New Delhi: In a strategy aimed at establishing AirTel as a global infocom brand, represented across a range of business lines, Bharti Enterprises has rolled out a new brand architecture. The group will take AirTel branding from mobile services and basic services to new areas it is planning to enter -domestic long-distance services, international long-distance and broadband services. ``All convergent technologies in the sphere of telephony will be a part of the new brand architecture,'' says Mr Hemant Sachdev, director, marketing and corporate communications, Bharti Enterprises.The three-tier AirTel brand architecture, created by Rediffusion, is: AirTel will be the mother brand with the positioning statement of Touch Tomorrow; in the second tier it will have AirTel telephone services, AirTel long- distance services, AirTel broadband services, and Airtel mobile services; and in the third tier, there will be sub-brands like AirTel freenet (free Internet access bundled with Airtel Connection), and AirTel long-distance, and Airtel Tango (Internet mobile).
Says Mr Sandeep Goyal, president, Rediffusion DY&R Brand Communications: ``An Equity Research undertaken by ORG-MARG and quarterly Brand Track studies by IMRB have given us insight into theneeds of tomorrow's consumer. The new branding initiative takes into cognisance the findings that consumers consider AirTel as a brand of the successful people and a preferred address.''
The Bharti brand and Mantraonline (handled by Percept), will not be, however inducted in the new architecture. And the pre-paid cellular brand Magic, handled by Leo Burnett, will continue to be a distinct brand, springing from the lineage of the Airtel brand.
Industry sources indicate that the Bharti group is likely to invest around Rs 20 crore in brand-building as it rolls out its telecom services nationally. Airtel has already kicked off a new TVC-Touch Tomorrow-across high TRP channels like Star, Zee, Sony and some regional channels.
AirTel was introduced to provide cellular services in Delhi, HP and gradually in Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh. The brand has also been extended to basic telephone services in Madhya Pradesh.
Copyright © 2001 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.
