Says Hemant Sachdev, director, marketing and corporate communications, Bharti Enterprises: ``We are adopting a new brand-platform - Touch Tomorrow - not only to reflect our corporate ethos but also business strategy.'' This marks a major shift from the generic positioning for Airtel - Power to Keep in Touch - which was adopted five years ago when mobile telephony was in its infancy and steeply-priced phones restricted cellular expansion.

To communicate the new Airtel ethos and a whole new bundle of marketing initiatives, Bharti Cellular Ltd has also more than doubled its ad spend from Rs 20 crore in fiscal 1999-00 to over Rs 45 crore this year. While around a quarter of the ad budget will be spent on the outdoor media, Bharti will freeze plans for a television commercial shortly. The first phase of communication will focus on brand philosophy and the second phase, starting September, will dwell on products and services.

The Good Life
Beginning with Delhi, Bharti will roll out the Good Life and Touch Tomorrow campaigns-with visuals of a boyish bunch of enthusiasts excuding energy-in the markets of Madhya Pradesh, Karnataka, Himachal Pradesh, and Andhra Pradesh. (Also Chennai, where Airtel is expected to enter shortly).In the new thrust, Airtel has also moved down the socio-economic classification (SEC) from SEC-A to SEC-B. ``Mobile telephony is taken for granted - in one of our researches, consumers have described mobile telephony as `dil ka rishta hai'(as it is kept close to the heart). What is adding a new dimension to the cellular category is the advent of new features like roaming, SMS, and the Net, which are taking communication beyond voice to data and video,'' says Sachdev. ``This has tossed a challenge: how to bond with consumers.''

Airtel's new communication approach, in sync with its creative agency Rediffusion-DY&R, will focus on highlighting how Airtel will bring consumers all those things that wireless technology can bring them.

Earlier, a qualitative research to gauge the brand equity of Airtel-the research was undertaken by ORG-MARG in March 2000 involving 12 focus groups in Delhi-indicated that the brand had three core values: leadership, performance, and dynamism. The supportive values emerged as:courtesy/politeness and efficiency. While the peripheral value was: status.

Says Sachdeva, ``Airtel was perceived as a premium brand. The new positioning - we started working on this campaign ten weeks ago - is intended to add warmth to these attributes.'' He adds that the creatives will reflect humane yet aspirational, family-centric yet reachable and softer brand values. The new visual identity for Airtel brand will have the logo in red, black and white colours, and a lower-case typography to convey warmth.

Updating Airtel shops
Airtel has also undertaken an updating of the entire Airtel franchised network and company-owned customer centres. At Airtel Connects, it is creating a softer ambience with e-kiosks, new signages, facades, merchandising material and collaterals; and a colour co-ordination of red, black and white.

The Airtel Connect outlet will have four to five personnel. The new uniform: men will wear black trousers, white shirt with a logo of Airtel, and red ties; and women will sport red tops, black trousers and ivory, chiffon scarves.

``Operational modalities won't change but there will be enhanced accent on customer relations,'' says Arun Jhamb, vice-president, marketing, Bharti. The newly installed e-kiosks will help visitors know about value-added services like dial-in services, messaging and e-commerce.

In line with its plan to become a national player, it is enhancing the network of Airtel Connects - each occupying an area of around 800-1,000 sqft -from 45 at present (including 20 in Delhi) to 60 (including 30 in Delhi) by the year-end.

Similarly, the network of Touch Points (Airtel's shop-in-shops, which occupy an area of around 200 sqft at departmental stores or lifestyle establishments and is staffed by two sales executives) will double from 50 now. In the next two months, the number of Airtel Points will rise from 16 to 50 in Delhi.

Airtel is also planning to build a network of over a dozen Airtel Customer Centres from two at present. ``We'll set up a centre each in Bangalore, Shimla, Hyderabad. There will me more centres in Delhi.'' Bharti Cellular has 2.20 lakh subscribers in Delhi, with Airtel accounting for 60 per cent of the base and the pre-paid brand Magic 40 per cent.

Changing colours