Integrated Marketing Communication

Project on

Under the Supervision of,

Dr. Anees Ahmad
in partial fulfilment for the award of the degree
of
POSTGRADUATE DIPLOMA IN MANAGEMENT
AT
International Management Institute Kolkata

Prepared By Group 1

ANNYAEE DEY (21PGDM113)

AYUSHI MISHRA (21PGDM119)
KOUSIK MONDAL (21PGDM135)
SOUVIK MAJUMDER (21PGDM181)
SURABHI BINANI (21PGDM185)
 Introduction of the Industry
All telecommunications/telephone firms and internet service providers are under the umbrella
of the telecommunications industries, which is a subsector of information and communication
technology and is essential to the development of mobile communications and the
information society.
The primary source of revenue for the sector is still traditional phone conversations, but
because to developments in network technology, the focus of telecom is shifting away from
voice and toward text (messaging, email) and images more and more (e.g. video streaming).
There is widespread availability of high-speed internet connectivity for computer-based data
applications including interactive entertainment and broadband information services. The
primary broadband telecommunications technology is digital subscriber line (DSL). Value-
added services supplied through mobile networks have the quickest growth.
For practically every business, the telecom sector remains the core of development,
innovation, and disruption. Today's culture is becoming more and more reliant on mobile
devices and the corresponding broadband connectivity, which is crucial to the growth of
several important trends like video streaming, the Internet of Things (IoT), and mobile
payments.
Consider telecommunications as the largest machine in existence. The global system, which
is connected by intricate networks, telephones, mobile phones, and internet-connected PCs,
affects almost all of us. It enables us to communicate, think, and work with almost anyone,
wherever they may be in the globe. All of this is accomplished by telecom operating firms.
Infrastructure, Equipment, Mobile Virtual Network Operators (MNVO), White Space
Spectrum, 5G, Telephone service providers, and Broadband are the subsectors that make up
the telecommunications sector.
The Indian telecom tower market has expanded dramatically by 65% during the past seven
years. In 2021, there will be 660,000 mobile towers, up from 400,000 in 2014. Similar to how
the number of mobile base transceiver stations has expanded quickly, from 800,000 in 2014
to 2.3 million in 2021, they have climbed by 187%.
Between April and October, phone shipments more than doubled year over year, and within
only 7 months, mobile phone exports surpassed $5 billion. This is more than twice the $2.2
billion that India generated in the same time the previous year.
 Introduction of the Company
One of the biggest telecom firms in India, Jio has had a major influence on the transformation
of the country's digital environment.
It was exceedingly challenging for us to connect everyone in India with high-quality
broadband at the lowest possible cost. In September 2016, Jio launched commercially, and as
of now, it has 398.31 million subscribers worldwide. By offering the most affordable 4G data
and free voice call options, they have sparked a revolution in the digital world. With its
aggressive pricing and cutting-edge technology, Jio destroyed the majority of the telecom
businesses.
Reliance Jio led all of its competitors in terms of overall market share of subscribers in
September 2020, with a 35% market share. Jio's benefits were the reason for this.
Jio has genuinely improved millions of Indians' lives.
The business plan of Jio was what gave them the most success in a short period of time. Their
approach consists of five essential elements, which were more than enough for them to grow
their company and retain clients in a unique and efficient way.
Jio is the first telecom firm to ever offer clients six months of free service. In barely two and
a half years after starting its operation, Jio attracted more than 300 million active members.
Customers found the limitless high-speed, 4G data and telephony to be unbelievable, which
helped them grow their business.
Their target market changed to include those with smartphones, 4G internet connections, and
those working in sectors that depend on digital technology.
Due to its great approach and cutting-edge campaigns, Jio has a superb digital marketing
presence across the majority of channels. They are active on several social media sites,
including Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter, demonstrating Jio's remarkable use of
digital marketing.
The biggest contribution to India's digital revolution has been made by Jio.
Target market:
Reliance Jio focuses primarily on the audience of smartphone users. It offers superb Android
mobile services in addition to high-speed internet access. Jio focuses on the middle and
higher classes in metropolitan areas. Jio strives to make India a fully digital country.

Positioning of the company:

Reliance Communications, an Indian telecom firm Jio platforms' subsidiary is called Jio
Infocomm Limited. All 22 telecom circles are connected by the countrywide LTE network
that Jio manages. Jio now provides 4G and 4G+ services, but it is working to eventually offer
5G and 6G services as well. It is the third-biggest mobile network operator in the world and
the largest mobile network provider in India, with over 42.62 crore (426.2 million) users.

Objective:
With domain expertise across business sectors, Jio Digital is building a vast digital ecosystem
for a billion Indians. The platform company offer digital solutions across business sectors and
the customer life cycle in addition to world-class fixed-mobile convergent connection.

Since its creation, Jio has invested more than $50 billion in building India's largest and most
technologically advanced digital and communication ecosystem, complete with a wide
variety of popular platforms and applications. Connectivity and cloud services, media, digital
commerce, financial services, gaming, education, healthcare, agriculture, government to
citizen (G2C), smart cities, and manufacturing are all included in Jio's services.

Extending the success of 4G by launching an even more advanced form of mobile broadband
(5G), speeding up the roll-out and keeping prices low to make services accessible in hundreds
of millions of locations, and encouraging the use of linked intelligent solutions in all spheres
of life.

Jio will accomplish this by bringing digital experiences and smart home technologies to over
100 million homes. Additionally, by offering cloud solutions to millions of small businesses
and retailers, the organisation will assist in their uplift. The same digital capabilities that were
previously exclusively accessible to larger organisations will also be offered to medium-sized
or midcap companies in India.

Jio has developed strong internal capabilities in a number of key digital technologies,
including edge computing, speech/natural language processing, supercomputing, computer
vision, robotics, and drones. These technologies also include infrastructure as a service
(IaaS), platform as a service (PaaS), big data, augmented reality/virtual reality (AR/VR), the
internet of things (IoT), blockchain, artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning (ML), and
edge computing. The development of redesigned solutions for varied ecosystems will be
fueled by these capabilities.

In addition to spurring productivity and overall economic growth, Jio sees a large opportunity
in creating a digital society for the citizens, which will also produce returns over the next
decades.

Competitors Analysis
In the constantly expanding industry, Reliance Jio's main rivals include Vodafone, Airtel,
Idea Cellular, and many others. There are smartphones offer value for money among those
that offer VOLTE services, they are major competitors for its smart phones: The Samsung
L.G. and Lenovo etc

One of Reliance Jio's major USPs is pricing. JIO has leveraged cost to entice customers, with
4G subscriptions starting at just $19 per day. The telecom market was shaken by JIO's
aggressive pricing and cutting-edge technology, which also permanently changed India's
digital ecology.

Companies like Aircel, Docomo, and MTS left the telecom market after being completely
destroyed by Jio's pricing because it was so strong and effective. Even telecom giants like
Vodafone and Airtel had to change their game plans to compete with JIO.

India's Jio Digital Platforms is proving to be more than just a standard telecom company; it is
a disruptor. Jio was introduced as a "freemium" service, providing cost-conscious Indian
consumers with free internet access in an effort to boost market growth and acceptance.
Customers in India, where the average monthly salary is $150, have never before had access
to such high-speed internet that was so cheaply priced and that came with so many apps and
digital solutions. Jio Platforms quickly became India's biggest telecom operator after
acquiring over 400+ million users shortly after its inception. It is one of the largest telecom
network in the world. It attracted funding and collaborations with cutting-edge companies
including Intel, Qualcomm, Meta (Facebook), and Google, resulting in cooperation among
competitors.

Online grocery platform JioMart from Reliance is under stiff competition from e-commerce
upstart Udaan for market share. Udaan was chosen as a distribution partner by over 46% of
the 301 merchants surveyed by Kotak Institutional Equities, compared to about 33% for
JioMart. Although JioMart's service levels have increased, there is still opportunity for
adding additional kiranas to its B2B and B2C platforms. Comparing JioMart to rivals like
Udaan, it appears that the company has a considerably larger portion of the distribution
market.
JioMart appears to have netted a healthy 26% of the gross distribution business of retailers.
This is related to the fact that most retailers work with multiple retailers. This matches his
25% share won by JioMart.

CELEBRITY ENDORSEMENT CAMPAIGNS:

1. Digital India, Home Delivered
- Reliance Jio came up with an interesting campaign of providing SIM Cards home-
delivered to the customers.
- Customers didn’t have to take the pain to visit a physical store to get their SIM Card.
- With this campaign, Jio reached more than 26 million prospective customers in just
20 weeks.
- The Click- Through Rate (ratio of no. of clicks on a particular link to the total views
on the particular medium where the link is published) of 0.72% on this campaign was
three times that of the usual received by the industry. With almost 30,000 leads per
day, Jio’s set a very high standard. Overall, the campaign was a big hit.

2. Jio Cheers Cricket

- Reliance Jio never missed on leaping when it comes to any active participation of
India in sports.
- “Jio Cheers Cricket” campaign was rolled out to increase the hype of the India-
Pakistan Match.
- The campaign was integrated using the Thunderclap tool which enabled it to reach a
massive audience.
- For more engagement, Jio pushed notification engagement to their subscribers soon
#JioforIndia started trending on Facebook and Twitter.
 With more than 24.8 million organic-reach.
 More than 35,000 messages cross platforms
- Jio became the first-ever brand in India to do such a thing in such a volume. The
response to this scale was quite overwhelming.
3. Jio Cricket Play-Along
- In India, cricket is one of the most popular games. Jio understands the depth of the
fans invested in sponsoring teams in the Indian Premier League. Knowing the interest
and craze for cricket, Jio devises a way to engage all the cricket lovers to answer the
outcome of each ball played in the live cricket match and win prizes every day
- The Jio Cricket Play-Along was a blockbuster campaign initiative by Jio which won
the “Best Use of Mobile Marketing” award at the prestigious Global Mobile
(GLOMO) Awards 2019 at MWC19 Barcelona
- These are the strategies that Jio implements to create and establish a strong presence
in the minds of customers which results in consumers developing a sense of trust
element in the company.

The Jio Digital Life also have Shahrukh Khan as a Brand Ambassador, who did various
advertisement campaigns for the brand and there is also Amitabh Bachchan for promoting
the brand.
The reason behind the Celebrity endorsement with these two superstars is the reach as both
the celebs are the popular and known faces of the Bollywood and have huge fan base, that
will make customer attract more.

Methodology:
For our research, we analysed Jio Print & TV advertisements, You Tube Channel, Brochures,
Social Media Page and website of Reliance Jio. We divided the campaign into the following
categories based on IMC objectives, advertising design and theories Used from launch till
date and analysed the contact accordingly.
 Jio Launch Campaign
 Jio Dhan Dhana Dhan Campaign
 Co-branding Campaign
 JIO KBC Play Along Campaign

Jio Launch Campaign

Jio Launched its services on 1st September 2016 and launched its first IMC campaign. They
created a Buzz in the market with making voice and Telephony Free and launched their
Facebook Page, website and YouTube Channel (The Indian Express:2016)

Jio Launch TV advertisement

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jFPp4vZCM5w&index=4&list=PLMz8h3ZIXD59B
Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/Jio/

 Jio Dhan Dhana Dhan Campaign

 “Jio Dhan Dhana Dhan” Campaign was launched in March 2017. This campaign was launch
before Jio ended its free trail programme. This campaigned was an event marketing campaign
in which Jio sponsored all teams in IPL. This campaign was very important for Jio to retain
its customers after free trial ends.
TV Advertisement's https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLjjpp_CgAAofSlkl7pJ48X-
4LRdFXID04
  Apple IPhone campaign
This campaign was launched by Jio with the launch of IPhone 8 and IPhone X.
Tv ads: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CYLogihlq8
  JIO KBC Play Along Campaign
This campaign was launched in October 2017. Jio sponsored Kaun Banega Crorepati (Indian
Version of Who wants to be Millionaire). KBC is very popular show among Indian Audience.
TV advertisement: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E6HvknqMIJM
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h9KXAzNTx5k

 Findings
JIO Launch Campaign
Objective  Increase Awareness & Market Share
 High awareness leads to high selling
possibility which will in turn
increase the market share
Target Market Age 15 to 45 Years
Advertising Appeal Rational Appeal: By rational appeal, Jio is
communicating to customers their unique
features and why it is better than the rest
Leverage Point Free Services & high-speed Internet: Jio is
the first company to introduce free call and
data to everyone who has its sim card. Also
it was the first to introduce PAN India 4G
network which became their leverage point
Tagline Come on India, Jio Digital Life
Message Strategy Conative & Cognitive: This campaign
provided awareness and knowledge as it is
the launch and also induced purchase
decision because of it free services. These
are cognitive and conative respectively.
Executional Framework Informative: The campaign was executed in
such a way that it provided required
information to consumers to make a
purchase decision
Celebrity Used Shahrukh Khan
Marketing Theory Used Celebrity Endorsement, Secondary Brand
Association's, Experiential Marketing: Jio
used Shahrukh khan & Narendra Modi in
the advertisement which builds brand
personality, Jio used Experiential marketing
to offer free services for consumer learning
and change consumer attitudes

JIO Dhan Dhana Dhan

Objective Keep Market Share, Increase Revenue,
Build Awareness Objective was to keep the
customers acquired by free trials and
Increase Customer Value, increasing
revenue and awareness
Target Market Age 15 to 45 Years

Advertising Appeal  Musical Appeal

This involved songs and musical approach
to get customers
Leverage Point Affinity to sport stars, High Utility & Cheap
prices: This campaign was sponsoring the
biggest sporting event in India and used the
celebrities, promoting its cheap price and
high value campaign.
Tagline Jio Dhan Dhana Dhan
Message Strategy  Conative & Effective
The campaign was promoting purchase
decision by make customers like and prefer
it over competitors.
Executional Framework  Demonstration.
It is explaining to customers how to use the
service.
Celebrity Used Many cricket stars including MS Dhoni,
Virat Kohil, Chris Gayle, AB Devillers and
Bravo etc.
Marketing Theory Used Event Marketing, Celebrity Endorsement &
Sales Promotion Promoted by sponsoring an
event, also used many celebrities and
consumer promotions

Apple IPhone campaign

Objective  Increase Brand Equity & Elevate
Brand Status
 Increase the market share and was
trying to portray it as a elite brand
available for masses
Target Market Upper Middle class & above (High Income
Individuals)
Advertising Appeal Rational Appeal
It was doing so by showing it offers similar
speed and also at a lower cost
Leverage Point Partner's brand Equity, Consumer
perception & Attitude It was using iPhone
brand status to promote its brand. It would
change the attitude of customers
Tagline Amazing Phone X on Jio
Message Strategy  Affective Message Strategy
To deliver message about company's
standards
Executional Framework  Authoritative
Portraying authority in ads to infuse sales
Celebrity Used -
Marketing Theory Used  Co-Branding, Secondary Brand
Association's
 Co-branding with Apple, using its
customer base and name.

KBC Campaign
 Objective Increase Brand Loyalty and Goodwill:
Increase loyalty and goodwill by giving
satisfaction to consumers.
Target Market Urban Population, Age 15 to 45 Years
Advertising Appeal Emotional Appeal, Rational Appeal &
Scarcity Appeal: They are targeting emotion
by letting them play, rational by giving good
experience and scarcity because it is the
only place to play
Leverage Point Use of technology for Wisdom &
Knowledge, Convenience: Better tech for
giving consumer satisfaction and making it
convenient to use
Tagline Darshak Banenge Khiladi (Viewers Become
Players)
Message Strategy Affective Message Strategy
It invokes feeling by giving satisfaction
Executional Framework Slice of life: Invoke feelings and give
convenient Exprience
Celebrity Used Amitabh Bacchan
Marketing Theory Used Event Marketing, Celebrity Endorsements

 Discussion and analysis

 Jio Launch Campaign
Theoretical Frameworks Used: Celebrity Endorsements, Secondary Brand Association's,
Experiential Marketing, Consumer path, Guerrilla Marketing (Hoffmann, 2011).
Mr. Mukesh Ambani, Chairman, Jio on launch day announced that Jio will offer fee calls for
life and the cheapest data rates in the world. And next day every newspaper in India carried
an Jio advertisement with Prime minister Narendra Modi in it and linking Jio to his Vision of
digital India creating secondary Brand associations. Reliance used Guerrilla Marketing to
surprise consumers and competitors and create a Buzz for its services. Every news channel,
every tech blogger was talking about the Jio launch in India. Reliance changed name of its
reliance Digital store to Jio store and all retail business of Reliance carried Jio banner.
Reliance changed name of its concert stadium to Jio Garden in Mumbai. All resources of
reliance were dedicated to promoting Jio.
Jio used Shahrukh Khan as Celebrity Endorser in its TV ads who is one of the most famous
personality in India. Jio Objective was to Gain Market Share, increase Brand Exposure, Built
Brand Personality & Increase awareness which in turn increases brand Equity. Also, there is
high correlation between brand awareness and brand performance (Sarigöllu, 2014) and
Brand awareness is first step in consumer path. Jio also used Experiential marketing to
acquire consumers by providing free services for 6 months. From figure 5 in this research
(Pierre Chandon, 2017) we can see that free product promotions provides highest utilitarian
benefits and one of the highest Hedonic benefit to consumers. Also, free trials are one of the
best way for consumer learning and change consumer attitudes. Jio entered market as a new
product offering focusing on data, it had to change consumer attitudes and usage pattern to
gain market share.

 Jio Dhan Dhana Dhan Campaign:

Theoretical Frameworks Used: Celebrity Endorsement, Event Marketing and Sales
Promotion & Affinity Marketing (Paul N. Bloom, 2006).
Jio Dhan Dhana Dhan is one of the biggest campaign put forward by an Indian company in
recent years. Looking back at the sponsorship portfolio in Figure- 4, we understand that mass
appeal events are best in building awareness. Each celebrity has an influence base, i.e., there
are some people who tend to use a product because of the brand affinity to a celebrity or a
team. Next, we see how Jio is creating a mass appeal. Jio is sponsoring 7 out of 8 team in IPL
which is the biggest sporting event in India and best domestic league in the world. So Jio is
targeting mass appeal to achieve brand awareness as shown in the portfolio diagram above.
So, with a single campaign Jio is attaining awareness and potential customer base. IPL has 8
Teams with different regions of India. Jio sponsored 7 teams and created different
advertisement for each team using cultural aspects of the regions that each team is
representing and most recognized players in that team. Jio used musical Appeal in the
advertisements. Musical appeal has proven to build higher memorability of brand and also
increase attention to the advertisement. (Bello, 2015). Jio Dhan Dhana Dhan campaign
increased band exposure of Jio and built favourable consumer attitude towards brand. This
advert campaign was combined with sales promotion.

 Co-Branding
Theoretical Frameworks Used: Co- Branding (Complementary Branding), Sales promotion.
Jio has partnered with Apple as a part of its sales strategy to leverage Apple brand perception
and attitude with high value customers. Apple can potentially give Jio a vast customer base
and also can increase brand value. There are three forms of co- branding: 1) Ingredient
branding 2) cooperative branding 3) complimentary branding. This falls under the third form:
complimentary branding. This is where two brands encourage co-purchase or co-
consumption. Jio is giving promotional discounts on IPhone purchase with Jio. Studies have
shown an increase in sales in short term by using sales promotions (Heerde, 2017).

 Jio KBC play along

Theoretical Frameworks Used: Event Marketing (Events & Experiences)
Jio sponsored KBC (Indian Version of Who Wants to be a Millionaire) which is a very
popular game show in the history of Indian television which is Hosted by Amitabh Bacchan.
From sponsorship portfolio framework given by Simaon J Cliffe shown in Figure 4, for
building brand loyalty and brand experiences manufactured events are best. Jio has
introduced a new option in which every person having Jio chat app can play along when the
game is going on. Jio also announced different reward for play along campaign such as trip to
US, chance of playing in the show and cash rewards by using a new feature Jio is making you
experience their brand and service. KBC play along is a manufactured event created for
experience and create customer loyalty. This would give consumers brand experience and
would also have an impact on the brand loyalty. Also sponsoring the event is mass appeal. As
we have seen earlier it would impact the brand awareness of the product.

 Evaluation of IMC success

Within the first month of commercial operations, Jio announced that it had acquired 16
million subscribers (The Indian Express, 2016). This is the fastest ramp-up by any mobile
network operator anywhere in the world. Jio crossed 50 million subscribers mark in 83 days
since its launch (The Indian Express, 2016), subsequently crossing 100 million subscribers on
22 February 2017 (Bennett, Coleman & Co. Ltd., 2017). Jio originally targeted 100 Million
customers in one year of starting its services. By September 2017 Reliance Jio had about
138.6 million subscribers. (Reliance Industries Limited, 2017). This shows that Jio IMC
campaign has been very successful. Jio brand awareness is very high and Jio was able to
retail its customers acquired by free trail. Jio used every marketing theory in the book to gain
market share and build brand awareness.

 Experiential marketing (Sales Promotion):

Experiential marketing is a form of advertising that focuses primarily on helping consumers
experience a product or service offered by a brand. While traditional advertising (radio, print,
television) verbally and visually communicates the brand and product benefits, experiential
marketing tries to immerse the consumers within the product by engaging as many other
human senses as possible. A popular way to acquire new customers, especially among service
providers, is to offer free-trial promotions. Customers on a free trial are allowed to try the
service for a limited amount of time at no chargé.
Consumer sales promotion also contribute to large increase in sales in short term and
permanent effect of sales promotion are very rare (Heerde, 2017)
Recent research has suggested that the way in which customers are acquired may have an
enduring impact on their behaviour, even long after adoption. (HANNES DATTA, 2015). In
paper published by Hannes Datta in Journal of marketing Research "The Challenge of
Retaining Customers acquired with Free Trials" its mentioned that expected Customer
Lifetime value(CLV) of customers attracted with free trials is less than the expected value of
regular customers. Because they have a less developed relationship with the firm, free trial
customers are more uncertain about the service benefits. As a result, they rely more on
marketing communication and their own usage behaviour when deciding whether to retain
the service. We find that, compared with regular customers, the net CLV of free-trial
customers is much more responsive to direct marketing, advertising. Therefore, companies
should target direct marketing and advertising more to free-trial than to regular customers. In
these marketing communications, firms are advised to remind free-trial customers about their
usage rates, especially when they are high, to make these customers even more likely to
retain the service' (HANNES DATTA, 2015). Consumer sales promotion also contribute to
large increase in sales in short term and permanent effect of sales promotion are very rare
(Heerde, 2017).