Kapil Final

8/7/2019 Kapil Final

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Chapter-1

Introduction to the project

Advertisements today have become a major tool for the marketers to attract the customers. In

every sector whether it be Fast moving consumer goods, Automobile, Pharma or telecom

cores are spent on advertisements to stand out and chase the customers. As such sector is the

Telecom sector where either the companies are hiring stars as their brand endorsers as Airtel

is being endorsed by Shahrukh Khan or they are following a creative and attractive path as

done by Vodafone in case of zoo zoo ads.

India has become the prime target for most of the telecom companies worldwide. A lot ofoperators have entered the market like Docomo, Sham Telecom etc and there are many who

can enter. The competition is increasing at its peak.

In this project , I have mainly gone through two of the major competetiors operating in India

i.e Airtel and Vodafone. The main focus of the study was to find out the effect of

advertisemens of boyh the brands on customers and which is a preferred brand for the

customers. I have also studied the brand fight between n both the brands with special

refrence to Shahrukh as the brand endorser and the Zoo Zoo ads by Vodafone.

A questionnaire was prepared by me in which the focus of questions was to know which

brand serves them better .Questions included are like Which brands advertisement is more

understandable to you? Which brands advertisement is more attractive? Who has more

creative advertisement? etc.

The method used for collecting the data is primary as I got the questionnaires directly filled

from the respondents and the sample size is 100.The Research design used is of exploratory

nature as the focus was on knowing the effect of advertisements of both these brands on

customers.


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Chapter-2

OBJECTIVE OF THE STUDY

The present study has the following objective:

y To study the consumers attitude toward advertisement performance of Airtel andVodafone.

y To analyzes the opinions and belief of consumers about advertisement.

y To give fruitful suggestions on the basis of the study.

y Role of advertisement on the buying behavior of the customer

y To find out which telecom company has good advertising and what type ofadvertising subscribers like.


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Chapter-3

Introduction- Advertising

Advertising is a form of communication that typically attempts to persuade potential customers

to purchase or to consume more of a particular brand of product or service. While now central

to the contemporary global economy and the reproduction of global production networks, it is

only quite recently that advertising has been more than a marginal influence on patterns of sales

and production. The formation of modern advertising was intimately bound up with the

emergence of new forms of monopoly capitalism around the end of the 19th and beginning of the

20th century as one element in corporate strategies to create, organize and where possible control

markets, especially for mass produced consumer goods. Mass production necessitated mass

consumption, and this in turn required a certain homogenization of consumer tastes for final

products. At its limit, this involved seeking to create world cultural convergence, to

homogenize consumer tastes and engineer a convergence of lifestyle, culture and behaviors

among consumer segments across the world. Many advertisements are designed to generate

increased consumption of those products and services through the creation and reinvention of the

"brand image". For these purposes, advertisements sometimes embed their persuasive message

with factual information. Every major medium is used to deliver these messages, including

television, radio, cinema, magazines, newspapers, video games, the Internet, carrier bags and

billboards. Advertising is often placed by an advertising agency on behalf of a company or other

organization. Money spent on advertising has increased dramatically in recent years. In 2007,

spending on advertising has been estimated at over $150 billion in the United States and $385

billion worldwide, and the latter to exceed $450 billion by 2010. A recent advertising innovation

is "guerrilla marketing", which involve unusual approaches such as staged encounters in public

places, giveaways of products such as cars that are covered with brand messages, and interactive

advertising where the viewer can respond to become part of the advertising message. This

reflects an increasing trend of interactive and "embedded" ads, such as via product placement,

having consumers vote through text messages, and various innovations utilizing social network

services such as My Space.


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3.1 Types of Advertising Commercial advertising media can include

wall paintings, billboards, street furniture components, printed flyers and rack cards, radio,

cinema and television adverts, web banners, mobile telephone screens, shopping carts, web

popup, skywriting, bus stop benches, human billboards, magazines, newspapers, town criers,

sides of buses, banners attached to or sides of airplanes ("logo jets"), in-flight advertisements on

seatback tray tables or overhead storage bins, taxicab doors, roof mounts and passenger screens,

musical stage shows, subway platforms and trains, elastic bands on disposable diapers, stickers

on apples in supermarkets, shopping cart handles (grabertising), the opening section of streaming

audio and video, posters, and the backs of event tickets and supermarket receipts. Any place an

"identified" sponsor pays to deliver their message through a medium is advertising.

Covert advertising

Covert advertising is when a product or brand is embedded in entertainment and media. For

example, in a film, the main character can use an item or other of a definite brand, as in the

movie Minority Report, where Tom Cruise's character John Anderson owns a phone with the

Nokia logo clearly written in the top corner.

Television commercials

The TV commercial is generally considered the most effective mass-market advertising format,

as is reflected by the high prices TV networks charge for commercial airtime during popular TV

events. The annual Super Bowl football game in the United States is known as the most

prominent advertising event on television. The average cost of a single thirty-second TV spot

during this game has reached $3 million (as of 2009). The majority of television commercials

features is a song or jingle that listeners soon relate to the product.

Infomercials

There are two types of infomercials, described as long form and short form. Long form

infomercials have a time length of 30 minutes. Short form infomercials are 30 seconds to 2


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minutes long. Infomercials are also known as direct response television (DRTV) commercials or

direct response marketing. The main objective in an infomercial is to create an impulse purchase,

so that the consumer sees the presentation and then immediately buys the product through the

advertised toll-free telephone number or website. Infomercials describe, display, and often

demonstrate products and their features, and commonly have testimonials from consumers and

industry professionals.

Celebrities

This type of advertising focuses upon using celebrity power, fame, money, popularity to gain

recognition for their products and promote specific stores or products. Advertisers often

advertise their products, for example, when celebrities share their favorite products or wear

clothes by specific brands or designers. Celebrities are often involved in advertising campaigns

such as television or print adverts to advertise specific or general products.

Media and advertising approaches

Increasingly, other media are overtaking television because of a shift towards consumer's usage

of the Internet as well as devices such as TiVo. Advertising on the World Wide Web is a recent

phenomenon. Prices of Web-based advertising space are dependent on the "relevance" of the

surrounding web content and the traffic that the website receives.

E-mail advertising is another recent phenomenon. Unsolicited bulk E-mail advertising is known

as "spam". Some companies have proposed placing messages or corporate logos on the side of

booster rockets and the International Space Station. Controversy exists on the effectiveness of

subliminal advertising, and the pervasiveness of mass messages.

- turning it into a generic term which means that its legal protection as a trademark is lost.

As the mobile phone became a new mass media in 1998 when the first paid downloadable

content appeared on mobile phones in Finland, it was only a matter of time until mobile

advertising followed, also first launched in Finland in 2000. By 2007 the value of mobile

advertising had reached $2.2 billion and providers such as Admob delivered billions of mobile

ads.


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content brought about by everything from blogs to social networking sites, provide advertisers

with audiences that are smaller but much better defined, leading to ads that are more relevant to

viewers and more effective for companies' marketing products. Among others, Comcast

Spotlight is one such advertiser employing this method in their video on demand menus. These

advertisements are targeted to a specific group and can be viewed by anyone wishing to find out

more about a particular business or practice at any time, right from their home. This causes the

viewer to become proactive and actually choose what advertisements they want to view.

In freelance advertising, companies hold public competitions to create ads for their product, the

best one of which is chosen for widespread distribution with a prize given to the winner(s).

During the 2007 Super Bowl, PepsiCo held such a contest for the creation of a 30-second

television ad for the Doritos brand of chips, offering a cash prize to the winner. Chevrolet held a

similar competition for their Tahoe line of SUVs. This type of advertising, however, is still in its

infancy. It may ultimately decrease the importance of advertising agencies by creating a niche

for independent freelancers.

3.2 Advertising Trend in Telecom

Telecom advertising is an overlooked field. Almost all ad agencies would love to have a telecom

operator client as they are among the top 10 advertising spenders in all countries; usually they

regret that afterwards though due to the short lead times, long working hours, and over

demanding clients (mostly from technical backgrounds); all of which result in a relatively low

quality end product. Telecom advertising is a very specific industry in many ways different from

conventional advertising mostly due to the nature of the beast (it is a media within itself that is

constantly expanding to include more and more industries) and constant evolution. Advertising

agencies rarely have such experts though, due to the high turn-over of people on the accounts,

mostly due to the reasons mentioned in the first paragraph. Despite their differences all telecom

operators require the same campaigns, usually in the following order from launch date

1. A teaser / announcement to indicate their launch date

2. A brand launches campaign

3. Corporate Social Responsibility campaigns


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4. Core Product campaigns (usually prepaid and post-paid)

5. Coverage Campaign (to show that their networks are now complete)

6. Payment methods campaign (listing the channels in which can pay their bills)

7. 3G campaign (focusing on their innovative technology, and claiming first to market)

8. Roaming campaign (mentioning how many operators they have roaming agreements with)

9. Airport campaigns

10. Store opening campaigns

11. International call rate reduction campaign

12. Tariff reduction campaign

13. Mobile Content campaign (focusing on the mobile portal and what content it includes, mostly

music, ring tones, ring back tones, news etc.)

14. Value added services campaigns (these are dispersed throughout the communication plan

depending on when a new service is rolled out)

15. Mobile Internet campaign (on both accessing the internet through your phone, or data cards

that plug into your laptop)

16. Customer service campaigns

17. Business campaign (launching their business services division)

18. Business product campaigns (mostly data-cards, push email, and closed user groups)

19. Focusing on the Youth segment (through universities, and hip music)

Usually due to urgency, wanting to communicate so many messages at the same time, and the

need to claim first-to-market (because innovation is a key platform); these operator end up with

badly managed campaigns that are not fully integrated (mostly newspaper ads and mentions on

their website and in stores), and sacrifice on the creative quality of their communications. All ofthe above results in a confused customer who knows that an operator has many services but

cannot indicate or quantify them.


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Several global learning can be made from the above, these include:-

1. Ideal campaign roll-out plans (starting with print and moving to ambient media, online ads

etc)

2. Touch points management (deciding on what to communicate at which touch points)

3. Simple communications (mentioning the key benefit of a service and not listing all of its

attributes)

4. More focus on PR and making most announcements through press releases that induce viral

support

5. Update bulletins on new products and services

6. Developing more target advertising to specific segments

7. Focusing more on direct marketing and database building

8. Creating online forums in which customers can better express their views and usage patterns

9. Creating simple template ads that can be adapted and published as soon as new products and

services are developed and need to be instantly rolled-out for claiming first-to-market.

10. Media management (deciding on what are the best media for each campaign and where each

product is most likely thought of by the customer i.e. mobile payment at cash registers)

11. Giving autonomy to marketing-communications departments at telecom operators separating

engineers from creative communications

3.3 Boom of Telecom Advertising and Its Effects

Telecom advertising, a $1 billion industry globally with a three billion subscriber base, is

set to take off in a big way in India too. Service providers, market research firms and

independent companies, which just focus on this medium, are all seeing value in the expanding

Indian mobile market, estimated to be 500 million subscribers by 2010. The market for telecom

advertising, which is still at its nascent stage, is estimated to grow to Rs 20-25 crore by March in


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the country. It was estimated to be a mere Rs 5-6 crore about six months ago. Telecom

Advertising proved at its best.It is said that main reason behind the success of the sector is its

unconventional strategy and aggression towards target market. Telecom Advertising has been

enormously growing and supporting telecom companies to grow much more. Reliance

Communications, a leading CDMA service provider and a pioneer of mobile advertising in the

country, has effectively offered mobile advertising solutions for more than 20 clients over the

past four years. Starting off with LG during World Cup Cricket in 2003, it has since then handled

Cadburys, Coke, Maruti, Hyundai and even financial brands like ICICI, Kotak and HDFC

among others. "With the mobile handset population poised to top 500 million in India by 2010,

it has become a huge and vibrant communication platform, which no brand marketer can afford

to ignore," Reliance Communication Applications & Solutions president Mahesh Prasad told ET.

The growth of 3G networks, IPTV and high-end gaming on mobile phones, is expected to open

new avenues for the medium. According to records "Reliance mobile marketing solutions offer

creative means and focused targeting to reach our more than 37 million subscribers anytime,

anywhere in an non-intrusive manner,". With the thrust on technology, Kaybase through a tool,

Critical Incident Track (CI Track), made use of the very high mobile penetration in the country,

and the relatively non-intrusive nature of an SMS. "It is a tool to conduct ongoing contact audit

of the clients services. Its chief advantage is the low cost and the real-time reporting features,"

said Kaybase director R Ashok. Its effect can be seen by profit result of companies, and growing

awareness and interest of Rural audience. Increasing demand for telecom has been encouraging

its market potential and opportunity as well. Nowadays there are several advertising Agencies

who are given more attention and consideration for making it bigger for telecom

sector.Lowe,O&M,Lintas, Bright Advertising and many more are there who have been

nourishing this sector by their work. The best effect of telecom advertising is Awareness and

concentration among Rural market towards telecom.

Market Potential

India, for the second straight month, added over 9mn mobile subscribers in August 2008, which

boosted the wireless base to over 305mn users while overall tele-density reached about 30%.

August subscriber additions were a tad below July 2008 figure of 9.21mn, and did see

incumbents like Bharti Airtel witness amongst the slowest incremental month on month (mom)


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additions. However, we would wait for the growth scenario to evolve further. For now we

maintain our FY10E target of about 448mn wireless subscribers.

Bharti incremental subscriber growth at 0.2% mom; Rcom adds 1.75mn Bharti added 2.7mn

subscribers in August, witnessing one of the slowest incremental increase of 0.2% mom while

Rcom subscriber base increased by 1.75mn, an incremental rise of 0.1% mom. Idea Cellular

added 1.03mn, a slight drop of 2.3% from 1.05mn users added in July 2008. We expect Idea user

base to pick up once its Mumbai launch stabilizes and begins operations in new circles.

Vodafone Essar incremental adds rise 3% mom Vodafone Essar netted about 1.81mn users, an

incremental increase of 3% mom while BSNL incremental monthly additions jumped 10.5% to

take its subscriber base to 43.2mn. Spice continued to lose subscribers with another 0.6mn

subscribers knocked off from its total which now stands at 3.6mn

3.4 Advertising Trends In Indian Telecom

The way telecom firms advertise, gives an approximate idea about the telecom trends. I would

try to uncover some of them, which come to my mind. At the initial launch of the mobile

services, they were advertised as lifestyle products. The message that sought to be conveyed was

that if you have a mobile phone, you have arrived in life. A few well-healed people could afford

the high call rates at that time. It was in no way for the masses. I am sure that the mobile

companies made a large profit out of it. Perhaps for the first time, Indians were exposed to

concepts alien to them: Customer Care Support. It saw a booming of the ancillary services and

fresh graduates, stunted in mental development though, came out in droves for the well-paid

jobs. Airtel then sought the services of Sachin Tendulkar. He was the brand ambassador and saw

his earnings sharply increasing. I saw his picture everywhere exhorting me buy the mobile

prepaid card. After the initial publicity passed away, A.R. Rahman gave his now famous tune.

All the other companies have variously tried other gimmicks to sell their connections.

However, the landscape changed after Reliance came in the mobile services. Mukesh Ambani

was seen telling people about his fathers dream. The initial launch was lackluster. With the

launch of the prepaid services, the punch line was mujhme hai who baat or I have that thing!

how many people actually signed up after those ads. . Reliance was able to ramp up its numbers.

Then came the ad line Kar lo duniya muthi mein. (Have the world in your fist). Creative heads of

the ad agency. The icing on the cake goes to Hutch. They designed the simple ad with the kid


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and cute Chinese Pug. It was a hit of all sorts. It conveyed the effectiveness of the message

succinctly. I believe that it drove Hutch connections across the places where it offered its

services. However, it was considered too elitist for the masses. The advertisement should be able

to convey the message effectively; one with which people could identify with. In this regard,

BSNL could claim something. BSNL advertisements depicted typically government mentality

for awarding the contract to lowest in the tender process. The quality clearly shows. Is there

anyway people could identify themselves with that advertisements? What of those places where

BSNL is the sole service provider? As the title goes, advertising trends are reflective of the

current scenario in telecom. Airtel has been advertising its group card labeled as Friends. In fact,

until now, the market was treated as homogenous. Over the period, classification has been sought

to target the specific customers with specific needs. Airtel took the lead in announcing Senior

citizen cards targeted at those above 60. The Friends card is for those who wish to restrict

themselves to their group with low calling rates and some free messages.

Reliance has realized early on about targeting the businesses. Its offer of flat rate for making

STD calls to anyone across its network is unparalleled. This way it can ensure that there would

be higher converts towards it services. R-Connect is its portal that differentiated Reliance early

on from other operators. It knows that future revenues are going to come from value added

services. This way it has foreseen the development in the industry.

3.5 ADVERTISING CHANNELS

Advertising Planning Process Segregation Of the Telecom Sector Market segmentation And

Target Audience- Telecom Sector Ultra Modern Approach of Advertising For Telecom Sector

Rural Market. When we talk about ultra-modern approach, it allow us to move ahead with time.

Telecom Advertising has not only succeeded in capturing the market, but also kept a unavoidable

impression upon audience. Target audience leads to plan the specific approach to gain it, butwhen it comes to advertising, we need to modify it and represent in such way that it directly goes

to ultimate consumer. For convincing more than 1 million people in same country, telecom

companies started moving and giving heavy attention towards promotional tools. They

understood that if they had to be the leader one, they must have to have total command over

market. They focused more and more on advertisement. But interestingly telecom advertising


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twisted along with world of thought, reaching to mob. Telecom advertising represented itself

unconventionally and it was coming up to make rural crowd aware of it.

Indias GDP and growth are strongly based upon agriculture and farming. More than half of

crowd belongs to rural segement in India. Telecom advertising shaped itself to tap them. But

how? (see advertising approach model) Creativity with unique concept of telecom ad made it

powerful. But only creativity with good concept not helped it out, better execution is must.

Telecom advertising used unique concept, creativity, strong representation and best execution for

it. Telecom ads are emotional and very touching which is key for the advertisers. Vodafone essar

utilized a puppy as its brand ambassador but that was not enough, the concept and presentation

of Vodafone ads are remarkable. Airtel, Reliance are also top players. Reliance communication

is the only Company which started capturing rural market beautifully, with heaviest

advertisement and making people aware of the modern technology and its utilization. On the

contrary Virgin Mobile is Unique among all for its advertisement. Making of an Ad is not the

answer. Telecom advertisement is the best example for execution. They used each and every

possible media channel to make people aware and to build country. In remote areas and villages

where people can not afford expensive things, Advertising made it possible by telling its

thousands of benefits, schemes, tariffs. And by saying that now one cant be worried for

communicating his/her dear one. Persuasion is the result of any advertising .Telecom

advertisement was executed so well that it persuaded its target market to a high extent. And that

is one of the biggest reason to increase its demand.


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Chapter-4

INDUSTRY PROFILE

The Indian telecommunications industry is one of the fastest growing in the world. The industry

has witnessed consistent growth during the last year on the back of rollout of newer circles by

operators, successful auction of third-generation (3G) and broadband wireless access (BWA)

spectrum, network rollout in semi-rural areas and increased focus on the value added services

(VAS) market.

According to the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI), the number of telephone

subscriber base in the country reached 742.12 million as on October 31, 2010, an increase of

2.61 per cent from 723.28 million in September 2010. With this the overall tele-density

(telephones per 100 people) has touched 62.51. The wireless subscriber base has increased to

706.69 million at the end of October 2010 from 687.71 million in September 2010, registering a

growth of 2.76 per cent.

Meanwhile, Indian Global System of Mobile Communication (GSM) telecom operators added

17.45 million new subscribers in November 2010, taking the all-India GSM cellular subscriber

base to 526.18 million, according to the Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI). The

GSM subscriber base stood at 508.72 million at the end of October 2010Today the Indian telecommunications network with over 375 Million subscribers is second

largest network in the world after China. India is also the fastest growing telecom market in the

world with an addition of 9- 10 million monthly subscribers. The Department of

Telecommunications has been able to provide state of the art world-class infrastructure at

globally competitive tariffs and reduce the digital divide by extending connectivity to the

unconnected areas. India has emerged as a major base for the telecom industry worldwide. ThusIndian telecom sector has come a long way in achieving its dream of providing affordable and

effective communication facilities to Indian citizens. As a result common man today has access

to this most needed facility. The reform measures coupled with the proactive policies of the

Department of Telecommunications have resulted in an unprecedented growth of the telecomsector. According to TRAI, by the end of February, the total number of subscribers hadreached


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413 million. Of this, 91% were mobile phone subscribers. The rising number of subscribers has

pushed the tele-density to 35.62% showing a stupendous annual growth of about 50%, one of the

highest in any sector of the Indian Economy. Also industry estimates show that telecom industry

in India will witness a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 26% to reach 3, 44,921 crore by

2012. It is set to generate employment opportunities for close to 10 million. Indias telecom

sector has shown massive upsurge in the recent years in all respects of industrial growth. From

the status of state monopoly with very limited growth, it has grown in to the level of an industry.

Telephone, whether fixed landline or mobile, is an essential necessity for the people of India.

This changing phase was possible with the economic development that followed the process of

structuring the economy in the capitalistic pattern. Removal of restrictions on foreign capital

investment and industrial de-licensing resulted in fast growth of this sector. At present the

countrys telecom industry has achieved a growth rate of 14 per cent. Till 2000, though cellular

phone companies were present, fixed landlines were popular in most parts of the country, with

government of India setting up the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India, and measures to

allow new players country, the featured products in the segment came in to prominence. Indian

Telecom sector, like any other industrial sector in the country, has gone through many phases of

growth and diversification. Starting from telegraphic and telephonic systems in the 19th century,

the field of telephonic communication has now expanded to make use of advanced technologies like GSM, CDMA and WLL to the great 3G Technology in mobile phones. Day by day, both the

Public Players and the Private Players are putting in their resources and efforts to improve the

telecommunication technology so as to give the maximum to their customers. The huge potential

offered by the untapped rural market will help push growth for telecom operators in the years to

come. At present, rural India accounts for just 27% of the countrys cellular base, though it

constitutes 70% of thepopulation


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Chapter-5

COMPANY PROFILE

BHARTI AIRTELBharti Airtel formerly known as Bharti Tele-Ventures LTD (BTVL) is the largest cellular

service provider in India, with more than 110 million subscribers as of 2009. With this, Bharti is

now the world's third-largest, single-country mobile operator and sixth-largest integrated telecom

operator. It also offers fixed line services and broadband services. It offers its TELECOM

services under the Airtelbrand and is headed by Sunil Bharti Mittal. The company also provides

telephone services and Internet access over DSL in 14 circles. It also acts as a carrier for national

and international long distance communication services. The company has a submarine cable

landing station at Chennai, which connects the submarine

cable connecting Chennai and Singapore. The businesses at Bharti Airtel have always been

structured into three individual strategic business units (SBU's) - Mobile Services, Airtel

Telemedia Services & Enterprise Services. The mobile business provides mobile & fixed

wireless services using GSM technology across 23 telecom circles while the Airtel Telemedia

Services business offers broadband &telephone services in 95 cities and has recently launched a

Direct-to-Home (DTH) service, Airtel Digital TV. Shahrukh Khan is the brand embassador of

the mobile company and Kareena Kapoor and Saif Ali Khan are the brand embassadors of the

DTH company. 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. Globally, Bharti Airtel is the 3rd largest in-country mobile operator by


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subscriber base, behind China Mobile and China Unicom. In India, the company has a 24.6%

share of the wireless services market, followed by 17.7% for Reliance Communications and

17.4% for Vodafone Essar. In January 2010, company anonced that Manoj Kohili, joint

managing director and chief executive of Indian and South Asian operations, will become the

chief executive of the international business group from 1st of April 2010. He will be overseeing

Bharti's overseas business. Deputy Chief Executive Sanjay Kapoor will replace Mr. Kohli and

will be the CEO with effective from April 1 2010

Brands

Airtel

Airtel is a brand of telecommunication services in India, Bangladesh and in Sri Lanka owned and

operated by Bharti Airtel. It is the largest cellular service provider in India in terms of number of

subscribers. Services are offered under the brand name Airtel: Mobile Services (using GSM

Technology), Broadband & Telephone Services (Fixed line,Internet Connectivity(DSL) and

Leased Line), Long Distance Services and Enterprise Services (Telecommunications Consulting

for corporates). It has presence in all 23 circles of the country and covers 71% of the current

population (as of Financial Year 2007). Airtel has also launched 16Mb/s broadband plans in

India, making it the first ISP to do so.

Airtel Sri Lanka

In December 2008, Bharti Airtel rolled out third generation services in Sri Lanka in association

with Singapore Telecommunications. SingTel is a major player in the 3G space in Asia. It

operates third generation networks in several markets across Asia. Airtel's operation in Sri

Lanka, known as Airtel Lanka, commenced operations on the 12th of January 2009.

Airtel in Bangladesh

In January 2010, it was announced that the Bangladesh Telecommuncations Regulatory

Commission (BTRC) of The People's Republic of Bangladesh had given Bharti Airtel the go

ahead to acquire a 70% stake in the Bangladesh business of Abu Dhabi based Warid Telcom.

The latter had till date invested a total of $600 million, with plans to bring their Bangladesh

investments to the $1 billion mark. Airtel's 70% stake in the company is said to be at a cost of an

initial $300 million.


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Touchtel

Until September 18, 2004, Bharti provided fixed-line telephony and broadband services under

the Touchtelbrand. Bharti now provides all telecom services including fixed-line services under

a common brand "Airtel".

BlackBerry

On 19 October 2004 Airtel announced the launch of a BlackBerry Wireless Solution in India.

The launch is a result of a tie-up between Bharti Tele-Ventures Limited and Research In Motion

(RIM).

Digital TV

On 9 October 2008, Airtel joined the DTH bandwagon in India with Airtel Digital TV, a Direct-

to-Home Television service.

iPhone 3G

The Apple iPhone 3G was rolled out in India on 22 August 2008 via Airtel & Vodafone. Airtel

& Vodafone have launched the newly released iPhone 3GS (16GB & 32GB) in August 2009 in

India.

Merger talks

In May 2008, it emerged that Bharti Airtel was exploring the possibility of buying the MTN

Group, a South Africa-based telecommunications company with coverage in 21 countries in

Africa and the Middle East. The Financial Times reported that Bharti wasconsidering offering

US$45 billion for a 100% stake in MTN, which would be the largestoverseas acquisition ever by

an Indian firm. However, both sides emphasize the tentative nature of the talks, while The

Economist magazine noted, "If anything, Bharti would be marrying up," as MTN has more

subscribers, higher revenues and broader geographic coverage. However, the talks fell apart as

MTN group tried to reverse the negotiations by making Bharti almost a subsidiary of the new

company.In May 2009, Bharti Airtel again confirmed that it is in Talks with MTN and

companies have now agreed discuss the potential transaction exclusively by July 31, 2009.

BhartiAirtel said in a statement Bharti Airtel Ltd is pleased to announce that it has renewed its

effort for a significant partnership with MTN Group". Talks eventually ended without

agreement, some sources stating that due to the South African government opposition.


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Sponsorship

Bharti Airtel signed a five-year deal with ESPN Star Sports to become the title sponsor of the

Champions League Twenty20 cricket tournament. The tournament itself is named "Airtel

Champions League Twenty20."

History

Sunil Bharti Mittal founded the Bharti Group. In 1983, Sunil Mittal was into an agreement with

Germany's Siemens to manufacture the company's push-button telephone models for the Indian

market. In 1986, Sunil Bharti Mittal incorporated Bharti Telecom Limited (BTL) and his

company became the first in India to offer push-button telephones, establishing the basis of

Bharti Enterprises. This first-mover advantage allowed Sunil Mittal to expand his manufacturing

capacity elsewhere in the telecommunications market. By the early 1990s, Sunil Mittal had also

launched the country's first fax machines and its first cordless telephones. In 1992, Sunil Mittal

won a bid to build a cellular phone network in Delhi. In 1995, Sunil Mittal incorporated the

cellular operations as Bharti Tele-Ventures and launched service in Delhi. In 1996, cellular

service was extended to Himachal Pradesh. In 1999, Bharti Enterprises acquired control of JT

Holdings, and extended cellular operations to Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh. In 2000, Bharti

acquired control of Skycell Communications, in Chennai. In 2001, the company acquired control

of Spice Cell in Calcutta. Bharti Enterprises went public in 2002, and the company was listed on

Bombay Stock Exchange and National Stock Exchange of India. In 2003, the cellular phone

operations were rebranded under the single Airtel brand. In 2004, Bharti acquired control of

Hexacom and entered Rajasthan. In 2005, Bharti extended its network to Andaman and Nicobar.

In 2009, Airtel launched its first international mobile network in Sri Lanka. In 2010, Airtel began

operating in Bangladesh and 16 African countries.

Today, Airtel is the largest cellular service provider in India and fifth largest in the world.


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Acquisitions and Mergers

(a) MTNIn May 2008, it emerged that Bharti Airtel was exploring the possibility of buying the MTN

Group, a South Africa-based telecommunications company with coverage in 21 countries

in Africa and the Middle East. The Financial Times reported that Bharti was considering offering

US$45 billion for a 100% stake in MTN, which would be the largest overseas acquisition ever by

an Indian firm. However, both sides emphasize the tentative nature of the talks, while The

Economistmagazine noted, "If anything, Bharti would be marrying up," as MTN has more

subscribers, higher revenues and broader geographic coverage.[18] However, the talks fell apart as

MTN group tried to reverse the negotiations by making Bharti almost a subsidiary of the new

company.[19]

In May 2009, Bharti Airtel again confirmed that it is in Talks with MTN and companies have

now agreed discuss the potential transaction exclusively by July 31, 2009.[20] Bharti Airtel said in

a statement "Bharti Airtel Ltd is pleased to announce that it has renewed its effort for a

significant partnership with MTN Group".[21]

Talks eventually ended without agreement, due to the South African government opposition.[22]

(b) ZainIn March 2010, Bharti struck a deal to buy the Kuwait firm's mobile operations in 15 African

countries, in India's second biggest overseas acquisition after Tata Steel's $13 billion buy of

Corus in 2007. Bharti Airtel completed its $9 billion acquisition of African operations from

Kuwait's Zain, making the firm the world's No. 5 wireless carrier by subscribers.

Airtel operates in the following countries:

Country Site Remarks

Bangladesh bd.airtel.comAirtel Bangladesh


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Page | 22

had about 3.2

million million

customers at the

end of 2010.[7]

Burkina Faso africa.airtel.com/burkina

Airtel Burkina Faso

is the dominant

player with

1,433,000

customers

representing 50%

market share.[8]

Chad africa.airtel.com/chad

Airtel Chad is the

no. 1 operator with

69% market

share.[8]

Democratic Republic of the Congo africa.airtel.com/drc

Gabon africa.airtel.com/gabon

Airtel Gabon has

829,000 customers

and its market share

stood at 61%.[9]

Ghana africa.airtel.com/ghana

Airtel Ghana had

about 1.76 million

customers at the


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Page | 23

end of 2010.[10]

India airtel.in

Airtel is the market

leader with almost

152.5 million

customers at the

end of 2010.[11]

Kenya africa.airtel.com/kenya

Airtel Kenya is the

second largest

operator and has 4

million

customers.[12]

Madagascar africa.airtel.com/madagascar

Airtel holds second

place in the mobile

telecom market in

Madagascar, has a

39% market share

and over 1.4

million

customers.[8]

Malawi africa.airtel.com/malawi

Airtel Malawi is the

market leader with

a market share of

72%.[8]


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Niger africa.airtel.com/niger

Airtel Niger is the

market leader with

a 68% market

share.[8]

Nigeria ng.airtel.com

Republic of the Congo africa.airtel.com/congob

Airtel Congo is the

market leader with

a 55% market

share.[8]

Seychelles africa.airtel.com/seychelles

Airtel is the leading

comprehensive

telecommunications

services providers

with over 55%

market share of

mobile market in

Seychelles.[13]

Sierra Leone africa.airtel.com/sierra

Sri Lanka airtel.lk

Airtel Lanka

commenced

operations on 12

January 2009. It

had about 1.8


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Page | 25

million mobile

customers at the

end of 2010.[14]

Tanzania africa.airtel.com/sierra

Airtel Tanzania is

the market leader

with a 38% market

share.[8]

Uganda africa.airtel.com/uganda

Airtel Uganda

stands as the no. 2

operator with a

market share of

38%.[8]

Zambia africa.airtel.com/zambia

Channel

Islands : Jersey and Guernsey

airtel-vodafone.je

Airtel operates in

the Channel Islands

under the brand

name Airtel-

Vodafone through

an agreement with

Vodafone.


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VODAFONE ESSAR

Vodafone Essar, previously Hutchison Essar is a cellular operator in India that covers 16

telecom circles in India Despite the official name being Vodafone Essar, its products are simply

branded Vodafone. It offers both prepaid and postpaid GSM cellular phone coverage throughout

India and is especially strong in the major metros. Vodafone Essar provides 2G services based on

900 MHz and 1800 MHz digital GSM technology, offering voice and data services in 16 of the

country's 23 licence areas. Vodafone Essar, previously Hutchison Essar is a cellular operator in

India that covers 16 telecom circles in India . Despite the official name being Vodafone Essar, its

products are simply branded Vodafone. It offers both prepaid and postpaid GSM cellular phone

coverage throughout India and is especially strong in the major metros. Vodafone Essar provides

2G services based on 900 MHz and 1800 MHz digital GSM technology, offering voice and data

services in 16 of the country's 23 licence areas.

OWNERSHIP:

Vodafone Essar is owned by Vodafone 52%, Essar Group 33%, and other Indian nationals, 15%.

On February 11, 2007, Vodafone agreed to acquire the controlling interest of 67% held by Li Ka

Shing Holdings in Hutch-Essar for US$11.1 billion, pipping Reliance Communications, Hinduja

Group, and Essar Group, which is the owner of the remaining 33%. The whole company was

valued at USD 18.8 billion . The transaction closed on May 8, 2007.

PREVIOUS BRANDS:

In December 2006, Hutch Essar re-launched the "Hutch" brand nationwide, consolidating its

services under a single identity. The Company entered into agreement with NTT DOCOMO to

launch i-mode mobile Internet service in India during 2007. The company used to be named

Hutchison Essar, reflecting the name of its previous owner, Hutchison. However, the brand was


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Page | 27

marketed as Hutch. After getting the necessary government approvals with regards to the

acquisition of a majority by the Vodafone Group, the company was rebranded as Vodafone

Essar. The marketing brand was officially changed to Vodafone on 20 September 2007. On

September 20, 2007 Hutch becomes Vodafone in one of the biggest brand transition exercises in

recent times. Vodafone Essar is spending somewhere in the region of Rs 250 crores on this high-

profile transition being unveiled today. Along with the transition, cheap cell phones have been

launched in the Indian market under the Vodafone brand. There are plans to launch cobranded

handsets sourced from global vendors as well. A popular daily quoted a Vodafone Essar director

as saying that "the objective is to leverage Vodafone Group's global scale in bringing millions of

low-cost handsets from across-the world into India." While there is no revealing the prices of the

low-cost Vodafone handsets, the industry is abuzz that prices might start at Rs 666, undercutting

Reliance Communications' much-hyped 'Rang Barse' with cheap handsets beginning at Rs 777.

Meanwhile, Vodafone Essar sources said there would be no discounts or subsidized handset

offers -- rather handset-bundled schemes for customers. Incidentally, China's ZTE, which is

looking to set-up a manufacturing unit in the country, is expected to provide several Vodafone

handsets in India. Earlier this year, Vodafone penned a global low-cost handset procurement deal

with ZTE.

APPLE I PHONE 3G:

Vodafone has successfully launched the Apple iPhone 3G in India. It has been made available to

its consumers from the 22nd of August. The phone's launch saw a big celebration at select

Vodafone stores and Vodafone sponsored malls across the country.

GROWTH OF HUTCHISON ESSAR (1992-2005):

In 1992 Hutchison Whampoa and its Indian business partner established a company that in 1994

was awarded a licence to provide mobile telecommunications services in Mumbai (formerly

Bombay) and launched commercial service as Hutchison Max in November 1995. Analjit Singh

of Max still holds 12% in company. By the time of Hutchison Telecom's Initial Public Offering

in 2004, Hutchison Whampoa had acquired interests in six mobile telecommunications operators

providing service in 13 of India's 23 licence areas and following the completion of the

acquisition of BPL that number increased to 16. In 2006, it announced the acquisition of a

company that held licence applications for the seven remaining licence areas. In a country

growing as fast as India, a strategic and well managed business plan is critical to success.


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Initially, the company grew its business in the largest wireless markets in India in cities like

Mumbai, Delhi and Kolkata. In these densely populated urban areas it was able to establish a

robust network, well known brand and large distribution network -all vital to longterm success in

India. Then it also targeted business users and high-end post-paid customers which helped

Hutchison Essar to consistently generate a higher Average Revenue Per User ("ARPU") than its

competitors. By adopting this focused growth plan, it was able to establish leading positions in

India's largest markets providing the resources to expand its footprint nationwide. In February

2007, Hutchison Telecom announced that it had entered into a binding agreement with a

subsidiary of Vodafone Group Plc to sell its 67% direct and indirect equity and loan interests in

Hutchison Essar Limited for a total cash consideration (before costs, expenses and interests) of

approximately US$11.1 billion or HK$87 billion. 1992: Hutchison Whampoa and Max Group

established Hutchison Max

2000: Acquisition of Delhi operations Entered Calcutta and Gujarat markets through ESSAR

acquisition

2001: Won auction for licences to operate GSM services in Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and

Chennai

2003: Acquired AirCel Digilink (ADIL - Essar Subsidiary) which operated in Rajastan, Uttar

Pradesh East and Haryana telecom circles and renamed it under Hutch brand

2004: Launched in three additional telecom circles of India namely 'Punjab', 'Uttar Pradesh West'

and 'West Bengal'

2005: Acquired BPL, another mobile service provider in India

2008: Vodafone acquired Dishnet Wireless, a service provider in Orissa and has successfully

launched its services in the following circle.

2008: Vodafone launched the Apple iPhone 3G to be used on its 17 circle 2G network. Hutch

was often praised for its award winning advertisements which all follow a clean, minimalist look.

A recurrent theme is that its message Hello stands out visibly though it uses only white letters on

red background. Another recent successful ad campaign in 2003

featured a pug named Cheeka following a boy around in unlikely places, with the tagline,

Wherever you go, our network follows. The simple yet powerful advertisement campaigns

won it many admir


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Vodafone Group plc

Type

Public limited company

(LSE: VOD,

NASDAQ: VOD)

Industry Telecommunications

Predecessor 19831991 Racal Telecom

Founded 1984

Headquarters London, United Kingdom

Area served Worldwide

Key people

Sir John Bond (Chairman)

Vittorio Colao (CEO)

John Buchanan (Deputy

Chairman)

Andy Halford (CFO)

Services Telecommunications

Revenue 44.47 billion (2010)[1]

Operating income 9.480 billion (2010)[1]

Profit 8.645 billion (2010)[1]

Total assets 156.98 billion (2010)[1]


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Chief Executives

Name Between

Sir Gerald Whent October 1988 December 1996

Sir Christopher Gent January 1997 July 2003

Arun Sarin July 2003 July 2008

Vittorio Colao July 2008 present

In a period just short of twenty years from its initial public offering, the Company had had just

three Chief Executives. The fourth CEO, Vittorio Colao, stepped up from Deputy Chief

Executive in July 2008. Each of his predecessors made a personal contribution to the

development of the Company.

Sir Gerald Whent, at that time an Executive with Racal Electronics plc, was responsible for the

bid for a UK Cellular Network licence. The Mobile Telecoms division was de-merged, and was

floated on the London Stock Exchange in October 1988 and Sir Gerald became Chief Executive

of Racal Telecom plc. Over the next few years the company grew to become the UK's Market

Leader, changing its name to Vodafone Group plc in the process.

Total equity 90.38 billion (2010)[1]

Employees 84,990 (March - 2010)[1]

Website Vodafone.com


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Sir Christopher Gent took over as Chief Executive in January 1997, after Sir Gerald's retirement.

Sir Christopher was responsible for transforming Vodafone from a small UK operator into the

global behemoth that it is today, through the merger with the American AirTouch and the

takeover of Germany's Mannesmann.

Arun Sarin was the driving force behind the Company's move into emerging markets such as

Asia and Africa, through the purchases such as that of Turkish operator Telsim, and a majority

stake in Hutchison Essar in India. Faced with increased competition, and penetration rates above

100% in the more mature European markets, he saw it necessary to diversify from being a

mobile-only business into a company which provided all telecommunications services. This has

seen Vodafone launch DSL and other fixed-line services in markets such as Germany and the

UK.

History:

In 1982 Racal Electronics plc's subsidiary Racal Strategic Radio Ltd. won one of two UK

cellular telephone network licences. The network, known as Racal Vodafone was 80% owned

by Racal, with Millicom and the Hambros Technology Trust owning 15% and 5% respectively.

Vodafone was launched on 1 January 1985. Racal Strategic Radio was renamed Racal

Telecommunications Group Limited in 1985.On 29 December 1986 Racal Electronics bought

out the minority shareholders of Vodafone for GB110 million. In September 1988 the company

was again renamed Racal Telecom and on 26 October 1988 Racal Electronics floated 20% of the

company. The flotation valued Racal Telecom at GB1.7 billion. On 16 September 1991 Racal

Telecom was demerged from Racal Electronics as Vodafone Group. In July 1996 Vodafone

acquired the two thirds of Talkland it did not already own for 30.6 million. On 19 November

1996, in a defensive move, Vodafone purchased Peoples Phone for 77 million, a 181 store chain

whose customers were overwhelmingly using Vodafone's network. In a similar move the

company acquired the 80% of Astec Communications that it did not own, a service provider with

21 stores. In 1997 Vodafone introduced its Speechmarklogo, as it is a quotation mark in a circle;

the O's in the Vodafone logotype are opening and closing quotation marks, suggesting

conversation. On 29 June 1999 Vodafone completed its purchase of AirTouch Communications,

Inc. and changed its name to Vodafone Airtouch plc. Trading of the new company commenced


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on 30 June 1999. To approve the merger, Vodafone sold its 17.2% stake in E-Plus Mobilfunk.

The acquisition gave Vodafone a 35% share of Mannesmann, owner of the largest German

mobile network. vodafone's original logo used until the introduction of the speechmark logo in

1998. On 21 September 1999 Vodafone agreed to merge its U.S. wireless assets with those of

Bell Atlantic Corp to form Verizon Wireless. The merger was completed on 4 April 2000. In

November 1999 Vodafone made an unsolicited bid for Mannesmann, which was rejected.

Vodafone's interest in Mannesmann had been increased by the latter's purchase of Orange, the

UK mobile operator.Chris Gent would later say Mannesmann's move into the UK broke a

"gentleman's agreement" not to compete in each other's home territory. The hostile takeover

provoked strong protest in Germany and a "titanic struggle" which saw Mannesmann resist

Vodafone's efforts. However, on 3 February 2000 the Mannesmann board agreed to an increased

offer of 112bn, then the largest corporate merger ever. The EU approved the merger in April

2000. The conglomerate was subsequently broken up and all manufacturing related operations

sold off. In 2001 the Company took overEircell, then part of eircom in Ireland, and rebranded it

as Vodafone Ireland. It then went on to acquire Japan's third-largest mobile operator J-Phone,

which had introduced camera phones first in Japan. On 17 December 2001 Vodafone introduced

the concept of "Partner Networks" by signing TDC Mobil of Denmark. The new concept

involved the introduction of Vodafone international services to the local market, without the

need of investment by Vodafone. The concept would be used to extend the Vodafone brand and

services into markets where it does not have stakes in local operators. Vodafone services would

be marketed under the dualbrand scheme, where the Vodafone brand is added at the end of the

local brand. (i.e., TDC Mobil-Vodafone etc.) In February 2002 Finland was added into the

mobile community, as Radiolinja is signed as a Partner Network. Radiolinja later changed its

named to Elisa. Later that year the Company rebranded Japan's J-sky mobile internet service as

Vodafone live! and on 3 December 2002 the Vodafone brand was introduced in the Estonian

market with signing of a Partner Network Agreement with Radiolinja (Eesti). Radiolinja (Eesti)

later changed its name to Elisa. On 7 January 2003 the Company signed a group-wide Partner

agreement with mobilkom Austria. As a result, Austria, Croatia, and Slovenia were added to the

community. In April 2003 Og Vodafone was introduced in the Icelandic market and in May 2003

Vodafone Italy (Omnitel Pronto-Italia) was rebranded Vodafone Italy. On 21 July 2003

Lithuania was added to the community, with the signing of a Partner Network agreement with


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Bit. In February 2004 Vodafone signed a Partner Network Agreement with Luxembourg's

LuxGSM and a Partner Network Agreement with Cyta of Cyprus. Cyta agreed to rename its

mobile phone operations to Cytamobile-Vodafone. In April 2004 the Company purchased

Singlepoint airtime provider from John Caudwell (Caudwell Group) and approx 1.5million

customers onto its base for 405million, adding sites in Stoke on Trent (England) to existing

sites in Newbury (HQ), Birmingham, Warrington and Banbury. In November 2004 Vodafone

introduced 3G services into Europe. In June 2005 the Company increased its participation in

Romania's Connex to 99% and also bought the Czech mobile operator Oskar. On 1 July 2005

Oskar of the Czech Republic was rebranded as Oskar-Vodafone. Later that year on 17 October

2005 Vodafone Portugal launched a revised logo, using new text designed by Dalton Maag, and

a 3D version of the Speechmark logo, but still retaining a red background and white writing (or

vice versa). Also, various operating companies started to drop the use of the SIM card pattern in

the company logo. (The rebranding of Oskar-Vodafone and Connex-Vodafone also does not use

the SIM card pattern.) A custom typeface by Dalton Maag (based on their font family InterFace)

formed part of the new identity. On 28 October 2005 Connex in Romania was rebranded as

Connex-Vodafone and on 31October 2005 the Company reached an agreement to sell Vodafone

Sweden to Telenor for approximately 1 billion. After the sale, Vodafone Sweden became a

Partner Network. In December 2005 Vodafone won an auction to buy Turkey's second-largest

mobile phonecompany, Telsim, for $4.5 billion. In December 2005 Vodafone Spain became the

secondmember of the group to adopt the revised logo: it was phased in over the following six

months in other countries. In 2006 the Company rebranded its Stoke-on-Trent site as Stoke

Premier Centre, a centre of expertise for the company dealing with Customer Care for its higher

value customers, technical support, sales and credit control. All cancellations and upgrades

started to be dealt with by this call centre. On 5 January 2006 Vodafone announced the

completion of the sale of Vodafone Sweden to Telenor. On February 2006 the Company closed

its Birmingham Call Centre. In 1 February 2006 Oskar Vodafone became Vodafone Czech

Republic, adopting the revised logo and on 22 February 2006 the Company announced that it

was extending its footprint to Bulgaria with the signing of Partner Network Agreement with

Mobiltel, which is part of mobilkom Austria group. On 12 March 2006 former chief, Sir

Christopher Gent, who was appointed the honorary post Chairman for Life in 2003, quits

following rumours of boardroom rifts. In April 2006 the Company announced that it has signed


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an extension to its Partner Network Agreement with BITE Group, enabling its Latvian subsidiary

"BITE Latvija" to become the latest member of Vodafone's global partner community. Also in

April 2006 Vodafone Sweden changed its name to Telenor Sverige AB and Connex-Vodafone

became Vodafone Romania, also adopting the new logo. On 30 May 2006 Vodafone announced

the biggest loss in British corporate history (14.9 billion) and plans to cut 400 jobs; it reported

one-off costs of 23.5 billion due to the revaluation of its Mannesmann subsidiary. On 24 July

2006 the respected head of Vodafone Europe, Bill Morrow, quit unexpectedl and on 25 August

2006 the Company announced the sale of its 25% stake in Belgium's Proximus for 2 billion.

After the deal, Proximus was still part of the community as a Partner Network. On 5 October

2006 Vodafone announced the first single brand partnership with Og Vodafone which would

operate under the name Vodafone Iceland and on 19 December 2006 the Company announced

the sale of its 25% stake in Switzerland's Swisscom for CHF4.25 billion (1.8 billion). After the

deal, Swisscom would still be part of the community as a Partner Network. Finally in December

2006 the Company completed the acquisition of Aspective, an enterprise applications systems

integrator in the UK, signaling Vodafone's intent to grow a significant presence and revenues in

the ICT marketplace. Early in January 2007 Telsim in Turkey adopted Vodafone dual branding

as Telsim Vodafone and on 1 April 2007 Telsim Vodafone Turkey dropped its original brand

and became Vodafone Turkey. On 1 May 2007 Vodafone added Jersey and Guernsey to the

community, as Airtel was signed as Partner Network in both crown dependencies. In June 2007

the Vodafone live! mobile Internet portal in the UK was relaunched. Front page was now

charged for and previously "bundled" data allowance was removed from existing contract terms.

All users were given access to the "full" web rather than a Walled Garden and Vodafone became

the first mobile network to focus an entire media campaign on its newly launched mobile

Internet portal in the UK. On 1 August 2007 Vodafone Portugal launched Vodafone Messenger,

a service with Windows Live Messenger and Yahoo! Messenger. On 17 April 2008 Vodafone

extended its footprint to Serbia as Vip mobile was added to the community as a Partner Network

and on 20 May 2008 the Company added VIP Operator as a Partner Network thereby extending

the global footprint to Macedonia. In May 2008 Kall of the Faroe Islands rebranded as Vodafone

Faroe Islands.


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Financial results of Vodafone

Vodafone reports its results in accordance with International Financial Reporting Standards

(IFRS).

Vodafone has some large minority stakes, which are not included in its consolidated turnover. In

order to provide additional information on the overall scale and growth trends of its business, it

publishes "proportionate turnover" figures, and these are included in the tables below. For

example, if a business in which it owns a 45% stake has turnover of 10 billion, that equals 4.5

billion of proportionate turnover for Vodafone. Proportionate turnover is not an official

accounting measure, and Vodafone's proportionate turnover should be compared with other

companies' statutory turnover.

Vodafone also produces proportionate customer number figures on a similar basis, e.g. if an

operator in which it has a 30% stake has 10 million customers that equals 3 million proportionateVodafone customers. This is a common practice in the mobile telecommunications industry.

Year ended

31 March

Turnover

m

Profit before

tax m

Profit for the

year m

Basic eps

(pence)

Proportionate

customers (m)

2009 41,017 4,189 3,080 5.81 302.6

2008 35,478 9,001 6,756 12.56 260

2007 31,104 (2,383) (5,297) (8.94) 206.4

2006* 29,350 (14,835) (21,821) (35.01) 170.6

2005 34,073 7,951 6,518 9.68 154.8

2004 36,492 9,013 6,112 8.70 133.4

*Losses for year to 31 March 2006 reflect write downs of assets, principally in relation to the

Mannesmann acquisition. Proportionate turnover includes 7,100 million from discontinuedoperations.

The group's recent first quarter trading update (24 July 2009) saw management reiterating its

profit guidance for the full year. Whilst revenues across Europe had been relatively weak,

mirroring general economic conditions, there had been a positive showing from South Africa,


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with the company's Indian purchase of Hutchison Essar continuing to generate returns.

Meanwhile, its joint venture with Verizon in the US had strengthened further, with Vodafone's

overall customer base now standing at 315 million - 8 million having been added during the first

quarter. In addition, management noted that its cost reduction programme, targeted to save 1bn

in operating costs by the end of the 2011 financial year, would reach 65pc of its target by the end

of the current financial year.[43] The Group admitted in August 2010 that 1.25 billion in tax that

should have been paid in Britain was actually paid in Luxembourg and elsewhere


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Chapter-6

THE BRAND FIGHT

Shahrukh V/S Zoo Zoo

They are the two best brands in the Indian Telecommunications Scene and

they hold the maximum part of the market. They are called AIRTEL and

VODAFONE. They are unarguably the best services providers in the

market and the users swear by there names. But a heady comparison between the two will take

the veil off the secret that which one of them is better. And the areas of comparison will

comprise of connectivity, services, charges and features of the connection.Shahrukh Khan is probably the first choice to promote products and ideas. The business houses always

want to promote their products through a face that the world knows and trusts - Shahrukh always

fulfilled these criteria. He is not only a successful actorbut also a brilliant communicator. The audience

trusts his words and follows his footsteps. In the industry this truth is well established that Shahrukhhasexcellent PR skills andhe knows where towin love and in whichway. Ever since he became familiar face,

Shahrukhwas seen in many promotional shows like government message boards (AIDS, Polio) andlater

intobrands like Tata Tea, Pepsi, MayurSuitings, Hyundai Santro, Videocon and soon. Shahrukhdid a

television ad for Liberty shoes while he was shooting Fauji. Allhe didwas towear a Puma t-shirt and

football shorts andjump. Theywere the first sports shoes made in India andhe was their first model.

The second adhe didwas a Pan Parag kindof product, but it neverreally tookoff in the market. Then

there were a numberof public service ads, whichhe haddone in Delhi during Fauji and Dil Darya. For

one of these ads, he didhis first stunt without an action choreographer. Shahrukh collided into a car

withhis two-wheeler, and somersault onto the bonnet andwent over the roof. The first advertisement

he did after coming to Bombaywas the Tata Tea ad that helpedhim tobuy a house. He did three films in

three days with Prahlad Kakkar, producedby Pravin Nischol (wholater produced the film English Babu

Desi Mem). A brand namedShah Rukh Khan was never in loss ofoffers, be it commercials or films. As a


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starhe believes that he opened the gates forother actors todo ads. He brought uprightness to stars

doing ads by endorsing somany products like MayurSuitings, Hyundai Santro, Snoodles, Cinthol soap,

Bagpiper club soda, Clinic All Clear. Eventually, he became the Omega brand ambassador. Shahrukh

Khan can probablybe in the Guinness Book of World Records as the Indian herowho has sold the

maximum numberof products, starting from cars, soap, shampoo, noodles, watches, clothes andmany

more. ITC Limited - Foods Business took India`s SuperstarShah Rukh Khan as the brand ambassador for

its flagship brand "Sunfeast". Shahrukh Khan endorsed the entire range of snacks under the bannerof

Sunfeast. The Divisional Chief Executive of ITC Limited commentedon Shah Rukh Khan that there is a

perfect fit between the hero andSunfeast - the superiority, reputation and the love and trust theyboth

share across consumerdemographics is tobe noticed. Moreover, Shah Rukhhas a universal appeal that

extends to everyone across age groups alike the product Sunfeast. Product and Brand Endorsements

come easy toShah Rukh Khan. Afterhaving endorsed a whole range of products from colas to cars and

cell phones to computers, Shah Rukhhas alsobeen signed as the brand ambassadorof Linc Pen brandof

pens. King Khan has anotherbrand to add tohis long list of endorsements. The brand, Emami is known

forhaving the most number of celebrity endorsers including Madhuri Dixit, Raveena Tandon, Sunny

Deol, cricket captain Sourav Ganguly and also Amitabh Bachchan has signedShah Rukh Khan as their

brand ambassador. Emami`s prime endorserhas been Amitabh Bachchan, who is still its seniorbrand

ambassador. He was signedon for Emami Fast Relief and Emami Navrattan Oil. Amitabh Bachchan gets

paid a remuneration of 10 crores-12 crores per annum, for this

endorsement.

ICICI Bank Limited, India`s second largest Bank signed up

Bollywood superstar Shah Rukh Khan as its global brand

ambassador. ICICI Bank Joint managing director Lalita D Gupte

said the bank`s association with Shah Rukh Khan, whose global

popularityhas been increasing, brings more fame to the bank`s

growing global presence. Shah Rukh Khan`s image and popularity

with the Non-Resident Indian segment will further strengthen

ICICI Bank`s global identity, the bank said in a statement. The

Emami Group has roped in actor Shahrukh Khan as brand

ambassador for its recent fairness cream formen called `Emami Fair and Handsome` to increase its

foothold in the fast-growing segment. The Rs1, 500-crore personal care and health care group has


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signed a contract with Khan for two years to endorse the product in the country. Khan has been

associatedwith the company and already appeared in ads for brands like Himani Navratna Oil and

Himani Sona Chandi Chyawanprash.

The constantlyrunning commercials made Shah Rukh an omnipresent celebrity. He

usuallyhad two to three filmreleases everyyear, but the Shah Rukh Khan persona

was always available for consumption on television and in print ads. Shah Rukhwas

the idealdeity for a rapidlymodernizing India in whichmedia, especially television,

hadbecome increasingly important. He evolved from an actor into a brand name.

Vodafone, ever since it entered the Indian market through its purchase of Hutch in India has

posed a threat to Airtel but its taken a while to get off the ground. Of course its helped them

that Hutch had a pretty good user base as well. Now the fight has intensified onto the network

services market. Both Airtel and Vodafone have been trying to get people to use their network

for everything from cricket commentary to horoscope alerts. Morning prayer songs to dating

advice is now available but at a monthly rental fee which is how both companies plan to make

money.

Everyone should have seen series of Vodafone ads flooding the TV channels. All are short and

sweet targeting the young people, say local calls @ 60p, timepass sms @ 10p, friends network

etc but what is Airtel doing ? Airtel is also bang on target with an exceptional ad with a small

boy talking to his dad and complaining about his mom. Many would ask, both Vodafone and

Airtel fight for second spot in telecom industry net to BSNL, then why they persist on varied


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messages to achieve a common goal. Will it not be better to have an intense ad war so that they

can reach a bigger audience.

Definitely not !. You can see this kind of techniques being adaptoped by Coca Cola and Pepsi.

Coca Cola have started to deliver ads based on the theme Open Happiness, while Pepsi

wants to attract all youngistaans. Similarly all Vodafone ads are more youth oriented and Airtel

is more towards developing an emotional bond within its customers. Wow effect is more in

airtel.

Airtel has selected this way because they (Bharati) have an interlinked connection with all its

business. They would like to carry over and develop new set of audience from its leading

telecom business to other businesses like Airtel Digital TV, Broadband, Life Insurance and

Retail Business. Certainly Bharati customers should feel that they are more valuable to the

company so that they would stay more loyal to bharati and its other business from moving to

others. It is a very well adapted theme by Bharati and its advertising agent Rediffusion DYR.

Hope this works the way they have thought.

In the case of Vodafone, its completely different. They are only into telecom and they have done

commendable job in giving out short and product oriented ads. They have come out with

different ads for each of their product like local calls, customer care, sms, story telling etc Itsnational creative director Piyush Pandey from O&M along with its team members have made the

ad world know why they are considered as one of the best advertising agencies in the world.

On the whole, nothing much to debate between this two telecom providers. People have always

enjoyed the ads of these two companies, say AR.Rahmans scintillating tune for airtel, dog series

for Vodafone, Celebrity ads for airtel and the new ones which i have discussed in this article.. All

these have surely conveyed the message and still make people recall all the ads right from their

early ones. One clear difference is Vodafone has not used any celebrities for their ads whereas

airtel is bit different. I would surely rate telecom industry as one industry where ads have been

presented and targeted well.


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In response to the much-hyped ad-campaign by Vodafone Essar, ZooZoo, Airtel has launched its

Special 5 campaign. However, industry insiders say the launch of the advertisement has been

brought forward by at least two months to counter the growing clout of Vodafone. As per the

original plan, this (Special 5) campaign was supposed to be launched during the Champions

Trophy in late September, just like the ZooZoos ad campaign during the Indian Premiere

League, a person in the know, who did not wish to be named, told Financial Chronicle. When

contacted Ajay Naqvi, national business head for Airtel of Rediffusion Y&R, the creative agency

working on this campaign, said, Advertisement is a dynamic industry where plans keep

changing. We strive to break in as early as possible. But the right platform is needed."

Though different from the ZooZoo campaign, the Airtel advertisement seeks to build real life

character based on cartoon characters, the insider said. However, Naqvi said, I am not in a

position to comment on this. In a week, everything would be clear. An email sent to Airtel,

went unanswered. In the 15-second teaser, now on the company's website and youtube.com, the

advertisement shows a young girl, named Anna, identifying her five friends. The concept is of

being in touch with people (as many as five) at all times who matter. This is done at discounted

rates, Naqvi said. Local calls will cost 20 paise while STD calls would cost 50 paise. Naqvi

added the following parts of the advertisement would hit TV screens by the end of this week or

beginning next week.

Section 1.02 Zoo Zoo: The new brand 'endorser' for Vodafone(a) IPL Season 2 saw the birth of the Zoozoo for Vodafone: eggshell like characters

created to tell a new value-added service story each time. afaqs! explores

Zoozoo, and what went behind the making of it

Some find them akin to aliens; others insist they are animated cartoon characters, while a third

bunch doesnt quite know what to make of it. Nevertheless, we have all been privy to these

white, scrawny creatures with giant heads as they invade our TV screens during an IPL match. In

2008, Vodafone had unveiled the Happy to Help series during the first season of the Indian


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Premier League (IPL). With the launch of the second season, Vodafone has given birth to the

Zoozoo: a special character created specifically to convey a value added service (VAS) offering

in each of the newly released commercials.

Whats interesting is that there are some 25 such commercials planned under this campaign, 10

of which are already on air. The aim is to release approximately one ad a day, to sustain interest

till the end of the IPL.

So whats with so many?

Its no mean feat to unleash so many commercials at a go, with the risk of consumers not

grasping them as fast as the brand churns them out.

Explains Harit Nagpal, chief marketing officer, Vodafone India, Were acquiring customers at a

very fast pace, but a large number of them are unaware of the range of services we offer. I mean,

phone backup, which were advertising now, was launched two years ago, for instance!

Media spends and visibility for brands peak during the IPL, so Vodafone obviously wanted a

piece of the pie. Further, Nagpal explains, the brand was in need of an idea that would work

doubly hard, as it was planning to spend some four months worth of marketing monies in one

month. So, we chose not to do just one or two ads, or viewers would get bored quickly,

watching them over and over on the IPL, says Nagpal.


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Six months ago, Vodafone briefed its agency, Ogilvy India, to create uncommon characters a

common thread to link the ads in the campaign together. Rajiv Rao, executive creative director,

South Asia, Ogilvy India, tells afaqs! that the only starting point for the team was that the

character had to be simple to a stupefying level. And thus, the Zoozoo was born.

You egghead!

Ogilvy experimented with several characters and finally took its love for the term egghead one

step too far, creating characters that don the colour white (with black dots for eyes and a mouth),

have heads resembling eggs, and disproportionately thin bodies.

The idea is to tell the VAS stories in a world akin to, yet different, from humans. The creatures

were then given a characterisation: they are to lead simple lives, speak a language of their own

(something that sounds like gibberish), move in a certain way, and even emote like human

beings, with big frowns or big grins to do the trick. The execution is almost like emoticons. We

even limited the number of emotions to be used, to keep things easy, says Rao. A completely

Indian concept, Rao lent these characters a name: the Zoozoos. Theres no science to it, heexplains the name just had to be something fun, memorable and catchy, and not a clever one

thats difficult to pronounce. Ironically, nowhere in the communication does the Zoozoo name

pop up, but Rao doesnt feel thats much of a problem: it wasnt a task to popularise the name in

the first place. Currently, some10 films are on air, for service offerings such as Cricket Alerts,

Beauty Alerts, Phone Backup, the IPL Contest 1, the IPL Contest 2, Chhota Credit,


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Vodafone Maps, Vodafone Call Filter, Live Games and Musical Greetings. Each film, shot

against a Grey backdrop, has these characters interacting with one another (some storylines even

have Zoozoo families) with the product story weaved in. For instance, the Phone Backup ad (the

first in the series) has several Zoozoos lined up to have their faces photocopied through a

photocopier, while a tetris towards the end (the messenger in all the ads) announces how

Vodafone allows for creating a phonebook backup.

Making of the Zoozoo

No, they arent animated characters. They are human beings who were made to wear body suits.

The design of the characters is such that one gets fooled into thinking it is animation, shrugs

Rao, which was indeed the very illusion that had to be created. In a sense, it is live

animation! he quips, referring to the fact that it was all shot live.

Prakash Varma, ad filmmaker, Nirvana Films, has directed the commercials, and reveals that the

Zoozoos were a big challenge to create. The practical aspects of how they will move, talk,

gesticulate and emote were very important. Essentially, costume design and artwork were crucial

elements. It took me three weeks of pre-production to understand how it will work, says

Varma. There were two fabrics that were considered for the body suits, and one was rejected for

it had too many wrinkles and was shiny. The wrinkles would have shown when the characters

moved, thereby shattering the illusion of animation. So we chose the more practical, thicker

fabric, Varma explains.The production team divided the outfit into two parts: the body and the

head. The body part of the outfit was stuffed with foam in some places, while the head was

attached separately. To make it look bigger than a human head, a harder material called Perspex

was used, which in turn was stuffed with foam (with scope for ventilation).


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If one wishes to understand the size of this head, heres a fact: a human head would typically

reach up to the mouth level of this giant Zoozoo head. We kept the hands and legs thin, which is

why we cast women and occasionally children wearing the costumes, says Varma. The thin

limbs, contrasted with big bellies and a bulbous head, all add to the illusion that these creatures

are smaller than humans. Sets were created to suit the size of the Zoozoos. Cinematically, this

size was a trick: the creatures look smaller than they actually are on screen, to portray a

different world of sorts. For this, the speed of shooting was altered: Nirvana shot it in a high-

speed format to make them look the size that they do. Furthermore, simple sets/backdrops were

created and spray painted with neutral Greys a colour of choice so that attention isnt diverted

from the main characters. For a supposedly outdoor shot, even the shadow of a Zoozoo was

kept live and not done in post production: it was painted in a darker shade of grey on the

ground. An even lighting was maintained throughout. There was virtually no post production

work done.The films were shot by Nirvana in Cape Town, South Africa, with the help of a local

production house there, called Platypus. Incidentally, the same combination of people also

worked on the Happy to Help series last year. When asked whether Cape Town is fast

becoming a tourist spot for Vodafone and Nirvana, Varma laughs, saying, Oh no! Its just that

we are very comfortable with the team there and know what sort of work to expect from them.

Nagpal adds here that the production cost had to be minimal for unveiling such a large number of

commercials. Otherwise, our production costs would exceed media spends, he quips.


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Zoozoos: storming the digital world

In the digital space, Zoozoos are currently featured on a specially created microsite here, one

can partake in quizzes and contests, including the What kind of Zoozoo are you? quiz. Each

Zoozoo has a unique set of characteristics and traits allotted to it. The microsite also allows for

goodies to be downloaded (including wallpapers, screensavers and ringtones), and offers details

on the IPL. With a specially created YouTube channel on the site, the TVCs are provided there

for people to watch and share.

Apart from the microsite, a Zoozoo fan page has been created on Facebook, which has more

than 5,600 members. Fans have access to special tag-me images, Zoozoo sounds (such as

Zoozoo laughter and music tracks) and ad previews. People are also following Zoozoos on

Twitter and get updates whenever new commercials go on air.

Zoozoo ads are fast becoming popular on YouTube, and on certain days, claims Nagpal of

Vodafone, some of the videos even managed to figure among the most watched lot on the site.

The team behind the Vodafone-Zoozoo work includes Rao, along with Kiran Anthony, Elizabeth

Dias, Rajesh Mani, Mehul Patil, Kumar Subramaniam, Kapil Arora, Debaleena Ghosh and

Desmond Fernandes.


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WHAT DOES EXPERT SAY ON ZOO-ZOO?

Zoozoos clearly seem to be a favourite amongst the ad fraternity. From the name Zoozoo to the

painted eyes and mouth, Brijesh Jacob, managing partner, White Canvas, says he has not seen

anything like it. They have a certain madness to them, which makes them likeable andmemorable, he says. In the past, too, Orange and then Hutch (the earlier avatars of Vodafone in

India) had made use of c

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