Product is an impotant component of marketing mix. A product must be designed in such a way that customers would accept it and want to buy the product. This is a very challenging task. Customers do not buy mere products. They seek the benefits that the product gives and are often willing to pay more for a brand that genuinely fulfills their want
Product can be defined as anything that is offered to a market for attention, acquisition, use or consumption and that might satisfy a want or need. Products include more than just tangible goods. It includes physical objects, services, persons, places, organizations, ideas or mixes of these entities. (KOTLER, 2005).
Servicesare products that consist of activities, benefits or satisfactions that are offered for
sale that are essentially intangible and do not result in the ownership of anything. Bharti Airtel being a telecommunication service provider mostly deals with service products.
Bharti Airtel operates in four individual strategic business units (SBU's) - Mobile Services, Airtel Telemedia Services, Enterprise Services and Passive Infrastructure Services. The mobile business offers services in India, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh. The Telemedia business provides broadband, IPTV and telephone services in 95 Indian cities and Direct-to-Home TV services across India. The Enterprise business provides end-to-end telecom solutions to corporate customers and national and international long distance services to telcos. The Passive Infrastructure Services engages in setting up, operating, and maintaining wireless communication towers; providing network development services; and operating video, voice, data, and Internet transmission business in and out of India (www.airtel.in)
Mobile Services
Bharti Airtel offers mobile services using GSM technology. It operates in all the 23-telecom circles of India. Airtel is the largest mobile service provider in the country, based on the number of customers. Mobile services include prepaid and postpaid services, BlackBerry, Smartphone, calling cards and wireless internet.
Telemedia Services
Under telemedia services Airtel offers fixed line, broadband and direct to home digital TV services. It provides Landline services in 94 cities and high speed broadband internet with a best in class network. Recently Airtel has introduced direct to home (DTH) digital TV service in more than 150 cities with world class entertainment across India.
Enterprise Services
This includes a broad portfolio of services to large organisation and Carrier customers. It consists of Carrier and Corporate business unit. Bharti Airtel Enterprise Services (AES) is regarded as the trusted communications partner to leading organizations globally because it helps them to meet the challenges of growth.
Passive Infrastructure Services
Airtel also owns and manages passive infrastructure pertaining to telecom operations under its subsidiary Bharti Infratel Limited. Bharti Infratel owns 42% of Indus Towers Limited. Bharti Infratel and Indus Towers are the two top providers of passive infrastructure services in India.
Airtel Brand
Airtel was born free, a force unleashed into the market with a relentless and unwavering determination to succeed. A spirit charged with energy, creativity and a team driven “to seize the day” with an ambition to become the most globally admired telecom service. Airtel, in just ten years of operations, rose to the pinnacle to achievement and continues to lead.
As India's leading telecommunications company Airtel brand has played the role as a major catalyst in India's reforms, contributing to its economic resurgence.
Today Airtel touch people's lives with its Mobile services, Telemedia services, to connecting India's leading 1000+ corporates. Airtel also connect Indians living in USA, UK and Canada with its callhome service. (www.airtel.in)
A core product exists only if it satisfies the basic need of an individual. It has to be from a well reputed brand with some extra features to form an actual product so as to compete with other products in the market. To make the product more customers focused certain other features like after sales customer services, financing facilities and delivery services can added to form an augmented product. Considering these aspects of product, Bharti Airtel introduced all its products under the well known brand AIRTEL and focused on after sales services especially on 24/7 customer care. Airtel is known for its best customer care solutions and was awarded as the Best Billing or Customer Care Solution in 2008 by GSMA. (http://www.globalmobileawards.com/history/history.shtml, )
Product Mix
A product mix comprises the complete range of products that a company offers to the market. Following are the main elements (Palmer, 254):
Figure
Product Life Cycle
Product life cycle is defined as “The course of a product's sales and profits over its life time .It involves five distinctive stages: product development, introduction, growth, maturity and decline” (Kotler, 2005:639).
The following is a typical product life-cycle (PLC), the course that a product's sales and profits take over its lifetime.
Five distinct stages of product life-cycle:
