Bharti goes into reinvent mode

BRAND Bharti Airtel is on a reinvent mode. The northbound and highly diversified subscriber base and rapidly changing technology have prompted the Bharti Airtel management to look into its brand identity for the second time in its 15-year history. With subscriber diversity growing by the day, the company is looking at increased segmentation of its consumers while delivering a common overarching message that binds all subscribers under one umbrella. While on the one hand, the company is mulling value-based segmentation of its subscribers, on the other, it plans to segment its consumers both demographically and psychographically. Never mind the size of each segment, Bharti Airtel plans to have one universal message going across to all of them. “Our first strategic priority is accelerating our marketshare in circles where we’re weak and how to tap opportunities beyond tariff. Secondly, we would like to nurture, grow and retain value consumers. Thirdly, we would like to drive music, messaging and money transfer using mobile. All the three activities would be carried on in the context of one idea,” says Bharti Airtel director-marketing & communication Gopal Vittal. In effect, the two-pronged segmentation — segmenting subscribers on the basis of the value a subscriber would generate over a period of time (say, a year) and segmenting the market into mass and high-value — is the new mantra to reposition brand Bharti Airtel. Markets such as those in the hinterland with a promise of growing tele-density are mass markets, whereas those markets, essentially in urban agglomerations, where there’s a concentration of high-value subscribers, are tagged high-value markets. Increasingly, with the march of technology, telecom has come to represent success and change. But there’s also a growing concern that users are losing touch with their near and dear ones. One of the very few companies to draw up a brand charter, Bharti Airtel is marching along to make its brand more appealing and draws on emotions to execute that with telling effect in its new campaign. “Our effort is to make the brand more human and that’s the reason we’ve discontinued our ‘Express Yourself’ campaign over the last six months. We want only the brand Airtel to stand out — whether it’s tariff, new service or technology, it is now all about how the brand brings people together,” adds Mr Vittal. From 1995-2005, the journey of the brand was largely entrepreneurial in nature, where it was trying to find its feet. The year 2004 marked a shift in the journey of the brand as it responded to the clarion call of consolidation in the industry with ‘Express Yourself’.

Courtesy: EconomicTimes
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