Marketing Management Assignment-01

8/3/2019 Marketing Management Assignment-01

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PRESTIGE INSTITUTE OF

MANAGEMENT AND RESEARCH

Marketing Management Assignment-01 On

PRODUCT LIFE CYCLE OF AirTel PREPAID

Submitted to: Submitted by:

Prof. Khushboo Makhwana Priya Ved

Palak Ramchandani

Sarthak Oswal


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INTRODUCTION

STAGE


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Brand building exercise associated

with airtel a brand that had to be repositioned recently to

address new needs in the market

When the brand was launched, cellular telephony

wasnt a mass market by any means.

For the average consumer, owning a cellular

phone was expensive as tariff rates (at Rs 8 a

minute) as well as instrument prices were steep sometimes as much as buying a second-hand

car.


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Sachdev says that, the value from using the

phone at the time was not commensurate with

the cost.

Instead of the value-proposition model, we

decided to address the sensory benefit it gaveto the customer as the main selling tack. The idea

was to become a badge value brand, he explains.


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So the AirTel leadership series campaign was launchedin 1995 with the tagline- POWER TO KEEP IN TOUCH

showing successful men with their laptops and in theirdeluxe cars using the mobile phone. In simple terms, itmeant Airtel was positioned as an aspirational brand thatwas meant for leaders, for customers who stood out in acrowd.

Did it work? Repeated surveys following the launchshowed that there were three core benefits that wereclearly associated with the brand leadership,dynamism and performance.

These were valuable qualities, airtel was perceived as a

PREMIUM BRAND but they only took AirTel far enough toestablish its presence in the market.

The company invested 1 billion for media coverage andother brand building activities.


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Instead of choosing for an actor or a sportsceleb, AirTel decided over establishing the

brand with A.R. Rehman as its brand

ambassador.

This being his 1st ever add commercial, he

signed the contract with 10 million of Indian

currency.


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POWER TO KEEP IN TOUCH


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GROWTH


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As tariffs started dropping, it became necessary for AirTel toappeal to a wider audience. And the various brand-trackingexercises showed that despite all these good things, there

was no emotional dimension to the brand it wasperceived as cold, distant and efficient.

Sachdev and his team realized that in a business in whichcustomer relationships were the core this could be a majorweakness. The reason? With tariffs identical to competitor

Reliance Infocomm and roughly the same level of serviceand schemes, it had now become important for Bharti tohumanize AirTel and use that relationship as amajor differentiation.

The brand had become something like Lufthansa cold and efficient.

What they needed was to become Singapore Airlines,efficient but also human. A change in tack was importantbecause this was a time when the cellular market waschanging.


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The leadership series was okay when you werewooing the crme de la crme of society. Onceyou reached them you had to expand the market

so there was need to address to new customers. By that time, Bharti was already the leading

cellular subscriber in Delhi with a base of 3.77lakh (it now has 1.2 million

customers).And with tariffs becoming moreaffordable as cell companies started cuttingprices it was time to expand the market.


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Surveys showed that the concept of leadership in thecustomers minds were also changing. Leadership did not

mean directing subordinates to execute orders but to work alongwith a team to achieve common objectives it was, again, arelationship game that needed to be reflected in the AirTel brand.

Also, a survey showed that 50 per cent of the newcustomers choose a mobile phone brand mostly through word-of-mouth endorsements from friends, family or colleagues.

word-of-mouth endorsements from friends, family or colleagues. Thus, existing customers were an important tool for market

expansion and Bharti now focused on building closer relationshipswith them.

How could Bharti leverage this

leadership position down the value

chain?


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That is precisely what the brand tried to achievethrough its new positioning under the AirTel

Touch Tomorrow brand campaign in 2000. This set of campaigns portrayed mobile users

surrounded by caring family members.

Says Sachdev: The new campaign and

positioning was designed to highlight therelationship angle and make the brand softer andmore sensitive.

The new commercial developed for this campaignreflected human aspirational, family-centric andpromising easy reach.


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MATURITY


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As it looked to expand its cellular servicesnationwide to eight new circles apart from the

seven in which it already operated Bharti wasnow realizing that there were new compulsionsto rework the AirTel brand.

broadly, the focus was on positioning AirTel as a

power brand with numerous regional sub-brandsreflecting customer needs in various parts of thecountry.

If AirTel was becoming more humane and more

sensitive as a brand, Bharti had also understoodthat one common brand for all cellular operationsmight not always work in urban markets thatwere then getting increasingly saturated.


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To bring in new customers, the company decided

that it needed to segment the market.

One such experiment was Youtopia, a brandaimed at the youth in the 14 to 19 age bracket

and for those who are young at heart. With its

earlier positioning, AirTel was perceived as a

brand for the well-heeled older customer;

there was nothing for younger people. With

Youtopia, AirTel hoped to reverse that.

In order to deliver the concept, AirTel offeredrock bottom tariff rates(25 paise for 30 seconds)

at night to Youtopia customers a time

when they make the maximum number of calls.


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It also set up merchandising exercises around thescheme- like special portal for young people tobuy things or bid for goods.

constantly innovating to enhance the valueproposition for its prepaid service.

They were leveraging technology to expand theirdistribution network and deliver round-the-clockrecharge options to its MOTS (Mobile On theSpot) subscribers.


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Changing tagline..

In 2002, Airtel changed its tagline and logo againfrom Touch Tomorrow to Live Every Momentto give airtel a younger and international look.

It also symbolised innovation, energy andfriendliness.

It chose the slogan- unlimited freedom for theyouth world-wide.


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The Magic

Perhaps the more ambitious experiment hasbeen with Magic the pre-paid card. Theidea was to make the brand affordable,

accessible and, most importantly, feasible as ameans of expanding the market even faster.

Magic was aimed at bringing in infrequentusers of a mobile phone into the market andassure him that he would have to pay only ifhe made a call.


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To achieve its objectives Bharti did

three things...

ONE, the product was made available at pricesranging from Rs 300 to Rs 3,000 with no stringsattached and was simple to operate.

TWO, the product was made accessible anddistributed through small stores, telephonebooths and even kirana shops so that the offeringwas well within arms reach.

THIRD, to make the product more approachableto the customer, the company came withvernacular ad campaigns like Magic Daalo SayHello which appealed to local sensibilities.


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Also, the company roped in Kareena Kapoor

and Shah Rukh Khan for a major ad campaign

all across Delhi, a ruse that saw the

number of subscribers go up from 5.47 lakh to

12 lakh today, overtaking Essars branded pre-

paid card Speed , which was launched much

ahead of Magic.


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Express yourself- 2003

Later in 2003, AirTel again decided upon creatingan improved position in the minds of its valuecustomers.

'Express yourself' was successfully launchedtaking the ownership of the entire space ofcommunication and strengthening the emotionalbond Airtel enjoyed with its customers.

They wanted a very fresh and contemporary ideato build a brand image which their customerscould easily identify.


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AirTel... EXPRESS YOURSELF


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Bharti, for the first time for a cellular operator,

has decided roaming services even to its pre-paid

customers, but the facility would be limited to

the region in which they buy the card.

To ensure that customers dont migrate to other

competing services (which is known as churn andranges from 10 to 15 per cent of the customer

base every month), the company is also working

on a loyalty program..


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The loyalty program will not be only for a badge

value, it will provide real benefits to customers.The idea is to create an Airtel community.

Bharti is in the process of launching a new system

in alliance with Mumbai-

based company Venture Infotech which willenable a pre-paid card user to renew his

subscription by just swiping a card. The system

will not only save users the hassle of going out

and buying a card every time it expires but also

enable mobile companies to reduce the cost of

printing and distributing cards.


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Other brand building initiatives

The main idea is to stay ahead of competition for at least 6months. Working on the above game plan Bharti is constantly coming up with newer product offerings forthe customers. The focus, of course, is to offer better

quality of service. To make the service simpler for customers using roaming

facilities, Airtelhas devised common numbers for subscribersacross the country for services like customer care, foodservices and cinema amongst others.

To assist customer care personnel to deal with subscriberqueries, a storehouse of 40,000 frequently asked questionsand their answers have been stored on the computers.


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Has tied up with 'Waiter on wheels,' a companydelivering food at home, to reach its Magic pre-paid cards to subscribers' doorsteps. Thecompany is also joininghands with local grocery shops which will enableusers to recharge their cards by just making aphone call to the shop.

Apart from improving the convenience of

recharging, mobileoperators are beefing up their distribution channels.


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BHARTIS VIEW ON ITS BRANDING

STATERGY

First, brand building efforts in todays context have to beseen inamore holistic manner. Delivering value on a sustained basis is perhaps the most potent key to build a brand thatlasts.

Unflinching orientation to customer needs is the secondkey success factor. Customers (be it for industrial productsor consumer goods and services) across the world are

more informed and, at the same time, becoming moreindividualistic in their needs and far more demanding withthe passage of time.


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Proactive tracking of shifts in consumer behaviour,

anticipating redefined or emerging customer

needs, and then reacting in real-time are

essential to attract and retain customer loyalty

a key element of creating brand equity in the

present situation. Customizing the product (and communication of

its benefit) to meet the specific needs of various

consumer/customer sub-segments is the thirdelement in creating brand appreciation.


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As far as allocation of time and financialresources are concerned, too many companies

mistakenly allocate a disproportionate amounton mere advertising and promotion. This is not tosay that advertising and promotion are lessrelevant.

On the contrary, with more choices and highermedia clutter, businesses need to budget for anincreasingly higher spend on their brandpromotion but thishas to be undertaken in tandem with enterprise-

widereengineering of the business philosophy and core design, production, and deliveryoperations for the product itself.


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The positive spin to this argument is that by

first addressing the fundamentals, theenterprise itself becomes more competitive.

can be the beginning of a virtuous cycle where

in brand equitycontinues to increase as the enterprise sustain

s delivery of an appropriate product or service

at an ever increasing value.


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It is, however, crucial to note that in the years

to come, not only will the cost of building a

regional or a national (or an

international)brand will continue to rise but

also the time taken to do so will be longer and

will need sustained and focused efforts.

Marketing Management Assignment-01

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