AIRTEL

Founded in 1976, by Sunil Bharti Mittal, Bharti has grown from being a manufacturer of

bicycle parts to one of the largest and most respected business groups in India. With its

entrepreneurial spirit and passion to undertake business projects that are transformational

in nature, Bharti has created world-class businesses in telecom, financial services, retail,

and foods.

Bharti started its telecom services business by launching mobile services in Delhi (India)

in 1995. Since then there has been no looking back and Bharti Airtel, the group's' flagship

company, has emerged as one of the top telecom companies in the world and is amongst

the top five wireless operators in the world.

Through its global telecom operations Bharti group has presence in 21 countries across

Asia, Africa and Europe - India, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Jersey, Guernsey, Seychelles,

Burkina Faso, Chad, Congo Brazzaville, Democratic Republic of Congo, Gabon,

Ghana, Kenya, Madagascar, Malawi, Niger, Nigeria, Sierra Leone, Tanzania,

Uganda, and Zambia.

Bharti Enterprises

Bharti Enterprises is one of India’s leading business groups with interests in telecom, agri

business, insurance and retail. Bharti has been a pioneering force in the telecom sector with

many firsts and innovations to its credit. Bharti Airtel Limited, a group company, is one of

India’s leading private sector providers of telecommunications services with an aggregate of

60 million customers, spanning mobile, fixed line, broadband and enterprise services.

Bharti Airtel was ranked amongst the best performing companies in the world in the

Business Week IT 100 list 2007. Bharti Teletech is the country’s largest manufacturer and

exporter of telephone terminals. Bharti has a joint venture with ELRO Holdings India Ltd. –

‘Field Fresh Foods Pvt. Ltd’ - for global distribution of fresh fruits and vegetables. Bharti

also has a joint venture - ‘Bharti AXA Life Insurance Company Ltd.’ - with AXA, world

leader in financial protection and wealth management. Bharti has recently forayed into the

retail business under a company called Bharti Retail Pvt. Ltd.

It also has a joint venture – ‘Bharti Wal-Mart Private Limited’ – with Wal-Mart, for

wholesale cash-and-carry and back-end supply chain management operations.

AIRTEL- Bharti’s Brand:-

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 globally admired telecom service.

Airtel, in just ten years of operations, rose to the pinnacle to achievement and continues to

lead.

As India’s leading Telecommunications Company Airtel brand has played the role as a

major catalyst in India’s reforms, contributing to its economic resurgence.

Bharti Airtel is structured into three strategic business units - Mobile services, Broadband &

Telephone (B&T) services and Enterprise services. The mobile business provides mobile &

fixed wireless services using GSM technology across 23 telecom circles. The B&T business

provides broadband & telephone services in 94 cities. The Enterprise services provide end-

to-end telecom solutions to corporate customers and national & international long distance

services to carriers. All these services are provided under the Airtel brand. Airtel's high-

speed optic fibre network currently spans over 53,000 kms covering all the major cities in

the country. The company has two international

Landing stations in Chennai that connects two submarine cable systems - i2i to Singapore

and SEA-ME-WE-4 to Europe.

Telecom giant Bharti Airtel is the flagship company of Bharti Enterprises. The Bharti

Group has a diverse business portfolio and has created global brands in the

telecommunication sector. Bharti has recently forayed into retail business as Bharti Retail

Pvt. Ltd. under a MoU with Wal-Mart for the cash & carry business. It has successfully

launched an international venture with EL Rothschild Group to export fresh agri products

exclusively to markets in Europe and USA and has launched Bharti AXA Life Insurance

Company Ltd under a joint venture with AXA, world leader in financial protection and

wealth management.

Airtel comes to you from Bharti Airtel Limited, India’s largest integrated and the first

private telecom services provider with a footprint in all the 23 telecom circles. Bharti Airtel

since its inception has been at the forefront of technology and has steered the course of the

telecom sector in the country with its world class products and services. The businesses at

Bharti Airtel have been structured into three individual strategic business units (SBU’s) -

mobile services, broadband & telephone services (B&T) & enterprise services. The mobile

business provides mobile & fixed wireless services using GSM technology across 23

telecom circles while the B&T business offers broadband & telephone services in 94 cities.

The Enterprise services provide end-to-end telecom solutions to corporate customers and

national & international long distance services to carriers. All these services are provided

under the Airtel brand.

Initial branding:-

In 1970’s Bharti entered in to the telecom business by establishing Bharti Telecom Limited

(BTL) that manufactured Telephonic equipment. Over the years it entered into other

business related to telecom industry. The main services of the Bharti group included Airtel

(cellular), Mantra (Internet Services) and beetel (telephone instruments).In 1992,Bharti

entered the cellular market launching services in Delhi. Airtel was launched when 80% of

the people didn’t even heard the term “cellular Services”. That was only confined to the

premium class people. In the early 2000’s Bharti invested heavily in the acquisitions and the

alliances to expand its cellular market in India. As a part of this, Bharti acquired IT Mobile

(AP & Karnataka), sky cell (Chennai) and Spice Cell (Kolkata).It also collaborated with

BPL to gain seamless access in Mumbai, Maharashtra, Chennai, Delhi, Kerala, Tamil Nadu,

AP and Karnataka. Bharti launched Airtel as a postpaid cellular service in Delhi in

November 1995. The company redefined the way cellular service was being marketed in the

country. Airtel was the first cellular operator to set up cellular showrooms. It opened its first

showroom “Airtel Connect” in Delhi, in late 1995. Bharti was also the first cellular

company to install a second mobile switching center. The company was first to provide

roaming cellular services and other value added services such as smart mail, fax, call hold,

cal waiting and information services. It was also the first company to launch an online e-

commerce portal that enabled customers to make online payments.

The tariff rates charged by the government were quite high. Air time charges were as high

as Rs16 per minute as against Rs.1.20 for land line communication.

Thus, all players targeted the premium sector, which could afford the rates. Airtel was also

positioned for the elite class. Airtel launched the ‘Leadership Services’ campaign which

featured successful men and women with their deluxe cars, carrying laptops and using cell

phones. So people started thinking that Airtel was an aspirational brand, which was meant

for leaders and celebrities. People began associating three core benefits with the Airtel

brand –leadership, performance and dynamism. Other supportive values associated with the

brand included courtesy, politeness and efficiency. So Airtel and other brands were treated

as premium-class brands.

During that time Airtel started its leadership campaign by which it is known as a premium

class brand. 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.

Though the ‘Leadership’ services campaign was successful and resettled in a marginal

improvement in Airtel performance, it failed to attract more customers as it failed to add an

emotional dimension to the brand. Analysis perceived the brand to be distant, effective and

cold. The surveys also revealed that the concept of leadership was itself undergoing a

transformation. The public perceived the campaign as leaders are people who worked with a

team to achieve common objectives rather than those who dictated terms to their

subordinates. The surveys also indicated that 50% of the new subscribers adopted a cellular

service from the advice of their close one’s. So Airtel realized the fact that customer-

relationship was of great importance and lacking an emotional or humanized touch was a

major weakness. So in August 2000, Bharti launched its new ‘Touch Tomorrow’ which

aimed at strengthening its relationship with customers

Leadership campaign to Touch Tomorrow:-

In early 2000 it was observed through market surveys that the concept of leadership was

undergoing a transformation resulting in it being a moderate success. Hence Bharti decided

to ‘humanize’ the brand ‘Airtel’ to gain competitive advantage. 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. The Company adopted three-tier brand architecture to expand its ‘Touch

Point’ network.

During this time period Airtel introduced the special features like music download, SMS,

permanent GPRS etc at a reasonable affordable price. The three tier brand architecture

which is implemented by Airtel during that time become very successful.

Airtel brand is the 1st tier brand under which the other brands developed. The 2nd tier in this

case are basic telephony, National long distance services, broad band services and mobile

services. The 3rd tier consists of free net, long distance and tango internet mobile.

The focus now was on the endless possibilities of technology to make life good and

advertising became two-pronged: a product-driven communication that showcased new

offerings like the Magic prepaid card, and an emotional communication that showed

younger people.

The new campaign and the positioning was designed to highlight the relationship angle and

make the brand softer and more sensitive previously Airtel was perceived as a premium

brand ,now the new positioning is intended to add warmth to these attributes. The new

commercial developed for this campaign reflected human, aspirational, family –centric and

software brand values while promising easy reach. The campaign look’s into the needs of

the tomorrow customer. The new branding initiative takes into cognizance the findings that

consumers consider Airtel as a brand of the successful people and a preferred address. In

early 2002, Airtel changed its logo and tagline from ‘Touch Tomorrow” to “live every

moment” to give Airtel a younger look

Touch Tomorrow to LIVE EVERY MOMENT:-

Meaning behind the logo:

Airtel logo is a strong, contempory, a confident symbol of a brand that is always ahead of the rest, always ‘In-touch’ and on customer’s side.

It incorporates two solid, red rectangular forms whose counter-form creates an open doorway.

The title case lettering with its capital ‘A’ reinforces our leadership position.

The red dot cues in our focus on innovation.

The new logo symbolized innovation, energy and friendliness. The company reportedly

allocated Rs.1 billion for media coverage and other brand building activities. Airtel’s brand

identity and campaign will now have a new younger and international look and feel that

builded on the earlier positioning of “Touch Tomorrow”, injected with renewed energy and

heightened optimism. The shift to “live every moment” from touch tomorrow had

nevertheless, proved that Bharti is consistently on the lookout for best marketing strategies

for Airtel.

Positioning Of Airtel through Celebrity Endorsement

In late-2002, Bharti Cellular Ltd. (Bharti), India's largest cellular telephone company released

a television commercial (TVC), which despite using the 'oft-repeated' celebrity endorsement

route was unusual in terms of its celebrity selection. Instead of using the usual movie

stars/sports celebrities, it chose one of the country's most successful music composers, A.R

Rahman to promote its brand.

The campaign attracted considerable media attention because this was the first time Rahman

had agreed to do a television commercial and also because, Rahman had been paid Rs 10

million for the campaign, a sum usually unheard of, for celebrity endorsers in India. The

campaign received brickbats as well as bouquets in the media, both for the selection of

Rahman and the TVC's execution.

However, Bharti claimed to have scored an ace in terms of getting Rahman to compose five

exclusive symphonies downloadable as ring tones for Airtel users. The TVC was a part of the

brand repositioning and restructuring efforts for Airtel, as part of which, Bharti changed the

brand's tagline in early-2002 from 'Touch Tomorrow' to 'Live Every Moment.'

The company also decided to undertake a comprehensive brand building program for the

company and chose the slogan 'Unlimited Freedom' for the same. Commenting on these

changes, company sources said, "Airtel's brand identity and campaign will now have a new

younger and international look and feel that builds on the earlier positioning."

Bharti's massive media expenditure plans were no surprise, considering the fact that it was

the largest cellular telecom company in the country - reaching over 600 million people in 16

(out of 29) states of India. The company posted revenues of Rs 8.48 billion. The Airtel brand

(and the pre-paid card service brand, Magic) had top-of-the-mind recall amongst cellular

phone users and enjoyed a leadership position in most markets. Industry observers primarily

attributed it to Bharti's strong brand building and positioning strategies.

Television commercials and its rating:

“Live Every Moment” To “Express Yourself”:-

Airtel adopted the "express yourself" tagline in 2003, and has used it not just in

communication with customers, but also to unify all internal operations.

While the earlier campaign was on a purely emotional level, the current ad highlights the

capability of Airtel's network. But emotions are important, according to Rediffusion DY&R -

the agency that created the ad. Since service brands talk about experience, it is important for

them to establish an emotional connect with consumers.

A brand audit earlier this year laid the foundations of the new campaign. Feedback on the

brand and performance revealed that among the biggest concerns of young Indians is their

need to stay connected with their parents and other loved ones.

That's especially true of the large numbers migrating to the cities everyday in search of jobs

and better lives. Like other service operators, Airtel too is now setting its sights on tier II and

III towns, and villages, which means it needs to make its brand promise more inclusive and

appealing."The brand is now trying to reach out to all demographics,”

"Telecom as a category has changed very rapidly. When first launched, it was about

technology. Then it targeted premium consumers. Later it went mass and now it is digging

deeper. We have, therefore, launched another campaign to remain in our leadership position."

As is its wont, Airtel has kept brand ambassadors Shahrukh Khan and Kareena Kapoor out of

the new campaign. Airtel does not associate celebrities with its brand-building efforts: they

are used only for specific product promotions - the film stars weren't part of the Express

Yourself campaign, either.

Since it is reaching out to a more varied audience with the current campaign, Airtel is

ensuring the TVC is seen as often and as widely as possible. The ad film is already on air on

television channels like Doordarshan, the Star network, Sony and Zee, as well as regional

channels such as Sun and Gemini.

More than 1,000 hoardings have also been put up in metros, tier II and tier III towns, while

print ads are being planned in vernacular dailies and magazines.

The mobile telephony ad isn't the only campaign Bharti launched this season. A few weeks

ago, it kicked off its first advertising efforts for the enterprise services business. The

business-to-business communication is focused on a series of print ads, all of which show

images of smartly dressed executives engaged in non-business activities: rowing boats,

playing golf and so on.

The message: if your organization is well networked, you don't need to be present in office.

The body copy underlines that: "All 10 leading banks in India nine out of the top 10 BPOs,

over 1,000 leading corporate, one integrated solutions partner Airtel Enterprise Services."

The enterprise business's campaign will run for the next three months, informing large

business houses and other potential customers about the services this division provides.

Taglines of brand:-

Strategy:-

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

•Focus on maximizing revenues and margins;

•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

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

theCompany with a solid foundation to execute its business strategy:

•Nationwide Footprint - approximately 92% of India's total mobile subscribers resided in the

Company's fifteen mobile circles. These 15 circles collectively accounted for approximately

56% of India's land mass;

•Focus on telecommunications to enable the Company to better anticipate industry trends and

capitalize on new telecommunications-related business opportunities.

•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; and

•The Company's strong relationships with international strategic and financial investors such

as SingTel, WarburgPincus, International Finance Corporation, Asian Infrastructure Fund

Group and New York Life Insurance.

Bharti tele-communications provides and amongst the top technologies in the world. In

ranking of top 100 global technology companies, Bharti has made its maiden appearance at a

very impressive 19th position. At the 19th position, Bharti features ahead of global

companies like Microsoft, Ericsson, Motorola, Verizon, France Telecom, IBM, Intel, Cisco

and Qualcomm. It provides the largest GSM network.

A position should be easy to communicate and quick to comprehend. Difficulty in either

suggests that a position is too fuzzy to be of value to the brand. Airtel provides clarity and an

undisrupted voice or network connection everywhere.

People have few needs that are unfulfilled, and they have many choices to fill the needs they

have. If a brand’s position lacks distinctiveness it will be forced to compete on the bases of

price or promotion; expensive strategies that will not build brand equity in the long term.

Airtel is distinct in its services, clarity, network and efficiency.

Airtel needed to deploy a cohesive and coordinated approach to operating its systems. Speak

with one voice through all the elements of the marketing mix if one wishes to create strong

position. If, for example, a brand that is positioned as premium quality and price appears to

be low, its quality image will suffer. And thus meeting all such requirements is Airtel’s

primary objective.

Often people will get nervous when a strong position threatens to ignore or even alienate

some segment of the population as a price of clearly communicating to the desired target.

Once a position is adopted, it takes commitment to see it through, in the face of criticism and

pot shots. Airtel is committed to its customers and keep on looking after their tele-

communications needs

Airtel brings you a host of exciting features ranging from facilities like online tests, in touch

and Video Surveillance Solutions to trouble shooting devices like, Net Expert and Web

Jockey. Airtel’s provides the best broadband services of high speed and performance to its

consumers

It goes without saying that adopting a strong brand position requires coverage. It is much

easier to defend an appeal to everyone with a rather generic sales pitch. You must believe that

the position makes strategic sense for the brand and then stick to your guns. Airtel covers 94

cities in India.

Branding through Celebrity endorsement:-

Branding Through sponsorship:-

Airtel’s umbrella branding

An umbrella brand is an overarching brand used across multiple related products. Umbrella

branding is also known as family branding. It contrasts with individual product branding, in

which each product in a portfolio is given a unique brand name and identity.

AIRTEL Umbella Branding : Airtel GSM, Airtel -dth, Airtel-Broadband, Airtel-

telemedia

Airtel’s co branding:-

Co-branding is also called brand partnership, is when two companies form an alliance

to work together, creating marketing synergy. As described in Co-Branding: The Science

of Alliance:

Airtel Co-branding: Nokia Airtel, Siemen Airtel, Google Airtel,

Market share:-

Strategic implication:-

In today’s ere as far as communication service provider is concerned Airtel is

positioned as rank one communication service provider in the mind of the customer.

So to retain its position and maintain the gap between its competitor Airetl needs

more branding.

We think Airtel should do some CSR campaign so that people perceive it as more

valuable brand.

Some humor and emotional ads in the electronic media may attract more and more

customers.

Conclusion:-

Airtel has the most recognizable brand in the Indian operator space.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 30.7% share of the wireless services market.

Airtel is an aspirational and lifestyle branding a way that trivitalised the price in the mind

of the subscribers brand . Airtel brand position is all about creating a winning brand

position, capture the mind ,win the day. Choosing their brand words carefully “Express

Yourself”..Brand positioning workshop .In perceptual mapping, Airtel has high

connectivity and high esteem . From this we can conclude that its brand is high intention

in mind of people. Airtel has its own brand umbrella and co-branding. So in 2020 Airtel

will be one of the high connectivity global telecom service provider.