Shri Vile Parle Kelvani Mandals Mithibai College of Arts, Chauhan Institute of Science & Amrutben Jivanlal college

of Commerce and Economics Vile Parle (West) Mumbai 400056

A PROJECT ON:

The Saint, The Surfer And The CEO: A book review

IN THE SUBJECT:

Organizational behaviour

SUBMITTED BY:

NAME: DEEPAK PANDEY ROLL NO.: 24 DIVISION: B

UNDER THE GUIDANCE OF:

Professor Sanjeev Bhatia

TO:

UNIVERSITY OF MUMBAI
FOR:

MASTER OF COMMERCE PROGRAMME

(SEMESTER - III)

YEAR: 2013-14

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Shri Vile Parle Kelvani Mandals Mithibai College of Arts,, Chauhan Institute of Science & Amrutben Jivanlal college of Commerce and Economics Vile Parle (West) Mumbai 400056

EVALUATION CERTIFICATE This is to certify that the undersigned have assessed and evaluated the project on The Saint, The Surfer And The CEO: A book review submitted by DEEPAK PANDEY, student of M.Com. Part - II (Semester III) for the academic year 2013-14. This project is original to the best of our knowledge and has been accepted for Internal Assessment.

Name & Signature of Internal Examiner

Name & Signature of External Examiner

College Seal

I/C PRINCIPAL DR. D.B. GADKARI

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Shri Vile Parle Kelvani Mandals

Mithibai College of Arts,, Chauhan Institute of Science & Amrutben Jivanlal college of Commerce and Economics Vile Parle (West) Mumbai 400056

DECLARATION BY THE STUDENT

I, DEEPAK PANDEY, student of M.Com. (Part II) Roll No.: 24 hereby declare that the project titled The Saint, The Surfer And The CEO: A book review for the subject Organizational behaviour submitted by me for Semester III of the academic year 2013-14, is based on actual work carried out by me under the guidance and supervision of Professor Sanjeev Bhatia , I further state that this work is original and not submitted anywhere else for any examination.

Place: MUMBAI Date: Name & Signature of Student:

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
I would like to thank University of Mumbai for giving me this opportunity of taking such a challenging project, which has enhanced my knowledge about the Organizational behaviour and success. I show my gratitude to the Principal, Vice Principal and Co-ordinator of Mithibai College who gave me a lot of moral support and under their guidance I was successfully able to complete my project. I would like to thank Prof. Sanjeev Bhatia, for giving us the opportunity to work on this project. I am deeply indebted to him for his expert and valuable guidance to prepare the project for our internal examination in subject Research methodology. He was extremely helpful whenever I encountered difficulty at any stage of the project and guided me out of it.

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CHAPTER 1 -INTRODUCTION

Bharti Airtel Limited, commonly known as Airtel, is the largest Indian telecommunications company that operates in 20 countries across South Asia, Africa and the Channel Islands. It Page | 5

operates a GSM network in all countries, providing 2G, 3G and 4G services depending upon the country of operation. Airtel is the world's third-largest mobile telecommunications company with over 261 million subscribers across 20 countries as of August 2012. It is the largest cellular service provider in India, with 186.9 million subscribers at the end of August 2012. Airtel is the third largest in-country mobile operator by subscriber base, behind China Mobile and China Unicom. Airtel is the largest provider of mobile telephony and second largest provider of fixed telephony in India, and is also a provider of broadband and subscription television 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 Cisco Gold Certification. 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. It is known for being the first mobile phone company in the world to outsource all of its business operations except marketing, sales and finance. Its networkbase stations, microwave links, etc.is maintained by Ericsson, Nokia Siemens Network and Huawei, and business support is provided by IBM, and transmission towers are maintained by another company (Bharti Infratel Ltd. in India). Ericsson agreed for the first time to be paid by the minute for installation and maintenance of their equipment rather than being paid up front, which allowed Airtel to provide low call rates of 1/minute (US$0.02/minute). During the last financial year (200910), Bharti negotiated for its strategic partner Alcatel-Lucent to manage the network infrastructure for the tale-media business. On 31 May 2012, Bharti Airtel awarded the three year contract to Alcatel-Lucent for setting up an Internet Protocol access network (mobile backhaul) across the country. This would help consumers access internet at faster speed and high quality internet browsing on mobile handsets.

Vodafone Group Plc is a British multinational telecommunications company headquartered in London, United Kingdom. It is the world's second-largest mobile telecommunications

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company measured by both subscribers and 2011 revenues (in each case behind China Mobile), and had 439 million subscribers as of December 2011. Vodafone owns and operates networks in over 30 countries and has partner networks in over 40 additional countries. Its Vodafone Global Enterprise division provides

telecommunications and IT services to corporate clients in over 65 countries. Vodafone also owns 45% of Verizon Wireless, the largest mobile telecommunications company in the United States measured by subscribers. Vodafone India, formerly Vodafone Essar and Hutchison Essar, is the second largest mobile network operator in India after Airtel. It is based in Mumbai, Maharashtra and which operates nationally. It has approximately 146.84 million customers as of November 2011. On July 2011, Vodafone Group agreed terms for the buy-out of its partner Essar from its Indian mobile phone business. The UK firm paid $5.46 billion to its Indian counterpart to take Essar out of its 33% stake in the Indian subsidiary. It will leave Vodafone owning 74% of the Indian business, while the other 26% will be owned by Indian investors, in compliance with Indian law. On 11 February, 2007, Vodafone agreed to acquire the controlling interest of 67% held by Li Ka Shing Holdings in Hutch-Essar for US$11.1 billion, piping Reliance Communications, Hinduja Group, and Essar Group, which is the owner of the remaining 33%. The whole company was valued at USD 18.8 billion. The transaction closed on 8 May, 2007. It offers both prepaid and postpaid GSM cellular phone coverage throughout India.

Objective of the study

The main objective of this project is to study the comparison between the two telecom giants Vodafone and Airtel. The comparison includes study of their Organizational structure, marketing, promotional strategies, their target markets and market segments. The project also Page | 7

includes a SWOT (Strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, threats) Analysis for both the companies which help to get an overview of their current and future positions in the market.

LITERATURE REVIEW Customer Satisfaction The Value of Customer Satisfaction By

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Andrew Mennie
, General Manager eGain Communications EMEAA brief literature would be of immense help to the researcher in gaining insight into selected problem. The researcher would gain good background knowledge of the problem by reviewing certain studies. A reference to these entire studies will be related in the contest of the shaping the present study. Samuval, in his study found that most of the respondents consider, size,quality, price, instrument servicing are an important factors for selecting the handset of majority of the respondents are satisfied over the payment system, quality of services, coverage area, and attending the complaints . Jha (2008), in his study analyzed that it is the youth which is the real growth driver of the telecom industry in India. Considering this fact, the paper is an attempt to give a snapshot of how frequently young people use their mobile phones for several embodied functions of the cell phones. Data was collected from a sample of 208 mobile phone owners, aged between 20 and 29. The study sheds light on how gender, monthly voucher amount and years of owningmobile phones influence the usage pattern of this device. Findings of the studywould be helpful for the telecom service providers and handset manufacturers toformulate a marketing strategy for different market segments.

Kalavani (2006) in their study analyzed that majority of the respondents have given favourable opinion towards the services but some problems exist that deserve the attention of the service providers. They need to bridge the gap between the services promised and services offered. The overall customers attitude towards cell phone services is that they are satisfied with the existing services but still they want more services to be provided.

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Kumar (2008), in their study titled Customer Satisfaction and Discontentment vis-a-vis BSNL Landline Service: A Study analyzed that at present, services marketing plays a major role in the national economy. In the service sector, telecom industry is the most active and attractive. Though the telecom industry is growing rapidly, India's telecom density is less than the world's average telecom density as most of India's market is yet to be covered.

Seth et al (2008), in their study titled Managing the Customer Perceived Service Quality for Cellular Mobile Telephone: an Empirical Investigation analyzed that there is relative importance of service quality

attributes and showed that responsiveness is the most importance dimension followed by reliability, customer perceived network quality, assurance, convenience, empathy and tangibles. This would enable the service providers to focus their resources in the areas of importance. The research resulted in the development of a reliable and valid instrument for assessing customer perceived service quality for cellular mobile services

ORGANISATIONAL STRUCTURE

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The company has restructured its organisational structure and now it has a new integrated organization. The new realigned roles, responsibilities and reporting relationships of Bhartis key team players has created a unified management structure of 'One Airtel', which will enable continued improvement in the delivery of the Groups strategic vision with effect from March 01, 2006. This is a matrix structure as the management is divided into many geographical regions. The chairman & managing director of the company is Sunil Bharti Mittal with its CEO & joint managing director Manoj Kohli under him.

Vodafone announced a new organizational structure designed for speedier execution in its major international business areas. Its operating groups now report directly to Chief Executive Arun Sarin, former Air Touch Communications and Info Space executive. The company also tapped Verizon Wireless CFO Andrew Halford as its financial director. To Page | 11

keep their decision-making as close to the customer as possible, they keep their management structure as flat as possible.

Comparison of Organization Structures

Airtels network is not as huge as that Vodafone in current stage. Airtel has taken into consideration the classification based on various departments in the organisation.

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Vodafone being a huge organisation with its network in spread in whole over the world, they have mainly taken into consideration the classification based on regions.

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HISTORY

Sunil Bharti Mittal founded the Bharti Group. In 1983, Mittal was in an agreement with Germany's Siemens to manufacture push-button telephone models for the Indian market. In 1986, Mittal incorporated Bharti Telecom Limited (BTL), and his company became the first in India to offer push-button telephones, establishing the basis of Bharti Enterprises. By the early 1990s, Sunil Mittal had also launched the country's first fax machines and its first cordless telephones. In 1992, Mittal won a bid to build a cellular phone network in Delhi. In 1995, Mittal incorporated the cellular operations as Bharti Tele-Ventures and launched service in Delhi. In 1996, cellular service was extended to Himachal Pradesh. In 1999, Bharti Enterprises acquired control of JT Holdings, and extended cellular operations to Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh. In 2000, Bharti acquired control of Skycell Communications, in Chennai. In 2001, the company acquired control of Spice Cell in Calcutta. Bharti Enterprises went public in 2002, and the company was listed on Bombay Stock Exchange and National Stock Exchange of India. In 2003, the cellular phone operations were rebranded under the single Airtel brand. In 2004, Bharti acquired control of Hexacom and entered Rajasthan. In 2005, Bharti extended its network to Andaman and Nicobar. This expansion allowed it to offer voice services all across India. In 2009, Airtel launched its first international mobile network in Sri Lanka. In 2010, Airtel acquired the African operations of the Kuwait based Zain Telecom. In March 2012, Airtel launched a mobile operation in Rwanda. Today, Airtel is the largest cellular service provider in India and the third largest in the world.

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Hutchison Essar (1992-2007)

In 1992, Hutchison Whampoa and its Indian business partner Max Group, established a company that in 1994 was awarded a license to provide mobile telecommunications services in Mumbai and launched commercial services as Hutchison Max in November 1995. In Delhi, Uttar Pradesh (East), Rajasthan and Haryana, Essar Group was the major partner. But later Hutch took the majority stake. By the time of Hutchison Telecom's Initial Public Offering in 2004, Hutchison Whampoa had acquired interests in six mobile telecommunications operators providing service in 13 of India's 23 license areas and following the completion of the acquisition of BPL Mobile that number increased to 16. In 2006, it announced the acquisition of a company (Essar Spacetel A subsidiary of Essar Group) that held license applications for the seven remaining license areas. Initially, the company grew its business in the largest wireless markets in India in cities like Mumbai, Delhi and Kolkata. In these densely populated urban areas it was able to establish a robust network, well-known brand and large distribution network all vital to long-term success in India. Then it also targeted business users and high-end post-paid customers which helped Hutchison Essar to consistently generate a higher Average Revenue Per User (ARPU) than its competitors. By adopting this focused growth plan, it was able to establish leading positions in India's largest markets providing the resources to expand its footprint nationwide. In February 2007, Hutchison Telecom announced that it had entered into a binding agreement with a subsidiary of Vodafone Group Plc to sell its 67% direct and indirect equity and loan interests in Hutchison Essar Limited for a total cash consideration (before costs, expenses and interests) of approximately $11.1 billion. Hutch was often praised for its award winning advertisements which all follow a clean, minimalist look. A recurrent theme is that its message "Hi" stands out visibly though it uses only white letters on red background. Another successful ad campaign in 2003 featured a pug named Cheeka following a boy around in unlikely places, with the tagline, "Wherever you go, our network follows." The simple yet powerful advertisement campaigns won it many Page | 15

admirers. Ads featuring the pug were continued by Vodafone even after rebranding. The brand subsequently introduced ZooZoos which gained even higher popularity than was created by the Pug. Vodafone's creative agency is O&M while Harit Nagpal was the Marketing Director during the various phases of its brand evolution.

Timeline
1992: Hutchison Whampoa and MAX group establish Hutchison Max 2000: Acquisition of Delhi operations and entry into Calcutta (now Kolkata) and Gujarat markets through Essar acquisition 2001: Won auction for licences to operate GSM services in Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and Chennai 2003: Acquired AirCel Digilink (ADIL ESSAR Subsidiary) which operated in Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh East and Haryana telecom circles and rebranded it 'Hutch'. 2004: Launched in three additional telecom circles of India namely Punjab, Uttar Pradesh (West) and West Bengal. 2005: Acquired BPL Mobile operations in 3 circles. This left BPL with operations only in Mumbai, where it still operates under the brand 'Loop Mobile'.

2007: Vodafone acquires a 67% stake in Hutchison Essar for $10.7 billion. The company is renamed Vodafone Essar. 'Hutch' is rebranded to 'Vodafone'. 2008: Vodafone acquires the licences in remaining 7 circles and has starts its pending operations in Madhya Pradesh circle, as well as in Orissa, Assam, North East and Bihar. 2011: Vodafone Group buys out its partner Essar from its Indian mobile phone business. It paid $5.46 billion to take Essar out of its 33% stake in the Indian subsidiary. It left Vodafone owning 74% of the Indian business.

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CHAPTER 2 MARKETING ANALYSIS OF AIRTEL & VODAFONE

MARKETING STRATEGY

Bharti has spent a considerable amount on advertising its mobile phone service, Airtel. Besides print advertising, the company had put up large no of hoardings and kiosks in and around Delhi. The objective behind designing a promotion campaign for the Airtel services is to promote the brand awareness and to build brand preferences. It is trying to set up a thematic campaign to build 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 Delhiitess mind, the Airtel campaign began to focus on the utility of Cell phone. In the

first fourmonths alone Airtei's advertisements spend exceeded Rs. 4crores.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 Page | 17

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". The status of the product in terms of its life cycle has justreached 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, since

values its heavy users the most and constantly indulges in

service

innovation. But,

heavy users comprise only 15 -20% of the population the other segment cannot be neglected. The population which has just realised 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 organised 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 different1 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, imagecampaigns, pre launch advertisements, lau nchadvertisements, congratulatory advertisements, promotional advertisements, attacking advertisements and tactical advertisements.

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DISTRIBUTION 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 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 his 1her own promotional strategy. For this the company contributes 75% of the money and the franchise contributes 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 staff 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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Vodafones new advertising campaign in India carried on with the same popular pug that had become a brand ambassador for Hutch. Where ever you go, our network follows, was the previous slogan with the pug following the child wherever he went. Now, with Hutchison Essar becoming part of the Vodafone Group, the new campaign had started with Vodafone Essar earmarking Rs. 2.5 billion on the transition from Hutch to Vodafone. The main message of the brand transition exercise: The new Vodafone is the same old Hutch. In the advertisement, the pug sees a new home when it returns after an outing and feels the change is better. The new catch phrase will which was introduced was Make the most of now. A number of advertisements followed suit. O&M, the advertising agency of Vodafone launched a rather direct, thematic ad showing the trademark pug in a garden, moving out of a pink colored kennel which symbolized Hutch making his way into a red one that is the Vodafone color. A more energetic, chirpier version of the You and I tu ne associated with Hutch was played towards the end, and it concluded with Change is good. Hutch is now Vodafone. O&M also rolled out four commercials featuring Hutchs animated boy and girl, introducing the new brands logo to consumers. The four creatives which were of five seconds each included the duo peeping over a wall to see the logo, parasailing with the logo flying high behind them, releasing a rocket bomb wherein the explosion reveals the logo and lastly, drawing curtains aside to show the logo. Four other ads with the pug did the rounds of telly screens. These five and ten second spots cast the dog in situations where it literally, saw red, using the colour as a visual mnemonic to remember the brand by. The pug was shown in a red basket, popping up from a red cart, drying itself on a red mat and hiding in a red blanket. Each of these made use of the Hutch is now Vodafone tagline. The print ads, in all major languages in several leading dailies, were kept very simple: a still shot of the pug inside a red kennel. The same creative was used in outdoor hoardings as well, in all the 16 circles in which Vodafone now operates. Vodafone made use of TV advertising to bring in their brand, in a big way. They had tied up with Star India to run a complete roadblock of its fresh campaign on the entire network by unveiling the 24-hour nationwide rebranding campaign. It was the worlds first 24 hour TV

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roadblock to be done by any brand. Vodafone used all of the commercial airtime across all 13 channels in five languages (Hindi, Tamil, Bengali, Marathi and English) from 9 pm on 20 September to 9 pm on September 21. This exercise included TV commercials, transition bumpers and contest spots to promote the Vodafone Essar brand. Considering that the Star Network was the leading network in India, it was the most apt platform for the Vodafone launch. This strategy helped not only in achieving build rapid brand awareness but also to break the clutter during such an important launch in the most happening category of telecom. Commercial spots had also been purchased on Sony entertainment television. While the campaign was heavy on television, it also included all other media vehicles. The print campaign kicked off on 21 September. While the brand campaign had been addressing the transformation, the company, on the other hand was swiftly preparing for a price war in the Indian telecom space. Vodafone started providing mobile handsets to new subscribers at ultra-cheap prices, ranging from Rs. 800 to Rs. 1200. Vodafone Essar launched low priced cell phones in India under the Vodafone brand, and also co-branded handsets sourced from major global vendors. By bringing in millions of low-cost handsets from across the globe into India, Vodafone Essar distributed bundled handsets through its existing 400,000 distribution outlets. By flooding the market with its low-cost handsets, Vodafone also became a mass mobile phone brand like Nokia, Samsung, Motorola, and Sony Ericsson in addition to continuing as telecom services provider. The result of all this activity was that the launch was the most talked about event in Indian media, with over 450 articles. An entire episode of CNBC covered the transition as a case study. Day-after brand recall for Vodafone was 80%, proclaimed by the industry and media as one of the best brand-launches the country has ever seen. Thirty-five million customers transitioned seamlessly into brand Vodafone and within six months of launch, it became the brand of choice for over 44 million subscribers. It was the fastest, most comprehensive and most effective launch witnessed within the Vodafone network.

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Services Provided

Airtel operates in all telecom circles of India, and is the 6th most valued brand according to an annual survey conducted by Brand Finance and The Economic Times in 2010.

3G
On May 18, 2010, 3G spectrum auction was completed and Airtel will have to pay the Indian government 122.95 billion (US$2.23 billion) for spectrum in 13 circles, the most amount

spent by an operator in this auction. Airtel won 3G licences in 13 telecom circles of India: Delhi, Mumbai, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Uttar Pradesh (east), Rajasthan, West Bengal, Himachal Pradesh, Bihar, Assam, North East, and Jammu & Kashmir. Airtel also operates 3G services in Maharashtra, Goa, Kanpur and Kolkata through an agreement with Vodafone and in Gujarat through an agreement with Idea. This gives Airtel a 3G presence in 15 out of 22 circles in India. On September 20, 2010, Bharti Airtel said that it has given contracts to Ericsson India, Nokia Siemens Networks (NSN) and Huawei Technologies to set up infrastructure for providing 3G services in the country. These vendors will plan, design, deploy and maintain 3GHSPA (third generation, high speed packet access) networks in 13 telecom circles where the company has won 3G licences. While Bharti Airtel has awarded network contracts for seven 3G circles to Ericsson India, NSN would manage networks in three circles. Chinese telecom equipment vendor Huawei Technologies has been introduced as the third partner for three circles. On January 24, 2011, Airtel launched 3G services in Bangalore, Karnatakaits largest circle by revenue. With this launch, Airtel became the third private operator (fifth overall) to launch its 3G services in the country following Reliance Communications and Tata Docomo. On January 27, 2011, Airtel launched 3G in Chennai and Coimbatore. On July 27, 2011 Airtel launched 3G in three major cities in Kerala (Trivandrum, Cochin and Calicut). Airtel 3G services are available in 200 cities through its network and in 500 cities through intra-circle roaming arrangements with other operators. Airtel had about 7 million 3G subscribers as of May 2012.

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4G
On 19 May 2010, the broadband wireless access (BWA) or 4G spectrum auction in India ended. Airtel paid 33.1436 billion for spectrum in 4 circles: Maharashtra, Karnataka, Punjab and Kolkata. The company was allocated 20 MHz of BWA spectrum in 2.3 GHz frequency band. Airtel's TD-LTE network is built and operated by ZTE in Kolkata, Huawei in Karnataka, Ericsson in Punjab and Nokia Siemens Networks in Maharashtra. Airtel had 3180 4G subscribers as of May 2012. On 10 April 2012, Airtel launched 4G services using TD-LTE technology in Kolkata, becoming the first company in India to offer 4G services. Airtel launched 4G in Bangalore on 7 May 2012. It will launch services next in Pune and Chandigarh. On 24 May 2012, Airtel announced an agreement to acquire a 49% stake in Qualcomm Asia Pacific (India). Qualcomm holds 4G spectrum and licenses in Delhi, Haryana, Kerala and Mumbai. As per the agreement, by the end of 2014, Airtel will assume full ownership and financial responsibility for 4G operations in these 4 circles.

Airtel Money
Airtel has started a new mCommerce platform called Airtel Money with collaboration with Infosys and SmartTrust (now Giesecke & Devrient). It is launched on April 5, 2012, in Infosys Campus of Bangalore. With the help of Airtel money, users can transfer money, pay bills and other financial transactions using mobile phone.

SmartDrive
SmartDrive is navigation app exclusive to Airtel customers. The app features voicebased turn by turn navigation, real time information update on traffic, approximate time of the travel on the basis of the traffic situation on the various routes and also lets users see their location on the map and plan the journey accordingly. It also suggests the subscriber an alternate route in case of traffic congestion on the normal route. According to Airtel, SmartDrive calculates the traffic on the basis of the number of GPS devices used on a particular road, their average speed, as well as historical trends of traffic on that route. SmartDrive also allows users to search for points of interest like restaurants, theatres and shopping malls. The app also allows users to keep a record of all trips they make when using voice navigation for later reference through the 'Trip Recorder' feature, Wikipedia

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information of places for which information is available and the ability to add frequently visited locations to favorites, in addition to weather information about the place. Airtel will offer navigation at 10 per day or 99 per month. Live traffic will be cost 3 per day or 49 per month. Search and map viewer are available for free. The costs do not include data charges. Airtel states in SmartDrive's that data is only used when the user performs searches or calculates routes. The app is developed by Wisepilot, a mobile navigation solutions provider and uses Navteq Maps for location and traffic info. It was launched on 12 September 2012. At the time of launch, it was available only in Bangalore, Mumbai and NCR. Services are currently available in Chennai. Service will be expanded to Pune and Hyderabad by December 2012.

iPhone
The Apple iPhone 3G was rolled out in India in 2008 by Airtel and Vodafone. However, high prices and contract bonds discouraged consumers and it was not as successful as the iPhone is in other markets of the world. The Apple iPhone 4 was introduced on May 27, 2011 by Airtel and Aircel.

Telemedia
The Telemedia business provides services in 89 Indian cities. Until 18 September 2004, Bharti provided fixed line telephony and broadband services under the Touchtel brand. Bharti now provides all telecom services including fixed line services under a common brand "Airtel". Airtel Broadband provides broadband and IPTV services. Airtel provides both capped as well as unlimited download plans. However, Airtel's unlimited plans are subject to free usage policy (FUP), which reduces speed after the customer crosses a certain data usage limit. In some plans, Airtel provides only 256kbit/s beyond FUP, which is lower than the TRAI specified limit of half the subscriber's original speed. The maximum speed available for home users is 16Mbit/s. Airtel Broadband had about 1.37 million subscribers at the end of July 2012. Airtel has about 3.16 million wireline customers, of which 42.6% are broadband internet subscribers as of August 2010.

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In May 2012, Airtel Broadband and some other Indian ISPs temporarily blocked file sharing websites such as vimeo.com, megavideo.com, thepiratebay.se etc. without giving any legal information to the customers. The block was due to a Madras High Court issued John Doe order taken by Chennai-based Copyright Lab. In response to a petition filed by Vinay B, a resident of Shimoga, Karnataka, the District Consumer Disputes Redressal Forum ordered Airtel to pay 20,000 to the petitioner for "deficiency in internet service" thereby causing mental agony to the complainant. By misinterpreting the Madras High Court order, Airtel blocked entire websites. It is needless to say that the companys actions amount to deficiency in service as well as unfair trade practice, said the forum.

Digital Television
The Digital TV business provides Direct-to-Home (DTH) TV services across India under the brand name Airtel digital TV. It started services on 9 October 2008 and has about 32.44 million customers as of August 2010.

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3G
On 19 May 2010, the 3G spectrum auction in India ended. Vodafone paid 11617.86 million

(the second highest amount in the auctions) for spectrum in 10 circles. The circles it will provide 3G in

are Delhi, Kanpur, Gujarat, Haryana, Kolkata, Maharashtra & Goa, Mumbai, Tamil Nadu, Uttar Pradesh (East) and West Bengal. Vodafone also operates 3G services in Kerala, Andhra Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh (West) through an agreement with Idea and in Karnataka through an agreement with Airtel. This gives Vodafone a 3G presence in 13 out of 22 circles in India. On 16 March, 2011, Vodafone launched 3G services in Uttar Pradesh (East) in the city of Lucknow. Vodafone had already launched limited 3G services in Chennai and Delhi earlier, but the Uttar Pradesh (East) launch counts as its first fully commercial launch. This makes Vodafone the fifth private operator (seventh overall) to launch its 3G services in the country following Tata Docomo, Reliance Communications, Airtel and Aircel. On 23rd June, 2011 Vodafone launched 3G service in Kerala by joining with Idea in an Intra Circle Roaming agreement. Initially Vodafone 3G services will be available in the following cities in Kerala Ernakulam, Aluva, Calicut, Koyilandy, Alappuzha, Cherthala, Malappuram and Manjeri. On 28 June 2012, Vodafone launched a new international roaming package under which the users shall have not to pay multiple rentals in the countries they are visiting.

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PROMOTIONAL STRATEGY

After the liberalization of the Indian Telecom Sector in 1994, the Indian cellular market witnessed a surge in cellular services. By 2005, there were a total of 12 players in the market with the five major players being Bharti Tele-Ventures Limited (Bharti), Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL),Hutchinson-Essar limited (Hutch), Idea Cellular limited (Idea) and Reliance India Mobile (RIM). All the players except RIM offered services based on the Global System for Mobile (GSM) technology. RIM provided services based on Code Division Multiple Access

(CDMA) technology as well as GSM. As competition in the telecom arena intensified; service providers took new initiatives to woo customers. Prominent among these were celebrity endorsements, loyalty rewards, discount coupons, business solutions and talk time schemes. The most important consumer segments in the cellular industry were the youth segment and the business class segment. The youth segment was the largest and fastest growing segment and was therefore targeted most heavily by cellular service providers. Bharti Tele-Ventures adopted celebrity endorsement as its chief promotional strategy. By 2004 it emerged the unprecedented leader commanding the largest market share in the cellular service market. Hutch implemented the celebrity endorsement strategy partially, relying primarily on its creative advertising for the promotion of its brand. BSNL, on the other hand, attracted the consumer through its low cost schemes. Being a state owned player, BSNL could cover rural areas, and this helped it increase its subscriber base. Reliance was another player that cashed on its innovative promotional strategies, which included celebrity endorsements and attractive talk time schemes. Idea relied heavily on its creative media advertising sans celebrities.

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Celebrity Endorsement Strategy

RAHMAN TUNE CROSSES AIRTELS EXCLUSIVITY BARRIER

Cellular service provider AirTel seems to have hit the right note with its new commercial starring musician A R Rahman. The commercial which is currently on air has a beat which also doubles up as a ringtone which is ostensibly available only to AirTel users. But the interesting part is that the ringtone is being flaunted not just by AirTel customers but by customers of rival service providers like BPL, Orange and Dolphin as well! We did expect the tune to catch up but this has really exceeded our expectations, admits Bharti Cellulars chief marketing officer (western region) Pratik Pota. Overall, he explains, it is a great advertising product for AirTel and works like a walking, talking brand ambassador. The ringtone which is also the jingle for AirTels TV commercial, is proving to be a potent advertising tool for the company. It is not very clear what this means for the other cellular operators. Cellular users have been forwarding the tune to one another, which according to Mr Pota, has given AirTel a chance to enter the mind of the user irrespective of which service he opts for. It gives the user a chance to go back to the AirTel product and acts as a strong reminder medium, he explains. Marketing professionals like Samsika Marketing Consultants managing director Jagdeep Kapoor point to the usage of an audio celebrity as something that is significant. The normal practice is to opt for film stars and sportsmen rather than an audio personality he says. Rivals, though seemingly unfazed by the phenomenon, seem to be doing their own homework on this brand of advertising. While none of them commented on AirTels strategy Page | 28

and its impact on their own subscriber base, one advertising professional working with a rival service provider opines that the tune is transient and not likely to have any long term impact as a brand building tool. Being the latest entrant in the Mumbai circle, AirTel has had to find ways of cutting through the clutter. Says Mr Kapoor, AirTel will have try to find ways to attract new customers and convert the existing ones. Explaining that the usage of an audio celebrity was more strategic than tactical, he adds that non-AirTel users will have the AirTel brand experience in spite of not using the service. While Mr Pota highlights the fact that the usage of the tune by other operators means free advertising for AirTel and the users having a positive disposition towards the product, the nature of reaction from competition remains unclear.Competition will not do well to adopt a knee jerk reaction and will have to come out with advertising that is well thought out explains Mr Kapoor. He anticipates a situation where the new entrant (AirTel) will continue to be more aggressive. TENDULKAR & SHAHRUKH Both Tendulkar and King Khan already share the frame for soft drinks major PepsiCo India. Tendulkar is not the first cricketer to endorse Bhartis Airtel brand. Indian captain Saurav Ganguly had done so when Airtel launched its service in the eastern metropolis of Kolkata in 2001. Though company executives were mum on the value of the Tendulkar deal, those in the advertising fraternity peg the signing rate for the three-year deal anywhere between Rs 8 crore and Rs 10 crore. Both Sachin and Shah Rukh are two of the most sought after celeb endorsers in the country, with the former edging out the latter in the celeb endorsement race. The Master Blasters portfolio includes brands like Colgate Pamolive, ESPN-STAR Sports, Pepsi, MRF, Boost, TVS, Palio, Visa, Adiddas and Britannia. The leading brands endorsed by Khan include Hyundai, Pepsi, Airtel, Tag Huer, Clinic All Clear, Bagpiper and Videocon, among others. According to company executives, the idea of roping in Tendulkar is in line with the groups strategy to connect to the mass market through celeb endorsers from movies, cricket and Page | 29

music. For mass connect, Shah Rukh and Sachin are the best bet as brand endorsers, says a senior company executive. Bharti plans to launch a multimedia campaign targeting its service at the mass market.

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Vodafone is one of the leading global brands and in brand value ranking and it is ranked as the 11th largest telecommunication company in the world and 2nd in Europe. In the same way Vodafone Essar is one of the leading telecommunication service providers in India. It serves about 35 million customers who are located in different part of the country. It was during the year 2007, an UK-based Vodafone Group took over Hutchison Essar in India and renamed as Vodafone Essar. Hutchison Essar was controlled by Li Ka-Shing who was a Hong Kong billionaire. Vodafone paid $11.1 billion in order to get the 67% stake of Hutchison Essar. The acquisition of Hutchison Essar in India gave Vodafone an access to enter one of the fastest mobile growing markets, where the providers add about six million new connections every month. Total number of Vodafone Essar Subscribers: 127,364,342, i.e. 22.88% of the total 556,683,683 Indian mobile phone subscribers. Vodafone is known for its unique advertisement campaign such as pug, happy to help service and latest released Zoozoo advertisement campaign. As Vodafone was a new brand in India, it had a challenging task to develop its own entity. The previous name of this Indian company was associated with a pug. Vodafone decided to come with a new persona for itself, so the people of the country can associate it with the company. The company came with a brilliant persona for itself, which was very apt for it, The Zoozoos. Zoozoos are

advertisement characters promoted by Vodafone during the Indian Premier League Season 2 (IPL). Zoozoos are white creatures with ballooned bodies and egg heads who are used to promote various value added services of Vodafone. Each ad used a story which was enacted by the Zoozoos. These ads though look animated are actually real humans in the Zoozoo costumes. The Zoozoo advertisements were created in South Africa by Ogilvy & Mather, an international advertising, marketing, and public relations agency and Nirvana Films (Bangalore base company) used some animated characters to make these advertisements. Page | 31

Ogilvy & Mather, were asked by Vodafone to create a series of 3D advertisements which could be aired each day during the IPL Season 2. The ZooZoos became very famous and popular at little time. They spent near Rs. 30 million to make these advertisements. Nowadays it is one of the most admirable advertisements in India. The campaign created the buzz both in the traditional media as well as in social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter and video sharing website, YouTube, for example, it has 2 million members on Face book page which is increasing rapidly. According to Neo@Ogilvy (digital arm of O&M) who is responsible for managing ZooZoos Facebook brand ZooZoo fan page has received around 2.6 million page views in comparison to only 0.5 million of IPLT20.com. This ad campaign has several implications from the economic perspective. Vodafone operates in what is known as oligopoly. An oligopoly is a market structure that has unique features because it is characterized by a few sellers and mutual interdependence. It is a market where the each seller tries to outdo the other through what is known as price wars (cutting down prices) and non-price wars. Advertising is part of non-price war where a firm tries to outdo its competitors through marketing and/or advertising strategies to generate mass appeal. Zoozoos are part of a unique and innovative advertisement strategy aimed at outdoing the strategies of Vodafones competitors. By the means of ZooZoo Vodafone has tried to represent an image of the urban common man who is the main drive force behind the increased usage of telecom & VAS services in the tele-communication industry. Through ZooZoo character they have tried to showcase how the various offered by Vodafone can be useful for an urban common man. What Vodafone did was they projected the usage of their VAS services through various advertisements based on different themes as per the product (VAS) that they were offering. The various services offered by Vodafone such as chota recharge, group SMS service, busy alert service, fashion tips,recharge anywhere, bhakti songs, stock alert, voice SMS etc were shown to the viewers not by normal advertisement ways but through some funny & catchy ZooZoo ads which were successful in immediately drawing the attention of urban population including all age groups. As far as the reach of the advertisement is concerned, this advertisement campaign could have been made more effective by taking into account the rural population of our country. In all these ZooZoo ads, since Vodafone tried to promote all the Value Added Services offered by them, clearly the targeted customers were the people who would use these Value Added Services. Hence in their ads Vodafone tried to showcase all the VAS services that they have to offer to the customers through different theme specific advertisements. Each of the advertisement was Page | 32

specific to one particular VAS service & revolved around the same to make the customer understand the service. Because of the uniqueness & attractiveness of these ZooZoos, Vodafone was able to draw the attention of the audiences quickly towards these ads & these ads became soon very popular & thus the VAS offered by Vodafone.

Vodafone ZooZoos ZooZoo, the new brand ambassador of Vodafone, has created a furore in the advertising industry. Zoozoos have been successful in giving Vodafone a makeover and establishing maximum brand presence. I consider it to be a perfect example of a well-laid out marketing strategy for the following reasons: Vodafone chose the Indian Premier League 2 (IPL-2) as a platform to launch their advertisement, which proved to be a great marketing strategy. Cricket is considered to be a religion in India, and Zoozoos captured attention of nearly two billion people during the IPL. People eagerly waited for breaks between matches to see more stories about Zoozoo. Zoozoos are small pseudo-animated characters with big egg-shaped head, round belly but extremely thin arms and legs. It was a fresh and innovative concept and Vodafone wonderfully promoted their services by creating different stories featuring Zoozoos. The charm of the Zoozoos was itself a great self-marketing strategy and they were instant success among masses. Within few days, ZooZoos created a huge audience for them, giving a boost to the Vodafone brand. People were already in awe of those cute and lovable characters, but the curiosity heightened when Vodafone disclosed that ZooZoos were not animated, rather humans were playing those characters. People were even more hungry to know about their favorite Zoozoos. In the second phase, after the release of these ads, Vodafone promoted these characters on social media sites, which was another wise decision. Zoozoo fan clubs are there on social networking sites like Facebook, YouTube, Orkut, Twitter, and many more, where they have a huge followings. Now Vodafone has announced to launch the Zoozoo goodies like zoozoo toys, zoozoo mugs, zoozoo key chains, zoozoo t-shirts, etc. Zoozooz have themselves become a brand and it will be interesting to see how Vodafone uses this concept in future to promote their services. Page | 33

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TARGET MARKET SEGMENT

Airtel has targeted the premium and upper middle class. The rationale behind it is that only those segments should be targeted who value time and have the paying capacity. It is also planning to target the business tourists during their stay in the capital about 60% of the clientele are top executives of corporate houses. About 15% are foreign organizations and the rest are professionals and small businessmen. During the introduction stage there was intense pressure to get consumers across to hook up with their brand, because getting them to switch brand loyalty later would be hard So far Airtel marketers have been concentrating totally on the business executive class but now that the basic viable volumes has beer) built up and prices have declined to a certain extent they are planning to venture further field.

POSITIONING The product is sought to be positioned as a business efficiency tool. a lifestyle revolution and status symbol The emphasis is to remove misconception that the cell phone is an expensive means of communication and drive home the point that the cell phone is actually a day-to-day utility

PRODUCT POLICY AND PLANNING The product or services the hearts of the marketing mix. Without a product or a service customers' needs cannot be satisfied. The basic product promise by Airtel is mobility. Airtel's main marketing strategy is to be a first mover all the time. It has recognized the significance of making the first move-- because in the field of Communication & Information Technology changes occur at a tremendous pace. Effective product segmentation has to be carried on continuously because basic services can be and will be copied and in time become expected component of the product. Airtel seeks to carry out this segmentation through provision of new information services and making new facilities available. The product policy and planning depends on the stage of the product life cycle. At present the cellular phone market has reached the maturity stage. Since, the premium segment is nearing saturation the Page | 35

company targeting the upper middle and middle-middle class. In order to do so Airtel is trying to optimize the price performance package by offering suitable product bundling". This involves the selection of the suitable hardware (handset) and its software (its services.) with reasonable price in order to deliver maximum price performance to its customers. In addition, it offers free Airtime services and other concessions to make the prices and thus the product more attractive. It has also opened a 24 hours customer service. Only price doesn't serve as an effective differentiator, value added services become the effective differentiator. The "Value Added Services" provided from Airtel are:-

Voice Mail service 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

Short Message Service 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

Mobile Fax 1 Data Service This service helps the subscriber to send and receive Faxes, access E-mail, download files from other systems and remotely log on to another computer and surf the Internet.

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.

Caller ID Displays calling person's number.

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Outgoing call restriction 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.

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 ET cetera .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 cell phones would be used buy].

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 semiautomatically. 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.

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Vodafone target the rural India. The main targeted customers of Vodafone are from rural India. By offering cheap and light mobile sets Vodafone attracts most of the customers of small villages and towns. Offering cheap handsets Vodafone offers cheap and free connections to all customers. The cost for these sets was Rs-799-849-1099 per set and onward. In every district and big towns Vodafone opens its service centers to provide better support and services Strong logistics and supply chain Vodafone has a strong logistic and supply all over India. In every small town the potential customers can easily purchase the Vodafone SIM & Sets. Targeting youngsters in metropolitans Vodafone attracts youngsters by offering colorful handset at very low prices.

BRAND POSITIONING BY VODAFONE 1. Market segmentation Geographical segment (rural India) Demographic segment - middle income groups

2. Target marketing People living in small towns and villages. Poor and middle income groups. Youngsters in big cities. Businessmen

3. Positioning Creating brands Ads and promotions

4. Marketing mix Price : low price strategy Place : maximum outlets and service centers Page | 38

Product : verities available for various groups Promotion: various schemes for pre-paid and post-paid

Following are the few suggestions to Airtel and Vodafone for improving the market share and image of the products concerned. The brands must be made available easily in, PCO & general stores. Company must undertake extensive promotional activities like advertisements must be released in different Medias to create brand awareness. Sales promotion tools like gifts, contests and coupons must be given to retailers as well as customers and prospects. Catalogues should be distributed among customers. Price should be as competitive as other company maintains . Distribution of new connection should be in reach of customer pocket.

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CHAPTER 3- SWOT ANALYSIS: AIRTEL & VODAFONE

Strengths

Bharti Airtel has more than 65 million customers (July 2008). It is the largest cellular provider in India, and also supplies broadband and telephone services - as well as many other telecommunications services to both domestic and corporate customers.

Other stakeholders in Bharti Airtel include Sony-Ericsson, Nokia - and Sing Tel, with whom they hold a strategic alliance. This means that the business has access to knowledge and technology from other parts of the telecommunications world.

The company has covered the entire Indian nation with its network. This has underpinned its large and rising customer base.

Weaknesses

An often cited original weakness is that when the business was started by Sunil Bharti Mittal over 15 years ago, the business has little knowledge and experience of how a cellular telephone system actually worked. So the start-up business had to outsource to industry experts in the field.

Until recently Airtel did not own its own towers, which was a particular strength of some of its competitors such as Hutchison Essar. Towers are important if your company wishes to provide wide coverage nationally.

The fact that the Airtel has not pulled off a deal with South Africa's MTN could signal the lack of any real emerging market investment opportunity for the business once the Indian market has become mature.

Opportunities

The company possesses a customized version of the Google search engine which will enhance broadband services to customers. The tie-up with Google can only enhance the Airtel brand, and also provides advertising opportunities in Indian for Google.

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Global telecommunications and new technology brands see Airtel as a key strategic player in the Indian market. The new iPhone will be launched in India via an Airtel distributorship. Another strategic partnership is held with BlackBerry Wireless Solutions.

Despite being forced to outsource much of its technical operations in the early days, this allowed Airtel to work from its own blank sheet of paper, and to question industry approaches and practices - for example replacing the Revenue-Per-Customer model with a Revenue-Per-Minute model which is better suited to India, as the company moved into small and remote villages and towns.

The company is investing in its operation in 120,000 to 160,000 small villages every year. It sees that less well-off consumers may only be able to afford a few tens of Rupees per call, and also so that the business benefits are scalable - using its 'Matchbox' strategy.

Bharti Airtel is embarking on another joint venture with Vodafone Essar and Idea Cellular to create a new independent tower company called Indus Towers. This new business will control more than 60% of India's network towers. IPTV is another potential new service that could underpin the company's long-term strategy.

Threats

Airtel and Vodafone seem to be having an on/off relationship. Vodafone which owned a 5.6% stake in the Airtel business sold it back to Airtel, and instead invested in its rival Hutchison Essar. Knowledge and technology previously available to Airtel now moves into the hands of one of its competitors.

The quickly changing pace of the global telecommunications industry could tempt Airtel to go along the acquisition trail which may make it vulnerable if the world goes into recession. Perhaps this was an impact upon the decision not to proceed with talks about the potential purchase of South Africa's MTN in May 2008. This opened the door for talks between Reliance Communication's Anil Ambani and MTN, allowing a competing Inidan industrialist to invest in the new emerging African telecommunications market.

Bharti Airtel could also be the target for the takeover vision of other global telecommunications players that wish to move into the Indian market.

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STRENGTHS: Strong International presence and brand recognition. Solid platform across Europe; HSDPA available in 100% of 3G footprint opening growth opportunities in mobile broadband services. Controlling interest in strong growth markets (e.g. Egypt, Romania, South Africa, Turkey, India). Well-defined cost reduction initiatives: managed purchasing, outsourcing. Stable operating profit despite downward profit trend in Europe offset by improved operations in EMAPA. Have now established a clear route to delivering fixed broadband services in all relevant markets. Consistent in maintaining a 60% payout ratio.

WEAKNESS: Uncertainty in revenue growth in the HSDPA network based on historically slow consumer market take-up of 3G data services. Slow customer growth in DSL wholesale markets in UK and Italy; slow subscriber growth in Spain arising from lower promotional activity. Adverse impact from exchange rate movements particularly in South Africa. The likely slippage of dividends in Verizon Wireless to 2010 could fuel tension between Verizon Communications and Vodafone shareholders. Insubstantial capacity to offer bundled services due to specialisation in mobile services; may lead to higher churn rates and may be pressured to compete exclusively in price.

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OPPORTUNITIES: EMAPA remains target for potential acquisitions, with an average mobile penetration of 27% by end of FY07 ; huge growth opportunity in India in a market of 1.1 bn people with a low 14% mobile penetration 3G data services gaining momentum in business customers; successful partnerships with laptop manufacturers to include embedded Vodafone SIMs to mobile devices allow opportunities for up selling of mobile broadband services In Europe, only one-third of voice traffic is carried over mobile networks and. Vodafone customers has a monthly average of only 140 minutes of use; the trend is parallel with the companys strategy to drive higher voice usage onto mobile through reduction in prices; Vodafone expects usage demand to eventually exceed the price Reduction. THREATS: High mobile penetration in principal market leaves little room for growth. Fierce competition in mature markets, especially with converged Telcos offering triple play and quad-play services; Vodafone lacks a direct substitute for such services. Greater than anticipated competition with internet providers, MVNOs and new entrants; greater than anticipated customer acquisition and retention costs. Regulatory intervention on tariffs creates pressure on revenues; on FY08, the company expects a revenue reduction of 200 mn due to the elimination of top up charges under the Bersani decree in Italy and reduction of 200 mn to 250 mn from the deregulation of roaming charges across Europe.

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Chapter 4 Conclusion & Recommendation

CONCLUSION
After analyzing the findings of the research, I can conclude that Airtel lagged behind its competitors as far as customer service and availability is concerned. The maximum no. of people who use the mobile is in the age group of 20 to 28. Cash cards are the most popular type of mobile connections, as they are consumer friendly and recharging the connection is not a problem. Maximum no. of people spends RS 500 on their connections. As Airtel is the only company having the maximum no of mobile connections so it must seriously look into the loop holes of the existing customer service department. As we know that now Airtel has already launched its product with logo Aisi azaadi aur kahan has already became popular in market. So we can s ay that in spite of so many competitors in the market Airtel is having a good position just because every time, it tries its best to understand the need of its important customers. From the comparison and deep analysis of every aspect of business of both the companies we can conclude that bharti Airtel has to more work in every field of communication business. It is the time not only to survive but to sustain in the market for a long time. For this Airtel has to work on its all marketing strategies, marketing, promotion, brand image.etc. Airtel has to take Vodafone very seriously and update its own strategies from time to time and when the need arises. With aggressive marketing strategies Airtel has to target rural India as 70% of population of India lives in these areas. The other segment may be costumers of all age groups.

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Recommendations
To ensure that every youth has a mobile, service providers have to offer services like SMS/MMS at low cost/free and ensure that the total mobile bill for the youth does not cross Rs.300-400 per month, which is the maximum this segment of customers can afford from their pocket money; To ensure that every household has a mobile connection, it is essential that the utility of mobile phones is increased through better STD and ISD rates vis--vis landline, friends and family offers, special rates to landlines etc., with easy/low deposit schemes to acquire these facilities. To ensure that the penetration targeted in towns and villages is achieved, service providers have to invest in network expansion and reach out on priority; to exploit the untapped potential in these markets. The construction of trust is important for cellular users of telecom industry. As such, it has implications for value added services, market segmentation, and customer retention strategies. Theoretically, conceptualising and modelling trust in telecom sector help to expand scholars knowledge of interactive consumer behaviour in this emerging discipline. This study also shows that technology orientation is a significant factor of mobile users trust. Therefore, telecom service provider needs to ensure that it provides the best network quality and value added services. Airtel, Vodafone should try to expand their customers network. Vodafone should try to attract the young people. (upto 20 years) Airtel should try to attract senior age group also.

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75% of the peoples are unaware about the various services rendered by their service provider. So the service providers try to make awareness of their customers services to their customers.

Airtel, Vodafone should attract the customers by reducing their price. Vodafone customers are highly dissatisfied about the performance of the service provider. So they should try to add some advanced features towards their services.

Vodafone should decreased their dissatisfied customers by Providing good after sales services.

Vodafone should give periodical offers to their customers. Vodafone should decrease their outgoing call charges

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BIBLIOGRAPHY
Websites: www.bharti.com www.vodafone.com www.google.com www.Wikipedia.com www.scribd.com http://www.airtel.in/wps/wcm/connect/about+bharti+airtel/Bharti+Airtel/Investor+Rel ations/Company+Profile/Organisation+Structure/ http://www.airtel.in/wps/wcm/connect/About%20Bharti%20Airtel/Bharti%20Airtel/A bout%20Bharti%20Airtel/Our%20Brand%20Airtel/Our%20Vision%20and%20%20p romise http://www.vodafone.com/start/about_vodafone/who_we_are/history.html http://www.vodafone.com/flash/glp/index.html http://www.google.co.in/search?hl=en&rlz=1R2SKPB_enIN357&q=swot+analysis+f or+vodafone&meta=&aq=0&oq=swot+analysis+for+vo

Magazines: Business world

Books: Marketing Strategies (Sudhir Chawla) Research Methodology (C.R Kothari) Marketing Management (Philip Kotler)

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