Airtel – Positioning

and

(Repositioning)

BACKGROUND NOTE

• Sunil Bharti Mittal (S.B. Mittal) laid the foundations of the New Delhi based Bharti Group in the 1970s with a small bicycle-parts business.

• In 1985, he entered the telecom business by establishing Bharti Telecom Limited (BTL) that manufactured telephonic equipment.

• In the same year, BTL entered into technical collaboration with Siemens AG(Germany) for manufacturing electronic push button telephones.

• BTL also signed an agreement with Takacom Corporation (Japan) for manufacturing telephone answering machines.

• Over the years, BTL tied up with leading telephone equipment manufacturers from countries such as South Korea and US.

• The group entered the telecommunication (telecom) industry during the early-1990s.

• Bharti Tele-Ventures, a part of Bharti group, offered various telecom services such as fixed line, cellular, V-SAT and Internet services.

• The operations of Bharti Tele-Ventures were run by four wholly owned subsidiaries. These were:o Bharti Cellular Ltd. (Cellular),o Bharti Telenet Ltd. (Access),o Bharti Telesonic Ltd. (Long Distance) ando Bharti Broadband Networks Ltd. (Broadband

Solutions).

• The flagship services of the Bharti group included Airtel (cellular), Mantra (Internet Services) and Beetel (telephone instruments).

• In 1992, Bharti entered the cellular market by launching services in Delhi. Over the next few years, it also entered other telecom circles.

• In the early 2000s, Bharti invested heavily in the acquisitions and alliances to expand its cellular market in India. As a part of this, Bharti acquired JT Mobile (Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka), SkyCell(Chennai) and Spice Cell (Kolkata).

• It even announced plans to acquire Usha Martin, the leading cellular service in Kolkata.

• It also entered into collaborative agreements with BPL to gain seamless access in Mumbai, Maharashtra, Chennai, Delhi, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka.

• Bharti launched Airtel as a post paid cellular service in Delhi in November 1995. Over the next few years, the company redefined the way cellular services were being marketed in the country.

Positioning As a Concept

Positioning is a concept in marketing which was first introduced by Jack Trout ( "Industrial Marketing“ Magazine- June/1969) and then popularized by Al Ries and Jack Trout in their bestseller book "Positioning - The Battle for Your Mind." (McGraw-Hill 1981)

Positioning is also defined as the way by which the marketers create an impression in the customers mind.

Positioning - Airtel

The tariff rates charged by the government were quite high. Cellular players has little choice but to impose high call charges on their customers. Airtime rates were as high as Rs 16 per minute as against Rs 1.20 for landline communication.

Thus, all players targeted the premium sector, which could afford the rates. Airtel was also positioned in the premium category, aimed at the elite class of the society.

And then Airtel Positioned itself as, AIRTEL- touch tomorrow

Positioning - Airtel

• ”Leadership series” campaign

• Positioned in premium category aimed at elite class of society.

• Perception of inspirational and lifestyle brand.

• Airtel decided that the brand should always connote leadership - be it in network, innovations, offerings or services

Jack Trout and Al Ries published their classic bestseller, Positioning: The Battle for Your Mind—a book that revolutionized the world of marketing. But times have changed. Competition is fiercer. Consumers are savvier. Communications are faster. And once-successful companies are in crisis mode.

Repositioning shows you how to adapt, compete—and succeed—in today’s overcrowded marketplace. Global marketing expert Jack Trout has retooled his most effective positioning strategies—providing a must-have arsenal of proven marketing techniques specifically redesigned for our current climate. With Repositioning, you can conquer the “3 Cs” of business: Competition, Change, and Crisis . . .

BEAT THE COMPETITION: Challenge your rivals, differentiate your product, increase your value, and stand out in the crowd.

CHANGE WITH THE TIMES: Use the latest technologies, communications, and multimedia resources to connect with your consumers.

MANAGE A CRISIS: Cope with everything from profi t losses and rising costs to bad press and PR nightmares.

Repositioning As a Concept

Need for Repositioning in 2002

• India being one of the fast developing nations it was being seen as a high potential market.

• International and domestic players entered the segment, which increased the competition.

Due to these changes, Bharti realized the need for Repositioning Airtel to increase its market share.

• Rather than focusing on the value (delivered by the services), the company chose to address the visual benefits delivered to the customers.

• In the words of Hemant Sachdev, Director (Marketing), Bharti Group, “Instead of the value-proposition model, we decided to address the sensory benefit it gave to the customer as the main selling tack. The idea was to become a badge value brand.”

• As prices of call per rate was reduced competition was increased Bharti Airtel had to change their strategy and segment the market again

• Then there was series strategies which Airtel needed to undergo, for making themselves visible in market…

• First they needed to make a proper image so they came out with Airtel- Express Yourself campaign.

• Bharti's decision to withdraw this campaign (Touch Tomorrow) in 2002 came as a surprise to many which changed logo as well.

• Tagline- “Express Yourself.”

• Changed its logo to give more energetic and younger look.

• Advertisements in regional languages with emotional touch.

• Advertisements were made to highlight the capability of Airtel's network coverage.

Repositioning of airtel

• It gave them a Brand image in Telecom Sector.

• It appealed consumers, in every possible way they segmented. Here they not only segmented the premium class customers, but upper middle class lower middle class.

• And majorly targeted college going students, which it referred as YOUTOPIA .

• Different plans and schemes were offered.

• Also Airtel sold sim cards for ‘’free of cost’’ outside colleges, which attracted and gained a greater customer base.

After 4 moths of Launching ‘Youtopia’, Airtel increased its customer base to 130% close to 2.5 lakhs subscriber in Chennai.

And then there were series of Campaigns and increasing subscribers in the Airtel family.

Special 5 plan

(to compete with Vodafone)

Faces of Airtel

Legendary A.R Rahman

Airtel shifts from being a 'technology' brand to a 'communication' brand - as the category witnesses high growth and is set to expand beyond voice and text. AR Rahman creates the signature tune. Rediffusion YR is the creative agency.

A.R Rahman was the first Music Director to become the Brand Ambassador of any telecom services in India. And it created a great impact in the mind of customers.

Repositioning - AIRTEL Once Again

Repositioning - AIRTEL Once Again

• As part of its restructuring and repositioning exercise, Bharti unveiled a new brand architecture.

• When Airtel launched its new logo in 2010, there was no street, no traffic junction, no major hording left untouched by the striking red and white combination of its unique new design. 

• Major upgrade by Airtel to its visual brand representation was precisely a desire to stay relevant (in the consumers' minds) in a changed world.

• Logo becomes the visual depiction of the entire company.

• The new positioning strategy was to appeal generation now, as it was introducing new services of 3g, video calling, video downloading, Airtel money and so on.

Plans introduced after new logo

Airtel money is just like a bank account on fingertips, it pays your electricity bill, phone bill, gas bill, credit card bill, movies, transfers, NEFTs, so on.It also helps you earn interest.

Airtel money has partnered with-

Axis bank for banking related help.Book My ShowIRCTC for railway Airfare bookingDTH recharges of Dish tv, Sun tv, Videocon, Tata Sky, etc.Telecom PaymentsPvr Cinemas.Online shopping (HS18, myntra, ebay, etc)All Dongal paymentsMake my trip, Cox&kings, Incredible India, etc

HAR EK FRIEND JAROORI HAI YAAR,

AUR JO MERA HAI VO TERA HAI

Airtel has been very creative which is visual in their advertisements

Established & Position-•Bharti Airtel Limited operates in 20 countries across Asia and Africa. It ranks amongst the top 4 mobile service providers globally in terms of subscribers.

•Bharti Airtel had over 269 million customers across its operations at the end of March 2013.

•Second in India for Corporate plans.

•Considered a trusted brand.

•A brand which always delivers innovations to market.

CONCLUSION

Thank

you

PRESENTED BY :

JUGAL THAKKARAKSHAY SHETTYRAJATH SHETTYSUMIT SRIVASTAVAUJWAL SUVARNA