INTRODUCTION

Airtel

is an offspring of Bharti Airtel Limited, one of Asias leading integrated telecom service providers. Bharti Airtel since its start, has been at the forefront of technology and has pioneered several innovations in telecom sector. Founder- Sri Sunil Mittal

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businesses at Bharti Airtel have been structured into three individual strategic business units (SBUs) - 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 95 cities.

It has recently launched India's best Direct-toHome (DTH) service, Airtel digital TV. 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.

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company is a market leader and hence, is an innovator to the hilt. It has employed various communication campaigns to highlight the unique offerings from its stable. The message strategy of Airtel is dynamic and keeps changing over the years. The change in the tag line, logo and the celebrities endorsing the products have changed over the years tells us about the changing perceptions of the market by the company over the years

 Power

to keep in touch (1995 )

This era saw the beginning of mobile communication in India. Only the elite in society that could afford to keep mobile phones. Hence, the tagline 'Power to keep in Touch' designed to make the user feel 'in control i.e. be powerful. Airtel decided that the brand should always demonstrate its leadershipbe it in network, innovations, offerings, services and capitalize on the first mover advantage.

Touch Tomorrow (1999)

started talking to new segments of customers by positively positioning and establishing itself as a brand that improved the quality of life. The new campaign was launched to facilitate entry into new markets. This new market was essentially the mass market. A new logo for Airtel was devised. It was in red, black and white colors with Airtel enwrapped in an eclipse. The logo were indicative of the core values of the brand: Leadership, Performance and Dynamism.

Airtel

 Live
In

Every Moment (2002)

2002, Airtel signed on music composer A R Rahman and changed its tune to "Live every moment: Rahman's signature tune This strategy was launched to capture the imagination of the customer. The tagline denotes that each and every person in India lives every moment (emotions, feelings etc.) of life. And Airtel helps in doing so

Express Yourself (2003)

'Express

Yourself' was successfully launched taking the ownership of the entire space of telecommunication and strengthening the emotional bond that Airtel had established with its customers over the years It highlights the capability of Airtel in terms of performance and network coverage. This campaign was launched in regional languages as well. Airtel also modified its logo to give it a more energetic and younger look.

COMMUNICATION TOOLS
Airtel uses an array of communication tools to bring its products to the forefront. All the modes employed have a strong undercurrent of Indianness. Perhaps, this makes Airtel stand a league apart from competition. Every advertisement seeks to establish an emotional connect with the audiences The various communication campaign tools employed by Airtel are enlisted as below:

ADVERTISING
Airtel spends Crores of rupees every year in advertisements in all avenues of mass communication. Advertisements serve a dual purpose for the company. namely: It creates Pervasiveness, allows Airtel to be in the eyes of the audience all the time. Even though the audience is not obligated to pay heed to the advertisements, the high creativity quotient of the Airtel Ads makes it virtually impossible for the audience to turn a blind eye to them. Various market experts have rated the Airtel ads very highly.

It also amplifies the message that Airtel wants to send to the audiences. The Ads are very high on the use of imagery and music. In fact the catch tune of Airtel is among the most recallable tunes in India. The genius of the Oscar winning music director A. R. Rahman is the man behind the catchy tune

Airtel advertises more on its brand and its values than its products and services. Most ads just establish the value and beliefs of Airtel than establishing its services like mobile, telephone, or broadband. The trust factor of Airtel amplifies greatly with the caliber of its brand ambassadors. The likes of Sachin Tendulkar, Shah Rukh Khan, Saif Ali Khan,Kareena Kapoor, Vidya Balan, A R Rahman have all been brand ambassadors of Airtel at some point or the other. One of the key reasons for the lasting impact of the Airtel ads is the reinvention of the content displayed. The recent campaign of Barriers Break When People Talk

PUBLIC RELATION AND PUBLICITY

Some of the key PR and publicity planks employed by Airtel are as follows: The tagline of Airtel, Express Yourself is extremely well portrayed in all its campaigns. The recent collection of articles that Saif Ali Khan wrote in the Times of India for a week or so to essentially promote Airtel Digital TV was highly innovative and grabbed many eyeballs

EVENTS AND EXPERIENCES

Airtel is a pioneer in being a part of events and experiences. Indian Idol, Cricket, KBC, among many are examples. Airtel also sponsors various tournaments and events, which implicitly help promote the sales of Airtel. The Airtel Delhi Half Marathon is also an example.

DIRECT AND INTERACTIVE MARKETING

Airtel seeks to give its customers a very high quality after sales service, this helps the company retain potential customers and also penetrate newer markets. It keeps the customers up-to-date about the various new schemes and promotions. The Airtel executives personally call the customer and potential customer for suggestions and upgradations. They also give special benefits to the existing customers which in turn drive their sales even more upwards

SALES PROMOTION
Sales promotion also acts a source of incentive to all prospective customers to try the product. It also passes a passive Invitation to the customers to try the products. Airtel is in a strategic alliance with various mobile stores in India. In fact there are over 500 Airtel Stores across India. The objectivity behind these stores is to increase the base of potential customers . As an example, with every new mobile phone that is brought in The Mobile Store an Airtel GSM is gifted for free. Every day and across the various shopping malls in India, Airtel organizes promotional events. All this is done to attract the youth.

CONCLUSION
Thus we can say that Airtel over the years has been using a balance of the various integrated marketing communication tools to retain its present customers and target and attract new customers.

Thank