Airtel - Positioning (And Repositioning)

“With these launches, we will create an Airtel user’s community that will have a better depth of
service availability than all competition.”

Sunil Mittal, Bharti’s CMD, commenting on the launch of Airtel’s new logo, in June 2002.
From ‘Touch Tomorrow’ to ‘Live Every Moment’

In late-2002, Bharti Cellular Ltd. (Bharti), India’s largest cellular telephone company released a
television commercial (TVC), which despite using the ‘oft-repeated’ celebrity endorsement route
was unusual in terms of its celebrity selection. Instead of using the usual movie stars/sports
celebrities, it chose one of the country’s most successful music composers, A.R. Rahman (Rahman)
to promote its brand.

The campaign attracted considerable media attention because this was the first time Rahman had
agreed to do a television commercial and also because, Rahman had been paid Rs 10 million1 for the
campaign, a sum usually unheard of, for celebrity endorsers in India. The campaign received
brickbats as well as bouquets in the media, both for the selection of Rahman and the TVC’s
execution.

However, Bharti claimed to have scored an ace in terms of getting Rahman to compose five
exclusive symphonies downloadable as ring tones for Airtel users. The TVC was a part of the brand
repositioning and restructuring efforts for Airtel, as part of which, Bharti changed the brand’s tagline
in early-2002 from ‘Touch Tomorrow’ to ‘Live Every Moment.’

The company also decided to undertake a comprehensive brand building program for the company
and chose the slogan ‘Unlimited Freedom’ for the same. Commenting on these changes, company
sources said, “Airtel’s brand identity and campaign will now have a new younger and international
look and feel that builds on the earlier positioning.”

Bharti’s massive media expenditure plans were no surprise, considering the fact that it was the
largest cellular telecom company in the country – reaching over 600 million people in 16 (out of 29)
states of India. The company posted revenues of Rs 8.48 billion and a net loss of Rs 1 billion in the
financial year 2000-01.

From ‘Touch Tomorrow’ to ‘Live Every Moment’

The Airtel brand (and the pre-paid card service brand, Magic) had top-of-the-mind recall amongst
cellular phone users and enjoyed a leadership position in most markets. Industry observers primarily
attributed it to Bharti’s strong brand building and positioning strategies.

Background Note

Sunil Bharti Mittal (S.B. Mittal) laid the foundations of the New Delhi based Bharti Group in the
1970s with a small bicycle-parts business. In 1985, he entered the telecom business by establishing
Bharti Telecom Limited (BTL) that manufactured telephonic equipment.

Created by Bharat Kumar Bhardwaj 1

In the same year, BTL entered into technical collaboration with Siemens AG (Germany) for
manufacturing electronic push button telephones. BTL also signed an agreement with Takacom
Corporation (Japan) for manufacturing telephone answering machines. Over the years, BTL tied up
with leading telephone equipment manufacturers from countries such as South Korea and US.

The group entered the telecommunication (telecom) industry during the early-1990s (Refer Exhibit I
and II for a note on the Indian cellular telephony industry). Bharti Tele-Ventures, a part of Bharti
group, offered various telecom services such as fixed line, cellular, V-SAT and Internet services. The
operations of Bharti Tele-Ventures were run by four wholly owned subsidiaries. These were Bharti
Cellular Ltd. (Cellular), Bharti Telenet Ltd. (Access), Bharti Telesonic Ltd. (Long Distance) and
Bharti Broadband Networks Ltd. (Broadband Solutions). The flagship services of the Bharti group
included Airtel (cellular), Mantra (Internet Services) and Beetel (telephone instruments). In 1992,
Bharti entered the cellular market by launching services in Delhi. Over the next few years, it also
entered other telecom circles.2

In the early 2000s, Bharti invested heavily in the acquisitions and alliances to expand its cellular
market in India. As a part of this, Bharti acquired JT Mobile (Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka),
SkyCell (Chennai) and Spice Cell (Kolkata). It even announced plans to acquire Usha Martin, the
leading cellular service in Kolkata. It also entered into collaborative agreements with BPL to gain
seamless access in Mumbai, Maharashtra, Chennai, Delhi, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh and
Karnataka. Bharti launched Airtel as a post paid cellular service in Delhi in November 1995. Over
the next few years, the company redefined the way cellular services were being marketed in the
country. This was made possible due to its innovative marketing strategies, continuous technological
upgradations, new value added service offerings and efficient customer service. Initially confined
only to the Delhi circle, Airtel’s services were soon extended to many other places.

Through the Airtel brand, Bharti set many benchmarks for the Indian cellular industry. It was the
first cellular operator to set up cellular showrooms. The company opened its first showroom ‘Airtel
Connect’ in Delhi, in late-1995. Airtel Connect was a one stop cellular shop where customers could
purchase handsets, get new connections, subscribe to various value-added services and pay their
mobile bills. Bharti was also the first cellular company to install a second mobile switching center3 in
April 1997. The company was the first to provide roaming cellular services and other value-added
services such as Smart mail, Fax, Call hold, Call waiting and Information services (Refer Table II).
Bharti was the first company to launch an online e-commerce portal that enabled customers to make
online payments.

It also provided them with information regarding cellular services and the features of handsets
manufactured by various companies, along with their price. On account of such initiatives, during the
late-1990s, Airtel was named the ‘Best Cellular Service’ in the country, and won the ‘Techies’
award4 for four consecutive years (1997-2000). However, it was not very easy for the company to
build Airtel brand.

The tariff rates charged by the government were quite high. Cellular players has little choice but to
impose high call charges on their customers. Airtime rates were as high as Rs 16 per minute as
against Rs 1.20 for landline communication. Thus, all players targeted the premium sector, which
could afford the rates. Airtel was also positioned in the premium category, aimed at the elite class of
the society.

Created by Bharat Kumar Bhardwaj 2

Though industry observers felt that this limited its market and that Bharti could have focused on
increasing customer awareness (by explaining to them the various advantages of cellular phones),
Bharti thought otherwise.

As per a company source, the strategy might not have worked as the value delivered by cellular
phones during that phase did not match the cost. During the late-1990s, many international players
such as ‘Orange’ announced plans to enter the Indian market.

The global telecom market was getting saturated and these companies were searching for countries
with untapped potentials to increase their markets.

India being one of the fast developing nations with a vast population base was being seen as a high
potential market. Apart from international players, many domestic players also entered the segment.
This increased the competition in the sector.

In the light of these changes, Bharti realized the need for repositioning Airtel to increase its market
share. Rather than focusing on the value (delivered by the services), the company chose to address
the visual benefits delivered to the customers. In the words of Hemant Sachdev (Sachdev), Director
(Marketing), Bharti Group, “Instead of the value-proposition model, we decided to address the
sensory benefit it gave to the customer as the main selling tack. The idea was to become a badge
value brand.”

Repositioning Airtel

The above realization led to the launch of the ‘Leadership Series’ campaign, which featured
successful men and women with their deluxe cars, carrying laptops and using cell phones. A
company source said that the campaign was aimed at positioning Airtel as an aspirational brand,
which was meant for leaders and celebrities.

The surveys conducted after the launch revealed that people began associating three core benefits
with the Airtel brand – Leadership, Performance and Dynamism. Other supportive values associated
with the brand-included courtesy, politeness and efficiency. The campaign was reportedly successful
and resulted in a marginal improvement in Airtel’s performance. By 1999, Bharti had become the
leading cellular player in Delhi (its major market) with a subscriber base of over 0.38 million.
However, the growth was still much below the company’s expectations. Meanwhile, as the
competition in the sector intensified, the government also decided to reduce tariff rates. As a result,
the players made all efforts to extend their horizons to reach customers across all sections. Essar, the
nearest competitor of Airtel, began offering tariff plans, schemes and services that were identical to
that of Airtel. Much to Airtel’s chagrin, Essar’s subscriber base began nearing that of Airtel.

In early-2000, in its attempt to understand the customer’s psyche, Airtel conducted many brand
tracking exercises. These exercises revealed that though the Leadership campaign had been effective,
it failed to attract more customers, as it had failed to add an emotional dimension to the brand.

Analysts perceived the brand to be distant, efficient and cold. In words of Preet Bedi, Director, Lowe
India, “The brand had become something like Lufthansa — cold and efficient.

Created by Bharat Kumar Bhardwaj 3

What they needed was to become Singapore Airlines, efficient but also human.” The surveys also
revealed that the concept of leadership was itself undergoing a transformation.

The public increasingly perceived leaders as people who worked with a team to achieve common
objectives rather than those who dictated terms to their subordinates. The surveys indicated that 50%
of the new subscribers bought a cellular phone service brand on the basis of suggestions made by
their friends, colleagues or family members. On account of this information, Bharti realized that its
existing customer base could be used to promote the brand and expand its market (as these customers
could endorse the brand) and thus focused on building a close relationship with them. According to
company sources, these brand-tracking exercises helped it realize the fact that in a business where
customer relationships were of paramount importance, lacking an emotional or humanized touch was
a major weakness

Hence, to gain a competitive advantage, Bharti decided to humanize the Airtel brand. Commenting
on the decision, a senior executive of Essar said, “The leadership series was okay when you were
wooing the crème de la crème of society. Once you reached them you had to expand the market so
there was need to address to new customers.” In August 2000, Bharti launched its new ‘Touch
Tomorrow’, which aimed at strengthening its relationship with its customers. Bharti’s advertisement
expenditure for the year amounted to Rs 450 million.

The advertisements spanning the print, electronic and outdoor media (for these campaign) featured
cellular users surrounded by caring family members. Commenting on the rationale behind the new
campaign, Sachdev said, “The new campaign and positioning was designed to highlight the
relationship angle and make the brand softer and more sensitive.”

According to company sources, the new positioning was aimed at developing a strong relationship
with the customers. Sachdev said, “Mobile telephony is taken for granted – in one of our researches,
consumers have described mobile telephony as being ‘kept close to the heart.’

What is adding a new dimension to the cellular category is the advent of new features like roaming,
SMS, and the Net, which are taking communication beyond voice to data and video. This has tossed
a challenge: how to bond with consumers.” Explaining the need for repositioning, Sachdev said,
“Airtel was perceived as a premium brand. The new positioning is intended to add warmth to these
attributes.” In line with the company’s objectives, the new TVCs and advertisements focused on
highlighting Airtel as a brand that made it possible for customers to derive all benefits of cellular
telephony.

The new commercials developed for this campaign reflected humane, aspirational, family-centric
and softer brand values while promising easy reach. Bharti also created a new logo for the Airtel
brand, which had red, black and white colors with ‘Airtel’ enwrapped in an eclipse. The tagline
‘Touch Tomorrow’ was placed below in a lower case typography to convey a warm and informal
style (Refer Figure I). The campaign was first rolled out in the states of Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh,
Himachal Pradesh and Chennai.

As a part of this campaign, Airtel also shifted its focus from SEC, audiences to SEC B audiences.
The company also increased its Touch Point network (Airtel’s shop-in-shop points at various
departmental stores and lifestyle establishments).

Created by Bharat Kumar Bhardwaj 4

In line with its repositioning efforts, Bharti also revamped the entire Airtel network including Airtel
Connect centers. As a part of this, Bharti focused on giving a contemporary look to Airtel Connect
centers with e-kiosks, facades, collaterals, signages and merchandising material. It also changed the
color scheme of these outlets by adopting a coordination of red, black and white to give the outlets a
soothing, soft but classy look. The dress code at these outlets was also changed. Men wore black
trousers and a white shirt bearing the Airtel logo with and a red tie.

While women sported red tops and black trousers with ivory, schiffon scarves. While the Touch
Tomorrow campaign was still running, Bharti announced a major brand restructuring exercise at the
corporate level. This was done in order to facilitate its entry into new areas of the telecom sector and
establish itself as a global telecom brand.

In early-2000s, Bharti unveiled a three-tier Airtel brand architecture that was aimed at defining every
service with a special brand name and place them under a mother brand (Refer Table III).
Commenting on the new brand architecture, Sachdev said, “All convergent technologies in the
sphere of telephony will be a part of the new brand architecture.”

Commenting on this initiative, Sandeep Goyal, President, Rediffusion DY&R (Brand

Communications), said “An Equity Research undertaken by ORG-MARG and quarterly Brand Track
studies by IMRB have given us insight into the needs of tomorrow’s consumer. The new branding
initiative takes into cognizance the findings that consumers consider Airtel as a brand of the
successful people and a preferred address.” As a part of the restructuring efforts, the basic telephone
services of Bharti were brought under the Touchtel brand and the National Long Distance (NLD)
telephony under the ‘IndiaOne’ brand. Though the cost of creating new brands was high, the
company was inclined to create independent brands for its various services. The Bharti brand and
Magic (the prepaid cellular brand) were not included in the Airtel brand architecture, and they
continued to operate as distinct brands.

According to company sources, the new structure was aimed at positioning Airtel as the power brand
with regional sub-brands reflecting customer needs in various parts of the country. Bharti felt that a
single brand name for all cellular operations might not always work in the urban markets, which
were heading towards saturation. Moreover, as a more towards product segmentation, the Internet-
Interface services (WAP5) offered to cellular users were brought under the brand name ‘Tango’ in
2001.

Commenting on the launch of Tango, a senior Bharti official said, “The idea was to bring Internet
and mobile in perfect harmony.” However, Tango was not as successful as Bharti had expected it to
be.

The company sources mainly attributed this to the limited utility and inefficiency of WAP services.
Soon the company discontinued the advertisements for Tango. However, the brand was retained for
the company’s permanent Internet connectivity (GRPS6) services (on its cellular phones).

Bharti also decided to introduce a tariff plan (specifically) to attract the youth. The service, called
Youtopia, planned to cash in on the fact that with reduced tariffs, cellular phones would become
accessible to teenagers.

Created by Bharat Kumar Bhardwaj 5

By targeting youth in the age-group 14-19 years, Bharti planned to expand the customer base, which
was presently limited to the older age groups. Youtopia was a clear deviation from Airtel’s earlier
positioning as a brand for older people symbolizing dignity and power. Youtopia offered lower tariff
rates (at Re 0.25 for 30 seconds) at night. Special merchandising exercises were also undertaken. For
instance, a special portal was created, where young people could buy or bid for goods. The company
also announced plans for providing customers with various other services such as music download
facilities, and SMS (Short Messaging Service) rates at affordable prices. According to the analysts,
the company’s repositioning strategies paid back well as Bharti became the leading player in most of
the circles (it operated in) across the country in early-2002.

Repositioning Airtel – Once Again!

Due to consistent marketing efforts, the Airtel and Touch Tomorrow campaign became very popular.
Therefore, Bharti’s decision to withdraw this campaign (Touch Tomorrow) in 2002 came as a
surprise to many. The new campaign was accompanied by a change in the logo as well (Refer Figure
II). The idea behind the new logo was to give Airtel a younger look. The logo (with new design and
colour pattern) symbolized innovation, energy and friendliness. As part of its restructuring and
repositioning exercise, Bharti unveiled a new brand architecture that replaced the three-tier
architecture.

The proposed two-tier architecture was categorized under two heads – wired and wireless. All the
wireless products were placed under the Airtel brand, which also included Tango, Freenet and
Magic.

According to company sources, the objective of this new architecture was to establish Bharti as a
global telecom company. The company reportedly allocated Rs 1 billion for media coverage and
other brand building activities.

Commenting on the new brand identity of Airtel, a Bharti spokesperson said, “Airtel’s brand identity
and campaign will now have a new younger and international look and feel that builds on the earlier
positioning of ‘Touch Tomorrow,’ injected with renewed energy and heightened optimism.”

According to a Cellular Operator’s Association of India (COAI) report, the cellular market in India
was one of the fastest growing market of the decade. As per the report, there were over 8.17 million
cellular subscribers in India and the number was expected to grow to over 12 million and 120 million
by 2003 and 2008 respectively.

With such high potential, almost all the players were seen focusing on their positioning, advertising
and promotional efforts and on building strategic partnerships. Bharti was also making efforts to
retain its position as the market leader (Refer Exhibit III for a note on Bharti’s moves on the strategic
level).

However, it still remains to be seen whether the latest round of repositioning and the strategic
partnerships would help Airtel sustain the competition and retain its leadership in the market. The
shift to Live Every Moment from Touch Tomorrow had nevertheless, proved that Bharti is
consistently on the lookout for best marketing strategies for Airtel.

Created by Bharat Kumar Bhardwaj 6