Airtel:Current Branding Strategy
Current Products
New Products
Current Markets
Market Penetration Strategy
Product Development Strategy
New Markets
Market Development Strategy
Diversification Strategy
Airtel :Product Portfolio 1.Mobile Network i)Internet on 3G ii)Mobile Number Portability 2.Broadband i)Airtel Live ii)Broadband TV iii)PC Secure iv)3G USB Stick
3.Digital TV i)Airtel Movies ii)IPTV iii)HD TV 4.Fixed Line
Airtel :Current Markets The Indian Subcontinent: Airtel Bangla, in Bangladesh Airtel, in India Airtel Sri Lanka, in Sri Lanka Airtel Africa, which operates in 16 African countries
Aakers brand equity Ten
Loyalty Measures 1.
Price premium: Airtel has a very loyal following who are ready to pay price premium
2.
Customer satisfaction or loyalty: Airtel leads the industry in the satisfaction level of customers.
Perceived Quality or Leadership Measures 3.
Perceived quality:The perceived quality is high,since it provides uninterrupted and quality network
4.
Leadership or popularity:Airtel enjoys a high popularity which is visible with the high subscriber base of 20 cr (approx.) world wide.
Other customer-oriented associations or
differentiation measures
5.
Perceived value:Airtel is considered to be expensive by customers.
6.
Brand personality:Comes across as a exciting and competent brand. The
advertisements connect with the masses as they project Airtel to be a vibrant and emotional brand. 7.
Organizational associations:Airtel corporate brand i s more visible
than any other brand in telecom in India.
Awareness measures 8.
Brand awareness: It is high.
Market behavior measures 9.
Market share :Market Share of Airtel is 20.20%(2011 data) and is the larget
telecom provider in India 10. Market price and distribution coverage :Coverage is among the highest.
Airtel:Currrent Associations
Brand associations are formed on the following basis: y
Customers contact with the organization and its employees
y
Advertisements
y
W ord of mouth publicity
y
Price at which the brand is sold
y
Celebrity/big entity association
y
Quality of the product
y
Products and schemes offered by competitors
y
Product class/category to which the brand belongs
y
POP ( Point of purchase) display
On the basis of small survey conducted to identify the brand associations of Airtel. Some of the conclusions of our survey are documented below i)Airtel is synonymous with Quality and Uninterrupted service ii)Current Brand Personality of Airtel is that of an Indian youth who is cheerful and active.It is emotional in nature and represents every socio-economic class. iii)Airtel uses successful personalities in their ad campaigns which creates a leadership association iv)Airtel as a brand is dynamic and has changed with times. The target customer was clearly defined: elite, upmarket professionals and entrepreneurs. " W e positioned Airtel as an aspirational and lifestyle brand, in a way that trivialised the price in the mind of the consumer. It was pitched not merely as a mobile service, but as something that gave him a badge value. In recent communications Airtel has projected
The spirit of leadership The emotional angle
Airtel has been successful in creating a very positive and strong brand association since its inception. Also the current advertisements which are broadcast in recent times are trying to position the brand Airtel as an International brand.
Future Brand Extensions Possible
By looking at the brand associations of Airtel we can move forward and suggest our brand extensions Extensions Suggested: i)Online Movie distributor ii)Hand Held Device for Financial Inclusion iii)Movies on demand on mobile use of 3G
Evaluation of extension suggested Online Movie Distributor Bharti Airtel made its Media & Entertainment debut in 2009-10 and launched its Digital Media Business One
of its kind integrated approach to the Global Digital Media Business by an Asian telco
Created a Digital Media exchange for integrated content delivery Marked its entry into the Digital Cinema Delivery market Launched Airtels Teleport Services to enable c ontent gathering and its distribution across the Globe According to premiere research firm CyberMedia Research expects the India telecom services and mobile handsets market to grow at 16.7% in 2 012 (over 2011) to touch rev enues of Rs 288,832 crore or
(USD 63 billion).Out of this Rs 2,05,454 Crore (USD 45 billion) will be contributed by , the telecom services (including mobile and fixed line services) and India mobile handsets market, that includes featurephones and smartphones, will grow at over 30 percent during 2012 to touch revenues of R s 83,377 Crore (USD 18 billion).In the five year period between 2010 and 2014, the India Telecoms industry will grow at a CAGR of 15.8% to touch revenues of Rs 3,77,683 Crore or USD 82 billion. Categories
2010
2011
2012
2013
2014
CAGR 2010-14
Telecom services
159519
184207
505454
226741
248956
11.8%
Mobile Phones
50714
64077
83377
105625
128729
26.2 15.8%
Indian telecom services market(Rs crs)
210233
248284
288832
332366
377685
15.8 %
Table 1. India Telecom Services and Products Sector, 2010-2014 The growth in the India domestic mobile handsets market will be more than 150% increment in the value of featurephones and smartphones from Rs 50,714 Crore in 2010 to Rs 1,28,729 Crore in 2014.
The major growth drivers for the Telecom Services segments would be launch and roll-out of 3G and BWA / WiMax / LTE services and the consequent growth in usage of high speed broadband, VAS and data services. Establishment of 3G and BWA (WiMax and Long Term Evolution or LTE) will have a positive impact on the India market; however, broadband content will remain in early stages of development through 2011.With the allocation of 3G and BWA spectrum and rollout of services by private as well as incumbent operators, WiMax/LTE will help in overcoming the infrastructure issues in the country as well as deliver enhanced performance to end-users.However, as WiMax / LTE services gain in popularity, content creation and mobile application development will witness increased focus by vendors, developers and service providers looking to build their own portfolio of unique 'apps'. Other
high growth Telecom Services areas include IP-TV, IP-VPN, VoIP, Mobile VAS etc. on.
The smartphones market in India is expected grow to over 10 million units in 2011 from 6 mil lion units in 2010. The Android Operating System will continue to gain acceptance as a mobile operating system (OS) and 12% of all smartphones shipped in India during 2011 are expected to be based on the Android platform. CyberMedia Research expects over 1,00,000 Tablets to enter in 2011 alone, based on the current portfolio of players like Samsung, Apple, Olive and others. However, media tablets in their present form and currently prevailing price points are unlikely to excite the large majority of consumers. A 'game changer' in this space could happen in late 2011 / early 2012 if a players such as Reliance Infotel introduces a 'mass market' Tablet priced lower than Rs. 10,000 per unit. .
These brand extensions will provide the following benefits to the parent brands ii)Strong competitive positioning in new category iii)Extends the parent brand vision to be a leader
The brand extensions suggested here will not be doing the following: i)Dilute brand meaning ii)Cannibalize Sales of Parent brand iii)Confuse or Frustrate consumers
Source: CyberMedia Research (CMR), 2011 1) Mobile Telecommunication Services include voice telephony services, data services and VAS. 2) Fixed-line Telecommunication Services include PSTN, leased line, IP-VPN, WLL, xDSL and other services. 3) Mobile Phones include featurephones and smartphones. 4) Spends on Telecoms Network Infrastructure and T ablets not included.
