Myntfresh Ideas » airtel

poor advertising, good results

admin — Tue, 22 Dec 2009 09:28:53 +0000

i had heard someone say a long time back, that there is no such thing as a bad advertisement…if you are able to recall an ad after a considerable duration, then perhaps that advertisement did make an impact, and its purpose got solved..you recalled the brand/ad. i partly agree to this chain of thought, as i may recall a brand due to the extremely horrible nature of its ad, but that would not be reason enough for me to purchase…i would like to mention here a few companies, who are fairly consistently seen on TV, and have been able to build fairly good brand recall, but as a critic, i can only say that their advertising sucks…

1) MDH : The shahenshah of pathetic advertising….this doyen of the indian masale industry, has made it a point to appear in each and every ad that his empire makes. almost like that reddy chap who comes as an attachment with country club ads…or like the “parenting expert, sudha gupta, of mother’s pride”…all said and done, the strategy of mahashian di hatti is fairly straight and desi….book spots on an annual or long term basis, more so with newly launched channels, who go all out to sell cheap initially, as the media planning and buying gets ruled by weird numbers, and not gut feel…so this guy did some smart bookings early on with colors, for example, and this gamble has been paying off for MDH, more often than not….

2) Paras pharma: perhaps my favorite advertiser. pros at creating brands: livon, dermicool, moov, setwet, krack, itchguard, d’cold, ringguard, borosoft…..you will not remember them for any of their advertising, as most of them have been quite insignificant and poor..but the blitz unleashed for each of the brands is commendable, and that’s how paras has been able to create a slew of brands out of no where..

3) Hero Honda: good and stable products, supported by some terrible advertising. the concept is fairly simple…suddenly a series or a deal with a channel comes through, and the agency comes up with a shoddy ad just in time, so that brand status quo remains…advertising be damned..

4) Pepsi: Pespi may be amongst the world’s best known advertisers, but certainly when it comes to India, most of their campaigns have been atrocious. Except for the nothing official about it, and the sanjana campaigns, they have not really impressed me so far.

5) Nokia: Considering the amount of money they have pumped in to the media, their advertising, at best, remains pedestrian. No clear strategy in place.

6) Samsung & LG: I am clubbing the 2 electronics majors together, primarily because their products are fairly similar, and so is the crassness of their advertising.

7) Videocon: I am still unable to get a grasp on their new logo, the green animated thingies they have been throwing at us, and the USP of their brand which they want us to digest.

Maruti: Not a single ad comes out as being good. Perhaps the ki karan papa, petrol khatam hi nahi honda hai is the only notable exception, but if i only look at the way their swift and sx4 camapaigns have been handled off late, the focus is clearly not on making memorable ads.

That pretty much sums up my Top 9 worst, large advertisers flooding our selling their stuff in India off late. Huge media budgets, the only real strategy being to be on screen and in consumer’s mind share at all times, but at a cost of producing a series of bad advertisements. One look at how Vodafone/Hutch and Airtel have been doing it, sums up the difference. They are also always on the mind share, but the quality of their advertising remans top class, with extremely well made and memorable advertisements always there for the taking.

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Number Portability: Finally!

admin — Thu, 14 May 2009 07:19:36 +0000

The call has been waiting for months, and finally number portability has been able to connect. September 20 is the big day, when you’ll have the freedom to choose the telco operator, while retaining your number…This small step has big ramifications. A lot of people i know have changed their operator, due to the lure of a number which stands out, is easy to remember etc. Assuming you now have a number which you liked, get ready for the next step…which allows you to choose the provider who gives you the best service, the best network, flexibility, and an overall pleasing experience. 2009 is going to be a particularly challenging year for operators due to following considerations:

1. Additional marketing spends will be done, specially between August – October, to ensure top of mind recall. Currently we find airtel, vodafone, idea and bsnl fairly active on our TVs. This bombardment will get enhanced in the coming months.

2. A slew of new features and services will be launched by each operator, as they try to woo subscribers currently married to other operators. Voda (with its army of mesmerizing zoozoos) and airtel (my airtel my offer) have already made a start in the right direction. Idea and bsnl are lacking for sure, and unless they start promoting features which will help a voda customer switch to idea, for example, they will find their subscriber base shrink.

3. Most operators will have very similar plans, to avoid subscribers from switching due to a more compelling plan on another network. Essentially, operators will focus more on reasons for a subscriber to disconnect, and rectify that particular problem area, to avoid others from following.

Prediction: Better service, more features, more value for money, more respect for the consumer, better systems in place. Overall: Airtel stands to gain the most, as it has been building an image of a well balanced operator, with fewest chinks in its armor. Vodafone is flashy, but lacks in network and reception. Idea has extremely horrible systems in place, be it their customer care or their website, and have not projected an image of an innovative and path-breaking operator. Its happy replicating. If the replication time exceeds the subscriber’s patience, it will lead to attrition.

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vidya balan is male? airtel thinks so!

admin — Mon, 04 May 2009 09:18:37 +0000

Have you heard the new my airtel my offer campaign by airtel?
the sequel to the love story that started last year…? I heard it a few times yesterday, while IPL was on, and coudln’t help wonder about the stupid error in the script! Watch it to hear Vidya Balan say: “Duniya bhar me sun raha hu, har jagah cutbacks, aur tum ho ki….”
Mademoiselle, do you think you should have said “duniya bhar me sun rahi hu” and not sun raha hu?
Was the spot originally written for madhavan uttering this line and not balan? and the roles got reversed at the very end?
assuming airtel has amongst the best marketing brains and a fairly good agency on its rolls, is this mistake too obvious to not be caught by anyone?
As it is, vodafone with its zoozoo is taking away all the glory from other telecom operators this season, with a brilliantly designed campaign, and then airtel comes up with repeated telecasts of the same ad, and when you have caught a mistake once, you just keep on waiting to catch it again and again right…that’s what’s happening with me!
vidya ji, thodi savdhani barki hoti aapne to aaj ye din dekhne ko nahi milta

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100 Mbps in US…2 Mbps in India!

admin — Tue, 28 Apr 2009 11:08:57 +0000

a snippet from Om Malik’s writings:
“Cablevision, the Bethpage, N.Y.-based cable and Internet service provider, has continued its tradition of being a cable industry innovator by introducing 100-megabits-per-second service in Long Island. The service, dubbed Optimum Online Ultra, utilizes DOCSIS 3.0 technology to deliver the ultra-broadband experience over cable’s wires and comes with ability to send data upstream at 15 Mbps. It starts at $99 a month, will be available starting May 11 and will be the fastest service from a cable provider anywhere in the U.S.’

I’m sort of amazed at the gap that continues between what happens in US and what happens in India at the same instance….with news of 100 Mbps connections pouring in from US, i happened to see a BSNL ad on TV, advertising unashamedly about their super-fast 2 Mbps service! Even Airtel’s out there with a 16 Mbps speed advt, and just wondering how out of place BSNL would be feeling, as it tomtoms about 2 Mbps speeds! But, having said that, price was and continues to be the biggest challenge. even though we say we’re ready for super internet connections in india, how many of us will pay 5000 bucks for the same? what will be the price barrier that gets broadband rolling in india, like never before?
500 rs for 512 kbps unlimited usage?
1000 rs for 1 Mbps unlimited usage?
3000 rs for 10 Mbps unlimited usage?

We’ll never be willing to pay more than this, which means such speeds will not find many consumers, to make it appeal to the masses…unless, ofcourse, our TRAI comes up with a solution that ends the broadband woes of india…

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Airtel’s billing system: Worst possible?

admin — Wed, 15 Apr 2009 07:17:34 +0000

Here’s what happens 2 months in a row…
> Airtel alerts me to pay by due date for my landline/broadband connection
> I go to www.airtel.in and dutifuly pay through my hdfc credit card
> Airtel displays on the site in red that payment was unsuccessful
> At the same time, I get an SMS from HDFC which says (verbatim): Thank you for using your HDFC bank credit card for 996.00 in BHARTI AIRTEL LTD – B& @ 10-Apr-2009 10:46 AM
> I get 2 more alerts from Airtel on next 2 days which say (verbatim): The payment for your Airtel fixedline bill is due on 13-APR-09. Kindly make the payment of Rs. 996 to avoid the late fee charges. Pls ignore if paid.
> I call up Airtel customer care, and am blatantly told that you last made a payment last month, and this month’s payment has not come in yet. I told them about the HDFC message, and I was asked to call in 2 days to verify again (2 days would have meant after due date)
> I then call up HDFC customer care, and am reassured that payment has been made to Airtel already, and am also told that this happens very frequently with Airtel.

Given that airtel has paid IBM billions of dollars for their IT/tech support, i am surprised why this minor problem persists every month? Why can’t airtel put its systems in order to avoid giving agony to its “valued” customers time and again?

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