Telecom War In 2020

As the global economy continues to reel from the shock and the lasting impact of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak, “work from home” and “social distancing” have become the buzzwords in today’s business landscape, with the telecom sector being the invisible hand driving this shift. Remote working, video conferencing, and telecommunications technology have quickly emerged as key enablers for business operations during this lockdown, and streaming services such as Netflix have become the go-to source for entertainment, putting the telecom sector in the spotlight today. The Telecom sector, which is the backbone of any economy, is going through a transformational change. Post the phase of aggressive price competition, the last few years have been marked by consolidation in the industry. The telecom companies continued this competitive war during Covid-19 and came up with different marketing strategies which are mentioned in this article. 

Marketing Strategy of JIO During COVID-19

The introduction of JIO in mid-2016 led to stiff competition in the telecommunication giants. JIO attracted the customer by providing various multiple offers such as free unlimited data and calling for a couple of months which forced other networks also to change their strategy. Thus, the marketing strategy opted by JIO benefitted the ultimate consumers.

In 2020 the COVID- 19 situations affected the entire world as well as all sectors of the industry because of this pandemic the revenue earned by the industries was ruined to a large extent.

Strategies undertook by Jio:

•  JIO introduced self - test symptom checker before the lockdown period which was a great initiative by the company that thinks about the health of their customers as well as the society.
• To tackle the COVID-19 situation in favor of consumers the professional team of JIO comes up with a different marketing strategy as they offered various schemes such as providing double data with a little hike in the price & by providing a JIO fiber network which cost Rs. 2500 at the time of purchasing & if the consumer wishes to return it they will get a refund of Rs. 1500.
• JIO forecast program was also introduced by Reliance for their customers. They provided employment opportunities for people through this program.
• The recent marketing strategy applied by JIO is offering free calling to JIO to Non – JIO customers. 

Marketing Strategies Of Airtel During COVID-19

During the COVID-19 pandemic, Airtel launched its latest campaign 'Recharge Revolution' in an attempt to ease the process of phone recharge for its subscriber amidst lockdown.

Strategies undertook by Airtel

• Promotional strategies: strategies are undertaken by Airtel to win over. For example, Airtel launched a new ad campaign” Airtel my plan Family”.
• Airtel has also forged partnerships with Zee, Netflix, and Amazon and use their content to entice users into spending more as post-COVID-19 it is estimated then on average a person is spending 4 hours on mobile, majorly consuming videos or music.
• Customer Up trading: Low mobile broadband penetration (~57%) and smartphone penetration in India provide an opportunity in form of customer up trading from feature phones to smartphones.
• Partner Ecosystem: possibilities to have a host of strategic partnerships leading to differentiated customer experience in order to win customers.
• Remote Working: With work from home becoming popular in India in addition to the higher disposable income and habit changes, the existing homes broadband footprint can be leveraged to capture the opportunities.
• Digital payments: India’s digital payment space is expected to grow the segment by about five-fold to USD 1 trillion by 2023. Underpenetrated banking opportunities in Africa as well.

Marketing strategies of VI or Vodafone idea during COVID-19

During the lockdown period in May-July 2020 ‘Vi’ announced its arrival, as the newest telecom operator in the country. Vodafone-Idea planned an elaborate advertising campaign to enforce its new unified consumer brand identity and positioning ‘Vi’ revamped through a virtual event. The company began its branding campaign through tv and digital advertising and rolled out a detailed multimedia campaign to set into the competitive market.

• Vodafone- idea aims to become techno via partner-led strategy to drive enterprise business: The telecom operator has adopted a partner-led approach to building a complete marketplace for its products and solutions for larger, small, and medium enterprises. Kishore said that VI is creating a partner marketplace for devices applications, software, consultancy, system integrator, and network to build the ecosystem.
• After the merger of Vodafone- Idea, has the maximum number of shares in INDIAN STOCK MARKET with 2873 crores.
• The Vodafone –Idea merger also help them to achieve the highest call quality rating (December 2020) with 4.75 ratings.
• Post Revamping as Vi the company has plans to follow this up with a high decibel marketing strategy to resonate with the values and aims of the branding while building itself a substantial legacy. Talking about making stakeholders feel included in the process of transitioning, Kavita Nair said, “During this time, if you can carry the legacy and equity forward, the stakeholders feel more optimistic and confident about the brand.” As Vi was moving forward with the brand migration, the news was first shared with the employees to make them feel more special and connected.