Tata Indicom Brand Management

8/13/2019 Tata Indicom Brand Management

1/6

Chirag Bansal-2012101

Section-B2C

HISTORY

Tata Teleservices Limited (TTSL) is an Indian broadband and telecommunications service

provider based in Mumbai. It a subsidiary of the Tata Group, which operates under the brand

name Tata Docomo in various Telecom circles of India. The company is also the market leader

in the fixed wireless telephony market. The company's network has been rated as the ' Least

Congested' in India for five consecutive quarters by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India

through independent surveys. They entered the 'prepaid' segment by launching, under the Tata

Indicom brand, its '100 % Sachai True Paid' offered across all its circles. Tata Indicom also

offered a collection of 1,000 mobile games, the latest handsets, and new voice and data services

such as BREW games, picture messaging, polyphonic ring tones, and interactive applications.

SWOT Analysis

Strengths

Flexible Plans Good Advertising Celebrity Brand Ambassadors

Weakness

Price competitions Untapped Rural Market

Opportunity

Latest and low cost technology Value Added Services Fast expanding cellular Market

Threats

Competitors offering lowprices


2/6


Section-B2C

CHANGES IN THE BRAND PERSONALITY, CORE VALUE, AND

VALUE PREPOSITION

Brand Tata Indicom starts with having the brand name Tata attached to it and being inspired by

the legacy. The core value of Tata that have been brought in is the sense of honesty, transparency

and trust. This market is riddled with Conditions Apply and schemes that are taking consumers

for a ride. So when they launched this service, they imbued upon a sense of what you see is

what you get.The second beingwhen you say you belong to the Tata Group, you are there to

improve quality of life.

Firstly they wanted someone who could express the core values of the brand, but later on,

they needed someone to act out, as the story had to be narrated in consumer language; and they

decided on Ajay & Kajol. Hence the commercial, Insaan phone leta hai baat karne ke

liye!

Tata Indicom Positioning its network capability as a unique differentiator, brand

confident of a faster rollout of next generation services as India moves to adopt the new 3G

technology.

The core values on which Tata Indicom thrives are:-

crystal clear voice quality minimal call drops low electromagnetic radiationThey want that their customers will be able to experience the advantages of being on Tata

Indicoms network, the change in its brand positioning by unveiling a full-fledged new brand

campaign with an aggressive tagline Switch to Tata Indicom And Experience the Difference.

And in late 2008 till now they change themselves from Experience the Difference to Suno Dil

Ki Awaazwhich is focused on Emerging India and empowering people to listen to their hearts

and follow it. This change spins around the emotional quotient is perfectly crafted to ensure that

people believe in the brandTata Indicom. The new positioning clearly brings out the message

that on the service aspect it gives you more clear reception and sound quality while the emotional

benefit is that it encourages you to listen to your inner voice.


3/6


Section-B2C

CHANGES IN THE BRAND PRODUCT PORTFOLIO

According to Abdul Khan, President, Marketing, Tata Teleservices, There was a growing

market there to reach out to, and every minute, a new generation mobile user walks in. Theywent back to people, and they realized that customer aspirations have catapulted they were in

constant search for new, better and latest services. They were very clearcustomers dont love

Indicom if they dont offer customers what they want! They will churn and go away, so they

have to literally keep running to stay in the same place.

From this inception, the brand has chosen to speak mass market. Indicom adopted the

mass market route to target the first user. But today, interestingly, more than 30-40 per cent users

are GSM add-ons, which is a huge paradigm shift. Looking at this, Tata moved on from being

simply a mass market brand to being an aspirational brand, yet not abandoning the mass market

approach completely.

First pillar of strategy, they have to go on from being positioned as a Cheap Brand.

There is nothing wrong in being low-priced, but if they also offer something more apart from

that.

Innovation is the second pillar of the companys strategy. Driving towards

innovations, the company plans to leverage its product mobile Internet to connect with a

significant target group, the youth.

With the objective of showing off its VAS (value added service) offerings, Tata Indicom

has conceptualized and executed an AFP (advertisers funded Programme), Fun on the Run,

which airs on Zee TV and, as a branded reality show, showcases TV celebrities utilizing the

services of the brand.

The third pillar is the objective of driving Numbers by addressing the popular segment,

which the company plans to do by offering exciting products, services and packages. Television

accounts for the maximum share of the brands advertising pie.


4/6


Section-B2C

CHANGES IN THE BRAND CONSUMER PERCEPTION

Tata Indicom was one of the first telecom operators to offer CDMA mobile services in India.

Launched in 1996, the brand is the youngest of the lot. Infact it was one the first brands to beanalyzed in this blog. The launch of India's first prepaid plan with free incoming calls was

followed by poor campaign promoting the brand.

Indicom has come a long way since my first post on it. Now it s one of the major players

in the CDMA space with a market share of around 9.1 % in the highly competitive telecom

market.

Tata Indicom has been positioned earlier using the Do more live moreplatform. The

brand has been investing heavily on this platform with high decibel advertising featuring

Bollywood stars - Kajol and Ajay Devgan.

Most of the initial campaigns were of bad taste with unnecessary dramatics and

substandard humor. Later the brand mellowed down to a Let me tell you the benefits

approach with Kajol acting as the brand expert.

The new campaigns of Tata Indicom now talk about "Listening to your heart". The new

campaign shows a small town girl making it big in athletics. The initial impression about the ad

is positive. Its a well-made ad and its nice to watch. But when the ad waswatched for the first

time, a feeling had been somewhere before, the concept of Rags to Riches is has been one of the

most used positioning platforms worldwide. So, no big idea again from the Tata Indicom.

Branding has become an important element in telecom marketing in India. Now we are

seeing a standardization of tariffs. Marketers are now trying to retain the customers through

emotional connection with the brand. Another big advertising campaign which went very much

wrong was the Tata Indicoms Ulta Plan. The rates were made like Local Calls (50 Paise/Sec) &

STD (30 Paise/Sec). The Ad was made to grab the peoples attraction very OPENLY and

quickly. Its just like surprising the audience saying something Out of the Box or saying

something which makes the audience to get a feel like No -Sense, How can STD rates go down

than Local etc. The Ads theme dates back to Hand Rickshaws Era and suddenly talks about

the Mobiles local and STD calls which again sounds weird.


5/6


Section-B2C

WINING BRAND STRATEGIES

Tata was a late entrant in mobile service telephony, it was very difficult for them to penetrate

into already cluttered market and make the already mobile using customers buy their services.Genesis was the advertising agency given the task to increase the worth in Goa.

A strategy was planned to increase the number of connections and for that a right place was

required with a sizable and mobile desirable population.

As the initial study showed that GOA has over 50% of floating population, mostly foreigners

spending their long vacations and also require some mode of communication

In the initial stage entire Goa was colored with Tata Indicom, right from airport, bus stands, huge

displays on beaches and hoardings at the prime locations.

This gave a powerful start to Tata Indicom as Goa looked the place fully dominated by Tata

Indicom. There was huge demand for Tatas new connection and the people who went out of

Goa took along with them the strong image and impeccable service of TATA Indicom.

A full-fledged new brand campaign with an aggressive tagline Switch to Tata Indicom And

Experience the Differencegave it a successful opening towards the market share.

And in late 2008 till now they change themselves from Experience the Difference to Suno Dil

Ki Awaaz which is focused on Emerging India and empowering people to listen to their hearts

and follow it. This change spins around the emotional quotient is perfectly crafted to ensure that

people believe in the brandTata Indicom.


6/6


Section-B2C

FAILURE BRAND STRATEGIES

Tata Indicom Ulta Plan

Mehangai (Inflation) we can find Price Raise everywhere the Reason why we are discussing onprice raise (Mehangai) here on Telecom Talk is due to a Commercial released by Tata Indicom

promoting on its newestplan called ULTA Plan.

Tata Indicom has tried to teach its customers with a unique rather Crazy own way by

introducing first of its kind, ULTA plan where the STD call Rates are Cheaper 30p/min than

Local Call Rates 50p/min.

FUTURE OF THE COMPANY

Tata Indicoms CDMA and GSM platforms after October 2011 were with the unified

brand Tata Docomo. TTL said it is planning significant investments to upgrade its CDMA

network to deepen and widen its existing footprint.

Tata Indicom is dead. The CDMA brand from Tata Teleservices got integrated

(migrated/replaced/exorcised) to Tata Docomo. According to various news reports October 2011,

the Indicom brand will be killed and the entire mobile telephony and related services will be

brought under the Tata Docomo brand.

By bringing the entire services under a common brand, Tata Teleservices will be able to

reduce the marketing costs and avoid brand confusion. But a dead brand is a dead brand. For me

every dead brand is a failed brand. Tata Indicom as a brand was not able to create any strong

image in the consumer mind space.

Source: Hindu Times, October 19 th, 2011

Rebranding

On 20 October 2011, Tata DoCoMo brought its brands - CDMA, GSM, Walky (Fixed Wireless

Phone), Photon, INTERNET - under the Tata Docomo name. All subscribers to these services

were migrated to the Docomo brand on 20 October 2011. The companys other brands - Virgin

Mobile and T24 - are not part of the rebranding and will retain their names.

Documents

Tata Indicom Brand Management