Promotions – Airtel “Traditionally promotion is thought of as involving decisions related to sales, advertising, sales promotions and publicity” - Services Marketing, Valarie A Zeithamal. But It has become extremely difficult for the marketers to promote their services; we are highlighting some of the reasons for the same: • • •
Difficulty to break through the communications clutter in the market place Reach the masses (the target audience) with interesting and pervasive messages Ensuring that the investments in the campaign yield an acceptable rate of return in some form or the other (e.g. increase in the brand loyalty or number of consumers/users)
We have observed that the focus of the promotions of Bharti Airtel is to engage the customer by using any form of relevant contact. Then the efforts are made to achieve synergy and build relationships which will finally affect the behaviour of the individual. There is a model by Reinartz and Kumar which shows the relationship between customer profitability and period of association to help us increase the Customer Long-term (lifetime) Value.
Marketing of Services | Group A5
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To put it in simple words, the aim of the company should be to: ➢ Attain new customers and increase the number of relationships ➢ Increase the profitability of these relationships ➢ Increase the duration of these relationships Moreover the promotions are done keeping in mind the target customers which are elite, up market professionals, entrepreneur with business plans, low income business categories and youth with youth clubs. Airtel started off with the campaign of “Power to Keep in Touch” (1995) to convey the message of instant communication. At that time, Airtel wanted to project an image of Aspirational and lifestyle brand and was positioned to target premium category of elite class customers. They decided that the brand would always connote leadership – be it in network, innovations, offerings or services. To be in synch with their strategy, they sponsored various golf tournaments. When the telecom sector was becoming more and more competitive with the entry of new players, Airtel came up with “Touch Tomorrow” (1999) thus urging it to talk to a bigger audience. They started capturing the mass markets and the new brand logo indicated the core values of the brand i.e. leadership, performance and dynamism. Then in 2002, the new advertisements with the tagline “Live Every Moment” and brand Marketing of Services | Group A5
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ambassadors Sachin Tendulkar, Shahrukh Khan and Kareena Kapoor changed the whole look of Airtel. The brand Airtel in the minds of customers was full of emotions and reaction, which one will experience in a lifetime. In 2003 came another successful campaign “Express Yourself” The various tools that Airtel uses for its Integrated Marketing Communications are: • Advertisements • Sales promotions • Direct Marketing • Public Relations • Publicity • Events If we observe the advertisements that Airtel has come up with over the years, they are basically using two appeals to connect with their target audiences: 1. Emotional Appeal 2. Humorous Appeal
Promotion campaigns ➢ Airtel Jai Hind AD Campaign The focus was to cash in on the Independence Day fever. The USP was very clear, feel proud of your country and by extension, Brand Airtel. Some of the other highly acclaimed campaigns: ➢ ➢ ➢ ➢ ➢
Leadership campaign Quality time campaign Magic Dalo Say Hello Launch campaign Magic Hai to Mumkin Hai campaign
Internet Advertising Airtel has used internet quite effectively to advertise and has been doing massive advertisements through: Marketing of Services | Group A5
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➢ Google Ads ➢ Bidvertisers –in which they have to offer site-targeted pay-per-click (PPC) text ads and image ads ➢ Sponsors online games at Zapak.com
Sales promotions Keeping in mind the target audience, Airtel came up with very effective sales promotions and was able to increase the number of users. Some of the sales promotions that performed really well are: • “Friendz” pre-paid plan • “Ladies Special” plan • Introduced the ‘Family Celebrations offer’ – Call at 60paisa per minute from Airtel telephone service to Airtel mobile service
Promotions through Health Campaigns Airtel and Wockhardt hospitals together launched a “Good Health” campaign to mark World Health Day on April 7, comprising two health check-ups at discount of 75%. Post-paid subscribers of Airtel could avail the Wockhardt master health check up at Rs 799 against a original cost of Rs 3200. Also available as part of the campaign was the Wockhardt Heart Check at Rs 499, aginst Rs 2400.
Grameen Mobile Puratchi Bharti Airtel unveiled the “Grameen Mobile Puratchi” campaign for rural markets • •
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This scheme was for more than 45 lakh society members of IKSCL (IFFCO Kisan Sanchar Coopreative ltd) Farmers had five free Value Added Services under this scheme. The farmers had five free voice messages on mandi prices, farming techniques, weather forecasts, dairy farming, animal husbandry, rural health initiatives on a daily basis The pack for farmers ranged between Rs 1299 and Rs 4000 along with the mobile phone.
Marketing of Services | Group A5
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CSR initiatives being promoted Airtel took the initiative of opening “Airtel Ashiana” for underprivileged children at the Mohali office of Airtel. Airtel also tied up with an NGO to distribute daily surplus food to needy children. Then they Airtel also came up with ‘Airtel Experience Centre by Access MO” for the benefit of visually impaired people as well as people from deprived section of society. In Jammu & Kashmir, they donated free medicines, stationary, clothes and other utility at the “Missionary of Charity Home for Destitute”. Airtel Kerala visited an old age home and shared a day full of fun with the members of the home. A tree plantation drive was carried out by AccessNCR, Access-North and Access-UP West Circles, where in free tree samplings were planted. Bharti foundation, the philanthropic arm of Bharti Enterprises was established in 2000 with a vision to help underprivileged children and young people of our country realise their potential. They are in the process of setting up a 1000 “Satya Bharti Schools” to deliver high quality education to underprivileged children in the deepest rural pockets.
Publicity and Events To reach their target audiences, Airtel has sponsored various TV programmes like • • • •
Big Boss KBC Indian Sangeet awards Bol Baby Bol
Along with that Airtel has sponsored various events like • • • • •
Delhi Half Marathon Border-Gavaskar Indian Fantasy League Delhi Golf tournament Organised Painting Competition in states of Karnataka and M.P. for the students
Such kind of events helps the brand to capture the attention of the target audience and involve them. Airtel as a brand has used mix of traditional Marketing of Services | Group A5
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and non-traditional media to promote their brand and now they are also using the social media for promoting their brand. They have tried to associate with social causes to attach the target audience emotionally.
Marketing of Services | Group A5
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