1. BHARTI
AIRTEL
Bharti
Airtel,ndia's
I
largest
mobile
telephony
player, gottowhere
has
itistoday
largely ntheback
o
ofits
ruralgrowth. haskeptitsleadership
It
position
intact ince2005. nitially,
s
I
Airtel aced
f
several
hurdles.
Thebiggest
problem,
however,
wasthenegligible
presence
ofhandset
manufacturers
inruralmarkets.
Airtelentered
intoa crucial artnership
p
withNokia bundle
to
handsets ithconnections
w
andother
alliances
fordistribution.helped
It
thatboth
AirtelandNokia
hadthesame,mmensely
i
popular
brand
ambassador, Rukh
Shah
Khan.
Therightmixofproduct
andpricing,
strengthened
byavast ndunique
a
network fover
o
25,000centresoserve
t
customers,
formed
thebackbone
oftheAirtel trategy.
s
Airtel's
rechargeatescamedown, ventuallyulminating "lifetime
r
e
c
in
validity"
connections aslittleas
for
INR
99andmicro-recharges
whereconsumers
couldtopupasrequired, multiples f INR10.To
in
o
increaseeach
r
anddistribution justforinitialconsumer
(not
acquisition,
butforrechargendservice
a
requirements), created
Airtel
atwo-tiered
structure ithruralsuper-stockists
w
anddistributors
under
them.Airtelservice
centres
helped widenservice, nda roaming
to
a
distributor elped acquire
h
to
consumers.
Airtelalsocreated
service
options
targeted ruralconsumers,
at
suchasservice
inthe
village, MS-basedystems,
S
s
vernacular systems,
IVR
etc.,through
effectivelyutsourced
o
systems
liketheAirtel ervice
s
centres.
Itcreated
acost-effective,
young
entrepreneur-led
distribution
channel.
It effectively
worked
around
theissue handset
of
manufacturers
nothaving
therelevant
distribution
networks.
Inadditionothefreedom
t
tocommunicate, consumers
rural
arealso
provided ithsupport
w
to theirlivelihood
through
jobalerts, eather ndprice-related
w
a
information. distributors
Rural
were
effectively
young
entrepreneurs
(around0,000at lastcount),
3
whowereallocated
territories round
a
afewmobile
towers
andwereresponsible
forconsumer
acquisition. also
Airtel entered
intoalliances
with IFFCO,
whichhelped to sell connections
it
through
35,000agricultural
societies. builtan
It
enabling ystem
s
thatallowed
700,000
ruralretailoutlets sellrecharges
to
through mobile
a
device.
Thepenetration ruralIndiahasincreased anifold,
in
m
giventhattwo outof threenetsubscriber
additions
inIndia
today
come
fromitsvillages.