A PROJECT REPORT ON

BHARTI AIRTEL LIMITED

SUBMITTED BY

Mr. DENIS SAMUEL

FOR THE DEGREE OF

THE BACHELOR OF MANAGEMENT STUDIES

UNIVERSITY OF MUMBAI

UNDER THE GUIDANCE OF

Ms. SUNITA PAWAR

S.I.E.S. COLLEGE OF COMMERCE AND ECONOMICS

SION (EAST), MUMBAI - 400 022

ACADEMIC YEAR 2010-2011

 DECLARATION

I, Denis Samuel, studying in the Third Year of Bachelor

of Management Studies course in the academic year
20010-11 at S.I.E.S College of Commerce & Economics,
Sion (East), hereby declare that I have completed the project
titled “Bharti Airtel Limited” as a part of the course
requirements of Bachelor of Management Studies of
University of Mumbai.

I further declare that the information presented in this

project is true and original to the best of my knowledge.

Date:
Place: Mumbai

2
 DENIS SAMUEL

CERTIFICATE

I, Ms. Sunita Pawar hereby certify that, Mr. Denis

Samuel studying in the Third Year of Bachelor of
Management Studies course at the S.I.E.S College of
Commerce & Economics, Sion (East), has completed a
project on “Bharti Airtel Limited” under my guidance in
the academic year 2010-11.

I further declare that the information presented in this

project is true and original to the best of my knowledge.

Date:

Place: Mumbai Ms. Sunita

Pawar

3
 College Seal PRINCIPAL

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

In making this project report a lot of people have

contributed by giving me the required knowledge and time, I
would like to thank all of them.

My special thanks to all respondents without whose

cooperation my research would not be realistic. I would also
take this opportunity to express sincere gratitude to the
library staff who provided me with the right information and
study material at the right time.

It is because of their assistance and competence that I

have reached this milestone.

I would like to express my gratitude and sincere thanks

to my Project Guide Ms. Sunita Pawar, S.I.E.S College of
Commerce and Economics for instilling confidence in me to

4
carry out this study and extending valuable guidance and
encouragement from time to time, without which it would
not have been possible to undertake and complete this
project.

I also wish to extend my appreciation to the

management and staff of my college, especially the chief co-
ordinator of BMS Mr. Rajkumar Bagadia and our principal Dr.
(Mrs) Minu Thomas, for their kind co-ordination and support.
And last but not the least my colleagues for their valuable
comments and suggestions for making this a cherishable
experience for me.

DENIS SAMUEL

CONTENTS

Page No.
Chapter-I

Acknowledgment
4
Executive Summary
7
Introduction
8
Methodology
14
Limitations 14

5
 Chapter-II

Objective 15
Airtel Enterprise Services
16
Airtel Growth Strategy
19
Promotional Strategy 21
Marketing Strategy
22
Relationship Management
23
Celebrity Endorsement Strategy
25
Competition and Challenges ahead for Airtel
28
Revenue Market share
31
SWOT Analysis 33
BCG Matrix
37
Ansoff Matrix 38
Industry Structure Porter’s Model
40
5 Force Model 42

Chapter-III

Article (Bharti Airtel / Manchester United Agreement)

48

Chapter-IV

Company Profile 51

6
 Chapter-V

Primary Data
59

Chapter-VI

Case Study
72

Chapter-VII

Findings 75
Recommendations
76
Conclusion 77
Bibliography
78

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

7
Communication is of great significance in the present world. Without proper
communication it would be really very difficult to co-ordinate and manage even the
smallest possible thing.

Thus, I have selected this topic due to increasing importance of telecommunication and
the greater competition that exists among the different companies.

This report on Bharti Airtel is done to find out certain objective regarding the strategic
approach adopted by Airtel to stand strongly in the competitive telecom market. Airtel’s
marketing strategies are analysed using various models like SWOT analysis, BCG
Matrix, Ansoff’s matrix, porter’s five forces etc.

The outcomes of these models are properly analyzed to find out the various aspects like
companies position and competitors position in the market.

This report on Airtel does not only give description about the company but also talks
about the various marketing strategies adopted by the company.

SWOT analysis of Airtel helps to find out the weak points of the company and in finding
out the ways to overcome that problem.

Similarly with the help of Ansoff matrix the different strategic options available to the
company under the different market condition can be found. And also to find the answer
as to why company is looking for overseas market like Nigeria and Seychelles.

INTRODUCTION

8
The telecom industry is one of the fastest growing industries in India. India has nearly
200 million telephone lines making it the third largest network in the world after China
and USA. With a growth rate of 45%, Indian telecom industry has the highest growth rate
in the world.

History of Indian Telecommunications started in 1851 when the first operational land
lines were laid by the government near Calcutta (seat of British power). Telephone
services were introduced in India in 1881. In 1883 telephone services were merged with
the postal system. Indian Radio Telegraph Company (IRT) was formed in 1923. After
independence in 1947, all the foreign telecommunication companies were nationalized to
form the Posts, Telephone and Telegraph (PTT), a monopoly run by the government's
Ministry of Communications. Telecom sector was considered as a strategic service and
the government considered it best to bring under state's control.

The first wind of reforms in telecommunications sector began to flow in 1980s when the
private sector was allowed in telecommunications equipment manufacturing. In 1985,
Department of Telecommunications (DOT) was established. It was an exclusive provider
of domestic and long-distance service that would be its own regulator (separate from the
postal system). In 1986, two wholly government-owned companies were created: the
Videsh Sanchar Nigam Limited (VSNL) for international telecommunications and
Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Limited (MTNL) for service in metropolitan areas.

In 1990s, telecommunications sector benefited from the general opening up of the

economy. Also, examples of telecom revolution in many other countries, which resulted
in better quality of service and lower tariffs, led Indian policy makers to initiate a change
process finally resulting in opening up of telecom services sector for the private sector.
National Telecom Policy (NTP) 1994 was the first attempt to give a comprehensive
roadmap for the Indian telecommunications sector. In 1997, Telecom Regulatory
Authority of India (TRAI) was created. TRAI was formed to act as a regulator to
facilitate the growth of the telecom sector. New National Telecom Policy was adopted in
1999 and cellular services were also launched in the same year.

Telecommunication sector in India can be divided into two segments: Fixed Service
Provider (FSPs), and Cellular Services. Fixed line services consist of basic services,
national or domestic long distance and international long distance services. The state
operators (BSNL and MTNL), account for almost 90 per cent of revenues from basic
services. Private sector services are presently available in selective urban areas, and
collectively account for less than 5 per cent of subscriptions. However, private services
focus on the business/corporate sector, and offer reliable, high- end services, such as

9
leased lines, ISDN, closed user group and video conferencing.

Cellular services can be further divided into two categories: Global System for Mobile
Communications (GSM) and Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA). The GSM sector
is dominated by Airtel, Vodafone-Hutch, and Idea Cellular, while the CDMA sector is
dominated by Reliance and Tata Indicom. Opening up of international and domestic long
distance telephony services are the major growth drivers for cellular industry.

Cellular operators get substantial revenue from these services, and compensate them for
reduction in tariffs on airtime, which along with rental was the main source of revenue.
The reduction in tariffs for airtime, national long distance, international long distance,
and handset prices has driven demand.

Bharti Airtel Limited, a group company of Bharti Enterprises, is Asia’s leading integrated
telecom services provider with operations in India and Sri Lanka and an aggregate of
over 96.6 million customers as of end of March 2009, consisting of 93.92 million mobile
customers. Bharti Airtel Limited has been voted as India's most innovative company, in a
survey conducted by The Wall Street Journal.

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About Airtel

• Airtel comes to us from Bharti Airtel Limited, India’s largest integrated and the
first private telecom services provider with a footprint in all the 23 telecom
circles.

• Airtel was born free, a force unleashed into the market with a relentless and
unwavering determination to succeed.

• Airtel, in just ten years of operations, rose to the pinnacle to achievement and
continues to lead.

• As India's leading telecommunications company Airtel brand has played the role
as a major catalyst in India's reforms, contributing to its economic resurgence.

• Today it touches people’s lives with their Mobile services, Telemedia services, to
connecting India's leading 1000+ corporates.

• The businesses at Bharti Airtel have been structured into three individual strategic
business units (SBU’s) - Mobile Services, Airtel Telemedia Services & Enterprise
Services.

• The mobile business provides mobile & fixed wireless services using GSM
technology across 23 telecom circles while the Airtel Telemedia Services business
offers broadband & telephone services in 94 cities.

• The Enterprise services provide end-to-end telecom solutions to corporate

customers and national & international long distance services to carriers. All these
services are provided under the Airtel brand.

VISION

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BY 2010 AIRTEL WILL BE THE MOST ADMIRED BRAND IN
INDIA:

 LOVED BY MORE CUSTOMERS.

 TARGETED BY TOP TALENT.

 BENCHMARKED BY MORE BUSINESS.

Mission

To be globally
admired for
telecom services
that delight
customers.

We will meet global standards for telecom services that

delight customers through:

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• Customer Service Focus

• Empowered Employees

• Cost Efficiency

• Unified Messaging Solutions

• Innovative products and services

• Error- free service delivery

13
14
 Bharti Enterprises

Type Public, Listed on BSE : 532454

Founded 1985

Headquarters New Delhi, India

Key people Sunil Bharti Mittal (Chairman and CEO)

Telecommunication, Retail, Insurance, Digital

Industry TV

Airtel Mobile and Fixed-Line

Telecommunication operator, Bharti AXA
Products insurance, Bharti Wal Mart retails and Airtel
Digital TV service

Revenue $6 Billion

15
 METHODOLOGY

PRIMARY DATA SOURCES

16
  Interviews

SECONDARY SOURCE

 Internet
 Newspaper
 Magazines
 Others

LIMITATIONS

The present study is subjected to following LIMITATIONS.

1. Method of data collection was through Interviews and therefore improper

response becomes a major limitation.

2. Due to the time constraints all the customers were not covered.

3. Owing to their pre occupation some customers were unable to answer while
interviewed.

4. The respondents chosen were mainly from Mumbai city. So the results don’t
include the responses of rural customers.

OBJECTIVE

The Indian communications scenario has transformed into a multiplayer, multi product
market with varied market size and segments. Within the basic phone service the value

17
chain has split into domestic/local calls, long distance players, and international long
distance players. Apart from having to cope with the change in structure and culture
(government to corporate), Airtel has had to gear itself to meet competition in various
segments – basic services, long distance (LD), International Long Distance (ILD), and
Internet Service Provision (ISP). It has forayed into mobile service provision as well.

Objective of study are:

 What marketing strategies Airtel is implementing to defend and increase the

market share

 To find who are the competitors of Airtel and the market shares of the competitors
and what strategies Airtel is implementing to beat its competitors.

 To find out how Airtel react to the technology changes in the communications
sector.

AIRTEL ENTERPRISE SERVICES

The Company is a part of Bharti Enterprises, and is India's leading provider of

18
telecommunications services. The businesses at Bharti Airtel have been structured into
three individual strategic business units (SBU’s) - mobile services, broadband &
telephone services (B&T) & enterprise services. The mobile services group provides
GSM mobile services across India in 23 telecom circles, while the B&T business group
provides broadband & telephone services in 90 cities. The Enterprise services group has
two sub-units - carriers (long distance services) and services to corporate. All these
services are provided under the Airtel brand. It includes

• Voice Services
• Mobile Services
• Satellite Services
• Managed Data & Internet Services
• Managed e-Business Services

Voice Services
Bharti Airtel became the first private fixed-line service provider in India. It is now
promoted under the Airtel brand. Recently, the Government opened the fixed-line
industry to unlimited competition. Airtel has subsequently started providing fixed-line
services in the four circles of Delhi, Haryana, Madhya Pradesh, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu
& UP (West).
Airtel Enterprise Services believes that these circles have high telecommunications
potential, especially for carrying Voice & Data traffic. These circles were strategically
selected so as to provide synergies with Airtel’s long distance network and Airtel’s
extensive mobile network.
Airtel Enterprise Services, India's premium telecommunication service, brings to you a
whole new experience in telephony. From integrated telephone services for Enterprises
and small business enterprises to user-friendly plans for Broadband Internet Services
(DSL), we bring innovative, cost-effective, comprehensive and multi-product solutions to
cater to all your telecom and data needs.

Voice - Product Portfolio

Airtel Enterprise Services telephone services go beyond basic telephony to offer our users
a whole host of Value Added Services as well as premium add-ons. Each telephone
connection from Airtel Enterprise Services is backed by a superior fibre-optic backbone
for enhanced reliability and quality telephony. Few of the Value Added Services offered
are Calling Line Identification, Three Party Conferencing, Dynamic Lock, Hunting
Numbers, and Parallel Ringing etc.
Airtel Enterprise Services Voice Services provide Free Dial-up Internet access that is
bundled along with your Telephone connection from Airtel. It’s fast, reliable and gives
you unlimited Internet access.

Mobile Services

19
Airtel’s mobile footprint extends across the country in 21 telecom circles. It’s service
standards compare with the very best in the world. In fact, that’s how Bharti has managed
to win the trust of millions of customers and makes it one of the top 5 operators in the
world, in terms of service and subscriber base.

The company has several Firsts to its credit:

• The First to launch full roaming service on pre-paid in the country.

• The First to launch 32K SIM cards.
• The First in Asia to deploy the multi band feature in a wireless network for
efficient usage of spectrum.
• The First to deploy Voice Quality Enhancers to improve voice quality and
acoustics.
• The First telecom company in the world to receive the ISO 9001:2000
certification from British Standards Institute

Satellite Services

Airtel Enterprise Services provides you connectivity where ever you take your business
Our Satellite Services bring you the benefits of access in remote locations. Airtel
Enterprise Services is a leading provider of broadband IP satellite services and
DAMA/PAMA services in India. Their solutions support audio, video and voice

20
applications on demand.
Satellite Services include :

• PAMA/DAMA
• BIT - Internet
• VPN
• Satellite based IPLCs for redundancy reasons

Managed Data & Internet Services

Airtel Enterprise Services brings you a comprehensive suite of data technologies. So they
are able to support all types of networks and ensure their customers can migrate their
network to the future seamlessly. Their Managed Data & Internet services make their
customers future proof.
Managed Data & Internet Services include :

• MPLS
• ATM
• FR
• Internet
• IPLC
• Leased Lines
• Customised Solutions
• International Managed Services
• Metro Ethernet

Managed e-Business Services

Airtel Enterprise Services offers an internationally benchmarked, carrier class hosting,

storage and business continuity services.
A range of services that help to keep your business running the way you want- 24x7.
Thanks to their world-class high tech Data Centers.
Managed e-Business Services include :

•
• Co-lo: Dedicated and Shared
•
• BCRS Services
• • Web hosting

AIRTEL GROWTH STRATEGY

21
MANTRA: Focus on Core Competencies and outsource the rest!

Airtel has partnered with leading players in telecommunication sector across the globe. It
has managed to work with the best of domain specialists globally and emerge as a world
class entity. Partnerships include operational contracts with marquee vendors and
strategic investors ranging from private equity investors to global telecom giants.
Following are the major partnerships of AIRTEL:

• Warburg Pincus – a celebrated PE investor held a stake for a substantial period

of time and was instrumental in providing Airtel support in its early stages.

• Vodafone was a strategic investor in Airtel. The investment made by

Vodafone in BHARTI is one of the largest investments made in Indian
telecom sector.

• Temasek – the Singapore based investor holds a considerable stake in it.

• Ericsson was given the mandate to provide, manage and maintain the
equipment as well as provide quality assurance in Airtel‘s then 13 mobile
circles.

• IBM was given the mandate to handle the back office requirements of Airtel’s
presence in India

• The company has a strategic alliance with Singtel. The investment made by
SingTel is one of the largest investment made in the world outside Singapore.

• In the case of broadband and telephone services and enterprise services,

equipment suppliers include Siemens, Nortal and corning.

• The call centre operations for the mobile services have been outsourced to
IBM Daksh, Mphasis and Hinduja TMT.

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ACHIEVEMENTS

• First to launch Cellular service on November 1995.

• First operator to revolutionaries the concept of retailing with the inauguration of

Airtel Connect (exclusive showrooms) in 1995.

• First to introduce push button phone in India.

• First to expand its network with the installation for second mobile switching
center in April, 1997 and the first to introduce the Intelligent Network Platform.
First to provide Roaming to its subscribers by forming an association called
World 1 Network.

• First to provide roaming facility in USA. Enjoy the mobile roaming across 38
partner networks & above 700 cities. Moreover roam across international
destinations in 119 countries including USA, Canada, and UK etc with 284
partner networks.

• It is also the first company to export its products to the USA.

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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, BHARTI AIRTEL took new initiatives
to woo customers. Prominent among these were-celebrity endorsements, loyalty rewards,
discount coupons, business solutions and talk time schemes. AIRTEL has used most
number of celebrities for advertisements. The list includes-Sachin, Shahrukh, Rehmaan,
Saif Ali Khan, Kareena Kapoor, Zaheer Khan etc. 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 provider.

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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 MARKETING STRATEGY

Core Value of Airtel –

• Performance
• Dynamism
• Leadership

Targeting –

• Elite
• Up market professionals
• Entrepreneur with business plans
• Low income mass category
• Youth
• Women and senior citizens by post paid connection

Advertisement-
Airtel basically uses two appeals to connect to the users

• Emotional
• Humorous

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 RELATIONSHIP MANAGEMENT

Accordingly, Airtel was the first cellular service provider to start customer centres (called
Airtel connects), where customers could pay their bills, apply for new connections and
touch and feel new handset models.

The way to the future, though, seems to be through product innovations such as easy
charge (recharging prepaid connection through SMS), hello tunes, the Blackberry option,
stock tickers and M-cheques (mobile credit cards).

The customer care centers, too, are metamorphosing into "relationship centres", one-stop
shops where subscribers can not only pay their bills and have their queries answered, they
can shop for new phones, surf the net and enjoy a cup of coffee. "What matters is what
the customers want," points out Mittal.

Based on their vision statement their product Promotion strategy and Ad Campaign is
based. Airtel is an amazingly successful brand. It has very visible advertising, with a
fairly high share of voice.

As mobile services are an extremely competitive (cutthroat?) category, there are a

number of advertising renditions that happen. One of the most interesting as a
consumer was the one with A. R. Rahman in Hyde Park, was it, playing with an
assortment of musicians even as an adoring recording artist listens to the music that
is carried through Airtel mobile's service. It was a brilliant track. Airtel had
integrated this piece of communication, making it a fairly popular ringtone. Every
second Airtel user had this ringtone and enthusiastic guys even used it in their cars
as they reversed.

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• AR Rahman’s SIGNATURE TUNE

• BRAND AMBASSADOR TWO OF INDIA’s BIGGEST CELEBRITIES

SACHIN TENDULKAR & SHAHRUKH KHAN

AIRTEL – EXPRESS YOURSELF

Brands often lose their way when their communication deviates from a tried and tested
property just to be different. This is not a situation that cannot be salvaged, though.
Brands stray when they try to be different for the sake of being different. The desire to be
different is pretty common in advertising. And this desire to be different usually means a
break from the past.

27
AIRTEL’s Ads are trend setting Ads and considered a landmark Product promotion,
which they are doing for their Broad Band and telephone services are also a land mark
promotion campaign.

Promotions, whose need is increasingly being felt by the surging services sector, will
click if they realize marketing objectives and reinforce brand values.

Other precautions too need to be taken in the case of promotions. For instance, too
many promotions can be detrimental to the health of a brand. A brand, which is
perpetually on price-off, would not only lose key brand attributes but also consumer
interest. The consumer's reasoning being if a product is cheaper now, does it mean I
was being overcharged earlier?

Similarly, if a brand is always doling out freebies, sales would be affected when there are
no freebies on offer.

Marketers agree that no matter the market segment, for any promotion to be successful it
has to be a part of an overall marketing strategy and not a one-off sales-driving initiative.

CELEBRITY ENDORSEMENT STRATEGY

RAHMAN TUNE CROSSES AIRTEL’S 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 Cellular’s 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 AirTel’s 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.

28
“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 AirTel’s
strategy 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”
inspite 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.

29
 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 Bharti’s 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 Shahrukh 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
Blaster’s portfolio includes brands like Colgate Pamolive, ESPN-STAR Sports, Pepsi,

30
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
group’s strategy to connect to the mass market through celeb endorsers from movies,
cricket and 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.

COMPETITION AND CHALLENGES AHEAD FOR AIRTEL

The year 2002 was the defining year for the growth of telecom services in the country.
By the end of the year, the country was having eight basic and 12 cellular operators,
including state-owned Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd. (BSNL) and Mahanagar Telephone
Nigam Ltd. (MTNL), offering services across the country.The mobile phone market is a
rapidly growing and dynamic one. The strategy for all the companies is to consistently
build on the three pillars of innovative products/services, technology and customer
service and offer relevant value .

With BSNL's launch, are the private players worried all the service providers are also
getting more and more technology savvy to keep a pace with the changing scenario.

31
Following is the List of major GSM service provider in the Country.

MAJOR MARKET PLAYERS

The major competitor of AIRTEL is Hutch & BSNL on GSM network.

Telecoms are rolling out like never before. And that 100-million mark doesn't look too
far away. The mobile subscriber base crossed 65 million in September 2005, an over-30
percent increase over the previous year.

AIRTEL

Last quarter, market leader Airtel (22 per cent market share, over 15 million mobile
subscribers, source: Cellular Operators Association of India) witnessed its highest-ever
net addition of 1.8 million mobile customers in a single quarter. And it's not slowing
down; the company's busy rolling out networks, targeting its presence in over 4,500
towns and locations (from 3,200 in September) in the next three-four months.

HUTCH

Hutch, with over 10 million subscribers (15 per cent market share) may be No. 4 (behind
Reliance and BSNL) at present, but it has the highest average revenue per user.

32
With the acquisition of BPL Mobile, its subscriber base is increased to about 13.5 million
later this month when the merger is formalized - pushing it up to the No. 2 slot. Of
course, right now, the focus is more on its orange-pink transformation.

FEW POSITIVE STEPS TAKEN BY BHARTI Group’s AIRTEL TO STAY AHEAD

OF THE CONDITION ARE AS FOLLOWS:
USP’s
According to Sanjay Kapoor, Joint President, Mobility at Bharti the number of cellular
subscribers in India will treble to 300 million in the next three to five years.
• In the year ended March 2005, Bharti increased its net ads by 67 per cent, compared
with the market’s growth of 55 per cent.

• In the year to March 2006, Bharti’s new subscriber growth was 78 percent, versus 73
per cent in the broader market.

• Instead of funneling huge CAPEX on infrastructure, processes and people, he tested

what he considered a “true utility computing model” by outsourcing the company’s
call center and business IT systems,

• They have plans to outsource content and service delivery systems in the near term.
To carry it out, they partnered with the likes of IBM, Nortel and Oracle and utilized
different payment models from revenue per share to cost per all, depending on what
works for the parties involved.

• AIRTEL has on-demand model, which has effectively supported the company’s rapid
growth curve. Bharti now serves 18 million subscribers and targets to reach 100
million marks in four to five years’ time.

• The company has also unified its fixed line, ISP, IDD and mobile business under one
brand, Bharti Airtel.

• Now operators could test blended formula that puts into account revenue, churn rate,
customer statistics as part of the equation and decide on which agreement will work
best.

• They have ventured into Broadband for Internet Telephony as well as landline.

• 3G Network has been started to make it more user-friendly and give users more value
for their Money by showing Live streaming on Mobile itself.

33
 AIRTEL IS A PAN INDIA MOBILE SERVICE PROVIDER WITH BEST
INFRASTRUCTURE AND FACILITY AND A WIDE VISION FOR GROWTH.

REVENUE MARKET SHARE – BHARTI AIRTEL LEADS

34
TRAI data reveals that the overall wireless industry revenues grew 3.3% qoq in 4Q
after remaining flat in the previous 3 quarters. At the end of FY 2010 [March-
10], Bharti Airtel still leads the Revenue Market share in Wireless segment with
a Pan India share of 32% down from 32.8% a year ago and a peak of 33.9% in
June-09. This is how Wireless Operators rank w.r.t Revenue Market Share at
the end of March-2010.

 Bharti Airtel 32%

 Vodafone 20.8% [Consistent]

 Idea Cellular 12.7% [Moderate Growth, but commendable]

 Reliance Communications -11.7% [ Losing to competition ]

 BSNL 9.3% [ Loser]

 Tata Tele [ Gaining on the back of DoCoMo’s innovative strategies

 Aircel 4%

The following Chart shows how Wireless Operators Revenue Market Share varied
in the Past 1 Year.

Bharti Airtel Magic touch for revenues continues in many Telecom Circles across India.

35
 The following Chart shows the breakup of Revenues for the Top 6 Operators
across all Telecom Circles.

For example,

In Karnataka Circle – Bharti Airtel commands 50% Revenue Share. Vodafone 14%, Tata
Docomo 11% and BSNL around 8%.

ANALYSIS

36
 SWOT ANALYSIS

Following is the SWOT Analysis for AIRTEL

Very focused on telecom.

STRENGTH WEAKNESS
Leadership in fast growing
cellular segment.
Pan-India footprint.
The only Indian operator,
other than VSNL, that
Price Competition from
has an international
BSNL and MTNL
submarine cable.
Untapped Rural market

Competition from other

The fast-expanding IPLC
cellular and mobile
market.
operators.
Latest technology and low
Saturation point in Basic
cost advantage.
telephony service
Huge market.

OPPORTUNITIES THREATS

STRENGTH

37
 Very Focused On Telecom.

Bharti Airtel is largely focused on the telecom; around 93% of the total revenue
comes from telecom (Total telecom revenue Rs 3,326).

 Leadership in Fast Growing Cellular Segment.

Airtel is holding leadership position in cellular market. Bharti Airtel is one of

India's leading private sector providers of telecommunications services based on
an aggregate of 27,239,757 customers as on August 31, 2006, consisting
of 25,648,686 GSM mobile and 1,591,071 broadband & telephone customers.

 PAN India Footprint.

Airtel offers the most expansive roaming network. Letting you roam anywhere in
India with its Pan-India presence, and trot across the globe with International
Roaming spread in over 240 networks. The mobile services group provides GSM
mobile services across India in 23 telecom circles, while the B&T business group
provides broadband & telephone services in 92 cities.

 The Only Operator in INDIA other then VSNL having International

Submarine Cables.

Airtel, the monopoly breaker shattered the Telecom monopoly in the

International Long Distance space with the launch of International Submarine
cable Network i2i jointly with Singapore Telecommunications Ltd. in the year
2002. This has brought a huge value to the IPLC customers, delivering them an
option besides the incumbent carrier, to connect to the outside world.

38
 WEAKNESS

 Price Competition from BSNL and MTNL.

Airtel has tough competition from the operators like BSNL nd MTNL as these
two operators are offering services at a low rate.

 Untapped Rural market.

Although Airtel have strong Presence throughout the country but still they are far
away from the Indian rural part and generally this part is covered by BSNL so
indirectly Airtel is loosing revenue from the rural sector.

OPPORTUNITIES

 The Fast Extending IPLC Market.

An IPLC (international private leased circuit) is a point-to-point private line used

by an organization to communicate between offices that are geographically
dispersed throughout the world. An IPLC can be used for Internet access, business
data exchange, video conferencing, and any other form of telecommunication.
Airtel Enterprise Services and SingTel jointly provide IPLCs on the Network i2i.
The Landing Station in Singapore is managed by SingTel and by Airtel in
Chennai (India). Each Landing Station has Power Feeding Equipment, Submarine
Line Terminating Equipment and SDH system to power the cable, add
wavelengths and convert the STM-64 output to STM-1 data streams respectively.

 Latest Technology and Low Cost Advantage.

The costs of introducing cellular services for Airtel are marginal in nature, as it
needs only to augment its cellular switch/equipment capacity and increase the
number of base stations. The number of cities, towns and villages it has covered
already works to its advantage as putting more base stations for cellular coverage
in these areas comes with negligible marginal cost. Besides such cost advantages,
it has also other cost advantages for the latest cellular technology. As a late
entrant into the cellular market, it has dual advantage of latest technology with
modern features, unlike other private cellular operators who started their service

39
 more than 4-5 years back and low capital cost due to advantages of large scale
buying of cellular switch/equipment.

 Huge Market.

The cellular telephony market is presently expanding at a phenomenal / whopping

rate every year and there is still vast scope for Airtel to enter /expand in this
market. Besides there is a vast rural segment where the cellular services have not
made much headway and many customers are looking towards Airtel for
providing the service to them. With its wide and extensive presence even in the
remotest areas, Airtel poised to gain a big market share in this segment when it
expands cellular services into the rural areas.

THREATS

 Competition From Other Cellular.

It is time for BSNL to improve/expand its cellular services. Fierce and cut-throat
competition is already in place with the markets ever abuzz with several tariff
reductions and announcement of attractive packages, trying to grab most of the
‘mind share’ of the ‘king’ - ‘the consumer’, whose benefits are increasing with
passing of everyday. If BSNL is not innovative and agile, its cellular service will
be a flop. It needs to be proactive with attractive packaging, pricing and
marketing policies lest its presence in the market be treated with disdain by the
private cellular companies. The launch of WLL services by Reliance Infocomm
has aggravated the situation.

 Market Maturity in Basic Telephony Segment.

Although Airtel entered in the basic telephony market it’s a biggest there for the
company as the basic telephony market has reached

40
 BCG MATRIX

STARS QUESTIONMARKS
HIGH

LEASED
ISP
PRIVATE
CELLULAR SERVICE
CIRCUIT

GROWTH %

COWS DDDDD
DOGS
LOW
BASIC TELEPHONE
(Fixed Line)

HIGH LOW

RELATIVE MARKET SHARE

BCG Matrix is used to find out the relative growth prospects of the product line. Within
the Airtel product line leased, private, circuit are among star.

Airtel is going to have a submarine cable between Singapore and Chennai with the
collaboration of SingTel. This wills Airtel to maintain its position in IPLC market. Right
in India only VSNL have such cables.

41
 ANSOFF MATRIX

MARKET
PENETRATION
PRODUCT
ENTERED IN DEVELOPMENT
BROADBAND AND
FIXED LINE MARKET IPLC PRODUCTS

MARKET DIVERSIFICATION
DEVELOPMENT

LOOKING FOR
OUTSOURCING
OVERSEAS MARKET

To portray alternative corporate growth strategies, Igor Ansoff conceptualized a matrix

that focused on the firm’s present and potential products and markets / customers. He
called the four product-market strategic alternatives.

 market penetration [existing market + existing product],

 market development [existing product + new market],
 product development [existing market + new product], and
 Diversification [new product + new market].

The company should follow all four strategies depending on the demand and product as
indicated in the matrix. The company perhaps needs to focus more on the comparatively
neglected area of diversification

 MARKET PENETRATION: Airtel entered in broadband and fixed phone line

market.

 PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT: IPLC products

42
 MARKET DEVELOPMENT: Airtel is now looking for overseas market.
Company has already made its presence in Nigeria and Seychelles

 DIVERSIFICATION: Airtel is now outsourcing sum of its services like

customer services with IBM.

43
 INDUSTRY STRUCTURE PORTER’S MODEL

The industry structure has become relatively unfavorable compared to earlier

monopolistic times

The earlier pattern used to be that the national telecom company used to own every
segment of the value chain till the international gateway. With liberalization there was
competition in virtually every segment. There are companies that provide local
connectivity, those that function as long distance carriers, and those that provide only
gateway links. Some integrated players operate in all segments.

The intensity of competitive pressures across the chain is reflected in the downward
spiral being witnessed in tariffs and prices to customer.

44
The value chain for cellular mobile service and Internet Service Providers (other than
cable based net connections) is similar in as much as the calls reach the destination
through similar local loop, long distance and international gateway.

45
5 FORCE MODEL

46
1 .T h re a t fro m C o

Wireless Market
– Top 4 garn

47
2.Customer Bargaini

 Lack of differentia
 Cut throat Compet
48
49
50
ARTICLE

51
 Bharti Airtel Joins Hands with Manchester United for a Five Year Exclusive
Agreement

Manchester, United Kingdom - (Business Wire India) - Friday, May 08, 2009
8:00:00 pm.

This partnership is intended to delight Airtel customers across India, Sri Lanka and
Seychelles by offering them a variety of benefits

-Airtel customers will have access to rich and exclusive Manchester United content on
their mobiles
-Nominated Airtel customers to participate in Manchester United Soccer Schools training
session.
-A once in a lifetime opportunity for Airtel guests to travel with the Manchester United
first team during their away UEFA Champions League matches and also watch matches
at Old Trafford.

Bharti Airtel, Asia's leading integrated telecom services provider, today announced a
five-year partnership with Manchester United Football Club. The partnership is first of its
kind for both Manchester United and Airtel.

52
With this, Airtel customers across India, Sri Lanka and the Seychelles will get exclusive
access to rich football content of Manchester United (MU) on Airtel mobile phones. In
addition, Airtel users will also get an opportunity to participate in the Manchester United
Soccer Schools program currently operated by Manchester United Merchandising
Limited. Airtel customers will also get an opportunity to watch football matches at Old
Trafford and travel to Europe to watch Manchester United play the UEFA Champions
League.

The announcement was made by Sanjay Kapoor, Deputy CEO, Bharti Airtel in the
presence of Manchester United Club CEO David Gill, Sir Alex Ferguson and Manchester
United players Wayne Rooney, Carlos Tevez and Darren Fletcher at Old Trafford,
Manchester City, UK.

“We are very excited to partner with Manchester United, a powerful global brand with
huge following across the world and in India.” said Sanjay Kapoor, Deputy CEO, Bharti
Airtel. He added “Football is definitely seeing a growing interest amongst the young
population in India. Therefore, we are making a pioneering effort to bring to them rich
football content on their mobiles, a fantastic opportunity to be part of the world’s leading
football club through participation in soccer schools, and also an opportunity to watch
football matches across Europe.”

Manchester United Club CEO David Gill said: “Manchester United is delighted to
announce the partnership with Bharti Airtel, India’s largest telecommunications company
and one of Asia’s emerging global brands. This partnership demonstrates the enduring
strength of the Club internationally. We are very proud to have Bharti Airtel as the first
Indian company to partner with Manchester United Club. This major partnership will
bring the action and the passion of Manchester United directly to the millions of fans of
Manchester United across India and other Asian countries."

Key Highlights of the agreement :-

-- Airtel will be able to bring for its customer rich exclusive content such as Video clips
of Premiership matches and UEFA Champion’s League Highlights, Classic Goals and
Games of Manchester United, Match Feeds & reports and editorial features. Also,
downloads of Mobile Games, Ringtones, animations, and Wallpapers of popular
Manchester United first team players such as Ronaldo, Rooney, Ferdinand.
-- Airtel customers will be able to access the internationally popular Manchester United
Mobile Portal where rich Mobile Products and content will be exclusively available for
the Airtel customers.

53
-- Airtel customers can also watch Manchester United Football matches at the Old
Trafford Ground in the Premier League, FA Cup, Football League Cup, UEFA
Champions League. A few lucky Airtel customers will also get an opportunity to travel
with the Manchester United first team during their away UEFA Champions League
matches.

-- Football enthusiasts among Airtel customers will get an opportunity to train at one of
the Manchester United Soccer Schools (MUSS). MUSS are currently run in Hong Kong,
Seattle, Toronto and Dubai as well as Manchester and it enables people around the world
to participate in soccer activities. These programmes take their lead from the coaching at
the Manchester United Academy and First Team training sessions.

54
55
 COMPANY PROFILE

Airtel is one of India's leading providers of telecommunication services with a

nationwide presence in all the 23 licensed jurisdictions (also known as Telecom Circles).
They served an aggregate of 88,270,194 customers as of December 31, 2008; of whom
85,650,733 subscribe to their GSM services and 2,619,461 used their Telemedia Services
either for voice and/or broadband access delivered through DSL. Airtel is the largest
wireless service provider in the country, based on the number of subscribers as of
December 31, 2008. Airtel also offers an integrated suite of telecom solutions to their
enterprise customers, in addition to providing long distance connectivity both nationally
and internationally. The company has recently forayed into media by launching their
DTH and IPTV Services. All these services are rendered under a unified brand "Airtel".

The company also deploys, owns and manages passive infrastructure pertaining to
telecom operations under its subsidiary Bharti Infratel Limited. Bharti Infratel owns 42%
of Indus Towers Limited.

Bharti Infratel and Indus Towers are the two top providers of passive infrastructure
services in India

Company shares are listed on The Stock Exchange, Mumbai (BSE) and The National
Stock Exchange of India Limited (NSE).

Bharti – Companies

A brief introduction to each of their companies is given below:

• Bharti Airtel Ltd :-

Bharti Airtel Ltd is one of Asia's leading telecommunications service provider.

The Company is India’s largest integrated telecom company in terms of
customer base and offers Mobile Services, Fixed Line services, Broadband &
IPTV, DTH, Long Distance and Enterprise services.

• Bharti Teletech Limited :-

Bharti Teletech is India’s leading telecom & allied products company. It is one
of the largest manufacturers of landline telephones in the world. With a strong
distribution network across the country, the company is also the primary
distributor of IT and Telecom products from international brands such as
Motorola, Blackberry, Thomson, Transcend, and Logitech.

56
Bharti – Organization Structure

57
Bharti – Organization structure (Contd.)

58
PRIMARY DATA (INTERVIEW)

59
 How did you know about AIRTEL cellular service?

30% Friends 70% Advertisements 5% Other Sources

friends
advertisements
other sources

60
Which feature of AIRTEL forced you to used AIRTEL ?

35% Advertisements 20% Connectivity 10%Schemes

35%Goodwill

advertisement
connectivity
schemes
goodwill

61
Which was your first choice of cellular service when you
want to use mobile phone?

AIRTEL 45% HUTCH 30% IDEA 8%

RELIANCE 10% TATA INDICOM 5% OTHERS 2%

AIRTEL
HUTCH
TATA INDICOM
RELIANCE
IDEA
OTHERS

62
Which feature of AIRTEL is better than your previous
cellular service?

Advertisements 25% Connectivity 60% Schemes 15%

ADVERTISEMENTS
CONNECTIVITY
SCHEMES

63
How many AIRTEL users in your phone book?

Less than 30% : 15%

30% - 70% : 25%

More than 70% : 60%

0-30
30-70
70-100

64
Which type of advertisement you mostly like in AIRTEL?

Audio Visual : 85%

Print : 2%
Audio : 13%

Audio Visual
Print
Audio

65
Which celebrity you like very much in AIRTEL?

Sachin : 55%
Shahrukh : 38%
Kareena : 2%
A. R. Rehman : 5%

SACHIN
SHAHRUKH
KAREENA
A.R. REHMAAN

66
Have you take benefits of any scheme offered by
AIRTEL?

YES : 85%
NO : 13%
CAN’T SAY : 2%

YES
NO
CAN’T SAY

67
Which you like most in AIRTEL?

NOKIA + AIRTEL : 86%

AIRTEL MAGIC : 5%
Postpaid services : 8%
AIRTEL Broadband : 1%

NOKIA + AIRTEL
AIRTEL MAGIC
Postpa id services
AIRTEL Broadband

68
Which service you like most in AIRTEL?

AIRTEL missed you service : 63%

Ring tones : 15%
Hello tunes : 22%

AIRTEL missed you

service

RINGTONES

HELLOTUNES

69
Do you participate contest offered by AIRTEL like
KBC-2 & Indion Idol-2?

YES : 72%

NO : 28%

YES
NO

70
Which type of recharge cards you like most?

More talk time : 23%

More validity : 15%

Both : 62%

More talktime
More validity
Both

71
According to you is AIRTEL is #1 in India?

Yes : 95%
No : 5%

Yes
No

CASE STUDY : BHARTI AIRTEL

72
Based in New Delhi, Bharti Airtel is India’s largest private sector telecom operator and
India’s sixth-largest company by market capitalization. Bharti Airtel is also the only
operator to offer its services (mobile, fixed line and Internet access) in each of India’s 23
operating areas. While this wide service footprint made Bharti Airtel especially well-
positioned to capitalize on India’s telecom boom, it also presented the company with
significant challenges and risks in addressing this demand.

To keep up with demand, while also maintaining high levels of customer service, all the
processes required to run the business—from order management and service activation to
those processes involved in the operation of the core network—needed to run smoothly
and stay synchronized. What’s more, Bharti Airtel recognized that the lack of a single
view of the customer across the various lines of business can lead to missed opportunities
for the business and dissatisfied customers. Everyone in the organization—from
executive decision makers to customer-facing representatives—needed to have access to
the right information about the customer at the right time.

In order to deliver the best possible experience to the customer, IT needed to be able to
provide an integrated view across all the company’s services and customers. The
company needed a smarter approach to creating and managing customer-facing
processes. Providing the business with the level of agility it needed to thrive required an
IT infrastructure that was flexible enough to accommodate future demand and smart
enough to provide a high level of intelligence and analytics about its customers. The
solution for Bharti Airtel was a service-oriented approach to integrating business
requirements with an IT framework that enables business change.

Mitigating financial risk by outsourcing IT infrastructure.

While Bharti Airtel knew it needed a highly flexible IT platform for integrating its
customer-facing processes across all lines of business, the company was concerned about
increasing IT capital expenditures. In addition to increasing IT spending to improve
services for existing customers, the company would need to add new IT infrastructure to
support its rapidly growing base of subscribers.
However, Bharti Airtel was facing increasing financial risk based on government-
mandated pricing changes that led to a steady decline in India’s average revenue per user
for mobile telecom services. This meant that large capital expenditures to expand IT
infrastructure might not be offset by revenues from future services.
To address the company’s future IT and business needs while substantially mitigating its
IT investment risk, the company established an outsourcing relationship with IBM. This
relationship gives IBM full control and ownership of Bharti Airtel’s IT infrastructure and
associated processes. By substituting predictable operating expenses for risky upfront

73
capital investments, this strategy fundamentally transforms the financial underpinnings of
the company’s business model. An equally important aim of this strategy is to enable
Bharti Airtel to focus its energies on growing, serving and retaining its customer base and
thus fully capitalize on India’s astounding growth surge.

Focusing on improving customer experience.

Bharti Airtel knew that the key to capitalizing on its growth opportunities was to establish
deeper and more personalized relationships with its customers, as well as to provide a
consistent, high-quality customer experience. It further realized that, from an IT
perspective, the ability to integrate its diverse systems and processes was essential. Bharti
Airtel saw the flexibility of IBM’s integration approach and recognized the combination
of IBM’s extensive portfolio of middleware products and expertise in service oriented
architecture (SOA) provided an ideal match for its integration requirements.

Incorporating the IBM Service Provider Delivery Environment Integration Hub solution,
IBM Global Business Services designed and implemented an enterprise application
platform that integrates a wide range of customer-facing and back-office processes. Its
flexibility is evident in the range of integration options it provides Bharti Airtel. In the
case of customer self-service, for example, each of the three main channels—Web,
interactive voice response (IVR) and short message service (SMS)—employs different
integration technologies (such as publish/subscribe via IBM Web Sphere® MQ and
asynchronous messaging via IBM Web Sphere Business Integration Server), depending
on the channel’s technical requirements.

In line with its vision, Bharti Airtel’s advanced integration capabilities have enabled the
company to transform key aspects of the customer experience. Account activation is just
one example. With Bharti Airtel signing up an average of 1.5 million customers per
month, the ability to activate new accounts with maximum efficiency is essential. By
integrating the account activation process with such key back-end systems as billing,
provisioning and order management, Bharti Airtel was able to cut the time required to
activate new mobile accounts by 90 percent. Bharti Airtel’s integration framework has
also led to stronger business intelligence capabilities, which have in turn enabled the
company to maximize the value of its customer relationships through cross selling and
market segmentation.
Bharti Airtel’s bold strategy has also produced outstanding results at the bottom line.
Working smarter to enable process efficiency is a big factor in its performance. The
company has reduced activation time from four days to two hours and compressed billing
cycles from 15 days to 2 hours. Infrastructure scalability enables the company to handle
more and more customers. As a result, even in the face of declining average revenue per

74
customer in India, Bharti Airtel has been able to post an operating cash flow margin of 40
percent, a full 5 percentage points higher than the rest of the industry.

FINDINGS

75
 Strategic alliance. The company has a strategic alliance with SingTel. The
investment made by SingTel is one of the largest investments made in the world
outside Singapore in the company. The company also has a strategic alliance with
Vodafone. The investment made by Vodafone in Bharti is one of the largest single
foreign investments made in the Indian telecom sector. The company’s mobile
network equipment partners include Ericsson and Nokia. In the case of the
broadband and telephone services and enterprise services (carriers), equipment
suppliers include Siemens, Nortel, Corning, among others. The Company also has
an information technology alliance with IBM for its group-wide information
technology requirements and with Nortel for call center technology requirements.

 Outsourcing. The call center operations for the mobile services have been
outsourced to IBM Daksh, Hinduja TMT, Teletech & Mphasis.

 Overseas Market. Airtel is looking for overseas market and already started
operation in Nigeria and Seychelles.

 Competition. Airtel is facing strong competion from MTNL and BSNL inspite
of the fact they are far away from airtel technologically but these two have a
inside reach in rural and urban area and have low tariff rates.

 Brand Ambassador. Airtel have strong brand ambassador, Sachin tendulkar,

Shahrukh Khan and A . R. Rehman to promote their product and services.

 Leader in Telecom market. Airtel is holding a position of Market Leader by

having 21 percent of the total market share.

RECOMMENDATIONS

76
After the complete analysis of entire study a set of recommendations can be put forward
which are a follows:

 PRICING Depending on the market conditions / competition from cellular or

mobile service providers and also to suit local conditions, there should be flexible
pricing mechanism (either at central or local level).

 IMPROVEMENT IN TECHNOLOGY Airtel should immediately shift to third

generation switches by replacing its c-dot switches. This will improve the quality
of service to desired level and provide simultaneous integration with the
nationwide network. The special distribution of the transmission towers should be
increased to avoid “no signal pockets”

ESTABLISHMENT OF DISTRIBUTION CHANNELS Airtel should

establish widespread and conspicuous distribution to match that of the
competitors. The distribution network shall make the product visible and
available at convenient locations.

 UNTAPPED RURAL MARKET Large part of Indian rural market is still

untapped therefore airtel is required to bring that area under mobility.

CONCLUSION

77
The conclusion of my study is that AIRTEL’s Advertising has a major impact on its
users. People like its schemes very much .AIRTEL had created a very good image on the
mind of the new users of cellular service. AIRTEL has adopted a very good strategy by
providing a new connection with NOKIA who is a market leader in mobile set, many new
users buy Nokia sets and they get a free connection of AIRTEL. AIRTEL is successful in
capturing the highest market share by adopting Celebrity Endorsement Strategy. A.R.
Rehmaan’s tune for AIRTEL worked as free advertising for AIRTEL as another service
user uses it too. Other celebrities like Shahrukh Khan (bollywood) and Sachin Tendulkar
(Cricket) has also contributed very much in AIRTEL.

By virtue of its connectivity and advertising strategy AIRTEL is successful in grabbing

the highest market share in India, but there are still some recommendations from my
study point of view that is AIRTEL needs to make its network service more stronger than
other service providers to dominate the market in future too.

AIRTEL should introduce cheaper recharge cards than the others because its competitor
VODAFONE had introduced it. AIRTEL should sign more celebrities from Cricket and
Bollywood.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

78
TEXT BOOK:

Marketing Management (Eleventh Edition) – Philip Kotler

WEBSITES:

www. bhartiairtel.in

www. airtel.in

www. google.com

www.airtelworld.com

airtel-broadband.com

79