Bigger branding moves in Airtel: Integrating biz within company
It’s been a couple of months since the new two-ad Airtel campaign, revved up by JWT, hit the screens. The campaign, with ads featuring a street dancer and lovers, is a sea-change from Airtel ads of the past, with a brand new message—enriching lives—and logo. The campaign is significant as it brings together many heads from across the organisation for the first time to breathe an overarching and sustainable idea into the brand. That’s when Airtel’s 6-member Brand Council, constituted in early 2010, starts making sense.
Bigger branding moves in Airtel, such as a change in logo or sponsorship, will very much be a result of the interdependence of the businesses within the company. So each business head sits as a member of the brand council. But that doesn’t at all make the composition of the council rigid. As Sanjay Kapoor, CEO, Bharti Airtel Limited (India & South Asia) points out, “We take a customer view of the market rather than a technological view...and it manifests in the brand changes.” So with the unbundling of value-added services (VAS), as more verticals become prominent, the council might have an enlarged representation. Even if heads of VAS, such as mCommerce or mEntertainment, don’t sit on the council, “they can always be invited,” clarifies Kapoor.
All individual businesses in Airtel, whether it is DTH or telemedia, enterprise or mobility, sit under the mother brand Airtel with a joint asset website (airtel.in). “What we have is ‘One Airtel’, which is at the heart of everything we do, whether it is selling data on an undersea cable, or getting a local retailer to keep my SIM card,” says Mohit Beotra, head of brand & media at Airtel.
The brand council typically meets once in three months and discusses issues such as who should be the company’s brand ambassador, sponsorship calls, etc. “The brand council at Airtel is a sign that the company is putting the brand at the centre of its strategy, to make sure every business is contributing to the equity of the master brand in sync with best practices globally,” observes Lulu Raghavan, Country Head of brand consultancy Landor.
According to K Srinivas, president of Telemedia Services at Bharti Airtel, brand council completely changed the way the company was working earlier, even though the marketing bit was fairly successful. “Mobile services move faster than consumer goods. Earlier, there was a mobile company or DTH company, etc. within Airtel. We needed to bring synergies between fixed line, mobile enterprise, DTH etc.,” says Srinivas. The brand council, a governing body, distils the overall message of the brand across various communication platforms. “The basic brand philosophy is going to the same across various businesses within the brand.”
Shireesh Joshi, marketing director, Bharti Airtel, illustrates the council in motion. While well-known national celebrities have been used by Airtel in its advertising, it was the council that recently decided to use local celebrities to appeal to customers in specific regions, he elaborates.
For Atul Mohan Bindal, president, Mobile Services at Bharti Airtel, measurability is the key to the council’s effectiveness. “We measure what is mobility’s share in the brand’s consumption and what is mobility’s ability to create a positive brand image. For instance, for full song download, is Airtel the most preferred brand?,” asks Bindal. Also, since there is a single Airtel brand architecture , there cannot be separate brand associations. This makes the brand council’s work even more difficult coming up with a common theme running across businesses. With the new campaign centered around enriching lives, the council seems to have taken the logical step as VAS unbundles itself and newer services begin to dictate Airtel’s revenue pie.
Bigger branding moves in Airtel, such as a change in logo or sponsorship, will very much be a result of the interdependence of the businesses within the company. So each business head sits as a member of the brand council. But that doesn’t at all make the composition of the council rigid. As Sanjay Kapoor, CEO, Bharti Airtel Limited (India & South Asia) points out, “We take a customer view of the market rather than a technological view...and it manifests in the brand changes.” So with the unbundling of value-added services (VAS), as more verticals become prominent, the council might have an enlarged representation. Even if heads of VAS, such as mCommerce or mEntertainment, don’t sit on the council, “they can always be invited,” clarifies Kapoor.
All individual businesses in Airtel, whether it is DTH or telemedia, enterprise or mobility, sit under the mother brand Airtel with a joint asset website (airtel.in). “What we have is ‘One Airtel’, which is at the heart of everything we do, whether it is selling data on an undersea cable, or getting a local retailer to keep my SIM card,” says Mohit Beotra, head of brand & media at Airtel.
The brand council typically meets once in three months and discusses issues such as who should be the company’s brand ambassador, sponsorship calls, etc. “The brand council at Airtel is a sign that the company is putting the brand at the centre of its strategy, to make sure every business is contributing to the equity of the master brand in sync with best practices globally,” observes Lulu Raghavan, Country Head of brand consultancy Landor.
According to K Srinivas, president of Telemedia Services at Bharti Airtel, brand council completely changed the way the company was working earlier, even though the marketing bit was fairly successful. “Mobile services move faster than consumer goods. Earlier, there was a mobile company or DTH company, etc. within Airtel. We needed to bring synergies between fixed line, mobile enterprise, DTH etc.,” says Srinivas. The brand council, a governing body, distils the overall message of the brand across various communication platforms. “The basic brand philosophy is going to the same across various businesses within the brand.”
Shireesh Joshi, marketing director, Bharti Airtel, illustrates the council in motion. While well-known national celebrities have been used by Airtel in its advertising, it was the council that recently decided to use local celebrities to appeal to customers in specific regions, he elaborates.
For Atul Mohan Bindal, president, Mobile Services at Bharti Airtel, measurability is the key to the council’s effectiveness. “We measure what is mobility’s share in the brand’s consumption and what is mobility’s ability to create a positive brand image. For instance, for full song download, is Airtel the most preferred brand?,” asks Bindal. Also, since there is a single Airtel brand architecture , there cannot be separate brand associations. This makes the brand council’s work even more difficult coming up with a common theme running across businesses. With the new campaign centered around enriching lives, the council seems to have taken the logical step as VAS unbundles itself and newer services begin to dictate Airtel’s revenue pie.
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