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Introduction
   Airtel the biggest telecom player in Indian market in terms of subscribers and revenue. It is operating
in 20 regions of the country. From the days of initiation Airtel maintained an image of better
networking, better consumer service in terms of CRM and a brand of high image which in other words
can be said as Airtel’s USP. In Odissa market Airtel entered in the year of 2004 December and within
three years of time it captured a lions share in the market. In some of the major cities Airtel is a market
leader. After four years of operation in Odissa market Airtel played a game as it reduces the margin
from distributor to retailer because it got the brand loyalty from the subscribers and succeeded with its
PULLING strategy in the market also with some highly innovative value added schemes.
In particular Cuttack market the Airtel faced a great challenge after the reduction in margin. Lots of
strikes were done against company and many retailers refused to sale Airtels’ products and this made
Cuttack the toughest market in the Eastern part of the country. It put a challenge in front of the sales
team to maximize the sales. Though Airtel has 32% market share in Cuttack but it still facing tough
challenge from its rivals.
Airtel Subscribers:
   1. Total number of subscribers in India is 9, 89, 08, 993.
   2. Airtel has a market share of 31.65% of total 29, 93, 49, 436 GSM customers.
   3. Airtel has 23 circles in India, has agreement allover the country except North East provision of
       the Country.
   4. Airtel started its operation in Orissa in the year of 2004, 4th Dec.
   5. Up to the latest report Airtel has a total 24, 96,023 subscribers in Orissa.
Airtel in Cuttack:
   •   Population of Cuttack is nearly 7, 00,000 and 40% of this total population uses mobile phones.
   •   From total mobile subscribers Airtel has a market share of 32%, having highest market share in
       the Cuttack region.
   •   Airtel has setup 55 BTS (towers), showing its quality and reputation of network coverage.
   •   Over 1620 Retailers (registered up to 6th May 2009) available in this Urban area and many more
       retailers’ sales Airtel vouchers also (these are not registered).
               (Those retailers sale Airtel sim are considered to be registered)




                                                     1
CHAPTER - I


INTRODUCTION




      2
NEED OF THE STUDY

   Airtel is an old & fastest growing company & leading in the communication market providing ever
best possible service to the customers. New & advance facilities & plans are being introduced day by
day & those are only to satisfy customers taking care of customers need.

OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY
   1. To understand the awareness of Airtel products among retailers in the market.

   2. To create interest as well as find out the potential new retail outlets

   3. To analyze the retailer’s perception towards Airtel

   4.   To know the satisfaction level of Retailers towards Airtel products and services.

   5. To maximize retail outlets through traditional channel that will increase the sales in future.

   6. To create more numbers of Airtel subscribers.

METHODOLOGY

        Data collection:
               Our study used both primary & secondary data.

        Secondary Data

I have collected all the details from the FSEs and the team leader of the PK Agency distributor.

Sources of Data

        1. PK Agency team leader’s personal data.

        2. Territory managers personal report behalf of exploration of business.

        Primary Data

Primary data has been collected from the new retail outlets, existing outlets and new Airtel subscribers.
Methodology
   1. Meeting all the retailers (Those who are interested to sale Airtel products).
   2. Explaining about the business and how to incur profit and giving them competitors’ feedback
        through one to one interaction.
   3. Creating interest to become a new Airtel outlet by showing leaflets of different features.




                                                     3
4. Finding out the retailers through schedule method.
   5. Convincing & creating interest through pushing strategy.


   6. All the procedures were recorded through proper questionnaires.
SCOPE OF THE STUDY
 By this study satisfaction as well as attitude towards the Airtel has been found out, which can be used
in strategy formulation in Cuttack, Orissa.
   1. Lacking & factor for dissatisfaction has been studied from Retailer point of view which can be
        taken care & improved.
   2. Getting an opportunity to convince & interact with the Retailers.
   3.   Creating awareness & finding out potential Retailers for Airtel.
LIMITATIONS OF THE STUDY
 At most attention was taken to eliminate any kind of biasness & mis-interpretation in the study to get
optimum result. Even though the following limitations could have certain degree of impact on the
findings.
   1. The study was confined to Cuttack, PK agency only which may not represent the real picture of
        the entire Cuttack market.
   2. Many retailers were not interested in Airtel because of steep competition in the locality among
        retailers.
Data collected about satisfaction & awareness level may not represent the real picture as the sample size
covered only 423 retailers.
          • Type of Research: A descriptive research has been followed for the study
          • Sampling technique: A cluster sampling has been used for the study.
Sample Size:
   1. Survey for Retail outlets: 423
   2. Survey for New Subscribers: 862
   3. Airtel special scheme promotion: 11
   4. Survey for iBox and PCO: 134
SCHEDULE DESIGN
  There were different question patterns were designed for individual tasks and informal interviews
were also conducted in case of new scheme promotion. Questions those have been filled by us
according to the response of the respondents about the different questions & in the mean while their




                                                    4
reaction towards the different perceptions towards different communication companies have been
observed.
There are some general questions to make them comfortable to answer.
The parameters that are measured
   1. Retailer reliability
   2. Customer awareness
   3. Customer satisfaction
   4. Factor Preference
Questions were designed for:
   1. Opening up New Retail Outlets
   2. New Airtel Subscribers
Informal Interviews were followed in case of
   1. Special scheme promotion
   2. Selling of iBox and PCO.




                                                 5
CHAPTER – II


COMPANY PROFILE




       6
COMPANY PROFILE
Bharti Airtel
Type Public, Listed on BSE
Founded 1985
Headquarters New Delhi, India
Key people Sunil Mittal (Chairman and CEO)
Industry Telecommunication
Products Mobile and Fixed-Line Telecommunication operator
Revenue $6 Billion
Website www.airtel.in
Bharti Airtel, formerly known as Bharti Tele Ventures Limited (BTVL) is India's largest and
World’s third largest cellular service provider with more than 83 million subscribers as of April 2009. It
also offers fixed line services and broadband services. It offers its TELECOM services under the Airtel
brand and is headed by Sunil Mittal. The company also provides telephone services and Internet access
over DSL in 14 circles. The company complements its mobile, broadband & telephone services with
national and international long distance services.
The company also has a submarine cable landing station at Chennai, which connects the submarine
cable connecting Chennai and Singapore. The company provides end-to-end data and enterprise
services to the corporate customers through its nationwide fiber optic backbone, last mile connectivity
in fixed-line and mobile circles, VSATs, ISP and international bandwidth access through the gateways
and landing station. SingTel owns over 30% of the Bharti Telecom.
Bharti Airtel India’s largest integrated and the first private telecom services provider in all the 23
Telecom circles. With its world class products and services, Bharti Airtel since its inception, has been at
the forefront of technology and has steered the course of the telecom sector in the country. The
businesses at Bharti Airtel are structured into three strategic business units (SBU’s) – Mobile Services,
Telemedia Services & Enterprise Services. The Mobile business provides mobile & fixed wireless
services using GSM technology across 23 telecom circles, Telemedia Services business offers
broadband & telephone services in 94 cities. The Enterprise services provide end-to-end telecom
solution to corporate customers and additionally provide national & international long distance services
to carriers. We have recently forayed into Media Business by launching our DTH Services in October
2008. All these services are rendered under a unified brand “Airtel”. Bharti Airtel serves over 82mn
customers as of October 31, 2008; of whom 80,199,747 subscribe to GSM services and 2,549,043 use




                                                      7
Telemedia Services either for voice and/or broadband access delivered through DSL. They are the
largest wireless service provider in the country, based on the number of subscribers as of October 31,
2008. Bharti Airtel has a dominant position in the GSM services with a market share of 34.5 % as of
September 2008.
The company also deploys, owns and manages passive infrastructure pertaining to telecom operations
under its subsidiary Bharti Infratel Limited. Bharti Infratel owns 42% of Indus Towers Limited. This
has been incorporated with an objective to provide “Shared Telecom Infrastructure” to telecom
operators across the world on a nondiscriminatory basis. It’s commitment towards continuous
innovation will enable optimization of future tower rollout and enhance operational efficiencies and
result in substantial cost savings for its customers.
The strategy of de-coupling infrastructure and backend processes from the core sales and marketing
function was a strategy pioneered by Airtel and then implemented by a number of other companies.
Bharti is the “total telecom provider” for India’s large enterprises. It harnesses the power of alliances to
combine with ownership of media and technologies to create business-enabling end-to-end solutions.
Bharti work closely with their enterprise customers to uniquely address all their strategic connectivity
needs, by using a mix application of technologies. The entire organization is tailored to bring focus to
our customers’ need through a unique multi-dimensional structure; Airtel’s’ philosophy is “Value
Creation” for the customers. Therefore it creates solutions that are flexible, scalable, robust Business
process management system which helps in monitoring of output performance of processes in the form
of Non Financial Parameters which are reviewed at different levels i.e. Location, Regional, Functional,
National and crop office level.
Continuous process improvement happens within the organization based on Voice of customers using
six sigma methodology and knowledge management. The organization has been in six sigma
champions, black belt, green belts, and yellow belts. All AES employees are trained in the strategy,
statistical tools and techniques of Six Sigma quality.
Business Strategy
“To capitalize on the growth opportunities that the company believes are available in the Indian
telecommunication market and consolidate its position to be the leading integrated telecommunication
services provider in the key market in the India, with a focus on providing mobile services”.
   •   Focus on maximizing revenues and margins.
   •   Capture maximum telecommunication revenue potential with minimum geographical coverage.
   •   Offer multiple telecommunication services to provide customers with a “one-stop shop”




                                                        8
solution.
   •   Position itself to tap data transmission opportunities and offer advanced mobile data services.
   •   Focus on satisfying and retaining customers by ensuring high level customer satisfaction.
   •   Leverage strengths of its strategic and financial partners.
Awards and recognition
Bharti Airtel has received recognition for its innovative practices across the world, some are as
Follows:
   •   3rd Largest Wireless Operator In The World, Largest Private Integrated Telecom Company In
       India, Largest Wireless Operator In India, Largest Private Fixed Line Operator In India, Largest
       Telecom Company Listed On Indian Stock Exchanges.
   •   Sunil Bharti Mittal, - GSM Association Chairman’s Award 2008, Padma Bhushan Awards In
       2007.
   •   Airtel Was Chosen As The 2nd Most Trusted Service Brand In India In The ‘Most Trusted.
   •   Brands 2008 Survey’ Conducted By The Economic Times - Brand Equity
   •   Awarded With Top Honors At The GSM Mobile World Congress Conference 2008 In
       Barcelona for the Category “Best Billing/ Customer Care Solution.”
   •   Adjudged As the ‘Best Carrier India‘At the Telecom Asia Award 2008, Gallup Great Workplace
       Award For 2008, Ranked 2nd In the Survey of India’s Most Respected Companies by Business
       world 2007, Adjudged As ‘Company of the Year’ At the CNBC India Business Leader Awards
       2007.
   •   Economic Times ‘Company of the Year 2007’ Award for Corporate Excellence Gallup Great
       Workplace Award for 2008 -Airtel is one of the only 20 companies worldwide and the only
       company from India to receive the prestigious award.
   •   After the proposed network expansion, an additional 30,000 towers will result in the company
       achieving 70% population coverage.
   •   Bharti has over 39 million users as on March 31, 2007, It has set a target of 125 million
       subscribers by 2010. Prepaid customers account for 88.5% of Bharti’s total subscriber base, an
       increase from 82.7% a year ago.
   •   ARPU has dropped to Rs 406, Non-voice revenues, (SMS, voice mail, call management, hello
       tunes and Airtel Live) constituted 10% of total revenues during Q4, lower than 10.7% in the Q4
       of the previous year. Blended monthly minutes of usage per customer in Q4 was at 475 minutes.
       Has completed 100% verification of its subscribers and in the process disconnected three lakh




                                                     9
(300,000) subscribers Bharti Airtel’s enterprise Services, President - David is busy connecting
       India to Europe.
Airtel Vision
“To provide global telecom services and delight customers”
By 2010, we want Airtel to be the most admired brand in India.
       •   Loved by more customers
       •   Targeted by top talent
       •   Benchmarked by more business
Airtel Mission
We will meet the mobile communication needs of our customers through:
       •   Error-free service delivery
       •   Innovate products and services
       •   Cost efficiency
       •   Unified messaging solutions




                                                 10
CHAPTER – III


DISTRIBUTION PROCEDURE
         &
    SALES FORCE




         11
Airtel distribution channel:


                                  Airtel (company)




              Urban Area                               Rural Area


              Distributor                             Rural Super


                 FSE                                 Rural Distributor


               Retailer                                    FSE


                                                          Retailer
                                                             `

Distribution procedure and Margins:
In Urban Areas
          •    Airtel directly supply its products to the distributors in Urban Areas through Territory
               Manager.
          •    Territory Manager distributes the products as per demand for individual distributors,
               which is scheduled as per the target for the territory.
          •    In urban areas the Margin for the Distributor is 1.3%.
          •    Distributor distributes the products to the FSEs’. Their job is to supply those products to
               the Retailers.
          •    The Retailers margin is 2.7% (2.5% margin on RCV Rs.10/- and for all other RCVs the
               margin is 2.7%).
In Rural Areas
       Same procedure is followed in the rural areas but the distribution system is           completely
       different from Urban Area and the Margin is also different.




                                                     12
•   Company’s supply system to the territory manager is same procedure as per urban areas.
           •   The products at first distributed to the RS (Rural Super).They have a margin of 0.7%.
           •   Products are supplied from the RS to the RD (Rural Distributors).They have a margin of
               1.1%.
           •   As per same Urban system few FSB works under each RD and they supply the products
               to the individual retailers.
           •   The retailers have a margin of 2.5% and 2.7% ( 2.5% on RCV of Rs. 10/- and 2.7% on
               other RCVs)
So, from this above analysis and distribution channel system, the outcomes are.
                    1. The company is spending nearly 4% in Urban Areas.
                    2. In Rural Areas the company is spending a margin nearly 4.5%.
(So the company has been taken a great step in sales maximization in rural areas that they will be able to
reduce the margin and will not have a loss in rural areas.)
Stock system in distribution:
The complete stock maintenance procedure is categorically divided in two parts.
   1. Stock to be Maintained by Distributor
   2. Stock to be Maintained by Retailer
In the case of Distributor:
The distributor has to keep the LAPU balance for minimum 7 days; Here 35% of the value must be in
RCV.
In the case of Retailer:
The retailer has to keep LAPU balance for 3 days (minimum amount Rs.1500)
; Here 33% of the value must be in RCV.
(The FSE visits each Outlet in alternative days whether their is any shortage of product or not. The
supply system of Airtel is so strong that a Retailer will never go with shortage of product. It is also a
compulsory task for each FSE to go and to ask Retailers whether there is any shortage of product, once
in every 2 days.)




                                                    13
SALES: (The way Airtel sales designed)

                                       Selection of
                                       Sales Force




   Controlling of                        Sales                          Training of
    Sales force                         Manager                         Sales Force




                                      Motivating
                                     Of sales force


Selection of sales force-
They recruited separate department for sales and work of those employee is to get or generate more and
more revenue for organization.
Training of Sales Force –
After Recruitment they are trained their employee for effective working and in this training period they
guided employee. How, when, where, what .and to whom we they can sale their product.
Motivating of sales force –
If because of some reason any employee is not able to do their best performance in that case rather than
any action they use motivation as a tool for increasing morale of that employee.
Controlling of sales Force –
They also control the sales force because they know the importance of control system in organization.
They are using these entire four step for decide their sales force and each step they are also Check they
are doing right things or not and if they thing changes are needed than they revised whole process again.
That’s why we can see the difference between Airtel sales growth and other challenger and follower.
Sales Force Automation-
A sale force automation solution (SFA) is a system that automatically records all the stages in a sales
process. This includes a contact management system which tracks all contact that has been made with a
given customer, the purpose of the contact, and any follow up that might be required.




                                                   14
What to get-

Ensures that your sales effort doesn’t get duplicated thereby eliminating the risk of irate customers.
Sales lead tracking system creates a list of potential customers or customers of related products, through
paid phone lists. Fully integrated in all departments that deal with customer service management.

How it benefits Airtel sales team-

For your business: your sales team can approach the market in an organized and efficient manner. For
your managers: now monitor the performance of your work force, solve potential problems and make
your people more proactive. For your sales teams: now it’s easier to close a deal by keeping a track of
your orders, proposals and clients.




                                                   15
CHAPTER – IV


Products of Airtel, Outlet categorize & Target setting




                         16
Products of Airtel
SIM (Security Identification Module)
    •     The base product of company, required for new subscriber. Now Airtel provides this sim with
          64kb memory.
    •     The cost of sim to company is Rs 40/- with life time option. The sim is provided to the company
          at free of cost which the retailer can sale at maximum Rs 100/- .
LAPU:
 A SIM is provided to retailers from the company at free of cost for providing easy recharge service.
Only regular retailers have this facility. This SIM has a memory of 128kb and specially designed for
easy recharge purpose. A retailer has minimum 5 easy recharge customers per month, failuring this
target the SIM will be automatically deactivated. This SIM has also Rs 300 talk time free Airtel to
Airtel.
    •     PRIMARY (The products those are supplied to the distributor from the company is said to be
          Primary)
    •     SECONDARY(The products supplied to the Retailers from the Distributors through FSEs is
          said to be Secondary)
    •     TERTIARY(Here the Retailer sold the products to the customers)
Recharge voucher:
          •   In Every 1000 rupees of easy recharge the retailer must have to keep 33% of paper vouchers
              where the distributor has to keep 35%.
          •   Recharge vouchers are available at different costs from Rs 10/- on words and easy recharges
              are available from Rs 30/- on words.
          •   Paper voucher is maximum available up to Rs 120/- where easy recharge is available up to
              RS 10,000/-.
Airtel PCO & iBox:
Airtel is also providing the PCO services in Cuttack region. They provide this facility in two ways.
          1. iBox (Coin Box)
          2. PCO (like BSNL land line facility)
Airtel PCO
As the PCO of Airtel is divided in two categories and as per the category their is significant price
differentiation also available.
The cost of the Airtel or Coin box is Rs. 2985/-




                                                       17
The cost of the Airtel PCO is Rs. 1985/-
These are the cost to the distributor (minimum selling amount).


Airtel PCO scheme:
   •   Monthly Recharge scheme: Here the retailer has to recharge the PCO monthly              wise. The cost
       of the recharge voucher per month is Rs.400/- and its validity is for 30 days. At this cost of
       recharge the talk time is Rs.356/-.
   •   .Airtel also provides the facility for the one year recharge. The cost of the recharge voucher is
       Rs.600/-.Though the validity period for this recharge is 1 year but Airtel dose not provide any
       talk time on this. In this recharge voucher the talk time is 0.Here Airtel provides Top up facility
       for further recharge .The cost of the recharge is Rs 200/- , here the retailer will get a talk time
       balance of Rs. 178/- where there will be free offer the retailer will get, that is Airtel to Airtel free
       talk time of Rs. 500/-.
   •   If the retailer will loose its recharge period then he will be unable to call through the PCO.A
       situation where there will be no connection. At this situation the company provides a special
       voucher, named “Validity extension” voucher. Here the cost of the voucher is Rs.51 and it is
       valid for 10days.
Promotional Offer for PCO and iBox (Coin box) during April 2009:
   •   When any new retailer will have a new connection. At the installation cost, he will have a talk
       time of Rs. 500/- as main balance valid for a month. And will have a balance of Rs.1500/- Airtel
       to Airtel valid for next 6 months.
   •   In the month of April Airtel provided a special offer on PCO for their sales maximization in
       PCO. Here the special offer is that “Reduction the in cost of the Annual Recharge Voucher”.
       Before this scheme the cost of the Airtel annual voucher was Rs.600/-, and during this offer the
       company provided this voucher at the cost of RS. 400/-.
PCO Sales
Problems:
Stiff competition from TATA INDICOM, RIM, BSNL
TATA is preferred as it has less investment comparatively to Airtel and RIM
(All of us mobile phones so why should I install a coin box. Maintenance problem occurs a lot with
Airtel as the service provider is unable to do so.)
(The company made a calculation that if any retailer will have minimum 9 customers for PCO/iBox




                                                      18
then retailer will reach to the break even point on his investment. The next one will be his profit.)




                                                                                                        (
HERE DETAILS OF THE PCO & iBox IS PROVIDED.)
Table: 1
                            iBox Pricing and PCO pricing
                        Parameter                                PCO Phone            iBox
Customer Price                                                       1984             2975
FAT(A2A)                                                             1000             1500
FAT(A2All)                                                           500               500
Total Talk Time                                                      1500             2000
total coin collection @ 0.67 paisa                                   2239             2985
effective cost to operator                                           -240              315
Validity main A/C (months)                                             1                1
Validity dedicated (months)                                            4                6
                          Voucher denominations PCO section
Maximum Service price Rs                                      398           598        1398




                                                    19
decrement local Rs                                         0.67            0.67        0.67
talk time                                                  354             532         1244
Roi %                                                        33             33           33
validity days                                                30             45           60
                                         iBox
talk time                                                  356                          178
Roi %                                                        33                          33
validity days                                                30                               0
Operator price                                             400                          200


  Table: 2
                   Comparison of Airtel iBox with other operators
Parameter       BSNL         TATA            RIM                  Airtel
  Security
  deposit           Y             Y                 Y                         N
  time hrs          *             72                72                        72
                 7000 to
investment         8000          3000              2222              lowest investment
                                paper
    rcv          post paid     voucher       Paper voucher             easy recharge
  Top ups           N             N                 n                         Y
                             Rs 100 for 10
validity next       N            days               n                         Y
 quality of
    ocb             na          Local              Local               Visiontek ccb
                                                                    cases soled through
  service           *             48            48 - 72               phone and sms
  battery           N             Y                 Y                         Y
   space
  required        more            M                 M              little as all integrated
 ISD in ccb         N             N                 N




                                                   20
Features of iBox
   •    16*1 back light LCD
   •    Inbuilt fwt + 4.5 ah battery
   •    Automatic coin collection on call maturity
   •    Programmable 1,2,3 coin options
   •    Network sim and bts locking provision
   •    Low power consumption. Battery back up 4 to 5 hrs
   •    Incoming call restriction
   •    Battery low message on lcd
   •    Caller id
PCO
   1. Call charges are displayed on the screen
   2. billing printer support (optional)
   3. booth display support (optional)
   4. daily ,monthly, yearly call reports
   5. last 200 call details (date/time/value of the call)
   6. limit/no limit calling mode
   7. long beep at the start and end of the call
   8.   Internal battery with 2-3 hrs and stand by time of rs 6 hrs.
   9. external adapter cum charger
   10. polyphonic ring tones
   11. Airtel logo and tune at the time of booting the phones.
   12. hands free speaker phone
   13. phone book
Airtel Retail Outlet
Retail Outlet means those shops which sales Airtel products (SIM, vouchers).Airtel maintains a
category for its retail outlets. In Cuttack there are total 1620 outlets which registered, 432 iBox and 67
PCO (Up to 10th May 2009)
Airtel Navaratna:
        The “Airtel NAVARATNA” award is a special way to encourage and appreciate the retailer’s
performance. This award is given to those retailers who are capable of doing a business of Rs.50, 000/-
and above with 50 or more SSO activation. It is mandatory to achieve both parameters to be awarded.




                                                     21
(The company puts a sales target of 10% increment on each current month’s sales)
Competition margin in the Cuttack market for all the Service Providers. The margin has lots of
importance because as per this the Company can have more number of Retail Outlets, through which
the sale can be pushed.




Retailer’s margin compared with other service providers

Table: 3       a. Types of outlets
               b. Margin




                   a. CATEGORY WISE MOVEMENT(Types of Outlets)
                                                                 Outlet Type as per
      (Outlet Type as Per Turn over monthly)                    SSO(sale/activation)
                                                         SSO
      Outlet Type              Turn Over in Rs.          Type      Number of Activation
           Cat A                     >1,50.000            S1                75+
           Cat B               60,000 to 1,50,000         S2               50 to 74
           Cat C                30,000 to 60,000          S3              30 to 49
           Cat D                15,000 to 30,000          S4              11 to 29
           Cat E                     <15,000              S5               5 to 10


                                                          S6               1 to 4


                                                    22
b. COMPETION MARGINS( for Urban)




OPERATOR DISTRIBUTOR RETAILER DISTRIBUTOR(PCO) RETAILER(PCO)
    Airtel              1.3                2.7                  1.3     2.5
  Vodafone              1.5                 3
    Aircel                2                 5
    BSNL                1.5                 4
   TATA                 1.8                 3                       2
    RIM                 1.5                 3
    RTL                   1                 3
    Virgin
     !dea                                   3


(Airtel has 32% market share in Cuttack market)
Airtel in Cuttack Market


       Number of distributor in Cuttack:
In Cuttack region there are total 4 distributors.      (Table: 4)
Name of the Distributor                         Number of FSE


PK Agency                                       8
JD Distributor                                  4
Kamala Agency                                   2
Tirupati Distributor(Choudwar)                  1




                                                     23
PK agency has the maximum area coverage in Cuttack region. I have analyzed its FSE’s target and
achievement.
Table: 5



                         FSE Achievement (April 09)
               PK AGENCY REPORT(Airtel Distributor ,Cuttack Region)
     NAME            Activation      Revenue       LSO      SSO       New O/Lt      PCO
 Prasanna                295                        99       65          0           0
 Chitta                  333                       108       73          0           0
 Ranjan                  511                        74       41          0           0
 Prafulla                226                        85       65          0           0
 Ananta                  182                        78       51          0           0
 Samir                   95                         82       44          0           0
 Pradip                  113                        57       43          0           0
 Sing                    361                        92       73          0           0
 Total                  2116                       675       455         0           0


Total revenue earned in the month of April 2009 is Rs 1.023 core.
(Exact amount not provided)
On 8th April 2009 !dea entered into the Cuttack market and started pushing their products. Though !dea
sold at very low price with lots of facilities with a aggressive sales force and with advertisement they
started an immediate response from new subscribers and from students this caused a decrease in Airtel’s
sales and creating new subscribers. Airtel miserably failed to achieve their target and they achieved the
17% less than the target of previous month March 2009.
Target setup for month of May with some new offers and aggressive selling strategy.
As per the sales strategy there is a 10% hike in each individual’s target from previous month.




                                                   24
Here the target for PK agency is provided bellow:
Table: 6


                             Current Month Target(May 2009)
           PK AGENCY REPORT(Airtel Distributor ,Cuttack Region)
   NAME           Activation         Revenue             LSO        SSO         New O/Lt     PCO
Prasanna              541            1814990             119         78            20         3
Chitta                547            2037136             130         88            22         3
Ranjan                798            1584210              89         49            15         3
Prafulla              441            2048090             102         78            17         3
Ananta                391            1259201              94         61            16         3
Samir                 176            920727.1             98         53            16         3
Pradip                167            914150.6             68         52            11         3
Sing                  557            1403274             110         90            18         3
Total                3618           11981778.7           810         549          135        24
Target for the interns during SIP (in Cuttack region):
Table: 7


                         Target & Achievement During SIP
  NAME            College            NEW OUTLETS                                PCO                iBox
                                   Target           Achieved           Target     Achieved   Target Achieved
Pradeepta     IPE, Hyderabad         75                  52                5            0     15      13
I have worked for 6 weeks



                            SSO locations                     Target            Sold
SIM Sold         Through Canopy (7 days)                       60                94
                 Turning Point (7 days)                        100              163
                 Mobile & Mobile (5days)                       50                39
                 Jaidurga Communication (7
                 days)                                         210              287
                 Nigam International (14 days)                 480              839




                                                    25
Total                                                       900           1422
          SSO, It was a group task where other targets were individual


(In a weak 15 new outlets, 1 PCOs and 3 iBoxs were the target for the interns)
Minimum cost of an iBox was Rs 2975/- and cost of PCO was Rs 1975/-.
A new outlet has to take minimum vouchers of cost Rs 1000/-.
Sales of SSO were under a special scheme. (This scheme can not be mentioned on the project report but
can be discussed with internal/external Guide and at the time of presentation)
SIM activation procedure:
(During training I had informed and demonstrated this procedure to the new outlets)
SIM is provided by the company to the distributor and the distributors’ supplies the sim as per
individual Retailers demand. The sim initially is not activated, after any subscriber bought this sim then
the retailer uses a special procedure through its LAPU sim to activate that sim. But during recent
scenario maximum retailers are supplying activated sims to the retailers that the new subscriber can
easily use the new sim without any delay in the service.
To activate the sim following procedure is followed
Step1: The retailer sends a sms through the LAPU.

                   UN (space) Mobile Num to 59109

Step 2: This sms reaches to 59109 (technical section) and then 3 new sms comes in
         return one to Retailer, next one to FSE and the last one to the Distributor.
Step 3: Then the distributor send a new sms.

                   UN (space) Mob Num to 59110

                    After this the new sim will be activated and will be ready to use.
     As now a day in the Cuttack market the distributors are providing retailers activated Sims. If any
new person will subscribe the to a new connection the retailer provides him the way to activate the sim.
The new subscriber can only get this sim after paying the cost of sim, providing necessary and original
documents required and after getting the confidence of the retailer that the provided documents are
valid. After the new subscriber bought the sim, 1st that person has to insert the sim in the mobile phone
and then has to call 123, (Airtel customer service number (toll free)). Then the sim will be automatically
activated and will be ready to use.




                                                    26
Necessary Documents for New Subscription:
    1. The new subscriber must have to be an Indian citizen.
    2. He/She has to give one latest his/her photo.
    3. Any valid document showing his nativity or residential proofs like Pass Port, DL, Voter ID ,
        home electricity or phone bill(land line, BSNL preferred) etc.
Actions on Fake documents:
    1. If the documents are known to be fake or doubtful then the connection will be cutoff
        immediately.
    2. Legal action can be taken against the retailer or the distributor for this negligence.
       How to check the authenticity of the sim and the number at the distributor/retailer level:
Sometimes the AEAF contains some error on the sim number or mobile number. The retailer or the
distributor can directly check the authenticity of this trough special Airtel service. They can do a sms to
know this. By using this service they can get the conformation on the sim and mobile number at the
basic level.
                              Seek (space) Mobile num/sim num to 59300




                                                      27
CHAPTER – V


   SWOT
 ANALYSIS




     28
SWOT Analysis
    Strengths

   1. Bharti Airtel has more than 71 million customers. It is the largest cellular provider in India, and
      also supplies broadband and telephone services - as well as many other telecommunications
      services to both domestic and corporate customers.
   2. Other stakeholders in Bharti Airtel include Sony-Ericsson, Nokia - and Sing Tel, with whom
      they hold a strategic alliance. This means that the business has access to knowledge and
      technology from other parts of the telecommunications world.
   3. The company has covered the entire Indian nation with its network. This has underpinned its
      large and rising customer base.

    Weaknesses

   1. An often cited original weakness is that when the business was started by Sunil Bharti Mittal
      over 15 years ago, the business has little knowledge and experience of how a cellular telephone
      system actually worked. So the start-up business had to outsource to industry experts in the field.
   2. Until recently Airtel did not own its own towers, which was a particular strength of some of its
      competitors such as Hutchison Essar. Towers are important if your company wishes to provide
      wide coverage nationally.
   3. The fact that the Airtel has not pulled off a deal with South Africa's MTN could signal the lack
      of any real emerging market investment opportunity for the business once the Indian market has
      become mature.

Opportunities

   1. The company possesses a customized version of the Google search engine which will enhance
      broadband services to customers. The tie-up with Google can only enhance the Airtel brand, and
      also provides advertising opportunities in Indian for Google.
   2. Global telecommunications and new technology brands see Airtel as a key strategic player in the
      Indian market. The new iPhone will be launched in India via an Airtel distributorship. Another
      strategic partnership is held with Blackberry Wireless Solutions.
   3. Despite being forced to outsource much of its technical operations in the early days, this allowed
      Airtel to work from its own blank sheet of paper, and to question industry approaches and




                                                  29
practices - for example replacing the Revenue-Per-Customer model with a Revenue-Per-Minute
       model which is better suited to India, as the company moved into small and remote villages and
       towns.
   4. The company is investing in its operation in 120,000 to 160,000 small villages every year. It
       sees that less well-off consumers may only be able to afford a few tens of Rupees per call, and
       also so that the business benefits are scalable - using its 'Matchbox' strategy.
   5. Bharti Airtel is embarking on another joint venture with Vodafone Essar and Idea Cellular to
       create a new independent tower company called Indus Towers. This new business will control
       more than 60% of India's network towers. IPTV is another potential new service that could
       underpin the company's long-term strategy.

    Threats

   1. Airtel and Vodafone seem to be having an on/off relationship. Vodafone which owned a 5.6%
       stake in the Airtel business sold it back to Airtel, and instead invested in its rival Hutchison
       Essar. Knowledge and technology previously available to Airtel now moves into the hands of
       one of its competitors.
   2. The quickly changing pace of the global telecommunications industry could tempt Airtel to go
       along the acquisition trail which may make it vulnerable if the world goes into recession.
       Perhaps this was an impact upon the decision not to proceed with talks about the potential
       purchase of South Africa's MTN in May 2008. This opened the door for talks between Reliance
       Communication's Anil Ambani and MTN, allowing a competing Indian industrialist to invest in
       the new emerging African telecommunications market.
   3. Bharti Airtel could also be the target for the takeover vision of other global telecommunications
       players that wish to move into the Indian market.

Airtel comes to you from Bharti Airtel Limited, India's largest integrated and the first private telecom
services provider with a footprint in all the 23 telecom circles. Bharti Airtel since its inception has been
at the forefront of technology and has steered the course of the telecom sector in the country with its
world class products and services. The businesses at Bharti Airtel have been structured into three
individual strategic business units (SBU's) - Mobile Services, Airtel Telemedia Services & Enterprise
Services.




                                                    30
CHAPTER – VI

Analysis of the Survey and interpretation




                   31
As per the requirement the overall strategy was divided in certain categories.
   1. Informal interviews were conducted for Airtel special scheme promotion and for sales
          maximization of iBox and PCO.
   2. New subscriber analysis and new outlet opening analysis were done through proper
          questionnaires.
   3. The market analysis was done through informal interviews and also information extracted from
          the retailers by visiting the outlet as mysterious customers.
1. Market Analysis
In the month of April !dea came to the Cuttack market with better offers and with more talk time, free
talk time at a lower cost. They have implemented a better strategy and covered up maximum retail out
lets. They are providing the margin as per the market term (3% to retailers) ,but the most important
thing is that, they are providing Electronic boards to the outlets at instance and spreading information
rapidly among demographic dividend about the free offers. This results a –ve growth in Airtel. As the
FSE’s also complained that the retail outlets prefer !dea and Vodafone rather than Airtel.They were
pushing !dea and Vodafone new sims rather than Airtel.
So, I did a job of Retailers analysis with a team of 3 after consulting with territory manager and with his
proper guidance.
Our objectives are
      •     Finding out the top (Airtel Navaranta awarded) retail outlets and also some other outlets in the
            prime locations of Cuttack region.
      •     Extracting information from them about “At what cost they are selling Airtel sim.
      •     What the retailer prefers to sale (which sim they are trying to push out) by what information
            providing to the customer
These are the thing that I have to extract from the retailers. We worked in team covered up maximum
retailers possible in the given time period (2 days) after making a list of top retailer outlets.
Our approach towards retail out lets to extract information.
     •     Directly going to the shop and asking the sales person about Airtel sim cost with life time
           validity and about the tariff chart of Airtel as customer.
     •     Meeting the shop owner and showing them as we are students of the Revenswa University and
           doing a survey on SSO in Cuttack market. Through this way we extracted the information
           about the retailers’ preference. Got the information on which brand the retailer is trying to
           push out.




                                                       32
•    Going to the shop as a customer and asking for a brand of the sales person’s choice as I need
            cheep network with more talk time.
(All the procedures are informal in nature, no prior questions were made a informal approach was taken
to get the information)
Suggestions after the analysis report to the Territory Manager:
   •       Spread the information among public about the cost of the sim.
   •       Put canopy and sale sim after consulting with retailers.
   •       Sale sim in coaching institutions at cost to company.
Recommendations and Actions on my suggestions:
   •       Put canopy in some prime locations of Cuttack and selling the sim at the cost of Rs 40/- cost to
           company with special recharge voucher(power plus) of Rs 39/- which is valid for 3 months
           instead of 1 month.
   •       Some retailers were taken into consideration and they allowed us to go with the above proposal.
   •       During the promotion we are saying this offer is from the Particular Retailer who has agreed
           with the proposal. That later that Retailer can have customers and will sale the sim and voucher
           at this proposed scheme.
Outcomes:
   •       In the 4 prime locations canopy was setup for 7 consecutive days.
   •       94 SIMs were sold out during this period.
   •       Maximum of the Sims were recharged with Rs 39/- power plus and the retailer got a benefit of
           Rs. 10/- on each recharge.
Overall outcome:
   •       Some Sims were sold out during this period but the overall market remained same as this project
           were done only for 7 days and can not be continued for more period because of high
           atmospheric temp.(over 42 degree centigrade) and high humid condition in Cuttack town.




                                                       33
(Details of the Analysis is provided Bellow)



Overall           Consumer
Report            Preference    Airtel        !dea    Vodafone     Aircel   Smart     BSNL
123               51            14            31      6            12       7         2



         60

         50

         40

         30
                   51
         20
                                         31
         10
                                14                                  12
                                                          6                       7
           0                                                                                  2
                Consumer
                               Airtel    !dea        Vodafone      Aircel       Smart        BSNL
                Preference
      Series1      51           14       31               6         12            7           2

                                                      Series1


Special Scheme Promotion & Analysis:
Looking at the present situation the company has made a special offer for Orissa circle. This offer is for

retailers. The main reason for this offer is to push the retailers to sale Airtel.

Airtel announced that if any retailer will be able to sale more than 1000 sim within 90 days then that

retailer will be awarded with a Hero Honda Passion Plus bike, which costs Rs. 49,000/- in the market.

The company was not going to provide any financial help or promotional help to the retailers. The cost

of a new Airtel sim with Life time is Rs. 40/-. It is cost to the company. The retailers can sale a life time

sim maximum Rs 200/- and minimum amount that they want to sale depends upon them. But they have

to pay Rs.40/- to the company. No product sold to the retailers in credit. So it depends upon the retailer

at what price that they can sale but they have to achieve that target within 90 days. They can only get

the help from Territory Manager. After this scheme the territory manager informed the elite retailers as

well as other retailers and assured them to help. In the Cuttack region 4 elite retailers at first were




                                                              34
interested in this new scheme. I had a task to talk to the retailers behalf of their plan how to sale the sim

with this span of time. To help them in their decision making and for their sales promotion, distribution,

helping them to sale the sim, informing public in that locality on this scheme and to help the retailer to

make their advertisement. Finally informing the Territory manager on the retailers’ activities.

With the team, I managed to convince 4 retailers to accept this scheme. From these 4 outlets 2 were

awarded with Airtel Navaranta. The pricing decision of the SIM was taken by the retail outlet owner

and with Territory, Zonal Manager.

My team was in the task of outlet’s advertisement about their offer in the near by areas and to handle

their sales for the initial days.

                                     Strategy followed for the scheme:

    Objective:

    To convince maximum to maximum numbers of retail outlets to accept this scheme.

    Methodology

    Secondary data: The data was colleted from the Airtel head office in Bhubaneswar. They provided

    all the list of top 18 retail outlets under PK Agency. These outlets are Navaratna awarded.

    Primary Data: Data collected from all the top retail outlets. Through conducting an informal

    interview.

    Methodology:

    1. The entire 18 outlet’s previous 6 months sales were analyzed.

    2. The locations of those outlets were properly studied.

    3. Made one strategy how to help the retailer for their sales promotion.

    (The Territory Manager, PK Agency staffs were cooperated and provided necessary advice for this

    schemes successful implementation)




                                                     35
Strategy followed to convince the retailers:

    1. The scheme was properly informed to the retailer.

    2. Company provided the guaranty of sales promotion for the retailer during initial period.

    3. Company provided the assurance to help the retailer how to implement the scheme that the

        retailer will incur minimum loss and will have the maximum profit.

    Outputs of the Strategy

    1. The ZSM & Territory Manager helped the retailer for their planning and implementation.

    2. The distributor provided the SIMs, documents in proper time and collected the documents twice

        per day.

    3. Company provided canopy to the concerned outlets that they could sale the SIM at near by

        locations.

    4. The company provided the help of Summer Interns to assist the outlets for their sales promotion

        during initial days.

The sales promotion method started with brand name of Airtel. Following steps are followed in the

entire project.

STEPS FOLLOWED
    1. Putting advertisement boards and hording near by locations and putting some posters near by

        shop with their acceptance.

    2. Informing coaching institutions on this offer.

    3. Putting Canopy from 5PM to 10 PM near by prime locations.




                                                   36
Analysis Report in Graphical Presentation:

     1. For New SIM holders:


                                                Less Cost
Number of subscribers




                           400

                           300

                           200

                           100

                             0
                                  SA    A                   N     Dis   S Dis

                        Series1   318   212                 134   109    89
                                                       approval


                                              Regular users


                          300
Subscribers




                          200

                          100

                             0
                                  SA    A                   N     Dis   S Dis

                        Series1   213   178              273      67    131
                                                       Approval




                                                         37
Use it during tim e of need


                                500
            Subscriber




                                 0
                                               SA                 A                    N               Dis           S Dis

                            Series1            409               189                  188              71              5
                                                                                  Approval
                                                                        future propose


                                400
            Subscribers




                                200

                                 0
                                               SA                 A                    N               Dis           S Dis

                            Series1            234               198                  134              187           109
                                                                                    approval




                                                                              Service

                                250

                                200
 u s r es
S b cib r




                                150

                                100

                                 50

                                  0
                                               Airtel          Aircel               !dea        BSNL         Smart           Vodafone
                            Series1             209              187                11           168           198              89
                                                                                    Service profider


                                                                          Network Coverage

                          400

                          300

                          200

                          100

                           0
                                      Airtel            Aircel               !dea              BSNL          Smart           Vodafone

       Series1                        287                123                  16               234            151               51




                                                                                      38
VAS

  250

  200

  150

  100

   50

    0
              Airtel     Aircel    !dea             BSNL   Smart   Vodafone

Series1       201         151       8               158     176      168


                                          Tariff


    400

    300

    200

    100

          0
                Airtel    Aircel    !dea            BSNL   Smart   Vodafone

 Series1          35        179     309              49     123      167




                                    Availability


  200

  150

  100
   50

     0
              Airtel     Aircel    !dea             BSNL   Smart   Vodafone

Series1        150        167      123              142     156      124

                                          Overall


    300


    200


    100


          0
                Airtel    Aircel    !dea            BSNL   Smart   Vodafone

 Series1         256        140      58              196    171       41




                                             39
Analysis and interpretation of survey of new Airtel subscribers:
Objective of the study is to know the new subscribers acknowledgement towards the preference for
Airtel.
Why a customer is interested to be an Airtel subscriber?
What a new subscriber thinks about Airtel was the inherited reasons for interpretation.

(Reason for buying a new Airtel sim)
A. COST of SIM:
          Though the SIMs were sold under a special scheme, so the cost of SIM was less compared to
          other outlets.61% persons agreed that they are buying Airtel sim because the cost of the sim is
          very less* and this is the only reason that they are interested not to miss a chance of buying
          a new sim at this special cost with offer. Where 22% agreed that they need to subscribe Airtel
          sim and 15% stand neutral. So the overall outcome interoperated as the low cost is the main
          reason for the sales of SIMs.
B. Regular Uses:
          From the total sample size that I had taken only 45% of them were agreed that they will
          regularly use the Airtel sim and 46% said that they will keep it and 69% of subscribers were
          agreed that they will have the sim with them and will only use at the time need. From this above
          analysis the outcome is that maximum of the new subscribers will keep the sim with them and
          will use it when it would be needed. Only 45% accepted that they will be a regular user of
          Airtel.

(Where Airtel stands as per new subscribers’ perception)
A. Service:
          Airtel is not considered as a better back door service provider for its subscribers in the market
          though it got a response of 24% (highest response) but its near by competitors are not so far
          behind from it as response for Aircel 21%, 19% for BSNL, 22% for Smart were there. So overall
          interpretation is that Airtel must have to be more customer oriented and to provide better
          customer care facility.
B. Network Coverage:
          33% of subscribers accepted that Airtel provides the best networking in Cuttack and its near by
          interior areas that’s why they have to keep a Airtel sim that they can use it at the time of need.
          Except BSNL (27%) others are not a competitor of Airtel.




                                                     40
C. Tariff and VAS:
       When this particular sector was analyzed Airtel is lagging behind (Tariff). In the month of April
       2009 !dea entered the market with lots of offer and it was responded highly as they were
       providing “(New SIM with Life Time + Rs 50 talk time + power plus(valid for 6 months) +
       Unlimited free talk time !dea to !dea) @ Rs 50”. As the tariff was considered Airtel got only
       .04% response where !dea got a response of 35%. Its overall outcome was that subscribers were
       not happy with Airtel tariff as they said it very costly.
       As VAS is considered Airtel is better than its comparators. Airtel got a response of 23% but
       Vodafone produced a grate challenge as its extensive and expressive promotion during this
       period of April and mid May as the IPL was going on.
D. Availability:
       In this category all the network providers were all most nearly as the maximum responses were
       went to 19% against Airtel’s 17%. The overall out come of this analysis was that either the
       Airtel distributors provide more FSE or increase their salary by a small margin.
(OVERALL outcome from these analysis is that Airtel is a market leader no doubt about it as it
received 29.64% of responses. But it must have to look in certain areas like Tariff and distribution
system and customer cares to gain a better margin than its competitors.)




                                                     41
Analysis for opening New Outlets

                               Satisfied w ith Distribution System




                     23%




                                                                            Agreed
                                                                            Neutral
                                                                      50%
                                                                            Disagreed




                    27%




                                   Maxim um Num ber of Subscribers
                                       6%




                   26%



                                                                             Agreed
                                                                             Neutral
                                                                             Disagreed



                                                                     68%




                                             42
Less Margin




                        30%




                                                                              Agreed
                                                                              Neutral
                                                                              Disagreed
                                                                        57%




                        13%




                                        Dem and in the Market


                                 20%




                                                                     43%
                                                                              Agreed
                                                                              Neutral
                                                                              Disagreed




                              37%




Reasons for a retailer to be an Airtel outlet
1. Demand in the market for Airtel sim and vouchers as the outlets agreed maximum persons are
   asking for Airtel vouchers.
2. Maximum of the retailers also accepted that in market Airtel has maximum number of
   subscribers.
3. Airtel is proving fewer margins compared to other network service providers but most
   subscribers are attached with Airtel a biggest reason for a retail outlet to start this business.




                                                43
4. Many of the present outlets are not happy with the FSE as they are providing the vouchers and
         other products in proper time (distribution problem).
    5. Airtel Company is trying to open more and more outlets but FSEs are not so interested to open
         in a large number as their work load will be more and they have to achieve more target.
    6. In some areas there is significant number of outlets that the individuals business is affected by
         this steep competition.
    7. Some outlets demands electronic add board but distributors are unable to providing in time.
    8. The overall outcome depends upon the “Demand in the market for Airtel” which is driving
         customers towards Airtel.
    9. Maximum of retailers accepted that
               I. Maximum numbers of working professionals are interested for Airtel.
               II. Though Cuttack market is full of business men they also keep an Airtel for their
                   emergency use, not a regular use.
               III. Students are not showing any interested in Airtel, very few responses from them.
    10. Retailers agreed that Airtel is no mort pulling product.
Strategy for Sales of PCO and iBox
    Objective
    Airtel is a market leader in Cuttack in terms of prepaid subscribers. But it faced a real tough
    competition in sales of iBox and PCO sets. I had taken to maximize the iBox and PCO sales as an
    challenge. I had followed certain strategy to sale my products
    1. Scan the market.
    2.   Made a comparative analysis for Airtel product.
    3. Made a SWOT analysis of iBox and PCO.
    4. Collected primary data from outlets (iBox and PCO)
    5.   Spread the information among the outlets about Airtel’s iBox and PCO offer.
   Methodology
   Primary data:
   1. Two types of questionnaires were designed for surveying outlets.
   2. 1st Reliance and TATA Indicom coin box holders were surveyed.
   3. 2nd PCO holders were surveyed.
   4. Airtel iBox and PCO holders were surveyed.




                                                   44
Methodology:
Three different types of surveys were made and their results were properly analyzed then I had made
my strategy how to maximize the sales.
A. 50 TATA Indicom coin box & PCO holders were surveyed.
B. 34 Reliance coin box holders were surveyed.
C. 78 BSNL PCOs were surveyed.
The survey was conducted as an Informal interview process to extract the information from the
outlets.
The main purpose was to make conformation why retail outlets are interested in Airtel iBox & PCO.
The interpretation of survey and analysis
1. TATA Indicom provides better margin. Its calling charges are less compared to others. Better
    quality product and service facility is better. It also provides life time offer.
            (Though it first introduced this operation so it has nearly captured the market leaving
    little space for the competitors)
2. Reliance is not so famous among retailers but its profit margin is better.
3. BSNL pco holders earn maximum profit as per the retailer’s point of view.
Reason of low sales for Airtel iBox / PCO
1. Less margin
2. Late entry into the market.
3. Inactive sales force.(FSEs are not so much interested to maximize this sales)
4. Airtel PCO facing the worst competition from its competitors as only 26 PCO was in the market
    during last 17 moths.
5. Some retailers were interested in Airtel iBox as its profit margin is better.
6. Because of special offer during April 2009 some iBox were sold.
7. Though Airtel is a market leader in terms of prepaid GSM service, this is the only major reason
    taken to be considered for sales maximization of Airtel iBox.




                                                  45
CHAPTER – VII

  CONCLUSION
      &
RECOMMENDATIONS




      46
Conclusion
•   Airtel facing a steep competition in Cuttack Market. It is that Cuttack is the toughest market in
    the Eastern Part of the country. It is difficult to maximize the sale as maximum consumers are
    local business men and they prefer more talk time in their usual tariff.

•   Airtel has a good reputation as a telecom brand in Cuttack.

•   People prefer Airtel in Cuttack because of its network coverage all over the state including rural
    areas.

•   .Only high tariff cost matters in sales maximization.

•   Competitors selling strategy becoming a biggest problem for sales maximization.

•   Retailer benefit schemes as they achieve the target can push more subscribers and maximize
    sales.

•   Retailer margin is not a problem for Airtel in Cuttack.

•   Some retailers bringing in the Vouchers and easy from rural area to Cuttack region to get more
    margins comparatively to urban areas.

•   Retailers are unhappy with Airtel’s advertisement offers because the company is not providing
    them the Electronic Boards in time (for new outlets), banners etc. . . . Where others (new
    entrants) are doing it. So, the other entrants are capable of pushing their sales.




                                                 47
Recommendations
There are following suggestions for marketing strategies for Airtel-
         1. Bharti Airtel needed to maximize its future flexibility and growth potential by adopting
             a business-driven framework for integration, allowing it to implement and deliver new
             services rapidly. With competition intensifying in the Indian telecom services market,
             Bharti Airtel needed to find a way to focus on developing new services that could set it
             apart from the competition and strengthen its customer relationships.
         2. Improved cross-selling and targeting and a more seamless, efficient total customer
             experience through end-to-end integration of customer-facing processes.
         3. Optimization of business processes and infrastructure, through flexible, standardized
             integration framework, is needed.
         4. Outsourcing of technology will provide Bharti Airtel to focus resources on growing the
             business.
Flexible pricing model will enable Bharti Airtel to avoid major increases in capital expenditures




                                                   48
ANNEXURE




   49
Appendix-A
    Questionnaires for opening new outlets
    1.    Are you selling Airtel’s products? (SIM: y/n) (Vouchers: y/n) (Easy recharge: y/n)


                                SIM                 VOUCHER                   EASY RECHARGE

                          Y                N    Y                  N           Y                     N

    2.    (If no then) Are you interested to be an Airtel Retail Outlet? Y / N
    3.    (if no then) You must be aware of Airtel Business.(Requesting the retailer to know the business)
          If I got a positive response then: Complete information provided on Airtel business
          If no: Requested for another time if there is no response I have to leave that outlet.
    4.    If interested for then : Complete information provided on Airtel business
         (If the outlet shows interest for the business. At 1st the information regarding the business provided to the retailer in
         details and after that this questions were asked to analyze why these retailers are showing interest in this business)
    5.    Do you think Airtel provides less margin compared to other service providers.
                     A                          N                      Dis


    6.    Do you think maximum people are asking for Airtel?
                          A                     N                      Dis


    7.    Do you know that Airtel has maximum numbers of customers in Cuttack market? Y / N
    8.    Are you satisfied with Airtel distributor’s service procedure?
    9.    Are you happy with FSE’s service? A/N/Dis
    10. Do you think is it easy to push Airtel. A/Dis
    11. Does the customers ever pulled towards Airtel, Airtel is PUSHING/PULLING
    12. I am not interested with Airtel because
          Low margin: A / N / Dis
         Unsatisfied with FSE: A / N / Dis
         So many retail outlets near by : A / N / Dis
          No credit facility:A / N / Dis
          Airtel does not provide Add boards or support regarding advertisements in time: A / N / Dis
          Selling Vodafone !dea, RIM, Smart, BSNL is more profitable.
    13. I am only interested for sim / lapu / vouchers only in coming period.
    Why…_______________________________________________________________________
    Appendix-B

                                               Questionnaires for New SIM holders:
While selling new SIM I did a comparative analysis on different network service providers regarding customer interest. It




                                                                 50
was also required for my project under market analysis “why one buy Airtel”.
A few questions were asked to new SIM buyers.
                                                                   Questions:
Rate from 1 to 5. Where 5 are minimum and 1 is the maximum value. (Ranking methodology)
                  Service          Network          VAS                Ease of        Tariff           Reliability      Overall
                                   Coverage                            availability

Airtel

Aircel

!dea

BSNL

Smart

Vodafone



       1.   Are you buying now because:
                     a. SIM cost is very less comparatively with other ones?
               SA              A             N               Dis           S Dis
                     b. I will use this SIM regularly.
               SA              A             N               Dis           S Dis


                     c. I will keep it for future purpose.
               SA              A             N               Dis           S Dis
                     d. I will use it only at the time of need, not regularly.
               SA              A             N               Dis           S Dis


       Appendix-C
       Questionnaires for Outlets to accept the scheme (Airtel Company’s staff will help you in sales promotion and pricing?)
                                           (1st the scheme was properly presented to the retailer)
       1.   In which sells you get maximum profits. ______________________________
       2.   Is any telecom company providing you any offer like this before or now? Y / N
       3.   Airtel ever before provide you any offer. Y / N : time:_____________________
       4.   (If yes) did the company employees help you in sales promotion? y/n ________________
       5.   I have accepted this scheme because:_______________________________________




                                                                      51
Bibliography
Books

1. Havalder K.K. and Vasant M.C. (2007), “ Sales and Distribution Management”, Tata McGraw
   Hill, New Delhi

Websites:

1. www.scribd.com
2. www.12manage.com

Journals

1. JMR




                                           52

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17345216 project-in-airtel-at-cuttack

  • 1. Introduction Airtel the biggest telecom player in Indian market in terms of subscribers and revenue. It is operating in 20 regions of the country. From the days of initiation Airtel maintained an image of better networking, better consumer service in terms of CRM and a brand of high image which in other words can be said as Airtel’s USP. In Odissa market Airtel entered in the year of 2004 December and within three years of time it captured a lions share in the market. In some of the major cities Airtel is a market leader. After four years of operation in Odissa market Airtel played a game as it reduces the margin from distributor to retailer because it got the brand loyalty from the subscribers and succeeded with its PULLING strategy in the market also with some highly innovative value added schemes. In particular Cuttack market the Airtel faced a great challenge after the reduction in margin. Lots of strikes were done against company and many retailers refused to sale Airtels’ products and this made Cuttack the toughest market in the Eastern part of the country. It put a challenge in front of the sales team to maximize the sales. Though Airtel has 32% market share in Cuttack but it still facing tough challenge from its rivals. Airtel Subscribers: 1. Total number of subscribers in India is 9, 89, 08, 993. 2. Airtel has a market share of 31.65% of total 29, 93, 49, 436 GSM customers. 3. Airtel has 23 circles in India, has agreement allover the country except North East provision of the Country. 4. Airtel started its operation in Orissa in the year of 2004, 4th Dec. 5. Up to the latest report Airtel has a total 24, 96,023 subscribers in Orissa. Airtel in Cuttack: • Population of Cuttack is nearly 7, 00,000 and 40% of this total population uses mobile phones. • From total mobile subscribers Airtel has a market share of 32%, having highest market share in the Cuttack region. • Airtel has setup 55 BTS (towers), showing its quality and reputation of network coverage. • Over 1620 Retailers (registered up to 6th May 2009) available in this Urban area and many more retailers’ sales Airtel vouchers also (these are not registered). (Those retailers sale Airtel sim are considered to be registered) 1
  • 3. NEED OF THE STUDY Airtel is an old & fastest growing company & leading in the communication market providing ever best possible service to the customers. New & advance facilities & plans are being introduced day by day & those are only to satisfy customers taking care of customers need. OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY 1. To understand the awareness of Airtel products among retailers in the market. 2. To create interest as well as find out the potential new retail outlets 3. To analyze the retailer’s perception towards Airtel 4. To know the satisfaction level of Retailers towards Airtel products and services. 5. To maximize retail outlets through traditional channel that will increase the sales in future. 6. To create more numbers of Airtel subscribers. METHODOLOGY Data collection: Our study used both primary & secondary data. Secondary Data I have collected all the details from the FSEs and the team leader of the PK Agency distributor. Sources of Data 1. PK Agency team leader’s personal data. 2. Territory managers personal report behalf of exploration of business. Primary Data Primary data has been collected from the new retail outlets, existing outlets and new Airtel subscribers. Methodology 1. Meeting all the retailers (Those who are interested to sale Airtel products). 2. Explaining about the business and how to incur profit and giving them competitors’ feedback through one to one interaction. 3. Creating interest to become a new Airtel outlet by showing leaflets of different features. 3
  • 4. 4. Finding out the retailers through schedule method. 5. Convincing & creating interest through pushing strategy. 6. All the procedures were recorded through proper questionnaires. SCOPE OF THE STUDY By this study satisfaction as well as attitude towards the Airtel has been found out, which can be used in strategy formulation in Cuttack, Orissa. 1. Lacking & factor for dissatisfaction has been studied from Retailer point of view which can be taken care & improved. 2. Getting an opportunity to convince & interact with the Retailers. 3. Creating awareness & finding out potential Retailers for Airtel. LIMITATIONS OF THE STUDY At most attention was taken to eliminate any kind of biasness & mis-interpretation in the study to get optimum result. Even though the following limitations could have certain degree of impact on the findings. 1. The study was confined to Cuttack, PK agency only which may not represent the real picture of the entire Cuttack market. 2. Many retailers were not interested in Airtel because of steep competition in the locality among retailers. Data collected about satisfaction & awareness level may not represent the real picture as the sample size covered only 423 retailers. • Type of Research: A descriptive research has been followed for the study • Sampling technique: A cluster sampling has been used for the study. Sample Size: 1. Survey for Retail outlets: 423 2. Survey for New Subscribers: 862 3. Airtel special scheme promotion: 11 4. Survey for iBox and PCO: 134 SCHEDULE DESIGN There were different question patterns were designed for individual tasks and informal interviews were also conducted in case of new scheme promotion. Questions those have been filled by us according to the response of the respondents about the different questions & in the mean while their 4
  • 5. reaction towards the different perceptions towards different communication companies have been observed. There are some general questions to make them comfortable to answer. The parameters that are measured 1. Retailer reliability 2. Customer awareness 3. Customer satisfaction 4. Factor Preference Questions were designed for: 1. Opening up New Retail Outlets 2. New Airtel Subscribers Informal Interviews were followed in case of 1. Special scheme promotion 2. Selling of iBox and PCO. 5
  • 7. COMPANY PROFILE Bharti Airtel Type Public, Listed on BSE Founded 1985 Headquarters New Delhi, India Key people Sunil Mittal (Chairman and CEO) Industry Telecommunication Products Mobile and Fixed-Line Telecommunication operator Revenue $6 Billion Website www.airtel.in Bharti Airtel, formerly known as Bharti Tele Ventures Limited (BTVL) is India's largest and World’s third largest cellular service provider with more than 83 million subscribers as of April 2009. It also offers fixed line services and broadband services. It offers its TELECOM services under the Airtel brand and is headed by Sunil Mittal. The company also provides telephone services and Internet access over DSL in 14 circles. The company complements its mobile, broadband & telephone services with national and international long distance services. The company also has a submarine cable landing station at Chennai, which connects the submarine cable connecting Chennai and Singapore. The company provides end-to-end data and enterprise services to the corporate customers through its nationwide fiber optic backbone, last mile connectivity in fixed-line and mobile circles, VSATs, ISP and international bandwidth access through the gateways and landing station. SingTel owns over 30% of the Bharti Telecom. Bharti Airtel India’s largest integrated and the first private telecom services provider in all the 23 Telecom circles. With its world class products and services, Bharti Airtel since its inception, has been at the forefront of technology and has steered the course of the telecom sector in the country. The businesses at Bharti Airtel are structured into three strategic business units (SBU’s) – Mobile Services, Telemedia Services & Enterprise Services. The Mobile business provides mobile & fixed wireless services using GSM technology across 23 telecom circles, Telemedia Services business offers broadband & telephone services in 94 cities. The Enterprise services provide end-to-end telecom solution to corporate customers and additionally provide national & international long distance services to carriers. We have recently forayed into Media Business by launching our DTH Services in October 2008. All these services are rendered under a unified brand “Airtel”. Bharti Airtel serves over 82mn customers as of October 31, 2008; of whom 80,199,747 subscribe to GSM services and 2,549,043 use 7
  • 8. Telemedia Services either for voice and/or broadband access delivered through DSL. They are the largest wireless service provider in the country, based on the number of subscribers as of October 31, 2008. Bharti Airtel has a dominant position in the GSM services with a market share of 34.5 % as of September 2008. The company also deploys, owns and manages passive infrastructure pertaining to telecom operations under its subsidiary Bharti Infratel Limited. Bharti Infratel owns 42% of Indus Towers Limited. This has been incorporated with an objective to provide “Shared Telecom Infrastructure” to telecom operators across the world on a nondiscriminatory basis. It’s commitment towards continuous innovation will enable optimization of future tower rollout and enhance operational efficiencies and result in substantial cost savings for its customers. The strategy of de-coupling infrastructure and backend processes from the core sales and marketing function was a strategy pioneered by Airtel and then implemented by a number of other companies. Bharti is the “total telecom provider” for India’s large enterprises. It harnesses the power of alliances to combine with ownership of media and technologies to create business-enabling end-to-end solutions. Bharti work closely with their enterprise customers to uniquely address all their strategic connectivity needs, by using a mix application of technologies. The entire organization is tailored to bring focus to our customers’ need through a unique multi-dimensional structure; Airtel’s’ philosophy is “Value Creation” for the customers. Therefore it creates solutions that are flexible, scalable, robust Business process management system which helps in monitoring of output performance of processes in the form of Non Financial Parameters which are reviewed at different levels i.e. Location, Regional, Functional, National and crop office level. Continuous process improvement happens within the organization based on Voice of customers using six sigma methodology and knowledge management. The organization has been in six sigma champions, black belt, green belts, and yellow belts. All AES employees are trained in the strategy, statistical tools and techniques of Six Sigma quality. Business Strategy “To capitalize on the growth opportunities that the company believes are available in the Indian telecommunication market and consolidate its position to be the leading integrated telecommunication services provider in the key market in the India, with a focus on providing mobile services”. • Focus on maximizing revenues and margins. • Capture maximum telecommunication revenue potential with minimum geographical coverage. • Offer multiple telecommunication services to provide customers with a “one-stop shop” 8
  • 9. solution. • Position itself to tap data transmission opportunities and offer advanced mobile data services. • Focus on satisfying and retaining customers by ensuring high level customer satisfaction. • Leverage strengths of its strategic and financial partners. Awards and recognition Bharti Airtel has received recognition for its innovative practices across the world, some are as Follows: • 3rd Largest Wireless Operator In The World, Largest Private Integrated Telecom Company In India, Largest Wireless Operator In India, Largest Private Fixed Line Operator In India, Largest Telecom Company Listed On Indian Stock Exchanges. • Sunil Bharti Mittal, - GSM Association Chairman’s Award 2008, Padma Bhushan Awards In 2007. • Airtel Was Chosen As The 2nd Most Trusted Service Brand In India In The ‘Most Trusted. • Brands 2008 Survey’ Conducted By The Economic Times - Brand Equity • Awarded With Top Honors At The GSM Mobile World Congress Conference 2008 In Barcelona for the Category “Best Billing/ Customer Care Solution.” • Adjudged As the ‘Best Carrier India‘At the Telecom Asia Award 2008, Gallup Great Workplace Award For 2008, Ranked 2nd In the Survey of India’s Most Respected Companies by Business world 2007, Adjudged As ‘Company of the Year’ At the CNBC India Business Leader Awards 2007. • Economic Times ‘Company of the Year 2007’ Award for Corporate Excellence Gallup Great Workplace Award for 2008 -Airtel is one of the only 20 companies worldwide and the only company from India to receive the prestigious award. • After the proposed network expansion, an additional 30,000 towers will result in the company achieving 70% population coverage. • Bharti has over 39 million users as on March 31, 2007, It has set a target of 125 million subscribers by 2010. Prepaid customers account for 88.5% of Bharti’s total subscriber base, an increase from 82.7% a year ago. • ARPU has dropped to Rs 406, Non-voice revenues, (SMS, voice mail, call management, hello tunes and Airtel Live) constituted 10% of total revenues during Q4, lower than 10.7% in the Q4 of the previous year. Blended monthly minutes of usage per customer in Q4 was at 475 minutes. Has completed 100% verification of its subscribers and in the process disconnected three lakh 9
  • 10. (300,000) subscribers Bharti Airtel’s enterprise Services, President - David is busy connecting India to Europe. Airtel Vision “To provide global telecom services and delight customers” By 2010, we want Airtel to be the most admired brand in India. • Loved by more customers • Targeted by top talent • Benchmarked by more business Airtel Mission We will meet the mobile communication needs of our customers through: • Error-free service delivery • Innovate products and services • Cost efficiency • Unified messaging solutions 10
  • 11. CHAPTER – III DISTRIBUTION PROCEDURE & SALES FORCE 11
  • 12. Airtel distribution channel: Airtel (company) Urban Area Rural Area Distributor Rural Super FSE Rural Distributor Retailer FSE Retailer ` Distribution procedure and Margins: In Urban Areas • Airtel directly supply its products to the distributors in Urban Areas through Territory Manager. • Territory Manager distributes the products as per demand for individual distributors, which is scheduled as per the target for the territory. • In urban areas the Margin for the Distributor is 1.3%. • Distributor distributes the products to the FSEs’. Their job is to supply those products to the Retailers. • The Retailers margin is 2.7% (2.5% margin on RCV Rs.10/- and for all other RCVs the margin is 2.7%). In Rural Areas Same procedure is followed in the rural areas but the distribution system is completely different from Urban Area and the Margin is also different. 12
  • 13. Company’s supply system to the territory manager is same procedure as per urban areas. • The products at first distributed to the RS (Rural Super).They have a margin of 0.7%. • Products are supplied from the RS to the RD (Rural Distributors).They have a margin of 1.1%. • As per same Urban system few FSB works under each RD and they supply the products to the individual retailers. • The retailers have a margin of 2.5% and 2.7% ( 2.5% on RCV of Rs. 10/- and 2.7% on other RCVs) So, from this above analysis and distribution channel system, the outcomes are. 1. The company is spending nearly 4% in Urban Areas. 2. In Rural Areas the company is spending a margin nearly 4.5%. (So the company has been taken a great step in sales maximization in rural areas that they will be able to reduce the margin and will not have a loss in rural areas.) Stock system in distribution: The complete stock maintenance procedure is categorically divided in two parts. 1. Stock to be Maintained by Distributor 2. Stock to be Maintained by Retailer In the case of Distributor: The distributor has to keep the LAPU balance for minimum 7 days; Here 35% of the value must be in RCV. In the case of Retailer: The retailer has to keep LAPU balance for 3 days (minimum amount Rs.1500) ; Here 33% of the value must be in RCV. (The FSE visits each Outlet in alternative days whether their is any shortage of product or not. The supply system of Airtel is so strong that a Retailer will never go with shortage of product. It is also a compulsory task for each FSE to go and to ask Retailers whether there is any shortage of product, once in every 2 days.) 13
  • 14. SALES: (The way Airtel sales designed) Selection of Sales Force Controlling of Sales Training of Sales force Manager Sales Force Motivating Of sales force Selection of sales force- They recruited separate department for sales and work of those employee is to get or generate more and more revenue for organization. Training of Sales Force – After Recruitment they are trained their employee for effective working and in this training period they guided employee. How, when, where, what .and to whom we they can sale their product. Motivating of sales force – If because of some reason any employee is not able to do their best performance in that case rather than any action they use motivation as a tool for increasing morale of that employee. Controlling of sales Force – They also control the sales force because they know the importance of control system in organization. They are using these entire four step for decide their sales force and each step they are also Check they are doing right things or not and if they thing changes are needed than they revised whole process again. That’s why we can see the difference between Airtel sales growth and other challenger and follower. Sales Force Automation- A sale force automation solution (SFA) is a system that automatically records all the stages in a sales process. This includes a contact management system which tracks all contact that has been made with a given customer, the purpose of the contact, and any follow up that might be required. 14
  • 15. What to get- Ensures that your sales effort doesn’t get duplicated thereby eliminating the risk of irate customers. Sales lead tracking system creates a list of potential customers or customers of related products, through paid phone lists. Fully integrated in all departments that deal with customer service management. How it benefits Airtel sales team- For your business: your sales team can approach the market in an organized and efficient manner. For your managers: now monitor the performance of your work force, solve potential problems and make your people more proactive. For your sales teams: now it’s easier to close a deal by keeping a track of your orders, proposals and clients. 15
  • 16. CHAPTER – IV Products of Airtel, Outlet categorize & Target setting 16
  • 17. Products of Airtel SIM (Security Identification Module) • The base product of company, required for new subscriber. Now Airtel provides this sim with 64kb memory. • The cost of sim to company is Rs 40/- with life time option. The sim is provided to the company at free of cost which the retailer can sale at maximum Rs 100/- . LAPU: A SIM is provided to retailers from the company at free of cost for providing easy recharge service. Only regular retailers have this facility. This SIM has a memory of 128kb and specially designed for easy recharge purpose. A retailer has minimum 5 easy recharge customers per month, failuring this target the SIM will be automatically deactivated. This SIM has also Rs 300 talk time free Airtel to Airtel. • PRIMARY (The products those are supplied to the distributor from the company is said to be Primary) • SECONDARY(The products supplied to the Retailers from the Distributors through FSEs is said to be Secondary) • TERTIARY(Here the Retailer sold the products to the customers) Recharge voucher: • In Every 1000 rupees of easy recharge the retailer must have to keep 33% of paper vouchers where the distributor has to keep 35%. • Recharge vouchers are available at different costs from Rs 10/- on words and easy recharges are available from Rs 30/- on words. • Paper voucher is maximum available up to Rs 120/- where easy recharge is available up to RS 10,000/-. Airtel PCO & iBox: Airtel is also providing the PCO services in Cuttack region. They provide this facility in two ways. 1. iBox (Coin Box) 2. PCO (like BSNL land line facility) Airtel PCO As the PCO of Airtel is divided in two categories and as per the category their is significant price differentiation also available. The cost of the Airtel or Coin box is Rs. 2985/- 17
  • 18. The cost of the Airtel PCO is Rs. 1985/- These are the cost to the distributor (minimum selling amount). Airtel PCO scheme: • Monthly Recharge scheme: Here the retailer has to recharge the PCO monthly wise. The cost of the recharge voucher per month is Rs.400/- and its validity is for 30 days. At this cost of recharge the talk time is Rs.356/-. • .Airtel also provides the facility for the one year recharge. The cost of the recharge voucher is Rs.600/-.Though the validity period for this recharge is 1 year but Airtel dose not provide any talk time on this. In this recharge voucher the talk time is 0.Here Airtel provides Top up facility for further recharge .The cost of the recharge is Rs 200/- , here the retailer will get a talk time balance of Rs. 178/- where there will be free offer the retailer will get, that is Airtel to Airtel free talk time of Rs. 500/-. • If the retailer will loose its recharge period then he will be unable to call through the PCO.A situation where there will be no connection. At this situation the company provides a special voucher, named “Validity extension” voucher. Here the cost of the voucher is Rs.51 and it is valid for 10days. Promotional Offer for PCO and iBox (Coin box) during April 2009: • When any new retailer will have a new connection. At the installation cost, he will have a talk time of Rs. 500/- as main balance valid for a month. And will have a balance of Rs.1500/- Airtel to Airtel valid for next 6 months. • In the month of April Airtel provided a special offer on PCO for their sales maximization in PCO. Here the special offer is that “Reduction the in cost of the Annual Recharge Voucher”. Before this scheme the cost of the Airtel annual voucher was Rs.600/-, and during this offer the company provided this voucher at the cost of RS. 400/-. PCO Sales Problems: Stiff competition from TATA INDICOM, RIM, BSNL TATA is preferred as it has less investment comparatively to Airtel and RIM (All of us mobile phones so why should I install a coin box. Maintenance problem occurs a lot with Airtel as the service provider is unable to do so.) (The company made a calculation that if any retailer will have minimum 9 customers for PCO/iBox 18
  • 19. then retailer will reach to the break even point on his investment. The next one will be his profit.) ( HERE DETAILS OF THE PCO & iBox IS PROVIDED.) Table: 1 iBox Pricing and PCO pricing Parameter PCO Phone iBox Customer Price 1984 2975 FAT(A2A) 1000 1500 FAT(A2All) 500 500 Total Talk Time 1500 2000 total coin collection @ 0.67 paisa 2239 2985 effective cost to operator -240 315 Validity main A/C (months) 1 1 Validity dedicated (months) 4 6 Voucher denominations PCO section Maximum Service price Rs 398 598 1398 19
  • 20. decrement local Rs 0.67 0.67 0.67 talk time 354 532 1244 Roi % 33 33 33 validity days 30 45 60 iBox talk time 356 178 Roi % 33 33 validity days 30 0 Operator price 400 200 Table: 2 Comparison of Airtel iBox with other operators Parameter BSNL TATA RIM Airtel Security deposit Y Y Y N time hrs * 72 72 72 7000 to investment 8000 3000 2222 lowest investment paper rcv post paid voucher Paper voucher easy recharge Top ups N N n Y Rs 100 for 10 validity next N days n Y quality of ocb na Local Local Visiontek ccb cases soled through service * 48 48 - 72 phone and sms battery N Y Y Y space required more M M little as all integrated ISD in ccb N N N 20
  • 21. Features of iBox • 16*1 back light LCD • Inbuilt fwt + 4.5 ah battery • Automatic coin collection on call maturity • Programmable 1,2,3 coin options • Network sim and bts locking provision • Low power consumption. Battery back up 4 to 5 hrs • Incoming call restriction • Battery low message on lcd • Caller id PCO 1. Call charges are displayed on the screen 2. billing printer support (optional) 3. booth display support (optional) 4. daily ,monthly, yearly call reports 5. last 200 call details (date/time/value of the call) 6. limit/no limit calling mode 7. long beep at the start and end of the call 8. Internal battery with 2-3 hrs and stand by time of rs 6 hrs. 9. external adapter cum charger 10. polyphonic ring tones 11. Airtel logo and tune at the time of booting the phones. 12. hands free speaker phone 13. phone book Airtel Retail Outlet Retail Outlet means those shops which sales Airtel products (SIM, vouchers).Airtel maintains a category for its retail outlets. In Cuttack there are total 1620 outlets which registered, 432 iBox and 67 PCO (Up to 10th May 2009) Airtel Navaratna: The “Airtel NAVARATNA” award is a special way to encourage and appreciate the retailer’s performance. This award is given to those retailers who are capable of doing a business of Rs.50, 000/- and above with 50 or more SSO activation. It is mandatory to achieve both parameters to be awarded. 21
  • 22. (The company puts a sales target of 10% increment on each current month’s sales) Competition margin in the Cuttack market for all the Service Providers. The margin has lots of importance because as per this the Company can have more number of Retail Outlets, through which the sale can be pushed. Retailer’s margin compared with other service providers Table: 3 a. Types of outlets b. Margin a. CATEGORY WISE MOVEMENT(Types of Outlets) Outlet Type as per (Outlet Type as Per Turn over monthly) SSO(sale/activation) SSO Outlet Type Turn Over in Rs. Type Number of Activation Cat A >1,50.000 S1 75+ Cat B 60,000 to 1,50,000 S2 50 to 74 Cat C 30,000 to 60,000 S3 30 to 49 Cat D 15,000 to 30,000 S4 11 to 29 Cat E <15,000 S5 5 to 10 S6 1 to 4 22
  • 23. b. COMPETION MARGINS( for Urban) OPERATOR DISTRIBUTOR RETAILER DISTRIBUTOR(PCO) RETAILER(PCO) Airtel 1.3 2.7 1.3 2.5 Vodafone 1.5 3 Aircel 2 5 BSNL 1.5 4 TATA 1.8 3 2 RIM 1.5 3 RTL 1 3 Virgin !dea 3 (Airtel has 32% market share in Cuttack market) Airtel in Cuttack Market Number of distributor in Cuttack: In Cuttack region there are total 4 distributors. (Table: 4) Name of the Distributor Number of FSE PK Agency 8 JD Distributor 4 Kamala Agency 2 Tirupati Distributor(Choudwar) 1 23
  • 24. PK agency has the maximum area coverage in Cuttack region. I have analyzed its FSE’s target and achievement. Table: 5 FSE Achievement (April 09) PK AGENCY REPORT(Airtel Distributor ,Cuttack Region) NAME Activation Revenue LSO SSO New O/Lt PCO Prasanna 295 99 65 0 0 Chitta 333 108 73 0 0 Ranjan 511 74 41 0 0 Prafulla 226 85 65 0 0 Ananta 182 78 51 0 0 Samir 95 82 44 0 0 Pradip 113 57 43 0 0 Sing 361 92 73 0 0 Total 2116 675 455 0 0 Total revenue earned in the month of April 2009 is Rs 1.023 core. (Exact amount not provided) On 8th April 2009 !dea entered into the Cuttack market and started pushing their products. Though !dea sold at very low price with lots of facilities with a aggressive sales force and with advertisement they started an immediate response from new subscribers and from students this caused a decrease in Airtel’s sales and creating new subscribers. Airtel miserably failed to achieve their target and they achieved the 17% less than the target of previous month March 2009. Target setup for month of May with some new offers and aggressive selling strategy. As per the sales strategy there is a 10% hike in each individual’s target from previous month. 24
  • 25. Here the target for PK agency is provided bellow: Table: 6 Current Month Target(May 2009) PK AGENCY REPORT(Airtel Distributor ,Cuttack Region) NAME Activation Revenue LSO SSO New O/Lt PCO Prasanna 541 1814990 119 78 20 3 Chitta 547 2037136 130 88 22 3 Ranjan 798 1584210 89 49 15 3 Prafulla 441 2048090 102 78 17 3 Ananta 391 1259201 94 61 16 3 Samir 176 920727.1 98 53 16 3 Pradip 167 914150.6 68 52 11 3 Sing 557 1403274 110 90 18 3 Total 3618 11981778.7 810 549 135 24 Target for the interns during SIP (in Cuttack region): Table: 7 Target & Achievement During SIP NAME College NEW OUTLETS PCO iBox Target Achieved Target Achieved Target Achieved Pradeepta IPE, Hyderabad 75 52 5 0 15 13 I have worked for 6 weeks SSO locations Target Sold SIM Sold Through Canopy (7 days) 60 94 Turning Point (7 days) 100 163 Mobile & Mobile (5days) 50 39 Jaidurga Communication (7 days) 210 287 Nigam International (14 days) 480 839 25
  • 26. Total 900 1422 SSO, It was a group task where other targets were individual (In a weak 15 new outlets, 1 PCOs and 3 iBoxs were the target for the interns) Minimum cost of an iBox was Rs 2975/- and cost of PCO was Rs 1975/-. A new outlet has to take minimum vouchers of cost Rs 1000/-. Sales of SSO were under a special scheme. (This scheme can not be mentioned on the project report but can be discussed with internal/external Guide and at the time of presentation) SIM activation procedure: (During training I had informed and demonstrated this procedure to the new outlets) SIM is provided by the company to the distributor and the distributors’ supplies the sim as per individual Retailers demand. The sim initially is not activated, after any subscriber bought this sim then the retailer uses a special procedure through its LAPU sim to activate that sim. But during recent scenario maximum retailers are supplying activated sims to the retailers that the new subscriber can easily use the new sim without any delay in the service. To activate the sim following procedure is followed Step1: The retailer sends a sms through the LAPU. UN (space) Mobile Num to 59109 Step 2: This sms reaches to 59109 (technical section) and then 3 new sms comes in return one to Retailer, next one to FSE and the last one to the Distributor. Step 3: Then the distributor send a new sms. UN (space) Mob Num to 59110 After this the new sim will be activated and will be ready to use. As now a day in the Cuttack market the distributors are providing retailers activated Sims. If any new person will subscribe the to a new connection the retailer provides him the way to activate the sim. The new subscriber can only get this sim after paying the cost of sim, providing necessary and original documents required and after getting the confidence of the retailer that the provided documents are valid. After the new subscriber bought the sim, 1st that person has to insert the sim in the mobile phone and then has to call 123, (Airtel customer service number (toll free)). Then the sim will be automatically activated and will be ready to use. 26
  • 27. Necessary Documents for New Subscription: 1. The new subscriber must have to be an Indian citizen. 2. He/She has to give one latest his/her photo. 3. Any valid document showing his nativity or residential proofs like Pass Port, DL, Voter ID , home electricity or phone bill(land line, BSNL preferred) etc. Actions on Fake documents: 1. If the documents are known to be fake or doubtful then the connection will be cutoff immediately. 2. Legal action can be taken against the retailer or the distributor for this negligence. How to check the authenticity of the sim and the number at the distributor/retailer level: Sometimes the AEAF contains some error on the sim number or mobile number. The retailer or the distributor can directly check the authenticity of this trough special Airtel service. They can do a sms to know this. By using this service they can get the conformation on the sim and mobile number at the basic level. Seek (space) Mobile num/sim num to 59300 27
  • 28. CHAPTER – V SWOT ANALYSIS 28
  • 29. SWOT Analysis Strengths 1. Bharti Airtel has more than 71 million customers. It is the largest cellular provider in India, and also supplies broadband and telephone services - as well as many other telecommunications services to both domestic and corporate customers. 2. Other stakeholders in Bharti Airtel include Sony-Ericsson, Nokia - and Sing Tel, with whom they hold a strategic alliance. This means that the business has access to knowledge and technology from other parts of the telecommunications world. 3. The company has covered the entire Indian nation with its network. This has underpinned its large and rising customer base. Weaknesses 1. An often cited original weakness is that when the business was started by Sunil Bharti Mittal over 15 years ago, the business has little knowledge and experience of how a cellular telephone system actually worked. So the start-up business had to outsource to industry experts in the field. 2. Until recently Airtel did not own its own towers, which was a particular strength of some of its competitors such as Hutchison Essar. Towers are important if your company wishes to provide wide coverage nationally. 3. The fact that the Airtel has not pulled off a deal with South Africa's MTN could signal the lack of any real emerging market investment opportunity for the business once the Indian market has become mature. Opportunities 1. The company possesses a customized version of the Google search engine which will enhance broadband services to customers. The tie-up with Google can only enhance the Airtel brand, and also provides advertising opportunities in Indian for Google. 2. Global telecommunications and new technology brands see Airtel as a key strategic player in the Indian market. The new iPhone will be launched in India via an Airtel distributorship. Another strategic partnership is held with Blackberry Wireless Solutions. 3. Despite being forced to outsource much of its technical operations in the early days, this allowed Airtel to work from its own blank sheet of paper, and to question industry approaches and 29
  • 30. practices - for example replacing the Revenue-Per-Customer model with a Revenue-Per-Minute model which is better suited to India, as the company moved into small and remote villages and towns. 4. The company is investing in its operation in 120,000 to 160,000 small villages every year. It sees that less well-off consumers may only be able to afford a few tens of Rupees per call, and also so that the business benefits are scalable - using its 'Matchbox' strategy. 5. Bharti Airtel is embarking on another joint venture with Vodafone Essar and Idea Cellular to create a new independent tower company called Indus Towers. This new business will control more than 60% of India's network towers. IPTV is another potential new service that could underpin the company's long-term strategy. Threats 1. Airtel and Vodafone seem to be having an on/off relationship. Vodafone which owned a 5.6% stake in the Airtel business sold it back to Airtel, and instead invested in its rival Hutchison Essar. Knowledge and technology previously available to Airtel now moves into the hands of one of its competitors. 2. The quickly changing pace of the global telecommunications industry could tempt Airtel to go along the acquisition trail which may make it vulnerable if the world goes into recession. Perhaps this was an impact upon the decision not to proceed with talks about the potential purchase of South Africa's MTN in May 2008. This opened the door for talks between Reliance Communication's Anil Ambani and MTN, allowing a competing Indian industrialist to invest in the new emerging African telecommunications market. 3. Bharti Airtel could also be the target for the takeover vision of other global telecommunications players that wish to move into the Indian market. Airtel comes to you from Bharti Airtel Limited, India's largest integrated and the first private telecom services provider with a footprint in all the 23 telecom circles. Bharti Airtel since its inception has been at the forefront of technology and has steered the course of the telecom sector in the country with its world class products and services. The businesses at Bharti Airtel have been structured into three individual strategic business units (SBU's) - Mobile Services, Airtel Telemedia Services & Enterprise Services. 30
  • 31. CHAPTER – VI Analysis of the Survey and interpretation 31
  • 32. As per the requirement the overall strategy was divided in certain categories. 1. Informal interviews were conducted for Airtel special scheme promotion and for sales maximization of iBox and PCO. 2. New subscriber analysis and new outlet opening analysis were done through proper questionnaires. 3. The market analysis was done through informal interviews and also information extracted from the retailers by visiting the outlet as mysterious customers. 1. Market Analysis In the month of April !dea came to the Cuttack market with better offers and with more talk time, free talk time at a lower cost. They have implemented a better strategy and covered up maximum retail out lets. They are providing the margin as per the market term (3% to retailers) ,but the most important thing is that, they are providing Electronic boards to the outlets at instance and spreading information rapidly among demographic dividend about the free offers. This results a –ve growth in Airtel. As the FSE’s also complained that the retail outlets prefer !dea and Vodafone rather than Airtel.They were pushing !dea and Vodafone new sims rather than Airtel. So, I did a job of Retailers analysis with a team of 3 after consulting with territory manager and with his proper guidance. Our objectives are • Finding out the top (Airtel Navaranta awarded) retail outlets and also some other outlets in the prime locations of Cuttack region. • Extracting information from them about “At what cost they are selling Airtel sim. • What the retailer prefers to sale (which sim they are trying to push out) by what information providing to the customer These are the thing that I have to extract from the retailers. We worked in team covered up maximum retailers possible in the given time period (2 days) after making a list of top retailer outlets. Our approach towards retail out lets to extract information. • Directly going to the shop and asking the sales person about Airtel sim cost with life time validity and about the tariff chart of Airtel as customer. • Meeting the shop owner and showing them as we are students of the Revenswa University and doing a survey on SSO in Cuttack market. Through this way we extracted the information about the retailers’ preference. Got the information on which brand the retailer is trying to push out. 32
  • 33. Going to the shop as a customer and asking for a brand of the sales person’s choice as I need cheep network with more talk time. (All the procedures are informal in nature, no prior questions were made a informal approach was taken to get the information) Suggestions after the analysis report to the Territory Manager: • Spread the information among public about the cost of the sim. • Put canopy and sale sim after consulting with retailers. • Sale sim in coaching institutions at cost to company. Recommendations and Actions on my suggestions: • Put canopy in some prime locations of Cuttack and selling the sim at the cost of Rs 40/- cost to company with special recharge voucher(power plus) of Rs 39/- which is valid for 3 months instead of 1 month. • Some retailers were taken into consideration and they allowed us to go with the above proposal. • During the promotion we are saying this offer is from the Particular Retailer who has agreed with the proposal. That later that Retailer can have customers and will sale the sim and voucher at this proposed scheme. Outcomes: • In the 4 prime locations canopy was setup for 7 consecutive days. • 94 SIMs were sold out during this period. • Maximum of the Sims were recharged with Rs 39/- power plus and the retailer got a benefit of Rs. 10/- on each recharge. Overall outcome: • Some Sims were sold out during this period but the overall market remained same as this project were done only for 7 days and can not be continued for more period because of high atmospheric temp.(over 42 degree centigrade) and high humid condition in Cuttack town. 33
  • 34. (Details of the Analysis is provided Bellow) Overall Consumer Report Preference Airtel !dea Vodafone Aircel Smart BSNL 123 51 14 31 6 12 7 2 60 50 40 30 51 20 31 10 14 12 6 7 0 2 Consumer Airtel !dea Vodafone Aircel Smart BSNL Preference Series1 51 14 31 6 12 7 2 Series1 Special Scheme Promotion & Analysis: Looking at the present situation the company has made a special offer for Orissa circle. This offer is for retailers. The main reason for this offer is to push the retailers to sale Airtel. Airtel announced that if any retailer will be able to sale more than 1000 sim within 90 days then that retailer will be awarded with a Hero Honda Passion Plus bike, which costs Rs. 49,000/- in the market. The company was not going to provide any financial help or promotional help to the retailers. The cost of a new Airtel sim with Life time is Rs. 40/-. It is cost to the company. The retailers can sale a life time sim maximum Rs 200/- and minimum amount that they want to sale depends upon them. But they have to pay Rs.40/- to the company. No product sold to the retailers in credit. So it depends upon the retailer at what price that they can sale but they have to achieve that target within 90 days. They can only get the help from Territory Manager. After this scheme the territory manager informed the elite retailers as well as other retailers and assured them to help. In the Cuttack region 4 elite retailers at first were 34
  • 35. interested in this new scheme. I had a task to talk to the retailers behalf of their plan how to sale the sim with this span of time. To help them in their decision making and for their sales promotion, distribution, helping them to sale the sim, informing public in that locality on this scheme and to help the retailer to make their advertisement. Finally informing the Territory manager on the retailers’ activities. With the team, I managed to convince 4 retailers to accept this scheme. From these 4 outlets 2 were awarded with Airtel Navaranta. The pricing decision of the SIM was taken by the retail outlet owner and with Territory, Zonal Manager. My team was in the task of outlet’s advertisement about their offer in the near by areas and to handle their sales for the initial days. Strategy followed for the scheme: Objective: To convince maximum to maximum numbers of retail outlets to accept this scheme. Methodology Secondary data: The data was colleted from the Airtel head office in Bhubaneswar. They provided all the list of top 18 retail outlets under PK Agency. These outlets are Navaratna awarded. Primary Data: Data collected from all the top retail outlets. Through conducting an informal interview. Methodology: 1. The entire 18 outlet’s previous 6 months sales were analyzed. 2. The locations of those outlets were properly studied. 3. Made one strategy how to help the retailer for their sales promotion. (The Territory Manager, PK Agency staffs were cooperated and provided necessary advice for this schemes successful implementation) 35
  • 36. Strategy followed to convince the retailers: 1. The scheme was properly informed to the retailer. 2. Company provided the guaranty of sales promotion for the retailer during initial period. 3. Company provided the assurance to help the retailer how to implement the scheme that the retailer will incur minimum loss and will have the maximum profit. Outputs of the Strategy 1. The ZSM & Territory Manager helped the retailer for their planning and implementation. 2. The distributor provided the SIMs, documents in proper time and collected the documents twice per day. 3. Company provided canopy to the concerned outlets that they could sale the SIM at near by locations. 4. The company provided the help of Summer Interns to assist the outlets for their sales promotion during initial days. The sales promotion method started with brand name of Airtel. Following steps are followed in the entire project. STEPS FOLLOWED 1. Putting advertisement boards and hording near by locations and putting some posters near by shop with their acceptance. 2. Informing coaching institutions on this offer. 3. Putting Canopy from 5PM to 10 PM near by prime locations. 36
  • 37. Analysis Report in Graphical Presentation: 1. For New SIM holders: Less Cost Number of subscribers 400 300 200 100 0 SA A N Dis S Dis Series1 318 212 134 109 89 approval Regular users 300 Subscribers 200 100 0 SA A N Dis S Dis Series1 213 178 273 67 131 Approval 37
  • 38. Use it during tim e of need 500 Subscriber 0 SA A N Dis S Dis Series1 409 189 188 71 5 Approval future propose 400 Subscribers 200 0 SA A N Dis S Dis Series1 234 198 134 187 109 approval Service 250 200 u s r es S b cib r 150 100 50 0 Airtel Aircel !dea BSNL Smart Vodafone Series1 209 187 11 168 198 89 Service profider Network Coverage 400 300 200 100 0 Airtel Aircel !dea BSNL Smart Vodafone Series1 287 123 16 234 151 51 38
  • 39. VAS 250 200 150 100 50 0 Airtel Aircel !dea BSNL Smart Vodafone Series1 201 151 8 158 176 168 Tariff 400 300 200 100 0 Airtel Aircel !dea BSNL Smart Vodafone Series1 35 179 309 49 123 167 Availability 200 150 100 50 0 Airtel Aircel !dea BSNL Smart Vodafone Series1 150 167 123 142 156 124 Overall 300 200 100 0 Airtel Aircel !dea BSNL Smart Vodafone Series1 256 140 58 196 171 41 39
  • 40. Analysis and interpretation of survey of new Airtel subscribers: Objective of the study is to know the new subscribers acknowledgement towards the preference for Airtel. Why a customer is interested to be an Airtel subscriber? What a new subscriber thinks about Airtel was the inherited reasons for interpretation. (Reason for buying a new Airtel sim) A. COST of SIM: Though the SIMs were sold under a special scheme, so the cost of SIM was less compared to other outlets.61% persons agreed that they are buying Airtel sim because the cost of the sim is very less* and this is the only reason that they are interested not to miss a chance of buying a new sim at this special cost with offer. Where 22% agreed that they need to subscribe Airtel sim and 15% stand neutral. So the overall outcome interoperated as the low cost is the main reason for the sales of SIMs. B. Regular Uses: From the total sample size that I had taken only 45% of them were agreed that they will regularly use the Airtel sim and 46% said that they will keep it and 69% of subscribers were agreed that they will have the sim with them and will only use at the time need. From this above analysis the outcome is that maximum of the new subscribers will keep the sim with them and will use it when it would be needed. Only 45% accepted that they will be a regular user of Airtel. (Where Airtel stands as per new subscribers’ perception) A. Service: Airtel is not considered as a better back door service provider for its subscribers in the market though it got a response of 24% (highest response) but its near by competitors are not so far behind from it as response for Aircel 21%, 19% for BSNL, 22% for Smart were there. So overall interpretation is that Airtel must have to be more customer oriented and to provide better customer care facility. B. Network Coverage: 33% of subscribers accepted that Airtel provides the best networking in Cuttack and its near by interior areas that’s why they have to keep a Airtel sim that they can use it at the time of need. Except BSNL (27%) others are not a competitor of Airtel. 40
  • 41. C. Tariff and VAS: When this particular sector was analyzed Airtel is lagging behind (Tariff). In the month of April 2009 !dea entered the market with lots of offer and it was responded highly as they were providing “(New SIM with Life Time + Rs 50 talk time + power plus(valid for 6 months) + Unlimited free talk time !dea to !dea) @ Rs 50”. As the tariff was considered Airtel got only .04% response where !dea got a response of 35%. Its overall outcome was that subscribers were not happy with Airtel tariff as they said it very costly. As VAS is considered Airtel is better than its comparators. Airtel got a response of 23% but Vodafone produced a grate challenge as its extensive and expressive promotion during this period of April and mid May as the IPL was going on. D. Availability: In this category all the network providers were all most nearly as the maximum responses were went to 19% against Airtel’s 17%. The overall out come of this analysis was that either the Airtel distributors provide more FSE or increase their salary by a small margin. (OVERALL outcome from these analysis is that Airtel is a market leader no doubt about it as it received 29.64% of responses. But it must have to look in certain areas like Tariff and distribution system and customer cares to gain a better margin than its competitors.) 41
  • 42. Analysis for opening New Outlets Satisfied w ith Distribution System 23% Agreed Neutral 50% Disagreed 27% Maxim um Num ber of Subscribers 6% 26% Agreed Neutral Disagreed 68% 42
  • 43. Less Margin 30% Agreed Neutral Disagreed 57% 13% Dem and in the Market 20% 43% Agreed Neutral Disagreed 37% Reasons for a retailer to be an Airtel outlet 1. Demand in the market for Airtel sim and vouchers as the outlets agreed maximum persons are asking for Airtel vouchers. 2. Maximum of the retailers also accepted that in market Airtel has maximum number of subscribers. 3. Airtel is proving fewer margins compared to other network service providers but most subscribers are attached with Airtel a biggest reason for a retail outlet to start this business. 43
  • 44. 4. Many of the present outlets are not happy with the FSE as they are providing the vouchers and other products in proper time (distribution problem). 5. Airtel Company is trying to open more and more outlets but FSEs are not so interested to open in a large number as their work load will be more and they have to achieve more target. 6. In some areas there is significant number of outlets that the individuals business is affected by this steep competition. 7. Some outlets demands electronic add board but distributors are unable to providing in time. 8. The overall outcome depends upon the “Demand in the market for Airtel” which is driving customers towards Airtel. 9. Maximum of retailers accepted that I. Maximum numbers of working professionals are interested for Airtel. II. Though Cuttack market is full of business men they also keep an Airtel for their emergency use, not a regular use. III. Students are not showing any interested in Airtel, very few responses from them. 10. Retailers agreed that Airtel is no mort pulling product. Strategy for Sales of PCO and iBox Objective Airtel is a market leader in Cuttack in terms of prepaid subscribers. But it faced a real tough competition in sales of iBox and PCO sets. I had taken to maximize the iBox and PCO sales as an challenge. I had followed certain strategy to sale my products 1. Scan the market. 2. Made a comparative analysis for Airtel product. 3. Made a SWOT analysis of iBox and PCO. 4. Collected primary data from outlets (iBox and PCO) 5. Spread the information among the outlets about Airtel’s iBox and PCO offer. Methodology Primary data: 1. Two types of questionnaires were designed for surveying outlets. 2. 1st Reliance and TATA Indicom coin box holders were surveyed. 3. 2nd PCO holders were surveyed. 4. Airtel iBox and PCO holders were surveyed. 44
  • 45. Methodology: Three different types of surveys were made and their results were properly analyzed then I had made my strategy how to maximize the sales. A. 50 TATA Indicom coin box & PCO holders were surveyed. B. 34 Reliance coin box holders were surveyed. C. 78 BSNL PCOs were surveyed. The survey was conducted as an Informal interview process to extract the information from the outlets. The main purpose was to make conformation why retail outlets are interested in Airtel iBox & PCO. The interpretation of survey and analysis 1. TATA Indicom provides better margin. Its calling charges are less compared to others. Better quality product and service facility is better. It also provides life time offer. (Though it first introduced this operation so it has nearly captured the market leaving little space for the competitors) 2. Reliance is not so famous among retailers but its profit margin is better. 3. BSNL pco holders earn maximum profit as per the retailer’s point of view. Reason of low sales for Airtel iBox / PCO 1. Less margin 2. Late entry into the market. 3. Inactive sales force.(FSEs are not so much interested to maximize this sales) 4. Airtel PCO facing the worst competition from its competitors as only 26 PCO was in the market during last 17 moths. 5. Some retailers were interested in Airtel iBox as its profit margin is better. 6. Because of special offer during April 2009 some iBox were sold. 7. Though Airtel is a market leader in terms of prepaid GSM service, this is the only major reason taken to be considered for sales maximization of Airtel iBox. 45
  • 46. CHAPTER – VII CONCLUSION & RECOMMENDATIONS 46
  • 47. Conclusion • Airtel facing a steep competition in Cuttack Market. It is that Cuttack is the toughest market in the Eastern Part of the country. It is difficult to maximize the sale as maximum consumers are local business men and they prefer more talk time in their usual tariff. • Airtel has a good reputation as a telecom brand in Cuttack. • People prefer Airtel in Cuttack because of its network coverage all over the state including rural areas. • .Only high tariff cost matters in sales maximization. • Competitors selling strategy becoming a biggest problem for sales maximization. • Retailer benefit schemes as they achieve the target can push more subscribers and maximize sales. • Retailer margin is not a problem for Airtel in Cuttack. • Some retailers bringing in the Vouchers and easy from rural area to Cuttack region to get more margins comparatively to urban areas. • Retailers are unhappy with Airtel’s advertisement offers because the company is not providing them the Electronic Boards in time (for new outlets), banners etc. . . . Where others (new entrants) are doing it. So, the other entrants are capable of pushing their sales. 47
  • 48. Recommendations There are following suggestions for marketing strategies for Airtel- 1. Bharti Airtel needed to maximize its future flexibility and growth potential by adopting a business-driven framework for integration, allowing it to implement and deliver new services rapidly. With competition intensifying in the Indian telecom services market, Bharti Airtel needed to find a way to focus on developing new services that could set it apart from the competition and strengthen its customer relationships. 2. Improved cross-selling and targeting and a more seamless, efficient total customer experience through end-to-end integration of customer-facing processes. 3. Optimization of business processes and infrastructure, through flexible, standardized integration framework, is needed. 4. Outsourcing of technology will provide Bharti Airtel to focus resources on growing the business. Flexible pricing model will enable Bharti Airtel to avoid major increases in capital expenditures 48
  • 49. ANNEXURE 49
  • 50. Appendix-A Questionnaires for opening new outlets 1. Are you selling Airtel’s products? (SIM: y/n) (Vouchers: y/n) (Easy recharge: y/n) SIM VOUCHER EASY RECHARGE Y N Y N Y N 2. (If no then) Are you interested to be an Airtel Retail Outlet? Y / N 3. (if no then) You must be aware of Airtel Business.(Requesting the retailer to know the business) If I got a positive response then: Complete information provided on Airtel business If no: Requested for another time if there is no response I have to leave that outlet. 4. If interested for then : Complete information provided on Airtel business (If the outlet shows interest for the business. At 1st the information regarding the business provided to the retailer in details and after that this questions were asked to analyze why these retailers are showing interest in this business) 5. Do you think Airtel provides less margin compared to other service providers. A N Dis 6. Do you think maximum people are asking for Airtel? A N Dis 7. Do you know that Airtel has maximum numbers of customers in Cuttack market? Y / N 8. Are you satisfied with Airtel distributor’s service procedure? 9. Are you happy with FSE’s service? A/N/Dis 10. Do you think is it easy to push Airtel. A/Dis 11. Does the customers ever pulled towards Airtel, Airtel is PUSHING/PULLING 12. I am not interested with Airtel because Low margin: A / N / Dis Unsatisfied with FSE: A / N / Dis So many retail outlets near by : A / N / Dis No credit facility:A / N / Dis Airtel does not provide Add boards or support regarding advertisements in time: A / N / Dis Selling Vodafone !dea, RIM, Smart, BSNL is more profitable. 13. I am only interested for sim / lapu / vouchers only in coming period. Why…_______________________________________________________________________ Appendix-B Questionnaires for New SIM holders: While selling new SIM I did a comparative analysis on different network service providers regarding customer interest. It 50
  • 51. was also required for my project under market analysis “why one buy Airtel”. A few questions were asked to new SIM buyers. Questions: Rate from 1 to 5. Where 5 are minimum and 1 is the maximum value. (Ranking methodology) Service Network VAS Ease of Tariff Reliability Overall Coverage availability Airtel Aircel !dea BSNL Smart Vodafone 1. Are you buying now because: a. SIM cost is very less comparatively with other ones? SA A N Dis S Dis b. I will use this SIM regularly. SA A N Dis S Dis c. I will keep it for future purpose. SA A N Dis S Dis d. I will use it only at the time of need, not regularly. SA A N Dis S Dis Appendix-C Questionnaires for Outlets to accept the scheme (Airtel Company’s staff will help you in sales promotion and pricing?) (1st the scheme was properly presented to the retailer) 1. In which sells you get maximum profits. ______________________________ 2. Is any telecom company providing you any offer like this before or now? Y / N 3. Airtel ever before provide you any offer. Y / N : time:_____________________ 4. (If yes) did the company employees help you in sales promotion? y/n ________________ 5. I have accepted this scheme because:_______________________________________ 51
  • 52. Bibliography Books 1. Havalder K.K. and Vasant M.C. (2007), “ Sales and Distribution Management”, Tata McGraw Hill, New Delhi Websites: 1. www.scribd.com 2. www.12manage.com Journals 1. JMR 52