Format - 3

AMITY BUSINESS SCHOOL

Dissertation
FORMAT FOR OUTLINE OF PROPOSED RESEARCH WORK
DATE : September 27, 2010

Name of the Student: MANISH RAJ SINGH Father’s Name : MR. R.A. SINGH

Programme: MBA(GEN) AUUP Enrollment No: A0101909343

Contact No. 09990963655 E-Mail id: manish_raj_Singh@yahoo.co.in

1. Title of the Research: Integrated marketing strategies adopted by Indian telecom industry.
2. Rationale of proposed investigation: The research paper will discuss the innovative marketing
strategies adopted by Indian telecom companies in particular Airtel, Reliance, Idea, BSNL and Tata
indicom to usher in the telecommunication revolution in India. Specifically the paper will take a look at
the new paradigm in cost competence and marketing which helped these companies to drive down costs
and drive up volumes.

3. Review of work already done on the subject:

At 110.01 million connections ' Indian Telecom Industry' is the fifth largest and fastest growing in the
world. The subscriber base has grown by 40% in 2005 and is expected to reach 250 million in 2007.
Over the last 3 years, two out of every three new telephone connections were wireless. Consequently,
wireless now accounts for 54.6% of the total telephone subscriber base, as compared to only 40% in 2003.
Wireless subscriber growth is expected to grow at 2.5 million new subscribers every month in 2007. The
wireless subscriber base skyrocketed from 33.69 million in 2004 to 62.57 million in FY 2004 -2005. The
wireless technologies currently in use ' Indian Telecom Industry ' are Global System for Mobile
Communications (GSM) and Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA). There are primarily 9 GSM and 5
CDMA operators providing mobile services in 19 telecommunication circles and 4 metro cities, covering
more than 2000 towns across the country. And the numbers are still growing for ' Indian Telecom Industry
'. ‘Telecom Industry in India ' is regulated by 'Telecom Regulatory Authority of India' (TRAI). It has
earned good reputation for transparency and competence. Three types of players exists in ' Telecom
Industry India ' community -
 State owned companies like - BSNL and MTNL.
 Private Indian owned companies like - Reliance Infocomm and Tata Teleservices.
 Foreign invested companies like - Hutchison-Essar, Bharti Tele-Ventures, Escotel, Idea Cellular, BPL
Mobile, Spice Communications etc.
The ' Indian Telecom Industry 'services is not confined to basic telephone but it also extends to internet,
broadband (both wireless and fixed), cable TV, SMS, IPTV, soft switches etc.

Arpan parikh (2008) conducted a study on “marketing strategies adopted by BSNL “. He analyzed that the
ultimate objective of any marketing activity is to satisfy the customers and today even a step
ahead i.e. ‘delighting’ the customers, for which customers are offered something beyond their
expectations from the service or the product. The objective being to acquire and retain the
customers, who should continually feel that they are getting more value of the money, they are
departing with.

BSNL FOLLOWS THE FOLLOWING MARKETING STRATEGY

1) Discovering what product, service or idea customers want.

2) Producing a product with the appropriate features and quality.
3) Pricing the product correctly.
4) Promoting the product; spreading the word about why customers should buy it.
5) Selling and delivering the product into the hands of the customer.

Chengchang Wang and Abhinav Kishore(2007) student of School of Business Administration, Wuhan
University of Technology, Wuhan, China conducted a study on” COMPARATIVE REASEARCH ON THE
MARKETING STRATEGIES OF TELECOMMUNICATION INDUSTRY IN CHINA AND INDIA” said that
Indian telecom industry includes players like Indian companies, foreign companies and government companies
but Chinese telecom industry includes only domestic players in service providing but having domestic as well as
foreign players of telecom equipment supply.

That study concludes that Chinese telecom companies are not so much concerned with retention of customers as
they are enjoying monopoly in their respective field but it is not the same case with Indian telecom companies
as the competition is very tough and customer retention is main attention for each company. This study also
concludes that there are quite similarities as well as dissimilarities in the marketing methods of Indian and
Chinese telecom industry and it is mainly due to different marketing environment and policy regarding telecom
sector available in both countries.

Amanjyot Singh (2005) conducted a study titled ‘Customer Satisfaction And Quality Audit Report Of Escotel
Mobile Communications Limited’ and suggested that for maximizing the service quality in service industries
the relationship between the dealers and customers should be strong and pricing should be constantly reviewed.
 Shikha Ojha(2009) conducted a study on Consumer Awareness of VAS of Telecom Sector of India. She
analyzed the contribution of the mobile phone services not only at the national or state level, but also its
involvement in an individual's life. She found out that the less number of users are aware of all the VAS
provided by the service providers and thus the companies should focus on the awareness campaign.

G.V.Chalam (2005) conducted a study on Quality of Services in Indian Telecom Sector: Users’ Perception- An
Assessment. This study deals with growth, working and types of services provided by the Telecom circle in
macro environment. The findings of the study reveal that the expectations of the telecom users are high among
the subscribers of recent times because of their sense of time vs. money value and awareness of their rights. The
basic motto of the telecom department is to provide excellent services to its customers against the present
competition from the private sector. In this direction, it is doing its best to acquire and retain its new and old
customers.

Uniqueness of work: In today’s competitive world all the companies keep on building strategies so as to beat
others to acquire the new markets and thereby increasing customer base. In telecom sector also with the
continuous relaxation given by TRAI for new companies to come up the competition has become tougher.
Every new or the other company comes up with certain strategies to get new customer and then capitalize on
that, but in long term very few of them are able to survive.

The problem behind the failure of many such companies is ineffective marketing strategies and not
properly integrated marketing efforts, thus this problem is taken as the base of the research.

To provide an informed basis to develop strategies to achieve competitive advantage in the future.

4. Objective(s) : 1) To understand the probable effect of marketing strategies by telecom operators

in changing the Indian telecom landscape and the necessary measures to be adopted.

2) To study the impact of effective promotion mix, advertisement and other

attractive offers provided by the Indian telecom industry.

5. Major Hypothesis (s):

H1: There is a probable effect of marketing strategies by telecom operators in changing the

Indian telecom landscape.

 H2: The telecom companies who expose themselves consistently to their target audience through

effective promotion mix, advertisement and attractive offers will show greater reach among the

customers than the others.

6. Materials and Methods: This research will be carried for better understanding of the subject matter

both qualitatively and quantitatively. Quantitative data Technique will be employed for explain certain

concerns and objectives of the research. The data which will be collected should be quantitative, and statistical

techniques would be used to summarize the information. So, I will use descriptive research method.

SAMPLE DESIGN

Geographical area : NCR

Sample size: I will take 100 as sample size, because

Z² x p(1-p)
n=
  e²

Description:

n = required sample size

Z= confidence level at 95% (standard value of 1.96)
p = estimated prevalence of malnutrition in the project area
e = margin of error at 5% (standard value of 0.05)

Sample technique: I will follow Random sampling method.

DATA SOURCE:

 Primary data
 Secondary data
Primary data: It is the first hand information collected directly from customer.
The primary data are those, which are collected fresh for the first time.
Techniques which I will use for collecting primary data are the following.

Survey method
a) Questionnaire
b) Interview method

Secondary Data: Sources of secondary data will be collected through

  Internet
 Journals
 Newspaper
 Database available in the library and presentations
The data collected from respondents will be processed in the following manner.
 Tabulation
 Graphical presentation
 Interpretation
TYPES OF QUESTIONS:
DICHOTOMOUS:
This type of questions have only two type of answer, yes or no. true or false etc.
MULTIPLE CHOICE QUESTIONS:
The case in which the respondents have offer two or more choices. The researcher exhausts all the
possible choices and the respondents have to indicate which one is applicable
in this case.

7. Tentative Chapter wise details of proposed research

Executive summary
Introduction
Literature review
Objective of the study
Research methodology
Analysis and interpretations
Findings
Recommendations
Suggestions
Conclusions
Bibliography
Questionnaire

8) References Cited:

1)Chorng-Jian Liu, Yuntsai Chou, Shyang-Hua Wu, Yi-Shin Shih. The public incumbent's defeat in mobile
competition: Implications for the sequencing of telecommunications reform Telecommunications Policy.
Kidlington: Jun/Jul 2009. Vol. 33, Iss. 5/6

2) Blythe, J. (2000), Marketing Communications, Pearson Education, Edinburgh, Financial Times/Prentice-Hall, .

3) Caywood, D., Schultz, D.E., Wang, p. (1991), "Integrated marketing communications: a survey of national
goods advertisers", unpublished report, Medill School of Journalism, Northwestern University, June, .

4) Athreya M.B. (1991): 'Report of the High Level Committee on Reorganisation

 of Telecom Department' (Athreya Committee), March 1991.

5) Department of Telecommunications (DoT): Annual Telecom Statistics (various years)

6) National Telecom Policy. (1994): Department of Telecommunications. Telecom Regulatory Authority of India
(TRAI 1998): Consultation Paper on Framework and Proposals for Telecom Pricing.

7) IBEF report 2007-08 : Telecommunication - MARKET & OPPORTUNITIES

8) Alagiri Dhanpat “Telecommunications in India- Emerging Scenario” ISBN: 81-314-1171-5, ICFAI University
press.

Signature of the candidate with date

Outline Approved

Name and signature of supervisor with date

Comments by reviewer