“ULTRA MODERN APPROACH OF ADVERTISING IN TELECOM SECTOR FOR RURAL MARKET”
TABLE OF CONTENT
Sr.no Title Page no.
1 Executive Summary 1
2 Objective of study 2
3 Introduction - Advertising 3-8
4 Advertising trend in Telecom 9-22
5 Ultra modern approach of advertising in Telecom sector for rural market 23-48
6 Market Research System 49-54
7 Market Research 54-68
8 Conclusion 69
9 Suggestion and Recommendation 70
10 Bibliography 71
11 Annexure 72-75
Executive Summary
With the mobile handset population poised to top 500 million in India by 2010, it has become a huge and vibrant communication platform, which no brand marketer can afford to ignore. The Indian advertising industry registered a compounded annual growth rate of 17.1 per cent during the last three years. Taking all these facts and figures into the consideration it is clearly proved that Advertising contributes efficient sales force for any product, but when it comes to Telecom sector, it turns up very fast.
500 million subscriber in a country, where in the market is driven by almost more than half of its rural users. It becomes necessary to get its touchpoint. Undoubtly; Advertising approach has been constantly changing and rolling throughout its experiments to grab the attention. The rural audience takes this approach in a very sensible manner, most of them like this “sentimental” approach of advertising. Advertising giants like O &M, JWT, Lowe and others are leading ones who implemented but initiated by Airtel, Vodafone and others.
Experimental view of this research finds out lot of things which were used earlier and nowadays too. People are not so fond of watching ads whether its print media, electronic or through any channel. But concepts and representation compel them to stick with that, and that is how persuasion arises to have this. This turns out to be good result as buying behavior decision which strengthens the sales force and consumption too.
Objective Of the study
In current scenario, we see rural market is the biggest exposure to Indian telecom Industry. You can hardly get a person without a mobile phone now, doesn’t matter what the location is? The report “Emerging Rural Mobile Market in India” reveals that by 2010, India is likely to have around 539 Million cell phone subscribers at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of nearly 28%. This project will be focusing upon intensive touch point which has been supporting telecom Sector. India is a large country with more than 28 states and millions of cities and villages.
But what is the reason behind it?
But have you ever think of it that how this sector came up successfully, handling the remote crowd of India so well? According to surveys, and reports it is found that Advertising is one of the biggest reason for it. We always assume advertising as a sales promotional tool, but for this sector it is more than that.
The purpose of this study is to found out How They did it so efficiently?
How Advertising helped and supported Telecom Industry to grow, to make rural audience aware and biggest target for their market?
And how it worked out?
Introduction- Advertising
Advertising is a form of communication that typically attempts to persuade potential customers to purchase or to consume more of a particular brand of product or service. “While now central to the contemporary global economy and the reproduction of global production networks, it is only quite recently that advertising has been more than a marginal influence on patterns of sales and production. The formation of modern advertising was intimately bound up with the emergence of new forms of monopoly capitalism around the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th century as one element in corporate strategies to create, organize and where possible control markets, especially for mass produced consumer goods. Mass production necessitated mass consumption, and this in turn required a certain homogenization of consumer tastes for final products. At its limit, this involved seeking to create ‘world cultural convergence’, to homogenize consumer tastes and engineer a ‘convergence of lifestyle, culture and behaviors among consumer segments across the world’.
Many advertisements are designed to generate increased consumption of those products and services through the creation and reinvention of the "brand image". For these purposes, advertisements sometimes embed their persuasive message with factual information. Every major medium is used to deliver these messages, including television, radio, cinema, magazines, newspapers, video games, the Internet, carrier bags and billboards. Advertising is often placed by an advertising agency on behalf of a company or other organization.
Money spent on advertising has increased dramatically in recent years. In 2007, spending on advertising has been estimated at over $150 billion in the United States and $385 billion worldwide, and the latter to exceed $450 billion by 2010.
A recent advertising innovation is "guerrilla marketing", which involve unusual approaches such as staged encounters in public places, giveaways of products such as cars that are covered with brand messages, and interactive advertising where the viewer can respond to become part of the advertising message. This reflects an increasing trend of interactive and "embedded" ads, such as via product placement, having consumers vote through text messages, and various innovations utilizing social network services such as My Space.
Types of Advertising
Commercial advertising media can include
--wall paintings, billboards, street furniture components, printed flyers and rack cards, radio, cinema and television adverts, web banners, mobile telephone screens, shopping carts, web popup, skywriting, bus stop benches, human billboards, magazines, newspapers, town criers, sides of buses, banners attached to or sides of airplanes ("logo jets"), in-flight advertisements on seatback tray tables or overhead storage bins, taxicab doors, roof mounts and passenger screens, musical stage shows, subway platforms and trains, elastic bands on disposable diapers, stickers on apples in supermarkets, shopping cart handles (grabertising), the opening section of streaming audio and video, posters, and the backs of event tickets and supermarket receipts. Any place an "identified" sponsor pays to deliver their message through a medium is advertising.
Covert advertising
Covert advertising is when a product or brand is embedded in entertainment and media. For example, in a film, the main character can use an item or other of a definite brand, as in the movie Minority Report, where Tom Cruise's character John Anderson owns a phone with the Nokia logo clearly written in the top corner.
Television commercials
The TV commercial is generally considered the most effective mass-market advertising format, as is reflected by the high prices TV networks charge for commercial airtime during popular TV events. The annual Super Bowl football game in the United States is known as the most prominent advertising event on television. The average cost of a single thirty-second TV spot during this game has reached $3 million (as of 2009).
The majority of television commercials features is a song or jingle that listeners soon relate to the product.
Infomercials
There are two types of infomercials, described as long form and short form. Long form infomercials have a time length of 30 minutes. Short form infomercials are 30 seconds to 2 minutes long. Infomercials are also known as direct response television (DRTV) commercials or direct response marketing.
The main objective in an infomercial is to create an impulse purchase, so that the consumer sees the presentation and then immediately buys the product through the advertised toll-free telephone number or website. Infomercials describe, display, and often demonstrate products and their features, and commonly have testimonials from consumers and industry professionals.
Celebrities
This type of advertising focuses upon using celebrity power, fame, money, popularity to gain recognition for their products and promote specific stores or products. Advertisers often advertise their products, for example, when celebrities share their favorite products or wear clothes by specific brands or designers. Celebrities are often involved in advertising campaigns such as television or print adverts to advertise specific or general products.
Media and advertising approaches
Increasingly, other media are overtaking television because of a shift towards consumer's usage of the Internet as well as devices such as TiVo.
Advertising on the World Wide Web is a recent phenomenon. Prices of Web-based advertising space are dependent on the "relevance" of the surrounding web content and the traffic that the website receives.
E-mail advertising is another recent phenomenon. Unsolicited bulk E-mail advertising is known as "spam".
Some companies have proposed placing messages or corporate logos on the side of booster rockets and the International Space Station. Controversy exists on the effectiveness of subliminal advertising, and the pervasiveness of mass messages.
- turning it into a generic term which means that its legal protection as a trademark is lost.
As the mobile phone became a new mass media in 1998 when the first paid downloadable content appeared on mobile phones in Finland, it was only a matter of time until mobile advertising followed, also first launched in Finland in 2000. By 2007 the value of mobile advertising had reached $2.2 billion and providers such as Admob delivered billions of mobile ads.
Global advertising
Advertising has gone through five major stages of development: domestic, export, international, multi-national, and global. For global advertisers, there are four, potentially competing, business objectives that must be balanced when developing worldwide advertising: building a brand while speaking with one voice, developing economies of scale in the creative process, maximizing local effectiveness of ads, and increasing the company’s speed of implementation.
Born from the evolutionary stages of global marketing are the three primary and fundamentally different approaches to the development of global advertising executions: exporting executions, producing local executions, and importing ideas that travel.
Advertising research is key to determining the success of an ad in any country or region. The ability to identify which elements and/or moments of an ad that contributes to its success is how economies of scale are maximized. Once one knows what works in an ad, that idea or ideas can be imported by any other market. Market research measures, such as Flow of Attention, Flow of Emotion and branding moments provide insight into what is working in an ad in any country or region because the measures are based on the visual, not verbal, elements of the ad.
Trends
With the dawn of the Internet came many new advertising opportunities. Popup, Flash, banner, Popunder, averaging, and email advertisements (the last often being a form of spam) are now commonplace.
The ability to record shows on digital video recorders (such as TiVo) allow users to record the programs for later viewing, enabling them to fast forward through commercials. Additionally, as more seasons of pre-recorded box sets are offered for sale of television programs; fewer people watch the shows on TV. However, the fact that these sets are sold, means the company will receive additional profits from the sales of these sets. To counter this effect, many advertisers have opted for product placement on TV shows like Survivor.
Particularly since the rise of "entertaining" advertising, some people may like an advertisement enough to wish to watch it later or show a friend. In general, the advertising community has not yet made this easy, although some have used the Internet to widely distribute their ads to anyone willing to see or hear them.
Another significant trend regarding future of advertising is the growing importance of the niche market using niche or targeted ads. Also brought about by the Internet and the theory of The Long Tail, advertisers will have an increasing ability to reach specific audiences. In the past, the most efficient way to deliver a message was to blanket the largest mass market audience possible. However, usage tracking, customer profiles and the growing popularity of niche content brought about by everything from blogs to social networking sites, provide advertisers with audiences that are smaller but much better defined, leading to ads that are more relevant to viewers and more effective for companies' marketing products. Among others, Comcast Spotlight is one such advertiser employing this method in their video on demand menus. These advertisements are targeted to a specific group and can be viewed by anyone wishing to find out more about a particular business or practice at any time, right from their home. This causes the viewer to become proactive and actually choose what advertisements they want to view.
In freelance advertising, companies hold public competitions to create ads for their product, the best one of which is chosen for widespread distribution with a prize given to the winner(s). During the 2007 Super Bowl, PepsiCo held such a contest for the creation of a 30-second television ad for the Doritos brand of chips, offering a cash prize to the winner. Chevrolet held a similar competition for their Tahoe line of SUVs. This type of advertising, however, is still in its infancy. It may ultimately decrease the importance of advertising agencies by creating a niche for independent freelancers.
Advertising Trend in Telecom
Telecom advertising is an overlooked field. Almost all ad agencies would love to have a telecom operator client as they are among the top 10 advertising spenders in all countries; usually they regret that afterwards though due to the short lead times, long working hours, and over demanding clients (mostly from technical backgrounds); all of which result in a relatively low quality end product.
Telecom advertising is a very specific industry in many ways different from conventional advertising mostly due to the nature of the beast (it is a media within itself that is constantly expanding to include more and more industries) and constant evolution. Advertising agencies rarely have such experts though, due to the high turn-over of people on the accounts, mostly due to the reasons mentioned in the first paragraph.
Despite their differences all telecom operators require the same campaigns, usually in the following order from launch date (I will use a mobile operator for the sake of the example as they do the most advertising):
1. A teaser / announcement to indicate their launch date
2. A brand launches campaign
3. Corporate Social Responsibility campaigns
4. Core Product campaigns (usually prepaid and post-paid)
5. Coverage Campaign (to show that their networks are now complete)
6. Payment methods campaign (listing the channels in which can pay their bills)
7. 3G campaign (focusing on their innovative technology, and claiming first to market)
8. Roaming campaign (mentioning how many operators they have roaming agreements with)
9. Airport campaigns (selling their ‘visitor’ lines, asking inbound roamers to switch to their networks, promoting their mobile internet roaming capabilities, and mentioning how you can feel at home while roaming on their network)
10. Store opening campaigns (indicating that new stores are opening and mentioning their locations)
11. International call rate reduction campaign
12. Tariff reduction campaign
13. Mobile Content campaign (focusing on the mobile portal and what content it includes, mostly music, ring tones, ring back tones, news etc.)
14. Value added services campaigns (these are dispersed throughout the communication plan depending on when a new service is rolled out)
15. Mobile Internet campaign (on both accessing the internet through your phone, or data cards that plug into your laptop)
16. Customer service campaigns
17. Business campaign (launching their business services division)
18. Business product campaigns (mostly data-cards, push email, and closed user groups)
19. Focusing on the Youth segment (through universities, and hip music)
20. High end packages (special numbers / elite services etc)
21. Loyalty programs
22. Bundling of products and services
23. Bouquet ads mentioning all of the offerings of the operator
Usually due to urgency, wanting to communicate so many messages at the same time, and the need to claim first-to-market (because innovation is a key platform); these operator end up with badly managed campaigns that are not fully integrated (mostly newspaper ads and mentions on their website and in stores), and sacrifice on the creative quality of their communications. All of the above results in a confused customer who knows that an operator has many services but cannot indicate or quantify them.
Several global learning can be made from the above, these include:-
1. Ideal campaign roll-out plans (starting with print and moving to ambient media, online ads etc)
2. Touch points management (deciding on what to communicate at which touch points)
3. Simple communications (mentioning the key benefit of a service and not listing all of its attributes)
4. More focus on PR and making most announcements through press releases that induce viral support
5. Update bulletins on new products and services
6. Developing more target advertising to specific segments
7. Focusing more on direct marketing and database building
8. Creating online forums in which customers can better express their views and usage patterns
9. Creating simple template ads that can be adapted and published as soon as new products and services are developed and need to be instantly rolled-out for claiming first-to-market.
10. Media management (deciding on what are the best media for each campaign and where each product is most likely thought of by the customer – i.e. mobile payment at cash registers)
11. Giving autonomy to marketing-communications departments at telecom operators separating engineers from creative communications
Rural Telecom Market- A Report
More than 60% Mobile Users in Rural India by 2012 Year
According to news which was published in economictimes.indiatimes.com online magazine, in the rural India more than 60% mobile users will be by 2012 year. It was published in report which was jointly released by Confederation of Indian Industries (CII) and Ernst & Young.
The trends show in the rural area for mobile phones rather than landlines phones. About 100 million users of mobile phones are from rural India which are 40% but the trends show that it will increase to 60% by 2012 year of the total telecom subscriber.
According tot the TRAI (Telecom Regulatory Authority of India), “In the first nine months of 2008, the four metros together added 10.3 million subscribers, while the rural areas added over 11.3 million.” The news was published by above mentioned online news paper.
Mobile phones users has increased in the third quarter of June in rural area from 13.72% to reach 70.83 million. The growth shows the real concept about the development of 60% mobile phones users by 2012.
According to Prashant Singhal who is the Ernst & Young telecom analyst said, “The majority of new wireless subscribers will emerge from circle B and circle C.” With a survey, India is the second largest mobile phones subscriber after China which has 300 million mobile phones users. It is estimated that by 2012 the total telecom subscriber will be 700 million in which 650 million will be wireless users.
India will have 200 mn rural telecom connections by 2012: Ministry Of Communication
September 24th, 2008
New Delhi, Sep 24 (IANS) The government Wednesday expressed concern over the divide between the urban and rural areas in terms of telecom connectivity, and said the country would have 200 million rural telecom connections by 2012.“We plan to have 200 million rural telecom connections by 2012 at a penetration rate of 25 percent and will utilise the USO (universal service obligation) fund for the achievement of this goal,” Communications and IT Minister A. Raja said here.So far, around 88 million phones have been provided in the rural areas with a tele-density of around 11 percent, he added.
Growth Opportunities For Rural India
How Telecom Offers Growth Opportunities To Rural India?
The report “Emerging Rural Mobile Market in India” reveals that by 2010, India is likely to have around 539 Million cell phone subscribers at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of nearly 28%.
The significant increase of the of the Indian telecom market means the Asian telecom sector is expected to have a CAGR of 22% until 2010, overtaking the telecom industries in both Africa and China. Furthermore, boosting the overall telecom sector in India, the Indian telecommunication industry is projected to reach $35 billion by 2010, compared to $22 billion in 2007. India is a republic consisting of 28 states and seven union territories with a parliamentary system of democracy. It has the world's twelfth largest economy at market exchange rates and the fourth largest in purchasing power. Economic reforms since 1991 have transformed it into one of the fastest growing economies.
The rising demand in the Indian mobile phone industry is the main reason for the rapid growth in the telecom sector of the country. With low priced mobile phones and low-cost cellular services, a large number of Indian customers are able to afford cell phones. Apart from mobile phones, demand for personal computers is also increasing at a blistering pace due to rapid industrialization.
In addition to this, the improving infrastructure and the introduction of the latest technologies in the Indian telecom market , such as WiMAX and 3G, supports growth in the industry. Further contributing to high growth in the telecom sector is the rising demand for new technological fashion devices, which are becoming increasingly popular among the young population.
Boom of Telecom Advertising and Its Effects
Telecom advertising, a $1 billion industry globally with a three billion subscriber base, is
set to take off in a big way in India too.
Service providers, market research firms and independent companies, which just focus on this medium, are all seeing value in the expanding Indian mobile market, estimated to be 500 million subscribers by 2010.
The market for telecom advertising, which is still at its nascent stage, is estimated to grow to Rs 20-25 crore by March in the country. It was estimated to be a mere Rs 5-6 crore about six months ago.
Telecom Advertising proved at its best.It is said that main reason behind the success of the sector is its unconventional strategy and aggression towards target market.
Telecom Advertising has been enormously growing and supporting telecom companies to grow much more. Reliance Communications, a leading CDMA service provider and a pioneer of mobile advertising in the country, has effectively offered mobile advertising solutions for more than 20 clients over the past four years. Starting off with LG during World Cup Cricket in 2003, it has since then handled Cadbury’s, Coke, Maruti, Hyundai and even financial brands like ICICI, Kotak and HDFC among others.
"With the mobile handset population poised to top 500 million in India by 2010, it has become a huge and vibrant communication platform, which no brand marketer can afford to ignore," Reliance Communication Applications & Solutions president Mahesh Prasad told ET.
The growth of 3G networks, IPTV and high-end gaming on mobile phones, is expected to open new avenues for the medium.According to records "Reliance mobile marketing solutions offer creative means and focused targeting to reach our more than 37 million subscribers anytime, anywhere in an non-intrusive manner,".
With the thrust on technology, Kaybase through a tool, Critical Incident Track (CI Track), made use of the very high mobile penetration in the country, and the relatively non-intrusive nature of an SMS. "It is a tool to conduct ongoing contact audit of the client’s services. Its chief advantage is the low cost and the real-time reporting features," said Kaybase director R Ashok. Its effect can be seen by profit result of companies, and growing awareness and interest of Rural audience. Increasing demand for telecom has been encouraging its market potential and opportunity as well. Nowadays there are several advertising Agencies who are given more attention and consideration for making it bigger for telecom sector.Lowe,O&M,Lintas, Bright Advertising and many more are there who have been nourishing this sector by their work. The best effect of telecom advertising is Awareness and concentration among Rural market towards telecom.
Market Potential
India, for the second straight month, added over 9mn mobile subscribers in August 2008, which boosted the wireless base to over 305mn users while overall tele-density reached about 30%. August subscriber additions were a tad below July 2008 figure of 9.21mn, and did see incumbents like Bharti Airtel witness amongst the slowest incremental month on month (mom) additions. However, we would wait for the growth scenario to evolve further. For now we maintain our FY10E target of about 448mn wireless subscribers.
Bharti incremental subscriber growth at 0.2% mom; Rcom adds 1.75mn Bharti added 2.7mn subscribers in August, witnessing one of the slowest incremental increase of 0.2% mom while Rcom subscriber base increased by 1.75mn, an incremental rise of 0.1% mom. Idea Cellular added 1.03mn, a slight drop of 2.3% from 1.05mn users added in July 2008. We expect Idea user base to pick up once its Mumbai launch stabilizes and begins operations in new circles.
Vodafone Essar incremental adds rise 3% mom Vodafone Essar netted about 1.81mn users, an incremental increase of 3% mom while BSNL incremental monthly additions jumped 10.5% to take its subscriber base to 43.2mn. Spice continued to lose subscribers with another 0.6mn subscribers knocked off from its total which now stands at 3.6mn
Source:- India info line
Advertising Trends In Indian Telecom
The way telecom firms advertise, gives an approximate idea about the telecom trends. I would try to uncover some of them, which come to my mind. At the initial launch of the mobile services, they were advertised as lifestyle products. The message that sought to be conveyed was that if you have a mobile phone, you have arrived in life. A few well-healed people could afford the high call rates at that time. It was in no way for the masses. I am sure that the mobile companies made a large profit out of it. Perhaps for the first time, Indians were exposed to concepts alien to them: Customer Care Support. It saw a booming of the ancillary services and fresh graduates, stunted in mental development though, came out in droves for the well-paid jobs.
Airtel then sought the services of Sachin Tendulkar. He was the brand ambassador and saw his earnings sharply increasing. I saw his picture everywhere exhorting me buy the mobile prepaid card. After the initial publicity passed away, A.R. Rahman gave his now famous tune. All the other companies have variously tried other gimmicks to sell their connections.
However, the landscape changed after Reliance came in the mobile services. Mukesh Ambani was seen telling people about his fathers dream. The initial launch was lackluster. With the launch of the prepaid services, the punch line was “mujhme hai who baat or I have that thing! how many people actually signed up after those ads. . Reliance was able to ramp up its numbers. Then came the ad line Kar lo duniya muthi mein. (Have the world in your fist). Creative heads of the ad agency.
The icing on the cake goes to Hutch. They designed the simple ad with the kid and cute Chinese Pug. It was a hit of all sorts. It conveyed the effectiveness of the message succinctly. I believe that it drove Hutch connections across the places where it offered its services. However, it was considered too elitist for the masses. The advertisement should be able to convey the message effectively; one with which people could identify with. In this regard, BSNL could claim something. BSNL advertisements depicted typically government mentality for awarding the contract to lowest in the tender process. The quality clearly shows. Is there anyway people could identify themselves with that advertisements? What of those places where BSNL is the sole service provider?
As the title goes, advertising trends are reflective of the current scenario in telecom. Airtel has been advertising its group card labeled as Friends. In fact, until now, the market was treated as homogenous. Over the period, classification has been sought to target the specific customers with specific needs. Airtel took the lead in announcing Senior citizen cards targeted at those above 60. The Friends card is for those who wish to restrict themselves to their group with low calling rates and some free messages.
Reliance has realized early on about targeting the businesses. Its offer of flat rate for making STD calls to anyone across its network is unparalleled. This way it can ensure that there would be higher converts towards it services. R-Connect is its portal that differentiated Reliance early on from other operators. It knows that future revenues are going to come from value added services. This way it has foreseen the development in the industry.
ADVERTISING CHANNELS
Advertising Planning Process
Segregation Of the Telecom Sector
Market segmentation And Target Audience- Telecom Sector
Ultra – Modern Approach of Advertising For Telecom Sector Rural Market
When we talk about ultra-modern approach, it allow us to move ahead with time. Telecom Advertising has not only succeeded in capturing the market, but also kept a unavoidable impression upon audience. Target audience leads to plan the specific approach to gain it, but when it comes to advertising, we need to modify it and represent in such way that it directly goes to ultimate consumer. For convincing more than 1 million people in same country, telecom companies started moving and giving heavy attention towards promotional tools. They understood that if they had to be the leader one, they must have to have total command over market. They focused more and more on advertisement. But interestingly telecom advertising twisted along with world of thought, reaching to mob. Telecom advertising represented itself unconventionally and it was coming up to make rural crowd aware of it.
India’s GDP and growth are strongly based upon agriculture and farming. More than half of crowd belongs to rural segement in India. Telecom advertising shaped itself to tap them. But how? (see advertising approach model)
Creativity with unique concept of telecom ad made it powerful. But only creativity with good concept not helped it out, better execution is must. Telecom advertising used unique concept, creativity, strong representation and best execution for it. Telecom ads are emotional and very touching which is key for the advertisers. Vodafone essar utilized a puppy as its brand ambassador but that was not enough, the concept and presentation of Vodafone ads are remarkable. Airtel, Reliance are also top players. Reliance communication is the only Company which started capturing rural market beautifully, with heaviest advertisement and making people aware of the modern technology and its utilization.
On the contrary Virgin Mobile is Unique among all for its advertisement. Making of an Ad is not the answer. Telecom advertisement is the best example for execution.They used each and every possible media channel to make people aware and to build country. In remote areas and villages where people can not afford expensive things, Advertising made it possible by telling its thousands of benefits, schemes, tariffs. And by saying that now one can’t be worried for communicating his/her dear one.
‘Persuasion’ is the result of any advertising .Telecom advertisement was executed so well that it persuaded its target market to a high extent. And that is one of the biggest reason to increase its demand.
MEDIA
Geographical Extension←←Awareness→→Geogarphical extn.
↓
↓
Buying Behaviour
Approaching to Rural Crowd
(Village of Andhra Pradesh- Telugu)
An Idea can Change Telecom….!!!!
(Idea cellular ad for rural)
This is Called Democratic Advertising
Reaching Beyond Limits…
Virgin Mobile- “ Think Hatke”
Vodafone Ads is famous for “ Puppy Freindship”-
“Wherever you go, network follows”
Airtel- “Express Yourself”
Advertising in India is a highly competitive business. Today with the increasing consumer awareness no business can survive for long without advertising .with growing business competition it has become necessary to ensure right media mix to each target audience . Today, advertising agencies are precisely taking care of consumer needs and provide creative designs with concept & ideas.
Advertisers in India reach about 75 per cent of the population through television, and almost the entire population through radio. Certain televised programs enjoy a viewership of more than 100 million. The Indian viewership exhibits a brand name recognition of both foreign and domestic products and services.
Approach Model For Rural Sector-
Creativity
Advertising Execution Awareness
Persuasion
Buying Behavior
Airtel- Represent its reach to remote areas too
Vodafone- …………..Reachable !!
Market potential for Advertising segments in Telecom Sector
Key Findings-
Telecommunication Services had the largest share of 64 per cent followed by Telecommunication Equipments and Corporate Brand Image/Public Issue with 34 per cent and 3 per cent respectively in 2007.
In Telecom sector MTNL leads for Corporate advertising and Idea Cellular Ltd tops in Public Issue advertising on TV during 2007.
'Telecommunication Services' had th€e largest share of Telecom Sector TV ad pie during January - August 2008, followed by 'Telecommunication Equipments' and 'Corporate Brand Image' with 24 per cent and 1 per cent share respectively.
Growth in Ad Volumes of Telecom Sector
Graph.1-
• Telecom sector has seen a rise of 61 per cent in TV advertising during 2007 over 2006.
Graph2.-
• Telecommunication Services has recorded a growth of 108 per cent in TV advertising during 2007 over 2006.
• Compared to 2006 Telecommunication Equipments saw a growth of 17 per cent on TV during 2007.
TV Advertising Of Telecom Sector- National v/s Rural
• TV advertising of Telecom sector on National and Regional channels was in the ratio of 71:29 during January - August 2008.
• 'Tamil Nadu', 'West Bengal' and 'Andhra Pradesh' were the top three states to contribute the maximum in advertising of Telecom sector on Regional channels during January - August 2008.
Source:- AdEx India,TAM research report 2007
Volume Growth of Telecom sector segments on TV during January - August 2008.
• Compared to January - August 2007, advertising of 'Telecommunication Services' recorded a growth of 127 per cent on TV during January - August 2008.
• During January - August 2008, TV advertising of 'Telecommunication Equipments' has seen a growth of 45 per cent during January - August 2008 compared to January - August 2007.
Advertising by Telecom Industry on Print in 2007
• 15% growth in Telecom Sector advertising in Print during 2007 over 2006.
• Telecommunication Services had the largest share of 56% of overall print ad pie of Telecom sector in 2007.
• Print advertising of Telecommunication Equipments grew by 57%, whereas it dropped by 12% for the Telecommunication Services during 2007 over 2006.
• 'Nokia Corporation' was the number one advertiser under the Telecommunication Equipments and ‘BSNL’ leads in Telecommunication Services advertising in Print during
2007.
• 'Sagem Bleu' and 'Airtel Happy Recharge' topped the chart of new brand launches under Telecommunication Equipments and Telecommunication Services respectively in Print during 2007.
Telecom sector advertising in Print grew by 15% during 2007 over 2006.
Share of segments of Telecom sector Print advertising
Telecommunication Services led with 56% share of overall Print advertising in Telecom
sector followed by Telecommunication Equipments with 34% share in 2007. Corporate /Brand Image and Public Issue together contributed 10% share of overall Print
advertising of Telecom sector in 2007.
‘LG Electronics India Ltd’ stood at number one position in ‘Corporate’ advertising and
‘Idea Cellular Ltd’ leads in ‘Public Issue’ advertising in print.
Segment wise growth in Telecom Sector- Print Advertising
Telecommunication Equipments has seen 57% growth in Print advertising during 2007
compared to 2006.
Telecommunication Services recorded a drop of 12% in Print advertising during 2007
over 2006.
Top Advertisers Of Telecom sector in Print 2007
'BSNL', 'Reliance Communication Ltd' and 'Tata Teleservices' were the top 3 advertisers in the Telecommunication Services advertising in Print during 2007. 'Nokia Corporation' had the largest share of 40% of Telecommunication Equipments followed by 'Motorola' and 'LG Electronics India Ltd' with 17% and 15% share respectively during 2007.
Top Advertisers Of Telecom sector on TV 2007-08
• Top three advertisers under the Telecommunication Services are Bharti Airtel, Reliance Communication Ltd and Hutchison Essar Telecom Ltd on TV in 2007.
• Top five advertisers of Telecommunication Equipments contributed 95 per cent share of segment advertising during 2007.
• Nokia Corporation topped the chart of top advertisers under Telecommunication Equipments with 43 per cent share, followed by Sony Ericsson (India) and Motorola each with 16 per cent share in TV advertising during 2007.
Top Advertisers through all media channels 2008
• Top three Key players in through overall advertising of 'Telecommunication Services' . 'Vodafone Essar Ltd', 'Bharti Airtel Ltd' and 'Reliance Communication Ltd' together contributed for 61 per cent share during January - August 2008.
• During January - August 2008, share of Top five advertisers of 'Telecommunication Equipments' for overall advertisement, where Nokia Corporation', 'Samsung India Electronics Ltd' and 'LG Electronics India Ltd' were the Top three advertisers.
Share of Sales Promotion in Telecom Sector
'Price Promotion' ad campaign was used maximum for advertising of Telecommunication, Equipments, whereas 'Combination Promotion' was preferred for advertising of Telecommunication Services in 2007.
Interestingly ‘Price Promotion’ which leads in Telecommunication Equipments advertising with 48% share had a meagre share of 3% under the Telecommunication Services
Promotional Strategies of Cellular Service Providers in India-
The GoI's decision to liberalize the telecom sector in 1994 transformed the entire telecom industry, with many private companies foraying into the sector
Most of the promotional strategies revolved around capturing the younger generation who formed a major part of the target market.
Celebrity endorsements, Strategic advertising with better execution towards rural market, special season offers, festival discounts, and innovative advertisement campaigns were used by the cellular service providers as tools to push back the competition and increase their market share.
Year 2004 (Special Plans and Loyalty Schemes)
With a view to reaping the benefits of the pre-paid segment, RIM launched its prepaid service in 2004. The launch campaign involved a rally of motorbikes and cars bearing the RIM prepaid flags along with the RIM catch line “Mujhme Hai Wo Baat” (It's There Within Me).
The Promotional Campaigns
The younger generation also began to flaunt the cell phone as a status symbol. The Most importantly rural market was forecasted as emerging big market for this industry. Soon cell phones were being used not only as a tool for communication but also as a source of entertainment...
Year 2000-02
AirTel roped in famous movie actors Shahrukh Khan and Karishma Kapoor as brand ambassadors for its prepaid service “Magic”.
The company felt that celebrity endorsement was a suitable way to promote the brand and an effective tool for expanding market share.
Year 2003 (Cricket, Bollywood and Celebration)
By 2003, the cellular service market had ten major players and the situation demanded that service providers come up with novel ideas to attract the consumer. Festivals and special occasions were times when cellular service providers offered a range of schemes.
In February 2003, AirTel launched a Valentine's Day Promotion Contest, which was targeted primarily at youth celebrating Valentine's Day...
Source:- ICMR INDIA
Case Code : MKTG106
Period : 2000-05
Pub Date : 2005
Teaching Note : Available
Industry : Cellular Industry
Countries : India
Ca
Telecom Advertising : Challenges and Opportunities
Entertainment is an effective vehicle, not advertisement objective. Maximizing sales data helps focus & refine targeting – the secret to advertising cost effectiveness. -Roy Morgan International
The current mobile advertising and marketing universe is beset by a whirlwind of activity in which, by mid-2009, Mind Commerce expects will be dominated by a few key mobile marketing suppliers. Research finds that those companies that are ready to incorporate mobile as part of their advertising and marketing efforts will reap the rewards of increased consumer profitability.
Companies are increasingly embracing mobile phones as a viable channel to target consumers with brand messaging. Mind Commerce's lates report, 'Telecom Marketing & Advertising: Challenges and Opportunities,' forecasts that spending in this medium will grow to $19 billion by 2012 from about $1.6 billion today. Fueling this growth are improvements in mobile technology by leading cellular service providers, increased consumer adoption of mobile phones, and a growing niche market of suppliers of mobile search, messaging, and marketing services.
It is being accepted that the current mobile marketing and advertising market, evaluating methods companies are using to effectively leverage it as a platform to enhance brand awareness and increase sales effectiveness. The report examines the leading suppliers to the mobile marketing industry and analyzes how their products are impacting the way consumers opt-in to cell phone-delivered marketing messages and increasingly use their phones to search for, and even purchase, products and services.
Key Findings
-2008 will be a breakthrough year for mobile spending as marketers worldwide move from disillusionment over their expected return from this platform to the realization that mobile can enhance consumer brand equity
-The current telecome advertising and marketing universe is beset by a whirlwind of activity in which, by mid-2009, Mind Commerce expects will be dominated by a few key mobile marketing suppliers
-Mobile search is playing an increasingly important role in helping cell subscribers navigate the mobile Web.
MARKET RESEARCH SYSTEM
Marketing research is the systematic design, collection, analysis and reporting of data and findings relevant to specific marketing situation facing the company. Marketing managers may request a market survey a product preference test a sales forecast by region, or research advertising effectiveness.
MARKETING RESEARCH PROCESS:-:
STEP 1:
Define The Research Objectives:
The first step is to define and agree on the research objective. Well-defined objectives make it easier possible to accomplish the mission.
Purpose behind this research was to know the ultra moderns approach of Telecom Advertising In rural Sector.
STEP 2:
Developing the Research Plan:
The second stage is to develop a research plan for gathering the need information. This calls for decision on the data sources, research approach, research instruments and contact method.
• Data Sources:
The research plan calls for gathering primary, secondary or both types of data. Primary data was gathered by interviewing a decided sample space for the research project.
Secondary data was collected from related issues in newspaper and business magazines and different web Sites
The normal procedure of collecting the data is to interview some people individuals or in groups to get preliminary sense of how people feel about the topic in question and develop a formal research instrument, develop it and carry it into the field.
Research approaches
Primary Data Was Collected In the Following Ways
1. Observational Research:
Data can be collected through direct observation in the field
2. Experimental Research:
The purpose of experiment research was to capture cause of effect relationship by eliminating competing explanation of the observed findings. Experimental research calls for selecting matched groups of subjects, subjecting them of different treatments and checking whether observed response difference is statistically significant.
Research instrument tools:-
It is the most common tool of collecting primary data. A questionnaire consists of a set of questions presented to respondent for their answer.
Close end question specify all the possible answer and respondent make a choice among them. Open-end question allow respondent to answer in his or her own words. Open-end question are useful when the researchers is looking for the insight in to how people think rather then measuring how many people think in a certain way.
The questioner was designed by exercising proper care in choosing the words and sequence of questions. The questionnaire is in simple, direct, unbiased language.
The basis decided was:
1. The head question should create interest.
2. Difficult or personal question should be asked towards the end of the questioner so that the questioner does not become defensive early.
Sampling Plan:
Sampling plan calls for three decisions.
1. Sampling Units:
Define the target population that will be sampled.
2. Sample Size:
There are 100 respondents from satellite station of Nagpur from different age groups.
3. Sampling Procedure:
In Random sampling and Judgment sampling there was no scientific method adopted it was purely judgment based.
Contact Method:
The second difficult job was to determine how the subjects should be contacted.
Personnel Interview:-
Questions are asked directly face to face to the respondent. Personnel interview are of two forms arranged interviews and intercept interviews. In arranged interviewed, respondent are randomly selected and either telephoned or approach at their homes or offices. Intercepts interviews involves stopping peoples at shopping malls or busy street corners and requesting an interview.
Step 3:
Analyzing the Information:
This one extract the finding from the data collected. I tabulated the data and applied frequency distribution and other related statistical techniques.
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
1. Source Of Data:
Primary source: 100 consumers of different age group from satellite station nearby Nagpur like Gondia and Bhandara.
Reason: Primary data is direct, unhampered data and it is taken by the user of product.
Secondary source: Related articles from newspaper and business magazines and web sites. As this data is based on lots of analysis of primary data and cross analysis of other factors.
2. Nature Of Data:
Data collected from consumers are opinion. While that from related websites are facts.
3. Communication approach:
Tool: Questionnaire
Type: Structured
Media: Personal for consumers.
4. Type of Research:
Two types of researches were carried out to arrive at solution.
A] Preliminary Study
Preliminary study was done
To define the problem precisely.
To determine the target population.
To determine sample size & sampling process.
B] Conclusive Research
Conclusive research was done
To find out the route cause of the problem
With the help of achieved data arrive at solution.
5. Scale of measurement:
Consumers: Nominal scale and record rating scale.
SAMPLING PROCESS
STEP 1:
To define the target audience for telecom advertising.
STEP 2:
The frame of research population was fast growing Telecom service consuming places in small town, remote areas of nearby Nagpur like Gondia and Bhandara.
STEP 3:
The suitable method of sampling for consumers is combination of judgment sampling and quote control sampling. Majority of the location and spots were selected on the basis of judgment of the concerned senior marketing executives. And among the selected location the target population was selected to form different quota i.e. different age group.
STEP 4:
The sample size was distributed and stratified as follows:
For Consumers
Age Group Sample size
15-22 years 23
23 – 30 years 31
31 – 38 years 24
Above 39 years 22
Total 100
MARKET RESEARCH
INTRODUCTION OF THE RESPONDENT
Age wise distribution of respondent from various age groups:-
Observation And Findings:-
• A total sample space of 100 respondents was interviewed and the above graph reveals the facts.
• The method of random and judgment sampling was considered. 23 respondents from the age group of 15-22 years were interviewed. 31 and 24 respondents were interviewed from the age groups 23 – 30 years, 31 – 38 years respectively and the final group comprised of 22 respondents.
Telecom Brand Preferred by Respondents
Observation And Findings:-
Asking for preferable telecom service , the result was little bit expected ,it was BSNL with 42% of 100,Vodafone with 16% proved its presence in Rural market whereas Reliance has got impressive 21%. The important point is to see that Reliance was the first pvt. company decided to capture the rural. In fact they motivated the telecom advertising in rural sector.
Best way of Advertising?
Observation And Findings:-
Once again TV swept the media output. Maximum with 62% out 100 were in support that TV is the best to advertise any product. News papers were favored by 16% and Radio with 12%. Outdoor Advertising has not still captured rural audience as it has got only 6% .where as Online, due to rural audience got only 4%
Like Watching TV ads During Break?
Observation and Findings:-
This question was put forward to respondent because it shows the perception and attitude of audience towards advertising in current scenario. Advertising has averagely targeted 44% out of 100 which is increasing.28% of the respondent said that they watch it quite a lot. 16% were found very interesting in watching ads which is good news for this segment. Whereas 4% response came in for denying the its fact.
Which media channel for telecom ad you pay more attention to?
Observation And Findings:-
This Research project is only for telecom advertising so this was one of the most important to know. As results, Rural segement highly supported TV channels to grab their attention for telecom ads.52% out of 100 respondent said TV telecom ad they pay high attention to. Different type of newspaper are circulated in each and every place which were supported by 22%. Radio with 14%, outdoor with 7% and minimum Online with 5% were found.
Which telecom company presents best advertisement?
Observation And findings:-
It is fight for telecom advertising to gain more and more TRP’s for their ads. Asking for best advertisement of the companies Vodafone is leading all the way for its ‘puppy ad’ with 27% out of 100. Well Airtel and reliance are not way back with 16%, 23% respectively. The ‘Democratic Funda’ Of Idea were found most intellectual and better with 13%.
Did Ad persuade you to buy mobile/SIM connection?
Observation And Findings:-
It is said that Advertising speaks itself. It has got the tremendous power to persuade consumer. This question was put forward before respondents to know the reality. 64% respondents out of 100 said that they buy mobile set/SIM inspired by advertisement ,as it gives enough knowledge of product feature. While 36% respondents still feel that they don’t rely too much on Advertisement.
Do you think Telecom advertising is one of the biggest reason for its growth in Rural segement?
Observation And Findings:-
Nobody is unaware of spectacular growth of telecom sector in rural segment too. But it is very important to know the right approach.
83% out of 100 said betterment of advertising has lead it so high. Where as 17% respondent gives reason as Good Plans and better utilization of technology given by Company itself.
Usually Do you remember Radio Telecom Ad?
Observation And Findings:-
TV has always been dominating its other sub-section of media channels. When respondents were asked question whether they usually remember Radio telecom ad or not? 55% were supported it , reason was nowadays radio industry is also growing day by day. Big Radio channels and several FM channels are providing good services to rural audience too now. 45% respondent denied because they can not recall it due to its invisibility.
According to you, Why Telecom advertising does have strong impact?
What Rural segement think of advertising and why do they like it so much? Indians are known as very kind and emotional, No one could have utilized it better than Advertising. 38% are impressed due to emotional and real feeling of belongings. Kids are leading the advertising and Telecom too with 23%.Cultural/tradition feeling by ads brought it to 10%. Unique concept is one of the major reason which has got 21% respondent.
Do you think Excess Advertising can weaken the brands?
Observation And Findings:-
Too much of advertising weakens the power of product, is it true? As a result respondents came out with sincere result. 79% out of 100 that excess advertising weaken the power of any product.
Whereas 21% are supporting it, saying that it does not weaken the product because it works for making target market aware of it fully.
Which Telecom ad did you find most sentimental and interesting?
Usually Telecom ads are found highly sentimental, touching or to the contrary very interesting. Airtel wins the heart and mind of 28% respondent out of 100, where as the famous ‘puppy friendship’ got 25%, ‘The democratic feeling of Idea’ is also being liked by 17% whereas reliance and BSNL are with 14% and 8% respectively. Other 6% are mix of rest of the telecom companies as MTNL,BPL,Indicom and Virgin mobile.
Analysis
Around 88 million phones have been provided in the rural areas with a tele-density of around 11 percent(according to report.) The questionnaire was put forward before different respondents from satellite station nearby nagpur.
As a result I got blend of answers which were supporting that the approach of Telecom advertising has done it rightly.
TV advertising is leading all the way, as audience find it most preferable Media channel to advertise.
‘Vodafone’ is found the best for its consistency in
Advertising, by respondents.
64% respondents accepted that they do buy the telecom products influenced by ads.
The most interestingly 83% accepted that advertising is one of the biggest reason which pushed Telecom industry towards high growth in Rural market.
While analyzing one more important point came out that was Radio ad.
It shows that Radio industry is growing well , by extending their FM stations in Rural Segment and small cities and towns , and because of this advertising gets another opportunity.
Why telecom advertising impresses and influence audience so much comparatively than any other.
‘Emotional and touching concepts’ made it so special.
Kids are leading the advertising world today and it is 2nd biggest reason to impact audience.
This analysis indicates the changing perception of rural audience and unconventional approach to them.
Conclusion
Media and Entertainment is one of the booming sectors contributing a lot towards the economic growth of the country.
This industry stood at Rs 43,700 crores in the year 2006 and is expected to grow at an annual rate of 19% till the year 2010.
Rural Audience are too becoming prudent enough to digest the concept and purpose of these ads.
Excess advertising weakens product’s interest among consumer. Advertising industry has been upgrading its area with experimental way of campaigning.
In India where you find more than 75% population from rural area, achieving their trust is really big success not only for advertisers but also for ad agencies who does this behind the scene. But it is to be thought that how long it sustains for getting higher sales force and attention of target audience.
Telecom advertising did excellent in connecting rural people to technology by its strategy.
Apart from all this one familiar instrument is rising all the way i.e. TV. Who provides this facility to audiences. Besides it Advertising agencies like Lowe, JWT, O&M have been performing up to the mark which encourages
Indian advertising and giving innovative and considerable raised area to Indian advertisers. Airtel and Vodafone are still in competition to be no.1.
Touching concepts, strong representation which gives rural people actual traditional and cultural feeling of being Indian really Worked Out !
Suggestions And Recommendations
Advertiser should use segment wise advertisement
Rural people are more brand conscious so advertiser must keep that in mind
Advertisement should revolve around emotions i.e sentimental ads with different situations
Excessive advertisement should be avoided it create negative impact
To capture rural market one must think global and act local
Rural languages must be used for communications
Cross-selling can be use in rural areas for promotion
Corporate social responsibility can be best way to win the heart in rural market
BIBLIOGRAPHY
1. Role of media and entertainment in Indian Economy, Exchange 4 media , 5.aug. 2008 . AAPL
2. Growth Volumes. Adex 2007 -08, TAM Research
3. Market Potential. India Infoline
4. Press Release. Business Standard. 14.feb.09.pg.07
5. Continued…press….ET Bureau…26.feb.09
6. Ad clips. Company’s websites and galleries
7. Market for advertising. Screen Digest. May 2008
8. Promotional Strategy, case study . ICMR India..case code. MKTG106, 2005-06,Cellulaur Advertising
9. Changing Approach of Advertising- press report. 11.feb.2009. 0516hrs. IST.ET Bureau
Google
Khoj - Indian Local Search Engine
afaqs! the complete Indian advertising, media & marketing
Indian Television Dot Com: India's cable, satellite, terrestrial, broadcasting, TV, advertising, marketing and media portal
www.adindia.com
Newswire Today's - Free Press Release & Newswire Distribution - NewswireToday - Press Releases News Distribution Network
Annexure
Q1. How old are you?
a. 15-22
b. 23-30
c. 31-38
d. 39 & above
Q2. Which telecom brand do you prefer the most?
a. BSNL
b. Vodafone
c. Airtel
d. Reliance
e. Idea
Q3. Which medium advertisement is best?
a. TV
b. Radio
c. Newspaper
d. Outdoor
e. Online
Q4. How much do you like watching TV ads during break?
a. Excess
b. Quite a lot
c. Average
d. Less than average
e. Rarely
Q5. Which media channel for telecom ad you pay more attention to?
a. TV
b. Radio
c. Newspaper
d. Outdoor
e. Online
Q6. Which telecom company presents best advertisement?
a. BSNL
b. Airtel
c. Reliance
d. Vodafone
e. Idea
f. MTNL
g. TATA indicom
h. Virgin Mobile
Q7. Did Ad persuade you to buy mobile/SIM connection?
a. YES
b. No
Q8. Do you think Telecom advertising is one of the biggest reason for its growth in Rural segement?
a. Yes
b. NO
Q9. Usually do you remember Radio Telecom Ad?
a. YES
b. NO
Q10. According to you, Why Telecom advertising does have strong impact?
a. Unique strong concept
b. Strong concept
c. Highly emotional
d. Kids involvement
e. Cultural values
Q11. Do you think Excess Advertising can weaken the brands?
a. YES
b. NO
Q12. Which Telecom ad did you find most sentimental and interesting?
a. BSNL
b. Airtel
c. Vodafone
d. Idea
e. Reliance
f. Others
TABLE OF CONTENT
Sr.no Title Page no.
1 Executive Summary 1
2 Objective of study 2
3 Introduction - Advertising 3-8
4 Advertising trend in Telecom 9-22
5 Ultra modern approach of advertising in Telecom sector for rural market 23-48
6 Market Research System 49-54
7 Market Research 54-68
8 Conclusion 69
9 Suggestion and Recommendation 70
10 Bibliography 71
11 Annexure 72-75
Executive Summary
With the mobile handset population poised to top 500 million in India by 2010, it has become a huge and vibrant communication platform, which no brand marketer can afford to ignore. The Indian advertising industry registered a compounded annual growth rate of 17.1 per cent during the last three years. Taking all these facts and figures into the consideration it is clearly proved that Advertising contributes efficient sales force for any product, but when it comes to Telecom sector, it turns up very fast.
500 million subscriber in a country, where in the market is driven by almost more than half of its rural users. It becomes necessary to get its touchpoint. Undoubtly; Advertising approach has been constantly changing and rolling throughout its experiments to grab the attention. The rural audience takes this approach in a very sensible manner, most of them like this “sentimental” approach of advertising. Advertising giants like O &M, JWT, Lowe and others are leading ones who implemented but initiated by Airtel, Vodafone and others.
Experimental view of this research finds out lot of things which were used earlier and nowadays too. People are not so fond of watching ads whether its print media, electronic or through any channel. But concepts and representation compel them to stick with that, and that is how persuasion arises to have this. This turns out to be good result as buying behavior decision which strengthens the sales force and consumption too.
Objective Of the study
In current scenario, we see rural market is the biggest exposure to Indian telecom Industry. You can hardly get a person without a mobile phone now, doesn’t matter what the location is? The report “Emerging Rural Mobile Market in India” reveals that by 2010, India is likely to have around 539 Million cell phone subscribers at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of nearly 28%. This project will be focusing upon intensive touch point which has been supporting telecom Sector. India is a large country with more than 28 states and millions of cities and villages.
But what is the reason behind it?
But have you ever think of it that how this sector came up successfully, handling the remote crowd of India so well? According to surveys, and reports it is found that Advertising is one of the biggest reason for it. We always assume advertising as a sales promotional tool, but for this sector it is more than that.
The purpose of this study is to found out How They did it so efficiently?
How Advertising helped and supported Telecom Industry to grow, to make rural audience aware and biggest target for their market?
And how it worked out?
Introduction- Advertising
Advertising is a form of communication that typically attempts to persuade potential customers to purchase or to consume more of a particular brand of product or service. “While now central to the contemporary global economy and the reproduction of global production networks, it is only quite recently that advertising has been more than a marginal influence on patterns of sales and production. The formation of modern advertising was intimately bound up with the emergence of new forms of monopoly capitalism around the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th century as one element in corporate strategies to create, organize and where possible control markets, especially for mass produced consumer goods. Mass production necessitated mass consumption, and this in turn required a certain homogenization of consumer tastes for final products. At its limit, this involved seeking to create ‘world cultural convergence’, to homogenize consumer tastes and engineer a ‘convergence of lifestyle, culture and behaviors among consumer segments across the world’.
Many advertisements are designed to generate increased consumption of those products and services through the creation and reinvention of the "brand image". For these purposes, advertisements sometimes embed their persuasive message with factual information. Every major medium is used to deliver these messages, including television, radio, cinema, magazines, newspapers, video games, the Internet, carrier bags and billboards. Advertising is often placed by an advertising agency on behalf of a company or other organization.
Money spent on advertising has increased dramatically in recent years. In 2007, spending on advertising has been estimated at over $150 billion in the United States and $385 billion worldwide, and the latter to exceed $450 billion by 2010.
A recent advertising innovation is "guerrilla marketing", which involve unusual approaches such as staged encounters in public places, giveaways of products such as cars that are covered with brand messages, and interactive advertising where the viewer can respond to become part of the advertising message. This reflects an increasing trend of interactive and "embedded" ads, such as via product placement, having consumers vote through text messages, and various innovations utilizing social network services such as My Space.
Types of Advertising
Commercial advertising media can include
--wall paintings, billboards, street furniture components, printed flyers and rack cards, radio, cinema and television adverts, web banners, mobile telephone screens, shopping carts, web popup, skywriting, bus stop benches, human billboards, magazines, newspapers, town criers, sides of buses, banners attached to or sides of airplanes ("logo jets"), in-flight advertisements on seatback tray tables or overhead storage bins, taxicab doors, roof mounts and passenger screens, musical stage shows, subway platforms and trains, elastic bands on disposable diapers, stickers on apples in supermarkets, shopping cart handles (grabertising), the opening section of streaming audio and video, posters, and the backs of event tickets and supermarket receipts. Any place an "identified" sponsor pays to deliver their message through a medium is advertising.
Covert advertising
Covert advertising is when a product or brand is embedded in entertainment and media. For example, in a film, the main character can use an item or other of a definite brand, as in the movie Minority Report, where Tom Cruise's character John Anderson owns a phone with the Nokia logo clearly written in the top corner.
Television commercials
The TV commercial is generally considered the most effective mass-market advertising format, as is reflected by the high prices TV networks charge for commercial airtime during popular TV events. The annual Super Bowl football game in the United States is known as the most prominent advertising event on television. The average cost of a single thirty-second TV spot during this game has reached $3 million (as of 2009).
The majority of television commercials features is a song or jingle that listeners soon relate to the product.
Infomercials
There are two types of infomercials, described as long form and short form. Long form infomercials have a time length of 30 minutes. Short form infomercials are 30 seconds to 2 minutes long. Infomercials are also known as direct response television (DRTV) commercials or direct response marketing.
The main objective in an infomercial is to create an impulse purchase, so that the consumer sees the presentation and then immediately buys the product through the advertised toll-free telephone number or website. Infomercials describe, display, and often demonstrate products and their features, and commonly have testimonials from consumers and industry professionals.
Celebrities
This type of advertising focuses upon using celebrity power, fame, money, popularity to gain recognition for their products and promote specific stores or products. Advertisers often advertise their products, for example, when celebrities share their favorite products or wear clothes by specific brands or designers. Celebrities are often involved in advertising campaigns such as television or print adverts to advertise specific or general products.
Media and advertising approaches
Increasingly, other media are overtaking television because of a shift towards consumer's usage of the Internet as well as devices such as TiVo.
Advertising on the World Wide Web is a recent phenomenon. Prices of Web-based advertising space are dependent on the "relevance" of the surrounding web content and the traffic that the website receives.
E-mail advertising is another recent phenomenon. Unsolicited bulk E-mail advertising is known as "spam".
Some companies have proposed placing messages or corporate logos on the side of booster rockets and the International Space Station. Controversy exists on the effectiveness of subliminal advertising, and the pervasiveness of mass messages.
- turning it into a generic term which means that its legal protection as a trademark is lost.
As the mobile phone became a new mass media in 1998 when the first paid downloadable content appeared on mobile phones in Finland, it was only a matter of time until mobile advertising followed, also first launched in Finland in 2000. By 2007 the value of mobile advertising had reached $2.2 billion and providers such as Admob delivered billions of mobile ads.
Global advertising
Advertising has gone through five major stages of development: domestic, export, international, multi-national, and global. For global advertisers, there are four, potentially competing, business objectives that must be balanced when developing worldwide advertising: building a brand while speaking with one voice, developing economies of scale in the creative process, maximizing local effectiveness of ads, and increasing the company’s speed of implementation.
Born from the evolutionary stages of global marketing are the three primary and fundamentally different approaches to the development of global advertising executions: exporting executions, producing local executions, and importing ideas that travel.
Advertising research is key to determining the success of an ad in any country or region. The ability to identify which elements and/or moments of an ad that contributes to its success is how economies of scale are maximized. Once one knows what works in an ad, that idea or ideas can be imported by any other market. Market research measures, such as Flow of Attention, Flow of Emotion and branding moments provide insight into what is working in an ad in any country or region because the measures are based on the visual, not verbal, elements of the ad.
Trends
With the dawn of the Internet came many new advertising opportunities. Popup, Flash, banner, Popunder, averaging, and email advertisements (the last often being a form of spam) are now commonplace.
The ability to record shows on digital video recorders (such as TiVo) allow users to record the programs for later viewing, enabling them to fast forward through commercials. Additionally, as more seasons of pre-recorded box sets are offered for sale of television programs; fewer people watch the shows on TV. However, the fact that these sets are sold, means the company will receive additional profits from the sales of these sets. To counter this effect, many advertisers have opted for product placement on TV shows like Survivor.
Particularly since the rise of "entertaining" advertising, some people may like an advertisement enough to wish to watch it later or show a friend. In general, the advertising community has not yet made this easy, although some have used the Internet to widely distribute their ads to anyone willing to see or hear them.
Another significant trend regarding future of advertising is the growing importance of the niche market using niche or targeted ads. Also brought about by the Internet and the theory of The Long Tail, advertisers will have an increasing ability to reach specific audiences. In the past, the most efficient way to deliver a message was to blanket the largest mass market audience possible. However, usage tracking, customer profiles and the growing popularity of niche content brought about by everything from blogs to social networking sites, provide advertisers with audiences that are smaller but much better defined, leading to ads that are more relevant to viewers and more effective for companies' marketing products. Among others, Comcast Spotlight is one such advertiser employing this method in their video on demand menus. These advertisements are targeted to a specific group and can be viewed by anyone wishing to find out more about a particular business or practice at any time, right from their home. This causes the viewer to become proactive and actually choose what advertisements they want to view.
In freelance advertising, companies hold public competitions to create ads for their product, the best one of which is chosen for widespread distribution with a prize given to the winner(s). During the 2007 Super Bowl, PepsiCo held such a contest for the creation of a 30-second television ad for the Doritos brand of chips, offering a cash prize to the winner. Chevrolet held a similar competition for their Tahoe line of SUVs. This type of advertising, however, is still in its infancy. It may ultimately decrease the importance of advertising agencies by creating a niche for independent freelancers.
Advertising Trend in Telecom
Telecom advertising is an overlooked field. Almost all ad agencies would love to have a telecom operator client as they are among the top 10 advertising spenders in all countries; usually they regret that afterwards though due to the short lead times, long working hours, and over demanding clients (mostly from technical backgrounds); all of which result in a relatively low quality end product.
Telecom advertising is a very specific industry in many ways different from conventional advertising mostly due to the nature of the beast (it is a media within itself that is constantly expanding to include more and more industries) and constant evolution. Advertising agencies rarely have such experts though, due to the high turn-over of people on the accounts, mostly due to the reasons mentioned in the first paragraph.
Despite their differences all telecom operators require the same campaigns, usually in the following order from launch date (I will use a mobile operator for the sake of the example as they do the most advertising):
1. A teaser / announcement to indicate their launch date
2. A brand launches campaign
3. Corporate Social Responsibility campaigns
4. Core Product campaigns (usually prepaid and post-paid)
5. Coverage Campaign (to show that their networks are now complete)
6. Payment methods campaign (listing the channels in which can pay their bills)
7. 3G campaign (focusing on their innovative technology, and claiming first to market)
8. Roaming campaign (mentioning how many operators they have roaming agreements with)
9. Airport campaigns (selling their ‘visitor’ lines, asking inbound roamers to switch to their networks, promoting their mobile internet roaming capabilities, and mentioning how you can feel at home while roaming on their network)
10. Store opening campaigns (indicating that new stores are opening and mentioning their locations)
11. International call rate reduction campaign
12. Tariff reduction campaign
13. Mobile Content campaign (focusing on the mobile portal and what content it includes, mostly music, ring tones, ring back tones, news etc.)
14. Value added services campaigns (these are dispersed throughout the communication plan depending on when a new service is rolled out)
15. Mobile Internet campaign (on both accessing the internet through your phone, or data cards that plug into your laptop)
16. Customer service campaigns
17. Business campaign (launching their business services division)
18. Business product campaigns (mostly data-cards, push email, and closed user groups)
19. Focusing on the Youth segment (through universities, and hip music)
20. High end packages (special numbers / elite services etc)
21. Loyalty programs
22. Bundling of products and services
23. Bouquet ads mentioning all of the offerings of the operator
Usually due to urgency, wanting to communicate so many messages at the same time, and the need to claim first-to-market (because innovation is a key platform); these operator end up with badly managed campaigns that are not fully integrated (mostly newspaper ads and mentions on their website and in stores), and sacrifice on the creative quality of their communications. All of the above results in a confused customer who knows that an operator has many services but cannot indicate or quantify them.
Several global learning can be made from the above, these include:-
1. Ideal campaign roll-out plans (starting with print and moving to ambient media, online ads etc)
2. Touch points management (deciding on what to communicate at which touch points)
3. Simple communications (mentioning the key benefit of a service and not listing all of its attributes)
4. More focus on PR and making most announcements through press releases that induce viral support
5. Update bulletins on new products and services
6. Developing more target advertising to specific segments
7. Focusing more on direct marketing and database building
8. Creating online forums in which customers can better express their views and usage patterns
9. Creating simple template ads that can be adapted and published as soon as new products and services are developed and need to be instantly rolled-out for claiming first-to-market.
10. Media management (deciding on what are the best media for each campaign and where each product is most likely thought of by the customer – i.e. mobile payment at cash registers)
11. Giving autonomy to marketing-communications departments at telecom operators separating engineers from creative communications
Rural Telecom Market- A Report
More than 60% Mobile Users in Rural India by 2012 Year
According to news which was published in economictimes.indiatimes.com online magazine, in the rural India more than 60% mobile users will be by 2012 year. It was published in report which was jointly released by Confederation of Indian Industries (CII) and Ernst & Young.
The trends show in the rural area for mobile phones rather than landlines phones. About 100 million users of mobile phones are from rural India which are 40% but the trends show that it will increase to 60% by 2012 year of the total telecom subscriber.
According tot the TRAI (Telecom Regulatory Authority of India), “In the first nine months of 2008, the four metros together added 10.3 million subscribers, while the rural areas added over 11.3 million.” The news was published by above mentioned online news paper.
Mobile phones users has increased in the third quarter of June in rural area from 13.72% to reach 70.83 million. The growth shows the real concept about the development of 60% mobile phones users by 2012.
According to Prashant Singhal who is the Ernst & Young telecom analyst said, “The majority of new wireless subscribers will emerge from circle B and circle C.” With a survey, India is the second largest mobile phones subscriber after China which has 300 million mobile phones users. It is estimated that by 2012 the total telecom subscriber will be 700 million in which 650 million will be wireless users.
India will have 200 mn rural telecom connections by 2012: Ministry Of Communication
September 24th, 2008
New Delhi, Sep 24 (IANS) The government Wednesday expressed concern over the divide between the urban and rural areas in terms of telecom connectivity, and said the country would have 200 million rural telecom connections by 2012.“We plan to have 200 million rural telecom connections by 2012 at a penetration rate of 25 percent and will utilise the USO (universal service obligation) fund for the achievement of this goal,” Communications and IT Minister A. Raja said here.So far, around 88 million phones have been provided in the rural areas with a tele-density of around 11 percent, he added.
Growth Opportunities For Rural India
How Telecom Offers Growth Opportunities To Rural India?
The report “Emerging Rural Mobile Market in India” reveals that by 2010, India is likely to have around 539 Million cell phone subscribers at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of nearly 28%.
The significant increase of the of the Indian telecom market means the Asian telecom sector is expected to have a CAGR of 22% until 2010, overtaking the telecom industries in both Africa and China. Furthermore, boosting the overall telecom sector in India, the Indian telecommunication industry is projected to reach $35 billion by 2010, compared to $22 billion in 2007. India is a republic consisting of 28 states and seven union territories with a parliamentary system of democracy. It has the world's twelfth largest economy at market exchange rates and the fourth largest in purchasing power. Economic reforms since 1991 have transformed it into one of the fastest growing economies.
The rising demand in the Indian mobile phone industry is the main reason for the rapid growth in the telecom sector of the country. With low priced mobile phones and low-cost cellular services, a large number of Indian customers are able to afford cell phones. Apart from mobile phones, demand for personal computers is also increasing at a blistering pace due to rapid industrialization.
In addition to this, the improving infrastructure and the introduction of the latest technologies in the Indian telecom market , such as WiMAX and 3G, supports growth in the industry. Further contributing to high growth in the telecom sector is the rising demand for new technological fashion devices, which are becoming increasingly popular among the young population.
Boom of Telecom Advertising and Its Effects
Telecom advertising, a $1 billion industry globally with a three billion subscriber base, is
set to take off in a big way in India too.
Service providers, market research firms and independent companies, which just focus on this medium, are all seeing value in the expanding Indian mobile market, estimated to be 500 million subscribers by 2010.
The market for telecom advertising, which is still at its nascent stage, is estimated to grow to Rs 20-25 crore by March in the country. It was estimated to be a mere Rs 5-6 crore about six months ago.
Telecom Advertising proved at its best.It is said that main reason behind the success of the sector is its unconventional strategy and aggression towards target market.
Telecom Advertising has been enormously growing and supporting telecom companies to grow much more. Reliance Communications, a leading CDMA service provider and a pioneer of mobile advertising in the country, has effectively offered mobile advertising solutions for more than 20 clients over the past four years. Starting off with LG during World Cup Cricket in 2003, it has since then handled Cadbury’s, Coke, Maruti, Hyundai and even financial brands like ICICI, Kotak and HDFC among others.
"With the mobile handset population poised to top 500 million in India by 2010, it has become a huge and vibrant communication platform, which no brand marketer can afford to ignore," Reliance Communication Applications & Solutions president Mahesh Prasad told ET.
The growth of 3G networks, IPTV and high-end gaming on mobile phones, is expected to open new avenues for the medium.According to records "Reliance mobile marketing solutions offer creative means and focused targeting to reach our more than 37 million subscribers anytime, anywhere in an non-intrusive manner,".
With the thrust on technology, Kaybase through a tool, Critical Incident Track (CI Track), made use of the very high mobile penetration in the country, and the relatively non-intrusive nature of an SMS. "It is a tool to conduct ongoing contact audit of the client’s services. Its chief advantage is the low cost and the real-time reporting features," said Kaybase director R Ashok. Its effect can be seen by profit result of companies, and growing awareness and interest of Rural audience. Increasing demand for telecom has been encouraging its market potential and opportunity as well. Nowadays there are several advertising Agencies who are given more attention and consideration for making it bigger for telecom sector.Lowe,O&M,Lintas, Bright Advertising and many more are there who have been nourishing this sector by their work. The best effect of telecom advertising is Awareness and concentration among Rural market towards telecom.
Market Potential
India, for the second straight month, added over 9mn mobile subscribers in August 2008, which boosted the wireless base to over 305mn users while overall tele-density reached about 30%. August subscriber additions were a tad below July 2008 figure of 9.21mn, and did see incumbents like Bharti Airtel witness amongst the slowest incremental month on month (mom) additions. However, we would wait for the growth scenario to evolve further. For now we maintain our FY10E target of about 448mn wireless subscribers.
Bharti incremental subscriber growth at 0.2% mom; Rcom adds 1.75mn Bharti added 2.7mn subscribers in August, witnessing one of the slowest incremental increase of 0.2% mom while Rcom subscriber base increased by 1.75mn, an incremental rise of 0.1% mom. Idea Cellular added 1.03mn, a slight drop of 2.3% from 1.05mn users added in July 2008. We expect Idea user base to pick up once its Mumbai launch stabilizes and begins operations in new circles.
Vodafone Essar incremental adds rise 3% mom Vodafone Essar netted about 1.81mn users, an incremental increase of 3% mom while BSNL incremental monthly additions jumped 10.5% to take its subscriber base to 43.2mn. Spice continued to lose subscribers with another 0.6mn subscribers knocked off from its total which now stands at 3.6mn
Source:- India info line
Advertising Trends In Indian Telecom
The way telecom firms advertise, gives an approximate idea about the telecom trends. I would try to uncover some of them, which come to my mind. At the initial launch of the mobile services, they were advertised as lifestyle products. The message that sought to be conveyed was that if you have a mobile phone, you have arrived in life. A few well-healed people could afford the high call rates at that time. It was in no way for the masses. I am sure that the mobile companies made a large profit out of it. Perhaps for the first time, Indians were exposed to concepts alien to them: Customer Care Support. It saw a booming of the ancillary services and fresh graduates, stunted in mental development though, came out in droves for the well-paid jobs.
Airtel then sought the services of Sachin Tendulkar. He was the brand ambassador and saw his earnings sharply increasing. I saw his picture everywhere exhorting me buy the mobile prepaid card. After the initial publicity passed away, A.R. Rahman gave his now famous tune. All the other companies have variously tried other gimmicks to sell their connections.
However, the landscape changed after Reliance came in the mobile services. Mukesh Ambani was seen telling people about his fathers dream. The initial launch was lackluster. With the launch of the prepaid services, the punch line was “mujhme hai who baat or I have that thing! how many people actually signed up after those ads. . Reliance was able to ramp up its numbers. Then came the ad line Kar lo duniya muthi mein. (Have the world in your fist). Creative heads of the ad agency.
The icing on the cake goes to Hutch. They designed the simple ad with the kid and cute Chinese Pug. It was a hit of all sorts. It conveyed the effectiveness of the message succinctly. I believe that it drove Hutch connections across the places where it offered its services. However, it was considered too elitist for the masses. The advertisement should be able to convey the message effectively; one with which people could identify with. In this regard, BSNL could claim something. BSNL advertisements depicted typically government mentality for awarding the contract to lowest in the tender process. The quality clearly shows. Is there anyway people could identify themselves with that advertisements? What of those places where BSNL is the sole service provider?
As the title goes, advertising trends are reflective of the current scenario in telecom. Airtel has been advertising its group card labeled as Friends. In fact, until now, the market was treated as homogenous. Over the period, classification has been sought to target the specific customers with specific needs. Airtel took the lead in announcing Senior citizen cards targeted at those above 60. The Friends card is for those who wish to restrict themselves to their group with low calling rates and some free messages.
Reliance has realized early on about targeting the businesses. Its offer of flat rate for making STD calls to anyone across its network is unparalleled. This way it can ensure that there would be higher converts towards it services. R-Connect is its portal that differentiated Reliance early on from other operators. It knows that future revenues are going to come from value added services. This way it has foreseen the development in the industry.
ADVERTISING CHANNELS
Advertising Planning Process
Segregation Of the Telecom Sector
Market segmentation And Target Audience- Telecom Sector
Ultra – Modern Approach of Advertising For Telecom Sector Rural Market
When we talk about ultra-modern approach, it allow us to move ahead with time. Telecom Advertising has not only succeeded in capturing the market, but also kept a unavoidable impression upon audience. Target audience leads to plan the specific approach to gain it, but when it comes to advertising, we need to modify it and represent in such way that it directly goes to ultimate consumer. For convincing more than 1 million people in same country, telecom companies started moving and giving heavy attention towards promotional tools. They understood that if they had to be the leader one, they must have to have total command over market. They focused more and more on advertisement. But interestingly telecom advertising twisted along with world of thought, reaching to mob. Telecom advertising represented itself unconventionally and it was coming up to make rural crowd aware of it.
India’s GDP and growth are strongly based upon agriculture and farming. More than half of crowd belongs to rural segement in India. Telecom advertising shaped itself to tap them. But how? (see advertising approach model)
Creativity with unique concept of telecom ad made it powerful. But only creativity with good concept not helped it out, better execution is must. Telecom advertising used unique concept, creativity, strong representation and best execution for it. Telecom ads are emotional and very touching which is key for the advertisers. Vodafone essar utilized a puppy as its brand ambassador but that was not enough, the concept and presentation of Vodafone ads are remarkable. Airtel, Reliance are also top players. Reliance communication is the only Company which started capturing rural market beautifully, with heaviest advertisement and making people aware of the modern technology and its utilization.
On the contrary Virgin Mobile is Unique among all for its advertisement. Making of an Ad is not the answer. Telecom advertisement is the best example for execution.They used each and every possible media channel to make people aware and to build country. In remote areas and villages where people can not afford expensive things, Advertising made it possible by telling its thousands of benefits, schemes, tariffs. And by saying that now one can’t be worried for communicating his/her dear one.
‘Persuasion’ is the result of any advertising .Telecom advertisement was executed so well that it persuaded its target market to a high extent. And that is one of the biggest reason to increase its demand.
MEDIA
Geographical Extension←←Awareness→→Geogarphical extn.
↓
↓
Buying Behaviour
Approaching to Rural Crowd
(Village of Andhra Pradesh- Telugu)
An Idea can Change Telecom….!!!!
(Idea cellular ad for rural)
This is Called Democratic Advertising
Reaching Beyond Limits…
Virgin Mobile- “ Think Hatke”
Vodafone Ads is famous for “ Puppy Freindship”-
“Wherever you go, network follows”
Airtel- “Express Yourself”
Advertising in India is a highly competitive business. Today with the increasing consumer awareness no business can survive for long without advertising .with growing business competition it has become necessary to ensure right media mix to each target audience . Today, advertising agencies are precisely taking care of consumer needs and provide creative designs with concept & ideas.
Advertisers in India reach about 75 per cent of the population through television, and almost the entire population through radio. Certain televised programs enjoy a viewership of more than 100 million. The Indian viewership exhibits a brand name recognition of both foreign and domestic products and services.
Approach Model For Rural Sector-
Creativity
Advertising Execution Awareness
Persuasion
Buying Behavior
Airtel- Represent its reach to remote areas too
Vodafone- …………..Reachable !!
Market potential for Advertising segments in Telecom Sector
Key Findings-
Telecommunication Services had the largest share of 64 per cent followed by Telecommunication Equipments and Corporate Brand Image/Public Issue with 34 per cent and 3 per cent respectively in 2007.
In Telecom sector MTNL leads for Corporate advertising and Idea Cellular Ltd tops in Public Issue advertising on TV during 2007.
'Telecommunication Services' had th€e largest share of Telecom Sector TV ad pie during January - August 2008, followed by 'Telecommunication Equipments' and 'Corporate Brand Image' with 24 per cent and 1 per cent share respectively.
Growth in Ad Volumes of Telecom Sector
Graph.1-
• Telecom sector has seen a rise of 61 per cent in TV advertising during 2007 over 2006.
Graph2.-
• Telecommunication Services has recorded a growth of 108 per cent in TV advertising during 2007 over 2006.
• Compared to 2006 Telecommunication Equipments saw a growth of 17 per cent on TV during 2007.
TV Advertising Of Telecom Sector- National v/s Rural
• TV advertising of Telecom sector on National and Regional channels was in the ratio of 71:29 during January - August 2008.
• 'Tamil Nadu', 'West Bengal' and 'Andhra Pradesh' were the top three states to contribute the maximum in advertising of Telecom sector on Regional channels during January - August 2008.
Source:- AdEx India,TAM research report 2007
Volume Growth of Telecom sector segments on TV during January - August 2008.
• Compared to January - August 2007, advertising of 'Telecommunication Services' recorded a growth of 127 per cent on TV during January - August 2008.
• During January - August 2008, TV advertising of 'Telecommunication Equipments' has seen a growth of 45 per cent during January - August 2008 compared to January - August 2007.
Advertising by Telecom Industry on Print in 2007
• 15% growth in Telecom Sector advertising in Print during 2007 over 2006.
• Telecommunication Services had the largest share of 56% of overall print ad pie of Telecom sector in 2007.
• Print advertising of Telecommunication Equipments grew by 57%, whereas it dropped by 12% for the Telecommunication Services during 2007 over 2006.
• 'Nokia Corporation' was the number one advertiser under the Telecommunication Equipments and ‘BSNL’ leads in Telecommunication Services advertising in Print during
2007.
• 'Sagem Bleu' and 'Airtel Happy Recharge' topped the chart of new brand launches under Telecommunication Equipments and Telecommunication Services respectively in Print during 2007.
Telecom sector advertising in Print grew by 15% during 2007 over 2006.
Share of segments of Telecom sector Print advertising
Telecommunication Services led with 56% share of overall Print advertising in Telecom
sector followed by Telecommunication Equipments with 34% share in 2007. Corporate /Brand Image and Public Issue together contributed 10% share of overall Print
advertising of Telecom sector in 2007.
‘LG Electronics India Ltd’ stood at number one position in ‘Corporate’ advertising and
‘Idea Cellular Ltd’ leads in ‘Public Issue’ advertising in print.
Segment wise growth in Telecom Sector- Print Advertising
Telecommunication Equipments has seen 57% growth in Print advertising during 2007
compared to 2006.
Telecommunication Services recorded a drop of 12% in Print advertising during 2007
over 2006.
Top Advertisers Of Telecom sector in Print 2007
'BSNL', 'Reliance Communication Ltd' and 'Tata Teleservices' were the top 3 advertisers in the Telecommunication Services advertising in Print during 2007. 'Nokia Corporation' had the largest share of 40% of Telecommunication Equipments followed by 'Motorola' and 'LG Electronics India Ltd' with 17% and 15% share respectively during 2007.
Top Advertisers Of Telecom sector on TV 2007-08
• Top three advertisers under the Telecommunication Services are Bharti Airtel, Reliance Communication Ltd and Hutchison Essar Telecom Ltd on TV in 2007.
• Top five advertisers of Telecommunication Equipments contributed 95 per cent share of segment advertising during 2007.
• Nokia Corporation topped the chart of top advertisers under Telecommunication Equipments with 43 per cent share, followed by Sony Ericsson (India) and Motorola each with 16 per cent share in TV advertising during 2007.
Top Advertisers through all media channels 2008
• Top three Key players in through overall advertising of 'Telecommunication Services' . 'Vodafone Essar Ltd', 'Bharti Airtel Ltd' and 'Reliance Communication Ltd' together contributed for 61 per cent share during January - August 2008.
• During January - August 2008, share of Top five advertisers of 'Telecommunication Equipments' for overall advertisement, where Nokia Corporation', 'Samsung India Electronics Ltd' and 'LG Electronics India Ltd' were the Top three advertisers.
Share of Sales Promotion in Telecom Sector
'Price Promotion' ad campaign was used maximum for advertising of Telecommunication, Equipments, whereas 'Combination Promotion' was preferred for advertising of Telecommunication Services in 2007.
Interestingly ‘Price Promotion’ which leads in Telecommunication Equipments advertising with 48% share had a meagre share of 3% under the Telecommunication Services
Promotional Strategies of Cellular Service Providers in India-
The GoI's decision to liberalize the telecom sector in 1994 transformed the entire telecom industry, with many private companies foraying into the sector
Most of the promotional strategies revolved around capturing the younger generation who formed a major part of the target market.
Celebrity endorsements, Strategic advertising with better execution towards rural market, special season offers, festival discounts, and innovative advertisement campaigns were used by the cellular service providers as tools to push back the competition and increase their market share.
Year 2004 (Special Plans and Loyalty Schemes)
With a view to reaping the benefits of the pre-paid segment, RIM launched its prepaid service in 2004. The launch campaign involved a rally of motorbikes and cars bearing the RIM prepaid flags along with the RIM catch line “Mujhme Hai Wo Baat” (It's There Within Me).
The Promotional Campaigns
The younger generation also began to flaunt the cell phone as a status symbol. The Most importantly rural market was forecasted as emerging big market for this industry. Soon cell phones were being used not only as a tool for communication but also as a source of entertainment...
Year 2000-02
AirTel roped in famous movie actors Shahrukh Khan and Karishma Kapoor as brand ambassadors for its prepaid service “Magic”.
The company felt that celebrity endorsement was a suitable way to promote the brand and an effective tool for expanding market share.
Year 2003 (Cricket, Bollywood and Celebration)
By 2003, the cellular service market had ten major players and the situation demanded that service providers come up with novel ideas to attract the consumer. Festivals and special occasions were times when cellular service providers offered a range of schemes.
In February 2003, AirTel launched a Valentine's Day Promotion Contest, which was targeted primarily at youth celebrating Valentine's Day...
Source:- ICMR INDIA
Case Code : MKTG106
Period : 2000-05
Pub Date : 2005
Teaching Note : Available
Industry : Cellular Industry
Countries : India
Ca
Telecom Advertising : Challenges and Opportunities
Entertainment is an effective vehicle, not advertisement objective. Maximizing sales data helps focus & refine targeting – the secret to advertising cost effectiveness. -Roy Morgan International
The current mobile advertising and marketing universe is beset by a whirlwind of activity in which, by mid-2009, Mind Commerce expects will be dominated by a few key mobile marketing suppliers. Research finds that those companies that are ready to incorporate mobile as part of their advertising and marketing efforts will reap the rewards of increased consumer profitability.
Companies are increasingly embracing mobile phones as a viable channel to target consumers with brand messaging. Mind Commerce's lates report, 'Telecom Marketing & Advertising: Challenges and Opportunities,' forecasts that spending in this medium will grow to $19 billion by 2012 from about $1.6 billion today. Fueling this growth are improvements in mobile technology by leading cellular service providers, increased consumer adoption of mobile phones, and a growing niche market of suppliers of mobile search, messaging, and marketing services.
It is being accepted that the current mobile marketing and advertising market, evaluating methods companies are using to effectively leverage it as a platform to enhance brand awareness and increase sales effectiveness. The report examines the leading suppliers to the mobile marketing industry and analyzes how their products are impacting the way consumers opt-in to cell phone-delivered marketing messages and increasingly use their phones to search for, and even purchase, products and services.
Key Findings
-2008 will be a breakthrough year for mobile spending as marketers worldwide move from disillusionment over their expected return from this platform to the realization that mobile can enhance consumer brand equity
-The current telecome advertising and marketing universe is beset by a whirlwind of activity in which, by mid-2009, Mind Commerce expects will be dominated by a few key mobile marketing suppliers
-Mobile search is playing an increasingly important role in helping cell subscribers navigate the mobile Web.
MARKET RESEARCH SYSTEM
Marketing research is the systematic design, collection, analysis and reporting of data and findings relevant to specific marketing situation facing the company. Marketing managers may request a market survey a product preference test a sales forecast by region, or research advertising effectiveness.
MARKETING RESEARCH PROCESS:-:
STEP 1:
Define The Research Objectives:
The first step is to define and agree on the research objective. Well-defined objectives make it easier possible to accomplish the mission.
Purpose behind this research was to know the ultra moderns approach of Telecom Advertising In rural Sector.
STEP 2:
Developing the Research Plan:
The second stage is to develop a research plan for gathering the need information. This calls for decision on the data sources, research approach, research instruments and contact method.
• Data Sources:
The research plan calls for gathering primary, secondary or both types of data. Primary data was gathered by interviewing a decided sample space for the research project.
Secondary data was collected from related issues in newspaper and business magazines and different web Sites
The normal procedure of collecting the data is to interview some people individuals or in groups to get preliminary sense of how people feel about the topic in question and develop a formal research instrument, develop it and carry it into the field.
Research approaches
Primary Data Was Collected In the Following Ways
1. Observational Research:
Data can be collected through direct observation in the field
2. Experimental Research:
The purpose of experiment research was to capture cause of effect relationship by eliminating competing explanation of the observed findings. Experimental research calls for selecting matched groups of subjects, subjecting them of different treatments and checking whether observed response difference is statistically significant.
Research instrument tools:-
It is the most common tool of collecting primary data. A questionnaire consists of a set of questions presented to respondent for their answer.
Close end question specify all the possible answer and respondent make a choice among them. Open-end question allow respondent to answer in his or her own words. Open-end question are useful when the researchers is looking for the insight in to how people think rather then measuring how many people think in a certain way.
The questioner was designed by exercising proper care in choosing the words and sequence of questions. The questionnaire is in simple, direct, unbiased language.
The basis decided was:
1. The head question should create interest.
2. Difficult or personal question should be asked towards the end of the questioner so that the questioner does not become defensive early.
Sampling Plan:
Sampling plan calls for three decisions.
1. Sampling Units:
Define the target population that will be sampled.
2. Sample Size:
There are 100 respondents from satellite station of Nagpur from different age groups.
3. Sampling Procedure:
In Random sampling and Judgment sampling there was no scientific method adopted it was purely judgment based.
Contact Method:
The second difficult job was to determine how the subjects should be contacted.
Personnel Interview:-
Questions are asked directly face to face to the respondent. Personnel interview are of two forms arranged interviews and intercept interviews. In arranged interviewed, respondent are randomly selected and either telephoned or approach at their homes or offices. Intercepts interviews involves stopping peoples at shopping malls or busy street corners and requesting an interview.
Step 3:
Analyzing the Information:
This one extract the finding from the data collected. I tabulated the data and applied frequency distribution and other related statistical techniques.
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
1. Source Of Data:
Primary source: 100 consumers of different age group from satellite station nearby Nagpur like Gondia and Bhandara.
Reason: Primary data is direct, unhampered data and it is taken by the user of product.
Secondary source: Related articles from newspaper and business magazines and web sites. As this data is based on lots of analysis of primary data and cross analysis of other factors.
2. Nature Of Data:
Data collected from consumers are opinion. While that from related websites are facts.
3. Communication approach:
Tool: Questionnaire
Type: Structured
Media: Personal for consumers.
4. Type of Research:
Two types of researches were carried out to arrive at solution.
A] Preliminary Study
Preliminary study was done
To define the problem precisely.
To determine the target population.
To determine sample size & sampling process.
B] Conclusive Research
Conclusive research was done
To find out the route cause of the problem
With the help of achieved data arrive at solution.
5. Scale of measurement:
Consumers: Nominal scale and record rating scale.
SAMPLING PROCESS
STEP 1:
To define the target audience for telecom advertising.
STEP 2:
The frame of research population was fast growing Telecom service consuming places in small town, remote areas of nearby Nagpur like Gondia and Bhandara.
STEP 3:
The suitable method of sampling for consumers is combination of judgment sampling and quote control sampling. Majority of the location and spots were selected on the basis of judgment of the concerned senior marketing executives. And among the selected location the target population was selected to form different quota i.e. different age group.
STEP 4:
The sample size was distributed and stratified as follows:
For Consumers
Age Group Sample size
15-22 years 23
23 – 30 years 31
31 – 38 years 24
Above 39 years 22
Total 100
MARKET RESEARCH
INTRODUCTION OF THE RESPONDENT
Age wise distribution of respondent from various age groups:-
Observation And Findings:-
• A total sample space of 100 respondents was interviewed and the above graph reveals the facts.
• The method of random and judgment sampling was considered. 23 respondents from the age group of 15-22 years were interviewed. 31 and 24 respondents were interviewed from the age groups 23 – 30 years, 31 – 38 years respectively and the final group comprised of 22 respondents.
Telecom Brand Preferred by Respondents
Observation And Findings:-
Asking for preferable telecom service , the result was little bit expected ,it was BSNL with 42% of 100,Vodafone with 16% proved its presence in Rural market whereas Reliance has got impressive 21%. The important point is to see that Reliance was the first pvt. company decided to capture the rural. In fact they motivated the telecom advertising in rural sector.
Best way of Advertising?
Observation And Findings:-
Once again TV swept the media output. Maximum with 62% out 100 were in support that TV is the best to advertise any product. News papers were favored by 16% and Radio with 12%. Outdoor Advertising has not still captured rural audience as it has got only 6% .where as Online, due to rural audience got only 4%
Like Watching TV ads During Break?
Observation and Findings:-
This question was put forward to respondent because it shows the perception and attitude of audience towards advertising in current scenario. Advertising has averagely targeted 44% out of 100 which is increasing.28% of the respondent said that they watch it quite a lot. 16% were found very interesting in watching ads which is good news for this segment. Whereas 4% response came in for denying the its fact.
Which media channel for telecom ad you pay more attention to?
Observation And Findings:-
This Research project is only for telecom advertising so this was one of the most important to know. As results, Rural segement highly supported TV channels to grab their attention for telecom ads.52% out of 100 respondent said TV telecom ad they pay high attention to. Different type of newspaper are circulated in each and every place which were supported by 22%. Radio with 14%, outdoor with 7% and minimum Online with 5% were found.
Which telecom company presents best advertisement?
Observation And findings:-
It is fight for telecom advertising to gain more and more TRP’s for their ads. Asking for best advertisement of the companies Vodafone is leading all the way for its ‘puppy ad’ with 27% out of 100. Well Airtel and reliance are not way back with 16%, 23% respectively. The ‘Democratic Funda’ Of Idea were found most intellectual and better with 13%.
Did Ad persuade you to buy mobile/SIM connection?
Observation And Findings:-
It is said that Advertising speaks itself. It has got the tremendous power to persuade consumer. This question was put forward before respondents to know the reality. 64% respondents out of 100 said that they buy mobile set/SIM inspired by advertisement ,as it gives enough knowledge of product feature. While 36% respondents still feel that they don’t rely too much on Advertisement.
Do you think Telecom advertising is one of the biggest reason for its growth in Rural segement?
Observation And Findings:-
Nobody is unaware of spectacular growth of telecom sector in rural segment too. But it is very important to know the right approach.
83% out of 100 said betterment of advertising has lead it so high. Where as 17% respondent gives reason as Good Plans and better utilization of technology given by Company itself.
Usually Do you remember Radio Telecom Ad?
Observation And Findings:-
TV has always been dominating its other sub-section of media channels. When respondents were asked question whether they usually remember Radio telecom ad or not? 55% were supported it , reason was nowadays radio industry is also growing day by day. Big Radio channels and several FM channels are providing good services to rural audience too now. 45% respondent denied because they can not recall it due to its invisibility.
According to you, Why Telecom advertising does have strong impact?
What Rural segement think of advertising and why do they like it so much? Indians are known as very kind and emotional, No one could have utilized it better than Advertising. 38% are impressed due to emotional and real feeling of belongings. Kids are leading the advertising and Telecom too with 23%.Cultural/tradition feeling by ads brought it to 10%. Unique concept is one of the major reason which has got 21% respondent.
Do you think Excess Advertising can weaken the brands?
Observation And Findings:-
Too much of advertising weakens the power of product, is it true? As a result respondents came out with sincere result. 79% out of 100 that excess advertising weaken the power of any product.
Whereas 21% are supporting it, saying that it does not weaken the product because it works for making target market aware of it fully.
Which Telecom ad did you find most sentimental and interesting?
Usually Telecom ads are found highly sentimental, touching or to the contrary very interesting. Airtel wins the heart and mind of 28% respondent out of 100, where as the famous ‘puppy friendship’ got 25%, ‘The democratic feeling of Idea’ is also being liked by 17% whereas reliance and BSNL are with 14% and 8% respectively. Other 6% are mix of rest of the telecom companies as MTNL,BPL,Indicom and Virgin mobile.
Analysis
Around 88 million phones have been provided in the rural areas with a tele-density of around 11 percent(according to report.) The questionnaire was put forward before different respondents from satellite station nearby nagpur.
As a result I got blend of answers which were supporting that the approach of Telecom advertising has done it rightly.
TV advertising is leading all the way, as audience find it most preferable Media channel to advertise.
‘Vodafone’ is found the best for its consistency in
Advertising, by respondents.
64% respondents accepted that they do buy the telecom products influenced by ads.
The most interestingly 83% accepted that advertising is one of the biggest reason which pushed Telecom industry towards high growth in Rural market.
While analyzing one more important point came out that was Radio ad.
It shows that Radio industry is growing well , by extending their FM stations in Rural Segment and small cities and towns , and because of this advertising gets another opportunity.
Why telecom advertising impresses and influence audience so much comparatively than any other.
‘Emotional and touching concepts’ made it so special.
Kids are leading the advertising world today and it is 2nd biggest reason to impact audience.
This analysis indicates the changing perception of rural audience and unconventional approach to them.
Conclusion
Media and Entertainment is one of the booming sectors contributing a lot towards the economic growth of the country.
This industry stood at Rs 43,700 crores in the year 2006 and is expected to grow at an annual rate of 19% till the year 2010.
Rural Audience are too becoming prudent enough to digest the concept and purpose of these ads.
Excess advertising weakens product’s interest among consumer. Advertising industry has been upgrading its area with experimental way of campaigning.
In India where you find more than 75% population from rural area, achieving their trust is really big success not only for advertisers but also for ad agencies who does this behind the scene. But it is to be thought that how long it sustains for getting higher sales force and attention of target audience.
Telecom advertising did excellent in connecting rural people to technology by its strategy.
Apart from all this one familiar instrument is rising all the way i.e. TV. Who provides this facility to audiences. Besides it Advertising agencies like Lowe, JWT, O&M have been performing up to the mark which encourages
Indian advertising and giving innovative and considerable raised area to Indian advertisers. Airtel and Vodafone are still in competition to be no.1.
Touching concepts, strong representation which gives rural people actual traditional and cultural feeling of being Indian really Worked Out !
Suggestions And Recommendations
Advertiser should use segment wise advertisement
Rural people are more brand conscious so advertiser must keep that in mind
Advertisement should revolve around emotions i.e sentimental ads with different situations
Excessive advertisement should be avoided it create negative impact
To capture rural market one must think global and act local
Rural languages must be used for communications
Cross-selling can be use in rural areas for promotion
Corporate social responsibility can be best way to win the heart in rural market
BIBLIOGRAPHY
1. Role of media and entertainment in Indian Economy, Exchange 4 media , 5.aug. 2008 . AAPL
2. Growth Volumes. Adex 2007 -08, TAM Research
3. Market Potential. India Infoline
4. Press Release. Business Standard. 14.feb.09.pg.07
5. Continued…press….ET Bureau…26.feb.09
6. Ad clips. Company’s websites and galleries
7. Market for advertising. Screen Digest. May 2008
8. Promotional Strategy, case study . ICMR India..case code. MKTG106, 2005-06,Cellulaur Advertising
9. Changing Approach of Advertising- press report. 11.feb.2009. 0516hrs. IST.ET Bureau
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Annexure
Q1. How old are you?
a. 15-22
b. 23-30
c. 31-38
d. 39 & above
Q2. Which telecom brand do you prefer the most?
a. BSNL
b. Vodafone
c. Airtel
d. Reliance
e. Idea
Q3. Which medium advertisement is best?
a. TV
b. Radio
c. Newspaper
d. Outdoor
e. Online
Q4. How much do you like watching TV ads during break?
a. Excess
b. Quite a lot
c. Average
d. Less than average
e. Rarely
Q5. Which media channel for telecom ad you pay more attention to?
a. TV
b. Radio
c. Newspaper
d. Outdoor
e. Online
Q6. Which telecom company presents best advertisement?
a. BSNL
b. Airtel
c. Reliance
d. Vodafone
e. Idea
f. MTNL
g. TATA indicom
h. Virgin Mobile
Q7. Did Ad persuade you to buy mobile/SIM connection?
a. YES
b. No
Q8. Do you think Telecom advertising is one of the biggest reason for its growth in Rural segement?
a. Yes
b. NO
Q9. Usually do you remember Radio Telecom Ad?
a. YES
b. NO
Q10. According to you, Why Telecom advertising does have strong impact?
a. Unique strong concept
b. Strong concept
c. Highly emotional
d. Kids involvement
e. Cultural values
Q11. Do you think Excess Advertising can weaken the brands?
a. YES
b. NO
Q12. Which Telecom ad did you find most sentimental and interesting?
a. BSNL
b. Airtel
c. Vodafone
d. Idea
e. Reliance
f. Others