BHARTI AIRTEL BETTING BIG ON SERVICE QUALITY

Tariff war just can’t be sustained, says Joshi

Joji Thomas Philip NEW DELHI 

Eight months can be a long time in India, the most competitive telecom market in the world. In the eight months since Shireesh Joshi left PepsiCo China to join Bharti Airtel as its chief marketing head, the landscape of the country’s mobile space has changed considerably. A slew of new operators have launched services, Bharti’s market share in terms of new customer additions have reduced and the ongoing price war is threatening to eat into profits and revenues of the sector. Mr Joshi talks to ET on Bharti Airtel’s strategy to grow its brand and take on competition. Excerpts: 
By being late to introduce per-second billing plan, do you feel you have lost out on the mind recall on a tariff offering that is the talk of the town?
If you are talking about one particular tariff plan, then yes. Are we on top of the mid recall for a certain tariff plan? Maybe, not always. The actual tariff is a commercial decision and nothing to do with the brand. We may have been late by a week to introduce the (per second) plan, but that is not a weakness of the brand. At Bharti, we introduce a new tariff structure only when we are convinced about its sustainability. The way I see it, the Airtel brand cannot be diluted or impacted by our response to one tariff offering. Our brand represents more than just the per second billing plan – it represents the largest network in terms of the number of customers, coverage, service centres and distribution. It represents innovations and unique offerings like we were the first to introduce Twitter on the mobiles. 
But, in the current scenario, all telcos are trying to identify themselves with certain tariffs. Agreed that Airtel is 
more than just tariffs, but are you conceding space on this front? 
All the new players cannot compete with so many facets of a brand like us. Their only option is to play the tariff game which is precisely the reason why their campaigns and communications revolve around price. Our stance is that while Airtel will be competitive on the tariff front, we also have several other strengths that make us more attractive. 
    In the smaller towns and rural areas, none of the new entrants is there. In these places, the network reach is most important factor for the customer and we are, therefore, very strong. What differentiates us in such places is that we are more than just a mobile connection. For instance, our partnership with IFFCO helps our customers to get a lot of local information relevant to the agriculture and the markets on their mobiles. 
Considering low viewers’ interest, do you think Champions League T20 
championship was not a right event to partner with? What are the other sport you want will associate with? 
    We don’t see the Airtel Champions League T20 as a failure. That may be a perception, but the event was in line with our estimates and it fit our valuation. For us, it was a tactical choice to be associated with the Champions League T20 and this is choice is not measured by the perception towards the event. We will participate in any sport which we think adds value to our brand. This is the reason why we were part of the Delhi half marathon although it was a local event. The same is with football. We see that there is a huge interest, especially amongst the youth for this game. This is a space we are investing in because it is for the future. 
Bharti is slowly repositioning itself as a lifestyle company. But, most of India still associate Airtel with mobile phones. Can Airtel ever represent more than being a mobile phone operator? 
We have a 15-year history with mobility and it is, therefore, natural that we are associated with being a mobile phone company. Our other businesses such as broadband, DTH and IPTV are new offerings. But, we have started capturing the mind share in these segments too. Our internal surveys show that while we were the fifth to launch DTH services, we already have top of the mind recall with regard to this product and service. Similarly, our MCheck offering, a mobile based payment system, which customers can use to pay all their bills, is very popular and enjoys a very high mindshare. 
Apart from the ongoing tariff war, what are the other challenges? Last quarter witnessed the highest churn amongst your customer base. Will this continue? 
When mobile number portability (MNP) is introduced, the strength of our brand will become evident as we will attract those customers who want superior quality. Our revenue market share already indicates where we stand and MNP is just one more test that will see us emerge stronger. Yes, churn may continue, but this is not related to the brand ‘Airtel’. If some operator were to come up with a crazy tariff plan, the trend may continue. People will always experiment. It does not imply that we have to react. We will always take a balanced view. We cannot stop people from experimenting when new offers come along. What is important is that, we don’t see this price war being sustained. 
Despite your ads with Apple, the joint launch of the iPhone was a failure. What went wrong? 
Cost was the only reason. In India, we cannot enforce a contract like other mature markets. Therefore, the scope of selling the iPhone was limited. But, we will continue to partner with Apple in future. 
    joji.philip@timesgroup.com

 

SHIREESH JOSHI CHIEF MKT HEAD,BHARTI AIRTEL

 

 

 

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