~Acknowledgment~

The contributions of the entire group have been commendable and of

enormous help in preparing this project report on Bharti Airtel. We are
thankful to Prof. AN Bhattacharya of IILM Graduate School of
Management for giving us this opportunity to undertake this project.
Without his guidance we would not have been able to prepare this project
report which covers an exhaustive study of Airtel, its marketing strategies
and its competitors.
Prof AN Bhattacharya not only explained the concepts very well but also
gave us valuable knowledge about the practical application of those
concepts.
 ~Executive summary~

This report on Bharti Airtel is done to findout certain objectives regarding

the strategic approach Adopted by Airtel to stand strongly in the
competitive telecom market. Airtel’s marketing strategies are analyses
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 not just give
description about the company but it also talks about the various
marketing strategy adopted by the company. SWOT analysis of Airtel
helps to find out the weak points of the company and to find out the way to
overcome this problem. Similarly with the help of Ansoff matrix it can be
finding that what are the different strategic options available to the
company under the different market condition and to find the answer that
why company is looking for overseas market like Nigeria and Seychelles.
 ~Introduction~

Incorporated on July 7, 1995, Bharti Airtel Ltd is a division of Bharti

Enterprises. Bharti Airtel Limited formerly known as Bharti Tele-
Ventures LTD (BTVL) is an Indian company offering telecommunication
services in 19 countries. It the largest cellular service provider in India,
with more than 137 million subscriptions as of June 2010. Bharti Airtel is
the world's third largest, single-country mobile operator and fifth largest
telecom operator in the world with a subscriber base of over 180 million. It
also offers fixed line services and broadband services. It offers its telecom
services under the Airtel brand and is headed by Sunil Bharti Mittal. The
company also provides land-line telephone services and broadband
Internet access (DSL) in over 96 cities in India. 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 everything except marketing and sales and finance. Its network
(base stations, microwave links, etc.) is maintained by Ericsson and Nokia
Siemens Network,[4] business support by IBM and transmission towers by
another company.[5] 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. This enables the company to provide pan-India phone
call rates of Rs. 1/minute (U$0.02/minute). During the last financial year
[2009-10], Bharti has roped in a strategic partner Alcatel-Lucent to
manage the network infrastructure for the Telemedia Business
The company is structured into four strategic business units - Mobile,
Telemedia, Enterprise and Digital TV. The mobile business offers services
in 18 countries across the Indian Subcontinent and Africa. The Telemedia
business provides broadband, IPTV and telephone services in 89 Indian
cities.
The Digital TV business provides Direct-to-Home TV services across
India. The Enterprise business provides end-to-end telecom solutions to
corporate customers and national and international long distance services
to telcos. On August 11, 2010, Bharti Airtel announced that it would
acquire 100% stake in Telecom Seychelles taking its global presence to
19 countries.
Globally, Bharti Airtel is the 3rd largest in-country mobile operator by
subscriber base, behind China Mobile and China Unicom. In India, the
company has a 30.7% share of the wireless services market. In January
2010, company announced that Manoj Kohli, Joint Managing Director and
current Chief Executive Officer of Indian and South Asian operations, will
become the Chief Executive Officer of the International Business Group
from 1 April 2010. He will be overseeing Bharti's overseas business.

Airtel has a commercial presence in 19 countries.

 ~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 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 the Airtel is implementing to defend and

Increase the market share.
• To find who are the competitors of the 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.

~Studying the logo~

• The Airtel logo is a strong, contemporary and confident symbol for
a brand that is always ahead of the rest.
• The Airtel Image style - It incorporates two solid, red rectangular
forms whose counter form creates an open doorway.
• The Airtel Typographical style - The title case lettering with its
capital was deliberately chosen to reinforce the brand leadership
position. The red dot on the letterform cues Airtel focus on innovation.
The words Express Yourself are very much part of the brand identity.
• The Airtel Colour Palette- The lettering is grey so that the pure
black of Airtel is visually unharmed
• India’s largest integrated and the first private telecom service
provider with a footprint in all 23 telecom circles.

~Mission~

We will meet the mobile communication needs of our customer through:

• Error free service deliver

• Innovative products and services.

• Cost efficiency.

~Studying 4 p model~
Airtel uses the 4P model in the following manner and means :
PRICE
• Customer based pricing stretagies
• Flexible marketing strategies
• Controlled by TRAI

PLACE
• Wide and extensive coverage in remotest areas.
• Airtel customer care touch points
• Distributers like chemists, outlets etc.

PROMOTION
• Large scale video and print advertising
• Big celebrities like Shah Rukh Khan & Sachin Tendulkar are roped
into to promote the product
• In 2002irtel got its signature tune from A.R. Rahman, this signature
tune is the perhaps the most downloaded tune in India.
• Provides innovations such as bollywood movie premiers, music
services as ring back tones & many more.
• “FRIENDZ” pre-paid connections for youth, “Ladies Special” plan,
Seniors Plan.
• Executive corporate plan(First to give prepaid in this category)
• Special discounts in calling rates & sms services
• Providing wallpapers & screensavers on website.

Product
• Airtel pre-paid
• Airtel post-paid
• Blackberry Wireless-handheld
• Different value added services provided by Airtel are:
• Instant balance enquiry
• 23Hr recharge facility
• Caller line identification
• Call divert, Call wait & Call hold
• Multimedia messaging servicing
• Airtel live portal
• SMS based information service
• Hello tunes and ring tunes
• Voice mail service
• Easy post paid bill collection
• Gifting of ring tunes & hello tones
• GPRS

~Analysis: swot~
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.
• 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.

Ansoff’s matrix of airtel

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
MARKET DEVELOPMENT: Airtel is now looking for overseas market.
Company has already make his presence in Nigeria and Seychelles
DIVERSIFICATION : Airtel has now outsourcing sum of its services like
customer services with IBM

~financial snapshot of airtel~

~findings~
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
atarted operation in Nigeria and Seychelles.
CompetitionAirtel is facing strong competion from MTNL and BSNL
inspite of the fact they are far away from airtel technologically but but
these two have a inside rach in rural and urban area and have low tariff
rates.
Brand Ambassador Airtel have strong brand ambassador, Sachin
tendulcar, Shahrukh khan and A . R. rehman to promote there 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

~RECOMMENDATIONS~
After the complete analysis of entire STUDY we put forward a set of
recommendations which are a follows:

PRICING Depending on the market conditions / competition from cellular

or wll-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.
BIBLIOGRAPHY