Idea Marketing Mix (4Ps) & Marketing Strategy
Marketing strategy of Idea through marketing mix framework which covers the 4Ps (Product, Price, Place, Promotion).
Idea Product Strategy:
Idea Cellular was one of the leading telecom service provider in India, until it got merged with Vodafone, and be called as Vodafone-Idea or simply Vi. Idea Cellular product mix primarily consists of Voice service, Mobile Internet and Value added services in its marketing mix. Voice service is further segmented across prepaid and post-paid services. Post-paid plans start from very economical price. Idea Cellular is augmented with various value packs which helps in attracting customers. Ultimate plans, per minute plan, per second plan and combo plans are integrated along with post-paid plans. In the prepaid segment, plans such as start-up kit are very attractive, which helps in bringing new customers. Other plans include ultimate packs, full talk time vouchers, top up vouchers, Idea to Idea special voucher, and combo vouchers. In Value Added services Idea provides dialler tones, Apps, Sports service, Bollywood news etc. Mobile Internet segment is where Idea gets differentiated from its competitors, it provides 2G, 3G, 4G and LTE internet service for its customers across India at very economical packages.
Image: company website
This concludes the product strategy in Idea marketing mix & strategy.
Idea Price/Pricing Strategy:
Below is the pricing strategy in Idea marketing mix strategy:
Idea Cellular mostly focuses on competitor strategy in the aggressive telecom sector in India. In the fierce competition of the telecommunications sector in India, price is the key weapon that carriers use to survive and live in the long run.
An insight in the pricing strategy in the telecom brand’s marketing mix is as follows. In the voice services, post-paid plans from as low as ₹199; which is very less compared to the basic plans of other players in the market. Idea provides its customers attractive ISD packages for post-paid services, these rates are similar when compared to other service providers. In the prepaid services the price of full talk time vouchers starts from as low as ₹100; which is not provided by any other carrier. Combo vouchers are prices at differential rates; thus, they are able to exploit the paying capability of its customers. In this way, Idea Cellular are able to maximize their profits. Special packages like Idea to Idea, STD package, ISD packages are featured so that customers can customize their plans depending upon their paying capability and requirement. In the Value added services the prices are exorbitant, so that people willing to avail luxury services will pay high amount to avail it.
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Idea Place & Distribution Strategy:
Following is the distribution strategy in the Idea marketing mix:
Idea Cellular has got an excellent reach and its present in almost every corner of India. Catering to both online and offline format, Idea’s presence can be felt easily. In today’s digital era, it is important to have lightning fast customer serviceability. Idea is able to accomplish this by being able to present always with the customers via customer support anytime and all time. The online portal of idea cellular provides a platform for customers to raise their issues faced, and also this helps them to look for various packages which they look to avail or change. It also provides a portal for them to pay bill and have easy recharge.
Idea stores are available in all major metros in and across India present in all states; this helps them to cater to the customers who are not comfortable with the online mechanism.
Idea Promotion & Advertising Strategy:
The promotional and advertising strategy in the Idea marketing mix is as follows:
Idea Cellular focuses on an aggressive promotion in its marketing mix. Idea Cellular spends a substantial amount of their revenues for advertisements and promotional activities. This is considered adequate when taken in account the plethora of services they need to promote. Idea Cellular promote their brand by using the tagline “No ullu banaoing”; which means that they do not cheat their customers unlike other service providers, as this has been the main complaint from across all customers since the advent of privatized wireless telecommunications. Idea Cellular’s major promotional projects typically involve television advertisements. They have embarked on Abhishek Bachchan, who is a famous Bollywood personality as their brand ambassador; thus, providing them a boost to reach out to potential customers. Also, over the years Idea Cellular have sponsored various sports initiatives like cricket and football matches, which helped them to promote their brand over the years. Idea Cellular uses all media like TV, online, print, bllboards etc for its marketing activities.
Since this is a service marketing brand, here are the other three Ps to make it the 7Ps marketing mix of Idea Cellular.
Process:
Idea Cellular has a centralized design of process structure, thus major chunk of their operations is operated from their headquarters in Mumbai. Right from purchasing of Idea SIM card to complaint servicing Idea is setup over an integrated process structure. This setup is easily accessible to its customers as they have excellent customer service channel. The agile, trustworthy and quality service support process makes Idea Cellular as one of the most preferred brand to go for.
People:
Idea Cellular focuses a lot of keeping its customers and employees happy. Aditya Birla Group understands that in order to survive in the ultra-competitive telecommunication industry in India, it is very important to be able to be connected with the customers. In such a case, it is very important to have a highly competent employee base. Idea Cellular attracts employees from across various top graduate universities. Looking at the top management it can be seen that most of them are from premier institutions having an extensive experience in the telecom sector. This ensures that from decision making to implementation of ideas, quality is never compromised. Thus the people strategy in the marketing mix of Idea Cellular has been a formidable force in the company’s growth in the telecom sector.
Physical Evidence:
Idea Cellular has presence across all corners of India. They also come up with attractive plans of its services that attract customers to its services. They are present in all metro cities as Idea stores which increases their visibility. The physical evidence covers the Idea stores, simcards, recharge vouchers etc. The Idea Cellular yellow logo is easily identifiable. Hence, this concludes the Idea marketing mix.
About Idea:
Idea Cellular, now known as Vi after its merger with Vodafone in India, is a telecommunications service provider, catering its services within the boundaries of India. Headquartered in Mumbai it is a pan India GSM operator. Idea Cellular was founded in the year 1994 jointly by Aditya Birla Group, AT&T and TATA group. Currently, it is majorly shareholders are Aditya Birla Group, Axiata Investments and P5 Asia Investments. Being a public limited company it is listed in NSE. Idea Cellular’s tangible assets include telecom towers and network infrastructure. The telecommunications sector in India is fiercely competitive, its primary competitors include Airtel, Vodafone, Reliance Jio, Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited, Aircel and TATA Docomo.
Headed by industrialist Kumar Mangalam Birla, with annual revenues of ₹36000 crores, it has a significant market share. Such figures clearly state that Idea Cellular is a star performer in the Service sector in India.
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