17-11-2012, 04:40 PM
Aircel-Building Brand Equity
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Introduction to Aircel
The Aircel group is a joint venture between 'Maxis
Communications, Berhad, Malaysia and Sindya Securities
& lnvestments Private Limited, whose current shareholders
are the Reddy family of theApollo Hospitals Group of India,
with Maxis Communications holding a majority stake of
74 per cent.'Aircel started its operations in 1999 in Tamil
Nadu and became the leading mobile operator in that
state in eighteen months. In December 2003, it entered
Chennai and established itself as a market leader. The
success story repeated itself in the other places such as the
Northeastern states, Orissa, Bihar, Jammu and Kashmir,
Himachal Pradesh, West Bengal, Kolkata, Kerala, Andhra
Pradesh, Karnataka, Delhi, UttarPradesh (Westand East),
Maharashtra, especially Mumbai, and Goa. The company
got a fillip when it was allocated a spectrum for thirteen
new circles across India by the Department of Telecom.
With over twenty-five million people as a customer base,
Aircel is a national operator now.
Establishing brand Aircel
Aircel Cellular started off as a niche player in South
India. lt has been in lndia for eleven years now, but is
one of the newest pan-lndia telecom operators. In spite
of strong competition from established biggies like Airtel
and Vodafone, Aircel has been able to draw attention to
itself across the country. Aircel has invested heavily in
building their infrastructure. They have installed their
own towers, and their network equipment deal is with
top-notch players like Ericsson, Nokia, Huawei, etc. lts lT
infrashucture is managed byWipro.
Measures taken to build brand equity
The company has invested heavily in promotional activities
to build brand awareness and brand equity. In May 2009,
when its services were launched in Delhi, the mobile
servtces company spent over {35 crore (t350 million)
buying space in newspapers, magazines, and television
channels to promote its products.
Aircelhas also actively involved the out-of_home (OOH)
media to build brand awareness. ,Their ,,Just
anivedi
boxes at the Mumbai airport; the projection of the logo on
the landmark Gateway of India; the lpl Scoreboard put
up at the Mahim Causeway in Mumbai, created a lot of
buzz forAircel. Aircel branded airport placards had names
of celebrities, such as Tom Cruise, which immediately
grabbed people's attention. A number of these innovations
were useful. The lpl scoreboard, for instance, helped
commuters keep kack of the latest score.
Conclusion
Graduating from a niche player (South India)to a national
player (pan-lndia), Aircel has come a long way and is still
growing. lt is the fifth largest telecom player (on the basis
of the number of customers) and has successfully taken
on biggies like Airtel and Vodafone. With its innovative
strategies and out-of-the-box thinking, they have been
able to generate a lot olbuzz in their target market,