7. Do you…
• Ignore it, hoping the free
product won’t last?
• Rapidly introduce your own
free product?
• Or recognize that the two
products can peacefully coexist
in the market?
26. Major chips manufacturer Frito Lay pushed its Cheetos brand of
chips in India by offering free “tazos” which were hugely popular
amongst the children who mainly consumed these chips. As a result
their sales skyrocketed.
Sales of Frito Lay’s
chips went up by 50%
because of catering to
the demand for fun from
their primary
consumers, school going
children.
27. Bundling is again a
hugely popular
technique used by
electronic
manufacturers in
India.
29. During the festival season, electronic companies often bundle
their products with secondary accessories to lure customers.
Eg. In this advertisement, free earphones are being offered
with the purchase of Nokia Lumia phones.
30. Commercial fast food chains such as Pizza Hut and
Dominos often offer “Buy 1 Get 1” offers. These
offers tempt customers into buying more and they get
the feeling that they’re getting a good deal.
32. The target consumers here
are college going men and
women and young
professionals.
33. The IM market is
dominated by internet
messenger app WhatsApp.
WhatsApp is the most used
messaging app in India
(Source: Economic
Times)
34. What are the reasons
because of which
WhatsApp has become so
popular?
35. It’s free for the first year of use. Even after
that it’s a nominal fee of ₹54 per year. This is
extremely cheap compared to SMS services
provided by mobile network providers.
36. With the introduction of WhatsApp Web,
WhatsApp can now be accessed from any
device which has an internet connection.
37. Almost everyone you know is active on
WhatsApp. So why shouldn’t you?
Its huge user base acts like a magnet and
attracts even more users.
38. Messages on WhatsApp are not limited to
text messages.
Photos, Videos, Audio files and contact
information can also be sent using
WhatsApp. A facility which was never
present with SMS providers.
39. Real time chatting is possible through
WhatsApp.
Transfer of multimedia is also quick and
seamless.
42. SMS usage has decreased by 50%
after the arrival of WhatsApp. SMS
revenues accounted for 5-6 % of the
total revenues of Telecom service
providers. And this market was
growing when WhatsApp took hold.
43. Also because of the ease of texting using
WhatsApp, people have started calling less,
hence again cutting into the revenues of
Telecom service providers.
44. So Bharti Airtel whose annual
consolidated revenue for the year
2014 was â‚ą85,746 crore (Airtel
annual report 2014), lost around
â‚ą2573 crore that year because of
WhatsApp and other instant
messaging services.
46. What can telecom providers
do to tackle this situation?
• Ignore the threat?
• Make SMS’s free?
• Pray to God for Facebook
(who own WhatsApp) to go
bankrupt?
51. Airtel should:
• Immediately launch an instant
messaging app on Google
Play Store and iTunes store.
• Either make it absolutely free
or reduce the price
substantially and earn revenue
by selling banner ads. They
can sell a premium ad free
version also.
52. Airtel should:
• Integrate it with SMS and
make it so that a data
connection is not required
unless it is to send multimedia
messages.
• Bring it in a chat format,
showing who is online and
who is not at any particular
moment.
53. Airtel should:
• Allow sending messages to all
mobiles, because essentially it is
just an SMS app.
54. How will it be better than
WhatsApp? • It will allow offline messaging
which is not allowed on
WhatsApp.
• The recipient need not even
have the app because it is
essentially a cheaper version of
an sms. For WhatsApp the
recipient has to be a user of
WhatsApp.
55. How will it be better than
WhatsApp?
• Data connection will not be
required except for multimedia
messages and for updating the
application.