1.

INTRODUCTION
1.1 TELECOM SECTOR: A GLOBAL SCENARIO The Indian telecom market has been displaying sustained high growth rates. Riding on expectations of overall high economic growth and consequent rising income levels, it offers an unprecedented opportunity for foreign investment. A combination of factors is driving growth in the telecom market, promising rich returns on investments. India is the fourth largest telecom market in Asia after China, Japan and South Korea. The Indian telecom network is the eighth largest in the world and the second largest among emerging economies. The Indian telecom market size of over US $ 8 billion is expected to increase three fold by 2012. The expansion of the telecom industry in India has been fuelled by a massive growth in mobile phone users, which has reached a level of 10 million users in December 2002, an increase of nearly 100 per cent in 2002. This exponential growth of mobile telephony can be attributed to the introduction of digital cellular technology and decrease in tariffs due to competitive pressures. For the first time in India, the growth of cellular subscriber base has exceeded the fixed line subscriber base. However, cellular penetration is still 1 per cent as compared to world average of around 16 per cent. 1.2 INDIAN TELECOM SECTOR Indian Telecom sector, like any other industrial sector in the country, has gone through many phases of growth and diversification. Starting from telegraphic and telephonic systems in the 19th century, the field of telephonic communication has now expanded to make use of advanced technologies like GSM, CDMA, and WLL to the great 3G Technology in mobile phones. Day by day, both the Public Players and the Private Players are putting in their resources and efforts to improve the telecommunication technology so as to give the maximum to their customers. The Indian telecom sector can be broadly classified into Fixed Line Telephony and mobile telephony. The major players of the telecom sector are experiencing a fierce competition in both the segments. The major players like BSNL, MTNL, and VSNL in the fixed line and Airtel, Vodafone (Hutch), Idea, Tata, Reliance in the mobile segment are coming up with new tariffs and discount schemes to gain the competitive advantage. The Public Players and the Private Players share the fixed line and the mobile segments. Currently the Public Players have more than 60% of the market share.

Fig 1 2. MARKET-SIZE, PLAYERS AND TRENDS Both fixed line and mobile segments serve the basic needs of local calls, long distance calls and the international calls, with the provision of broadband services in the fixed line segment and GPRS in the mobile arena. Traditional telephones have been replaced by the codeless and the wireless instruments. Mobile phone providers have also come up with GPRS- enabled multimedia messaging, Internet surfing, and mobile-commerce. The much-awaited 3G mobile technology has entered in the Indian telecom market. The GSM, CDMA, WLL service providers are all upgrading them to provide 3G mobile services. Radio services have also been incorporated in the mobile handsets, along with other applications like high storage memory, multimedia applications, multimedia games, MP3 Players, video generators, Camera's, etc. The value added services provided by the mobile service operators contribute more than 10% of the total revenue. The 2009 budget has brought further relief to the customers with the reduction in the tariffs, both local and long distance, and with slashing down the roaming rentals. This is likely to lead to even more people going for cellular services and more and more use of the value added services. However, landline telephony is likely to remain popular, too, in the foreseeable future. MTNL, the largest landline service provider, has recently taken some bold initiatives to retain its market share and, if possible, expand it. The overall market share distribution among the major telecom players is as follows-

Fig 2

The share of the major players in the GSM market is as follows-

Fig 3

2.1 OPPORTUNITIES India offers an unprecedented opportunity for telecom service operators, infrastructure vendors, manufacturers and associated services companies. A host of factors are contributing to enlarged opportunities for growth and investment in telecom: An expanding Indian economy with increased focus on the services sector population mix moving favourably towards a younger age profile urbanization with increasing incomes

Investors can look to capture the gains of the Indian telecom boom and diversify their operations outside developed economies that are marked by saturated telecom markets and lower GDP growth rates.

2.2 COMPETITIVE LANDSCAPE Demand is driven by technological innovation and by growth in business activity. The profitability of individual companies depends on efficient operations and good marketing. Large companies have big economies of scale in providing a highly automated service to large numbers of customers, and have the financial resources required for building and maintaining a large network. Smaller companies can compete effectively only in small markets or by providing specialty services

3. THE CONSUMER BEHAVIOUR According to Gartner, with a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 18%, the countrys cellular services market is projected to surpass $37 billion by 2012, while exceeding 737 million connections at the same time. Cellular market penetration is projected to increase from 19.8% in 2007 to 60.7% in 2012, not only due to the increasing focus on the rural market, but also thanks to such factors as local consumer durable and electronic companies entering the domestic mobile handset segment, and lower handset prices.

Fig 4 The Indian mobile market continues to be dominated by prepaid subscribers, which accounted for more than 89% of all mobile connections in 2007 and is expected to grow to more than 92% of the connection base by 2012. The total services revenue for prepaid connections is expected to grow at 18.9% CAGR for the period 2008-2012 and the total services revenue for post-paid connections is expected to grow at 15% CAGR during the same forecast period. By 2012, the prepaid subscriber base will cross 683 million and post-paid subscriber base will exceed 53 million subscribers. The major influencing factors on consumers behaviour for buying a SIM can be summarised in the chart below-

Fig 5 The major factor is the influence of the family. Most common behaviour would be to buy SIM of the type which is already being used by someone in family. The self determines the consumers perception of the brand. The mobile phones are progressively becoming cheaper and affordable for people in the country with the increase in disposable income that improves the quality of life in India. People are showing interest in new technologies like the option to access internet using a mobile phone. Besides, mobile service providers are also adding new schemes, offers and technology advancement in their services. This has resulted in more and more consumers buying mobile phones and switching between different service providers. 3.1 CONSUMER SWITCHING BEHAVIOUR It is a consumer behaviour where the behaviour of the consumers differs based on the satisfactory level of the consumers with the providers or companies. Switching behaviour can be enunciated as the process of being loyal to one service and switching to another service, due to dissatisfaction or any other problems. Even if a consumer is loyal to a particular brand, if the brand does not satisfy his/her needs, the consumers switch to a competitor brand. There are different factors and determinants which affect the consumers in switching their service from one service to another. The cost which is incurred during the switching process is called switching cost. Consumer loyalty is defined as the degree to which a Consumer exhibits repeat purchasing behaviour from a service provider, possesses a positive attitudinal disposition toward the provider, and considers using only this provider when a need for this service arises (Gremler and Brown, 1996, p. 173).Losing a consumer is a serious setback for the firm in terms of its present and future earnings. In addition to losing the benefits discussed above, the firm needs to invest resources in attracting new consumers to replace the ones it has lost (advertising, promotion, initial discounts). Peters (1987) shows that it can cost five times more to acquire a new consumer than to retain an old one. Consequently, retaining the current consumer base is much more attractive and viable than searching for new consumers. According to study the major factors responsible for consumer switching behaviour ranked in the order of most important to least important are as follows1. Call rates

2. Network coverage 3. Value added services 4. Customer care

5. Advertisements Various factors that contributed to consumer dissatisfaction with a service provider could be Improper Consumer Service, Unknowledgeable Employees, Long Wait Times for Consumer Service, Error in Billing, Poor Network Coverage, Frequent Network Problems, No new Schemes, Unsuitable plans for different age groups, Costly Value Added Services, High Call Rates, Hidden Charges, High SMS Charges, High Internet Charges, Unavailability of Recharge Facilities, Better Features offered by Competitors, Influence from Families and Friends, Fancy Number, High Service Charges for recharges

In order to retain the existing consumers and add new consumers the major task for the telecom companies to maintain consumer satisfaction and avoid any above mentioned dissatisfying factors. This can be done by understanding the problems and reasons behind them.

3.1.1 Problem Identification Consumers have every chance of switching the mobile service provider due to industry expansion. Mobile industry is growing technically and becoming economical due to competitors innovative and attractive services. Number of players in this sector is increasing, so each one of them wants to overplay others to attract the consumers. Mobile industry has become economic with the end result that consumers have less switching cost. 3.1.2 Reasons Call rates play the pivotal role in switching the service provider followed by Network coverage, value added service, Consumer care and advertisement which plays the least important role. It is found that there is a relation between switching the service provider and the factors (Customer service, service problem, usage cost, etc.). Poor network coverage, Frequent Network Problems, High call rates, Influence from family and friends are the most important factors which affects the switching behaviour. According to the study, the most preferred service provider is Airtel (31%). BSNL occupies the second place with Consumer preference of 17%, followed by Reliance (15%), Aircel (13%), Vodafone (11%), Uninor (9%), Tata docomo (3%) and the least preferred operator is Tata Indicom (1%) 47% of consumers are likely to switch to other service provider. About 39% of consumers do not prefer switching their service provider. And 14% of consumers have a neutral stance on switching their service provider.

It is found that majority of the consumers are influenced by the family to select their service provider and a sizeable number of the consumers are influenced by their friends.

3.1.3

STEPS Mobile service providers should invest more on improving their network coverage in order to retain their consumers. Mobile service providers have to provide more offers for family and friends. Enticing offers still hold a major sway. Satisfy their current consumers by providing them innovative offers. Accept valid feedbacks from consumers regularly and make sure that they satisfy the consumers

4. BHARTI AIRTEL: AN OVERVIEW

Bharti Airtel is structured as four strategic business units Mobile, Telemedia, Enterprise, and Digital TV. The mobile business offers services in India and Sri Lanka. The Telemedia business provides broadband, IPTV, and telephone services in 95 Indian cities. The Enterprise business provides end-to-end telecom solutions to corporate customers and national and international long distance services to carriers. The Digital TV business provides Direct-to-Home TV services across India. All these services are provided under the Airtel brand. Airtels national high-speed optic fibre network currently spans over 113,326 Rkms covering all the major cities in India. The company has two international landing stations in Chennai and Mumbai that connect two submarine cable systems i2i to Singapore and SEAME-WE-4 to Europe. Bharti Airtel is already one of the most integrated telcos in the world and is on track to achieve its goal to become the Most Admired Brand in India. Bharti Airtel is the leading mobile telecom provider in a hyper-competitive and cost conscious market, which necessitates innovation and cost optimization. It is one of Asias leading providers of telecommunication services with presence in all the 23 licensed jurisdictions (also known as Telecom Circles) in India, and in Srilanka. They served an aggregate of 105,195,762 customers as of June 30, 2009; of whom 102,367,881 subscribe to their GSM services and 2,827,881 use Telemedia Services either for voice and/or broadband access delivered through DSL.

They also offer an integrated suite of telecom solutions to their enterprise customers, in addition to providing long distance connectivity both nationally and internationally. They have launched DTH and IPTV Services also. All these services are rendered under a unified brand Airtel. The company also deploys, owns and manages passive infrastructure pertaining to telecom operations under its subsidiary Bharti Infratel Limited. Bharti Infratel owns 42% of Indus Towers Limited. Bharti Infratel and Indus Towers are the two top providers of passive infrastructure services in India.

FACT SHEET Business Description:

Established: Shares in Issue: Listings: Customer Base Operational Network

Bharti Airtel Limited. Provides GSM mobile services in all the 23 telecom circles in India, and was the first private operator to have an all India presence. Provides telemedia services (fixed line and broadband services through DSL) in 95 cities in India. Also provides DTH service named Airtel Digital TV July 07, 1995, as a Public Limited Company 1,898,373,280 as at June 30, 2009 The Stock Exchange, Mumbai (BSE) The National Stock Exchange of India Limited (NSE) 102,367,881 GSM mobile and 2,827,881 Telemedia Customers (status as on June 30, 2009) Provides GSM mobile services in all the 23 telecom circles in India, and was the first private operator to have an all India presence.

MARKET SHARE

4.1 CUSTOMER MARKET SHARE VS REVENUE MARKET SHARE Bharti Airtel managed to grab the sweet spot. One good strategy about Airtel is Grow consolidate and then back to the Growth cycle and the spiral continues. Bharti Airtel has 24.3% customer market share and 33.8% revenue market share. Vodafone India has 18.8% customer market share and 20.7% revenue market share. Reliance Communications has with 18.9% customer market share and pathetic 11.5% revenue market share. BSNL has subscriber share of 12.7% and mere 10.2% of revenue share Idea Cellular has 8.96% subscribers market share and 9% revenue market share

4.2 Challenges faced by Airtel in providing customer service Manage more than 4 billion inbound contacts per year Approx 30 million new subscribers annually 28 states each with unique languages and cultures

multiple groups such as marketing, customer service, and collections calling the same customers Many competitors Balance high-quality service with operational efficiency

4.3 Providing better consumer service In order to deliver the highest quality service at the lowest possible cost, the firm has had to embrace the business model that has helped make India an economic powerhouse: business process outsourcing- BPO. The firm outsources many of its most fundamental functions and infrastructures, including its information technology (IT) operations to IBM, Nortel and Wipro; its communications networks to Ericsson and Nokia Siemens; and its contact centre operations to Nortel and Wipro. With 25 contact centers and 15,000 agents nationwide, Bharti Airtel needed to find a way to reduce the cost of delivering excellent customer service and handle millions of customer calls each month. Genesys Outbound Voice and Genesys Proactive Notification are used by Bharti Airtel to accomplish a wide range of services and functions, including: Debt collection and past-due reminders Promote new products and services Proactive customer service and notification Cross-sell or up-sell based on previous account behaviour Before they implementation of above services, airtel often had multiple groups such as marketing, customer service, and collections calling the same customers. There was frequently overlap, which frustrated customers and was wasteful from a time and resources standpoint. Now, they have a single, consolidated view of the customer and the outbound process is automated for greater impact and efficiency. They can also better track results and provide a connection to a live agent when needed.

PORTERS GENERIC STRATEGY MODEL

GENERIC STRATEGY ANALYIS IN THE CONTEXT OF AIRTEL: STRATEGIC TARGET:--TARGET ENTIRE INDUSTRY

STRATEGIC ADVANTAGE:--UNIQUENESS PERCEIVED BY THE CONSUMERS GENERIC STRATEGY:--DIFFERENTIATION STRATEGY ILLUSTRATIONS:Airtel attempts to achieve a competitive advantage by creating a service that is perceived as unique. The elite people, entrepreneur, people belongs to upper-upper, upper middle and to those people for whom money is not an issue and they just want to get best service, have an Airtel connection. So Airtel is more focused on the elite group people.
Airtel is a status symbol because of the brand image in the mind of public due to their willingness to provide the best service.

Higher class people are not concentrated on price because 500-1000 or more is not a big deal for them. They concentrate on the quality of service, and some special services:-A person, having Airtel mobile connection, and dont have time to go the insurance company to take/renew car insurance so what he/she can do: - he/she can go for car insurance by Airtel mobile. Other example:-electricity bill payment; mobile to mobile top up, fund transfer, payment and purchase of airline as well as train reservation ticket. Airtel provided the customers with mobile phone communication requirements like better network coverage, network reliability, and charging customers for only what they use, instead of features like free phone calls, which even have a higher cost for provider.

Therefore, a customer-focused differentiation strategy when implemented with a clear vision benefits the company in many ways including price premium, brand loyalty and sometimes even reduced costs.

GENERIC STRATEGY ANALYIS IN THE CONTEXT OF VODAFONE: STRATEGIC TARGET:--TARGET ENTIRE INDUSTRY

STRATEGIC ADVANTAGE CONSUMERS

:--

UNIQUENESS

PERCEIVED

BY

THE

GENERIC STRATEGY:-- DIFFERENTIATION STRATEGY

ILLUSTRATIONS:The responses of the consumers reveal that Vodafone is also attempts to achieve a competitive advantage by creating a service that is perceived as unique. The study shows it clearly that Vodafone have a huge market share due to its better service and good network. But the thing that differentiate it from the competitors that it provide the more and more number of the value added services. Latest advertisement of Vodafone: Zoozoos is very attracting and it increases the sales of the Vodafone.

GENERIC STRATEGY ANALYIS IN THE CONTEXT OF RELIANCE: STRATEGIC TARGET:--TARGET ENTIRE INDUSTRY

STRATEGIC ADVANTAGE:-ARRIVED AT LOW COST POSITION GENERIC STRATEGY:--OVERALL LOW COST LEADERSHIP STRATEGY ILLUSTRATIONS:Reliance is providing the better quality in the lowest cost in the market. The study clearly shows that reliance has the approx 18% of the total consumer base while enjoys only 10% of the total telecom market revenue. So this study clearly indicates that reliance is meant to provide the better quality at the lowest possible price. MANSOON HUNGAMA OFFER of reliance made a tremendous history in the field of telecom. In that plan reliance provide a mobile handset along with connection(CDMA) in just 500/- Rs. Which was almost unbelievable in market? So in another words we can say that reliance bring the mobile revolution in India at the lowest possible cost. Besides that the GSM launch of the reliance creates a history that within 6 months it takes 7.2% of the GSM mobile segment in India due to the low price. In that plan reliance give 900/- free talk time in just 25/-.

OVERALL ANALYSIS OF TELECOM MARKET IN CONTEXT WITH GENERIC STRATEGIES Cost leadership strategy is not the most desirable strategy in this event, as competitors may put intense price pressures, such that all companies would end up reducing their prices drastically. Differentiation would be a viable strategy in this case as there is a likelihood that the loyal customers would stay with the company. It would also be hard for competitors to cope with the specialised needs of customers who are part of a niche segment in the market. High customer loyalty towards a company's brands, which is true for the differentiation strategy, can play a vital role in discouraging potential entrants. Threat of substitutes is reduced in case of the differentiation strategy due to customer loyalty to the unique aspects of a particular product or service, which no substitute product can offer in the customer's mind.

Buyers in case of differentiation strategy would have less power as there are few alternatives available to them.

MARKETING WARFARE STRATEGIES According to Al Ries and Jack Trout, there are four kinds of marketing warfare strategies:1. Principle of defensive strategy: --Market leader adopts 2. Principle of offensive strategy:-- Market challenger adopts 3. Principle of flanking strategy:-- Market follower adopts 4. Principle of gurilla strategy :---- Market follower adopts PRINCIPLE OF DEFENSIVE WARFARE: ADOPTED BY MARKET LEADER: AIRTEL SUBPRINCIPLE: 1:--Only the market leader should consider playing defense. Illustration: - You strengthen your position by introducing new products or services. For Example: Airtel as a market leader already occupied the highest position, have a strong relationship with the customer and intermediatory, customers have the brand loyalty so Airtel being a market leader go for defensive strategy just to maintain its market share. Introduce the concept of minitue tariff (125 Rs and 200 Rs STD free) which replaces the lower down rates plan (STD in 2 Rs or 1.5 Rs) from the market. SUBPRINCIPLE: 2:--The best defensive strategy is the courage to attack yourself. Illustration: - its better to take business away from yourself than have someone else do it for you. (Sacrifice short-term profits and It protects market share) For Example: Initially Airtel was also involved in establishment of own tower business but later it shifted its business to the Industal. Airtel replaced the Post paid mobile concept by prepaid mobile connection this example can be better understood in the context of forsightness and to meet the consumer demands and need. SUBPRINCIPLE: 3:--Strong competitive moves should always be blocked. Illustration: - When you own the pie, you should try to Increase the size of the pie, rather than of your slice. For Example: Airtel introduced various value based service just after Vodafone : for example:

 Chota Recharge concept and Night Calling concept were introduced by hutch (now Vodafone) and then immediately followed by Airtel to take in to account that this move may create big difference in the market so Airtel immediately launched the same offer in the market.

PRINCIPLE OF OFFENSIVE WARFARE: ADOPTED BY MARKET CHALLANGERS:--VODAFONE, RELIANCE, BSNL SUBPRINCIPLE: 1:-- The main consideration is the strength of the leaders position. Illustration: - Whats good strategy for the leader is bad strategy for #2, and vice versa. For Example: Airtel concentrates for the value added services which are of premium use so here what Vodafone did: Vodafone concentrated more on the different kind of value added services i.e. cricket commentary suniye, fashion tips, voice sms, beauty tips, caller tunes, ringtones download rather than Airtel is more concerned about the services that really be much more useful i.e. car insurance, electricity & mobile bill payment, reservation. So we can say that market leader is involving in premium use service to attract the elite people whereas the Vodafone adopted to provide the entertainment services to attract the youth. Airtel ,being a market leader, is following the differentiation strategy so reliance creates a big difference by providing the service as compare to the very low price. Airtel is market leader in the GSM sector; here reliance came with CDMA technology and cover the large chunk of market. SUBPRINCIPLE: 2:--The Find a weakness in the leaders strength and attack at that point. Illustration: - Where absolute superiority is not attainable, you must produce a relative one at the decisive point by making skilled used of what you have. For Example: Value added services were not too much popularizes and the mobile were meant to call only. But Vodafone change the concept. it started to give more and more value added service(youth targeted) and now value added service is the main source for revenue for telecom companies. At one time Airtel was charging 50 RS as the customer get entered into the roaming so here what BSNL did:--it attack at the weakness of Airtel and this moves proves a very beneficial for the BSNL. BSNL was the first which made the roaming charge to zero (before this minimum 50 Rs were deducted as soon as you entered in roaming) SUBPRINCIPLE: 3:-- Launch the attack on as narrow a front as possible Illustration:- Theres weakness in strength, if you can find it. For Example: BSNL captures a very big market by giving the mobile SIM free of cost. The concept behind that was when a person have the SIM, he/she will going to recharge that SIM, that time revenue generates. And at least you can get a very high amount of customers.

 Vodafone focused more and more on the value added service and marketing. Recently Vodafone geve its whole concentration by a series of advertisements of ZOOZOO series. This move of Vodafone proved very successful to attract the more and more number of the customers. PRINCIPLE OF FLANKING WARFARE:- ADOPTED BY THE MARKET FOLLOWERS:--TATA, IDEA SUBPRINCIPLE: 1:-- A good flanking move must be made into an uncontested area. Illustration:- The success of a flanking attack often hinges on your ability to create and maintain a separate category. For Example: Airtel is primarily concentrated on the elite class people and mainly in the urban areas. So idea found creates its market in the rural cities, where they found the lesser competition. Idea was the first mobile service provider launched the 3 years validity scheme which got a great consumer response. And by the both above stated idea managed to grab a big market share in a short while. Here we can say that idea move was in uncontested area. Virgin and spice got a huge market in south India where no mobile company was targeting and by this move they were in a position to manage a good number of customers. SUBPRINCIPLE: 2:-- Tactical surprise ought to be an important element of the plan. Illustration: - Flanking skill requires exceptional foresight. The reason is that in a true flanking attack, there is no established market for the new product or service. For Example: Idea launch with a great 3 years validity along with plan 0-1-2-3 (Tata to Tata-zero: Tata to other-RS 1: Tata to basic-RS 2: Tata to STD Rs 3) was a great surprise at that time. Tata provided one hand set free with buying of one handset along with unlimited free talk time in between both. This scheme took a huge consumer response. SUBPRINCIPLE: 3:-- The pursuit is as critical as the attack itself. Illustration: - Reinforce success, abandon failures. What if you dont have the resources to follow up the launch of a successful flanking attack Perhaps you shouldnt have launched a flanking attack in the first place. Perhaps you should have waged guerrilla warfare For Example: Idea concentrates to upgrade the position by launching the new schemes time to time to maintain its flanking move. PRINCIPLE OF GURILLA WARFARE:- ADOPTED BY THE MARKET FOLLOWERS:--VIRGIN* *NOTE: - Virgin Is The New Market Entrant In The Mobile Service Provider Which Captures Huge Market In A Very Short Time. SUBPRINCIPLE: 1: Find a segment of the market small enough to defend.

 Illustration:--Theres a critical difference between flanking and guerrilla warfare. A flanking attack is deliberately launched close to the leaders position. The objective warfare is to bleed or unravel the leaders share.

For Example: Somehow the virgin concentration on youth (as target segment as the name itself suggest) and payment on incoming facility can be classified in this category. The theme is that the virgin doesnt concentration the leaders market share as Airtel was concentrating on the elite group and knowing the fact that in India there are 55% youth. So they were very focused and launched their mobile service with attractive plan(pay for first 3 min and free for whole day). SUBPRINCIPLE: 2No matter how successful you become, never act like the leader. Illustration: -- Try to pick a segment small enough so that you can become the leader but never act like the leader. For example: Virgin got a huge youth response and the figure stated clearly says the success story of virgin as its shown in their advertisements also which all were targeting youth only. SUBPRINCIPLE: 3 Be prepared to bug out at a moments notice. Illustration: -- Successful guerrillas operate with a different organization and a different timetable. Get as high a percentage of your personnel on the firing line as possible. For example: In this competitive scenario, whenever any big company (market leader or challenger) will come into this segment with same or better plan, the they might lose their market share so it is advised to the company ,not to invest huge amount in it and be prepare for bug out.

THE FACTORS RESPONSIBLE FOR THE SUCCESS OF THE MARKET LEADER OVER THE COMPETITORS. FACTORS RESPONSIBLE FOR MARKET SUCCESS OF AIRTEL: According to my analysis, the Airtel is very keen with their marketing strategy in the competitive world. There are certain parameters which tell us about that how Airtel became the market leader. 1. FIRST MOVER ADVANTAGE: In the initial days due to high tariff rates cellular players had to impose high call charges on their customers and the handsets were costly. Naturally, they targeted the elite, up market professionals and entrepreneurs as customers. Airtel was positioned as an asp rational and lifestyle brand. It was pitched not merely as a mobile service, but as something that gave consumer a badge value. The Brand was developed to connote leadership in network, innovations, offerings and services. The taglines like "Airtel celebrates the spirit of leadership" and "The first choice of the corporate leaders" emphasized that stance. The Leadership campaign was reportedly successful and resulted in a marginal improvement in Airtel performance 2. HIGHLY FOCUSED ON TELECOM Bharti Airtel is largely focused on the telecom; around 93% of the total revenue comes from telecom (Total telecom revenue Rs 3,326).

3. LEADERSHIP IN FAST GROWING CELLULAR SEGMENT

 Airtel is holding leadership position in cellular market.. Bharti Airtel is one of India's leading private sector providers of telecommunications services based on an aggregate of 27,239,757 customers as on August 31, 2006, consisting of 25,648,686 GSM mobile and 1,591,071 broadband & telephone customers.

4. PAN INDIA FOOTPRINT Airtel offers the most expansive roaming network. Letting you roam anywhere in India with its Pan-India presence, and trot across the globe with International Roaming spread in over 240 networks. The mobile services group provides GSM mobile services across India in 23 telecom circles, while the B&T business group provides broadband & telephone services in 92 cities. 5. HEAVY BRAND PROMOTION STRATEGY In august 2000 Bharti launched its new Touch Tomorrow campaign which aimed at strengthening its relationship with its customers and make the brand softer to cater a wide variety of people across the society. Hence Bharti decided to humanize the brand Airtel to gain competitive advantage.

PROMOTIONAL EFFECTIVENESS: Most of the respondents said that Promotional campaign influenced their decision to shift to the Airtel Airtel basically uses two appeal to connect to the users Emotional Humorous attracting Brands stray when they try to be different for the sake of being different. The desire to be different is pretty common in advertising. In 2002, Airtel signed on music composer A.R.Rehman and changed its tune to "live every moment": rahmans signature tune for Airtel is the most downloaded ringbone in India. But that was just part of the ongoing communication. The following year Airtel adopted the "express yourself" positioning, which is also its current tagline.

 Youth icons like Shahrukh khan and Sachin Tendulakar were brought in as brand ambassadors to attract youngsters Add campaign with an eye on the rural market Recently Airtel has come up with Har ek friend zaruri hota he advertising campaign targeting the youth.

6. HUGE NETWORK COVERAGE:A combination of the following 4-key performance indicators largely determines the overall service quality: system coverage; call blockage; voice quality; and dropped call rate. System coverage Call blockage Voice quality Dropped call rate Source:--According to the national survey report Airtel minimum complaints of all of these above stated problems were found to be minimum in case of Airtel. So we can say that Airtel is providing comparatively far better service to the users. 7. PROACTIVE AND INNOVATIVE SERVICES:-According to the responses obtained the most critical factor in this regards is the fresh experience which Airtel provides to its consumers time to time. Black berry Start or stop service at any time Facilities provided News services Car insurance Fund transfer Bill payment system Payment for ticket Payment of electricity bills Bharti Airtel Launches Special Five to Empower Its Customers* *NOTE:--Bharti Airtel, Asias leading integrated telecom services provider announced a new add-on feature called Special 5 for all its 100 million customers. The consumer usage analysis indicates that our customers make majority of their calls to a very few numbers which are the most special, near & dear in their lives.

THE LACUNA WITHIN THE EXISTING STRATEGY:- Untapped Rural market, Only concentrated on elite group and on value service, Youth are not much responding to existing schemes, South India is not covered :--(where Aircel and Tata has the huge market), Higher price than the competitors. NOTE:-Airtel has a very good market brand value. So it should capitalize its brand in the rural areas also, where they can get, good number of customers by replacing TATA and BSNL. As well as Airtel should concentrate in the south India where Aircel and Virgin has a very good market share. So move to south India will be of great value.
STRATEGY TO BE ADOPTED: - NEW USER STRATEGY:-ENTER INTO A NEW MARKET SEGMENT Rural market:--Although Airtel have strong Presence throughout the country but still they are far away from the Indian rural part and generally this part is covered by BSNL so indirectly Airtel is loosing revenue from the rural sector. so by tapping the rural sector, Airtel can pull a huge market share from that of BSNL and IDEA, thus he can increase its market share. Airtel should introduce a new venture named SABKA AIRTEL in which Airtel will provide basic features of mobile service (rather than providing too much facility as given under brand, Airtel) at a very cheaper call rate and it should target rural areas and economic back word class. From where Airtel can generate comparatively lower revenue but it can keep other market followers like IDEA and BSNL out of the market and can grab a large chunk of share from them and can pursue as a market leader for forever. Benefit with this move:--Airtel will not loose its popularity amongst the elite group from where it is earning handsome amount of revenue and on the other hand, under the umbrella of Airtel, there are great chances of huge customer response. Airtel has enough strength to provide such kind of scheme where they probably not getting the higher return but they can enjoy the high public response because the consumer will have the chance to get connected with the Indias largest mobile service provider. There may be a problem that the rural customers may not be aware of the Airtel so Airtel should try to penetrate the rural market by heavy TV promotion of the new brand SABKA AIRTEL.