Mini Project on Services Marketing Mobile communication Services (TATA DOCOMO)

Report submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements For the award of the Degree of MASTER OF BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION
Submitted by ANOOP P Reg No: 21182

Under the guidance of Mr.Balakrishna Menon

January 2012

DC School of Management and Technology

Pullikkanam, Vagmon, Idukki 685503 Tel: 04869 248322, 248323

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Declaration

I hereby declare that the one day mini project study at TATA DOCOMO submitted to DCSMAT is a record of the original work done by me and no part of it has been submitted earlier for any Degree, Post Graduation or similar of any other university or institution.

Place: Pullikkanam Date:

Signature: Name: ANOOP P

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INTRODUCTION
World telecom industry is an uprising industry, proceeding towards a goal of achieving two third of the world's telecom connections. Over the past few years information and communications technology has changed in a dramatic manner and as a result of that world telecom industry is going to be a booming industry. Substantial economic growth and mounting population enable the rapid growth of this industry. The world telecommunications market is expected to rise at an 11 percent compound annual growth rate at the end of year 2010. The leading telecom companies like AT&T, Vodafone, Verizon, SBC Communications, Bell South, and Qwest Communications are trying to take the advantage of this growth. These companies are working on telecommunication fields like broadband technologies, EDGE(Enhanced Data rates for Global Evolution) technologies, LAN-WAN inter networking, optical networking, voice over Internet protocol, wireless data service etc.

HISTORY OF TATA DOCOMO

TATA DoCoMo, usually referred to as DoCoMo (not to be confused with NTT DoCoMo), is an Indian cellular service provider on the GSM and CDMA platform-arising out of the Tata Group's strategic joint venture with Japanese telecom giant NTT DoCoMo in November 2008. Tata Teleservices is the country's sixth largest operator in terms of subscribers (including both CDMA and GSM). Tata Teleservices Limited (TTSL) received a license to operate GSM telecom services in 19 telecom Circles and has been allotted spectrum in 18 of these circles, under the brand "TATA DoCoMo". Tata DoCoMo launched GSM services on 24 June 2009. It first launched in South India and currently operates GSM services in 18 of 22 telecom circles. It has license to operate in Delhi but has not been allocated spectrum from the Government.[1] DoCoMo provides CDMA services throughout India. Tata DOCOMO offers both prepaid and postpaid cellular phone services. It has become very popular with its one second pulse especially in semi-urban and rural areas. On 5 November 2010, Tata DOCOMO became the first private sector telecom company to launch 3G services in India . Tata DOCOMO had about 42.34 million users at the end of December 2010.[2]
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On 20 October 2011, Tata Teleservices brought its brands - Indicom, Photon, Walky - under the Tata DoCoMo name. All subscribers to these services were migrated to the DoCoMo brand on 20 October 2011.

THE SERVICE MARKETING MIX 1. PEOPLE

The target customers range from the low income group to high income group. Apart from the individuals they provide service to business enterprises. 2. PHYSICAL EVIDENCE Tata DoCoMo appears to be banking heavily on its tariff plans the company offers a 1 second pulse instead of the usual 1 minute pulse that other telecom operators were offering. This means that consumers are charged on a per second basis, instead of a per minute basis, and end up saving money on unused seconds. A nifty little application How much can you really save on DoCoMos website explains how this works. Rs. 0.01/second is a marked change from the Re 1/min and Rs. 0.49/min charges that usually apply. Now while this plan might sound unique, it isnt that it hasnt been tried before: back in 2004, Tata Indicom had launched 1 second pulse plans, which going by their current plans, appears to have been shelved. At present, Tata DoCoMo has launched voice portals, 24-hour music, cricket commentary and voice chat, apart from offering free Missed Call Alerts and Voicemail. Interestingly, voice based services are also being priced with a per-second-pulse: 24 hour music and voice chat are priced at Rs. 0.02/second. Caller Tune search service Genie is also being priced at Rs. 0.02/second. This is a marked change, again, from the per minute pricing, and can offer consumers cheaper options. 3.PROCESS This is surely a first world over Tata DoCoMo have gone ahead and launched an innovative mobile Internet offering which allows users unlimited usage of their favourite websites on mobile for a fixed cost.

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Tata DoCoMo has been forefront in coming up with various attractive pricing schemes, especially, in the pay-per-use paradigm. They were first to introduce pay per second billing on calls, which now is followed by every mobile service provider. They followed it with payper-minute and pay-per-call pricing plans as well which has made them one of the fastest growing Mobile companies in India. The new pay-per-website offering however, takes it to a complete different level and unheard of pricing strategy. This is a very thoughtful strategy and something which has potential to growth rapidly.

THE PROVIDER GAPS

If we analyses the activities of the company we can see two provider gaps 1. Knowledge Gap- In TATA DOCOMO, we can see that there exists a knowledge gap. The company is not aware about what the customers want. The new schemes and offers provided by the company is just average. 2. Communication gap- even though the company is offering innovative services, it does not reach the customers as the sales executives failed to communicates the same to customers. Even the retailers are not aware about all the products and services offered by the company and they are just giving information about only the sim card. Due to this a lot of people who want internet facilities switch to the competitors products. These provider gaps serve as a main reason for the customer dissatisfaction. Customers experience a deviation from what they expected to what they get. Pay Per Site offers two combination packs

month. Customers have a bundle of options within various categories of social networking sites (Facebook, Twitter, Linked-In, Orkut), mail options (Gmail, Yahoo, Rediff) and chat messengers (GTalk, Yahoo! Messenger, Nimbuzz).

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Having said this, there is also a caveat If you thought it was valid for unlimited useit is not. Tata DoCoMo pay per site plan categorizes each service under 2 different genres Social Networking Site and Emailing & Instant Messaging. Each site under this genre is priced at Rs. 10/- bundled with 200 MB free data usage valid for 30 days, post which customers will be charged at 1p/kb. There are also 2 Combo options SNS Combo Pack and Emailing Combo Pack and each Combo Pack is priced at Rs. 25/- bundled with 500 MB free data usage post which the customers will be charged 1p/kb. We have been quite impressed the way Tata DoCoMo have gone about their innovative pricing models as well as marketing strategies.

PRODUCT POSITIONING
Tata Docomo products are placed as the communication services in the minds of customer. They provide communication services from a sim card to internet.

SERVICE QUALITY STANDARD

The standard of service quality is usually measured by using RATER model. 1. Reliability- when the customers were interviewed, they told that the services are not that reliable. That is due to low network coverage, unavailability of recharge outlets and poor customer care services 2. Assurance-The assure services provided are truly sticking to its nature.But this need to be supported by more network coverage. 3. Tangibility- DoCoMo 3G gives a wonderful experience to the customers as it provides opportunities for video conferencing, web browsing etc.

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4. Empathy- The sales executives of Docomo do conduct frequent understanding of the customer needs and tries to provide solution being in their shoes. 5. Responsiveness: Most of the customers are pointed out that the customer care service of Docomo is very good. Customer care is important for communication industry. From these macro perspectives, we can identify that the service standard of Docomo is very high.

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CUSTOMER SATISFACTION SURVEY

A customer satisfaction survey was conducted to know the Net Promoter Score of the company. Sample size: 10 Total Number of Promoters = 4 Total Number of Neutral = 6 Total Number of Detractors=0 Net Promoter Score= (No. of Promoters-No. of Detractors)/Total*100= 40% Above par customer services Poor network coverage Availability of recharge outlets Attractive offers Good voice qualities.

Keeping in mind about these factors, the company should strive hard to retain the good impression in the minds of customers.

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SWOT ANALYSIS
STRENGTH First to introduce seconds tariff plan ( second pulse ) Brand image of TATA services. Large variety of plans. Plans are affordable by any common person.

WEAKNESS Poor signal strength. Post-paid connections are not available as of now. Customer service. Concentrating only on rural area.

OPPORTUNITIES
Have a great opportunity to expand its services. To introduce any new plans for internet users. Introduce 3G compatible services. To introduce new combined plans like, SMS, Internet, Calling integrated offers.

THREATS
If signal strength is not increased it may lead to change in

the network service by the customers. Tata has to clarify whether this 1ps/sec will continue till its

lifecycle. Heavy competition from all other network providers.

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SUGGESTIONS
The availability of recharge voucher should be made available when required by the customers. As this give the good impression about the company. The network coverage is another asset for the companys image, which needs to be preserved in future. The overall image of the customer care services was found to be good but with some loopholes related to delays in problem solving. The company should be more prompt in handling the queries and problem of the customer, which is vary essential for the prepaid card so as to retain the customers with the company in future. The customer care executives should be more efficient in handling the customer and also more friendly and polite their conversation, while dealing with the customer. After sales service is required to be maintained properly, this is not up to the mark. Call rates is affordable so it should be maintained at this level. Many people are using mobile, but majority of them are not aware of the technology they are using many tine it happens that a person doesnt know which technology satisfied his need. Hence awareness should be created among them regarding advantages and differences in the technology. Supplementary facilities like call wait, call forward, call hold, call divert, call conference should be made more effective to attract customers.

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CONCLUSION
After analyzing and interpretation findings I have arrived at the conclusion that the overall satisfaction level of GSM prepaid customer is good. In some reference and in other they are not satisfied. As TATA communication is a brand name in itself so customer feel good for that and also expects a lot from that. And when their expectations dont match with company service, whatever they provide, they become dissatisfied. For long run process brand image and price plays a very important role in success and elements of brand equity are: The awareness it enjoy, the advertising viewer ship it has the image or perceived quality in the mind of customer, advertising association and symbol. Successful development of brand equity that drives the mark position, persisting over long period of time and is capable of resisting competitors. The new competition is not between what companies produce in their factories, but between what value they add to their products in the form of maximum customer satisfaction, after sales service etc.

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