SYNOPSIS

CHPTER - 1 INTRODUCTION CHPTER 2 CONCEPTUAL BACKGROUNDC CHPTER 3 COMPANY PROFILE CHPTER 4 COMPETATORS PROFILE CHPTER 5 DATA ANALYSIS AND INTERPRETATION CHPTER 6 FINDANGS AND SUGGESTION ANNEXURE QUESTIONNAIRE BIBLIOGRPHY

CHPTER 1

INTRODUCTION

INTRODUCTION

OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY.

NEED AND IMPORTANCE OF THE STUDY.

METHODOLOGY.

DATA COLLECTION.

SAMPLING DESIGN.

THE SCOPE OF THE STUDY .

LIMITATION OF THE STUDY.

INTRODUCTION

Introduction

Bharti Airtel Limited was incorporated on July 7,1995 for promoting investment in telecommunication services. Indian marketing is largely described as sellers market. Demand is invariably greater than supply. Purchasing power of mass is limited. More than 30% of our population has income below the poverty line. Bulk of our population resides in villages and markets have got to capitalise rural marketing opportunity. The consumers are ignorant, illiterate, unorganized and hence they have weak bargaining power. Most of our business enterprises are still having selling concepts, which is product, oriented marketing approach. Bigger business houses having national market are adopting integrated corporate planning sound market planning as well as strategic marketing planning have very limited scope of present. A change is taking place is the marketing environment at a reasonable speed and money. Consumer oriented marketing company are beginning to realise the pressure of competition and buyer market. But the transition to marketing oriented approach is long and difficult process. Marketing research has a bright future in features of matured economy. Marketers are called upon to anticipate changes in the marketing environment involving opportunities, risks and uncertainties. They are required to forecast the direction and intensity of these future changes in the environment and secure favorable relationship with the changing environment. To do this intelligent planning marketers need information. Accurate sales forecasting involves collection and reliable sales forecast, marketing plans and programmes through organised information system, we would have profitable marketing activities minimum risks and uncertainties.

The essence of modern marketing concepts is that all elements of business should be geared towards the satisfaction of consumers. This requires a through understanding of consumer behaviours and buying motives without such insights marketers will fail to segment market effectively and design strategy for an effective penetration into the defined market segments. The adoption of the consumer forecasts infact the real difference between the traditional concept of selling and the modern concept of marketing. It is the enough for the marketing manager to get suitable relations to the given wants of consumer in a passive way. As a part of Business management study programme preparation of the project report on a chosen topic is compulsory. To carry out this task I have undertakes a detail survey of consumer behaviour on Airtel Network and Marketing performance an market share of Airtel India Limited. A case has study has also be undertaken on Airtel Network. Reference is also been made to marketing of other television with other competitive brands. In the modern world the cell phones has become so popular that it is deemed to be best and appealing media of mass entertainment and even for education. An attempt has been made in this project report to know the details regarding history, fundamental concepts, marketing to television and other details of televisions. Attempt has also been present marketing performance of Airtel Network and certain suggestions have also been given for promotion of marketing activities by adopting suitable marketing strategy. OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY

To assess the customers perception towards service quality at the service provider. To analyse the effectiveness of the advertisement and promotional strategy over the consumers of the service centres. To assess the satisfaction/dissatisfaction over services offered by the dealers service centre for Airtel networks.

 To assess the satisfaction level of various factors like: Charges applied at the time of service of Airtel. Reputation of the service centre Availability of spare parts Trust and customer care Quality of service To assess the customer expectation from Airtel.

NEED AND IMPORTANCE OF THE STUDY This study was conducted as to know the perception of the customers towards the quality of Airtel networks. This study helps to know the perception of the customers towards various aspects like charges, professional service, quality, reputation, etc. This also helps to find the attitude of the staff towards the customers.

The study is important so that the company can improve the areas where the customers are not satisfied. Airtel can bring in quality differentiation by improving the quality of service. This way they can retain their customers and also increase the market share. Methodology data is collected for preparation of their project report includes both primary and secondary data. Primary data The primary data were collected only in the field survey by meeting the respondents personally and getting information through a questionnaire

 Secondary data The secondary data used were company brochures, journals, websites, etc. these secondary data will help the researcher to make the study more professional and easy. DATA COLLECTION Data Collection: The data were collection through primary sources as well as through secondary sources. SAMPLING DESIGN The research design adopted was descriptive research methodology. A survey was done by a method of fieldwork to collect the information required by meeting customers of Airtel through a questionnaire. SAMPLING TECHNIQUE Non-probability sampling technique is used. SAMPLE SIZE A total of 100 customer of Airtel were selected as the sample size. These are also the individuals who has Airtel network for at least a year so they could know their Airtel and service provider well. The survey was conducted in the city of Shimoga. SAMPLE DESCRIPTION The sample description consisted of owners of Airtel mainly businessmen, professionals, etc.

INSTRUMENTATION TECHNIQUE A questionnaire with open and close-ended questions with multiple choices was the only instrumentations technique used. This questionnaire consisted of questions that were related to the service aspects of Airtel. The scope of the study is defined belo

 Since the survey was conducted in Shimoga city it gives a good generalisation on the suitability of Airtel for the urban customers. The survey method used in the study could be further used by other researchers to carry out the customer satisfaction in other parts the country. The report gives detailed information of industrial and company profile, which can be used as a data bank for further researches. On the basis of information received from the customers of Airtel Network, the company can improve its after sales service accordingly

EXPECTED CONTRIBUTION FROM THE STUDY The study has the following important contribution: It gives important guidelines to the company to improve its customer service. A general behaviour of the Airtel Network customers can be ascertained from the study, which can be used by company to improve its marketing strategies and new product development The study reviews on the different parameters of the Airtel Network after purchasing the product such as improving the final scheme, ambience of the showroom, product features of the sales service ,facilities available at the service station etc. thus help the company in determining those factors which are considered as important by the customer. The company can also come to know about the customer perception towards its advertisement there by helping it to develop better means of advertising. The research work could be further used by the other researcher to carry out detail study of customer satisfaction with sales process, product and after sales service.

LIMITATION OF THE STUDY

Sample size was not large enough to represent an entire population and was limited to 50 respondents.

 The study was constrained only to Shimoga city. A more intensive study would be necessary to arrive at exact conclusion.

The study is limited only to shimoga and survey revealed the Customers Perception towards the Service Quality of Airtel.

The time frame was only five weeks due to which every question respondent could not be covered.

The entire respondent did not answer each and every given in the questionnaire.

The survey includes mainly the urban customer that is the response of the rural customers is not included, thus leading to some level of error in the analysis. Reference Bernard J.T mallinder. Specification methodology applied to the GSM system. In EUROCON 88, June 2005. Moe Rahnema overview of the GSM system and protocol architecture. IEEE Communications magazine. Augest 2009 Internet

CHAPTER 3

CONCEPTUAL BACKGROUND

o METHODS OF SERVICE

o SERVICE AND FEEDBACK

CONCEPTUAL BACKGROUND Methods of Service Bharti Televentures is the fixed line operator business of Airtel. However, the main contention in the broadband market is the price offering which includes the bandwidth costs as well as the cost of laying down the copper wire. The current offerings by Airtel does not really enthuse a potential customer who is looking at sustained data transfer. It is the classic case of having something better than nothing. Add to the lousy customer care that Airtel is slowly perfecting, it is staffed with people who usually land up in their jobs with little idea of their job profile. The socalled Tech engineers have often been unable to help a customer who is facing issues with the connectivity. AIRTELS ENTERPRISE SERVICES The company is a part of Bharti Enterprises, and is India's leading provider of telecommunications services. The businesses at Bharti Airtel have been structured into three individual strategic business units (SBUs) - 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 corporates. All these services are provided under the Airtel brand. Our Services:

Voice Services Mobile Services Satellite Services Managed Data and Internet Services Managed e-Data Services

SERVICE NAME TYPE SERVICE

OF DESCRIPTION

PREPAID CHARGES (Rs.)

POSTPAID CHARGES (Rs.) Rs. 25

Calling

Line Automatic

Displays

the

callers

Identification Presentation (CLIP) Dial-a-service

only for new number on your mobile acquisitions phone screen

Automatic

Users can call to get Rs. 2.40 per Rs.

per

only for new certain information and minute acquisitions service. For instance, Dial 604 for Infotel, Dial 131 for Railway info. These call numbers are available in the phone book WAP Automatic download

minute

exclusive Per content Per content download

only for new contents from Airtel's download acquisitions GPRS & Masala Automatic WAP site Access internet on the GPRS and

GPRS

only for new move acquisitions

download Charges - Rs Charges - Rs per 600 month per Rs. 6 per per

exclusive contents from 600 Airtel's WAP site month

646 charges

Calling Automatic

Users can call into this Rs. 6

only for new voice recognition service minutes acquisitions and movie listen to jokes, gossips,

minutes

download ringtones etc

VAS Charges

SMS Automatic

Content

offered

by Rs. 3 per

only for new media companies like acquisitions Indiatimes, Rediff,

Yahoo fall into this

AIRTEL NEWS

Bharti Airtel inks USD 400 million network expansion contract with NOKIA Bharti Airtel limited: Q2 cash profit exceeds Rs. 1,600 crores, PBT crosses Rs. 1,000 crores.

Bharti Airtel is amongst Indias Most Admired Knowledge enterprises in 2006.

Sunil Bharti Mittal receives The Honorary Fellowship from IETE. Notice of postal ballot for seeking consent of the shareholders on scheme of amalgamation of Satcom Broadband Equipments Limited and Bharti Broadband Limited with Bharti Airtel Limited.

Bharti Airtel to Observe Silent period from October 1, 2006.

PROMOTIONAL STRATEGY As competition in the telecom arena intensified, service providers took new initiatives to woo customers. Prominent among these were - celebrity endorsements, loyalty rewards, discount coupons, business solutions and talk time schemes. 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 providers. 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.

Feed back Bharti Airtel is the company which concentrates on the feed back of the customer and believes that customer obviously provides the best feedback. Even it follows lot of ethics and standards to maintain customer satisfaction Integrity and Ethics The partners will conduct all its dealings in a very ethical manner and with the highest business standards.

All partners with a bussiness relationship with Bharti Airtel shall comply with the highest level of integrity and ethical practices.

The partners will provide all possible assistance to Bharti Airtel in order to investigate any possible instances of unethical behavior or business conduct violations by its employee. Partner will disclose forthwith any breach of these provisions that comes to their knowledge to allow for timely action in their prevention and detection.

Partners will adopt appropriate processes to prevent offering any illegal gratification in the form of bribes or kickbacks either in cash or in kind in the course of all dealings with us. Any instances of such violations will be viewed in a serious manner and Bharti Airtel reserves the right to take all appropriate actions or remedies as may be required under the circumstances.

All partners are required to confirm their compliance to ethical dealings on an annual basis by signing a certificate to this effect as per Bharti Airtel's standard annual certificate. Any ethical or integrity issues observed or encountered while dealing with Bharti Airtel shall be bought to the notice of Bharti Airtels senior management or the Head of Internal Audit immediately. Environment, health and safety Suppliers dealing with Bharti Airtel shall comply and adhere to all laws, regulations and guidelines on environment, health and safety. Suppliers will ensure that all new service offerings as well as new product designs are in compliance with the relevant environmental regulation and guidelines, at the time of implementation at Bharti Airtel. Protection of Intellectual Property

The Partner:

shall comply with the guidelines for use of the trademarks and trade names notified by the Company (including but not limited to 'Bharti' and 'Airtel') and shall not use the Company trademarks and trade names without the prior written consent of the Company. shall, under no circumstances, advertise or use Bharti Airtel's name to market its own product or associate its company with Bharti Airtel. If a partner spots any counterfeit or infringing Company product/service, the partner shall immediately notify Bharti Airtel. shall not reproduce, in whole or in substantial part, any copyrighted work in hard copies, prints, video or electronic copies in violation of the copyright laws including the Bharti Airtel's Partner Manual.

Bharti Airtel's intellectual property also resides in trade secrets or knowhows. Trade secrets are technical, commercial or other information unknown to the public, which can bring economic benefits to its owner. Documents that contain trade secrets and available to the Partner shall be safeguarded and not shared by the Partner with any third party without prior written consent of Bharti Airtel. Domestic and international trade controls Suppliers shall understand and follow applicable domestic and international trade control and customs laws and regulations, including, but not limited to those relating to licensing, shipping and import documentation and reporting and record retention requirements. Conflict of Interest Suppliers will ensure they do not engage in any personal dealings with Bharti employees, especially those that they interact with on Bharti business matters. CONSUMER BEHAVIOUR .

Consumer behaviour means, is all psychological, social and physical behaviour of potential customers as they became aware of evaluate purchase, consumer and tell others about products and services.

CHARACTERISTI OF CONSUMERS BEHAVIOUR

1.

Consumer behaviour comprises mental and physical activities of a buyer.

When he want to buy goods and services to satisfy his needs.

2.

It includes both visible and invisible of a buyer.

3.

The behaviour of a buyer is very complex and dynamic. His behaviour

changes constantly which force to management to adjust his marketing mix with such changes.

4.

The behaviour of an individual buyer is influenced by internal and external

factors.

DETERMINENTS OF CONSUMER BEHAVIOUR

The buyer behaviour is influenced by several factors and forces. They are.

1. 2. 3. 4.

Psychological Factors Social Cultural Factors Economic Factor Environmental Factor of buyer behaviour

1.

PSYCHOLOGICAL FACTOR

The behaviour of a consumer is influenced by the psychological factor such as: a. Motivation

b. c. d. MOTIVATION:

Perception Learning Belief and attitudes

Motivation refer to the wishes or desires that initiates the sequence of events known as behaviour. PERCEPTION: A motivated person is influenced by his perception of the situation. The consumer learns through information out of five senses namely sight, hearing, smell, touch and taste. LEARNING:

Learning explains the changes in the behaviour of an individual arising from previous experience, learning is the product of reasoning, thinking, information processing and perception because of their learning experience, and the behaviour of a buyer is affected. Thus learning accurse through the inter play of drives, stimuli, cues, responses and reinforcement. BELIEF AND ATTITUDE Beliefs refer to a descriptive through whom a person has about something, A buyer called X may believe that Samsung product are superior reasonable price, high quality etc.,An attitude explains persons consistent evaluations, feelings and tendencies towards an object or idea. Psychologists have defined attitude as, an emotionalized inclination to respond positively or negatively to an object or a class of objects. 2. SOCIAL CULTURAL FACTOR: The buying of a consumer is shaped by social cultural factors like; 1. Family

2. 3. 4. 5. 1.

Reference group Social class Culture Occupation FAMILY: The behaviour of a buyer is influenced by the members of the family. The

tastes, likes, dislike and life styles of the family members arise through family buying behaviour. 2. REFERENCE GROUP: The behaviour of a buyer is also influenced by many small groups which or directly or indirectly influences on his behaviour. These groups may be friends, neighbours relative, co-workers close associates etc; 3. SOCIAL CLASS . Social class is relatively a permanent and ordered division in a society where numbers share similar value, interest and behaviour. The social class is determined by various factors such as income, occupation, education, properly, life styles and consumption patterns etc..,. 4. CULTURE Culture is not state but always changing and influences the pattern of consumption and decision-making. 5. OCCUPATION: The consumption pattern of a buyer also varies according to their profession or occupation. The buying habits of doctor may vary to that of a lower or teacher. Hence the marketing manger should concentrate their activities based on the occupation.

3) ECONOMIC DETERMINENTS The behaviour of the consumer is largely influenced by the economic factors like;

1. 2. 3. 4.

Personal Income Family Income Income Expectation Consumer Credit

1. PERSONAL INCOME:

The personal income is an individual of an individual is an important determinant of gross income consists of disposable income and discretionary income. The income which remains at disposal of an individual after deducting several items. Discretionary income refers to the balance remaining after meeting basic necessities of life. 2. FAMILY INCOME: It is the income of all the members of the family. The surplus family income is made available for buying durables, shaping goods and luxuries. The size and life of the family will also have impact on the buying behaviour of the family. 3. INCOME EXPECTATION:

It is another determinant. If the expectation of an individual about his income is more, he is tempted to buy durable and luxuries. If his expectation is less on income, he will not go for luxuries. 4. CONSUMER CREDIT: Consumer credit means availability of credit facilities increases the buying habits of an individual. If a person gets easy credit he will buy the durable on instalment and vice-versa. Likewise savings and liquid assets are also the economic determinations of consumer behaviour. 5. ENVIORNMENTAL FACTORS: This factor is political system, legal, technological and ethical forces which influences the buying behaviour of the consumers. POLITICAL SYSTEMS: The system of politics has an impact on the consumption pattern. In a controlled economic stage, that consumption pattern is determined by the Government. But in a free capitalistic economy, consumers enjoy wider choice and free to spend their income. LEGAL FORMALITIES: More the legal like stamp duty, customs duty etc.., Consumers are interested in fair and lawful dealing on the other hand, if legal restrictions are less, the expenditure of consumer is more. TECHNOLOGICAL FORCE: The development of technology encourages consumers spend more on up to date and sophisticated goods against absolute and outdated goods. TARGET MARKET SEGMENT Airtel has targeted the premium and upper middle class. The rationale behind it is that only those segments should be targeted who value

time and have the paying capacity. It Is also planning to target the business tourists during their stay in the capital About 60% of the clientele are top executives of corporate houses. About 15% are foreign organisations and the rest are professionals and small businessmen. During the introduction stage there was

intense pressure to get consumers across to hook up with their brand, because getting them to switch brand loyalty later would be hard So far Airtel marketers have been concentrating totally on the business executive class but now that the basic viable volumes has beer) built up and prices have declined to a certain extent they are planning to venture further a field. POSITIONING The product is sought to be positioned as a business efficiency tool. a lifestyle revolution and a status symbol The emphasis is to remove misconception that the cellphone is an expensive means of

communication and drive home the point that the cellphone is actually a day-to-day utility PRODUCT POLICY AND PLANNING The product or service is the heart of the marketing mix. Without a product or a service customers' needs cannot be satisfied. The basic product promise by Airtel is mobility. Airtel's main It has

marketing strategy is to be a first mover all the time.

recognised the significance of making the first move-- because in the

field of Communication & Information Technology changes occur at a tremendous pace. Effective product segmentation has to be carried on continuously because basic services can be and will be copied and in time become expected component of the product. Airtel seeks to carry out this segmentation through provision of new information services and making new facilities available. The product policy and planning

depends on the stage of the product life cycle. At present the cellular phone market has reached the maturity stage. Since, the premium segment is nearing saturation the company targeting the upper middle and middle-middle class. In order to do so Airtel is trying to optimise the price performance package by offering suitable "product bundling". This involves the selection of the suitable hardware (handset) and its software (its services.) with reasonable price in order to deliver maximum price performance to its customers. In addition, it offers free Airtime services and other concessions to make the prices and thus the product more attractive. customer service. Only price doesn't serve as an effective differentiator, value added services become the effective differentiator. The "Value Added Services" provided from Airtel are:1). Voice Mail service It has also opened a 24 hours

This system is similar to the answering machine - if the user is not able to answer a call for some reason the caller can leave messages in the voice mail box which can be later retrieved by the user ii) Short Message Service The short message service is like a two-way pager. It gives an option of sending and receiving text messages directly from one mobile phone to another without the intervention of an operator. iii) Mobile Fax 1 Data Service This service helps the subscriber to send and receive Faxes, access Email, download computer files from other systems and remotely log on to another computer and surf the Internet. iv) Cash Card The cash card is a pre-paid and pre-activated card which allows the buyers to buy air time in advance. All it requires is the payment of an initial amount. This is a useful service for people who travel to Delhi often and those who want to control the expenses on their calls. v) Caller ID Displays calling person's number. vi) Outgoing call restriction To prevent or limit outgoing calls, for example, in peak hours. Also possible to exclude one or several countries, or any geographical

region, to permit only local calls, or to limit the outgoing calls to a listed number. viii) Call forward Incoming calls can be forwarded to another fixed or mobile phone. Besides these some other services provided by Airtel are - Call conferencing, Call Broadcast et cetera. It is in the operators -Interest that they not only get many subscribers but also get them to use the mobile facility frequently. In the early stages getting increases to subscribe may be easier than getting them to talk since they will find it costlier to use the mobile phone as compared to a conventional phone [if is believed that initially cellphones would be used buy] viii) Roaming Facility Roaming facility is available while the subscriber is travelling. billing is done in the home network (Delhi). The

Roaming facility is

available manually* as well as semi-automatically. Once a subscriber is In any other city or country, where a GSM network is available, simply insert the SIM card of the local operator Into your handset and start talking. * Manual Roaming means a separate SIM card is provided for each city

**

Semi automatic roaming means one card has the facility for different cities.

AIRTEL'S MARKETING ORIENTATION. Since this is a high-involvement expensive product, the service provider has to fully take care of the customers. a) They take personal responsibility to "get" the answer for any problem faced by the customer b) They anticipate customers' problems and take pro-active steps to prevent them c) They give answers to the questions & requests, quickly & efficiently. d) They have a positive tone & manner while interacting with customers. e) They end the interaction on a positive or a humorous notemaking the last 30 seconds count.

PRICE AND PRICING POLICY AIRTEL has realised that the Indian market is price sensitive. Therefore it care of the has come up with various innovative tariff schemes to take needs of different category of customers- Generally,

the cellular services are more expensive than the land line based telephone services. This is due to the reason that the operating

companies are required to pay a fee to the government for using airtime. MARKETING STRATEGY ADOPTED BY BHARTI Bharti has spent a considerable amount on advertising its mobile phone service, Airtel. Besides print advertising, the company had put up large no of hoardings and kiosks in and around Delhi. The objective behind designing a promotion campaign for the Airtel services is to promote the brand awareness and to build brand preferences. It is trying to set up a thematic campaign to build a stronger brand equity for Airtel. Since the cellular phone category itself is too

restricted, also the fact that a Cellular phone is a high involvement product, price doesn't qualify as an effective differentiator. The image of the service provider counts a great deal. Given the Cell phone

category, it is the network efficiency and the quality of service that becomes important. What now the buyer is looking at is to get the optimum price-performance package. This also serves as an effective differentiator Brand awareness is spread through the' campaigns and brand preference through brand stature. Airtel's campaign in the capital

began with a series of 'teaser' hoardings across the city,' bearing just

the company's name and without explaining what Airtel was. In the next phase the campaign associated Airtel with Cellular only thereafter was the Bharti Cellular connection brought up. Vans with Airtel logos roamed the city, handing out brochures about company and its services to all consumers. callers were sent out. the

About 50,000 direct

When the name was well entrenched in the

Delhiitess mind, the Airtel campaign began to focus on the utility of Cellphone. In the first four months alone Airtei's advertisement spend exceeded Rs. 4 crores. As of today the awareness level Is 60% unaided. This implies that if potential or knowledgeable consumers are asked to name a Cellular phone service provider that is on the top of his/her mind 60% of them would name Airtel. As for aided it -is 100% (by giving clues and hints etc.). Brand strength of a product or the health of a brand is measured by the percentage score of the brand on the above aided and the unaided tests. The figures show that Airtel is a healthy and a thriving brand. Every company has a goal, which might comprise a sales target and a game plan with due regard to Its competitor. Airtel 's campaign

strategy is designed keeping in mind its marketing strategy. The tone, tenor and the stance of the visual ads are designed to convey the image of a market leader in terms of its market share. It tries to

portray the image of being a "first mover every time" and that of a "market leader".

The status of the product in terms of its life cycle has just reached the maturity stage in India. It is still on the rising part of the product life cycle curve in the maturity stage. The diagram on the left hand side shows the percentage of the users classified into heavy, medium and low categories. The right hand side shows the revenue share earned from the three types of users. Airtel, keeping in mind the importance of the customer retention, values its heavy users the most and constantly indulges in service innovation. But, since heavy users comprise only 15 - 20% of the

population the other segment cannot be neglected. The population which has just realised the importance of cellular phones has to be roped in. It is for this reason that the service

provider offers a plethora of incentives and discounts. Concerts like the "Freedom concert" are being organised by Airtel in order to promote sales. The media channel is chosen with economy in mind. The target segment is not very concrete but, there is an attempt to focus on those who can afford. The print advertisements and

hoarding are placed in those strategic areas which most likely to catch the attention of those who need a cellular phone. The product

promise (which might cost different 1 higher) is an important variable in determining the target audience. Besides this, other promotional strategies that Airtel has adopted are .

(i)

People who have booked Airtel services have been treated to exclusive premiers of blockbuster movies. Airtel has tied up with Lufthansa to offer customer bonus miles on the German airlines frequent flier's programs.

(ii)

There have been educational campaigns, image campaigns, pre launch advertisements, launch advertisements, congratulatory advertisements, promotional advertise-ments, attacking

advertisements and tactical advertisements. Reference Moe rahnema overview of the GSM system and protocol architecture. IEEE communications magazine. augest 2009 Internet

Chapter 3

Company profile

o o o o o o

History of the company EXECUTIVE SUMMARY Product voyage Product line Airtel Product position in shimoga Recent development

Company profile

History of the company

Bharti Airtel formerly known as Bharti Tele-Ventures LTD (BTVL) is the largest cellular service provider in India, with more than 124 million subscribers as of February 2010.With this, Bharti is now the world's third-largest, single-country mobile operator and sixth-largest integrated telecom operator. 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 telephone services and broadband Internet access (DSL) in top 95 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. The businesses at Bharti Airtel have always 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 95 cities and has recently launched a Direct-to-Home (DTH) service, Airtel Digital TV. Shahrukh Khan is the brand embassador of the mobile company and Kareena Kapoor and Saif Ali Khan are the brand embassadors of the DTH company. The company provides end-to-end data and enterprise services to the corporate customers through its nationwide fiber optic backbone, last mile connectivity in fixed-line and mobile circles, VSATs, ISP and international bandwidth access through the gateways and landing station.[3] 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 24.6% share of the wireless services market, followed by 17.7% for Reliance Communications and 17.4% for Vodafone Essar.[4] In January 2010, company anonced 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 1st April 2010. He will be overseeing Bharti's overseas business. Current Dy. CEO, Sanjay Kapoor, will replace Manoj Kohli and will be the CEO with effective from 1st April, 2010.

executive summary

The project aims at understanding the Marketing strategies at Airtel and its impact on the perception of Airtel Cellular Services. Research has demonstrated conclusively that it is far more costly to win a new customer than it is to maintain an existing one. And there is no better way to retain a customer than to exceed his expectations. For this purpose it is essential to know the level of customer satisfaction. The focus of my research was the measurement of customer satisfaction level for the services provided by Bharti Airtel. The research was done for the corporate clients of Bharti Airtel. My job was not only to represent the Corporate Sales Dept. and collect the feedback from the clients but also to get the major complaints resolved through internal counselling. There can be no better opportunity to interact with the external as well as the internal customers of an organization. Finally the results of the research verify the fact that keeping the customer satisfied is the best strategy to not only retain the existing customers but also to expand the business to new horizons.

Product voyage Airtel Airtel is a brand of telecommunication services in India, Bangladesh and in Sri Lanka owned and operated by Bharti Airtel. It is the largest cellular service provider in India in terms of number of subscribers. Services are offered under the brand name Airtel: Mobile Services (using GSM Technology), Broadband & Telephone Services (Fixed line, Internet Connectivity(DSL) and Leased Line), Long Distance Services and Enterprise Services (Telecommunications Consulting for corporates). It has presence in all 23 circles of the country and covers 71% of the current population (as of Financial Year 2007). Airtel has also launched 16Mb/s broadband plans in India, making it the first ISP to do so. Airtel is facing a lot of flack from it's customers, as people are largely getting dissatisfied with it's customer care services. (www.consumercomplaints.in - Indian Consumer Complaints Forum) Airtel Sri Lanka In December 2008, Bharti Airtel rolled out third generation services in Sri Lanka in association with Singapore Telecommunications. SingTel is a major player in the 3G space in Asia. It operates third generation networks in several markets across Asia. [5] Airtel's operation in Sri Lanka, known as Airtel Lanka, commenced operations on the 12th of January 2009. Airtel in Bangladesh In January 2010, it was announced that the Bangladesh Telecommuncations Regulatrory Commission (BTRC) of The People's Republic of Bangladesh had given Bharti Airtel the go ahead to acquire a 70% stake in the Bangladesh business of Abu Dhabi based Warid Telcom. The latter had till date invested a total of $600 million, with plans to bring their Bangladesh investments to the $1 billion mark. Airtel's 70% stake in the company is said to be at a cost of an initial $300 million. Product line

Airtel was born free, a force unleashed into the market with a relentless and unwavering determination to succeed. A spirit charged with energy, creativity and a team driven to seize the day with an ambition to become the most globally admired telecom service. Airtel, in just ten years of operations, rose to the pinnacle to achivement 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 we touch peoples lives with our Mobile services, Telemedia services, to connecting India's leading 1000+ corporates. We also connect Indians living in USA, UK and Canada with our callhome service.

Loved by more customers Targeted by top talent Benchmarked by more businesses We at Airtel always think in fresh and innovative ways about the needs of our customers and how we want them to feel. We deliver what we promise and go out of our way to delight the customer with a little bit more

AIRTEL PRODUCT POSITION IN SHIMOGA Airtel in shimoga playing major role when it comes cellular network it has made vast improvements in recent years people are fond to go for Airtel network the reason behind this is very simple to listen but very difficult to achieve it Quality of the service its extreme quality and network will be available almost all places in shimoga, Airtel got leading number of customers in shimoga. Here are also some factors which has turned our mind as well as which may turn our mind to buy Airtel network.

The recent Airtel Commercial where a grandson meets his grandfather is a perfect blend of emotions and benefits. If we read the book Ogilvy On Advertising written by David Ogilvy he says about the commercials which has above average performance in making customers shift brands. In that he lists commercials, which gives fun, testimonials, product usage, emotions etc have the capability to shift Brand preference. Generally emotions are used in cases where you cant explain the benefit of a product like cigarettes, beer etc. Here in this new Airtel commercial the emotional distance between the grandson and grandfather is broken by the network coverage capability of the airtel network. If we closely watch, the grandfathers residence will have a village set up which shows the network extension of Airtel to even villages. It also suits the Indian culture and current trends of Indian families where the modernization and lifestyle has lengthened the road of emotions but a parents mind always forgives child for his/her mistakes. Its a perfect portfolio of psychology, emotions, and product benefit

Recent development Bharti Airtel and global telcos boost Trans-Pacific connectivity with the launch of the Unity cable system Bharti Airtel extends partnership with Ericsson Bharti set to acquire Zain Africa BV

 Bharti Airtel, HTC and Qualcomm Launch the HTC Smart in India Airtel introduces fastest ever speed for broadband users in India Bharti Airtel to Observe Silent period from March 31, 2010 Touchtel Until September 18, 2004, Bharti provided fixed-line telephony and broadband services under the Touchtel brand. Bharti now provides all telecom services including fixed-line services under a common brand "Airtel". BlackBerry On 19 October 2004 Airtel announced the launch of a BlackBerry Wireless Solution in India. The launch is a result of a tie-up between Bharti Tele-Ventures Limited and Research In Motion (RIM). Digital TV Main article: Airtel Digital Tv On 9 October 2008, Airtel joined the DTH bandwagon in India with Airtel Digital TV, a Direct-to-Home Television service. iPhone 3G The Apple iPhone 3G was rolled out in India on 22 August 2008 via Airtel & Vodafone Airtel 3G Airtel plans to launch the nationwide 3G services in India in the second quarter of 2010. Conclusion Bharti Airtel, a group company, is one of Asias leading providers of telecommunications services with operations in India and Sri Lanka, spanning mobile services, telemedia services and enterprise services. Bharti Airtel has always been at

the forefront of the telecom revolution, transforming the sector with its world-class services built on leading edge technologies. In the area of financial services, Bharti has been partnering with AXA of France to offer life insurance, general insurance and asset management services. Bharti Retail, a wholly owned subsidiary of Bharti Enterprises operates multipleformat consumer friendly stores, while Bharti Walmart is a B2B joint venture with Walmart, for wholesale cash and carry and back-end supply chain management operations. Other businesses in the group are Beetel for communication and media devices, and FieldFresh Foods Private Limited, a joint venture with Del Monte Pacific Limited to offer fresh fruits and vegetables, and processed food in India as well as international markets

Reference Bernard J.T mallinder. Specification methodology applied to the GSM system. In EUROCON 88, June 2005.

Moe Rahnema overview of the GSM system and protocol architecture. IEEE Communications magazine. Augest 2009 Chapter 4 COMPETITORS PROFILE o o o Each competitors profile Introduction Conclusion

COMPETITORS PROFILE

Competition Last Price Market Cap. (Rs. cr.) 121,672.86 36,708.72 22,141.91 8,269.28 4,788.00 4,667.10 3,929.12 2,481.68 127.55 98.86 Sales Net Profit Turnover 34,014.29 13,610.58 9,916.45 3,749.43 4,576.53 2,041.88 1,585.34 1,608.28 159.09 45.61 7,743.84 2,352.93 1,008.21 515.95 214.83 -159.60 -1,015.22 249.58 14.48 6.27 Total Assets

Bharti Airtel BSNL Idea Cellular Tata Comm MTNL TataTeleservice Spice Comm Tulip Telecom Nu Tek India Goldstone Infra

320.40 177.85 67.10 290.15 76.00 24.60 56.95 855.75 36.95 27.40

35,357.62 82,593.93 18,873.79 9,125.92 12,059.38 2,743.96 1,875.94 1,802.84 171.93 110.56

Vodafone:-

Vodafone Group Plc is the world's leading mobile telecommunications company, with a significant presence in Europe, the Middle East, Africa, Asia Pacific and the United States through the Company's subsidiary undertakings, joint ventures, associated undertakings and investments.

Vodafone Group Plc is a public limited company incorporated in England under registered number 1833679. Its registered office is Vodafone House, The Connection, Newbury, Berkshire, RG14 2FN, England.

Vodafone was formed in 1984 as a subsidiary of Racal Electronics Plc. Then known as Racal Telecom Limited, approximately 20% of the company's capital was offered to the public in October 1988. It was fully demerged from Racal Electronics Plc and became an independent company in September 1991, at which time it changed its name to Vodafone Group Plc.

Following its merger with AirTouch Communications, Inc. (AirTouch), the company changed its name to Vodafone AirTouch Plc on 29 June 1999 and, following approval by the shareholders in General Meeting, reverted to its former name, Vodafone Group Plc, on 28 July 2000.

Key milestones in the development of Vodafone can be found in the following sections, organised by year:

2009

2009

June Completion of merger between Vodafone Australia Limited and Hutchinson 3G Australia Pty Limited.

March

Telefonica and Vodafone announce milestone Pan European collaboration to share network infrastructure in Germany, Spain, Ireland and the UK.

February Hutchinson and Vodafone agree to merge Australian telecom operations to form a 50:50 joint venture.

January Vodafone trials HSPA+ mobile broadband at speeds of up to 16 Mbps.

Idea:

IDEA Cellular is an Aditya Birla Group Company, India's first truly multinational corporation IIDEA Cellular is a leading GSM mobile services operator in India with over 62 million subscribers, under brand IDEA. It is a pan India integrated GSM operator covering the entire telephony landscape of the country, and has NLD and ILD operations. A frontrunner in introducing revolutionary tariff plans, IDEA Cellular has the distinction of offering the most customer friendly and competitive Pre Paid offerings, for the first time in India, in an increasingly segmented market. From basic voice & Short Message Service (SMS) services to high-end value added & GPRS services such as Blackberry, Datacard, Mobile TV, Games etc - IDEA is seen as an innovative, customer focused brand. IDEA offers affordable and world-class mobile services to varied segments of mobile users. Be it high end users, or low-end, price sensitive consumers - IDEA's tariff plans are designed to suit every pocket.

With a vision of delighting its customers while meeting their individual communication needs anytime, anywhere, IDEA offers seamless coverage to roaming customers traveling to any part of the country, as well as to international traveling customers across over 200 countries. IDEA Cellular has partnership with over 400 operators to ensure that customers are always connected while on the move, within the country or other parts of the world. The company has expanded its pan-India presence through service launches in Orissa, Chennai & Tamil Nadu, Jammu & Kashmir, Kolkata & West Bengal, and the North East states in FY10.

BSNL:

Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd. formed in October, 2000, is World's 7th largest Telecommunications Company providing comprehensive range of telecom services in India: Wireline, CDMA mobile, GSM Mobile, Internet, Broadband, Carrier service, MPLS-VPN, VSAT, VoIP services, IN Services etc. Presently it is one of the largest & leading public sector unit in India.

. Today, it has about 46 million line basic telephone capacity, 8 million WLL capacity, 52 Million GSM Capacity, more than 38302 fixed exchanges, 46565 BTS, 3895 Node B ( 3G BTS), 287 Satellite Stations, 614755 Rkm of OFC Cable, 50430 Rkm of Microwave Network connecting 602 Districts, 7330 cities/towns and 5.6 Lakhs villages.

. CellOne, has 55,140,282 2G cellular customers and 88,493 3G customers as on 30.11.2009. In basic services, BSNL is miles ahead of its rivals, with 35.1 million Basic Phone subscribers i.e. 85 per cent share of the subscriber base and 92 percent share in revenue terms.

Conclusion: Competition plays major role in each and every industry likewise in this cellular industry also it is playing a vital role. Though Airtel has got strong competition with its other competitors Airtel is standing NO. 1 because of it quality and the services provided by the Airtel, it is only one company which is providing network which doesnt have any limits and there is nothing to talk about its quality. To conclude this to compete with Airtel other companies must put lot of efforts and that should be innovative.

Reference Bernard J.T mallinder. Specification methodology applied to the GSM system. In EUROCON 88, June 2005.

Moe Rahnema overview of the GSM system and protocol architecture. IEEE Communications magazine. Augest 2009 Internet

CHAPTER 5

DATA ANALYSIS AND INTERPRETATION o o TABLE ANALYSIS

o GRAPHS

Data Analysis & Interpretation

Q. 1.

What kind of relationship do you have with Airtel?

Prepaid Post Paid

0%

100%

Interpretation:By asking this I came to know that all my respondents were prepaid Airtel card users. Thus I infer students mostly opt for prepaid connections so the company should more focus on prepaid services especially for student plans keeping in mind the limited pocket money of theirs. After knowing that all my respondents were prepaid customers of Airtel, I restricted my next questions towards prepaid related only.

Q. 2.

How do you rate the attitude of Airtel customer care services towards you as a customer?

Good 50%

Excellent 50%

Interpretation:While probing this i came to know that all the students were either satisfied or fully satisfied with the prevailing services of AirTel customer care. Since it is fact about Airtel that its customer care provides on spot solution to the problem or may direct the call to the concerned department. Some students said that it is not BSNL which is taking half an hour to pick a single call. So i conclude that Airtel is well designed in its field but for persistency to remain the leader it should keep focussed vision on this issue.

Q. 3.

Airtel offers a good mix of services within its category

Strongly Agree Agree Neutral Disagree Strongly Agree

100%

Interpretation:With the changing environment in telecom sector be it reduced tariffs or reduction in call rate or some other issue related to its services, Airtel has always run shoulder by shoulder with its competitors so that customers would not feel that they lack something which other subscribers have in advance. From above question i can infer that the service mix for students is very good that is why they showed very positive response towards this question.

Q. 4.

Airtel value added services are excellent for students.

Strongly Strongly Agree 0% Agree Disagree 0% 0%

Neutral 50%

Agree 50%

Interpretation:Students mentioned were not from financially sound family so they show some negativity towards these value added services, but this negativenes was not too much as they were using rarely these services. Other 15 students agreed with the given statement and in turn named such services provided by Airtel about which even i was not aware of. So from this question i concluded that students are usually bearing low pocket money (exceptions are there), so the service provider (Airtel) should look over this matter in favour of stuents.

Q. 5.

Networking of Airtel is good

Strongly Agree Agree Neutral 0% Disagree Strongly Agree

100%

Interpretation:From the intense advertising of AirTel promising to provide clarity of voice and its everywhere you go, is known the best telecom service provider in India. It is rightly said HAR JAGAH SAB JAGAH. So all the 30 respondents strongly agree with the statement that the networking of AirTel is best.

Q. 6.

Broadband service of Airtel is good?

Strongly Agree Agree Neutral 0% 0% 0% 0% Disagree Strongly Agree

100%

Interpretation:Since Airtel provides both dial up as well as fixed landline (broadband) connections, and being the MBA students all of them were using internet connection and that too of Airtel company. With the charges and service of internet the students were very happy so they filled strongly agree option in the questionnaire. But some of them argued with the increased price of dial-up connection (internet) from earlier Rs/250= to Rs/500= now.

Q. 7.

Do you think Airtel is the best telecom service provider?

Strongly Agree Agree Neutral 0% 0% 0% Disagree Strongly Agree

50%

50%

Interpretation:Here I checked the brand awareness and goodwill of the company. All of my repondents being loyal customers towards Airtel spoke good word of mouth. 50% of the rspondents said they strongly agree with the statment where as rest 50% said they also agree with the statement. It is all by the positive word of mouth of the company that it has acquired no. 1 position and also its marvellous efforts towards its vision. While talking with the respondents which factor of Airtel strongly infleunce them all of them reflected only one answer that its all employees are accountable and response to any quiry comes as soon as possible . the service no. 121 is famous in this field.

Q. 8. Rate the given factors on 5 point scale for a mobile service provider i.e. AirTel
35

30

25 Very Poor Poor Average 15 Good Excellent 10

20

0 Price Quality Variety Avalibility

Interpretation:Here i used 5 parameters viz. Price, Quality, Variety and Avalibility. Regarding price all the 30 respondents sid average, for quality they 15 out of 30 said average and other 15 said good., for variet and availibity as given above. So i infer from above graph thatthe core ompetency of Airtel according to these customers is its enormous Distant coverage, where as quality, variety are in average range.

Q. 09.

while thinking of Airtel as a telecom service provider, things that come to your mind are
Trust Worthy CustomerOriented 0% 17% 33% Rsponsive Economic

50%

Interpretation:After all these questions i asked them (rather was written on questionnaire) that what is the first thing which come in their ming while somebody talks about telecom sctor particularly Airtel, 50 % of the replied that Airtel is customer oriented, where as few said responsive and other said economic (for students).

Q. 10

How many times you need to call customer care to solve the problem?
specify 0%

3 50%

1 50%

2 0%

Interpretation:Due to system error 50 % of the customers have made call to the customer care thrice, otherwise the problem gets solved only in 4 minutes.

Q. 11.

would you recommend Airtel to your friends?

No 0%

Yes 100%

Interpretation:Being the brand leader in current market (telcom) and best service provider in this diversifieble country INDIA, all the 30 respondents showed positive word of mouth which is a good sign for the future of company

Q. 12

What is your experience when you complain to the customer care or frontline staff regarding your problems?
Onspot Solution to my complaint should be deligated authority decrease waiting time for attending call focus always for customer stisfaction

33%

33%

17%

17%

Interpretation:The overall view point of all the responents was that like tata indicom and reliance competitors there is no free night calling from Airtel to Airtel and another issue they raised was that their is need of much more innovative services hich exist in other countries like 3G services are launched but still it remained confined to several cities. Lastly they appraised the quick service delivery by Airtel customer care and hoped thi will rather increase but not decrease from companies point of view.

Reference Bernard J.T mallinder. Specification methodology applied to the GSM system. In EUROCON 88, June 2005.

Moe Rahnema overview of the GSM system and protocol architecture. IEEE Communications magazine. Augest 2009 Internet

CHAPTER- 6 FINDINGS AND SUGGESTION FINDINGS Airtel is market leader in telecom industry in india. The customers are fully satisfied and recommends persistency as such. GPRS rates should be made fair particularly for student section of society. As BSNL is providing special schemes for Customers, similar efforts are expected from Airtel.

SUGGESTIONS 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 is that 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 other because its competitor VODAFONE had introduced it. AIRTEL should sign more celebrities from cricket and bollywood

SWOT ANALYSIS

STRENGTHS

Cost advantage

Current leaders in quality service Largest distribution network Ability to constantly innovate Highly skilled workforce Entrepreneurial zeal Airtels increased equity and market cap.

WEAKNESSES To prove credibility Price pressures Need for Government support Awareness Sales and Marketing

OPPORTUNITIES To sustain passion and commitment Airtels market share increasing at other service provider expense. Thus opportunity to wipe it out. Attain higher value services Collaborative business needs to be explored Vertical repeatable solutions. Low penetration level in rural markets.

THREATS

Foreign investment

Global trends moving from GPS to WLL. Lack of global parity in telecom tariff Other competition

CONCLUSION

From above the details I conclude that 70% Airtel users preferred to remain with Airtel. Also good no. of users who were willing to switch from their respective subscribers showed interest in Airtel. Hence, these statistics imply a bright future for the company. Also the company is now providing more services like the door to door services which is you dial the Airtel customer care and would like to send someone flowers the Airtel company delivers those flowers to the person concerned. Also Airtel is providing free text messaging service and free voice mail service. Call conferencing is also another feature Airtel provides.

Dear sir, This questionnaire is required to accomplish the research on the topic Customer attitude towards Airtel Network, so please be unbiased while filling this questionnaire. This information will be kept

confidential.

Name;_____________ Address__________________ ___________________ ___________________ ___________________ 1.which kind of services d o you have? a. postpaid b. prepaid

2. How do you rate the attitude of Airtel customer care services towards you as a customer? a. Excellent b. Good. c.

Satisfactory d. Poor e. Very poor

3. Airtel offers a good mix of services within its category. strongly agree agree disagree 4 5 neither agree nor disagree disagree 1 2 strongly 3

4. Airtel value added services are excellent for Customers.

strongly agree agree disagree 4 5

neither agree nor disagree disagree 1 2

strongly 3

5. Networking of Airtel is good. strongly agree agree disagree 4 5 neither agree nor disagree disagree 1 2 strongly 3

6. Broadband services of Airtel is good? strongly agree agree disagree 4 5 neither agree nor disagree disagree 1 2 strongly 3

7. Do you think Airtel is the best telecom service provider? Strongly agree disagree 1 2 3 4 5 agree neutral Disagree strongly

8. Rate the importance of following factors on 5 point scale in a mobile service provider (Airtel) (1 for very poor and 5 for excellent)

Very Poor Excellent

Poor

Average

Good

Price _________

_________

_____ _________ ______

Quality of servi ce

(Connectivity) _________

_________ _____ _________

______

Varieties of Services Offered (schemes) _________ _________ _____ _________ ______

Availability in different States (roaming) _________ _________ _____ _________ ______

09. while thinking of Airtel as a telecom service provider, things that come to my mind are a.. c Trustworthy Responsive b. d. Customer oriented economic

10. How do you perceive mcheck (mobile check) services of Airte l? Excellent Not to your expectations Dont you ------------------------------

11. how many times you need calling customer care to solve the problem? a. 1 --------b. 2 ----c. 3. --------d. specify-----------

12. would you recommend Airtel to your friends?

q. yes

b.

no

13. In your opinion to satisfy the needs

how much time the service should take in order -------------

14. What is your experience when you complain to t he care or frontline staff regarding your problems? Thank you for your time and support Your Deepak H.D

customer

__________________________________________________________

BIBLIOGRAPHY Encyclopaedia Marketing management by Airtel News papers and magazines Bernard J. T. Mallinder. Specification Methodology Applied to the GSM System. In EUROCON 88, June 2005. Moe Rahnema. Overview of the GSM System and Protocol Architecture. IEEE Communications Magazine. April 1993. Internet