MARKETING

ASSIGNMENT ON
AIRTEL (POSITIONING & REPOSITIONING)

Group- 2
Submitted by:
Ru
Biswas (14202128)
Chandrakant Kumar (1422161)
Arijit
Mondal (14202143)
Sumit
Kumar (14202178)
Chhotray Marandi (14202262)

AIRTEL
1)Examine the circumstances in which Bharti launched Airtel and trace the brands
initial days in the backdrop of the emerging cellular telephony market in India. In the
light of the leadership campaign, analyze why Airtel and other cell phone brands were
seen as premium-end offerings.

Sunil Bharti Mitlal was a New Delhi based Business man who started small bicycle-parts
business in 1970s first he entered the telecom business by establishing Bharti Telecom
Limited (BTL) that manufactured Telephonic equipment. Over the years it entered into other
business related to telecom industry. The main services of the bharti group included Airtel
(cellular), Mantra (Internet Services) and beetel (telephone instruments).In 1992,Bharti
entered the cellular market launching services in Delhi.Airtel was launched when 80% of the
people didnt even heard the term cellular Services. That was only confined to the premium
class people. In the early 2000s bharti invested heavily in the acquisitions and the alliances
to expand its cellular market in India. As a part of this, Bharti acquired IT Mobile (AP &
Karnataka), skycell (Chennai) and Spice Cell (Kokata).It also collaborated with BPL to gain
seamless access in Mumbai, Maharastra, Chennai, Delhi, Kerala, Tamil Nadu ,AP and
Karnataka. Bharti launched Airtel as a postpaid cellular service in Delhi in November 1995.
The company redefined the way cellular service were being marketed in the country. Airtel
was the first cellular operator to set up cellular showrooms. It opened its first showroom
Airtel Connect in Delhi, in late 1995. Bharti was also the first cellular company to install a
second mobile switching center. The company was first to provide roaming cellular services
and other value added services such as smart mail, fax, call hold, cal waiting and information
services. It was also the first company to launch an online e-commerce portal that enabled
customers to make online payments.
The tariff rates charged by the government were quite high. Air time charges were as high as
Rs16 per minute as against Rs.1.20 for land line communication.
Thus, all players targeted the premium sector, which could afford the rates. Airtel was also
positioned for the elite class. Airtel launched the Leadership Services campaign which
featured successful men and women with their deluxe cars, carrying laptops and using cell
phones. So people started thinking that Airtel was an aspirational brand, which was meant for
leaders and celebrities. People began associating three core benefits with the Airtel brand
leadership, performance and dynamism. Other supportive values associated with the brand

included courtesy, politeness and efficiency. So Airtel and other brands were treated as
premium-class brands.

2)Explain the reasons behind the leadership campaign being replaced by the Touch
Tomorrow campaign. Also critically comment on the campaigns decision to replace
Touch Tomorrow with live every moment.
Though the Leadership services campaign was successful and resettled in a marginal
improvement in Airtel performance, it failed to attract more customers as it failed to add an
emotional dimension to the brand. Analysis perceived the brand to be distant, effective and
cold. The surveys also revealed that the concept of leadership was itself undergoing a
transformation. The public perceived the campaign as leaders are people who worked with a
team to achieve common objectives rather than those who dictated terms to their
subordinates. The surveys also indicated that 50% of the new subscribers adopted a cellular
service from the advice of their close ones. So Airtel realized the fact that customerrelationship was of great importance and lacking an emotional or humanized touch was a
major weakness. So in August 2000, bharti launched its new Touch Tomorrow which aimed
at strengthening its relationship with customers. The new campaign and the positioning was
designed to highlight the relationship angle and make the brand softer and more sensitive
previously Airtel was perceived as a premium brand ,now the new positioning is intended to
add warmth to these attributes. The new commercial developed for this campaign reflected
human, aspirational, family centric and software brand values while promising easy reach.
The campaign looks into the needs of the tomorrow customer. The new branding initiative
takes into cognizance the findings that consumers consider Airtel as a brand of the successful
people and a preferred address. In early 2002, Airtel changed its logo and tagline from Touch
Tomorrow to live every moment to give Airtel a younger look. The new logo symbolized
innovation, energy and friendliness. The company reportedly allocated Rs.1 billion for media
coverage and other brand building activities.Airtels brand identity and campaign will now
have a new younger and international look and feel that builded on the earlier positioning of
Touch Tomorrow, injected with renewed energy and heightened optimism. The shif to live
every moment from touch tomorrow had nevertheless, proved that Bharti is consistently on
the lookout for best marketing strategies for Airtel.

3) Do u think Bharti has not been giving enough time for one positioning plank to prove
effective before moving on the next? What are the merits and demerits of frequently
changing a brands positioning?
Bharti has been giving enough time for one positioning before shifting to the other one. Now
the technology is growing so fast that the needs and behaviour of people is changing so
rapidly. What people think today is not what they thought yesterday. Their views and
opinions keep changing quite frequently. Today, anything is reaching the consumers very
fastly. So the time lapse between two different positioning of Airtel is quite enough for a
positioning to prove effective. That time is enough for that positioning to show impact on the
people before they get bored. The advantages are quite high compared to the disadvantages.

MERITS:
1. Gives a new look to the brand.
2. Changes the impact that is created.
3. Changes the way that it is perceived.
4. If the old campaign has no good response, then the new logo may get good response.
5. This helps in rectifying the mistakes that were done for the old campaign.
6. Can be changed according to changing trends and needs.
7. Different campaigns may reach different segments of people thus reaching all the
people.

DEMERITS:
1. Frequent changing may cause negative impact on people. People may not associate
themselves with any single campaign.
2. Frequent changing may create an impact of instability.
3. Sum times the new campaign may get introduced before the old one reaches the
people.

4) In the light of the intensifying competition in the Indian cellular telephony market
and the fact that almost all players have begun focussing strongly on the marketing
front, what should Bharti do to ensure that it retains its market leadership position?

In 2003, Airtel changed its tagline once again and the new tagline was express yourself.
This dynamism should be maintained in future to build a more comprehensive and stronger.
There was more focus in emotional angle to differentiate the brand.
Airtel was the first cellular service provider to start customer centres (Airtel connects), thus
setting a trend of effective and responsive CRM system and it should be maintained.
They introduced innovative and low priced and youth oriented schemes(example campus
pack, student pack) schemes for attracting mass. They kept the compensation low by strategic
alliances and acquisitions. They followed aggressive rural market penetration using existing
infrastructure and by implementing innovative and focussed schemes. They also did
promotion in regional languages to attract rural mass.
Airtel widened the network coverage area which led to the increase in quality of service and
interconnectivity. They introduced innovative value added services such as e-recharge using
sms. They also introduced technology introduction such as 3G, M-commerce (example mcheck, ATM recharge). They made a better use of internet and transforming it into a direct
communication channel.