Marketing Mix Strategy of Bharti Airtel Ltd
To be able to create and deliver values to its customers, to decide on which customers to serve and also, to
devise strategies on how to achieve the same, marketers of a firm need to come up with an integrated marketing
plan – a marketing strategy which outlines such underlying issues. Such a marketing strategy is developed with
the help of the marketing mix; the tools used to develop the strategy. The marketing mix contains the 4 Ps:
Product, Price, Place and Promotion.
“ The marketing mix is the set of tactical marketing tools: product, price, place and promotion, that the firm
blends to produce the response it wants in the target market. Product refers to the combination of goods and
service the firm offers. Price is the amount the customer pays to obtain the product. Place refers to the
availability of the product. Promotion relates to the activities that communicate the benefits of the product.” ~
Kotler et al
Airtel Product Strategy
One of the biggest and most recognized telecom service providers in India, Airtel offers a wide variety of
services in the field of telecom to its customers. It was the first telecom company to launch 4G services in India,
in partnership with Qualcomm in 2012. As of 2020, it has got a current customer base of about 358 million
active users in India and growing. Airtel has operations in 16 countries across Asia and Africa and it has got a
current customer base of over 423 million users worldwide. Some prominent services offered by Airtel are
summarized below: Mobile Services: Airtel provides both voice and data mobile services to its customers. It was the first
telecom company to launch the much awaited 4G services in India. To cater to the wide range of income
groups of its customers, it offers low cost mobile plans also, which is elaborated further in the pricing
strategy. On a simpler note, Airtel mobile service can be classified into the following:
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Prepaid services – These include prepaid mobile recharge offers, roaming packs, family share
packs, etc.
Postpaid services – My plan, postpaid bill payment, roaming plans and other special offers are
included in Airtel postpaid services.
Value added services – Airtel also provides additional value added services like 2G, 3G & 4G
Internet, Airtel Live, Hello Tunes, Airtel Xstream to watch TV channels and movies, Airtel
Money to enable secure payments and money transfers on mobile phones and Wynk Music to
download and listen to songs, etc.
 Digital TV Services: Airtel has come up with its own digital TV service, the Airtel TV. Airtel’s DirectTo-Home (DTH) platform currently allows users to watch a total of 648 channels, out of which 86 are of
superior HD quality with Dolby surround sound. Additionally, the Airtel Digital TV+ also gives users
the flexibilty to record their favourite TV programs to be watched later, as per the user convenience.
 Telemedia Services or Homes Services: The fixed line telephone and broadband network services
offered by Airtel fall in this category. Airtel provides broadband services to homes across 103 cities in
India. In 2019, Airtel launched its broadband service ‘Airtel Xtream Fibre’ at worth Rs. 3,999. Airtel has
got a total of 144.77 million broadband subscribers at the end of January’ 2020. Broadband internet
connection (Wi-Fi) upto speeds of 100 mbps for home segments, dongles and routers for 3G and 4G
internet are the major telemedia services and products offered by Airtel. The Mobile Services, Homes
Services and the Digital TV Services are the B2C services offered by Airtel.
 Airtel Business: These are one of the two B2B services offered by Airtel. Airtel offers business services
to several enterprises, governmental and private companies by providing data centre and network
integration services. These act as information and communication technology services. Airtel is a trusted
solution provider to various business for business audio, video and web conferencing as well as other
connectivity solutions. Strategically located submarine cables and satellite network enable its business
customers to connect across the world. Their global network runs across 2,50,000 Rkms, covering 50
countries and 5 continents.
 Tower Infrastructure Services: These are also one B2B service offered by Airtel. Airtel’s subsidiary,
Bharti Infratel Ltd (Infratel), is India’s leading provider of tower and related infrastructure and it
deploys, owns & manages telecom towers and communication structures, for various mobile operators.
It holds 42% equity interest in Indus towers, a joint venture with Vodafone India and Aditya Birla
Telecom who hold 42% and 11.15% respectively. The Company’s consolidated portfolio of 94,244
telecom towers, which includes 41,471 of its own towers and the balance from its 42% equity interest in
Indus Towers, makes it one of the largest tower infrastructure providers in the country with presence in
all 22 telecom circles.
Airtel Pricing Strategy
The pricing strategies of all the Indian telecom companies are monitored by the Telecom Regulation Authority
of India (TRAI) to ensure that fair prices are being charged to all the customers. However, despite pricing
regulations and monitoring, Airtel follows primarily a competitive pricing strategy owing to facing tough
competition in terms of price wars from top telecom competitors like Reliance Jio and Vodafone-Idea. The
Indian customer market is largely price focused, hence, Airtel takes special care to strategize its services and
price rates accordingly to meet customer preferences and enrich customer value. For example: the Airtel My
Plan mobile service gives customers the flexibility to choose and also customize their desired plan and pay
tariff prices according to their chosen pack. A user of Airtel mobile data plan can also upgrade their existing
plans and gain additional data by paying some extra amount to the existing plan. The Airtel App makes it
convenient for users to customize and choose their desired plans at ease.
The main aim of Airtel’s competitive pricing strategy is customer retention, by providing customers with
affordable plans and services at a very cheap rate (cost leadership strategy, whereby Airtel tries to gain a
competitive advantage in the telecom industry over others by establishing the lowest cost of operations).
Because the telecom market is highly price sensitive, Airtel has to offer many basic mobile services like call,
data, SMS and other value added services at a cheap rate. Even the broadband and tele-media services offered
by Airtel are priced low so that it does not lose out on customer loyalty and can retain their strong hold on its
large customer base. Not only just low cost plans, Airtel also provides some combo offers to its subscribers.
In addition, Airtel has introduced some new pricing strategies to drive data uptake. It plans on cutting down the
billing charges of its postpaid customers after they have exhausted their 4G or 3G mobile data limits. It also
plans on creating provisions for additional data usage for its customers, post their usage limit. For example: a
user can go upto a maximum of 3 GB data usage if he has exhausted his current pack of 1.5 GB 4G data, post
which his data services will be discontinued. Such marketing strategies are aimed at ensuring maximum
customer retention and providing superior customer value.
Airtel Place and Distribution Strategy
The wide distribution network of Airtel spans across 20 countries and because of such an intensive distribution
network, Airtel has access to provide its services to even the remotest locations in India. Airtel has its network
presence in 7,906 census and 7,86,719 non-census towns and villages in India, thereby having a coverage of
approximately 95.3 % of India’s population. Their 3G and 4G services are spread across the country as they
offer high-speed internet, Mobile TV, HD video streaming and many such seamless services to its customers.
Airtel also a pan-India reach with 2,99,592 Rkms of optical fiber network. In 2015, Airtel had also launched
‘Project Leap’ to expand its network coverage to over 5 lakh villages in India. Airtel aims to expand its network
to make its services available across India and has allocated a budget of Rs. 60,000 crores to achieve this
mission over a period of the next three years.
Airtel primarily distributes and sells its product and services through its network of distributors and retailers.
The retailers consist of the retail stores, convenient stores, stalls, other electronic shops, mobile stores, etc.
Airtel also has a dedicated 24*7 customer care team to offer help to its customers regarding various service
related issues and solutions.
Airtel Promotion Strategy
Airtel is an established and well known brand in the telecom sector. Airtel organizes strong promotional
campaigns for its services utilizing all media channels from TV, print, events, social media etc. The promotion
strategy in the marketing mix of Airtel is extremely comprehensive, i.e., they do a 360 degree branding. Airtel
engages in celebrity advertising to endorse its services by roping in famous personalities like Shahrukh Khan,
AR Rahman who composed the famous Airtel music tune, Sachin Tendulkar, Vidya Balan etc.
Airtel has also organized famous marketing campaigns to target youth audience and build its brand like ‘Har Ek
Friend Zaroori Hota Hai’ and ‘Jo Tera Hai Wo Mera Hai’. Airtel also sponsors various events like Indian
cricket matches, Grand Prix etc and has organized events like the Airtel Delhi Half Marathon, Mumbai
Marathon, etc under their community development programme and brand promotion. Airtel has also got a good
presence on social media like Facebook, Twitter etc. which it uses for its service promotion and solve queries of
customers. Airtel also engages in public relations like education campaigns, girls child awareness campaigns,
etc.
Bibliography
[1] https://www.mbaskool.com/marketing-mix/services/16969airtel.html#:~:text=Marketing%20Mix%20of%20Airtel%20analyses,marketing%20investment%2C%20custom
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[2] https://magcoengineering.com/docs/533007-bharti-airtel-pricing-strategy
[3] https://www.researchgate.net/publication/333882125_Bharti_Airtel_Strategy
[4] https://www.thenewsminute.com/article/jio-vs-vodafone-idea-vs-airtel-comparison-their-postpaid-plans133743
[5] https://www.androidauthority.com/reliance-jio-vs-vodafone-vs-airtel-prepaid-plans-1061532/