AIRTEL-BRAND ANALYSIS

AIRTELBRAND
ANALYSIS

ABOUT
AIRTEL
about

 Bharti Airtel Limited, commonly

known asAirtel, is an Indian
telecommunications company that
operates in 20 countries across South
Asia, Africa and theChannel Island
Airtel is the largest provider ofmobile
telephonyand second largest provider
offixed telephonyin India, and is also
a provider ofbroadbandand
subscription televisionservices.
It offers its telecom services under
theAirtelbrand and is headed by
Sunil Bharti Mittal.

 It is known for being the first mobile

phone company in the world
tooutsourceall of its business
operations except marketing, sales and
finance.
Ericsson,Nokia Siemens
NetworkandHuawei

Network(Base Stations,
Microwave Links etc.)

Business
Support

Transmission
Towers

IBM
Bharti
Infratech Ltd.

 Airtel also provides Directto-Home (DTH) TV services

across India under the
brand nameAirtel digital
TV. It started services on 9
October 2008 and has
about 32.44million
customers as of August
2010.

AIRTEL
COMMUNICATI
ON CAMPAIGN

 Bharti Airtel is the number one telecom

service operator in India and pledges
best quality service to all its
customers.
Apart from advertisements in print and
television media, Airtel has widened its
spectrum to a great extent. The Airtel
logo is clearly noticeable in various
cricket matches.
An interesting feature herein, is also
the advertisements displayed on the
customer bills and other information
dispatched to the consumers.

AIRTEL LOGO

LOGO

How much
importance
does a logo
hold for a
brand?

A lot, especially,
for an established
brand like Airtel,
which has
established itself
in the telephony
market.

Airtels previous
logo had both
white and red
colors
interchangeably.
The interesting
part was that the
word Air was
written in black
with a white
background while
Tel was written in
white on a red
background.
Sometimes they
also included their
slogan Express
Yourself with the
logo.

But today the logo looks

more like a curved A
with little bit of
highlighting to indicate
what they call dynamism
and the warm and
friendly appeal of Airtel.
They have also said that
it represents a dynamic
force of energy which
would bring the
management and
customers closer.

 If this wasnt enough, AR Rahman after his debacle

with the CWG tune (though the remix was much
better) comes back with a theme song having a
younger and international feel to it. Their new
commercial shows how a couple comes together
due to the Airtel 3G technology which interestingly
will be launched in India only by December.
Airtel is offering services now in 19 Asian and
African countries where truthfully speaking it has
not yet reached leadership status though its there
on that path. Through their rebranding and
repositioning exercise, they aim to achieve an
international appeal wherein customers not only in
India but across the world recall their brand. With
these points in mind, they seem to have embarked
on this ambitious journey.

Does
the
move
really
work?

 Its a taken that wherever Airtel plans to

expand around the globe, India will be its
most important market.. Therefore the
biggest move everyone was waiting for
was theirintroduction of 3G services in
India.
But instead Airtel came up with a complete
rebranding exercise including a new logo,
TV commercial and signature tune.
The previous logo was one of the most
recognized logos in our country. Anyone
and everyone be it from an illiterate
person to a CEO knew that was Airtel. One
of the reasons for it reaching somewhat of
a generic brand status was its easily
identifiable logo.

S
S
E F
R
P
L
E
X
S
E
R
U
O
Y
DIL JO
CHAHE
PAAS
LAAYE

POWER
TO
KEEP IN
TOUCH

LIVE
EVERY
MOMEN
T

TAGLIN
ES

TOUCH
TOMORRO
W

Power To Keep In
Touch year 19951999

Significance: The tagline used in the

brand was made to make the user feel in
control
and
powerful.
This
was
positioned at the premium category and
was aimed at the elite class of the
society. The perception of the brand was
created as a lifestyle and an aspirational
brand.
Reason for change: Now, cellular
service operators could drop their rates
and extend their customer base. As the
category developed with prices going
down sharply, Airtel began talking to a
wider spectrum of customers. This gives
birth to the new tagline

TOUCH
TOMORROW
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
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 a
pan-Indian
level.
Rediffusion
DY&R, which was working for
Airtel took charge of revamping its
brand image. According to the
agency, for Airtel to become the
world leader, it needed to change
its tagline.

Live every moment Year-2002-2003

Significance: This was the first time AR

Rahman had agreed to work for a TV
commercial anywhere in the world. The
music from the commercial became the
most downloaded tone in the history of
tele-communications. Tagline denotes that
every Indian lives every emotion of his
life,i.e., happiness, sadness, joy, laughter
with Airtel
Reason For change: The tagline was
changed by Rediffusion dy&R changed the
tagline to revamp the image of Airtel. The
purpose was to create an emotional
connect through advertising.

Express
YourselfYear 2003-2008

Express Yourself was

successfully launched taking
the ownership of the entire
field of communication and
strengthening the emotional
bond, Airtel shares with its
customers.
Airtel is s market leader in
cellular network and they
wanted a fresh and
contemporary idea to build a
brand image with which,
customers could identify.

 Airtel Express Yourself campaign won two

Silvers at the prestigious AAAI awards for
Brand Campaign of the Year and Best
Advertising Film, amidst stiff competition
from 37 advertising agencies.
The campaign added a new meaning to
mobile communication, which helped Airtel
to move from the cellular industry clichs
and reached out more effectively to both
the users as well as the uninitiated.
Such was the appeal of Airtel Express
Yourself campaign that brand awareness as
a result of advertising grew from 60% to
91% in just 6 months versus its nearest
competitor.

 AIRTEL PPT\Airtel Express Yourself 1 YouTube.flv

Dil Jo Chahe
Paas Laaye
2010

On the occasion of
crossing 200 million
wireless subscribers all
over the world, the
company announced to
launch their new logo
and a new ringtone.
Unlike the previous
logo, all the letters here
are in small caps.

 AIRTEL PPT\A.R Rahman's

Airtel New Theme [Video] - YouTube.f
lv

ADVERTISEMENT
STRATEGY

 Airtel spends crores of rupees every

year in advertisements in all avenues
of mass communication. While radio
happens to be the cheapest means of
mass communication, the most
widely mode is that of television.
Though advertising on television is
the costliest proponent among all the
modes of communication, print media
is also used aggressively by Airtel to
serve its purposes. The advertising
strategy spreads two basic purposes
for the company, namely:

 It creates pervasiveness, allows

Airtel to be in the eyes of the
consumers all the time. Even the
audience is not obligated to pay
heed to the advertisements; the
high creativity quotient of Airtel
advertisements makes them
virtually impossible to get
unnoticed. Various market
experts have rated Airtel Ads
very highly on various
parameters.

 It also amplifies the message

Airtel wants to send to its
consumers. The ads score
reasonably well on the imagery
and music. In fact, the catch
tune of Airtel is one of the most
popular jingles in the Indian ad
industry. The genius of the Oscar
winning A.R. Rahman is behind
the catchy tune.

 The trust factor of Airtel

amplifies greatly with the caliber
of its brand ambassadors. The
likes of Sachin Tendulkar, Shah
Rukh Khan, Kareena Kapoor, Saif
Ali Khan, Vidya Balan, A.R.
Rahman have been the brand
ambassadors of Airtel at some
point of time or the other.

 One of the reasons for the

lasting effects of the Airtel ads
has been the reinvention of the
content displayed. The recent ad
campaign of Barriers Break
when people Talk is a highly
emotional ad campaign
connecting people.

 Har Ek Friend ZarOOri Hota Hai

has captured the imagination of
the nations youth. It's a song
that's on everyone's lips and status
messages on the social networks.
But for those in adland, the new
Airtel TVC 'Har Ek Friend Zaroori Hota
Hai' heralds a new thought for the
brand, and its first piece of
communication created by indie
agency Taproot, which won a slice of
the business in July.

 On the new campaign, the Airtel

spokesperson said, "Released on the back
of our country wide launch of 3G services
and communication supporting that, the
new campaign targets the youth with an
evergreen theme of Friendship and its
relevance. Friends remain a critical part of
everyone's lives and more so for the youth.
At their age, friends are actually family.
And our new brand campaign captures this
evolving trend among todays youth in a
fresh young ad with a powerful youth
anthem - 'Har Ek Friend Zaroori Hota Hai'.

 Talking about the communication task

given by Airtel, Agnello Dias, co-founder
and chief creative officer, Taproot, said, "It
was to create an idea that retained the
core of the Airtel brand and struck a chord
across age groups even while the
execution resonated with the youth.
The idea came after long exhaustive
sessions with the Airtel team and meeting
youth consumers in several cities with the
airtel team. In fact, the actual creative
platform was arrived at along with the
client in a brainstorm."

PUBLIC
RELATIO
NS &
PUBLICIT
Y

 With the increase in competition, the

stake of credibility of any company is the
highest. It is even more important in the
case of the service industry. A few writeups by some renowned newspapers and
magazines for or against a company can
drastically influence the brand equity of
that company. As established by now,
Airtel is a maverick of sorts in product
communication. It has made definitely
made great inroads into the avenues of
public relations and publicity.

 PR serves a three way objective for

Airtel. It helps in increasing the
credibility for Airtel as a brand. It also
creates a certain sense of aura
around the Airtel products, clearly
underlining the fact that they are a
cut above the rest. PR is a potent
communication tool to catch some
buyers off-guard who have an
aversion in trusting the credibility of
television commercials.

CORPORATE
SOCIAL
RESPONSIBI
LITY

 To be responsive to the needs of the

consumers
To continuously improve services
innovatively and expeditiously
To be transparent and sensitive in
their dealings with all their
stakeholders
To trust and respect their employees

 Airtel Aashaina for underprivileged children at

the Mohali office of Airtel
Airtel Experience Centre by Express MP to
benefit visually impaired people as well as
people from the deprived sections of the
society.
In Jammu & Kashmir, donated free medicines,
stationary, clothes and other utility items at
the missionary Of Charity Home For Destitute
Bharti Foundation- The philanthropic arm of
Bharti Enterprises was set up in 2000 with a
vision to help underprivileged children and the
youth of our country to realize their potential,

 Airtel is in a process of setting up of

1000 Satya Bharti schools to deliver
high quality education to
underprivileged children in the
deepest rural pockets of the country.
The CII-Bharti Women Exemplar
Award
Green Towers P7 program- only
telecom tower company, which has
installed almost 3 MWT of solar
capacity on their network, generating
more than 5 mn units of electricity
every year.

 Energy conservation
The company has installed solar hot
water generator at its main campus
in Gurgaon for fulfilling the hot water
requirement in the cafeteria. Majority
of its facilities across NCR region are
now equipped with LES (Lighting
Energy Savers) which have reduced
energy consumption in the lighting
system to the tune of 1025%.

SALES
PROMOTI
ON

 Sales promotion also acts as a source of incentive

to all prospective customers to try the product. It
also passes a passive invitation to people to try
the product. Airtel is in a strategic alliance with
various mobile stores in India, in fact, there are
over 500 Airtel stores across India, the objectivity
behind these stores is to increase the base of
potential customers. As an example, with every
new mobile phone bought, an Airtel GSM
connection is gifted to the customer for free. Every
day and across various shopping centres across
India, Airtel organizes various promotional events.
All of this is done to attract to the countrys youth,
since youth comprises of a majority of the Indian
population. In addition to that, there are special
plans for friends, senior citizens and women.

Events
and
Experienc
es

 Ideally, when an event has an audience

engrossed, heightened levels of emotional
connect is created. Thus, an involved
audience engulfed with relevant events and
experiences is prone to develop a liking for
the parameters associated with the event.
Airtel is a pioneer of being a part of
experiences and events. KBC, cricket, Indian
Idol among many are examples. Airtel also
sponsors various tournaments and events,
which implicitly help promote the sales of
Airtel. The Airtel Delhi Half Marathon is also
an example.

CONCLUSION

 The Airtel ads, on paper, on TV, or on a

hoarding or anywhere have a distinct
recognition and appeal.
The gamut of advertisements Airtel has
used seem to have maintained a specific
genre among them. The advertisements
have more often than not talked much
more about the values than the product
or the service. Or maybe the product and
the benefit have always been very
intrinsically knit into a value.

 Some of these ads have a sense of

grandeur about them while others have
family orientation, relations or innocent
love as the underlying storyline.
They have never been loud and in a way
they always have been very decent and
simple. The celebrities also have always
been suitably chosen for each of these
advertisements depending upon the
image of themselves thyhave created
in common public.

 To add to all of this a very

catchy slogan always goes along
with these ads. Examples would
be, Express yourself, Barriers
break when people talk and
Pyar ke beech mein kabhi dooriyan
na aayen

 AIRTEL PPT\New Airtel Ad So Romantic

! sweet voice, awesome !
- YouTube.flv

 Airtel, also, has maintained a safe

distance from most of the criticisms
associated with advertising. No
misleading, no huge claims, no glossups.
Just simple emotional bond with the
consumers- that has been the crux of
the advertising strategy of Airtel over
the years.

MUSKAN
B.A.(H) JOURNALISM II
YEAR
ROLL NO. 312