. 24% people spend RS 300 per month as their monthly
mobile expense. And the remaining 12% had an expense more than RS 1000, they
could the ones having sim connections or having cash cards and having a lot of
business calls on their mobiles.

[41]
Customer Response towards Questionnaire

Which Brand you, prefer most?

 Airtel

 Vodafone

 Idea

 TATA

 Reliance

Airtel-40%

Idea-20%

Vodafone-25%

Tata-7%

Reliance-8%

[42]
 How long you have been using this Product?

 0-2 Years

 2-5 Years

 5-10 Years

 More than 10 years

Consumers response shown in chart for usage

[43]
 Are you using other product with Airtel?

 Yes

 No

Here are the customer responses about the use of the Airtel product and other product
rather than Airtel.

in this segment of survey 67 % of customer are aspire with Airtel and 33 % shown
interest in other telecom products in urban areas.

[44]
Do you collect any information before making purchase?

[45]
 Which of these marketing / sales schemes attracts you while purchasing any
connection?

 Good Network

 Discount scheme

 Service package

 Any other

Good Network-35%

Discount scheme-35%

Service package-20%

Any other-10%

[46]
 SWOT ANALYSIS

Strengths

 Being one of the largest companies in India the company has achieved a
degree of focus in its core business of its products.

 It has a strong brand name, superior quality products and an enviable

distribution network.

 It has a clear and well-defined organization structure and limits of financial

authority.

 Increase in advertisement spends affect the company’s margins.

 The company‘s bottom line falls victim to the bloated and highly paid
workforce, which affects its margins.

Weakness:

 Little efforts over the Advertising of products.

 Premium priced products; hence there is scope in low price segment.

 No separate strategy for rural market.

Opportunities:

 The company's financial performance can receive a major boost from its cost
reduction efforts.

[47]
 There is a lot of scope of product and market diversification.

 Mergers and Acquisition will be visible in coming years as market is being

saturated day by day.

 Airtel’s business has ample scope for gaining market share from the
unorganized sector. Rural penetration too holds vast potential to bring about
growth.

Threats

 Company’s major raw materials are influenced by government policies /

controls as well as vagaries of the monsoons. Fluctuations in the prices of
raw materials would have significant impact on costs and margins of the
company.

Moreover, inordinate hike in Broad Band Internet products would also

increases company’s production and distribution cost.

[48]
 LIMITATIONS

No project is without limitations and it becomes essential to figure out the various
constraints that we underwent during the study. The following points in this direction
would add to our total deliberations:-

1. During the study, on many occasions the respondent groups gave us a cold
shoulder.

2. The respondents from whom primary data was gathered any times displayed
complete ignorance about the complete branded range, which was being studied.

3. Lack of time is the basic limitation in the project.

4. Some retailers/whole sellers refuse to cooperate with the queries.

5. Some retailers/wholesalers gave biased or incomplete information regarding the

study.

6. Money played a vital factor in the whole project duration.

7. Lack of proper information and experience due to short period of time.

8. Some retailers did not answer all the questions or do not have time to answer.

[49]
 SUGGESTIONS

Following are the few suggestions to AIRTEL for improving the market share and
image of the products concerned.

1. PRODUCT

*Modification must be brought about in AIRTEL, in terms of quality. Its demand

should be increased.

2. PLACE

* The brands must be made available easily in, PCO & general stores.

3. PROMOTION

*Company must undertake extensive promotional activities like advertisements must

be released in different Medias to create brand awareness. As compared to liking of
Zoozoos from Idea Airtel is way behind and should aggressively think about
promotional strategy.

*Free samples should be distributed among the prospects. Sales promotion tools like
gifts, contests and coupons must be given to retailers as well as customers and
prospects.

* Catalogues should be distributed among customers.

[50]
4. PRICE

* Price should be as competitive as other company maintains. New rivals now offering
pay per second which is revolutionary in pricing, not only price but maintaining the
quality at lower price is the area of opportunity for Airtel.

* Distribution of new connection should be in reach of customer pocket

[51]
 CONCLUSION

 After analyzing the findings of the research, I can conclude that Airtel lagged
behind its competitors as far as customer service and availability is concerned. The
maximum no. of people who use the mobile is in the age group of 20 to 28. Cash
cards are the most popular type of mobile connections, as they are consumer
friendly and recharging the connection is not a problem.

 Maximum no. of people spends RS 500 on their connections. As Airtel is the only
company having the maximum no of mobile connections so it must seriously look
into the loopholes of the existing customer service department.

 From the comparison and deep analysis of every aspect of business of both the
companies we can conclude that Bharti Airtel has to more work in every field of
communication business.

 It is the time not only to survive but to sustain in the market for a long time.

 For this Airtel has to work on its all marketing strategies, marketing, promotion,
brand image etc.

 Airtel has to take Idea. Very seriously and update its own strategies from time to
time and when the need arises.

 With aggressive marketing strategies Airtel has to target more in rural India as 70%
of population of India lives in these areas.

 The other segment may be costumers of all age groups.

[52]
 RECOMMENDATIONS

I have made following recommendation to the company after doing the summer
training there:

 The company should modify its credit policy as they only target the cash paying
customers who are not easy to trace.

 The company should make its marketing strategy flexible enough in order to face
competition.

 The company rate policy must be flexible enough to catch new customers because if
company offers lower price to a new customer then he may continue buy the goods
and can be a permanent customer for the company.

 The company should offers such rate in the market so that it may able to catch a
bigger market share and it should be able to compete with the local traders and
commission agents while having a brand name.

[53]
 BIBLIOGRAPHY

In this project report, while finalizing and for analyzing quality problem in details the
following Books, Magazines/Journals and Web Sites have been referred. All the
material detailed below provides effective help and a guiding layout while designing
this text report.

Books:

 Kotler Philip, Principles of Marketing, 2nd Edition, Tata Mc Graw Hill Publishing Co.
ltd Magazines / Journals / Newspapers, Delhi.

 Sharma D.D, Market Research , 2nd Edition, South Asia Books, 2001

 Kothari CR, Research Methodology, 1st Edition, New Age International Publishers.

Websites:

 http://www.airtel.in/wps/wcm/connect/about+bharti+airtel/Bharti+Airtel/
About+bharti+airtel

 www.trai.gov.in/

 http://www.ideacellular.com/wps/portal/?WCM_GLOBAL_CONTEXT=/wps/
wcm/connect/circle_static_lib/static_site/about_us_sa/

 http://www.blonnet.com/2004/06/26/stories/2004062602180700.htm,com/
companies/companies_r/Idea_infocom/20031104_stop-roaming.htm,Domain/

[54]
 QUESTIONNAIRE

Q.1which mobile company services you are using now days?

 Airtel

 Idea

 Reliance

 TATA

 Idea

Q. 2 among them, which Brand you, prefer most?

 Airtel

 Idea

 Reliance

 TATA

 Idea

Q.3 How long you have been using this Product?

[55]
 0-2 Years

 2-5 Years

 5-10 Years

 More than 10 years

Q.4 how would you rate the experience with Brand?

Excellent Good Average Below

Average
 Airtel

 Idea

 Reliance

Q.5 Do you collect any information search before making purchase?

 Yes

 No

[56]
 Q.6 If yes, which sources are used?

 Magazines

 Dealers

 Sales Executives

 Operators reference

 Pamphlets and catalogue

 Reference from friends and relatives

 Any other

Q.7 What are the features you look for in a product before making purchase
decision? Give preferences (1-Highest, 6- least)

Brand credibility

Price and Discount

After sales services and parts, network

Value for money

[57]
  Vehicle performance

 Add on features or ergonomics of design

Q.8 Which of these marketing / sales schemes attracts you while purchasing any
connection?

 Good Network

 Discount scheme

 Service package

 Any other

Q.9 If you have to purchase a new connection or product in near future, which Brand will
you go for and why?

_________________________________________________

_________________________________________________

_________________________________________________

[58]
 Q.10 Are you aware of various promotional activities being run by Airtel, if
yes then how? Are you satisfied with these promotional activities?

Very Satisfied Somewhat Not

Satisfied Satisfied satisfied

 Customer Care

 By Ad Films

 By Camp

 24 hrs call center

services

Q.11 How would you rate Airtel performance as your expectation on 5

points scale (5 Highest?)
1 2 3 4 5

 After Sale service

 Maintenance

 Product as per expectation

Q.12 What are you suggestions for improving the product quality, service availability and
parts availability?

[59]