Murali Manohar Bhupathi
Communication is very critical for the success of an individual or an organization to convey an intended message to target recipients. In today’s fast emerging scenario of competitive marketing, any communication aimed at achieving specific goals with respect to sales promotion, advertising, direct marketing, public relations, online promotions, and social media has to be planned and executed in a professional manner. Integration of various communication tools is vital to reach the target audience. This chapter discusses various types of communication tools. In additional it also delves into some ethical issues surrounding communication strategies.
The American Marketing Association (AMA) defines Integrated Marketing Communications (IMC) as “a planning process designed to assure that all brand contacts received by a customer or prospect for a product, service, or organization are relevant to that person and consistent over time.”a Clow and Baack1 portray “IMC as the coordination and integration of all marketing communication tools, avenues, and sources within a company into a seamless program that maximizes the impact on consumers and other end users at a minimal cost.” According to the American Association of Advertising Agencies (AAAA), IMC recognizes the value of a comprehensive plan that evaluates the strategic roles of a variety of communication disciplines — advertising, public relations, personal selling, and sales promotion — and combines them to provide clarity, consistency, and maximum communication impact.
Smith, Berry, and Pulford2 defined IMC as follows:
– Management and control of all marketing communications.
– Ensuring that the brand positioning, personality, and messages are delivered synergistically across every element of communication and are delivered from a single consistent strategy.
– The strategic analysis, choice, implementation, and control of all elements of marketing communications which efficiently (best use of resources), economically (minimum costs), and effectively (maximum results) influence transactions between an organization and its existing and potential customers, consumers, and clients.
Five major shifts in the world of advertising, marketing, and media have caused an increased interest in (and need for) IMC.b These include as follows:
A Shift From … |
To … |
Traditional advertising |
Digital/interactive media |
Mass media |
Specialized media |
Low agency accountability |
High agency accountability |
Traditional compensation |
Performance-based compensation |
Limited Internet access |
Widespread Internet availability |
IMC is the process of developing and implementing various forms of persuasive communication programs with customers and prospects over time. The goal of IMC is to influence or directly affect the behavior of the selected audience. It considers all sources of brand or company contacts which a customer or prospect has with the product or service as potential delivery channels for future messages. In sum, the IMC process starts with the customer or prospect and then works backward to determine and define the forms and methods through which persuasive communication programs should be developed.3
Smith et al.2 developed a tool to better understand IMC involving the following seven levels and corresponding degrees of integration. According to them, marketing integration may occur at one or more of the following seven levels:
• Vertical objectives integration: It means that communication objectives fit with marketing objectives and overall corporate objectives.
• Horizontal/functional integration: Communications activities fit well with other business functions of manufacturing, operations, and human resource management.
• Marketing mix integration: Marketing mix of product, price, and place decisions is consistent with promotion decisions.
• Communications mix integration: All communication tools are being used to guide the customer/consumer/client through each stage of the buying process and all of them portray a consistent message.
• Creative design integration: The creative design and execution is uniform and consistent with the chosen positioning of the product.
• Internal/external integration: All internal departments and all external employed agencies are working together for an agreed plan and strategy.
• Financial integration: The budget is being used in an effective and efficient way, ensuring that economies of scale are achieved and that long-term investment is optimized.
IMC is a management concept that is designed to make all aspects of marketing communication such as advertising, sales promotion, public relations, personal selling, and direct marketing work together as a unified force, rather than allowing each to work in isolation.
Advertising has four characteristics: it is persuasive in nature; it is non-personal; it is paid for by an identified sponsor; and it is disseminated through mass channels of communication. Advertising messages may promote the adoption of goods, services, persons, or ideas. Because the sales message is disseminated through the mass media — as opposed to personal selling — it is viewed as a cheaper way of reaching consumers. However, its non-personal nature means it lacks the ability to tailor the sales message to the message recipient and, more importantly, make the sale. Therefore, advertising effects are best measured in terms of increasing awareness and changing attitudes and opinions, not generating sales. Advertising’s contribution to sales is difficult to isolate because many factors influence sales. The contribution advertising makes to sales are best viewed over the long run. The exception to this thinking is within the Internet arena. While banner ads, pop-ups, and insertions should still be viewed as brand promoting and not necessarily sales-drivers, technology provides the ability to track how many of a website’s visitors click the banner, investigate a product, request more information, and ultimately make a purchase.
Through the use of symbols and images advertising can help differentiate products and services that are otherwise similar. Advertising also helps to create and maintain brand equity: an intangible asset that results from a favorable image, impressions of differentiation, or consumer attachment to the company, brand, or trademark. This equity translates into greater sales volume, and/or higher margins, thus leads to greater competitive advantage. Brand equity is established and maintained through advertising that focuses on image, product attributes, service, or other features of the company and its products or services.
Cost is the greatest disadvantage of advertising. The average cost for a 30-second spot on network television increased fivefold between 1980 and 2005 in South Asian countries, especially in India.4 Plus, the average cost of producing a 30-second ad for network television is quite expensive. It is not uncommon for a national advertiser to spend millions of dollars to produce one 30-second commercial. A company can spend additional millions on top if celebrity talent is utilized.
Credibility and clutter are other disadvantages. Clutter encourages consumers to ignore many advertising messages. New media are emerging, such as DVRs (digital video recorders), which allow consumers to record programs and skip commercials, and satellite radio which provides a majority of its channels free or discounted advertising.
Public relations is defined as a management function which identifies, establishes, and maintains mutually beneficial relationships between an organization and the public upon which its success or failure depends. Whereas advertising is a one-way communication from sender (the marketer) to the receiver (the consumer or the retail trade), public relations considers multiple audiences (consumers, employees, suppliers, vendors, etc.) and uses two-way communication to monitor feedback and adjust both its message and the organization’s actions for maximum benefit. A primary tool used by public relations practitioners is publicity. It capitalizes on the news value of a product, service, idea, person, or event so that the information can be disseminated through the news media. This third party “endorsement” by the news media provides a vital boost to the marketing communication message: credibility. Articles in the media are perceived as being more objective than advertisements, and their messages are more likely to be absorbed and believed. For example, after the CBS newsmagazine 60 Minutes reported in the early 1990s that drinking moderate amounts of red wine could prevent heart attacks by lowering cholesterol, red wine sales in the United States increased 50 percent. Another benefit is that it is free, not considering the great amount of effort it can require to get out-bound publicity noticed and picked up by media sources.5
Public relations’ role in the promotional mix is becoming more important because of what Philip Kotler6 describes as an “over communicated society.” Consumers develop “communication-avoidance routines” where they are likely to tune out commercial messages. As advertising has begun to lose some of its cost-effectiveness, marketers are turning to news coverage, events, and community programs to help disseminate information about their product and company. Some consumers may also base their purchase decisions on the image of the company, for example, how environmentally responsible is the company. In this regard, public relations plays an important role in presenting what the company stands for through news reports, sponsorships, “advertorials” (a form of advertising that, instead of selling a product or service, promotes the company’s views regarding current issues), and other forms of communication.
Sales promotions are direct inducements that offer extra incentives to enhance or accelerate the product’s movement from producer to consumer. It may be directed at the consumer or the trade. Consumer promotions such as coupons, sampling, premiums, sweepstakes, price packs (packs that offer greater quantity or lower cost than normal), low-cost financing deals, and rebates are purchase incentives in that they induce product trial and encourage repurchase. Consumer promotions may also include incentives to visit a retail establishment or request additional information. Trade promotions include slotting allowances (“buying” shelf space in retail stores), allowances for featuring the brand in retail advertising, display and merchandising allowances, buying allowances (volume discounts and other volume-oriented incentives), bill back allowances (pay-for-performance incentives), incentives to salespeople, and other tactics to encourage retailers to carry the item and to push the brand.
Two perspectives are found among marketers regarding sales promotion. First, sales promotion is supplemental to advertising in that it binds the role of advertising with personal selling. This view regards sales promotion as a minor player in the marketing communication program. A second view regards sales promotion and advertising as distinct functions with objectives and strategies very different from each other. Sales promotion in this sense is equal to or even more important than advertising. Some companies allocate as much as 75 per cent of their advertising/promotion dollars to sales promotion and just 25 per cent to advertising. Finding the right balance is often a difficult task. The main purpose of sales promotion is to spur action. Advertising sets up the deal by developing a brand reputation and building market value. Sales promotion helps close the deal by providing incentives that build market volume.
It can motivate customers to select a particular brand, especially when brands appear to be similar, and they can produce more immediate and measurable results than advertising. However, too heavy a reliance on sales promotions results in “deal-prone” consumers with little brand loyalty and too much price sensitivity. Sales promotions can also force competitors to offer similar inducements, with sales and profits declining for everyone.
Personal selling includes all person-to-person contact with customers with the purpose of introducing the product to the customer, convincing him or her of the product’s value, and closing the sale. The role of personal selling varies from organization to organization, depending on the nature and size of the company, the industry, and the products or services it is marketing. Many marketing executives realize that both sales and non-sales employees act as salespeople for their organization in one way or another.
One study7 that perhaps supports this contention found that marketing executives predicted greater emphasis on sales management and personal selling in their organization than on any other promotional mix element. These organizations have launched training sessions that show employees how they act as salespeople for the organization and how they can improve their interpersonal skills with clients, customers, and prospects. Employee reward programs now reward employees for their efforts in this regard.
Personal selling is the most effective way to make a sale because of the interpersonal communication between the salesperson and the prospect. Messages can be tailored to particular situations, immediate feedback can be processed, and message strategies can be changed to accommodate the feedback. However, personal selling is the most expensive way to make a sale, with the average cost per sales call ranging from $235 to $332 and the average number of sales calls needed to close a deal being between three and six personal calls.c
Sales and marketing management classifies salespersons into one of three groups: creative selling, order taking, and missionary sales reps. Creative selling jobs require the most skills and preparation. They are the “point persons” for the sales function. They prospect for customers, analyze situations, determine how their company can satisfy wants and needs of prospects, and, most importantly, get an order. Order takers take over after the initial order is received. They handle repeat purchases (straight rebuys) and modified rebuys. Missionary sales representatives service accounts by introducing new products, promotions, and other programs. Orders are taken by order takers or by distributors.
Direct marketing, the oldest form of marketing, is the process of communicating directly with target customers to encourage response by telephone, mail, electronic means, or personal visit. Users of direct marketing include retailers, wholesalers, manufacturers, and service providers, and they use a variety of methods, including direct mail, telemarketing, direct-response advertising, and online computer shopping services, cable shopping networks, and infomercials. Traditionally not viewed as an element in the promotional mix, direct marketing represents one of the most profound changes in marketing and promotion in the last 25 years. Aspects of direct marketing, which includes direct-response advertising and direct mail advertising, as well as the various research and support activities necessary for their implementation, have been adopted by virtually all companies engaged in marketing products, services, ideas, or persons.
Direct marketing has become an important part of many marketing communication programs for three reasons. First, the number of two-income households has increased dramatically. About 6 in every 10 women in the United States of America work outside the home.8 This has reduced the amount of time families have for shopping trips. Second, more shoppers than ever before rely on credit cards for payment of goods and services. These cashless transactions make products easier and faster to purchase. Finally, technological advances in telecommunications and computers allow consumers to make purchases from their homes via telephone, television, or computer with ease and safety. These three factors have dramatically altered the purchasing habits of consumers in America and made direct marketing a growing field worldwide.d
Direct marketing allows a company to target more precisely a segment of customers and prospects with a sales message tailored to their specific needs and characteristics. Unlike advertising and public relations, whose connections to actual sales are tenuous or nebulous at best, direct marketing offers accountability by providing tangible results. The economics of direct marketing have also improved over the years as more information is gathered about customers and prospects. By identifying those consumers they can serve more effectively and profitably, companies may be more efficient in their marketing efforts. Whereas network television in the past offered opportunities to reach huge groups of consumers at a low cost-per-thousand, direct marketing can reach individual consumers and develop a relationship with each of them.
Direct marketing has its drawbacks also. Just as consumers built resistance to the persuasive nature of advertising, they have done the same with direct marketing efforts. Direct marketers have responded by being less sales-oriented and more relationship-oriented. Also, just as consumers grew weary of advertising clutter, so have they with direct marketing efforts. Consumers are bombarded with mail, infomercials, and telemarketing pitches daily. Some direct marketers have responded by regarding privacy as a customer service benefit. Direct marketers must also overcome consumer mistrust of direct marketing efforts due to incidents of illegal behavior by companies and individuals using direct marketing. The industry then risks legislation regulating the behavior of direct marketers if it is not successful in self-regulation. The Direct Marketing Association, the leading trade organization for direct marketing, works with companies and government agencies to initiate self-regulation. In March of 2003, the National Do-Not-Call Registry went into effect whereby consumers added their names to a list that telemarketers had to eliminate from their out-bound call database.
Sponsorships, or event marketing, combine advertising and sales promotions with public relations. Sponsorships increase awareness of a company or product, build loyalty with a specific target audience, help differentiate a product from its competitors, provide merchandising opportunities, and demonstrate commitment to a community or ethnic group, to impact the bottom line. Like advertising, sponsorships are initiated to build long-term associations. Organizations sometimes compare sponsorships with advertising by using gross impressions or cost-per-thousand measurements. However, the value of sponsorships can be very difficult to measure. Companies considering sponsorships should consider the short-term public relations value of sponsorships and the long-term goals of the organization. Sports sponsorships make up about two-thirds of all sponsorships.
The concept of social media marketing basically refers to the process of promoting business or websites through social media channels. It is a powerful marketing medium that is defining the way people are communicating. It is one of the significantly low-cost promotional methods that provide businesses large numbers of links and a huge amount of traffic. Companies manage to get massive attention that really works in favor of the business. Social media marketing is a potent method applied by progressive companies for selling their products/services or for just publishing content for advertisement revenue.
Social media is an extremely useful tool using which companies can get their information, product descriptions, and promotions, all integrated in a networked world. Considering the newness of this marketing method, organizations are coming up with innovative ways to develop their marketing plans. New platforms are being created to approach potential clients. A large number of business organizations are allocating their budgets for online business development using social media marketing. It is a booming sector which is going to redefine the way marketing strategies are being formed and promoted.
Internet marketing, also referred to as i-marketing, web-marketing, online-marketing, or e-marketing, is the marketing of products or services over the Internet. The Internet has brought the media to a global audience. The interactive nature of Internet marketing in terms of providing instant responses and eliciting responses are the unique qualities of the medium. Internet marketing is sometimes considered to be broad in scope because it not only refers to marketing on the Internet, but also includes marketing done via e-mail and wireless media. Management of digital customer data and electronic customer relationship management (ECRM) systems are also often grouped together under Internet marketing.
Internet marketing ties together creative and technical aspects of the Internet, including design, development, advertising, and sales. Internet marketing also refers to the placement of media along many different stages of the customer engagement cycle through search engine marketing (SEM), search engine optimization (SEO), banner ads on specific websites, e-mail marketing, and web strategies.
Mobile marketing involves communicating with the consumer via cellular (or mobile) device, either to send a simple marketing message, to introduce them to a new audience participation-based campaign, or to allow them to visit a mobile website. Mobile connectivity not only enables people to connect to the Internet via a cellular telephone, PDA, or other gadget, but also consolidates the different communication channels in a simple, yet effective medium. Cheaper than traditional means for both the consumer and the marketer — and easy enough for almost any age group to understand and engage with — Mobile marketing really is a streamlined version of traditional e-Marketing.
According to Ogechukwu, Ndubueze, and Uche,9 ethical issues must be considered in all integrated marketing communication decisions. Advertising and promotion are areas where a lapse in ethical standards or judgment can result in actions that are highly visible and damaging to a company. The ethical issues are presented as below:
Ethical issues in public relations and publicity: The way firms confront negative publicity has important strategic as well as ethical ramifications. The primary ethical issue concerns whether firms confess to product shortcomings and acknowledge problems or, instead, attempt to cover up the problems.
Targeting children: Ethical dilemmas are sometimes involves when special products and corresponding marketing communications efforts are directed at particular segments such as children, minors, minorities, and adults with physical disabilities.
Ethical issues in personal selling and telemarketing: The possibility for unethical behavior is probably greater in personal selling, including telemarketing, than any other aspect of marketing communications. A salesperson is in a position to say things that are not subjected to public scrutiny.
Ethical issues in packaging: Few cases of unethical packaging are: Label information on packages may have exaggerated information or may conceal information such as bad effects; picture on a package may not be a true representation of product contents; packaging a product such that it looks virtually identical to a popular brand; unsafe tamper-proof packaging of products.
Ethical issues in sales promotions: Consumer-oriented sales promotions are unethical when the sales promoter offers consumers a reward for their behavior that is never delivered.
Ethical considerations in advertising: The plethora of advertising is resented by many because it is simply too much to absorb. Too many messages on the radio and TV or too many billboards and print advertisements are not palatable. Surely coercive tactics, persuasive influences, and manipulative influences are to be avoided in advertising.
According to Danielson and Marchesi,10 the end goal of integration is a fluid one — aligning the organization’s brand with its reputation in order to deliver positive business performance. To achieve this, marketers may follow four principles:
(a) Integration begins at the top: To be successful at integrated marketing, senior management must advocate loudly and frequently that integration is a company imperative.
(b) Integration requires big picture thinking: Three questions marketers need to ask themselves: Do we have a unique insight and defining strategy that has ignited a central idea? Does this central idea allow for the creation of relevant content that will work across all media channels and engage key audiences? Are my agencies putting my business problem at the center instead of their own agendas?
(c) Ideas can come from new sources: Successful marketers embrace youthful knowledge and exuberance, and balance that with the proven judgment and patience of trained professionals, to find the best solutions.
(d) Reputation and brand must be aligned: Companies need to make sure that they are communicating with the right message at the right time, through the right channels.
According to Londre,11 there are a number of important strategic philosophies and practices that guide marketing planning, efforts and/or marketing relationships. The nine P’s (9 P’s) of marketing are as follows:
• Planning or marketing process: To develop and transform marketing objectives to marketing strategies to tactics, marketing management must make basic decisions on target marketing, marketing mix, marketing budgets/expenditures, and marketing allocations in budget.
• People/prospects (target market):
Determining the characteristics of market segments using geographic, demographic, psychological, behavioral, and/or technographical segmentation.
Separating and targeting these segments in the market.
Checking to see whether a market segment is large enough to support a firm’s profitability.
• Product: The goods and services combination that the firm offers, including variety of product mix, features, designs, packaging, sizes, services, warrantees, and return policies.
• Price: The price consumers are willing to pay. Retail and wholesale price, discounts, trade-in allowances, quantity discounts, credit terms, sales, and payment periods.
• Place/distribution: the activities that make the product available, using distribution channels, locations, inventory, and transportation. Typical supply chain consists of four links in the chain: Producer/factory/manufacturer, distributor, wholesaler and retailer supplying the consumer and user.
• Promotion: The activities that communicate the merits of the overall product, which includes personal selling or sales force, advertising, sales promotion, collateral materials, direct marketing, events and experiences, public relations.
• Partners: Marketers may work closely with other company departments (inside partners) and often with partners and alliances outside the firm. Changes are occurring in how marketers connect with their suppliers, channel partners and others.
• Presentation: A symbol or image that represents something; a descriptive or persuasive account. Something set forth for the attention of mind.
• Passion: Intense, driving or overpowering feelings, emotions in the marketing and selling of products or services.
CASE: INTEGRATED MARKETING COMMUNICATIONS
The Aditya Birla Group (ABG)
Murali Manohar Bhupathi
Let us understand more about how one of India’s largest Industrial house, the Birla Group,e undertakes the process of identifying the need of the customer through application of ethical considerations, tools, and processes. The group offers various products and services.
A US $40 billion corporation, the Aditya Birla Group is in the League of Fortune 500. It is anchored by an extraordinary force of over 136,000 employees, belonging to 42 different nationalities. The Group has been ranked Number 4 in the Global “Top Companies for Leaders” survey and ranked Number 1 in Asia Pacific for 2011. Over 53 percent of its revenues flow from its overseas operations. The Group operates in 36 countries.
• Works in 3000 villages.
• Reaches out to seven million people, annually through the Aditya Birla Centre for Community Initiatives and Rural Development.
• Focuses on healthcare, education, sustainable livelihood, infrastructure, and social reform in India, Asia, Egypt, Philippines, Thailand, Laos, Indonesia, Korea, and Brazil.
• ABG runs 42 schools, which provide quality education to 45,000 children. Of these, over 18,000 children receive free education.
• Its 18 hospitals tend to more than a million villagers.
• In line with its commitment to sustainable development, partnered with Columbia University in establishing the Columbia Global Centre’s Earth Institute in Mumbai.
• To embed CSR as a way of life in organizations has set up a CSR Centre for Excellence, in Delhi.
Idea Cellular Limited (Idea)f was incorporated in 1995 by Aditya Birla group. It now ranks third in terms of all-India wireless revenue market share at 13.6 percent. Idea ranks second with 23.6 percent revenue market share in nine service areas where it holds 900 MHz spectrum and which derives about 41 percent of the industry’s all-India revenues (based on gross revenues for UAS and Mobile licenses only for March 2011 quarter, as released by Telephone Regulatory Authority of India). Its subscriber base has grown multifold, from 7.37 million in March 2006 to 89.5 million in March 2011. Idea enjoys a market leadership position in many of its operational areas. As a pioneer in technology deployment, it has been at the forefront through the adoption of bio fuels to power its base stations, and by employing satellite connectivity to reach inaccessible rural areas.
Idea has been a leader in the introduction of value-added services, and there are many firsts to its credit, including a voice portal “Say Idea,” Idea TV, voice chat, and instant messenger. Tariff plans have been customer-friendly, catering to the unique needs of different customer segments, for instance, the “Women’s Card” caters to the special needs of women on the move, and “Youth Card” covers the emerging youth segment. Idea has a network of over 70,000 cell sites covering the entire length and breadth of the country. The company has over 3000 service centers servicing Idea subscribers across the country. Idea’s service delivery platform is ISO 9001:2008 certified, making it the only operator in the country to have this certification. Idea has won numerous awards and is the only Indian GSM operator to win the prestigious GSM Association Award consecutively in the best mobile technology category for the Best Billing and Customer Care Solution. Idea was adjudged the “Emerging Company of the Year” by The Economic Times and the “Most Customer Responsive Company” in the Telecom sector in the year 2010. Brand Idea has won many accolades for its innovative communication. The “What an Idea, Sirji” ads have won four Effies from 2008 to 2010, making it one of the “Buzziest” brands in the country.
In 2011 Brand Idea moved to the No. 4 position amongst all service brands in the “Most Trusted Brands Survey” conducted by Brand Equity, an Economic Times publication. Idea’s biggest campaigns — “Break the Language Barrier” and “No idea — Get Idea” were ranked globally as the best brand campaigns 2011 at MMA Global Awards and World Communication Awards, London. Idea won the advertising effectiveness awards with a Gold EFFIE for the “No idea — Get Idea” campaign and a Silver for the “Language Barrier” campaign. In radio, Idea won six awards at the Golden Mikes Awards 2011 and was adjudged the Advertiser of the Year. Besides, Idea has also won a series of Digital Awards, the biggest being the Yahoo Big Chair where it won Gold. The Chief Marketing Officer says “Our effort has been, and continues to be, to make Idea Cellular a champion brand. Thus, all our campaigns are aimed at demonstrating the power of an idea by looking at mobile telephony and what it can do, in a way that’s fresh, imaginative, and elevating.”
Idea cellular effectively used both online and traditional communication channels for making an impact on the theme “Kya idea hi sir ji” and in turn they captured market share from easy recall from various sections of the market in India. In May 2009, Idea advertisement endorsed by the Indian movie superstar Abhishek Bachchan (Bachchan) won the “Best celebrity endorsement award” at NDTV Tech Life Awards. He said, “The Idea campaign carries a socially relevant message in today’s commercial environment and the brilliant concept of encouraging two-way communication between the government and people has connected with millions across India.” The campaigns, based on social issues that could be solved using mobile telephony, were acclaimed for their creativity. Success was achieved by using its brand name in creative and meaningful slogans. It was adjudged that Idea’s ad campaigns were creative and improved brand recall.
Idea has been using both online initiatives and standard advertising process. As part of the online initiative, Idea took its “What an !dea” campaign further — from TV, radio, and print to the Internet. Idea has launched a website called http://bythepeople.in as part of strengthening democracy. It launched few websites that complemented its campaigns on social causes. According to advertising experts many of Idea’s ads in “What an Idea” campaign had a rural background and helped Idea in building a strong brand image in rural India. They felt that the campaigns used by Idea to promote its network coverage and tariff plans were creative and helped it to capture market share. They also opined that expanding into rural India is the way to go as urban markets were getting saturated.
1. Should Aditya Birla Group’s Idea cellular enter the Internet service provider segment? If so, what should be the strategy to enter the market, that is, through acquiring an existing product/brand or creating a new product?
2. Suggest other developing country markets where Idea cellular can be introduced along with details regarding the potential size of the market, existing competition, entry strategy such as exporting/setting up a dedicated facility, etc.
3. Do you think Idea cellular can become the number one company in providing mobile communication services in India? If so what changes are needed in terms of segmentation, targeting, and positioning?
4. What do you think about the future for the mobile segment in India/other developing countries? Suggest a suitable strategy for the Indian public sector telephone company BSNL to revive the mobile segment/landline segment/Internet service segment market share in India?
5. Does integrated marketing communication lead to sales growth? Do you see how integrated marketing communication tools worked in the growth of Idea cellular? Explain.
Idea Cellular is already an ISP license holder, as they are offering Internet services (2G and 3G) over their mobile phones to the customers in India. They can enhance the services to the next level by offering 4G in the near future by acquiring the license whenever the new spectrum bidding happens in India or by acquiring the existing license holder to migrate to the new technological frontiers.
Idea Cellular can enter all the emerging markets in South-East Asia, Africa as they are lack in tele-density, when we can compare it with the developed countries, where mobile telecom services are either saturated or difficult to compete due to the technological and enforcement factors.
Yes, it has the potential to become number one company. However, they need to compete with the leader like Airtel by enhancing its reach and technological upgradation by covering all the circles in India by acquiring licenses in the next spectrum bidding process. They need to focus more on data services to corporate India through cloud environment, new and innovative plans for fastest growing segment of Smart Phone users, who need high speed Internet services, etc.
The industry is bound to grow, as it is growing for the last one decade or so, still there is an untapped potential is available in Indian market. Mobile services may expand more in semi-urban and rural areas in the years to come, as the affordable handsets are available at very competitive prices. This segment may also graduate to the next level of services not just telephone but too data in the years to come.
Yes, it is an integrated approached adopted by Idea Cellular for making its presence felt by the market through their innovative IMC campaigns. They need to improvise these campaigns regularly to further their market share by innovative approaches.
a. https://www.ama.org/resources/pages/dictionary.aspx?dLetter=I
b. http://imc.wvu.edu/about/what_is_imc
c. http://www.referenceforbusiness.com/management/Log-Mar/Marketing-Communication.html
d. http://www.phdcci.in/admin/admin_logged/banner_images/1374650545.pdf