The Aircel, Mumbai launch reminds me of the Genesis story of the Bible, about the origin of the world and how God created Earth.
Today, the mobile phone has become a necessity rather than a luxury item. Be it a house-maid, or a chauffeur, or a government servant, or a CEO/businessman, everyone carries a mobile phone. But, launching as the 8th operator in the over-crowded Telecom space in Mumbai is certainly no joke. Every coin has 2 sides to it. I look at it as an opportunity to get the incremental revenue base, which we all know is big when it comes to Telecom in Mumbai/India. As an 8th operator, some of the basic questions which we all have been challenged with are 'Who should be our target segment??', 'How do we get healthy revenues and bottomline??' and ‘How do we design the right reach model to target every kind of consumer, be it a Jhuggi walla at Dharavi or the elite staying at South Mumbai, with the right product??”.
Although getting a launch campaign ready is a no-brainer in today's hi-tech world, attaining consumer's mind-share at the time of launch and later, keeping the brand fresh and alive with ‘New News’ is clearly the most challenging task which most of the leading Brands face today, be it Pepsi, Coke, Nokia, Ki
ngfisher, Jet, etc.. While in countries like China and Taiwan, where 90% of the market is organised trade, in India, the dynamics get completely changed, largely due to the Socio-economic divides. Hence, launching the Brand and Marketing it at the ground level to reach every nook and corner becomes a challenging task. If one looks at our Ad, it doesn’t talk about voice at all, because voice has become a hygiene factor or the core benefit. What it talks about is the augmented product, which is the VAS, like Yahoo! search engine, the Pocket Internet, which provides a whole lot of services like Hotel reservation through MakeMyTrip.com, M-commerce, Yahoo! messenger, CricInfo and Music Downloads. VAS has increasingly gained importance in the last 2-3 years. I still remember, in 2002, there used to be a few chosen customers for GPRS, but today, the customer base using VAS, has grown multiple-fold. Today, majority of the customers want their mobile phones to replace lap-tops. My maid’s dialer tune changes everyday; was just wondering the rate at which she must be re-charging her talktime on her pre-paid card.
Apart from the USP created in the main communication, the ideas adopted
on the mediums used to communicate were innovative enough to create that required disruption in the market. For the first time in my life, the TOI had changed their Brand name to ‘Move On India’ from ‘Times of India’. For the first time, I saw the name of Mid Day changing to ‘Aircel Day’. For the first time in my life, I had seen the iconic ‘Gateway of India’, being flashed with the Brand Aircel. What an Innovation!!!
God took 6 days to create Heaven and Earth, with its various elements and of-course life. He finally rested on the 7th day. For us, it is just the first day.
The movie, ‘Miracle’, is a true story of Herb Brooks, the player-turned-coach, who led the 1980 US Olympic Hockey team to victory over the seemingly invincible Russian squad. Success lies in dreaming the impossible and having the passion to fulfill it. From now on, lets sleep, eat and drink Aircel!!!
Today, the mobile phone has become a necessity rather than a luxury item. Be it a house-maid, or a chauffeur, or a government servant, or a CEO/businessman, everyone carries a mobile phone. But, launching as the 8th operator in the over-crowded Telecom space in Mumbai is certainly no joke. Every coin has 2 sides to it. I look at it as an opportunity to get the incremental revenue base, which we all know is big when it comes to Telecom in Mumbai/India. As an 8th operator, some of the basic questions which we all have been challenged with are 'Who should be our target segment??', 'How do we get healthy revenues and bottomline??' and ‘How do we design the right reach model to target every kind of consumer, be it a Jhuggi walla at Dharavi or the elite staying at South Mumbai, with the right product??”.
Although getting a launch campaign ready is a no-brainer in today's hi-tech world, attaining consumer's mind-share at the time of launch and later, keeping the brand fresh and alive with ‘New News’ is clearly the most challenging task which most of the leading Brands face today, be it Pepsi, Coke, Nokia, Ki
ngfisher, Jet, etc.. While in countries like China and Taiwan, where 90% of the market is organised trade, in India, the dynamics get completely changed, largely due to the Socio-economic divides. Hence, launching the Brand and Marketing it at the ground level to reach every nook and corner becomes a challenging task. If one looks at our Ad, it doesn’t talk about voice at all, because voice has become a hygiene factor or the core benefit. What it talks about is the augmented product, which is the VAS, like Yahoo! search engine, the Pocket Internet, which provides a whole lot of services like Hotel reservation through MakeMyTrip.com, M-commerce, Yahoo! messenger, CricInfo and Music Downloads. VAS has increasingly gained importance in the last 2-3 years. I still remember, in 2002, there used to be a few chosen customers for GPRS, but today, the customer base using VAS, has grown multiple-fold. Today, majority of the customers want their mobile phones to replace lap-tops. My maid’s dialer tune changes everyday; was just wondering the rate at which she must be re-charging her talktime on her pre-paid card.Apart from the USP created in the main communication, the ideas adopted
on the mediums used to communicate were innovative enough to create that required disruption in the market. For the first time in my life, the TOI had changed their Brand name to ‘Move On India’ from ‘Times of India’. For the first time, I saw the name of Mid Day changing to ‘Aircel Day’. For the first time in my life, I had seen the iconic ‘Gateway of India’, being flashed with the Brand Aircel. What an Innovation!!!God took 6 days to create Heaven and Earth, with its various elements and of-course life. He finally rested on the 7th day. For us, it is just the first day.
The movie, ‘Miracle’, is a true story of Herb Brooks, the player-turned-coach, who led the 1980 US Olympic Hockey team to victory over the seemingly invincible Russian squad. Success lies in dreaming the impossible and having the passion to fulfill it. From now on, lets sleep, eat and drink Aircel!!!
