Turning of Warid into Airtel | BackBenchers Thesis On Brand Management Submitted to : Mr. Rafiuddin Ahmed Assistant Professor Department of Marketing Faculty of Business Studies University of Dhaka Submitted By : BackBenchers 4th Year 1st Semester Section: A Department of Marketing Faculty of Business Studies University of Dhaka Date of Submission 16th April 2011 Group Profile Group Leader ID Taufique Haque Ashique 113 Members ID Mohammad Rashed Bin Enam 001 Md. Fazle Rabbi Khadem 093 Seamat Sultana 137 Md. Moshiur Rahaman Rony 171 Faisal Bin Haque 175 S.M Mehedi Hasan 177 Turning of Warid into Airtel Bangladesh: Customer impact Study 1: Mukto, a 4th year student of Dhaka University, says I am using warid from the inception of warid telecom in Bangladesh. When Airtel purchased the 70% stake and changed the name from Warid to Airtel, it was a bit weird. Till now, I use Warid whenever I have to refill my balance or purchase cards. Airtel triggers nothing in my head. Study 2 Enamul Haque, a government employee, says All of the carriers in Bangladesh are operated by renowned foreign mobile service provider companies except TeleTalk. So it was the same when Warid was Warid. Personally I hate Indian goods, I dont know why. When the name changed to Airtel, I stopped using the product. Study 3 Mehedi, an executive of a private service firm, says As you know, Airtel is a pioneer of mobile telephony in South- Asia. May be one of the most pronounced words in South- Asia. My reaction was OK! Since childhood, we are bombarded by the Airtel word, thanks to the Indian channels! Intro Airtel Bangladesh is the sixth mobile phone carrier to enter the Bangladeshi market, and launched commercial operations on May 10, 2007. Warid Telecom International LLC sold a majority 70% stake in the company to Indias Bharti Airtel Limited for US$ 300 million. Airtel rebranded all of Warids products from December 20, 2010. Bharti Airtel is making a fresh investment of US$300 million to rapidly expand the operations of Warid Telecom and have management and board control of the company. Customer Impact Rebranding requires a great deal of effort and commitment towards the existing customers. Warid entered the market in 2005 and was well branded, thanks to some rumors early in 2005. Since then Warid Telecom tried to capture the market, especially the niche market of youths. On the other hand, djuice was and still the leader in case of capturing the youth market. But it was warid who really started the price war among the phone carriers. What Warid was short of is the network. Thats why people from remote areas never heard of Warid Telecom and its services. On the other hand, Airtel incepted in 1995 in India. When Airtel purchased the majority stake and rebranded it was a mixed impact among the people, precisely the customers. Was the reaction Good? Certainly, Airtel passed the hurdle of rebranding. I heard some people exclaimed My God, Airtel!. The sentence says it all. We can call it a successful transition. Mostly the reaction was good. Here are the reasons: 1. Airtel is in the telephony market for over 15 years. People in Bangladesh love to watch hindi serials, I wonder why they watch such filthy materials. Remembering that, in clutter youll find at least one Airtel advertisement. People are used to it. So when rebranded there were no negative impact among people in Bangladesh. 2. Recently Airtel introduced 3G in India. Some was hopeful that Airtel is going to introduce it in Bangladesh market. 3. Usually Airtel provides flat rates on calls in India. Remembering this in mind, some welcomed the transition from warid to Airtel. Whatever the reasons are, Airtel was welcomed warm heartedly because of the fact that Airtel has already a huge customer base. It rare that a person never heard of Airtel in his/ her life. This was one the strong points of Airtel to gamble in the super- high competitive mobile market. Negative Reaction ` ' ' 4 ' i ' 4' ^ " ^' 4 4