1

PROJECT ON MARKETING STRATEGIES ADOPTED BY

AIRTEL IN INDIA.

SUBMITTED BY
SNEHA S. SINGH
ROLL NO. A-106

M.COM PART-I (Semester - II)
*2013-2014*

UNDER THE GUIDANCE OF
PROF. POONAM KAKKAD

SUBMITTED TO
UNIVERSITY OF MUMBAI

NIRMALA MEMORIAL FOUNDATION COLLEGE OF COMMERCE AND
SCIENCE, 90 FEET ROAD, ASHA NAGAR, THAKUR COMPLEX,
KANDIVALI (EAST), MUMBAI - 400 101.
2


DECLARATION
I, Ms. SNEHA S. SINGH of M.COM Part-I (Semester-II) hereby declare that I
have completed the project on PROJECT ON MARKETING STRATEGIES
ADOPTED BY AIRTEL IN INDIA as a part of internal examination in the
Course of Strategic Management during the academic year 2013-2014.
The information submitted is true and original to the best of my knowledge.
Wherever the matter is taken from any published work, I have included that
details as reference.






... .....
Date of Submission Signature of Student
(SNEHA S. SINGH)


3


CERTIFICATE
This is to certify that the project titled as PROJECT ON MARKETING
STRATEGIES ADOPTED BY AIRTEL IN INDIA has been completed by
Ms. SNEHA S. SINGH of M.COM Part-I (Semester-II) as a part of internal
examination during academic year 2013-2014.


. .......
(Dr. T. P. MADHU NAIR) (Dr. ALPA UPADHYAY)
Principal Programme Coordinator


.......... ..
(Prof. POONAM KAKKAD) External Examiner
Project Guide

4


ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
I extend my gratitude to Prof. POONAM KAKKAD for providing guidance
and support during the course of project. She has been a great help through
the making of the project. I thank NIRMALA MEMORIAL FOUNDATION
COLLEGE for giving me the opportunity to work on such a relevant topic.

I also like to thank the Principal, faculty members and librarian for their help
and others who are indirectly responsible for the completion of this project. In
addition I would like to take this opportunity to thank our M.COM
Coordinator Dr. ALPA UPADHYAY for being there always to guide me and
for extending her full support.


Date: ...
Mumbai Signature of Student
(SNEHA S. SINGH)


5








PROJECT ON MARKETING
STRATEGIES ADOPTED BY AIRTEL IN
INDIA






6


INDEX

SR. NO.

PARICULARS

PAGE NO.

1.


TELECOMMUNICATION MARKET IN INDIA


7-8

2.


INDIAN CELLULAR MARKET

9-10

3.

OVERVIEW OF AIRTEL

11-12

4.

INTRODUCTION OF AIRTEL

13-17

5.

HISTORY OF AIRTEL

18-22

6.

MARKETING STRATEGY ADOPTED BY AIRTEL

23-32

7.

SWOT ANALYSIS OF AIRTEL

33-37

8.

CONCLUSION

38

9.

WEBLIOGRAPHY

39




7



TELECOMMUNICATION MARKET IN INDIA

The Indian telecommunications Network with 250m telephone connections
is the fifth largest in the world and is the second largest among emerging
economies of Asia. Today it is the fastest growing market in the world and
represents unique opportunities for UK companies in the stagnant global
scenario. Tele-density, which was languishing at 2% in 1999, has shown an
impressive jump to 9.5% in 2006 and 10.5% in 2007 and is set to increase to
20% in next five years beating the Govt. target by three years. Accordingly,
India requires incremental investments of USD 20-25 bln for the next five
years.

Private operators have made.mobile.telephone the fastest growing (over
164% p.a.) in India. With more than 33 million users (both CDMA and
GSM), wireless is the principal growth engine of the Indian telecom
industry. Given the current growth trends, cellular connections in India will
surpass fixed line by late. 2004 / early 2005. Intense competition between
the four main private groups - Bharti, Vodafone, Tata and Reliance and
with the State sector incumbents-BSNL and AIRCEL has brought about
a significant drop in tariffs. There has been almost 74% in cell charges,
70% in ILD calls and 25% drop in NLD charges, resulting in a boom time for
the consumers.

8


The Government has played a key enabling role by deregulating and
liberalizing the industry, in competition and paving the way for growth.
While there were regulatory irregularities earlier, resulting in litigation,
these have all been addressed now. Customs duties on hardware and mobile
handsets have been reduced from 14 percent to 5 percent.

The Indian government has emerged the I.Tand Telecom Ministries to speed up
reforms.and decision on the Communication Convergence Bill to enable the
common regulation of the Internet, broadcasting and telecoms will be taken
after the new Government assumes responsibilities in may this year. An
independent regulatory body (TRAI) and dispute settlement body (TDSAT)
is fully functional.










9


INDIAN CELLULAR MARKET

The Bharti Group, which operates in 23 circles, continues to be the country's
largest cellular operator, with 50 lakh subscribers. BSNL, which operates in 22
circles, has a subscriber base of 37 lakh subscribers. Thus BSNL stands
second largest cellular operator in terms of subscriber base at the end of the
fiscal ending March 31, 2007, displacing Vodafone from the second
position.
Vodafone, which operates in only eighteen circles, is the third largest operator
with a base 32 lakh. Unlike fellow public sector undertaking, AIRCEL, which
operates in Mumbai and Delhi, BSNL has been a very aggressive player in the
market. "Cellular operators who expected BSNL to go the AIRCEL way,
were taken by surprise and did not take effective steps to counter it, till
it was too late in the day," said a telecom analyst.
Belying fears of a slowdown in cellular subscriber acquisitions, the cell club has
reported a 7.92% growth, the highest growth in any month so far, during March
2005. Year-on-year, the cellular subscriber base in the country has almost
doubled in March 2005, and is expanding at the rate of 25% per year thereafter.
The cellular subscriber club expanded by 21.31 lakh last month. This is much
higher than 5.9 lakh subscribers added in February 2005 and 2.13 lakh in
January 2005. Idea, which operates in Seven circles, is the fourth largest
operator with a subscriber base of 17.80 lakh, higher than BPL's 11.31
lakh subscribers across four circles. The subscriber numbers per operator drop
10


with the sixth largest operator,Spice Communications, having a subscriber base
of 9.40 lakh, followed by Reliance Telecom's 8.9 lakh subscribers.
While the subscriber base jumped by 3.38% to 44.39 lakh in the metros,
subscriber base of category A circles of Maharashtra, Gujarat, Andhra
Pradesh, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu jumped by 10.18 % to reach 43.64
lakh. Category B circles of Kerala, Punjab, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh
(West), Uttar Pradesh (East), Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and West Bengal
recorded a jump of 10.69%, with a total base of 33.74 lakh subscribers. Circle
C has reported 12.74% growth with subscriber numbers jumping to 5.08 lakh.
Among the metros, while Mumbai added 1,63,180 subscribers, higher than
the 1,58,646 added by Delhi, the Capital's cellular subscriber base of over
80 lakh is still higher than Mumbai's 66.89 lakh. While the cellular industry
has been on roll for the first three quarters of the previous financial year with an
average of 16.75 lakh monthly additions in the third quarter, the first two
months of 2007 had seen the growth slowing down.






11


OVERVIEW OF AIRTEL
Incorporated on July 7, 1995, Bharti Airtel Ltd is a division of Bharti Enterprises. The businesses
of Bharti Airtel are structured into two main strategic groups Mobility and Infotel. The Mobility
business provides GSM mobile services in all23 telecommunications circles in India, while the
Infotel business group provides telephone services and Internet access over DSL in 15 circles. The
company complements its mobile, broadband, and telephone services with national and
international long-distance services. The company also has a submarine cable landing station at
Chennai, which connects the submarine cable connecting Chennai and Singapore. Bharti Tele-
Ventures provides end-to-end data and enterprise services to corporate customers by leveraging its
nationwide fibre-optic backbone, last mile connectivity in fixed-line and mobile circles, VSATs,
ISP and international bandwidth access through the gateways and landing station. All of Bharti
Tele-Ventures' services are provided under the Airtel brand. As of September 2005, Bharti Tele-
Ventures was the only company to provide mobile services in all 23 telecom circles in India. By
the end of October 2005, Bharti Tele-Ventures was serving more than 14.74 million GSM mobile
subscribers and 1.10 million broadband and telephone (fixed line) customers.

The equity shares of Bharti Tele-Ventures are currently listed on the National Stock Exchange of
India Ltd (NSE) and the Stock Exchange, Mumbai (BSE). As of September 30, 2005, the main
shareholders of Bharti Tele-Ventures were: Bharti Telecom Ltd (45.65%), a subsidiary of Bharti
Enterprises; Singapore Telecom (15.69%), through its investment division Pastel Ltd; and,
Warburg Pincus (5.65%), through its investment company Brentwood Investment Holdings Ltd).
Other shareholders with more than a 1% stake were: Citi Group Global Markets Mauritius Pvt Ltd
12


(2.99%); Euro pacific Growth Fund (2.04%); Morgan Stanley & Co International Ltd (1.93%);
CLSA Merchant Bankers Ltd A/C Calyon (1.33%); Life Insurance Corporation of India (1.34%);
and, The Growth Fund of America Inc. (1.11%). Sunil Bharti Mittal, the founder-chairman of
Bharti Enterprises (which owns Airtel), is today, the most celebrated face of the telecom sector in
India. He symbolizes the adage that success comes to those who dream big and then work
assiduously to deliver it. Sunil Bharti Mittal began his journey manufacturing spare parts for
bicycles in the late 1970s. His strong entrepreneurial instincts gave him a unique flair for sensing
new business opportunities. In the early years, Bharti established itself as a supplier of basic
telecom equipment. His true calling came in the mid 1990s when the government opened up the
sector and allowed private players to provide telecom services. Bharti Enterprises accepted every
opportunity provided by this new policy to evolve into India's largest telecommunications
company and one of India's most respected brands. Airtel was launched in 1995 in Delhi. In the
ensuing years, as the Airtel network expanded to several parts of India, the brand came to
symbolize the very essence of mobile services.






13


INTRODUCTION OF AIRTEL
Bharti Airtel Limited was incorporated on July 7, 1995 for promoting investments in
telecommunications services. Its subsidiaries operate telecom services across India. Bharti Airtel
is India's leading private sector provider of telecommunications services based on a strong
customer base consisting of 50 million total customers, which constitute, 44.6 million mobile and
5.4 million fixed line customers, as of March 31, 2007.
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.

CMDs (Founder) Profile:-
Sunil Bharti Mittal
He started his career at a young age of 18 after graduating from Punjab University in India and
then he founded Bharti.
Chairman & Managing Director since October 2001
Age: 49 years
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Today, at 49, he heads a successful enterprise, amongst the top 5 in India, with a market
capitalization of over US$ 40 billion and employing over 30,000 people.
He is an alumnus of Harvard Business School, USA.
He has been conferred one of the highest civilian award Padma Bhushan.
He has been conferred the degree of Doctor of Science by the G B Pant University of
Agriculture & Technology.

FIGURES & FACTS
Total Wireless subscribers in India In June 09 & July 09 are 102,367,881 &
1,05,177,635 respectively.
Total Wire line subscribers in India In June 09 & July 09 are 2,827,882 & 2,861,822
respectively.

STRATEGIC BUSINESS UNIT OF AIRTEL

Mobile services
Mobile and fixed
wireless services
Airtel telemedia
Broadband,
Telephone services
& DTH
Enterprise services
End-to-end data and
enterprise services
to the corporate
customers through
its nationwide fiber
optic backbone
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MARKET SHARE

16


Distribution Model:










The company whose operations are concentrated in and around Delhi, it has 27 Franchisees and
15 Distributors. They also have 8 'instant access cash card counters. Each franchises or distributor
can have any number of dealers under him as long as the person is approved by the Airtel
authority. Each franchises has to invest Rupees Ten Lakhs to obtain a franchise and should
employ an officer recruited by Airtel. This person acts as an liaison between the company and the
franchises. The franchises can it any number of dealers as long as their territories do not overlap.
But unfortunately Airtel has not been very successful in controlling territorial overlaps of dealers.
The franchises can carry out his or her own promotional strategy. For this the. company
contributes 75% of the money and the franchises contributes 25% of the money. The dealers
under the franchisee receive the same commission. The franchises and the dealer obtain the
feedback from the customers and they are sent through the liaison officer on a day-to-day basis to
COMPANY
Customer
Dealer
Franchise Distributor
Customer
Dealer
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Airtel. The dealer has to invest Rs. One Lakh as an initial investment. The dealer of Airtel are not
allowed to provide any other operators' service.
Target set for distributors and the dealers is 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.
The complaints encountered by the franchisees and dealers are either handset being non-
functional or the SIM Card not getting activated. Anything more complicated is referred to
the main Airtel office in Delhi.










18


HISTORY OF AIRTEL
Bharti Cellular launched cellular services 'AIRTEL in Delhi in 1995,Himachal Pradesh in
1997, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh circles in 1999
In 1998, Bharti Telenet obtained a license for providing fixed-line services in Madhya Pradesh
circle and in the same year, Bharti Telecom and British Telecom formed a 51% : 49% joint
venture
In 1999, New York Life Insurance Fund acquired a 3% equity interest in Bharti Cellular.
In 2001, Bharti Cellular entered into a joint venture, Bharti Aqua net, with SingTel for
establishing a submarine cable landing station at Chennai.
In 2002, Bharti Cellular entered into license agreements to provide cellular services in eight
new circles.
In 2002, Bharti Cellular Ties up with Secondary School Certification Board, Hyderabad,
where Bharti will announce SSC results to its customers on their mobile phones.
In the same year, 2002, ICICI Bank ties up with Bharti for pre-paid mobile cards via ATMs.
In 2003, Bharti Group's cellular brand Airtel has unveiled free multimedia messaging services
(MMS) for its customers. The company has also rolled out pan-India GPRS (General Packet
Radio Services) for its corporate subscribers.
Launches its `IndiaOne MeetXpress' audio-conferencing service(2003)
Airtel provides SMS facilities to hearing impaired in Chennai(2003)
19


In 2003, Airtel Subscribers exceed 3 million mark.
In 2004, Bharti Cellular entered into license agreements to provide cellular services in 6 new
circles including Uttar Pradesh (East), West Bengal & Andaman Nicobar, Orissa, Bihar and
Jammu & Kashmir.
Same year Airtel launches GPRS services for pre-paid customers.


Brand Logo






20


TAGLINES OF BRAND
'Power to keep in Touch (1995)
'Touch tomorrow (1999)
'Live Every Moment' (2002)
'Express yourself
(2003)

Following are the reasons for change in Tagline of Airtel:
'Power to keep in Touch
YEAR- 1995-1998
SIGNIFICANCE-
-- The tag line 'Power to keep in Touch' used in the brand promise was designed to make the user
feel 'in controlpowerful'.
-- Positioned in premium category aimed at elite class of society.
-- Perception of aspiration and lifestyle brand.
21


REASON FOR CHANGE-
-- Now, cellular service operators could drop their prices and target new customer segments.
-- As the category developed with prices going down sharply, Airtel began talking to a wider
spectrum of potential users. This gives the birth to the new Tagline.

'Touch tomorrow
YEAR- 1999-2001
SIGNIFICANCE
-- Airtel started talking to new segments by positively positioning and establishing itself as a
brand that improved the quality of life.
-- New look and the feel of the brand tagline indicated the core values of the brand i.e. leadership,
performance and dynamism.
REASON FOR CHANGE-
-- Airtel started to look from a regional level to pan India position.
-- Rediffussion DY&R, which is the ad agency that took charge of revamping Airtel's brand image
thought, to become an Indian leader, Airtel need to change its tagline.


22


'Live Every Moment'
YEAR 2002-2003
SIGNIFICANCE
-- This was the first time A R Rehman had agreed to work for any brand, anywhere in the world.
The music from the commercial became the most downloaded ring tone in the history of
telecommunications.
-- Tagline denotes that each and every person in India live every moment (emotions, feelings etc.)
of the life with Airtel.
REASONS FOR CHANGE
-- Rediffussion DY & R, which is the ad agency that took charge of revamping Airtel's brand
image again changed the tagline to give better tagline to Airtel which catches some emotional
appeal.
'Express yourself
YEAR- 2003-2008
SIGNIFICANCE
-- Express yourself' was successfully launched taking the ownership of the entire space of
communication and strengthening the emotional bond Airtel enjoys with its customers.
-- The masterminds behind the 'Express Yourself' campaign are the joint vice-presidents: Mr.
Prashant Godbole and Zarwan Patel.
23


MARKETING STRATEGY ADOP TED BY BHARTI AI RTEL

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 the company
and its services to all consumers. About 50,000 direct callers were sent out. 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 Airtel's advertisement spend exceeded Rs. 4 crores.
24


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.
25


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 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:
People who have booked Airtel services have been treated to exclusive
premiers blockbuster movies. Airtel has tie-up with Lufthansa to offer customer bonus
miles on the German airlines frequent flier's programs.
There have been educational campaigns, image campaigns, prelaunch
advertisements, launch advertisements, congratulatory advertisements, promotional
advertisements, attacking advertisements and tactical advertisements.
And nowadays airtel is targeting the young generations by providing special packs to
young generations as there requirement. And they promoting their product by campaign or
advertisement carrying slogan HER EK FRIEND JARURI HOTA HAI.



26


BCG MATRIX













BCG Matrix is used to find out the relative growth prospects of the product line. Within
the Airtel product line leased, private, circuit are among star.
Airtel is going to have a submarine cable between Singapore and Chennai with the
collaboration of SingTel. This wills Airtel to maintain its position in IPLC market. Right
in India only VSNL have such cables.


HIGH
GROWTH %
LOW

Leased
Private
Circuit
Stars

Basic Telephone
(Fixed Line)
Cows

ISP
Cellular
Dogs
HIGH
LOW
Relative Market Share
Questionmarks
27


ANSOFF MATRIX












To portray alternative corporate growth strategies, Igor Ansoff conceptualized a matrix that
focused on the firms present and potential products and markets / customers. He called the
four product-market strategic alternatives
market penetration [existing market + existing product],
market development [existing product + new market],
product development [existing market + new product], and
Diversification [new product + new market].
The company should follow all four strategies depending on the demand and product as
indicated in the matrix. The company perhaps needs to focus more on the comparatively
neglected area of diversification.
MARKET
PENETRATION
ENTERED IN BROADBAND
AND FIXED LINE MARKET
PRODUCT
DEVELOPMENT
IPLC PRODUCTS
MARKET
DEVELOPMENT
LOOKING FOR OVERSEAS
MARKET
DIVERSIFICATION

OUTSOURCING
28


MARKET PENETRATION: Airtel entered in broadband and fixed phone line market.
PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT: IPLC products.
MARKET DEVELOPMENT: Airtel is now looking for overseas market.
DIVERSIFICATION: Airtel has now outsourcing sum of its services like
customer services with IBM.


INDUSTRY STRUCTURE PORTER'S MODEL















Supplier Power
Low
Supplier
Power is
moderate
Entry
Barriers
High
Entry
Barriers
Low
Threats of
Substitutes Low

Threats of
Substitutes
High
BPC Low
BPC Getting
Higher
Industry Attractiveness
High Earlier
Low Now

Prior to Competition Post Competition
29


The earlier pattern used to be that the national telecom company used to own every segment
of the value chain till the international gateway. With liberalization there was competition in
virtually every segment. There are companies that provide local connectivity, those that
function as long distance carriers, and those that provide only gateway links. Some integrated
players operate in all segments. The intensity of competitive pressures across the chain is
reflected in the downward spiral being witnessed in tariffs and prices to customer.
The value chain for cellular mobile service and Internet Service Providers (other than cable
based net connections) are similar in as much as the calls reach the destination through similar
local loop, long distance and international gateway.


ENVIRONMENTAL ANALYSIS
It is a systematic examination of all 3 levels of the environment with at least three purposes:
Detecting important economic, social, cultural, environmental, health, technological,
and political trends, situations, and events
Identifying the potential opportunities and threats for the institution implied by these
trends, situations, and events
Gaining an accurate understanding of your organizations strengths and limitations

STEEP refers to changes in the social, technological, economic, environmental, and political
sectors that affect organizations directly and indirectly.
A STEEP analysis of the macro environment indicates that economic (a phone call being a
cheaper way to stay in touch than outstation travel for example) and social factors (working
30


outside the home town) have forced the pace of utilization of technology (Public Call Offices,
mobile phones, networked companies). Increasing customer awareness has raised expectations
and vocal demands are being articulated for consumer rights; such political factors have in turn
impacted the competitive environment by way of entry of private players, independent
regulation, and a policy framework tilted towards a level playing field for new entrants. A
near environment analysis indicates that the competitors are becoming active resource
rivals (political and financial) apart from applying pressures as customer rivals. The
customer has, needless to say, benefited from increased choice from within the communications
services basket itself.


CORE COMPETENCE
Airtel core competencies are sales & promotions and as of now Airtel is leading brand in
mobile services in India. Airtel have three big personality Viz. Sachin Tendulkar , Shahrukh
Khan and music maestro A. R. Rahman for endorsing there product and services currently
Airtel is outsourcing there no competence function and try to fully concentrate on his core
competency that is sales promotion.




31


5-FORCE MODEL

Threat from Competition:
Reliance (CDMA + GSM)
Tata (CDMA)
Vodafone (GSM + BPL)
Idea (GSM)
Others (CDMA + GSM)
Customer Bargaining Power:
Lack of differentiation among service providers.
Cut throat competition.
Low switching costs.
Threat from
Competition
Customer
Bargaining
Power
Threat of
Substitutes
Supplier
Bargaining
Power
Threat of
New
Entrants
32


Number portability will have negative impact.
Businesses and consumers.
Supplier Bargaining Power:
Outsourcing deals.
Network outsourcing and maintenance.
Information Technology.
Passive Infrastructure.
Call center outsourcing.
Threat of Substitutes:
Landline
CDMA
Videoconferencing
VOIP Skype, Gtalk, Yahoo Messenger
E-Mail and Social Networking Websites
Threat of New Entrant:
Huge license fees to be paid upfront and High gestation period.
Entry of WiMAX operators.
Spectrum Availability and Regulatory Issues.
Infrastructure setup cost - High.
Rapidly changing technology

33


SWOT ANALYSIS OF AIRTEL
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

34


STRENGTH
1) Very Focused On Telecom: Bharti Airtel is largely focused on the telecom, around 93% of the
total revenue comes from telecom (Total telecom revenue Rs 3,326).

2) Leadership In Fast Growing Cellular Segment: Airtel is holding leadership position in
cellular market. Bharti Airtel is one of India's leading private sector providers of
telecommunications services based on an aggregate of 27,239,757 customers as on August 31,
2006, consisting of 25,648,686 GSM mobile and 1,591,071 broadband & telephone customers.

3) Pan India Footprint: Airtel offers the most expansive roaming network. Letting you roam
anywhere in India with its Pan-India presence, and trot across the globe with International
Roaming spread in over 240 networks. 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 92 cities.

4) The Only Operator In India Other than VSNL Having International Submarine Cables:
Airtel, the monopoly breaker shattered the Telecom monopoly in the International Long Distance
space with the launch of International Submarine cable Network i2i jointly with Singapore
Telecommunications Ltd. in the year 2002. This has brought a huge value to the IPLC customers,
delivering them an option besides the incumbent carrier, to connect to the outside world.
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WEAKNESS
1) Price Competition from BSNL and MTNL: Airtel is tough competition from the operators
like BSNL and MTNL as these two operators are offering services at a low rate.

2) Untapped Rural market: Although Airtel have strong Presence Throughout the country but
still they are far away from the Indian rural part and generally this part is covered by BSNL so
indirectly Airtel is loosing revenue from the rural sector.

OPPORTUNITIES
1) The Fast Extending IPLC Market: An IPLC (international private leased circuit) is a point-
to-point private line used by an organization to communicate between offices that are
geographically dispersed throughout the world. An IPLC can be used for Internet access, business
data exchange, video conferencing, and any other form of telecommunication. Airtel Enterprise
Services and SingTel jointly provide IPLCs on the Network i2i. The Landing Station in Singapore
is managed by SingTel and by Airtel in Chennai (India). Each Landing Station has Power Feeding
Equipment, Submarine Line Terminating Equipment and SDH system to power the cable, add
wavelengths and convert the STM-64 output to STM-1 data streams respectively.

2) LATEST Technology & Low Cost Advantage: the costs of introducing cellular services for
Airtel are marginal in nature, as it needs Only to augment its cellular switch/equipment capacity
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and increase the number of base stations. The number of cities, towns and villages it has Covered
already works to its advantage as putting more base stations for cellular coverage in these areas
comes with negligible marginal cost. Besides such cost advantages, it has also other cost
advantages for the latest cellular technology. As a late entrant into the cellular market, it has dual
advantage of latest technology with modern features, unlike other private cellular operators who
started their service more than 4-5 years back and low capital cost due to advantages of large scale
buying of cellular switch/equipment.

3) Huge market: The cellular telephony market is presently expanding at a phenomenal /
whopping rate every year and there is still vast scope for Airtel to enter /expand in this market.
Besides there is a vast rural segment where the cellular services have not made much headway and
many customers are looking towards Airtel for providing the service to them. With its wide and
extensive presence even in the remotest areas, Airtel poised to gain a big market share in this
segment when it expands cellular services into the rural areas.

THREATS
1) Competition from other cellular: It is time for BSNL to improve/expand its cellular services.
Fierce and cut-throat competition is already in place with the markets ever abuzz with several
tariff reductions and announcement of attractive packages, trying to grab most of the mind share
of the king -the consumer, whose benefits are increasing with passing of everyday. If BSNL is
not innovative and agile, its cellular service will be a flop. It needs to be proactive with attractive
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packaging, pricing and marketing policies lest its presence in the market be treated with disdain by
the private cellular companies. The launch of WLL services by Reliance Infocomm has
aggravated the situation.

2) Market Maturity In Basic Telephony Segment: Although Airtel entered in the basic
telephony market its a biggest there for the company as the basic telephony market has reached.











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CONCLUSION

Bharti is one of the largest single foreign investments made in the Indian telecom sector. The
companys mobile network equipment partners include Ericsson and Nokia. In the case of the
broadband and telephone services and enterprise services (carriers), equipment suppliers include
Siemens, Nortel, Corning, among others. The Company also has an information Technology
alliance with IBM for its group-wide information technology requirements and with Nortel for
call center technology requirements.
Outsourcing the call center operations for the mobile services have been outsourced to IBM
Daksh, Hinduja TMT, Teletech & Mphasis. Airtel is looking for overseas market and already
started operation in Nigeria and Seychelles. Airtel is facing strong completion from MTNL and
BSNL in spite of the fact they are far away from airtel technologically but these two have an
inside reach in rural and urban area and have low tariff Rates. Airtel is holding a position of
Market Leader by having 21 percent of the total market share.






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WEBLIOGRAPHY

www.airtelworld.com
www.airtel-broadband.com
www.trai.gov.in
www.hindustantimes.com
www.Wikipedia.org