FINAL REPORT

ON

CREATING NEW MARKETING STRATEGIES TO

DRIVE MORE AIRTEL 4G CUSTOMERS

By

SHARIQ RIAZ KHAN

16BSPHH01C0909

At

(BHARTI AIRTEL LIMITED)

 FINAL REPORT

ON

CREATING NEW MARKETING STRATEGIES TO

DRIVE MORE AIRTEL 4G CUSTOMERS
By

SHARIQ RIAZ KHAN

16BSPHH01C0909
IBS HYDERABAD

AT

BHARTI AIRTEL LIMITED

A Report submitted in fulfilment of the requirements of MBA Program of IBS
Hyderabad

Submitted to:
Company Guide: Faculty Guide:
Mr. Saurabh Kalra Dr. Suresh K. G
DGM - Prepaid Head Professor
Bharti Airtel Limited IBS Hyderabad

Date of Submission: 9th May 2017

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 AUTHORISATION

This is to certify that this report is submitted as partial fulfillments of the requirements of MBA
Program of ICFAI Business School (IBS), Hyderabad.

This report document titled: “Creating New Marketing Strategies To Drive More Airtel 4G
Customers” is a submission of work done by Shariq Riaz Khan as part of the completion of the
study at Bharti Airtel Limited during his Internship Program from 23rd Feb 2017 to 15th May
2017 under the guidance of Mr. Saurabh Kalra (DGM- Marketing). This report has been formally
submitted to:

Dr. Suresh K.G,

Campus Mentor
IBS Hyderabad

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 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

I express my sincere gratitude to Organizational Guide Mr. Amit Gupta (VP – Marketing Head)
for his exemplary guidance and constant encouragement throughout the course of this project.
Moreover, I am immensely grateful to Mr. Saurabh Kalra ( DGM - Marketing) for lending
me support, imparting knowledge and offering me valuable insights all throughout the tenure of
the internship project. I express my sincere thanks to Faculty Mentor Ms. Suresh K. G for
guiding me in this Project. I am very grateful for the constant support throughout the duration
of the entire project.

I sincerely express my thanks to our Professors for their valuable guidance. I thank each and every
one of them for their valuable suggestions, motivation, and encouragement. I wish to express
gratitude to all those, whom I have worked and interacted with and whose thoughts and insights
helped us to further increase our knowledge and understanding of the project.

I would also like to extend my thanks to various people, factors, and situations which contributed
to the successful accomplishment of the task. Though I am unable to mention all of them
individually, but the debt of gratitude to them is no less.

Last but not the least; I would like to thank IBS, Hyderabad for giving me the opportunity to get
this relevant exposure in the corporate sector.

SHARIQ RIAZ KHAN

16BSPHH01C0909

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 TABLE OF CONTENT
S.NO. CONTENT PAGE NO.
Authorization 3
Acknowledgments 4
Executive Summary 6
List of Figures 7
List of Tables 8
1 Introduction – Industry
1.1 About Telecom 9
1.2 Indian Cellular Market 10
1.3 GSM Market in India 11
2 Introduction – About Bharti Airtel LTD
2.1 About Company 12
2.2 Services Offered 13
2.3 Bharti Airtel – The Market Leader 20
2.4 Launch Of Airtel 4G 21
2.5 Journey So Far 22
2.6 Marketing Strategy Adopted 23
2.7 Business Models 25
2.8 Strategies Against Competitors 27
2.9 Timeline Depicting Various Tag Lines 27
3 Main Text
3.1 Objective 28
3.2 Learnings 29
3.2.1 Distribution Channel 30
3.2.2 Revenue System 31
3.2.3 Product Life Cycle 33
3.3 Findings/ Initiations 35
3.3.1 SWOT Analysis 42
3.4 Recommendations 43
3.4.1 Few recommendations suggested 45
4 Conclusion 46
5 Further cope of Research 46
6 Methodology Proposed 47
7 Limitations 47
8 Annexures
8.1 Annexure 1 - Questionnaire 48
8.2 Annexure 2 – Discussions Guide 50
9 Bibliography 51

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 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

“High-speed wireless broadband has the potential to transform India, provide a robust
platform for building the country’s digital economy and truly empower people. With one
of the largest pools of the young population in the world, India will see massive growth in
consumption of data and content over mobile devices and proliferation of mobile commerce.
I look forward to Airtel playing a pivotal role in shaping this exciting future for India.”
Mr. Sunil Bharti Mittal
Chairman and Managing Director, Bharti Airtel

The above statement of Sunil Mittal, Chairman of Bharti Airtel tells us the way Airtel wants to
change itself and the life of every Indian.

Bharti Airtel Ltd. started operations in 1995 and has steadily grown to be the most dominant
Telecom player in India today. How Bharti Airtel managed to be the No. 1 in the Indian Telecom
space is an interesting journey in itself and the same has been analyzed and presented in this report.

My internship project initiated with understanding the key business of Airtel and the terminologies
used commonly among the employees. Besides this, I was given the company’s sales channel and
was asked to understand various factors involved in order to get a better picture of the market. My
project is titled as “Creating New Marketing Strategies to Drive More Airtel 4g Customers”
and to achieve my objective I’ve to derive it in the form of two assignments.

For this, understanding the consumer behavior was essential and only after that, I analyzed the
value that Airtel will incur for each of its tariff plans. This value is critical for the company
whenever it plans to increase its market share. I am currently working under my manager on this
and have been comparing the previous month’s sales of 4G network so as to find out if they
increase/decrease and due to what possible reasons.

The objective was to find a central insight or creative thought on which Airtel-4G
communication can be pivoted by using the prevalent infrastructure and not to incur any other
additional charges. The methodology followed for the research was based on secondary research
and primary research.

Few observations were noted, for instance, there is a scope of improvement for 4G network on
parameters such as Video chatting, Internet calls, video downloading and easy browsing/web
page downloads. People consume up to 10-12 hours of Internet daily. By the observations noted,
came up to an inference of lack of awareness and availability of incentive schemes. So, my project
talks about how to increase employee working efficiency by imparting them to more incentive
schemes.

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 LIST OF FIGURES

S. NO. TITLE PAGE NO.

1 Market Share of Telecom Operators 9
2 Subscribers Count 10
3 Key Milestones 20
4 Journey So Far 22
5 Business Models 25
6 Distribution Channel 30
7 Revenue Model 31
8 4G – LTE Forecasts 33
9 Trend from Dec’16 to April’17 36
10 ARPU Usage of Users 41
11 Auxiliary Users 41
12 Rockstar Of the Month 43
13 Facebook Campaign Insights 44

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 LIST OF TABLES

S. NO. TITLE PAGE NO.

1 Areas of Operations 10
2 Trends in Telecom Market 11
3 Strategies Against Competitors 27
4 Handsets Under Airtel 35
5 Users under Airtel 35
6 Monthly Average Data Usage 36
7 Retailer & FSE Scheme 37
8 Consumer Conversion by Udaan 37
9 Shift for Cheap Data Rates 39
10 Shift for Cheap Call Rates 39
11 Shift for Awareness 40

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 INTRODUCTION

1.1 ABOUT TELECOM:

The Indian Telecommunications Network is the second largest in the world with 860.9 million
telephone connections based on the total number of telephone users (both fixed and mobile phone).
Today it is the fastest growing market in the world with 8.35 million monthly additions.

Indian Telecom Players - Market Share

Vodafone-Idea
5%4%
1%
7% Airtel India
34%
8%
Jio
8% BSNL Mobile
10% Aircel
23%
Reliance Communications
Tata DoCoMo

Source: TRAI: Fig: Market Share of Telecom Operators

Telecommunication in India has greatly been supported by the INSAT system of the country, one
of the largest domestic satellite systems in the world. Indian telecom industry underwent a high
pace of market liberalization and growth since the 1990s. India has the world's second-
largest mobile phone user base with over 929.37 million users. It has the world's third-
largest Internet user base with over 137 million. Private operators have made mobile telephony the
fastest growing (over 164% p.a.) in India. With more than 930 million users (both CDMA and
GSM). Intense competition between the four main private groups - Bharti, Vodafone, Tata, and
Reliance and with the State sector incumbents-BSNL and MTNL has brought about a significant
drop in tariffs.

The Government has played a key enabling customs duties on hardware and mobile handsets have
been reduced from 14 percent to 5 percent. The Indian government has merged the IT and Telecom
Ministries to speed up and telecoms will be taken after the new Government bodies. An
independent regulatory body (TRAI) and dispute settlement body (TDSAT) is fully functional.

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1.2 INDIAN CELLULAR MARKET
The Bharti Group continues to be the country's largest cellular operator with over 365 million
subscribers. RIM, which operates in 23 circles, is the second largest operator with a subscriber
base of 72 million in the year of 2017. Subscribers share of all the prevailing operators are shown
below with the help of a graph.

SUBSCRIBER SHARE
500 400.48
400 270.64
300
200 121 96.9 91.3 86.5 53 51.6 5.9
100 3.6
0

Subscribers(In Millions)

Source: TRAI: FIG – Subscribers Count

One of the challenges facing GSM operators in India is the diversity of the coverage regions -from
remote rural regions to some of the most densely populated metropolitan areas in the world. India
has more than 40 networks, which cover the seven largest cities, over 7000 towns, and several
Lacs villages. Below table shows the network providers with their areas of operation.

S.No. Service Provider Area of Operation

1 Bharti Airtel Ltd All India
2 Aircel Group All India
3 Reliance All India (except Assam & NE)
4 Reliance Telecom Ltd Kolkata, MP, WB, HP, Bihar, Orissa, Assam & NE
5 Vodafone (India) Ltd All India
6 Tata Teleservices All India except Assam, NE & J&K
7 IDEA Cellular Ltd All India
8 Sistema Shyam Delhi, Kolkata, Gujarat, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu (Inc.
Telelink Chennai), Kerala, UP(W), Rajasthan & W.B.
9 BSNL All India (except Delhi & Mumbai)
10 MTNL Delhi & Mumbai
11 Quadrant Punjab
12 Telenor Maharashtra, Gujarat, AP, UP(W), UP(E), Bihar & Assam
13 Reliance Jio Infocom All India
Source: TRAI: Table: Areas of Operations

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1.3 GSM MARKET IN INDIA
With a population of around 1.3 billion growing at roughly 1.9% per year, Competition in the
mobile sector has already had a visible impact on prices with calls currently costing less than 9
cents per minute. This means that service costs have fallen by 60 per cent since the first GSM
networks became live in 1995.

Table: Trends in Telecom market and their changing market share

Service Subscriber Base (millions) Rate of Market Share Market Share

Provider Sep-16 Dec-16 Net Additions Growth (%) Sep-16 (%) Dec-16 (%)
Bharti 259.94 265.85 5.91 2.27 24.76 23.58
Vodafone 200.72 204.69 3.97 1.98 19.12 18.16
IDEA 178.82 190.52 11.7 6.54 17.03 16.9
BSNL 93.77 96.79 3.02 3.22 8.93 8.59
Aircel 90.14 90.88 0.73 0.81 8.59 8.06
Reliance 87.16 86.54 -0.62 -0.71 8.3 7.68
C
Reliance Jio 15.98 72.16 56.18 351.56 1.52 6.4
Telenor 52.86 54.47 1.61 3.05 5.04 4.83
Tata 57.05 52.98 -4.08 -7.14 5.44 4.7
Sistema 6.72 5.88 -0.84 -12.51 0.64 0.52
MTNL 3.61 3.63 0.02 0.44 0.34 0.32
Quadrant 2.98 3 0.02 0.8 0.28 0.27
Total 1,049.74 1,127.37 77.63 7.4 100 100
Source: TRAI

In North America GSM growth is bigger than CDMA (code division multiple access)," he said.
Commenting on the raging debate over GSM versus CDMA in mobile services arena, Hadden
said: "GSM is the world's most successful mobile standard with over 2 billion users, and is an open
mobile standard. It also supports automatic international roaming, which is a major contributor to
business plans."

“Our surpluses are not enough to cover costs of network expansion and financing charges on loans.
We are making money only to cover operating expenses,” he said. Carriers are now subsidizing
handset costs to woo users into the underpenetrated industry forecast to have more than 750 million
customers by the end of this financial year.

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 2 AIRTEL BHARTI LTD

2.1 ABOUT COMPANY:

Bharti Airtel Limited is a leading global telecommunications company with operations in 20
countries across Asia and Africa. Headquartered in New Delhi, India, the company ranks amongst
the top 4 mobile service providers globally in terms of subscribers. In India, the company's product
offerings include 2G, 3G and 4G wireless services, mobile commerce, fixed line services, high-
speed DSL broadband, IPTV, DTH, enterprise services including national & international long
distance services to carriers. In the rest of the geographies, it offers 2G, 3G wireless services, and
mobile commerce. Bharti Airtel had over 365 million customers across its operations at the end of
March 2017.

MISSION:
Hunger to win customers for life.

VISION:
Our vision is to enrich the lives of our customers. Our obsession is to win customers for life through
an exceptional experience.

Airtel comes to us from Bharti Airtel Limited - a part of the biggest private integrated telecom
conglomerate, Bharti Enterprises. Bharti provides a range of telecom services, which include
Cellular, Basic, Internet and recently introduced National Long Distance. Bharti also manufactures
and exports telephone terminals and cordless phones. Apart from being the largest manufacturer
of telephone instruments in India, it is also the first company to export its products to the USA.
Bharti has also put its footsteps into Insurance and Retail segment in collaboration with Multi-
National giants. Bharti is the leading cellular service provider, with a footprint in 23 states covering
all four metros and more than 50 million satisfied customers.

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2.2 SERVICES OFFERED
• Mobile Services: Airtel Prepaid, the Ready Cellular Card from Airtel comes to you from
Bharti Enterprises, India's leading integrated telecom service provider. Going mobile with
Airtel Prepaid is a new way of life. With a host of great features, also simple to use, Airtel
Prepaid makes everything that you dreamt and believed, possible.

• 3G: Airtel 3G services are available in 200 cities through its network and in 500 cities through
intra-circle roaming arrangements with other operators. Airtel had about 5.4 million 3G
customers of which 4 million are 3G data customers.

• 4G: Airtel launched 4G services using TD-LTE technology in Kolkata, becoming the first
company in India to offer 4G services. Airtel had 40,000 4G subscribers as of March 2016

Source: GSMA intelligence

• WiFi; Airtel has plans to launch WiFi services in India. It intends to start offering WiFi
services in Delhi-NCR, Mumbai, and Bangalore in the initial phase. All plans will be on the
secure wireless broadband internet with unlimited usage and will be session or time-based.
Users can use the service by finding a hotspot, selecting airtel WiFi Zone', activating the
voucher and then log in to start browsing. Airtel intends to partner with establishments to set
up hotspots which will be termed WiFi Hangout for an establishment owner and WiFi Partner

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 for the cafe and restaurant owners. Airtel WiFi Partners can offer services at zero investments
and can earn commission on every WiFi session sold.

• Airtel Money: Airtel has started a new mCommerce platform called Airtel Money in
collaboration with Infosys and SmartTrust (now Giesecke & Devrient). The platform was
launched on 5 April 2012, at Infosys' headquarters in Bangalore. Using Airtel Money, users
can transfer money, pay bills and perform other financial transactions directly on the mobile
phone.

• Smart Drive: SmartDrive is navigation app exclusive to Airtel customers. The app features
voice-based turn by turn navigation, real time information update on traffic, approximate time
of the travel on the basis of the traffic situation on the various routes and also lets users see
their location on the map and plan the journey accordingly. It also suggests the subscriber an
alternate route in case of traffic congestion on the normal route.

• Network Experience Centre; Airtel has a Network Experience Centre (NEC) which observes
end to end customer experience, in near real time, along with the standard network elements
on Airtel's operations. The NEC is located in Manesar, Haryana and went live on 31 October
2012. It is the first such facility in India and will be able to monitor Airtel's network
performance across mobile, fixed line, broadband, DTH, M-Commerce, enterprise
services, International Cable Systems and internet peering points from a single location. It will
monitor all Airtel and partner NOCs. In the case of an emergency, the NEC will enable the
operator to prioritize actions to restore normalcy and reduce resolution time.

• Strong Network Coverage: Enjoy complete clarity when calling with Airtel’s world-class
technology and unbreakable network coverage that spans over 23 circles across the country.

• Instant Balance and Validity Inquiry: Your account balance is updated on the screen of your
handset at the end of each chargeable call. You can also call 123 from your mobile phone and
listen to the voice announcement or simply dial *123#, press 'OK' or 'YES' button and your

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 account balance will be displayed on the screen of your handset.

• Recharge your Airtel Prepaid

Recharging is Easy. The calling value on your card keeps reducing as you make calls or use any
other chargeable service. Choose the Airtel Prepaid Recharge Coupon that’s right for you, from a
variety of tailor– made recharge coupons with different denominations, which are available at a
number of outlets across your city. Simply follow the procedure mentioned below, to recharge
your phone.

• Prepaid Roaming

Airtel Prepaid comes pre-activated with 'National Roaming', so you stay connected no matter
wherever you are. You can also send or receive MMS, check your email and access other GPRS
services while roaming in India as you would in your own city. While traveling abroad you can
receive calls & send or receive SMS.

• Other Services

Airtel brings you, a wide range of Services that will change the way you communicate. Try them
and discover a whole new world of fun and excitement.

• Call management Services

Call waiting, call hold, call divert and Caller Line Identification Presentation – all with your Airtel
prepaid connection.

• Voice Mail

When your handset is switched off, or you’re too busy to answer the phone, Airtel Voicemail will
answer your calls and record a message. The best part is that there's no extra monthly cost for
setting up Voicemail - you just pay for the phone call when you use the service.

• SMS (Short Messaging Service)

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Send messages quickly and easily using text, if it's too noisy to talk or you don't have much time.
It's the way to share those interesting one-liners, important reminders and rib-tickling jokes, with
anyone, anytime, anywhere in the world.

• Subscription Alerts

Get regular alerts on news, jokes, business, health and films on your Airtel mobile phone with
Subscription Services. SMS <SUB NEWS> to 3333 for News, <SUB JOKE> for Jokes, <SUB
BIZ> for Business News, <SUB SPO> for Sports Alerts & <SUB VAASTU> for Vaastu tips.

• MMS (Multi-media Messaging Service):

Jazz up your messages with pictures, images, and video clippings, with MMS from Airtel! To
activate MMS on your phone, SMS 'MMS' to 56465 and save service settings.

• Airtel Live!

Make your mobile the most happening entertainment destination with Airtel Live! Airtel brings
you the latest in entertainment and information services, right on your phone!

1. Airtel Live! WAP Services:

2. Airtel Live! Voice Services:
3. Airtel Live! SIM Services:
4. Airtel Live! SMS Services

• Hello Tunes

Tired of that boring old ‘tring trying’ on your phone? Well now when a friend calls, you can make
them groove to the hottest new tracks burning up the music charts with Hello Tunes from Airtel!
You get a wide choice of songs in the Popular & New Arrivals categories that are updated
regularly. What's more, you can directly call the number for your kind of music, e.g. call 678005
for English New and 678001 for Hindi New. This would directly take you to your favorite artist's
Hello Tunes listing.

1. Copy a Hello Tune

2. Gift a Hello Tune

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• Buy Music - Airtel Music Shops

Buying your favorite Hello Tune or Ringtone is as simple as recharging your phone with talk time.
Choose from a list of more than 18000 songs.

• Reach us Anytime Anywhere

In case you need assistance, dial '121' - our toll-free number, accessible from anywhere in the
country, even while roaming. You can also send us an SMS to 121 or mail us at
121@airtelindia.com.

• Airtel Postpaid

Airtel welcomes you to a vibrant world of unlimited opportunities. More exciting, innovative yet
simple new ways to communicate, just when you want to, not just through words but ideas,
emotions, and feelings.

• Easy Billing

Enjoy a host of rich features only with Airtel e-bill. Register free on ‘My Airtel’ section and view
your monthly bill with call details for last three months. Sort your calls between personal and
official or analyze your usage, at the click of a button. To change your tariff plan call our IVR at
121 and leave a request.

• Easy Payment Options. Anytime Anywhere

You can choose from a host of convenient payment options only with Airtel. Walk into any Airtel
relationship center and make your payments by cash or credit card. Drop a cheque at any of the
drop boxes for making payments or added log on to My Airtel section and pay instantly through
your credit card. You can also opt for easy payment options like:

• Standing Instructions

You can give us standing instructions to debit your credit card account for your monthly Airtel
bills. All you have to do is fill the Standing Instruction Form and mail, fax it to us or drop it any
of our relationship centers.

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• Electronic Clearing System

Fill an ECS form and mail, fax it to us or drop it any of our relationship centers to directly debit
your bank account for your monthly Airtel bill.

• Pay while roaming

Airtel has introduced 'anywhere payment' that offers you the convenience of making payments
while you roam. Walk into any Airtel Relationship Centre in the country, make payments by cash
or credit card and enjoy uninterrupted Airtel Services.

• Credit limit

Your pre-set credit limit mentioned on your monthly bill helps you keep your mobile charges in
control, keeps track of your usage and ensures that your mobile phone is not misused. Should you
exceed your credit limit, you will be informed via a voice or a non-voice message to make an
interim payment and reduce your account balance below your credit limit.

• Long Distance Calling Facility

Call long distance calls in India and Overseas with STD / ISD facility on your Airtel phone.

• Widest Roaming - National and International

Airtel's roaming service allows you to stay connected and use your mobile phone to make or
receive calls from almost anywhere in India and also over 160 countries, abroad.

• GPRS - Roaming

Use Airtel Postpaid GPRS services, while roaming, to access the internet and office emails (e.g.
BlackBerry services), from almost anywhere in India and abroad.

• Conference call

You can hold a teleconference with 5 people simultaneously with Call Conferencing service from
Airtel. In fact, you can set up a conference even when the other five are using a landline phone.
To know more, call customer service at 121.

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• Missed call alert

A missed call alert is an SMS that you will receive for all the calls that you missed. The SMS will
detail the CLI and the time when the call was made. To activate, dial *135*2# then press the call
button and wait for the request to be completed.

• Get the EDGE

Browse the internet on your mobile phone with Airtel's EDGE services. Enjoy live TV, enhanced
WAP experience, and Airtel Data Cards on our high-speed network.

The "Value Added Services" provided from Airtel are:-

• Mobile Fax Data Service

This service helps the subscriber to send and receive Faxes, access E-mail, download computer
files from other systems and remotely log on to another computer and surf the Internet.

• 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.

• Caller ID

Displays calling person's number.

• Call forward

Incoming calls can be forwarded to another fixed or mobile phone.

It is on 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 cell phones would be used by.

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2.3 BHARTI AIRTEL – THE MARKET LEADER

Bharti Airtel was founded on July 7, 1995, by Sunil Bharti Mittal. Airtel launched its
mobile operations in India in 1995. Since then it has been at the forefront of India’s mobile
revolution that has empowered millions across the length and breadth of the country. Airtel
crossed the 100 million mobile customers mark in India in 2009.

Source: www.airtel.in FIG: Key Milestones

Currently, Bharti Airtel Limited is a leading global telecommunications company with

operations in 20 countries across Asia and Africa. The company is headquartered in New Delhi,
India and ranks amongst the top 4 mobile service providers globally in terms of subscribers.
In India, the company's product offerings include 2G, 3G and 4G wireless services, mobile
commerce, fixed line services, high- speed DSL broadband, IPTV, DTH, enterprise services
including national & international long distance services to carriers.
Bharti Airtel has been one of the pioneers in India’s telecom revolution over the past
two decades. Its unique low-cost business model transformed the sector and helped in the
proliferation of affordable mobile services. The Company is the largest telecommunications
company in India by customers and revenue. It put India on the data superhighway when
it launched the country’s first 4G services in 2012.

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2.4 LAUNCH OF AIRTEL 4G:
Bharti Airtel launched “India’s first 4G on mobile" services on April 10, 2012, in Kolkata by Mr.
Kapil Sibal, Minister of Communications and Information Technology, Government of India.

In 2010, Airtel had bid for BWA license spectrum in Kolkata, Karnataka, Punjab, and Maharashtra
(excluding Mumbai) circles. Bharti Airtel is one of the founding members of the Global TD-LTE
Initiative (GTI) which was launched at the Mobile World Congress 2011.

Airtel 4G offers lightning-fast speed internet speed and allows superfast access to High Definition
(HD) video streaming, multiple chatting, instant photo and video downloads and sharing. The
launch of 4G LTE services would also help in building India’s digital economy and fulfilling the
Government of India’s long-term vision of Broadband on Demand.

According to Mr. Sunil Bharti Mittal, Chairman and Managing Director, Bharti Airtel, “High-
speed wireless broadband has the potential to transform India, provide a robust platform for
building the country’s digital economy and truly empower people. With one of the largest pools
of the young population in the world, India will see massive growth in consumption of data and
content over mobile devices and proliferation of mobile commerce.” He also added the
significance of Kolkata city which has now become the launch-pad for 4G in India as Airtel first
mobile call was also made from this city in August 1995.

Airtel empowered India to be one of the first countries in the world to commercially deploy a
cutting-edge technology as 4G based on a state of the art network on TD-LTE. This has surely
marked the beginning of a new chapter in India’s telecom success story. Now India has joined the
league of one of the most advanced telecom markets globally. According to Mittal, 4G would
provide equitable and inclusive economic growth of broadband services in India by enhancing the
reach of e-governance, e-health and e-educational services along with bridging the digital divide.
Airtel envisions India to have the best-in-class wireless broadband experience and to place the
country on data superhighway. Currently, Bharti Airtel is offering 4G services in 20 cities across
the country.

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2.50 JOURNEY SO FAR
Airtel has the highest telecom market size and subscriber count in India due to its network
sustainability and effectively installed infrastructure over PAN India. So below are the following
changes which Airtel brought into its services to maintain the position of market leader.

Fig: Journey So Far

 In the year 1996 - 2001: Airtel was branded as the brand name in Delhi and Himachal Pradesh
for its Mobile Services.
 In the year 2001 - 2003: IPO of Bharti Airtel through India’s first 100% book-building issue
 In the year 2003 - 2004: Becomes India’s largest wireless telecom operator with PAN India
footprint.
 In the year 2004 - 2011: Launched mobile services in Sri Lanka and not even that Airtel also
acquired 70% stakes in the World telecom, Bangladesh. Acquired Zain Africa B.V., launching
its entry into the African market. Also this period, Airtel launched 3G services in India.
 In the year 2011 – 2012/2013: Expanded further into Africa to Rwanda, acquired 100% stakes
in Qualcomm India. For the very first time, Launched 4G services in India. It was launched in
major cities which are Kolkata, Bengaluru, and Pune. IPO of Bharti infratel LTD. Minority
buyouts in Bangladesh
 In the year 2016: Unveiled India’s first open network, setting a new benchmark for
transparency in the industry by making the entire network information including coverage, site
details and signal strength available to customers.

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2.6 MARKETING STRATEGY ADOPTED BY BHARTI AIRTEL
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.

Recently, Sasha Chettri was termed to be as Airtel 4G Girl, she is a brand ambassador for Airtel
4G Services in India. All 4G ads comprise of her. 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

UMBRELLA MARKETING: Airtel incorporated umbrella branding strategy, a marketing

practice that involves selling many related products under a single brand name. It involves creating
huge brand equity for a single brand, and thereafter leveraging that over multiple products. On the
flip side, the bad reputation of any one product may affect the equity of all the other products using
the same brand name. Airtel DTH & Mobile services are all sold under Airtel.

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 the company and its services to all
consumers. About 50,000 direct callers were sent out. When the name was well entrenched in the
Delhiites mind, the Airtel campaign began to focus on the utility of Cell phone. In the first four
months alone Airtel's advertisement spends exceeded Rs. 4 crores.

Page | 23
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.).

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 population which has just realized 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 organized by Airtel in order to promote sales. The media
channel is chosen with the 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 premieres of blockbuster
movies. Airtel has tied up with Lufthansa to offer customer bonus miles on the German airline's
frequent flier's programs.

(II) There have been educational campaigns, image campaigns, pre launch advertisements, launch
advertisements, congratulatory advertisements, promotional advertisements, attacking
advertisements and tactical advertisements.

Page | 24
2.7 BUSINESS MODELS

Business Models

Device Guru Urban Promoter

MT AE

SPP CE
Fig: Business Model

ABBREVIATIONS FULL FORM FEATURES

CDIT Consumer Durable IT products Dongle/Hotspot
MT Modern Trade Mobile Connections
SPP Smart Phone Promoters In Shop Promoters
AE Airtel Executives GT Outlet
CE Canopy Executives Promoters with Canopy

DEVICE GURU: It is a new initiative by Bharti Airtel LTD for increasing its sales at a cluster of
regions located in NCR. Usually for gross 4G enabled handsets. In this Airtel promoter won’t be
present at canopy outside the showroom, instead will be inside of the showroom pitching for both
the products after the sale of former is done. Consists of MT & SPP models which eventually soon
will be merged as promoters will be positioned inside of the showroom. Major preference is given
to 4G service.

• Prepaid
• Post-paid
• Mobile Number Portability (MNP)
• Rs 145/345 Recharges & Rs 144/344 FRC
• Sim Swap – Change of sim from 2g to 3g/4G bandwidth

Page | 25
CDIT: Abbreviated from Consumer Durables IT. In this product catered to a customer are Dongles
and hotspot devices. So the technique used to sell in this case is through laptop shops or stationery
shops. On a laptop shop, till the sale is done no Airtel executive can pitch to a customer for its
network but henceforth the same can be done without disturbing the alliance of customer to laptop
shop. In the case of stationary shops, a customer comes by itself asking for the different devices.

MT: Modern trade it is. Stands for the mobile sim connections selling business model. In this three
features are inscribed which are as follows:

• Prepaid Connections
• Postpaid Connections
• Mobile Number Portability (MNP)

SPP: SPP stands for Smart Phone Promoter; these are our Airtel executives who pitch for the
smartphones as well as for our connections at stores having multi-brand devices under one roof
i.e., for example, GoMobile etc.

URBAN PROMOTERS: Urban promoter is in itself a business model which comprises of the
sale of all gross handsets consisting of 2G/3G/4G networks.

• AE: Airtel executives who sell network connections

• CE: Canopy executives who sell network connections positioned at canopy

Image: Inside Store

Page | 26
2.8 STRATEGIES AGAINST COMPETITORS:
Product Offer a basic product/ Offer value added The increase in a number
service. services of value added services.

Price Charge cost- plus Price to penetrate Price to match or best

market competitors

Distribution Build selective Build Intensive Build more intensive

distribution distribution. distribution.

Advertising Build product awareness Build awareness and Stress brand differences
among early adopters and interest in the mass and benefits.
dealers. market

Sales Use heavy sales promotion Increase to build and Increase to encourage
Promotion to entice people to maintain relationships brand switching.
subscribe. with customers.

Table:: Strategies Against Competitors

2.9 TIMELINE DEPICTING THE VARIOUS TAGLINES OF AIRTEL

Power To Keep in Touch

Elite and premium brand

Touch tomorrow (1999)

With NTP99 ,prices could be dropped,started looking from regional to pan india position

Live every moment (2002)

To catch some emotions and feelings, brand of the masses

Express yourself (2003-2009)

To strengthen the emotional connect of customers, wanted a fresh and contemporary idea that built a brand their
customers could identify with

Har ek friend zaroori hota hai (2011-2012)

Targets the youth with an evergreen theme of Friendship and its relevance

Page | 27
 3 MAIN TEXT

3.1 OBJECTIVE:

OBJECTIVES
OBJECTIVES
ASD

Influence of
Drivers of In consumption
Popular Culture

Demographics
Relevance of speed in Insights on Possible Psychographics
everyday activities 4G Mindset Attitudes for 2G/3G
users

Identify one or more consumer insights for 4G (which can be applied to all devices) on which
our B2C communication can be based. A central insight or creative thought on which 4G
communication can be pivoted. The objective has been achieved in the form of two
assignments. Assignment 1 majorly deals with the GTM and assignment 2 deals with Value
Players of the market.

 SUB-OBJECTIVES:
• The intention is to study the relevance of speed in people’s lives and how mobile
internet speed impacts their day- to-day life activities.

• To understand the possible 4G mindset of a consumer who is currently on 3G/ 2G

network.

• To conduct a comparative study of 2G versus 3G users Internet & Voice usage

patterns.

The final objective of this project is to get a deeper understanding of the Client’s business and
to help the Sales team with providing a boost in 4G sales.

Page | 28
3.2 LEARNINGS
The entire internship has been divided into eleven stages:

1. Orientation on the company

2. Reading and going through the official government documents online (TRAI and DOT
sites), to understand policies
3. Preparing a brief report of the states with telecom potential
4. Visiting Field for better understanding of Business
5. Working on Documentations and content for the company
6. Segmenting the Market and sending content to the clients
7. Understanding and analyzing existing clients
8. Sales & Distribution channel engagement
9. Market Size penetration & generation
10. Effects of Strategies on Market Size and Competitors
11. Working on a finalized marketing strategy and development of business models

The internship began with studying the telecom industry and understanding the trends that are
prevailing currently. This was followed by going through the documents and websites of
government like TRAI to understand the telecom policies in the states.

The whole aim of the internship was to gather information about the expansion of its 4G
services into the market and create programs for the same. After, when the program is created
a proper execution is mandatory with apt results.

“4G has the potential to transform India” platform for “building the country’s digital economy.”

Few facts about 4G:

• Ultra-broadband, successor to 3G
• Designed for wireless or mobile data services using spectrum or airwaves more
efficiently, enabling speeds of as much as 100 Mbps (megabits per second)
• High-quality audio/video streaming over end to end Internet Protocol.
• Fast communication
• Quick data transfer
• Distant business correspondence by sharing data becomes very important
• Wireless broadband for the instant download.
• It’s very much equivalent to getting a LAN or Gigabit Ethernet connection to a
mobile device.
• 4G is introduced by the help of LTE technology
• LTE (Long Term Evolution) is considered to be the high data transfer speed. As LTE
is compatible with 3G also so it not only increases the speed but also prevents the
need for a new network and can work through the same infrastructure.

Page | 29
 3.2.1 DISTRIBUTION CHANNEL OF AIRTEL:
This flowchart below shows the hierarchy of Airtel officials followed by the abbreviations
table for better understanding.

CEO

ZSM

TSM TSM

Distributor1 Distributor2 Distributor1 Distributor2

FSE/FOS FSE/FOS FSE/FOS FSE/FOS FSE/FOS FSE/FOS FSE/FOS FSE/FOS

Retailer Retailer Retailer Retailer Retailer Retailer Retailer Retailer

Fig: Distribution Channel

Abbreviations
CEO Chief Executive Officer (Circle)
COO Sales Head (Circle Prepaid)
ZBM Zonal Business Manager
ZSM Zonal Sales Manager
TM Team Manager
FSE Distributor Off-role Staff
FOS Distributor Off-role Staff

The company whose operations are concentrated in and around Delhi. It 27 Franchisees and
15 Distributors- They also have 8 'instant access cash card counters- Each franchise or

Page | 30
distributor can have any number of retailers under him as long as the person is approved by the
Airtel authority. Each franchise has to invest Rupees Ten Lakhs. To obtain a franchise and
should employ an officer recruited by Airtel. This person acts as a liaison between the company
and the franchisees. The franchises can it any number of retailers as long as their territories do
not overlap. But unfortunately, Airtel has not been very successful in controlling territorial
overlaps of retailers. The franchises can carry out his/her own promotional strategy. For this,
the company contributes 75% of the money and the franchises contribute 25% of the money.
The retailers under the franchise receive the same commission. The franchises and the retailers
obtain the feedback from the customers and they are sent through the liaison officer on a day-
to-day basis to Airtel.

Target set for distributors and the dealers are 100 -150 activations per month. Hence the dealers
can also go for their own promotions like banners and discounts on festivals etc. The dealer
provides service promptly. The consumer on providing the bill of purchase for the handset and
proof of residence has only to wait an hour before getting connected. The staff of the dealers
and the franchisees are provided training by the Airtel personnel.

3.2.2 REVENUE MODEL

Airtel gives load to a verified distributor and

Airtel provides a 3.5% cut to distributor

As the load is received by the distributor, from his cut of

3.5%. He keeps 1% and provides the further cut to retailers.
Distributor

Retailers get revenue by various methods like LAPU

Retailer recharge and R-offer.

Fig: Revenue Model

Airtel provides 3.5% cut to distributors at first, then out of which 2.5% is provided to retailers
and hence leaving an amount of 1% with the distributor. But Airtel set different scenarios for
distributors and retailers to earn more by increasing sales or by specific product sales.

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 KNOWLEDGE OF MERCHANT APPLICATIONS FROM
MARKET:
Below are the applications explained which are used by Airtel Officials in the market to cater
the performance of people connected to them at each step.

1. GOAL: GOAL is an Airtel specific app used by Airtel officials only to get an idea of the
performance of the retailers. GOAL app is available for Android and iOS as of now, but
can only be used by Airtel officials who are privileged to use its services.
 Features of GOAL App:
• Scorecard: Show a basic performance of retailer which is categorized into Gross Ads,
LAPU Tertiary, Data Tertiary and R- Offer.
• Guidance: Guidance shows the target to be achieved for the period and sales as per the
past two months and achievements percentages.
• Rank in a circle: Position of the retailer in the market.

2. Mitra: This app is developed for the ease of activation of numbers by retailers, which
automates the activation process by the help of fingerprint machines. It has three options
majorly which are for Choice numbers, MNP, and Normal numbers. As this is a new
initiative by Airtel, hence only local numbers are activated by this app.
3. R-Offer: R-Offer provides the best offer available to customer and can be accessed on any
Airtel network enabled phones by dialing *122*Mobile number#
4. Airtel Payments Bank: Airtel payments bank which is a remote bank service offered by
Airtel providing also an interest rate of 7.25%. Retailers get a commission on account
openings as well. For first account, they get Rs100 whereas for next accounts they will get
Rs20. But if they have their account Pan card approved, then they get Rs25 for each

Page | 32
 account. Rs25000 is the daily transfer limit.

REVENUE TERMS AND SCHEMES

• ARPU – Average Revenue Per Unit. ARPU increases when recharge is done through R-
Offer.

• LAPU – Sim provided to the retailer for recharging the mobile numbers of customers. The
distributor also has one LAPU number known as Master LAPU. Below are the codes are
shown for various network provides also known as Value players.

1. LAPU codes for Airtel: *122*Airtelnumber#

2. LAPU codes for Vodafone: *121*Vodafonenumber#
3. LAPU codes for Idea: *122*Ideanumber#

3.2.3 PRODUCT LIFE CYCLE

The pattern of cellophane subscriber growth observed elsewhere in the world reveals that the
growth in the market is initially slow followed by a sharp acceleration, but so far that has not
happened in India. As far as the Product Life Cycle is concerned. Indians are at the beginning
of the maturity stage as the products are already introduced into the market and consumers also
are aware of the present and upcoming advancements.

INTRODUCTION GROWTH MATURITY

Create product awareness and Maximize and increase Maximize profits whole
give trials to target customers the market share defending its market share

Fig: 4G – LTE Forecast

Page | 33
 Assignment Learnings:
ASSIGNMENT 1:

Create & Drive GTM Schemes

JIO Risky Base: Create & Drive GTM Incentive Schemes for 4G Share: Assignment 1 was
intended to abreast me with the knowledge of GTM (Go to Market) services and functioning
of Airtel channels available in the market with its present scenario challenged by other network
service providers like Jio, Idea & Vodafone. Knowledge was to be gained by visiting retailer
shops, doing interviews of the consumers who visit their shops and conducting a survey with a
brief sample size based on a discussion guide. For discussion guide questions please refer to
Annexure 2. So, I found out the shortcomings by the help of prescribed parameters and to
resolve them I’ve come up with few GTM schemes which work on the basis of giving
incentives to the people and giving them a title for the same which amounts to their honor too.

ASSIGNMENT 2:

Tapping Value Player Users

Tapping Users of Value Players – Killing the weakest Competitors first: Assignment 2 was
introduced to do a better comparative analysis amongst the value players present in the market.
Value players are Jio, Reliance GSM, and Aircel. Task majorly was to attain the users which
are presently under the value players network. Assignment started with a quote written below.

Killing the Weakest competitor first.

Consumer behavior was surveyed with the help of a questionnaire and then various
observations were observed by analyzing those responses. Finally, coming up with exact
figures which were to be the base of achieving the objective. We found that customers need to
be more educated about our plans and further what are the reasons possible for why a customer
wants to shift from his network.

Page | 34
3.3 FINDINGS/ INITIATIONS
Current telecom market is extremely challenging for Airtel due to the presence of other big
players who are curbing down on consumers and attaining them by luring beneficial offers
even at the cost of losses born by them. Below are the various tables which are attained by
analyzing the respondent’s responses. These show the trends over time in terms of Handsets,
Data usage by subscribers and subscriber count on various bandwidths which are 2G/ 3G &
4G.

Table shows the shift of users using feature phones and Smartphones for a period of 5 months.
Which clearly states that over this tenure 4G handset users have increased from 23% to 38%,
which is a great hike in a span of two months.

Table showing Handsets with various network spectrums under Airtel

Handset Type Dec'17 Jan'17 Feb'17 Mar'17 April'17

2G 121186 116126 93463 105824 99892
3G 90028 95443 74184 85591 82323
4G 64996 76734 69950 113791 114806
TOTAL 276210 288303 237597 305206 297021

Handset Dec'17 Jan'17 Feb'17 Mar'17 April'17

2G 43.87% 40.28% 39.34% 34.67% 33.63%
3G 32.59% 33.11% 31.22% 28.04% 27.72%
4G 23.53% 26.62% 29.44% 37.28% 38.65%
TOTAL 100% 100% 100% 100% 100%
After the observations were noted, it was found that 2G users have decreased over time and 4G
have increased in total subscribers count.

Table showing Subscribers with various network spectrums under Airtel

FLAG_2G_3G Dec'17 Jan'17 Feb'17 Mar'17 April'17

2G 2896562 2827011 2465582 2583424 2595581
3G 2026727 2237888 2283288 2525902 2666482
4G 525943 604043 626168 815745 1029323
TOTAL 5449232 5668942 5375038 5925071 6291386

FLAG_2G_3G Dec'17 Jan'17 Feb'17 Mar'17 April'17

2G 53.16% 49.90% 45.90% 43.60% 41.26%
3G 37.19% 39.50% 42.50% 42.60% 42.38%
4G 9.65% 10.70% 11.60% 13.80% 16.36%
TOTAL 100.00% 100% 100% 100% 100%

Page | 35
By analyzing the shift in subscribers count over a period of five months we can understand the
importance of releasing new tariff plans.
By the help of table above, we can observe that how challenging telecom market is and how
difficult it is to maintain the customers and in turn it is even more difficult to convert new
consumer. Above table shows the changing trends in previous 5 months of subscriber count for
Airtel Bharti LTD over it different bandwidth spectrums which are 2G/ 3G and 4G.
Over this period of five months’ consumer count has obviously increased for Airtel in terms of
its 4G spectrum.

Table showing Average Monthly Data Usage by Users (In Gb) of Airtel

FLAG_2G_3G Dec'17 Jan'17 Feb'17 Mar'17 April'17

2G 280562 240472 163797 203751 221026
3G 1989028 2533931 2309600 3304048 4901524
4G 632939 931591 864364 1469291 3552573
TOTAL 2902529 3705995 3337761 4977090 8675123

FLAG_2G_3G Dec'17 Jan'17 Feb'17 Mar'17 April'17

2G 9.67% 6% 26% 4% 2.5%
3G 68.53% 68% 69% 66% 56.5%
4G 21.81% 25% 26% 30% 41.0%
TOTAL 100% 100% 100% 100% 100%

Trend from Dec 16 to April 17

4000000
3000000
2000000
1000000
0
December January February March April

Subscribers Data Usage Handsets

Fig: Trend from Dec’16 to April’17

That’s why most of us carry a smartphone. The catch is that the 3G mobile networks they
connect too can’t quite deliver the same internet experience we’re used to with home
broadband. So with smartphones now replacing traditional PCs as the main computer for many,
we need high-speed internet on the move mobile broadband to match. And that’s where 4G
comes in.

Page | 36
3.3.1 ASSIGNMENT - I FINDINGS

As this assignment revolves around increasing efficiency of the present workforce. Majorly,
retailers and distributor officials(FSE) came into the category on whom the work was needed
to be done. To increase their work efficiency, various incentive schemes came into existence.
One of the major schemes was "UDAAN – WinGs Of FiRE!” with trending hashtags #Let the
Games Begin #Once a Leader Always a Leader.
This scheme was introduced for daily retailers and FSE’s. Below are the two tables which show
the slabs as per which the incentives are categorized.

Retailer Scheme FSE Scheme

Recharge/Day Payout Daily Recharging Ols Payment
3-5 Rs 5/RC 8-10 Rs 5/Ol
6-10 Rs 10/RC 11-14 Rs 10/Ol
>10 Rs 15/RC >=15 Rs 15/Ol
For a retailer, if he does a star recharge of min 3 numbers then he will get an incentive of Rs5
for every recharge done. And so is the case for another recharge done whereas in the case of
FSE, for a minimum of 8-10 recharges from any outlet under him. He will receive Rs 5 for
every outlet.
Slab for Amount
Below table shows the booster details for Udaan. Recharges (INR)
75 250
Udaan scheme was implemented twice in the market.
100 500
First Run: 17th – 20th March 2017
150+ 1000
Second Run: 21st – 24th March 2017

Below table shows Consumer Conversion by Udaan

Run Achievement Target Percentage Achievement

1 4,46,067 7,18,278 62.1%
2 1,96,596 2,40,000 81.9%
It is clear from the above table that; such schemes have high potential to increase the user
base by putting in fewer efforts.

It is a normal human tendency that we need competition to rise above our limits. To make them
compete within the market, a categorization is missing at the moment. So, the idea is to give
winners a title eg. Rockstar of the month or Shahenshah of the month.

Page | 37
OTF (Over the Flow) is the amount which a retailer gets as an incentive for making a specific
recharge. As per the challenging market at present competitors also introduced similar
unlimited plans as Airtel did. So, to boost their sales Idea was giving more OTF to retailers, in
turn, decreasing our sales.
Below are the images which show the different OTF provided to retailers on very recharge
done by Idea & Vodafone telecoms. Fig:

Images shows
the Offers on
Baby care*
numbers &
retailer earnings
on every
recharge

Image 1 shows for every recharge done of Idea cellular worth of Rs346, the retailer will get an
OTF(Incentive) of Rs45 instantly over his LAPU number whereas image 2 shows for Vodafone,
in which for a recharge value of Rs348 retailer will get a cut of Rs10. Whereas for Airtel, we
provide Rs35 for a recharge of Rs345. So, with this observation during my field visit, OTF
prices were increased, turning Airtel to the primary choice of retailers.

 Incentive based on slab basis to FSC and TM as per Yuva Ratan and Anmol Ratan
schemes run by Airtel.

 Awareness of newly launched tariff plans in the market.

• The idea suggested was to promote newly launched tariff plans by making IVR calls
to distributors and retailers.
• On a weekly basis, 25000 calls were made to Gurugram region.

 Premium charges on roaming were a barrier in the migrant market. So from 1st April
2017. Airtel claimed to be the local network of India as per the press release by Airtel
on 27th March 2017. So a major part of the migrant market was tapped by this initiative.

 4G JACKPOT TO CONSUMERS

• In which Airtel can give 500MBs/day extra to users for coming to its 4G network.
They may come from another network or can upgrade from 2G or 3G.
• This will create a viral spread and this marketing strategy won’t need much
promotion as most of it would be word by mouth because of the benefits provided.

Page | 38
 3.3.2 ASSIGNMENT – II FINDINGS:
Below is a table which shows my inferences from survey categorized on the basis of
profession and various network providers present in the market. These are the people who
want to switch if they get Cheaper Data Rates on any other network.

Who want to switch their network due to Cheaper Data Rates

Count of ARPU SLAB Column Labels
Row Labels Aircel Airtel Idea Jio Reliance Vodafone Grand Total
Businessman 1 1 0 0 0 1 3
Professional 9 5 1 7 1 4 27
Student 2 1 2 0 0 2 7
Grand Total 12 7 3 7 1 7 37

Occupation Value players Others Total

Students 2 5 68 19% of users want to shift
to another network which
Others 18 12 128
provides them cheaper
Total 20 17 196 data rates
% Want to shift 10% 9%
Table: Shift due to Cheap Data Rates

Below table shows my calculations inference from the second survey categorized on the basis
of profession and various network providers present in the market. These are the people who
want to switch for Cheaper Call Rates.

Who want to switch their network due to Cheaper Call Rates

Count of ARPU SLAB
Labels Aircel Airtel Idea Jio Reliance Vodafone Grand Total
Businessman 2 0 0 0 0 1 3
Professional 21 2 1 6 0 2 32
Senior Citizen 0 0 0 0 1 0 1
Student 1 0 1 0 0 1 3
Grand Total 24 2 2 6 1 4 39

Occupation Value players Others Total

Students 1 2 68 20% of users want to shift to
another network which
Others 30 6 128
provides them cheaper call
Total 31 8 196 rates
% Want to shift 16% 4%

These are the potential customers who are willing to change their network due to call rates and
data rates. 19% of the users are willing to shift to another network if they get cheap data rates
and 20% of users will shift if they get cheap call rates.

Page | 39
 Promotion of any advancement done by the company is very important, as it accounts for the
awareness of its products amongst available users. By the help of the survey, awareness
amongst the respondents was observed by considering users who are available on Vodafone &
Idea networks and are not using JIO services. So, it was found that 10% of the respondents
required awareness of cheaper call rates and 16% of the users required education of cheap data
rates if available on any other network, not presently in use by them.

Awareness - Cheap Call rates

How many sims do you have and of which operator? [Sim 2] (Multiple Items)
Count of ARPU SLAB Column Labels
Row Labels Idea Vodafone Grand Total
Businessman 0 1 1
Professional 0 2 2
Student 1 1 2
Grand Total 1 4 5

Occupation Unaware Total

Students 2 19 10% of users
needs to be
Others 3 30 educated about
Total 5 49 call rate plans
% Want to shift 10%

Awareness - Cheap Data Rates

How many sims do you have and of which operator? [Sim 2] (Multiple Items)
Count of ARPU SLAB Column Labels
Row Labels Idea Vodafone Grand Total
Businessman 0 1 1
Professional 0 4 4
Student 2 2 4
Grand Total 2 7 9

Occupation Unaware Total

Students 4 19 16% of users
needs to be
Others 4 30 educated about
Total 8 49 data rate plans
% Want to shift 16%
Table: Shift For Awareness

Awareness can be done by using social media platforms, tie-ups with big players and an
innovative idea which can create a viral spread of itself.

Page | 40
The graph below depicts the age differences amongst the respondents and their ARPU usage.
From the graph, it is clear that users ranging between 20 to 30 years are the most active users
of the network and they spend readily to the network tariffs and the least is found up to 20
years.

120000 109249

100000
Monthly Expense

80000

60000

40000
26059
20000
1250 2250
0
0 - 20 Years 20 - 30 Years 30 - 40 Years 40 & Above
Total 1250 109249 26059 2250
Age Groups

Fig: Showing ARPU usage of Users

To create awareness of our newly launched unlimited plans, I started a campaign on Facebook
on a dedicated page. Campaign talked more about 4G plans and devices and educating them
for the same. Various people sent queries in accordance with the issues faced by them. Those
issues were solved with the help of Airtel officials.

Auxiliary users:
Sim1 & Sim2 Users
60 These are the users who have
50 more than one networks and
52 52
40 45 are using first as primary and
30 second as an auxiliary.
20 24 26 Graph shows the count of
23
19 17
10 15 13 respondents on the basis of
2 10
0 auxiliary usages
Airtel Aircel Vodafone Jio Reliance Idea

Sim 1 Sim 2 FIG: Auxiliary Users

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 SWOT ANALYSIS
OF
BHARTI AIRTEL LTD

STRENGTHS WEAKNESS

• Largest Indian Telecom Network • Outsourcing of Core Systems

• Strategic alliances with players like • To prove credibility
Ericsson, Nokia, and Huawei. • Price pressures
• Market Leader in India with PAN • Need for Government support
India services. • Awareness
• Very high Brand Recognition and • Sales and Marketing
Awareness.
• Has been providing excellent services
and customer care.
• Ability to constantly innovate

OPPORTUNITIES THREATS

• India is the largest growing mobile • Increasing number of Competitors

services market in India. • MNP (Mobile Number Portability) –
• Possibility of Acquisitions A double edged sword
• New subscriber’s addition through • The uncertain regulatory
MNP.
environment in India.
• Future potential of Tele-media
services • Foreign investment
• To sustain passion and commitment • Global trends moving from GPS to
WLL.
• Airtel’s market share increasing at
other service provider expense. Thus, • Lack of global parity in telecom
opportunity to wipe it out. tariff
• Attain higher value services

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3.4 RECOMMENDATIONS:
As we all know it’s not just always monetary measures but motivation, which can act as a key
player here.

A Little Progress each day adds up to big results

Within the existing system of GTM activities, on observing I realized that without making
changes in the cost structure of the mechanism, we can still increase the efficiency of the
Promoters, FSE, and Retailers by making them feel important and appreciating their work and
honoring them with the title such as Rockstar of the month.

Below shown is an example of what the Rockstar title would look like:

FIG: Rockstar Of The Month

By doing this we will actually increase the competition between our task force and eventually,
it will add up to results as well. This will nurture the culture to excel in the workforce and will

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eventually add up to the revenue of Airtel by increasing subscriber share and other factors
which relate to the revenue.

As per DG's in action, it was observed that if we can tie up with major brands like Apple,
Samsung, Lenovo, and others then that will provide us with an exemplary edge over other
providers and will definitely serve us better.

4G JACKPOT TO CONSUMERS

• In which Airtel can give 500MBs/day extra to users for coming to its 4G network.
They may come from another network or can upgrade from 2G or 3G.

• We can spread the message by doing activities and doing a tie-up with mobile selling
companies like Apple and others brands. In which we will bundle them with offers
saying if you buy this Handset, you are eligible for Jackpot Offers.

• Otherwise, for day to day users, we can earn consumers too.

• This will create a viral spread and this marketing strategy won’t need much
promotion as most of it would be word by mouth because of the benefits provided.

With all this in action and recommendations, I started a campaign on social media websites
with trending hashtags #SwitchToAirtel4G. Received queries from various users and helped
them sort out their issues. Below is an image showing the reach of my Facebook page as it
catered to tech savvy people mostly.

Fig: Facebook Campaign Insights

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3.4.1 A FEW RECOMMENDATIONS WERE SUGGESTED DURING
THE TENURE:

• Promote Airtel 4G Dongle as the natural ally - FAST FRIEND of ALL Notebook
Brands

• Focus on 'emotional' and 'relationships' among family & friends more than business

• Use 4G for Mission Critical Moments in Life

• Ek bar try Karo, lat lag jay gi (the idea of addiction and dependence on faster technology
but in a more positive tone and style)

• Be ahead of others! Anywhere. Anytime. Use 4G (aimed at 3G fence sitters)

• Create more moments out of the same life - Imagine slow, execute faster

• Till smartphones do not provide freedom from notebook PCs/tabs, continue to push the
idea of ' two / three devices powered by 15 times higher speed'

• The mission is Strategy - MAKE IN INDIA; Only Airtel can fulfill 'FASTER INDIA"
mission to connect with billion nations with a promised blazing fast network speed.

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 4 CONCLUSION
From this exhaustive study on Bharti Airtel Ltd., I've learned about how Airtel established itself
a market leader in the Indian telecom space. The journey was not a bed of roses for Airtel. They
faced numerous stumbling roadblocks along the way and overcame most of them. This is
because they applied and adopted sound strategies relating to Outsourcing, Marketing,
Advertising, creating Customer Value and Satisfaction, Positioning, etc. The above facts are
proved through the survey conducted which emphasizes the fact that Airtel continues to be the
most preferred telecom operator in our country, and also amongst the youth.

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.

Even though the growth of the company is stagnating in recent times, and the pressure from
competitors and regulatory bodies are always on the increase, new strategies and innovations,
acquisitions, penetration into international markets better schemes for customers should ensure
that Airtel keeps its nose above its strong competition. The prospects of Airtel continue to
remain strong because it is built around very strong fundamentals, and this growth should be
visible in the near future.

5 FURTHER SCOPE OF RESEARCH

As suggested through the recommendations, the scope of research can be widened by upcoming
changes in the field of telecom. As the market is completely based upon the pricing strategy.
So, by playing with the price points, we can gain an edge over others.

A comprehensive research on the insightful list of needs, desires (frustrations, spoilt moods,
angst, anger, psychological stress, unhappiness, and health issues as a consequence of slow
speed) could be taken over by new researchers on Airtel Team. This would help in highlighting
the opportunity to migrate all 3mbps users to 30Mbps by sharply stimulating their latent desires
or unrealized needs.

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 6 METHODOLOGY
The exploratory research was done in two steps.

❖ Observations were attained to get an overview of key trends in the industry and people's
reviews through TRAI Reports, GSMA Research, newspaper articles and social media
websites.

❖ Various regions of NCR were observed personally in terms of GTM (Go To Market) so as
to get a better understanding of the market position of Airtel
❖ Daily follow up with Airtel officials and area managers for a functionalised operation of
maximizing the revenue.
❖ Going through the latest policies on Telecom on the TRAI and DOT sites to keep updated
with the changes in the sector.
❖ State wise research by going through their individual sites to know the rates and
understanding the scope of telecom 4G in these regions further classifying them into
clusters for specific identification.
❖ Understanding the social media trends, so as to have a better approach for the campaign
and target our customers more accurately, also at the same time increase our brand reach.

7 LIMITATIONS

 The major limitation of the project is that the actual sales targets and previous archives
cannot be disclosed as per the company laws and hence, changing the figures and presenting
the true analysis would be a challenge.

 Also, some sales figure is hard to identify between different sets of users consuming
networks as auxiliary usages. Application of generated ideas and strategies will take time so
seeking results in a short span of time is a challenge.

 The client interaction would not be single handed handled by me on any project, as the
company does not want individual representation but company representation. Hence even
after an internship, they can maintain relation with the client.

 Would not get access to all the documents of the company, due to confidentiality reasons.

 Telecom market being a vast domain, I would only be focusing on 4G projects taken up by
the company

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 8 ANNEXURE 1– QUESTIONNAIRE

1. What is your age? *

Mark only one square.

 0-20 Years
 20-30 Years
 30-40 Years
 40 & Above
2. What is your occupation? *
Mark only one square.

 Student
 Professional
 Businessman
 Homemaker
 Senior Citizen
3. What is your monthly expense on telecom? (Indian Rupee) *

4. How many Sims do you have and of which operator?

Mark only one square per row.

Airtel Reliance Aircel Vodafone Idea Jio

Sim 1      
Sim 2      
Sim 3      
More than 3      

5. What is your major usage? *

Mark only one square.

 STD calling
 Local calling
 Both
6. Do you use mobile Internet? *
Mark only one square.

 Yes
 No
 Maybe

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7. Please select the correct field
Mark only one square per row.

I have 4G data I use another I do not use data I don’t know

type of data which type of
data you use
I have 4G sim    

I have another
   
sim
I don’t know
which sim I    
have

8. If you use data then on which operator do use data?

Mark only one square per row.

4G Another type of I don’t know

data
Airtel   
Reliance   
Aircel   
Vodafone   
Idea   
Jio   

9. Do you want to switch your network operator? *

Mark only one square.

 Yes
 No
 Maybe
10. If the answer to the above question was ‘Yes’, then please specify why do you want
to switch? (please tick)

 For better network coverage

 For cheaper data rates
 For cheaper call rates
 For better customer service
 For better network quality (better voice clarity and faster data)
 For better monthly plans
 Others________________

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ANNEXURE 2 – DISCUSSION GUIDE

Questions Posed To Customers:

Q1: How has been your 2G/3G experience so far?

Q2: Did you shift from 2G? What is the difference in experience?

Q3: Are you satisfied with current 2G/3G/4G experience?

Q4: Would you like to upgrade to 4G? And why?

Q5: What is the difference in internet usage on different devices such as mobile, laptop, desktop
and tablet?

Q6: Which are the popular apps that you access through the mobile internet?

Questions Posed To Retailers:

Q1: On a daily basis what is the distribution of 2G or 3G customers on the basis of Walk-ins?

Q2: What is the change that you are seeing in consumer’s demand?

Q3: What is the range of plans available for rural as well as urban consumers?

Q4: Do you have any threat from competitors in telecom industry?

Q5: How do you see the future with regard to the high-speed internet? What can be the possible
manifestations of this change?

Q6: What are the products that you currently offer for high-speed internet connection?

Q7: How will the city be impacted by 4G and in what ways?

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 9 BIBLIOGRAPHY:

 Bharti Airtel website – http://www.airtel.in/

 TRAI website – http://www.trai.gov.in/traiannualreport.asp
 Manish Sinha, “Segmenting India’s Mobile Market” -
www.imediaconnection.com/asia/index.asp?listpage=25, Mar 18, 2008.
 Our online survey - http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/WNXXDTX
 Outsourcing - http://trak.in/tags/business/2010/09/20/bharti-airtel-outsourcing-
africabusiness/FDI in Telecom - http://ictps.blogspot.in/2012/04/fdi-in-telecom-
sector-of-india-and.html
 The Economic Times
 The Hindu
 Mint newspaper
 Business Today
 Harvard Business Case – Strategic Outsourcing at Bharti Airtel
 Cisco’s Consumer Based Study on Airtel’s Rural Strategies
 Bharti Airtel – Business News -
http://www.moneycontrol.com/news/bhartiairtel/business-BTV-6months-
1.html#BA08
 Wikipedia - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bharti_Airtel
 Success starts weighing down Bharti Airtel,
www.livemint.com/2009/07/24000659/Success-starts-weighing-down-B.html
 “Bharti Airtel: Nervousness all around”,
http://www.equitymaster.com/detail.asp?date=12/4/2009&story=2,
 Positioning -
http://www.icmrindia.org/free%20resources/casestudies/Airtel%20positioning%20an
d%20repositioning.htm
 GSMAIntelligence

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