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INTRODUCTION
Branding is one of the most important aspects of any business, large or small, retail or
multinational corporations. An effective brand strategy gives a major edge in increasingly
competitive markets. Simply put, brand is promise to your customer. It tells them what they
can expect from products and services, and it differentiates the offering from that of
competitors’.
To prepare an assignment on a network based product we have chosen Airtel that comes from
Bharti Airtel Limited, one of Asia’s leading integrated telecom services providers with
operations in 19 countries across Asia and Africa.
Information for this assignment is mainly collected from secondary source. Information are
collected from various websites.
At the very beginning of this assignment the concept of branding is given with its importance to
consumers and producers as well as the concept of brand equity is also given. This assignment
contains a brief description about the selected company with its various services provided by it.
Then the branding of Airtel with its branding strategies are discussed.
To promote, Airtel has been dependent on tactical advertising However, it has restrained from
using comparative advertising Hoardings has been a very popular medium for carrying the
advertisements Airtel has also been advertising on television using the Bharti Telecom name.
This assignment paper discusses how Bharti constantly positioned its Airtel brand to expand its
market and meet the challenges posed by the changing trends in the Indian and African cellular
market during the late-1990s and early-2009s. It also critically discusses the rationale behind
Bharti's positioning and restructuring efforts and the effectiveness of these initiatives.
Starting from the name, logo, slogan the Airtel has created intense brand image by adopting
various marketing acting activities. It truly captured the market and maintaining its brand as a
best brand in the market. Though there are spaces for improvement, by developing effective
marketing program those gaps can be filled up.
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2. CONCEPT OF BRANDING
Branding has been around for centuries as a means to distinguish the goods and services of one
producer from those of another. In fact, the word ‘brand’ is derived from the Old Norse word
‘brandr’ which means “to burn”.
According to the American Marketing Association (AMA), a brand is a “name, term, sign,
symbol, or design, or a combination of them, intended to identify the goods and services of one
seller or group of sellers and to differentiate them from those of competitors”
In fact, however, many practicing managers refer to a brand as more than that – as something
that has actually created a certain amount of awareness, reputation and prominence and so on
in the marketplace.
A formal definition of brand can be put as, ‘entire process involved in creating a unique name
and image for a product (good or service) in the consumers' mind, through advertising
campaigns with a consistent theme. Branding aims to establish a significant and differentiated
presence in the market that attracts and retains loyal customers.’
Fundamentally, branding is all about endowing products and services with the power of brand
equity. Consistent, strategic branding leads to a strong brand equity, which means the added
value brought to your company's products or services that allows you to charge more for your
brand than what identical, unbranded products command.
Branding is one of the most important aspects of any business, large or small, retail or B2B. An
effective brand strategy gives a major edge in increasingly competitive markets. If consumers
recognize a brand and have some knowledge about it, then they do not have to engage in a lot
of additional thought or processing of information to make a product decision. Thus, from an
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economic perspective, brands allow consumers to lower the search costs for products both
internally (in terms of how much they have to think) and externally (in terms of how much they
have to look around).
Branding is important for both consumers and producers for its following significant functions:
To Consumers:
To Producers:
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More elastic response to price decreases
Greater trade cooperation and support
Increased marketing communication effectiveness
Possible licensing opportunities
Additional brand expansion opportunities
Brand equity is the added value endowed to products and services. This value may be reflected
in how consumers think feel, and act with respect to the brand, as well as the prices, market
share, and profitability that the brand commands for the firm. Brand equity is an important
intangible asset that has psychological and financial value to the firm.
Marketers building brand equity by creating the right brand knowledge structures with the right
consumes. This process depends on all brand-related contacts – whether marketer-initiated or
not. From a marketing management perspective, however, there are three main sets of brand
equity drivers:
The initial choices for the brand elements or identities making up the brand (e.g., brand
names, URLs, logos, symbols, characters, spokespeople, slogans, jingles, packages, and
signage), Old Spice uses bright-red packaging and its familiar ocean schooner to
reinforce its nautical theme while also launching deodorant and antiperspirant
extensions adding the High Endurance and Red Zone brand names20.
The product and service and all accompanying marketing activities and supporting
marketing programs.
Other association indirectly transferred to the brand by linking it to some other entity
(e.g. a person, place, or thing).
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2.6 Choosing Brand Elements
Brand elements are those trade markable devices that serve to identify and differentiate the
brand. Most strong brands employ multiple brand elements. Nike has the distinctive “swoosh”
logo, the empowering “Just Do It” slogan, and the mythological “Nike” name based on the
winged goddess of victory.
There are six criteria in choosing brand elements (as well as more specific choice consideration
in each case). The first three (memorable, meaningful, and likable) can be characterized as
“brand building” in terms of how brand equity can be built through the judicious choice of a
brand element. The latter three (protectable, adaptable, and transferable) are more
“defensive” and are concerned with how the brand equity contained in a brand element can be
leveraged and preserved in the face of different opportunities and constraints.
1. Memorable. How easily is the brand element recalled? How easily recognized? Is this
true at both purchase and consumption? Short brand names such as Tide, Crest, and
Puffs a help.
2. Meaningful. To what extent is the brand element credible and suggestive of the
corresponding category? Does it suggest something about a product ingredient or the
type of person who might use the brand? Consider the inherent meaning in names such
as DieHard auto batteries, Mop & Glo floor wax, and Lean Cuisine low-calorie frozen
entrees.
3. Likeability. How aesthetically appealing do consumers find the brand element? Is it
inherently likable visually, verbally, and in other ways? Concrete brand names such as
Sunkist, Spic and Span and Firebird evoke much imagery.
4. Transferable. Can the brand element be used to introduce new products in the same or
different categories? To what extent does the brand element add to brand equity
across geographic boundaries and market segments? Volkswagen chose to name its
new SUV, Touareg, ater a tribe of colorful Saharan nomads. Unfortunately, historically
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they were also notorious slave owners, which created a negative press backlash in the
United States. 22
5. Adaptable. How adaptable and updatable is the brand element Betty Crocker has
received over eight makeovers through the years – although she is over 75 years old,
she doesn’t look a day over 35.
6. Protectable. How legally protectable is the brand element? How competitively
protectable? Can it be easily copied? It is important that names that become
synonymous with product categories – such as Kleenex, Kitty Litter, Jell-I, Scotch Tape,
Xerox, and Fiberglass – retain their trademark rights and not become generic.
Airtel comes from Bharti Airtel Limited, one of Asia’s leading integrated telecom services
providers with operations in 19 countries across Asia and Africa. Bharti Airtel since its inception,
has been at the forefront of technology and has pioneered several innovations in the telecom
sector. Sunil Bharti Mittal is the Founder, Chairman and Group CEO of Bharti Enterprises
The company is structured into four strategic business units - Mobile, Telemedia, Enterprise
and Digital TV. The mobile business offers services in India, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh. The
Telemedia business provides broadband, IPTV and telephone services in 89 Indian cities. The
Digital TV business provides Direct-to-Home TV services across India. The Enterprise business
provides end-to-end telecom solutions to corporate customers and national and international
long distance services to telcos.
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3.1 Mission of The Organization
The company meets the mobile communication needs of their customer through
Brand identity
Error free service delivery
Cost efficiency
Unified messaging solutions
Innovative products and services
Innoventuring
To generate and implement entrepreneurial and innovating ideas which continuously creates
new growth engines.
Customers first
To provide service beyond the expectations of the customers. The quality of the customer
responsiveness clearly differentiates them from others.
Performance culture
The benchmark their process and performances against world class standards to
distinguish between performers by valuing achievements at the individual as well as
team level.
Valuing partnership
Get committed to building exemplary relationship with partners who stand on the principles of
mutual growth and trust.
Valuing people
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To mature as environment where people are respected and their uniqueness is valued. They
believe that people are their key differentiator.
Ethical Practices
They will uphold the highest ethical standard in all internal and external relationship.
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Instant Balance Inquiry
Check your talk-time instantly by calling our toll-free number!
60 second pulse
Airtel provides you with a 60-second pulse rate! Freedom for you to experience like never
before!
Instant Recharge
Avail of instant recharge on your Airtel prepaid card with just a few simple steps.
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SMS based Information Services
With Airtel SMS based information services; you can get up to-the-minute cricket scores, order
flowers as well as send couriers or check your daily horoscope.
Widest availability
Airtel prepaid ready cellular card are available all over the city at over 7000 retail outlets
including 24 hours outlets
Easy Billing
One can enjoy the luxury of viewing details of your last 3 billing cycles and the convenience of
paying your Airtel bill online.
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Caller Identification
Call Identification gives you the power to know the phone number of the calling party
even before you answer the call, thus giving you the choice to either reject or take the
call. It provides the added advantage of saving the incoming number directly in the
Handset Phone Book. So that the next time you want to call the same person, you don't
need to retype his number, simply use your phone book.
Voice Mail
Voice Mail lets you receive messages even when your handset is switched off or when you are
outside the coverage area. You can listen to your messages whenever you feel like, from
anywhere in the world. Voice Mail can store up to 75 messages, with each message of two-
minute duration
STD/ISD Facility
Now experience complete freedom like never before with Airtel! Our STD/ISD facility allows you
to make long distance calls in India and Overseas from your cellular phone.
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4. BRANDING OF AIRTEL
Memorability:
Easily recognized
Easily recalled
The brand elements of Airtel are memorable. It has no complexity in their brand elements. At least
people can easily recognize and recall the parent brand Airtel Bharati. Though its sub-brands are little bit
tough to recognize and recall. So we can say parent brand are highly memorable.
Meaningfulness:
Descriptive
persuasive
Brand elements may take on all kinds of meaning, with either descriptive or persuasive content. The
brand elements of Airtel have descriptive meaning and suggest something about the product category.
Likability:
Airtel uses its parent brand name in different font and style as their logo and symbol of parent brand.
Different brands of Airtel Bharti use different brand elements. Brand elements of Airtel are so much
likable. It is likable especially to the educated or to the brand loyal people.
Transferability:
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Transferability means how useful is the brand elements for line or category extension. In general the
less specific the name, the more easily it can be transferred across categories. In that sense Airtel Bharti
is successful in terms of transferability. Because it already introduced other products that have been
accepted by the customers.
Adaptability:
Flexible
Updatable
The fifth consideration for brand elements is their adaptability over time. The brand Airtel is highly
adaptable and updatable. It was launched in 7 July 1995, and continuing by the same name. It doesn’t
have to face any problem to change or update the brand elements with the change of time.
Protectability:
Legally
competitively
This is the final consideration of evaluation criteria. The brand elements of Airtel Bharti are protectable
both in a legal and a competitive sense because it is registered with the appropriate legal bodies and
vigorously defended trademark from unauthorized infringement.
For a brand to be successful, it must build enduring relationship with different audiences.
Integral to this relationship is the visual image of the brand the consumer carries in his/her
mind.
The Airtel brand image is created through consistent application of a carefully developed visual
identity, which helps Airtel distinguish itself in a cluttered market. Airtel visual identity helps to
create instant brand recall and strengthens the relationship that it audience have with it. The
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Airtel visual identity has different elements that work together to create a strong and
consistent for the brand. The most important of these are As Follows:
In 2002, Airtel chose one of the country’s most successful music composers A R Rahman and
tune he gives, denote “Live every moment”.
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4.2.7 Jingles
“Nigahein nigahon se mila kar to dekho, naye logo se rishta banakar to dekho…”
4.3 Taglines
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4.5 Brand Associations
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4.7 Umbrella branding
4.8 Co-Branding
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4.9 Airtel’s Campaign
Airtel positions itself as juvenile brand linkages to celebrities such as SRK and Sachin. Airtel is
transforming itself fully into a service led brand.
In late-2002, Bharti Cellular Ltd. (Bharti), India's largest cellular telephone company released a
television commercial (TVC), which despite using the 'oft-repeated' celebrity endorsement
route was unusual in terms of its celebrity selection. Instead of using the usual movie
stars/sports celebrities, it chose one of the country's most successful music composers, A.R
Rahman (Rahman) to promote its brand. The campaign attracted considerable media attention
because this was the first time Rahman had agreed to do a television commercial and also
because, Rahman had been paid Rs 10 million1 for the campaign, a sum usually unheard of, for
celebrity endorsers in India.
The campaign received brickbats as well as bouquets in the media, both for the selection of
Rahman and the TVC's execution. However, Bharti claimed to have scored an ace in terms of
getting Rahman to compose five exclusive symphonies downloadable as ring tones for Airtel
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users. The TVC was a part of the brand repositioning and restructuring efforts for Airtel, as part
of which, Bharti changed the brand's tagline in early-2002 from 'Touch Tomorrow' to 'Live Every
Moment. 'The company also decided to undertake a comprehensive brand building program for
the company and chose the slogan 'Unlimited Freedom' for the same.
Commenting on these changes, company sources said, "Airtel's brand identity and campaign
will now have a new younger and international look and feel that builds on the earlier
positioning."
Bharti's massive media expenditure plans were no surprise, considering the fact that it was the
largest cellular telecom company in the country - reaching over 600 million people in 16 (out of
29) states of India. The company posted revenues of Rs 8.48 billion and a net loss of Rs 1 billion
in the financial year 2000-01. The Airtel brand (and the pre-paid card service brand, Magic) had
top-of-the-mind recall amongst cellular phone users and enjoyed a leadership position in most
markets. Industry observers primarily attributed it to Bharti's strong brand building and
positioning strategies.
Repositioning Airtel
The above realization led to the launch of the 'Leadership Series' campaign, which featured
successful men and women with their deluxe cars, carrying laptops and using cell phones. A
company source said that the campaign was aimed at positioning Airtel as an inspirational
brand, which was meant for leaders and celebrities.
Other supportive values associated with the brand-included courtesy, politeness and efficiency.
The campaign was reportedly successful and resulted in a marginal improvement in Airtel's
performance. By 1999, Bharti had become the leading cellular player in Delhi (its major market)
with a subscriber base of over 0.38 million. However, the growth was still much below the
company's expectations.
Meanwhile, as the competition in the sector intensified, the government also decided to reduce
tariff rates. As a result, the players made all efforts to extend their horizons to reach customers
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across all sections. Essar, the nearest competitor of Airtel, began offering tariff plans, schemes
and services that were identical to that of Airtel.
Due to consistent marketing efforts, the Airtel and Touch Tomorrow campaign became very
popular. Therefore, Bharti's decision to withdraw this campaign (Touch Tomorrow) in 2002
came as a surprise to many.
The new campaign was accompanied by a change in the logo as well (Refer Figure II). The idea
behind the new logo was to give Airtel a younger look. The logo (with new design and colour
pattern) symbolized innovation, energy and friendliness.
This system is similar to the answering machine - if the user is not able to answer a call for some
reason the caller can leave messages in the voice mail box which can be later retrieved by the
user
The short message service is like a two-way pager. It gives an option of sending and receiving
text messages directly from one mobile phone to another without the intervention of an
operator.
4) Cash Card
The cash card is a pre-paid and pre-activated card which allows the buyers to buy air time in
advance. All it requires is the payment of an initial amount. This is a useful service for people
who travel to Delhi often and those who want to control the expenses on their calls.
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5) Caller ID
To prevent or limit outgoing calls, for example, in peak hours. Also possible to exclude one or
several countries, or any geographical region, to permit only local calls, or to limit the outgoing
calls to a listed number.
7) Call forward
Incoming calls can be forwarded to another fixed or mobile phone. Besides these some other
services provided by Airtel are - Call conferencing, Call broadcast etc. It is in the operators -
Interest that they not only get many subscribers but also get them to use the mobile facility
frequently. In the early stages getting increases to subscribe may be easier than getting them
to talk since they will find it costlier to use the mobile phone as compared to a conventional
phone [if is believed that initially cellphones would be used buy
8) Roaming Facility
Roaming facility is available while the subscriber is travelling. The billing is done in the home
network (Delhi). Roaming facility is available manually as well as semi-automatically. Once a
subscriber is in any other city or country, where a GSM network is available, simply insert the
SIM card of the local operator into your handset and start talking.
To promote it, Airtel has been dependent on tactical advertising However, it has restrained
from using comparative advertising Hoardings has been a very popular medium for carrying the
advertisements Airtel has also been advertising on television using the Bharti Telecom name.
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5.3.1 Sales Department and Strategy
Handling distribution
Maintaining records and level check of the channel partner
Liaisoning between the channel partner and the company.
Target achievement
Training the executives of the channel
C. Distribution Support
1. Logistics
Monitor handset and SIM card requirements of channel partners and co-ordinate
with stores
Settle areas of concerns such as incentive claims of channel partners
2. Rental
4. Audit
Since this is a high-involvement expensive product, the service provider has to fully take care of
the customers.
a) They take personal responsibility to "get" the answer for any problem faced by the
customer
b) They anticipate customers' problems and take pro-active steps to prevent them
c) They give answers to the questions & requests, quickly & efficiently.
d) They have a positive tone & manner while interacting with customers.
e) They end the interaction on a positive or a humorous note-making the last 30 seconds
count.
Airtel realizes that attracting people 'Is easy but converting them into loyal customers is hard,
hence emphasis is on maintaining a 'Smiling and a Friendly Atmosphere' to please and retain
the customer.
The objective behind designing a promotion campaign for the ‘Airtel’ services is to promote the
brand awareness and to build brand preferences.
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It is trying to set up a thematic campaign to build a stronger brand equity for Airtel. Since the
cellular phone category itself is too restricted, also the fact that a Cellular phone is a high
involvement product, price doesn't qualify as an effective differentiator. The image of the
service provider counts a great deal. Given the Cell phone category, it is the network efficiency
and the quality of service that becomes important. What now the buyer is looking at is to get
the optimum price-performance package. This also serves as an effective differentiator
Brand awareness is spread through the' campaigns and brand preference through brand
stature. Airtel's campaign in the capital began with a series of 'teaser' hoardings across the
city,' bearing just the company's name and without explaining what Airtel was. In the next
phase the campaign associated Airtel with Cellular only thereafter was the Bharti Cellular
connection brought up. Vans with Airtel logos roamed the city, handing out brochures about
the company and its services to all consumers. About 50,000 direct callers were sent out.
When the name was well entrenched in the Delhiites’s mind, the Airtel campaign began to
focus on the utility of Cellphone. In the first four months alone Airtel's advertisement spend
exceeded Rs. 4 crores.
As of today the awareness level Is 60% unaided. This implies that if potential or knowledgeable
consumers are asked to name a Cellular phone service provider that is on the top of his/her
mind 60% of them would name Airtel. As for aided it -is 100% (by giving clues and hints etc.).
Brand strength of a product or the health of a brand is measured by the percentage score of the
brand on the above aided and the unaided tests. The figures show that Airtel is a healthy and a
thriving brand.
Every company has a goal, which might comprise a sales target and a game plan with due
regard to Its competitor. Airtel 's campaign strategy is designed keeping in mind its marketing
strategy. The tone, tenor and the stance of the visual ads are designed to convey the image of
a market leader in terms of its market share. It tries to portray the image of being a "first
mover every time" and that of a "market leader".
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The status of the product in terms of its life cycle has just reached the maturity stage in India. It
is still on the rising part of the product life cycle curve in the maturity stage.
The diagram on the left hand side shows the percentage of the users classified into heavy,
medium and low categories. The right hand side shows the revenue share earned from the
three types of users.
Airtel, keeping in mind the importance of the customer retention, values its heavy users the
most and constantly indulges in service innovation. But, since heavy users comprise only 15 -
20% of the population the other segment cannot be neglected.
The population which has just realized the importance of cellular phones has to be roped in. It
is for this reason that the service provider offers a plethora of incentives and discounts.
Concerts like the "Freedom concert" are being organized by Airtel in order to promote sales.
The media channel is chosen with economy in mind. The target segment is not very concrete
but, there is an attempt to focus on those who can afford. The print advertisements and
hoarding are placed in those strategic areas which most likely to catch the attention of those
who need a cellular phone. The product promise (which might cost different 1 higher) is an
important variable in determining the target audience.
Besides this, other promotional strategies that Airtel has adopted are-
(i) People who have booked Airtel services have been treated to exclusive premiers of
blockbuster movies. Airtel has tied up with Lufthansa to offer customer bonus miles on
the German airlines frequent flier's programs.
(ii) There have been educational campaigns, image campaigns, pre launch advertisements,
launch advertisements, congratulatory advertisements, promotional advertise-ments,
attacking advertisements and tactical advertisements.
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5.6 Price and Pricing Policy
Airtel has realized that the Indian market is price sensitive. Therefore it care of the has come
up with various innovative tariff schemes to take needs of different category of customers-
Generally, the cellular services are more expensive than the land line based telephone services.
This is due to the reason that the operating companies are required to pay a fee to the
government for using airtime. Pricing strategies of Airtel are
5.7 Distribution
Company
Franchisee Distributor
Dealers
Dealer
Customer
Customer
The- company whose operations are concentrated in and around Delhi. It 27 Franchisees and
15 Distributors- They also have 8 'instant access cash card counters- Each franchises or
distributor can have any number of dealers under him as long as the person is approved by the
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Airtel authority. Each franchise has to invest Rupees Ten Lakhs to obtain a franchise and should
employ an officer recruited by Airtel. This person acts as a liaison between the company and
the franchises. The franchises can it any number of dealers as long as their territories do not
overlap. But unfortunately Airtel has not been very successful in controlling territorial overlaps
of dealers. The franchises can carry out their own promotional strategy. For this the company
contributes 75% of the money and the franchises contribute 25% of the money. The dealers
under the franchisee receive the same commission. The franchises and the dealer obtain the
feedback from the customers and they are sent through the liaison officer on a day-to-day basis
to Airtel. The dealer has to invest Rupees one Lakh as an initial investment. The dealers of
Airtel are not allowed to provide any other operators' service.
Target set for distributors and the dealers is 100 -150 activations per month. Hence the dealers
can also go for their own promotions like banners and discounts on festivals etc. The dealer
provides service promptly. The consumer on providing the bill of purchase for the handset and
proof of residence has only to wait an hour before getting connected. The staffs of the dealers
and the franchisees are provided training by the Airtel personnel.
The complaints encountered by the franchisees and dealers are either handset being non-
functional or the SIM Card not getting activated. Anything more complicated is referred to the
main Airtel office in Delhi.
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6. RECOMMENDATIONS
Consumer Retention: Airtel has to implement some more retention programs like: -
1. Extra talk times should be given to the potential customers who are there for more than 2
3. If more messages and extra talk time benefits are given then it can help for the retain for the
potential customers.
4. Airtel has to increase the customer care centers in order to concentrate more on the
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7. CONCLUSION
Bharti Airtel is the world's third largest, single-country mobile operator and fifth largest
telecom operator in the world with a subscriber base of over 160 million It also offers fixed line
services and broadband services. It offers its telecom services under the Airtel brand and is
headed by Sunil Bharti Mittal. Bharti Airtel is the first Indian telecom service provider to achieve
this Cisco Gold Certification. To earn Gold Certification, Bharti Airtel had to meet rigorous
standards for networking competency, service, support and customer satisfaction set forth by
Cisco. The company also provides land-line telephone services and broadband Internet access
(DSL) in over 96 cities in India. It also acts as a carrier for national and international long
distance communication services. The company has a submarine cable landing station at
Chennai, which connects the submarine cable connecting Chennai and Singapore.
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8. BIBLIOGRAPHY
Books:
Kevin Lane Keller, Strategic Brand Management, 3rd edition, India: Dorling Kindersley, 2008
Websites:
1. http://www.airtel.in/
2. http://www.scribd.com/doc/23427434/brand-awareness-of-airtel
3. http://www.slideshare.net/manikguptas/airtel-branding-a-case-study
4. http://www.scribd.com/doc/12088786/Project-report-on-Airtel
5. http://www.slideshare.net/gauravjain1985/airtel-presentation-brand-identity-presentation
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