The Indian telecom landscape has today emerged as one of the most
dynamic business segments in the country. The last five years, in
particular, have witnessed a plethora of changes resulting in what we are
now seeing - a highly competitive industry with about 39 million
subscribers as of January 2005, and growing at the rate of 85 percent
annually. These changes have taken place in almost every aspect of the
business, be it pricing strategies, policy legislations such as the unified
license regime, or foreign investment regulations.
So what should be the companies strategies to retain customers..?
Differentiate from competitors and add value to the customer. Instead of
offering generic services, innovate to offer customized services.
I agree with Mr. Makrand Bhave about his opinion but before that again
the question comes of basic things for which we are looking at telecom
companies. Now a days in the race of giving more to the customer telecom
companies are forgetting about the basic need of a customer and that is a
good quality service.
Still people face range problem from their service provider. Companies do
show funny/emotional advertisements and about their services but the
basic services are not met upto the expectation then how come anyone will
go for other value added services.
It has to now do with the WOW factor!! After some amazing
communication, glossy emotional ads and even some that are funny, I
think the consumer needs to be WOWed! That could be by way of VAS,
cost cuts or time plans or maybe even an offer that kicks the customer to
become a member just to enjoy being WOWed!! :)
BTW Airtel tie up with the Harry Potter Half Blood Prince games is a
definite WOW for all Hattu Potter fans! Jai Ho... :))

Marketing strategies of BSNL
By
Shri G S Grover Director (C &M), BSNL.
Shri N K Srivastava CGM ALTTC Ghaziabad.
Shri Sunil Kumar DDG Marketing BSNL CO.
Synopsis.
This article deals with the miracle shared vision can do to the organization.
Vision concept and philosophy at an individual as well as organization level has
been discussed. It also covers importance and driving force of vision in Marketing
strategies, Selling, Business Development, Market share etc. Various marketing
trends have been mentioned. It is an effort to share vision with one and all.
1. Introduction.
Our visions begin with our desires.
- Audre Lorde
We all have some visions of ourselves and our future, and that vision creates
consequences. More than any other factor, vision affects the choices we make and
the way we spend our time.
Visions drive consequences.
Principles drive results.
Key is to base vision on principles.
- Stephen R Covey.
It is true for individuals as well as organizations. The strongest form of vision /
motivation is to base vision on “What Legacy we want to leave.” And to achieve it
we must take a principled centered path. History is full of examples that many
organizations have vanished grown and vanished overnight as their path to achieve
vision was not based on principled way.
Vision of the organization can only be translated into reality, if it is shared by one
and all. The best way to implement is to involve them in formulation. But even if it
is conceived by higher management then it has to be explained to each and every
individual of the organization, otherwise it may remain as a showpiece.

Marketing vision of the BSNL has to be based on overall mission and vision of the
organization. The mission of BSNL is
i. To provide world class State-of-art technology telecom services on demand
at affordable price.
ii. To provide world class telecom infrastructure to develop country's
economy.
And the vision of BSNL is
i. To become the largest telecom Service Provider in Southeast Asia.
In dynamic environment anything permanent is “CHANGE”. So we must revise
and review so that focus is never lost.
Strong lives are motivated
by dynamic purposes.
- Kenneth Hildebrand.
2. Marketing Objective.
The ultimate objective of any marketing activity is to satisfy the customers and
today even a step ahead i.e. ‘delighting’ the customers , for which customers are
offered something beyond their expectations from the service or the product. The
objective being to acquire and retain the customers, who should continually feel
that they are getting more value of the money, they are departing with.
Marketing is the establishment, development, maintenance and optimization of
long-term mutually valuable relationships between consumers and organisation.
Successful Marketing focuses on understanding the needs and desires of the
customers and is achieved by placing these needs at the heart of business by
integrating them with the organisation strategy, people, technology and business
processes. At its most basic, Marketing involves customers, organisations and
relationships and the combination creates the need for the management.
Marketing is about creating a competitive advantage by being the best at
understanding, communicating, and delivering and developing existing customer
relationships in addition to creating and keeping new customers. The concept of
the product life cycle is giving way to customer life cycle, focusing on developing

products that anticipate the future needs of existing customers and creating services
that extend the existing customer relationship beyond the mere transaction. The
customer life cycle will focus on lengthening the life span of the customer with the
organisation rather than the endurance of a particular product. Customers have
changing needs as their life styles alter- the development and provision of products
and/or services that continuously seek to satisfy those needs is good Marketing.
The Marketing will focus greater attention on how to deliver customer satisfaction
and organisation will begin to structure itself around customer segments and not
product lines. A good Marketing Strategy will take the business vision and apply it
to the customer base.
According to the Dictionary of Marketing Terms, 2nd edition, published by the
American Marketing Association, c1995,
“Marketing is the process of planning and executing the conception, pricing,
promotion, and distribution of ideas, goods, and services to create exchanges
that satisfy individual and organizational objectives.”
Once marketing is understood, we can define marketing management process as
analyzing marketing opportunities, researching and selecting target markets,
designing marketing strategies, planning marketing programs, and organizing,
implementing, and controlling the marketing efforts.
In simple words it implies a buyer, a seller, bonded by the mutual need, satisfying
offer and a medium/process to exchange the offer.
3. Marketing Process.
We often talk of marketing & Sales and often use it interchangeably without
understanding the difference in it. Marketing is everything we do to get and
leverage a client relationship. Marketing process is broad and includes all of the
following: -
 Discovering what product, service or idea customers want.
 Producing a product with the appropriate features and quality.
 Pricing the product correctly.
 Promoting the product; spreading the word about why customers
should buy it.
 Selling and delivering the product into the hands of the customer.

Selling is one activity of the entire marketing process. Selling is the act of
persuading or influencing a customer to buy (actually exchange something of
value for) a product or service.
Marketing activities support sales efforts.
4. Contrasting the Sales Concept with the Marketing Concept:-
We Sell Confidence.
The concepts surrounding both selling and marketing also differ. There is a need
for both selling and marketing approaches in different situations. One approach is
not always right and the other always wrong - it depends upon the particular
situation.
In a marketing approach, more listening to and eventual accommodation of the
target market occurs. Two-way communication (sometimes between a salesperson
and a customer) is emphasized in marketing so learning can take place and product
offerings can be improved.
A salesperson using the sales concept, on the other hand, sometimes has the ability
to individualize components of a sale, but the emphasis is ordinarily upon helping
the customer determine if they want the product, or a variation on it, that is already
being offered by the company. In the sales approach, not much time is spent
learning what the customer's ideal product would be because the salesperson has
little say in seeing that their company's product is modified. Furthermore, they
aren't rewarded for spending time listening to the customer's desires unless they
have a product to match their desires that will result in a sale.
The 7Ps for service marketing (Product, price, place, promotion, physical
evidence, people & process) are the means to attain, nurture, & retain the
customers and not the end.
5. Mission & Vision.
Here is a test to find whether
your mission on earth is finished:
If you are alive, it isn’t.
- Richard Bach.

Most of the big companies have a Vision & Mission statement so as to guide their
all energy, efforts to realize it. BSNL also has a vision ‘To become the largest
Telecom Service provider in South East Asia’. Firstly we need to understand
the parameter for being the largest. Is it revenue, ARPU, profit, subscribers,
Network (no of exchanges, BTS etc)? From monopoly to multi operator
scenario, BSNL’s market share is bound to reduce. But how much down we
will let it? There are lot of similarities between British Telecom & us. One must
keep watch on market share in monthly growth and take timely action. To improve
our share, we need to acquire more than 50% of new acquisitions while
maintaining earlier. This is quite challenging in this dynamic environment. Today
landline base is reducing across globe, but why? Europe defines an operator with
25% or more market share as Significant market Power (SMP), while they
intend to increase it to 40%. BSNL has been the largest operator and we must
strive not only to maintain but enhance it. We need to act fast. Timely action is an
essence.
What should be our marketing Vision, will it help us in inspiring to achieve
higher. Can it be something such as “To retain the highest market share, build
highest brand equity and maximizing the profits?”
6. Brand Equity.
We may think what is Brand equity? In simple words it is how far people are
willing to pay if we increase our prices i.e. premium for our services. We may feel
happy to say there is lot of black marketing of our SIM cards. Is it a healthy
sign? We reduce prices when competitors launch new schemes. Does it imply
poor brand equity? Brand Equity can be built with good equity of quality of
services at the affordable price. Continuous innovation in product and delivery
of services with the appropriate pricing is the key strategy for developing the
trust in customer so that he keeps his loyalty with BSNL. We have to be first
mover in our efforts for product and price differentiation. Presently the market is in
growth phase and price could be a differentiating factor, but how long? Is any
scope left for further cuts? Ultimately it is the quality, customer care, and
timely availability apart from price, which will matter. Quality depends on
many parameters such as tangibles (like physical facilities, Appearance of
personnel, Tools or equipment used to provide service, Physical appearance of
service, Other customers in the service facility), Reliability, Responsiveness,
Competence, Courtesy, Credibility, Security, Access, and Communications with
customer, Understanding etc. Quality definitely commands premium. Why are
people willing to pay more for Raymonds or Adidas or Sony when comparable

offers exist in market? One may say that customer perception of quality is not
built overnight; it may require a brand and brand building investments apart from a
quality product. How many brands do we have? Our investments get diluted with
more number of brands. Even Airtel merged the Touchtel brand with more popular
one. Can’t we have just one brand i.e. BSNL? Have we ever tried to examine our
revenue breakup? While majority of the revenue comes from landline (DELs plus
PCOs), how many people know of Bfone? CellOne happens to be more popular.
So where should our marketing & sales effort be more? Wholesale, retail or
corporate! What means do we need to use to promote our products and in what
proportion? Advertising, PR, Franchisees, 24x7 customer care, business
development etc. What activities should be taken up by Corporate Office, Circles
and SSAs? In advertising there is need to synergize our activities at Corporate,
Circle and SSA level. In this regard Corporate office has issued division of work
guidelines. There is also a need to have good relation with our advertising
agencies and simultaneously their performance need to be monitored for
taking quality output from them.
What is USP (Unique Selling Proposition) for BSNL? A Government
company which delivers. A government company which gives service better
than private could be a deadly combination, which no competitor can copy.
7. Social Responsibility.
We were the most trusted telecom brand in year 2003 & 2004. We have
been given Golden Peacock award for Best Corporate Social responsibility.
How can we leverage these distinctions? These achievements need to be
highlighted through public relation exercise like press meet. This will help us
in building our marketing image. In sales and distribution front though we have
over one-lakh retailers, 1000 franchisees, 3300 CSCs, 36000 exchanges why are
we not visible like others? Why can’t we utilize all possible space? Can’t we
leverage our franchisee and STD-PCO strengths? Can we make these outlets as
our core strength? Why our recharge coupons, India Telephone Cards are in
shortage when there is no capacity constraint? Does it imply that our planning for
printing, inventory management, logistics, and supply chain and of course
franchisee management is inefficient? Do we have targets for these just like DELs
& CellOne? Why can’t we leverage this huge network for better customer care and
improve collection efficiency? We must realize that with waiver of security
deposits, no OYT schemes, no advance rentals, adjustment of landline security for
CellOne, we don’t get fixed deposits to meet our funds requirements. Everything

has to be met from Operating revenues. We need to improve collections, realize
bills early, not on the last day of payment and reduce bad debts. We need to
provide 24X7 culture in our organization, though we have been providing
operation and maintenance on 24X7 basis in the past and we will continue to
provide in future too, but what about provisioning customer care and marketing on
24X7 basis?
8. Business Development.
Business development units have been given the task to develop and
nurture long-term relations with corporate houses. Many MoUs have been signed.
Bulk bills are being issued. One-point payments are being realized for multiple
service locations. Key Account Manager concept has been introduced. All this
requires change of mindset in addition to the skills of marketing & sales. Do we
have skilled manpower? Is our organization setup apt for better results? The staff
expense to revenue ratio could be a good indicator.
No doubt our revenues are up. Profit has increased. But consider the marketing
budget we have in comparison to others. Even with this little budget many circles
are unable to utilize it. We need to probe ourselves. Corporate office has permitted
delegation of upto 70% of Circle budget to SSAs. Does it mean that our budget
planning is wrong? How should we allocate marketing budget and which
parameter to weigh?
•Per DEL/Mobile
•Acquisition cost
•Life time value
•Competitor spend
•Growth targets
9. Life Time Value
You can’t give people pride, but you can provide the kind of understanding that
makes people look to their inner strength and find their own sense of pride.
- Charleszetta Waddles.
Let us understand what is the lifetime value of our customers? Paying
commission of Rs 100-200 to franchisee is not a cost considering the future flow
of revenue from the customer. How many of our decisions are based on scientific
analysis of the precious customer data we already have such as calling pattern,
payment habits, usage profile etc? How many surveys we do, how much customer
research we carry out? Net growth in mobile is high but what about churn? Can’t

we analyze & reduce it? Acquisition cost is usually said to be 5-8 times the
retention cost.
It is high time we learn fast, groom ourselves, improve our mindset and act
fast. Business perspective is equally important as excellence in Telecom
operations, maintenance, and installations & planning. Our core competence
should be telecom business acumen and not just traditional expertise developed
over the years.
It is usually much easier to sell additional things to existing customers than to add
new customer. Let us try to upgrade each customer by RS 20 – RS 50 by offering
them more add on relevant services.
10. Summary
Vision is set in the Boardroom but realized in the battlefield. Each and every
employee has to continuously lead this battle to be victorious. The corporate office
is always willing to provide all resources. Together we can realize our vision.
My philosophy is that not only are you responsible for your life, but doing the best
at this moment puts you in the best place for next moment.
-Oprah Winfrey.
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