Marketing Management: On Airtel - Magic'

MARKETING
MANAGEMENT
On
Airtel – ‘Magic’
SWOT ANALYSIS
STRENGTH
Attracted considerable media attention
Magic led the market, with 30% of the market share
On account of the benefits they offered, pre-paid cellular card services gained quick popularity
tariff rates declined 75%
Indian cellular players were offering the lowest cellular tariffs in the world (Rs 1.99 for 60 seconds). 8.5 million cellular phone
users, 65% belonged to the pre-paid segment
Acquiring Magic connection was very easy
offered features such as instant connectivity, pre-activated STD/ISD facility, voice mail and short messaging service (SMS).
innovative and customer-friendly features, Magic came to be credited by industry observers for bringing about dynamic changes
providing affordable and easily accessible services to all sections of the community and maintaining strong relationship with
customers
constantly keeping itself abreast with the moves of its competitors and launching various proactive/reactive schemes, Bharti was
able to retain its leadership position
Bharti launched a two-in-one cellular card which offered both the features of post-paid and pre-paid cards in one card
SWOT ANALYSIS
WEAKNESS
National and International Players
Cellular services market registered limited growth
High tariff rates charged by the companies
Cellular phone services were regarded as a luxury and mostly targeted the elite segment
Low Quality Network
lack of awareness among people, lack of infrastructural facilities, and government regulations were responsible for the slow
growth of cellular phone services in India
immense potential caused major players to shift focus to prepaid segment to design new marketing strategies to expand
their user base
Bharti's competitors launched various promotional campaigns for their brands - many of them copying those of Bharti’s
Most severe competition was witnessed in the area of tariff reduction
Spice even offered interesting and even useful information like train timings, astrology, news, movie tickets, cricket updates,
stock market news through its brand, Genie
In the Chennai circle, the cellular war between RPG Group, Bharti and Hutch was more value and service driven
SWOT ANALYSIS
OPPORTUNITIES
Attracting young adults in SEC B and C categories of the Indian market
Become relevant to the masses
At the time, there were only two major players, Bharti (Airtel) and Essar and both these companies offered only postpaid
services.
Monopoly Regime
Realization, that cellular service providers offered only post-paid cellular services which were perceived to be expensive and,
launched pre-paid cellular services.
New Magic logo reflected the new brand values of youthfulness, energy, simplicity and friendliness
Focus on revamping of its pricing strategies from time to time (at regular intervals) in order to stay ahead of competition
Providing free talk time
Utilize roaming services, free of charge for calls placed through any Airtel network in India
Untapped Voice market such as voice mail.
Generated Revenue from by being one of the two companies the established
Introduction of new offers such as Pre-Paid service and Free talk time
SWOT ANALYSIS
THREAT
Intensifying competition in the pre-paid cellular card segment
Increasing competitive pressure, doubts regarding the marketing initiatives to help Magic retain its 'Magic’
Entry of a fourth players in various telecom circles(until then only three players were operating in all circles), the future was uncertain
Bharti's aggressive marketing, advertising and promotional efforts led other players to focus on their marketing efforts as well
Price reduction moves were almost immediately matched by the players
companies had begun focusing on developing value-added offerings and schemes to expand their market and gain customer loyalty
analysts expressed doubts about the profitability of the pre-paid segment in the long run
Low profit margins from the pre-paid segment (on account of low tariff and high advertising, promotional and customer service costs)
could lead to losses in the long run
CellOne, a cellular service launched by the state owned telecom major, Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd. (BSNL). Not only were the rental charges
of CellOne much lower than those of any other player, BSNL had plans to (further) reduce tariff.
The vast reach of BSNL and years of experience in the Indian telecom sector, justified fears. BSNL did not have to pay any license fee to the
government
Being a major stakeholder in the fixed line telephone network (90%), it did have to shell a large share of its revenues as interconnect
charges (over 70% of the calls made from cellular network used fixed line network) for routing calls, both landline and STD. With such
control (on fixed line network) and established infrastructure, BSNL could pose a severe threat to its competitors on the pricing front. With
the Department of Telecommunications announcing plans to grant International Long Distance (ILD) license to BSNL.
Conclusion
Airtel did a good job on its core competencies and being flexible with it prices.
Airtel was regularly working on their research and development. This is the main reason it is on the top position.
Airtel is the first Player to enter into telecom market, so Airtel have to take the advantage.
Airtel have to Focus over the rural areas and expend the business in rural areas.
Any business they should have vision, mission, objective and organizational structure. For cover the all of Criteria Company need to
make or build up a strategic decision by which they can reach in their main goal point. Comp, should maintain all major process also
the others factors.
With this view Bharti Airtel is continuously working in, there are several competitors like Reliance, Airtel, Vodafone already in the
market with the similar Game Plan. This project gives the conclusion that with the changing economic and political scenario telecom
sector faces many, and downs. In order to maintain the 1st position Bharti Airtel needs to follow some different strategy.
The project has given the clear-cut vision as to how change strategy from other competitors a how to use the strong point and
convert the weak point of other company as an opportunity
As the market awaited the response of other competitors in November 2002, Indian pre-paid cellular services customers expected
the future to be anything but dull. Competitive tariff plans, value-added services and to top it all, entertaining advertisement
campaigns - customers, perhaps, could not have asked for more!

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