MARKET RESEARCH ON COMPETITVE AND PROMOTIONAL STRATEGIES OF TELECOM COMPANIES

BY: PRATIK S. KARIA SANKETSINH RATHOD

INTRODUCTION TO THE SECTOR:

The Indian telecom market has been displaying sustained high growth rates. Riding on expectations of overall high economic growth and consequent rising income levels, it offers an unprecedented opportunity for foreign investment. A combination of factors is driving growth in the telecom market, promising rich returns on investments.

In the next two years, India is expected to become the 3rd largest mobile market in the world, after the US and China and soon be in a position to overtake the US as well. The number of service provider might come down to around five from the present six to seven as the next phase of consolidation will take place shortly. A buoyant and strong Indian telecom sector in the coming years is seen and every major player in the world in the telecom space trying to take his share in this pie.

Some businesses think it is best to get on with their own plans and ignore the competition. Others become obsessed with tracking the actions of competitors (often using underhand or illegal methods). Many businesses are happy simply to track the competition, copying their moves and reacting to changes. Competitor and promotional strategies plays an important role in strategic planning. It is helpful for the management to understand their competitive advantages/disadvantages relative to competitors and to generate understanding of competitors past, present and future strategies. So competitive move decides your position in the market and promotion helps establish the brand in the market.

OBJECTIVE OF THE STUDY:

Competitive strategy:

To identify and analyze the strategies adopted by the telecom companies to cope with the competitive forces. To identify and analyze the factors responsible for the success of the market leader over the competitors. To identify the lacuna within the existing strategy and provide an alternative course of action.

Promotional Strategy

The objective of the study is to find out the effectiveness of AIRTEL advertisements What is the general perception of a logo change among the customers and dealers? Is it serving the intended purpose? The secondary objective includes finding out following: What type of advertisements viewers now days like? What type of changes AIRTEL needs to make in future?

SCOPE OF STUDY:

In the emerging knowledge based economy it has become necessary to know how much market power lies with the competitors and promotion. The study of brand awareness is essential in marketing planning. Customer needs and preferences keep changing where brands ultimately command customers loyalty.

The realistic side of the problem is to know the acceptance level of the brand awareness towards the product. This study will help us to understand the brand awareness, competitive strategies and what problems are being faced by the consumers, to which appropriate measures to be taken to solve the problems.

This project has mainly been taken up to understand the impact of competitive strategies used by Airtel and airtels logo change and its acceptance amongst its customers and distributors. The survey also tries to explore the extent to which Airtels purpose for logo change fulfilled its purpose.

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY:

Interviews We Will be conducting Standardized open ended interview.

Questionnaire We will use used comparative & monadic rating scale, semantic differential and staple scale.

Perceptual Mapping We will map feelings of customers on the promotional stratgies on perceptual map.

Our Information Sources are from 3 levels:

1. Primary sources We will conduct interviews of Airtel dealers and collect information from diverse segments of customers.

2. Secondary sources We will consult various research documents and magazines on brand Airtel. 3. Tertiary sources Information from the internet.

LIMITATIONS OF THE STUDY

The study has following limitations: Lack of contact with company personnel may act as hindrance in the study. The study will be based on the limited knowledge & information provided by the marketing personnels and individuals who were available for interview. The size of the sample is too small looking to the nature of the study The basis of selection of sample for the study was vague. Randomly individuals will be picked up to provide their responses on the questionnaire.