Knowledge Management in Indian Advertisements. Case 1: Airtel Vs Vodafone

Nonaka et al in their work " The Knowledge Creating Company " say

"In an economy where the only certainty is uncertainty, the one sure source of sustainable competitive advantage is knowledge. Yet, few managers understand the true nature of the knowledge-creating company and how to manage it."

The theory of Nonaka's work at 1995 is very much applicable even now and is practical... something’s in life doesn't need a change because they are created in an extremely perfect way (Edison's design of the bulb which hasn't gone for a major design change )

In this post I try to compare the advertisements of two major Voice and Data service providers namely airtel and Vodafone and analyze how KM has helped them brand their products

Airtel: Bharti Airtel, formerly known as Bharti Tele-Ventures Limited (BTVL) is India's largest cellular service provider with more than 75 million subscribers as of August 2008.^[1] It also offers fixed line services and broadband services. Airtel is known to invest a lot in branding and some of their advertisements brought people like

King Khan from Bollywood, No matter what he does in the AD the product becomes a huge success. Airtel knew what it customers want to see.

Just when everyone thought airtel was not doing right in the music part of their ad they roped in

Not only did they rope the musical genius they also roped in the sporting legend Master blaster Sachin Tendulkar. In a country like India Music and cricket are 2 religions look at how airtel capitalized on this well known knowledge.

They didn’t stop there. Something like this was always there for all classes of people

A sage expressing himself

It’s 2008 and time to bring in the chemistry’s and Physics of Indian film industry do the talking and hence they made

Madhavan and Vidhya Balan’s the new brand ambassadors for airtel came with series of ads for airtel which showed not only the good chemistry between the couple but also used the fluids to heat up airtels value added services.

In short I conclude the airtel story saying they always knew what their customers want. They had the strong knowledge base of their clients, vendors and partners. They also had big banks which had money (These days credit card checks gets bounced not because I don’t have money but my bank doesn’t) to sponsor their high budget advertisements. The moment they had the knowledge they managed it very well to grow their business in all parts of India.

Having seen some chapters from airtels story its time to listen to what Vodofone is saying

Vodofone (erstwhile HUTCH): Vodafone Essar, previously Hutchison Essar is a cellular operator in India that covers 16 telecom circles in India [1]. Despite the official name being Vodafone Essar, its products are simply branded Vodafone. It offers both prepaid and postpaid GSM cellular phone coverage throughout India and is especially strong in the major metros.

Hutch strategy was simple and brilliant when their neighbors were roping all possible film starts and sports personalities they brought

A Kid with his cute pug dog which always follows him no matter where he goes. Their music score for this ad was excellent with beautiful cinematography in an awesome location. Hutch’s message was very simple yet very powerful

“Wherever you go our Network follows”

Their series of ads became so popular despite the same message a new powerful brand ambassador emerged

It was even reported that after this ad the sale of pug dogs in India multiplied triple fold and it was considered as a prestige among dog lovers. This became a USP for Hutch who not only saved their money in ads but also made huge revenues from their non demanding brand ambassador. Hutch team had the knowledge that people in India love dogs and that was enough for them to make history

When Vodofone took over from hutch there were huge questions raised in the mindsets of people who have always enjoyed Hutch ads. But finally

Vodofone used the most powerful feature of KM called Re-use. Why to think hard for the ad when the pug has already done it all.

And when this whole country was waiting to witness a sporting fiesta called the IPL 20-20 Vodafone made this

Replaced the boy with a girl come up with a new song and market their services with an even powerful message

“Happy to Help”.

People in this country have never witnessed such a creative ad and everyone loved it. Till date this is one of the most downloaded videos in youtube. Vodofone had all the knowledge and information but launching it during the IPL period when peoples eyes are glued to the television is the where the effective management part lies. A knowledge well managed by Vodofone.

Vodofone after this ad not only strengthened their position in city but also pitched well in villages and town panchayats.

I conclude here by returning to the starting point where nonaka says “In order to sustain in this economy where the only certainty is uncertainty the one sure source of sustainable competitive advantage is knowledge” and airtel and Vodafone had that knowledge used and reused them to become leaders in their business.