PROJECT REPORT

ON
TO KNOW THE CUSTOMER RESPONSE
TOWARDS ADVERTISING BY
AIRTEL AND VODAFONE

MASTERS OF BUSINESS ADMINIATRATION

(2007-2009)

SUBMITTED TO: SUBMITTED BY :

Dheeraj Sharma Sandeep rana
Roll –No- 7116223114

INSTITUTE OF MANAGEMENT AND COMPUTER

TECHONOLOGY MANDI GOBINDGARH

1
 CERTIFICATE

This is to certify that Mr.Sandeep Rana assigned the research project on “TO KNOW
THE CUSTOMER RESPONSE TOWARDS ADVERTISING BY AIRTEL AND
VODAFONE IN TELECOME SECTOR”. He has submitted this project report in
accordance with the guide lines. To the best of my knowledge this is his original work
and not submitted else where for reward of any other degree or any diploma.

DATE…… PROJECT GUIDE

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
2
I wish to express my deep gradtitude to Mr.Dheeraj sharma for acting as a guide and
providing me with continuous support and guidance. This repot could not have been
completed without the inputs and the words of advice from his far which I shall always
remain grateful to him.

I wish gratitude to my other faculity members for taking keen

interest in my project work and fine-tuning my efforts as and when required.

Sandeep Rana

Roll.No- 7116223114

CONTENTS
S CONTENTS PAGE NO.

3
.NO
1 CHAPTER
Introduction to the study 1-12
• Advertising. 6-7

• Types of advertising. 8-9

10-12
• Telecom sector in India.
2 CHAPTER
Company profile 13-25
• Air Tel 14-16

• Vodafone 17-25
3 CHAPTER
Organisation of study
• Objective of the study 26

• Research methodology 27-28

4 CHAPTER
Data analysis and Interpretations 29-46
5 CHAPTER
Findings 47
• Refrences 48
• Questionnaire 49-51

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
We are in the era of entertainment through mobile handsets. Downloading a ring tone
watching your favorite movie of tracking cricket score the list of activity that you can do
using your cell phone is endless. To supplement stagnant voice revenues cellular
operator are now turning to VAS to boost revenues in both data and value added voice

4
service. Both Air Tel and Vodafone has deep rooted presence in the Indian telecom sector
through there wide product offerings and excellent distribution network

In this report I have tried to analyze the present scenario of Indian telecom sector the real
aim of the project is to study the effectiveness and response towards advertisement
provided by Air Tel and Vodafone, but many sub objectives are also included under this
project so as to make it comprehensive one.

I complement this with the internal study of the companies – history , vision business
areas etc to analyze how well poised the company are to complete or rather just exist in
this market that is proving itself to be the most competitive in post liberalization Indian
economy.

Primary data was collected in which focus group study was conducted to design the
customer survey questionnaire with a sample size of 50 respondents. This survey was
conducted in Ludhiana, secondary data was collected through websites articles etc. Data
thus collected was analyzed and reported.

ADVERTISING

WHAT IS ADVERTISING?

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Advertising is a non-personal form of promotion that is delivered through selected media
outlets that, under most circumstances, require the marketer to pay for message
placement. Advertising has long been viewed as a method of mass promotion in that a
single message can reach a large number of people. But, this mass promotion approach
presents problems since many exposed to an advertising message may not be within the
marketer’s target market, and thus, may be an inefficient use of promotional funds.
However, this is changing as new advertising technologies and the emergence of new
media outlets offer more options for targeted advertising.

Advertising also has a history of being considered a one-way form of marketing

communication where the message receiver (i.e., target market) is not in position to
immediately respond to the message (e.g., seek more information). This too is changing.
For example, in the next few years technologies will be readily available to enable a
television viewer to click a button to request more details on a product seen on their
favorite TV program. In fact, it is expected that over the next 10-20 years advertising
will move away from a one-way communication model and become one that is highly
interactive.

Another characteristic that may change as advertising evolves is the view that advertising
does not stimulate immediate demand for the product advertised. That is, customers
cannot quickly purchase a product they see advertised. But as more media outlets allow
customers to interact with the messages being delivered the ability of advertising to
quickly stimulate demand will improve.

IMPORTANCE OF ADVERTISING:

Spending on advertising is huge. One often quoted statistic by market research firm
ZenithOptimedia estimates that worldwide spending on advertising exceeds (US) $400
billion. This level of spending supports thousands of companies and millions of jobs. In
fact, in many countries most media outlets, such as television, radio and newspapers,
would not be in business without revenue generated through the sale of advertising.

6
While worldwide advertising is an important contributor to economic growth, individual
marketing organizations differ on the role advertising plays. For some organizations little
advertising may be done, instead promotional money is spent on other promotion options
such a personal selling through a sales team. For some smaller companies advertising
may consist of occasional advertisement and on a very small scale, such as placing small
ads in the classified section of a local newspaper.

But most organizations, large and small, that rely on marketing to create customer interest
are engaged in consistent use of advertising to help meet marketing objectives. This
includes regularly developing advertising campaigns, which involve a series of decisions
for planning, creating, delivering and evaluating an advertising effort. We will cover
advertising campaigns in greater detail in our next tutorial.

MANAGING ADVERTISING DECISIONS:

Delivering an effective marketing message through advertising requires many different

decisions as the marketer develops their advertising campaign. For small campaigns, that
involve little creative effort, one or a few people may handle the bulk of the work. In
fact, the Internet has made do-it-yourself advertising an easy to manage process and has
especially empowered small businesses to manage their advertising decisions. As we will
see, not only can small firms handle the creation and placement of advertisements that
appear on the Internet, new services have even made it possible for a single person to
create advertisements that run on local television. For instance, a company called
SpotRunner allows users to select from a list of high-quality television ads that can be
customized and then placed within local cable television programming.

For larger campaigns the skills needed to make sound advertising decisions can be quite
varied and may not be easily handled by a single person. While larger companies
manage some advertising activities within the company, they are more likely to rely on
the assistance of advertising professionals, such as those found at advertising agencies, to
help bring their advertising campaign to market.

TYPES OF ADVERTISING:

If you ask most people what is meant by “type” of advertising, invariably they will
respond by defining it in terms of how it is delivered (e.g., television ad, radio ad, etc.).
But in marketing, type of advertising refers to the primary “focus” of the message being
sent and falls into one of the following four categories:

7
PRODUCT-ORIENTED ADVERTISING:

information Most advertising spending is directed toward the promotion of a specific

good, service or idea, what we have collectively labeled as an organization’s product. In
most cases the goal of product advertising is to clearly promote a specific product to a
targeted audience. Marketers can accomplish this in several ways from a low-key
approach that simply provides basic about a product (informative advertising) to blatant
appeals that try to convince customers to purchase a product (persuasive advertising) that
may include direct comparisons between the marketer’s product and its competitor’s
offerings (comparative advertising).

However, sometimes marketers intentionally produce product advertising where the

target audience cannot readily see a connection to a specific product. Marketers of new
products may follow this “teaser” approach in advance of a new product introduction to
prepare the market for the product. For instance, one week before the launch of a new
product a marketer may air a television advertisement proclaiming “After next week the
world will never be the same” but do so without any mention of a product or even the
company behind the ad. The goal is to create curiosity in the market and interest when
the product is launched.

IMAGE ADVERTISING:

Image advertising is undertaken primarily to enhance an organization’s perceived

importance to a target market. Image advertising does not focus on specific products as
much as it presents what an organization has to offer. In these types of ads, if products
are mentioned it is within the context of “what we do” rather than a message touting the
benefits of a specific product. Image advertising is often used in situations where an
organization needs to educate the targeted audience on some issue. For instance, image
advertising may be used in situations where a merger has occurred between two
companies and the newly formed company has taken on a new name, or if a company has
received recent negative publicity and the company wants to let the market know that
they are about much more than this one issue.

ADVOCACY ADVERTISING:

Organizations also use advertising to send a message intended to influence a targeted

audience. In most cases there is an underlying benefit sought by an organization when
they engage in advocacy advertising. For instance, an organization may take a stand on a
political issue which they feel could negatively impact the organization and will target
advertisements to voice their position on the issue.

8
PUBLIC SERVICE ADVERTISING:

In some countries, not-for-profit organizations are permitted to run advertisements

through certain media outlets free-of-charge if the message contained in the ad concerns
an issue viewed as for the “greater good” of society. For instance, ads directed at social
causes, such as teen-age smoking, illegal drug use and mental illness, may run on
television, radio and other media without cost to organizations sponsoring the
advertisement.

TELECOM SECTOR IN INDIA

Than 125 million telephone network is one of the largest communication networks in
world, which continues to grow at a blistering pace.

The rapid growth in the telecom sector can be attributed to the various pro-active and
positive policy measures taken by the government as well as the dynamic and
entrepreneurial spirit of the various telecom service providers both in private and public

9
sector. The telecom sector has shown impressive growth during the past decade. Today,
more

Two striking features of this growth viz. increasing preference for mobile phones and
higher contribution of private sector in the incremental growth have predominated the
telecom sector. The share of mobile phones (including WLL mobile) has overtaken the
share of landlines with 62% in the total number of phones. The private sector's
contribution is also increasing rapidly. Currently more than 30 lakh phones are being
added each month and it is targeted that by the end of 2008 the total number of phones
may reach a level of 350 million taking the tele-density to more than 30% which is
currently at 24.63%.

Network Expansion : The total number of telephone subscribers has reached 281.62
million at the end of January 2008 as compared to 232.87 million in July 2007. The
overall teledensity has increased to 23.63% in January 2008 as compared to 21.20% in
August 2007.

Wireless Service: The wireless segment saw a surge of 8.77 million subscribers last
month compared to 8.17 million in December2007. This pushed the total wireless
subscribers base to 242.40 million by Jan 31 2008.

Wireline Subscribers: The wireline segment subscriber base stood at 39.73 million with
a decrease of 0.16 million at the end of January 2008.

Teledensity: The gross subscriber base reached 206.83 million at the end of March 2007.
The teledensity is 24.63%at the end of January 2008 as compared to 18.31% at the end of
March 2007, registering an increase of 6%.

Increasing Role of Private Sector: The private sector has played a significant role in the
growth of telecom sector. The share of private sector has risen to 85 per cent in December
2007 from 64.14 per cent in November 2006.

Tariff Rebalancing Measures: There has been a dramatic fall in the tariffs due to
increased competition. The minimum effective charges for local calls have fallen
considerably in recent months especially for cellular service. The long distance domestic
as well as international charges have also fallen considerably.

Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI): TRAI was established under the
Telecom Regulatory Authority of India Act, 1997 enacted on March 28,1997. The goals
and objectives of TRAI are focused towards providing a regulatory framework that
facilitates achievement of the objectives of New Technology Policy (NTP) 1999. TRAI
has endeavored to encourage greater corporation in the telecom sector together with
better quality and affordable prices.

10
 RURAL MOBILE MARKET IN INDIA

India's telecommunication sector is witnessing an explosive growth, as falling tariffs and

rising incomes are bringing mobile phones within the reach of millions of new customers.
Mobile industry players are eyeing rural India as their new area of opportunity. The
companies are getting a boost with the fact that the mobile users are expected to cross
230 Million by 2007 end and 500 Million by 2010 with an addition of about 5 to 6
Million subscribers every month. Cellular service providers seem to be answering the call
of the wild as they are entering the so far ignored rural market. Although a huge market in
the urban segment remains tapped, most of the cellular operators have turned towards
rural India to broaden their base and reach. So the real growth is expected from this
geography in near future.

The low population density in rural areas has necessitated more towers of higher altitudes
raising the costs further. Language is another problem and there are many dialects that
had no alphabet in rural India. To meet these challenges, operators must come up with
solutions like simplifying product access, offering customer centric solutions (like songs,
music, hello tunes that are popular), and infrastructure sharing.

• With saturation in the urban market, growth in Indian mobile market will be
driven by an increased focus on the rural market, aggressive promotions, and
handset bundle offers.
• As of March 2007, mobile subscribers in rural India accounted just 20% of the
Indian mobile subscriber base. However, it is forecasted to grow at a CAGR of
more than 47% during 2007 to 2010.
• In order to remain competitive, the mobile industry could see several mergers and
acquisitions, roll out obligation and substantiate equity holding in more than one
telecom company.
• The major growth in mobile phone subscribers will be seen in C' Circle and B'
Circle in short-term.
• Enormous opportunities are emerging for the low cost handset manufacturers
along with low tariffs, infrastructure development for mobile communication.
• Rural India will account for around 35-38% of the total mobile handset sales by
2010
 Rural India - Future Outlook of Mobile Industry

The global mobile phone market is showing the signs of sluggishness but there is one
telecom market growing at an outstanding pace - India. While the worldwide subscriber

11
base posted a growth rate of around 25.7% from 2004 to 2006, subscriber base in India
leaped by a strong 63.5% from March 2004 to March 2006 and further 83% from March
2006 to March 2007, according to the leading market research firm RNCOS. This huge
growth prompted the research firm to thoroughly study the market and look for factors
fuelling this outstanding growth in the Indian mobile market that have been compiled in
the report, "Emerging Rural Mobile Market in India"

COMPANIES PROFILE

12
 AIRTEL
AND

VODAFONE

BHARTI AIRTEL

Bharti Airtel, formerly known as Bharti Tele-Ventures Limited (BTVL) is India's

largest cellular service provider with more than 75 million subscribers as of August
2008.It also offers fixed line services and broadband services. It offers its TELECOM
services under the Airtel brand and is headed by Sunil Mittal. The company also
provides telephone services and Internet access over DSL in 14 circles. The company

13
complements its mobile, broadband & telephone services with national and international
long distance services. The company also has a submarine cable landing station at
Chennai, which connects the submarine cable connecting Chennai and Singapore. 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.

Bharti Airtel, formerly known as Bharti Tele-Ventures Limited (BTVL) is India's

largest cellular service provider with more than 75 million subscribers as of August 2008.
It also offers fixed line services and broadband services. It offers its TELECOM services
under the Airtel brand and is headed by Sunil Mittal. The company also provides
telephone services and Internet access over DSL in 14 circles. The company
complements its mobile, broadband & telephone services with national and international
long distance services. The company also has a submarine cable landing station at
Chennai, which connects the submarine cable connecting Chennai and Singapore. 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.

AIRTEL

Airtel is a brand of telecommunication services in India operated by Bharti Airtel.

Airtel is the largest cellular service provider in India in terms of number of subscribers.
Bharti Airtel owns the Airtel brand and provides the following services 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
FY07).

14
Leading international telecommunication companies such as Vodafone and SingTel held
partial stakes in Bharti Airtel.

In April 2006 Bharti Global Limited was awarded a telecommunications licence in Jersey
in the Channel Islands§ by the local telecommunications regulator the µJCRA§. In September
2006 the Office of Utility Regulation in µGuernsey§ awarded Guernsey Airtel with a mobile
telecommunications licence. In May 2007 Jersey Airtel and Guernsey Airtel announced the
launch of a relationship with µVodafone§ for Island mobile subscribers. In July 2007, Bharti
Airtel signed an MoU with Nokia-Siemens for a 900 million dollar expansion of its mobile and
fixed network. In August 2007, the company announced it will be launching a customized
version of µGoogle§ search engine that will provide an 'array of services' to its broadband
customers.

In March 2008, Bharti Airtel will roll out third generation services in Sri Lanka in association
with µSingtel§. This is because Singapore-based Asian telecom major Singtel, which owns a
little over 30% in Bharti Airtel, is a major player in the 3G space as it has already third
generation networks in several markets across Asia

SUBSCRIBER BASE:

The Airtel subscriber base according to COAI - Cellular Operator Association of India as of May
2008µ[7]§ was:

• µDelhi§ - 4,055,704
• µMumbai§ - 2,468,016
• µChennai§ - 1,823,532
• µKolkata§ - 1,852,838

µMaharashtra§ & Goa - 4,345,945

• Gujarat - 3,004,824
• Andhra Pradesh - 6,516,332
• Karnataka - 7,316,500
• Tamil Nadu - 4,218,705
• Kerala - 1,703,298
• Punjab - 3,239,200
• Haryana - 1,067,990
• Uttar Pradesh (West) - 1,624,001
• Uttar Pradesh (East) - 3,897,278
• Rajasthan - 4,242,006
• Madhya Pradesh - 3,084,776

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 • West Bengal & Andaman and Nicobar - 2,106,163
• Himachal Pradesh - 809,829
• Bihar - 4,912,900
• Orissa - 1,911,070
• Assam - 939,746
• North Eastern States - 585,213
• Jammu & Kashmir - 1,100,069

The total is 67,425,935 or 32.81% of the total 205,460,762 GSM mobile connections in
India till May 2008

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%.

16
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 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 co-branded 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.

17
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. 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 long-term 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.

18
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 admirers.

SUBSCRIBER BASE:
The Vodafone subscriber base according to COAI - Cellular Operator Association of
India as of March 2008 was:

• Delhi - 3,216,769
• Mumbai - 3,451,567
• Chennai - 1,174,589
• Kolkata - 1,974,177

• Maharashtra & Goa - 2,610,389

• Gujarat - 6,010,594
• Andhra Pradesh - 2,601,458
• Karnataka - 2,850,346
• Tamil Nadu - 3,180,820
• Kerala - 2,001,133
• Orissa - 520772
• Punjab - 1,645,501
• Haryana - 1,282,208
• Uttar Pradesh (West) -2,858,429
• Uttar Pradesh (East) -3,508,355
• Rajasthan - 2,934,598
• West Bengal & Andaman and Nicobar - 2,825,310

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The total is 44,126,243 or 22.93% of the total 192,355,939 GSM mobile connections in
India till March 2008.

VODAFONE IN EUROPE

20
 Majority-owned Minority-owned No Ownership

Albania France Austria Belgium

Czech Republic Poland Bulgaria Channel Islands

Germany Croatia Cyprus

Greece
Denmark Estonia

Hungary
Finland Faroe Islands

Ireland
Iceland Latvia

Italy
Lithuania Luxembourg
Malta
Macedonia Norway
Netherlands

Serbia Slovenia
Northern Cyprus

Sweden Switzerland
Portugal

Romania

History:

21
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 GB£110 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 GB£1.7 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 Speechmark logo, 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 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.

22
In 2001 the Company took over Eircell, 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 dual-brand 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 Bitė.

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 31

October 2005 the Company reached an agreement to sell Vodafone Sweden to Telenor for

23
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 phone
company, Telsim, for $4.5 billion. In December 2005 Vodafone Spain became the second
member 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 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

24
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.

RESEARCH OBJECTIVE

To know relative customer response towards ADVERTISEMENT by Air Tel and

Vodafone in the telecom sector.

25
OBJECTIVE:

1. How people of different age group respond to ADVERTISEMENT.

2. Positioning strategies use by telecom companies and their impact on customer.
3. To find out relative customer perception.
4. To find out which telecom company have good advertising and what type of
advertising subscriber like.
5. Role of advertisements on the buying behavior of the customer.

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
The research methodology that I undertook for the purpose of this study is enumerated
below-

PRIMARY RESEARCH:

26
This consisted questionnaire and interaction from various people. A focus group study
will be conducted to design the customer survey questionnaire with a sample size of 50
respondents. The survey was conducted in Ludhiana, Punjab.

SECONDARY RESEARCH:

Sources of secondary data were primarily the Internet , journals , newspaper, annual
report, database available in the library, catalogues and presentations.

RESEARCH DESIGN: DESCRIPTIVE

Descriptive studies are well structured, they tend to be rigid and its approach can not be
changed every now and then. Descriptive study can be divided in two categories:

(A) Cross sectional

(B) Longitudinal

Descriptive study are undertaken in many circumstances:

1. when the researcher is interested in knowing the characteristics of certain groups

such as age , profession.

2. when the researcher is interested in knowing the proportion of people in given

population who have behaved in a particular manner, making projection of certain
things.

The objective of this kind of study is to answer the why, who, ,what ,when and how of the
subject under consideration.
I will be taking descriptive because my
research includes the knowing the behavior of customer towards advertisement. I will be
working on to know how people of various age group respond to different advertising or
there perception towards advertisement. Also my survey is related to two companies Air
Tel and Vodafone.

TYPES OF QUESTIONS:

OPEN ENDED:

27
They give the respondents complete freedom to decide the form , length and detail of the
answer. Open questions are preferred when the researchers is interested in knowing what
is upper most in the mind of respondents.

DICHOTOMOUS:

This type of questions have only two type of answer, yes or no. true or false etc.

MULTIPLE CHOICE QUESTIONS:

In the case of multiple choice question the respondents is offered two or more choices.
The researcher exhausts all the possible choices and the respondent has to indicate which
one is applicable in this case.

DATA
28
 ANALYSIS

AND

INTERPRETATION

DATA ANALYSIS AND INTERPRETATION

29
After the data collection, it was compiled, classified and tabulated manually and with
help of computer. Then the task of drawing inferences was accomplished with the help of
percentage and graphic method. Different suggestions given by me to the Company after
analyzing the views of every respondent are also given in the report.

Keeping in mind the objectives of the study, the survey was being done and
following interpretation was being drawn.

DEMOGARPHIC FEATURES OF REPONDENTS

1. Sex ratio of the respondents

S.NO. PARTICULARS NUMBER %AGE

A MALE 39 78%
B FEMALE 11 22%

90%
80%
70%
60%
50% male
40% female
30%
20%
10%
0%

INTERPRETATION: The graphical representation of the table shows that out of 50

respondents 39 were male and 11 were female.

2 AGE GROUP OF RESPONDENTS

30
S.NO. PARTICULARS NUMBER %AGE
A 15-25 21 42%
B 25-35 18 36%
C 35-45 6 12%
D 45 above 5 10%

45
40
35
30 15-25
25 25-35
20 35-45
15 45 above
10
5
0
%age

INTERPRETATION: The graphical representation of the table shows that out of total
respondents 42% were of age 15-25, 36% 25-35, 12% 35-45, and rest were above 45.

3. LITERACY RATE AMONG THE RESPONDENTS

31
S.NO. PARTICULARS NUMBER %AGE
A MATRICULATE 8 16
B INTERMEDIATE 17 34
C GRADUATION 19 38
D POST-GRADUATION 6 12

40
35
30
matric
25
intermediate
20
graduate
15
P.G
10
5
0
%age

INTERPRETATION: The graphical representation of the table shows that out of total
respondents 8 were matriculate,17 were intermediate,19graduateand rest 6 were
postgraduate.

4.Who is your current service provider?

S.NO. PARTICULARS NUMBER %AGE

A AIRTEL 14 28

32
 B VODAFONE 25 50
C OTHERS 11 22

60

50

40
AIRTEL
30 VODAFONE
20 OTHERS

10
0
%AGE

INTERPRETATION
The 14 person were used Air Tel and 25 person were used vodaphone and 11
were used other.

5. For how long you are using this mobile connection?

AIRTEL
S.NO. PARTICULARS NUMBER %AGE

33
 A Less than 6 months 2 14%
B 6 to 12 months 3 21%
C Above 12 months 9 65%

70%
60%
50%
less than 6
40%
12-Jun
30%
above 12
20%
10%
0%

Interpretation
Two person were used since six month and three were used since twelve
months and nine were used since two year.

VODAFONE

S.NO. PARTICULARS NUMBER %AGE

34
 A Less than 6 months 1 4%
B 6 to 12 months 3 12%
C Above 12 months 21 84%

100

80

60 less than 6
12-Jun
40
above 12
20

0
%age

INTERPRETATION
The one person were used since six months and three were used since one
year and twenty were used since two year

OTHERS

35
S.NO. PARTICULARS NUMBER %AGE
A Less than 6 months 1 9%
B 6 to 12 months 2 18%
C Above 12 months 8 73%

80
70
60
50 less than 6
40 12-Jun
30 above 12
20
10
0
%age

INTERPRETATION
The one person were used since six months and two were used since one
year and eight were used since two year.

What were the reason for choosing this mobile connection?

36
 AIRTEL
S.NO. PARTICULARS NUMBER %AGE
A Recommended by friends and relative 5 36%
B Recommended by retailer 2 14%
C Brand image 1 7%
D Advertisement 6 43%

50
45
40
35 by frnd&rltv
30
by retailer
25
20 brand image
15 advertise
10
5
0
%age

INTREPRETATION
Fife were recommended by friends and relative and two were by retailor and
one were by brand image and six were by advertisement.

VODAFONE
S.NO. PARTICULARS NUMBER %AGE
A Recommended by friends and relative 6 24%

37
 B Recommended by retailer 2 8%
C Brand image 7 28%
D Advertisement 10 40%

50

40
by frnd &rltv
30
by rtlr
20 brnd im g
advrtisem nt
10

INTREPRETATION
Six were recommended by friends and relative and two were by retailor and
seven were by brand image and ten were by advertisement.

OTHERS
S.NO. PARTICULARS NUMBER %AGE
A Recommended by friends and relative 2 18

38
 B Recommended by retailer 2 18
C Brand image 6 55
D Advertisement 1 9

60
50
by frnd rltv
40
by rtlr
30
brand im g
20
advertisem ent
10
0
%age

INTREPRETATION
Two were recommended by friends and relative and two were by retailor and
six were by brand image and one were by advertisement.

6. While purchasing a connection does advertisement plays any role?

39
S.NO. PARTICULARS NUMBER %AGE
A Yes 42 84%
B No 8 16%

100

80

60 yes
no
40
Colum n 3
20

0
%age

Interpretation
The fourty two preson were say yes and eight were says no.

7. from where you watch the advertisement most?

40
S.NO. PARTICULARS NUMBER %AGE
A Television 31 62%
B Radio 0 0%
C Newspaper 11 22%
D Magazines 8 16%

70
60
50 Te levision
40 Radio
30 New spaper
20 m agazines
10
0
%age

Interpretation
The mostly people sees advertisement in the television.

8. Which telecommunication have good advertisements?

41
S.NO. PARTICULARS NUMBER %AGE
A Air Tel 21 42
B Vodafone 24 48
C Any other 5 10

60

50

40
AIRTEL
30 VODAFONE
20 ANYOTHER

10

0
%AGE

Interpretation
The mostly Vodafone have good advertisement.

9. How well advertisements of the Air Tel catch your attention?

42
S.NO. PARTICULARS NUMBER %AGE
A Very well 22 44
B Somewhat well 12 24
C Undecided 6 12
D Not at all 10 20

50

40
very well
30
somewhat well
20 undecided
not at all
10

0
%age

Interpretation
The 22 person says very well and 12 person says some what well and 6 were
undecided and 10 were says no.

10. How well did the advertisement of Vodafone catch your attention?

S.NO. PARTICULARS NUMBER %AGE

43
 A Very well 26 52
B Somewhat well 10 20
C Undecided 6 12
D Not at all 8 16

60

50

40 very well
somewhatwll
30
undecided
20 not at all

10

Interpretation
The 26 person says very well and 10 person says some what well and 6 were
undecided and 8 were says no.

11. Do you think that advertisement made by company informs you about
there new products?

S.NO. PARTICULARS NUMBER %AGE

A YES 34 68

44
 B NO 12 24
C UNDECIDED 4 8

80

70

60

50
YES
40 NO

30 UNDECIDED

20

10

0
%AGE

Interpretation
The 34 person says yes and 12 person says no and 4 person were no
response.

12. Based on advertisements made by company, would you like to go for

more connection for you or your family in future?

S.NO. PARTICULARS NUMBER %AGE

A YES 38 76

45
 B NO 7 14
C UNDECIDED 5 10

80
70
60
50 yes
40 no
30 undecided
20
10
0

Interpretation
The 38 person says yes and 7 person says no and 5 person were no response.

FINDINGS
1. Maximum respondents were using mobile phones for more than one year.
2. People like to watch advertisement on television mostly.
3. Respondents like to purchase new mobile connection based on
advertisements and schemes.

46
 4. Maximum respondents were in favor of that, Vodafone’s advertising is
better than other companies.
5. Maximum number of respondents were in favor of that, they would like to
purchase more connection of the company with good advertisement
policy.

REFRENCES

• www.bhartiteleventures.com
• www.vodafone.co.in
• www.google.com

47
 QUESTIONNAIRE
Dear Sir/Madam
I am the student of MBA-3 rd Semester at RIMT-IMCT, Mandi Gobindgarh doing
a project “ TO KNOW THE CUSTOMER RESPONCE TOWARDS ADVERTISING BY

48
AIRTEL AND VODAFONE IN THE TELECOM SECTOR” Please co-operate to fill this
questionnaire.

1. Name _________________________________________

2. Sex: (a) Male (b) Female

3. Age: (a) 15-25 (b) 25-35

(c) 35-45 (d) Above 45

4. Education: (a) Matriculate (b) Intermediate

(C) Graduation (d) Postgraduate

5. Who is your current service provider?

a) Airtel b) Vodafone c) Any other

6) For how long you are using this mobile connection?

a) less than 6 months.

b) 6 to 12 months.
c) Above 12 months.

7. what were the reasons for choosing this mobile connection?

a) Recommended by friends or relatives.

b) Recommended by retailers.
c) Brand image
d) Advertisement

8. While purchasing a connection advertising plays any role?

a) Yes b) No

9. From where you watch the advertisement most?

49
 a) Television
b) Radio
c) Newspaper
d) Magazines

10. Which telecommunication have good advertising?

a) Air Tel
b) Vodafone
c) Any other

11. How well did advertisement of the AirTel catch your attention?
a) Very well
b) Somewhat well
c) Undecided
d) Not at all.

12.How well did the advertisement of the Vodafone catch your attention?
a) Very well
b) somewhat well
c) undecided
d) Not at all

13. Do you think that advertisement made by company informs you about there products?
.a) Yes
b) No
c) Undecided
14) Based on advertisements made by company , would you like to go for more
connection for you or your family in future?
a) Yes.
b) No.
c) Not decided.

Address __________________________________________
__________________________________________
__________________________________________
Phone no. _________________________________“Thanks for your valuable time
and co-operation”

50
51