Airtel – 7Ps of Marketing

 

“Sab Kuch Try Karo, Fir Sahi Chuno” that means “Try all, then select the best”

This tagline is given by Taproot Dentsu which is the Mumbai based ad Company which makes ad for Airtel.

Airtel is a name that connects millions of people in India to the millions of people in the whole world. This telecom giant today is amongst the most trusted telecommunication brands in the world.

Bharti Airtel Limited, called Airtel, is also Associate in Nursing Indian international telecommunications services company based mostly in Delhi, India. It operates in eighteen countries across South Asia and Africa, and additionally within the Channel Islands. Airtel provides GSM, 3G, 4G LTE, 4G+ mobile services, fixed line broadband and voice services depending upon the country of operation. Airtel had additionally extended its VoLTE technology across all Indian telecommunication circles

It is the third largest mobile network operator in Asian country and also the second largest mobile network operator within the world with over 293.79 million subscribers.

HISTORY

Since 1986, Airtel has its root in Bharti Telecom limited from the humble beginnings in the Indian telecom industry. The company is founded by “Sunil Bharti Mittal” in 1986 and was first in India to provide push button telephones where and when others in the country was still using those rotary phones.

They had partnership with Siemens AG of Germany and they started making push-buttons landlines in India rather than importing from Taiwan as it was happening previously.

The company then went to launch various telecom technologies in the Indian market and had innovation in its heart. With the help of various acquisitions and partnerships, the company’s services was extended to other states too.

1992 - Going on to acquire license to build a cellular network in Delhi, Bharti    Telecom Limited laid the ground work for the mobile operations of the company

1995 - It began operations in Delhi as Bharti Tele-Ventures

1999 - Bharti Enterprises acquired control of JT Holdings, and extended cellular    operations to Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh

2000 - Skycell Communications’ control was acquired by Bharti in Chennai

2001 - Spice Cell’s control was acquired by Bharti in Calcutta

2002 - Bharti Enterprises went public and therefore the company was listed on Bombay Stock Exchange and National Stock Exchange of India.

2003 - The cell phone operations were re-branded beneath Airtel.

2004 - Hexacom’s control was acquired by Bharti in Rajasthan-“Hello Tunes” launched by Airtel in July 2004 became the first operator in the country to do so and the theme of Airtel from A.R. Rahman became the popular tune in that year

2005 -By extending its network to Andaman and Nicobar, Bharti successfully spreader its voices services all over the country.

2008 - It emerged that Airtel was exploring the chance of buying the MTN Group, a south continent-based telecommunications company with coverage in twenty one countries in Africa

2009 - Airtel launched its 1st international mobile network in Sri Lanka

2010 - Acquisition of the African business of Zain Telecom for 10.7 billion was the largest acquisition of any Indian telecom firm till that time.

2012 - Bharti affianced with Wal-Mart to begin variety of retail stores across the country

2014 - Bharti planned to obtain Loop Mobile for 7 billion (US$100 million), however the deal was known as off later

On eighteen Nov 2010, Airtel re-branded itself as a worldwide re-branding strategy with a brand new logo with “A” in lower-case letter in “Airtel” as “airtel”

Airtel Old LOGO

TO

Airtel New LOGO

Taglines Used till now:

“Express Yourself”

“The Smartphone Network”

“India’s First 4G Network”

MARKETING MIX STRATEGY

In 2004, Airtel collaborated with world famous music composer A R Rahman brought about their theme song which was an instant hit among subscribers.

The tune went on to create a novel place in Airtel’s history. Airtel rebranded itself in 2010 with a brand new emblem and a brand new theme song to establish world identity.

PRODUCT

The product strategy and mix in Airtel marketing strategy are as follows:

Company offers numerous merchandise like 2G, 3G and 4G wireless services, High Speed net, fixed line telephony and DTH services. In a very span of nineteen years, Airtel went from providing mobile telephone services in one town to increasing its operations in over twenty countries.

Being fourth largest mobile operator within the world with a subscriber base of over 250 million, the story of Airtel’s success can forever inspire those who dare to dream.

• Airtel Pre-paid

• Airtel Post-paid

• Blackberry Wireless Handheld

• Value Added Services (VAS)

• The different Value Added Services of Airtel are as follows:

1. Instant Balance Enquiry

2. 24Hr Recharge Facility

3. Caller line identification

4. Call divert, Call wait and Call Hold

5. Multimedia message services(MMS)

6. Airtel Live Portal

7. SMS based Information Service

8. Hello Tunes and Ringtones

9. Voice Mail Service

10. Easy post-paid bill collection

11. Gifting of Ringtones and Hello tunes

12. GPRS

• Business Solutions

PRICE

• Customer Based Pricing Strategy

Airtel follows competitive customer based pricing strategy because of the huge competition in telecom section in India from Vodafone, Reliance JIO etc.Inspite of TRAI the most important aspect in the pricing strategy in the marketing mix of Airtel is based on competitive pricing strategy.

• Flexible Pricing Mechanism

Flexibility of customer to choose and customize their own plan and pay accordingly is the main priority of Airtel. To boost revenue Airtel provide them with combo offers which is their strategy of pricing. In broadband also Airtel have a huge customer base which helps them to provide the service in low cost.

• Controlled by TRAI

PLACE

• It has wide and in depth presence even within the remotest space. Airtel possesses a large distribution network that spans across twenty countries. Airtel uses retail stores, convenient stores, margin stalls etc. to create its service offered to customers. 

•Airtel Customer Care Touch Points

Airtel provides 24 hours customer care service which can be reached through online or telephone to resolve any issues of the customers. 

• Distributors like Paan retailers, groceries etc.

Airtel makes its service offered through businesses like paan retailers, chemist’s retailers, groceries retailers etc.

PROMOTION

•Large scale print and video advertising 

Airtel organizes strong promotional campaigns for its services utilizing all media channels from TV, print, events, social media etc. thus the promotion strategy in the marketing mix of Airtel is very comprehensive i.e. they are doing a 360 branding. 

• Big celebrities like SRK and Sachin are endorsing the product. 

Airtel has used all the large celebrities to endorse their services like Shahrukh Khan, AR Rahman, Sachin Tendulkar, Vidya Balan etc. 

• In 2002 Airtel got its melodic phrase from A R Rahman, this melodic phrase is the most downloaded tune in India. 

Airtel has additionally organized some promoting campaigns to focus on youth audience and build its brand like ‘Har Ek friend Zaroori hota he’ and ‘Jo Tera Hain Wo Mera Hain’. 

• Provides innovations like Bollywood show premiers,music services like ring back tones and lots of additional things too.

PEOPLE

Total employees in Airtel – 19,138(as of now)

Airtel focuses on ‘Win with people’ approach for its effective business strategy

Dedicated and passionate workplace

Airtel invested 168 million to nurture talent within its organisation and build high performance culture

One of the best customer supports.

Have won second best employer award in 2004.

PROCESS

• Process for services is very easy and customer can avail it very easily

Airtel method focuses on providing a reliable and responsive service to its customers. To get new connection the customers will directly visit any Airtel’s service centres or contact the customer care to activate/deactivate a plan

• 121 is the customer support number which can be dialled from anywhere in India.

Airtel’s customer can get their queries resolved 24*7 by contacting the customer care from anyplace across the country

PHYSICAL EVIDENCE/ENVIRONMENT

Airtel retail outlet and relationship centers are a service point to its customers. The Company-Owned-Company-Operated Airtel stores attempt to serve its customers within the very best approach by providing a 1 stop answer for all customer needs like instant association, electronic device and broadband association etc. These stores offer a superior customer experience with glorious look and feel of all the retailers and convenient location inside any town.