Mobile service providers & marketing in India

This post is at least 3 months overdue - so, here we go: observations of the last year or so of the exploding, number porting, marketing laden Indian Mobile phone market

It is no surprise that each of the major global telecom providers eye india as their best chance of growing world wide market share. Having said that, with the number of new entrants and the estimated potential for growth, there is clearly a race for market share and organic growth amidst the top groups that have established themselves in the telecom space already viz. Reliance, Tata, Bharti airtel, Idea cellular, Vodafone, etc. Docomo & ,Telenor have joined the fray. Domestic players welcome the foreign entrants and view it as an opportunity to gather expertise while strengthening their positions themselves.

The race for growth and share has manifested itself in significant marketing. You only need to watch a cricket match to end up singing docomo's catchy jingle,



feel warm and fuzzy from vodafone's ads,


get puzzled by airtel's weird antics and


get the message from Abhishek Bacchan's brilliance


However, if you have seen some of the ads that these service providers have invested in, some ads, like those of Docomo & Idea state the value and benefits of their networks/ products, while that of airtel is just plain confusing. Docomo, since their entry have been clear with their advertising, taken a simpler price and feature communication approach, while telenor's ads all over South India clearly has something lost in translation.

Idea cellular have quickly learnt a lesson and moved away from their ads featuring their not so "green" ideas of why using a cell phone is better, to talking about how their network is different than the others in the market. In the latest iteration, they have taken a slightly different approach from the price wars that Docomo helped perpetrate to possibly creating differentiation on the issues that are slowly becoming apparent to the Indian mobile user - poor customer service, network availability, call quality, etc. It remains to be seen if they can truly build a reputation of delivering their election manifesto.

With number portability having made its entry in to the market, the challenge ahead for all of these players and their respective marketing departments would be to provide a message backed up by a proposition that is likely to make consumers break their inertia barrier to switch or acquire a new service line. Today, while vodafone 's ads promise warm & fuzzy service, I am not sure what they promise to deliver and see no reason to switch and risk what I have. Idea does seem to convey better reception, prices and service - but then, I am not sure I'd believe them yet. Typically, it takes a bad experience with an existing service provider or a great differentiator for a consumer to switch. These are likely to happen in post-paid accounts, data plans, wifi broadband plans, where there is a higher level consumption and need. Consumers are likely to shop again for services and compare plans before making the commitment.

With 3G starting to make its appearance in India, we are embarking on interesting times - the Indian consumer is only likely to benefit, with the competition to gain their buck.