A

PROJECT REPORT
OF
MARKETING MANAGEMENT
ON
Idea Cellular Limited
 Telecom Industry in India

The telecom industry is one of the fastest growing industries in India.

India has nearly 200 million telephone lines making it the third largest
network in the world after China and USA. With a growth rate of 45%,
Indian telecom industry has the highest growth rate in the world.

Much of the growth in Asia Pacific Wireless Telecommunication Market

is spurred by the growth in demand in countries like India and China.
India‘s mobile phone subscriber base is growing at a rate of 82.2%.

China is the biggest market in Asia Pacific with a subscriber base of

48% of the total subscribers in Asia Pacific. Compared to that India’s
share in Asia Pacific Mobile Phone market is 6.4%. Considering the fact
that India and China has almost comparable populations, India’s low
mobile penetration offers huge scope for growth.
 History of Indian Telecommunications
Started in 1851 when the first operational land lines were laid by the
government near Calcutta (seat of British power). Telephone services
were introduced in India in 1881. In 1883 telephone services were
merged with the postal system. Indian Radio Telegraph Company (IRT)
was formed in 1923.

After independence in 1947, all the foreign telecommunication

companies were nationalized to form the Posts, Telephone and
Telegraph (PTT), a monopoly run by the government's Ministry of
Communications. Telecom sector was considered as a strategic service
and the government considered it best to bring under state's control.

The first wind of reforms in telecommunications sector began to flow in

1980s when the private sector was allowed in telecommunications
equipment manufacturing. In 1985, Department of Telecommunications
(DOT) was established. It was an exclusive provider of domestic and
long-distance service that would be its own regulator (separate from the
postal system). In 1986, two wholly government-owned companies were
created: the Videsh Sanchar Nigam Limited (VSNL) for international
telecommunications and Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Limited (MTNL)
for service in metropolitan areas. In 1990s, telecommunications sector
benefited from the general opening up of the economy. Also, examples
of telecom revolution in many other countries, which resulted in better
quality of service and lower tariffs, led Indian policy makers to initiate a
change process finally resulting in opening up of telecom services sector
for the private sector.
National Telecom Policy (NTP) 1994 was the first attempt to give a
comprehensive roadmap for the Indian telecommunications sector. In
1997, Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) was created. TRAI
was formed to act as a regulator to facilitate the growth of the telecom
sector. New National Telecom Policy was adopted in 1999 and cellular
services were also launched in the same year.

Telecommunication sector in India can be divided into two segments:

Fixed Service Provider (FSPs):

Fixed line services consist of basic services, national or domestic long
distance and international long distance services. The state operators
(BSNL and MTNL), account for almost 90 per cent of revenues from
basic services. Private sector services are presently available in selective
urban areas, and collectively account for less than 5 per cent of
subscriptions. However, private services focus on the business/corporate
sector, and offer reliable, highend services, such as leased lines, ISDN,
closed user group and videoconferencing.

Cellular services:
Cellular services can be further divided into two categories:

Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM) and Code

Division Multiple Access (CDMA):

The GSM sector is dominated by Airtel, Vodfone-Hutch, and Idea

Cellular,while the CDMA sector is dominated by Reliance and
TataIndicom.
Opening up of international and domestic long distance telephony
services are the major growth drivers for cellular industry. Cellular
operators get substantial revenue from these services, and compensate
them for reduction in tariffs on airtime, which along with rental was the
main source of revenue. The reduction in tariffs for airtime, national
long distance, international long distance, and handset prices has driven
demand.
 Introduction of Idea Cellular Limited

IDEA Cellular Ltd. is a leading GSM mobile services operator with over
70 million subscribers, under brand IDEA. It is a pan India integrated
GSM operator covering the entire telephony landscape of India, and has
NLD and ILD operations. IDEA is listed on the National Stock
Exchange (NSE) and the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) in India.

IDEA Cellular is an Aditya Birla Group Company, India's first

truly multinational corporation. The group operates in 25 countries, and
is anchored by over 130,000 employees belonging to 30 nationalities.

Idea Cellular is a part of the US $24 billion Aditya Birla Group

and a leading GSM mobile services operator with licenses to operate in
13 telecom service areas in India. The company has operations in Delhi,
Himachal Pradesh, Rajasthan, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh (W) &
Uttaranchal, Uttar Pradesh (E), Madhya Pradesh & Chattisgarh, Gujarat,
Maharashtra & Goa, Andhra Pradesh and Kerala with the planned
expansion into Mumbai, Bihar & Jharkhand.

Idea’s footprint will cover nearly 70 percent of India’s telephony

potential. Idea Cellular had 16.13 Million subscribers as on June 30,
2007, and had a market share of 15.4 percent as on June 30, 2007 in its
11 service areas of operation.
 History of Idea Cellular Limited
Idea Cellular's history dates back to the year 1995, when it was
incorporated as Birla Communications Services The following year, the
company entered into a joint venture with Grasim Industries and the
global telecom giant AT&T. The same year, its name was changed to
Birla AT&T Communications Limited. A merger with Tata Cellular
Limited took place in 2000. In 2002, the company created the brand
‘Idea' and changed its name to Idea Cellular Limited. The same year it
launched operations in Delhi and crossed the one million subscriber
base; in 2005, it crossed the subscriber base of five million. in 2006, the
Tata Group transferred all its shares to the Aditya Birla Group and the
group became the largest shareholder in the company. In 2007, Idea
came with an IPO and got listed on the bourses - the same year it
reached the subscriber base of 20 million.
Promoter Group
Idea is part of the Aditya Birla Group, India's first truly multinational
group. The Group has businesses in sectors ranging from metals,
garments, cement, fertilizers, life insurance and financial services among
others. Over 50% of the Group’s revenues are derived from overseas
operations. The group operates in 25 countries, and is anchored by an
extraordinary force of over 125,000 employees belonging to 25
nationalities. The current Group holding of 49.13% in Idea is made up
of;
Aditya Birla Nuvo Ltd. 27.02%
Birla TMT Holdings Pvt. Ltd. 9.15%
Hindalco Industries Ltd. 7.37%
Grasim Industries Ltd. 5.52%
IGH Holdings Pvt. Ltd. 0.08%
Total 49.13%
Operating Service Areas (as on April 2009)

Brand “!dea” covers 16 telecom service areas, viz, Maharashtra & Goa,
Gujarat, Andhra Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh & Chhattisgarh, Delhi,
Kerala, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh West & Uttaranchal, Rajasthan, Uttar
Pradesh East, Himachal Pradesh, Mumbai, Bihar & Jharkhand, Orissa,
Punjab and Karnataka, covering ~ 80% of the all India subscriber base.
Of these, the 3 service areas of Rajasthan, UP East and Himachal
Pradesh, were rolled out during Sep-Nov’06, while the 2 service areas of
Mumbai and Bihar became operational during Aug-Oct‘08. The service
areas of Punjab and Karnataka were added through Spice w.e.f October
16, 2008.
Brand Idea has only recently extended to the Orissa service area with the
launch of commercial operations in April 2009.

In Bihar, Idea acquired 500,000 subscribers in just over 100 days.

Brand Idea was launched in Karnataka and Punjab, through the

acquisition of Spice Communications.

The company has expanded its pan-India presence through service

launches in Orissa, Chennai & Tamil Nadu, Jammu & Kashmir, Kolkata
& West Bengal, and the North East states in FY10.
 Subscriber base
Idea's subscriber base as at the end of May 2010 according to the is as
follows

 Maharashtra and Goa - 9,754,424

 Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh - 7,800,385
 Andhra Pradesh - 6,497,952
 Kerala - 5,588,865
 Kolkata - 604,650
 Gujarat - 5,527,480
 Uttar Pradesh (West) & Uttarakhand - 6,019,347
 Delhi - 2,751,588
 Haryana - 2,236,132
 Uttar Pradesh (East) - 3,985,584
 Rajasthan - 2,404,693
 Himachal Pradesh - 267,763
 Mumbai - 1,562,675
 Bihar & Jharkhand - 3,237,896
 Tamil Nadu & Chennai - 800,053
 Odisa - 604,876
 Punjab (Spice) - 3,406,761
 Karnataka (Spice) - 2,802,370
 Rest of Bengal - 664,427
 Assam - 96,542
 Jammu & Kashmir - 71,874
 North East except Assam - 40,465

66,726,802 or 15.02% (Approx.) of the total 444,295,711 mobile

connections in India.
 Network Capacity
Idea rolled out 4,941 cell sites during the March’09 quarter, taking the
FY09 tally to 19,437, and the EoP cell sites to 44,230. In the preceding
year FY08, Idea had added 14,679 cell sites. Thus, in the last 2 fiscal
years, Idea has enhanced its cell site capacity 4.4 times, representing a
massive enhancement of capacity to build competitive strength.
The capacity already built, together with improved spectrum availability
and enhanced technology features will result in greater capex efficiency
in FY10, and reduced capex intensity.
Total capex for FY09 was Rs. 54.5 bn. For FY10, including for new
service area launches, the capex will indicatively be in the region of Rs.
60.0 bn. This estimate does not factor the unknown impact of a possible
3G auction.
 Update on Spice Communications
The accounts of Spice continue to be consolidated in proportion of the
shareholding of 41.09%, until its eventual merger into Idea. Finalization
of the merger scheme is in an advanced stage and will be effective after
the court order.

Update on Indus Towers

As the 3 shareholders, Bharti Infratel, Vodafone Essar Ltd and ABTL
(100% subsidiary of Idea) signed the IRU with Indus effective January
01, 2009, Indus has started invoicing respective entities for the sites
covered by the IRU. Idea has filed the scheme for demerger of towers to
ICTIL. This will be followed by the filing of the merger scheme of
ICTIL with Indus.
Environmental Scanning
The marketing environment within which a company operates is
dynamic. There are two types of environment.

1. Micro environment
2. Macro environment

1. Micro environment:
The micro environment is “the forces close to the company that
affects its ability to serve its customers.”
2. Macro environment:
The macro environment is “the larger societal forces that affects
the whole macro environment.” The macro environment consist
of six types of forces Demographic, Economic, Natural,
Technological, Political and Cultural forces. A company’s
marketing strategy must take into account changes and trends in
this environment that can present opportunities or pose threats. A
successful firm in one that regularly modifies it marketing mix
and strategies to adapt to these changes.
 Political Factors:
Neglected area has been non-existence of any guidelines for
installation of towers in every nook and corner of the country. In
our endeavor to grow, proper attention is missing for safety
associated with towers. Lots of towers in India have been
installed on roof tops of weak and unsafe buildings. During
construction, hardly anybody has planned for towers on roof tops.
It is unexpected that the structure feasibility of all buildings is
undertaken before towers are installed. There are cases where
more than two or even three towers have been installed at a single
location.

Economic Factors:
1. Income group:
Now a day, lower class people also use mobile phones. And idea
simcard is affordable by any class.
2. price elasticity:
Demand of idea simcard is increasing day by day so the price of
idea simcard is decreasing.
 Social Factors:
 Especially idea cellular provides many offers which
attracts customer of all age groups. For example, sms
offers can easily attract youngsters. And people who are
using idea simcard, can talk at very less call rate. So most
of people use this product.
 Idea cellular limited has many big names and good brand
image so bulk of the people use idea simcards.
 Good advertisement always attracts people & idea
cellular limited introduces new and attractive
advertisement regularly and have celebrity as their brand
ambassador like Abhishek Bachchan, so it is a big factor.
 Technological Factors:
 Initially the memory of sim card for contact saving was
less, but now a days we can get more memory in that.
 Now there is facilities of GPRS is also available in Idea
simcard.
 Demographic Factors:
1. Gender: This is used by both males and females.
2. Age group: mostly we see that mobiles are used
by all age group from teenagers to older ones.
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3. Population: we know that if the populations
increase, the use of cell phone will also increase.
4. Occupation: This is used by the entire person. So
occupation is not affecting on it.
5. Income: Now a day’s income factor is not
affecting to this. Because it is available at very
cheap price now.
Marketing Research Process
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6. Make the
Decision
5. Present the
Findings
4. Analyze the
Information
3. Collect the
Information
2. Develop the
Research plan
1. Define the
problem, the
decision
alternatives, and the
research objectives.
Market
Research
Process
Step – 1: Define the problem, the decision alternatives, and the
research objectives
There are many brands available in market like Airtel, Vodafone,
Tata, Reliance and Virgin. So, if any of these mobile operators give
new schemes in less price then customers easily get attract from the
scheme and switch over from our brand.
Step – 2: Develop the research Plan
The second stage of marketing research requires developing the
most efficient plan for gathering the required information. This
involves decision on the data sources, research approaches, research
instruments, sampling plan and contact methods. So the research we
will select questioner method i.e. we will prepare questioner and do
the research.
Sampling plan: After deciding on the research approach and
instruments, the marketing researcher must design sampling plan.
These call for 3 decisions.
1. Sampling Unit: Who should we survey?
In Idea Cellular the target consumer is the consumer of age
between 15 to 60 years.
2. Sample Size: How many people should we survey?
In this step marketer decides from which area and number of
sample they take for research. For e.g. the researcher decides to
take the sample of 200 respondents from the society.
3. Sampling procedure: how should we choose the respondents?
After the researcher has decided the sample unit and sample size
they should decide how should be choose the respondents. There
are two sampling procedure.
Probability sample: it means he gives equal chance to all
the respondents.
Non probability sample: it means unequal chance to the
respondent.
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And for the researcher non probability sample is easy to reach to
the respondents for his research process. Research will choose
non probability sample and in this process he will choose
convenient sample i.e. the researcher select the most assessable
population members.
Step – 3: Collect the information
The data collection phase of marketing research is the most
expensive and the most prostrate to error. Today is the era of
computer technology and so the researcher will use computer
technologies i.e. new researcher software, internet etc. and face to
face methods for fill up the questionnaire and gather the
information.
Step – 4: Analyze the information
The next step in the process is to extract findings by analyzing the
information and developing frequency distribution. The
researchers now compute averages and measures of dispersion for
the major variables and apply statistical techniques and decision
models in the hope of discovering additional findings.
Step – 5: Present the findings
As the last step, the researcher presents findings relevant to the
major marketing decisions facing management. Researchers
increasingly are being asked to play a consulting role in
translating data and information into recommendations. They are
also considering ways to present research findings in as
understandable and compelling a fashion as possible.
Step – 6: Make the decision
The study conducted is a conclusive descriptive statistical study;
the researcher comes to the decision which is precise and rational.
The study is conclusive because after doing the study the
researcher comes to a conclusion regarding the position of the
brand in the minds of respondents of different firms groups. The
study is statistical because throughout the study all the similar
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samples are selected and group together. All the similar responses
are taken together as one and their percentages are calculated.
Thus, this conclusive descriptive statistical study is the best study
for this purpose as it provides the necessary information which is
utilize to arrive at a concrete decision
Questionnaires
1) Are you fond of mobile phones?
Yes
No
2) Do you use any mobile phones?
Yes
No
3) Which company’s simcard do you prefer to use?
Idea
Airtel
Vodafone
BSNL
Reliance
4) From which sources did you get information about these
simcards?
Newspapers
Television
Friends
Others

5) Are
you aware of Idea simcard?
Yes
No

6) Have you seen any advertisement of idea cellular

limited?
Yes
No

7) Do you use Idea simcards?

Yes
No

8) Do you want to buy Idea sim card?

Yes
No
Cant say now

9) Which factor do you considered while buying Idea

Cellular Limited?
Network
Schemes
Brand image
Call Charges
If other than please specify……………….

10) From
how long do you use Idea simcard?
less than a year
1 to 3 year
More than 3 years

11) Haveyou seen any advertisement of Idea Cellular

Limited?
Yes
No

12) Do you face network problem any time?

Sometime
Never
Often

13) In which area of service in idea simcard do you want to

improve?
Network
Quality
Schemes
Call Charges.
14) Do you satisfied with the service of Idea Cellular
Limited?
Yes
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No.
15) If not than give the suggestions for improvement.
……………………………………………………………………
……………………………………………………………………
Name: …………………………………………….
Sex: ………………. Age: ……………………..
Qualification: …………………………………….
Contact No.: ………………………………………
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Forecasting and Estimating Demand
One main reason for undertaking marketing research is to identify
market opportunities for our product. Once the research is
completed, company must forecast size, growth and profit for
market opportunities.
1. Measure of Market Demand:
Potential Market:
Potential market is the set of consumers who acknowledge a
sufficient level of interest in a market. So many people use
mobile phones and have interest in purchase of new simcard for
new mobile phones as well as old mobile phones for experience a
new services and schemes. So the potential market of idea
cellular is large.
Available Market:
Available market is the set of consumers who have interest,
income, and access to particular offer. The price of idea simcard
is reasonable with lower call rates and new schemes. So that
customers attract from idea simcard and so the available marker
of idea simcard is large.
Qualified Available Market:
Qualified available market is the set of consumer who have
interest, income, access and qualification for the particular
product. As the idea simcard does not require any such
qualification so there is no need for the idea simcard for this
market.
Target Market:
Target market is the set of qualified available market the
company decides to pursue. The Idea Cellular Services might
decide to concentrate its marketing and distribution effort on
particular area or particular villages where the network of idea
cellular is not available. So the Idea Cellular decides to put its
effort for Idea Cellular Services in particular areas or villages.
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Now a day Idea Cellular has started to give a new network towers
in small villages for choosing their target market.
Penetrated Market:
Penetrated market is set of consumers who are buying the
company’s product. As the Idea Cellular made its effort on small
villages and some particular areas and in India most of the people
especially young generation wants new schemes and less call
rates and also new sms schemes and Idea Cellular provides all
these facilities in lower cost as compare to other one. So the
penetrated market of the Idea Cellular is also large.
2. Estimating Current Demand:
Researcher is now ready to examine some of methods for
estimating current market demand. Marketing executives want to
estimate total market potential, area market potential and total
industry sales and market share.
Total Market Potential:
Total Market Potential is the maximum amount of sales that
might be available to all the firms in an industry during a given
period, under a given level of industry marketing effort and
environment conditions. A common way to estimate total market
potential is as follows:-
Total Market Potential = Potential No. of Buyers X Average
Quantity Purchased By a Buyer X Price
For e.g.:
Total Market Potential = 20000 buyers X 1 simcard X Rs. 30
= Rs. 6,00,000 Total Market Potential
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Area Market Potential:
Companies face the problem of selecting the best territories and
allocating their marketing budget optimally among these
territories. Therefore, they need to estimate the market potential
of different districts, towns, cities, states, and nations. Two major
methods of assessing area market potential are available: the
market builds up method, which is used primarily by business
marketers, and the multiple-factor index method, which is used
primarily by consumer marketers.
The marketer has decided to use Market-Buildup Method as this
method gives accurate result.
Consumer Buying Behaviour Factor
Affecting To Product
Consumer behavior is the study of how individuals, groups, and
organization select, buy, use and dispose of goods, services, ideas
or experience to satisfy their needs and wants.
A consumer’s buying behavior is affected by cultural and social
factors.
Cultural Factors:
Culture: As in Idea Prepaid Simcards, the cultural factor is not
affecting much.
Social class: Social class includes lower class, middle class and
upper class. This sometimes affects the demand of the Idea
Prepaid Simcard, because these all categories people mostly
prefer Idea Prepaid Simcard because of lower call rate in
reasonable charges. So it affects to the demand of the Idea
Prepaid Simcard.
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Social Factors:
Social factors such as reference groups, family, and social roles
and statuses affect consumer buying behavior.
Reference group: The reference group is that who connected or
daily communicate with each other like family, friends,
neighborhood, relatives etc. So because of this reference group
they provide the information of Idea Prepaid Simcard like
services and other facilities, by knowing some of the good
features and services by reference group of this product person
can easily influenced by them and so that the demand of the
product also increase.
Family: The family is the most important consumer buying
organization in society, and family members constitute the most
influential primary reference group. In family if some one using
the service of Idea Prepaid Simcard than the other members is
influenced by the family members and also use the service of Idea
Prepaid Simcard.
Status: One of the advertisement campaign is “Aaj Se Koi Bi
Apne Nam Se Nahi Jana Jayega”. From this campaign many
high level people and also politicians using Idea Prepaid Simcard
because of adding value in their status. So status also affect in
increasing in demand.
Personal Factors:
Age and stage in the life cycle: This affects much when a
student’s in their schooling they don’t want much services and
schemes in prepaid simcards, but after passing their schooling
they entered in college and so that at that time they wants more
services and schemes in reasonable price for connecting with
friends and relatives or increase their contacts. So this factor is
much affects on demand of Idea Prepaid Simcard.
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Occupation and economic circumstances: This also affects the
demand because in any occupation company have a more
contacts with customers, suppliers etc. so that they wants to
connected with their suppliers and customers and so that they
want less call rate in reasonable price. So occupation and
economic circumstances are also affects the demand of the Idea
Prepaid Simcard.
Personality and self concept: This has also affect on the demand
of the Idea Prepaid Simcard because a person has its own view
point of selecting the product and if does not like the Idea Prepaid
Service he may switch over to the other prepaid simcard.
Lifestyle and values: It also affects the demand of the Idea
Prepaid Simcards because person’s lifestyle and its value play a
great role in choosing any product.
Identify Market Segment of the Product
We can segment any product into Geographic, Demographic,
Psychographic and Behavioral. So the market segment of Idea
Prepaid Simcard is as below.
Geographic:
Region: Idea GSM services are licensed in 13 circles of India, so
that these services are used by people in different circles and also
used by different region people.
City: Idea Prepaid Simcard is used in metro city, mega city and
also in small villages because of reasonable prices and also
offered many schemes for people in less monthly rental.
Demographic:
Age: Idea Prepaid Simcard is used by age group of 15 to 55
years. Now-a-days this prepaid service is also used by below this
age group.
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Family size: We can also segment our product based on family
size because if the family size is large and if they are using more
mobile phones in family for connected with each other then they
also using prepaid services.
Income: Income is not much affects in segmenting the market
because price of Idea Prepaid is reasonable and the lower class
people also afford it.
Occupation: Occupation also affect in segmenting the market
because Idea Prepaid simcard is only not used by lower class and
middle class people but also used by higher class people who
have their own business.
Education: Education does not affect the segment of the Idea
Prepaid Simcard because Idea Prepaid Simcard has been used by
educated people as well as uneducated people.
Psychographic:-
Lifestyle: Lifestyle also affects in segmenting the market. So the
marketer while segmenting the market of Idea Prepaid should
keep this in his mind, because high class people also using this
service.
Personality: Personality does not affect the Idea Prepaid Service
in segmenting his market.
Behaviour:
Behviour does not affect in segmenting the market.
Select Brand Element for Product
There are six main criteria for choosing brand elements. The first
three-Memorable, Meaningful, and likeable are “brand building”.
The latter three are Transferable, Adaptable, and Protectable are
“defensive”.
Memorable: How easily is the brand element recalled and
recognized? Idea Cellular is having a reputed telecommunication
TOLANI INSTITUTE OF MANAGEMENT STUDIES Page 19
service, and having a good logo. Idea Cellular Service has a good
punch line “An Idea Can Change Your Life” and “For the
People, By the People” which is very easy in recall it.
Meaningful: Is the brand element credible and suggestive of the
corresponding category? Idea Cellular Service is having a punch
line “An Idea Can Change Your Life” means new ideas gives
you new life for enjoyment and success.
Likable: Idea Prepared simcard liked by most of the people and
most of the people wants to use it because of good service
provide by them in affordable price.
Adaptable: Idea Cellular Service is providing two services i.e.
prepaid and postpaid. So when people can here these two services
of Idea Cellular then they easily recall the name of Idea Cellular
Service.
Develop Product Life Cycle
Introduction: In the initial stage Idea Cellular was introduced in
all the major cities of India. There were many competitors in the
tele-communication business, which provided the line-based
TOLANI INSTITUTE OF MANAGEMENT STUDIES Page 20
connection and wireless connection whereas Idea Cellular
provided the wireless connections to the customers. So profits are
nonexistent because of the heavy expenses on giving schemes of
service introduction. In the case of Idea Prepaid Service as it was
introduced in the year 1995 so it was the introduction stage.
Growth: In the growth stage, the Idea Cellular sales started
growing. And the profits also started rising. Idea Prepaid Service
growth stage was year 2002 because by the 2002’s, Idea Prepaid
got the 1 million subscribers, and in 2005 it crossed 5 million
subscribers.
Maturity: Idea Cellular is right now in the maturity stage,
because they have got most of the market share. There has also
been an increase in competition; new companies like Reliance
GSM, Aircel etc. also enter into the market. The Idea Cellular had
made not only the service modification, but also extend their
market.
So, we can say that Idea Cellular is today on its maturity stage of
its product life cycle.
Differentiate your Product from Competitors in
the market
Differentiation is actually differentiating the market offering to
create superior customer value, once a company has chosen a
desired position it must take strong strips to deliver and
communicate that position to target consumers. The company
entire marketing program should support the chosen positioning
strategy. Idea Cellular has differentiation its products by doing
different activities as follows:
• Price affordability
• Hire famous personalities
• Only company offers package for ladies
• Roaming facilities in affordable charges
• Idea Cellular PCO
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Now we can differentiate Idea Cellular from competitors in the
market as below.
Brand Name: As compared with its competitors Idea Cellular is
having good brand name in the market and they can easily attract
their target customers by their name and which is most important
for differentiate brand from competitors.
Preferences: As prepaid simcard users uses the simcards as per
their convenient. Most of the people want more schemes and less
call rates in reasonable prices. So that customer can choose
services as per their choice and preference.
Promotion: Idea cellular Ltd. is using promotion strategy for
increase the sales and demand of the product. They are giving
schemes like free sms services, GPRS service, less call rates etc.
in reasonable monthly rental so that customer can easily attract
from this promotional schemes.
Classify the Product
Marketers have traditionally classified products on the basis of
durability, tangibility and use (consumer or industrial). Each
product type has appropriate marketing-mix strategy.
Durable and tangibility:
Durability: Idea Prepaid Simcard is durable goods because it is
not purchased by the buyers on regular basis.
Services: Services are intangible, inspirable, variable and
perishable products. As a result they normally required more
quality control, supplier credibility and adaptability. As in Idea
Prepaid Service they provides VAS (Value Added Service),
Roaming facilities etc.
Consumer Goods Classification:
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We classify the vast array of goods consumers buy on the basis of
shopping habits. We distinguish among convenience, shopping,
specialty and unsought goods.
Convenience goods: In convenience goods the Idea Prepaid
Simcard is impulse goods because it is purchased without any
planning and such efforts.
Long Term Pricing Strategy
a) At what stage in the life cycle is the product?
Idea Cellular is right now in the maturity stage, because there has
also been an increase in competition; new companies like
Reliance GSM, Aircel etc. also enter into the market.
b) What is its current price?
The current price of Idea Prepaid Simcard is Rs. 30. In this price
they gave Rs. 10 talk time and life time validity because of more
competition in market.
c) What price do its competitors charge?
The competitors of Idea Prepaid are also giving this all facilities
in same price of Rs. 30. Competitor like Vodafone is giving free
prepaid simcards with Rs. 10 talk time and lifetime validity for
increasing in users of their services.
d) What prices will you charge in the remaining stages of
the product life cycle?
Right now Idea Cellular is in the stage of maturity, but if this fall
into decline stage than I have also reduce the price as per the
competitor’s price and give more schemes. Because of this price I
will increase my sales and users of our product.
e) What objectives will be accomplished this way? How?
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 To increase the market share
 To achieve high return on capital
 To increase awareness of the product in market
 To fight with competitors
Marketing Channel
The marketing channel of Idea Cellular is as below.
In this channel first manufacture produce the simcards and then
they sent to the wholesaler as per the order. Wholesalers send to
the retailers and shopkeepers and then lastly retailer sales to
customer.
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PULL Strategy is develop by the Idea Cellular. As Idea Cellular
is very known brand and is punch line is “For the People, By the
People” and “An Idea Can Change Your Life” which is very
good that’s why Penetrated Market consumer know about that
and they ask about Idea Prepaid Simcards.
Distribution Strategy
There are three types of distribution strategies.
1. Exclusive distribution
2. Selective distribution
3. Intensive distribution
Exclusive Distribution: Exclusive distribution means severely
limiting the number of intermediaries. It is appropriate when the
producer wants to maintain control over the service level &
outputs offered by the resellers & it often includes exclusive
dealings arrangement by granting exclusive distribution, the
producer hope to obtain more dedicated & knowledgeable.
Selective Distribution: Selective distribution relies on more than
a few but less than all of the intermediaries willing to carry a
particular product. It makes sense for established companies
seeking distributors.
Intensive Distribution: In intensive distribution the
manufacturer places the goods or services in as many outlets as
possible. This strategy is used for items such as snack foods, soft
drinks, newspapers, candies etc.
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Distribution Strategy for Idea Cellular: We will use selective
distribution. It involves the use of less intermediaries who are
willing to carry the particular product. It can gain adequate
market coverage with more control and less cost.
Advertisement of Idea Cellular Ltd.
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