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Thomas K. Thomas

Mobile operators are focussing more sharply on specific targets - women, youth, senior citizens and even the BPO crowd. Will the packages draw home the moolah?

INDIAN women have one more male-dominated bastion to conquer — mobile usage. While women account for 48 per cent of the country's population, they account for only 18 per cent of the country's subscriber base when it comes to mobile phone usage.

Though the statistics look dismal, mobile operators are looking at it as an opportunity to get women to use mobile phones, thereby increasing their sales numbers.

From charting out strategies and rollout plans to tap the potential in rural India, mobile operators are now looking at new frontiers — to bridge the demographic digital divide not just between women and men, but also between youngsters and adult consumers.

According to a survey done by Airtel, mobile penetration is really low not just among women but also among the youth and senior citizens. While mobile penetration among the age group 15-19 is only 3 per cent, it's as high as 10 per cent in the 30-39 years category.

And when it comes to senior citizens over 60 years, the story is dismal with just 1 per cent penetration.

Compare this to the US, where about 25.7 million kids between the ages of 5 and 19 are cell-phone users. That's 40 per cent of the population in that age range. In Finland, 80 per cent of women in the age group 25-30 own a mobile phone compared to 70 per cent men in the same age group.

`Give them what they want'

Taking the cue from global trends, Indian mobile operators are now using market segmentation as a strategy to push mobile usage in these categories.

Avers Atul Bindal, Group Chief Marketing Officer & Director-Mobility, Bharti Cellular Ltd, "To drive market expansion, it is imperative that we reach out to consumer segments that have hitherto not been addressed directly. Our segmentation strategy aims towards understanding the need gaps of specific consumer segments and creating special segmented products for them."

The company recently launched special packages to target the youth, women and senior citizens, which has caught the imagination of the target users.

For instance, the Ladies Special Plan targeted at women comes with a monthly rental of Rs 150 and allows subscriber to receive special beauty and lifestyle tips, apart from special discounts on subscription to Cosmopolitan and Good Housekeeping magazines.

The Mumbai-based BPL Mobile has gone a step further and has bundled a value-added service such as `concierge' that allows working women subscribers to pay bills or get people to run errands for them by simply making a call.

The charges for the service get added to the subscriber's bill at the end of the month. "We choose to go beyond offering tariff benefits to see how we can offer more value to our subscribers through bundling of services," says Kunal Ramteke, Chief Marketing Officer, BPL Mobile.

Airtel has also bundled discounted health check-ups and value-added services such as free devotional songs on mobiles for users above 60 years old.

Recognising that senior citizens have the need to keep in touch with their children and relatives who may often be located far away, the Seniors plan offers a discount on one STD number and one local Airtel number. This special plan comes with a monthly rental of Rs 150.

Airtel officials say that by March, 10-15 per cent of the new subscribers will be on the Friends plan that targets the youth. In Delhi alone, the ladies special plan and the senior citizen plan account for 10 per cent of the new connection. To tap the ladies segment further, Airtel plans to use offbeat channels such as beauty parlours.

Catch `em young

But more than wooing the ladies, it seems the action is happening on catching the subscribers young. Idea Cellular has launched a special pre-paid card for the youth called the I-Card . The card allows youngsters to send short messages at 25 paise compared to the average rate of Rs 1.50 per SMS. It also gives discounted tariffs for STD calls and for two local numbers.

Says Vikram Mehmi, Chief Executive Officer, IDEA Cellular Ltd, "IDEA has many product offerings that are targeted towards youth and a large section of customers already belong to the prepaid segment comprising the young college-going crowd.

I-Card is an extension of the youth appeal of IDEA that currently exists and is aimed at solidifying this image. We are also providing customised and truly meaningful content that is well appreciated by the youth of today. I-Card is a unique offering from IDEA that comes loaded with features that will be enthralling for the student community."

To get a big chunk of the pie, Airtel is aggressively pushing the Friendz card priced at Rs 249 which has been designed with the college-going youth in focus.

"Youth, women and senior citizens is just the beginning for Airtel. It will be our endeavour to fuel category growth through more of these initiatives," says Bindal.

Even the State-owned Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL) has developed a scheme for youth with one of the lowest monthly rentals of Rs 99. "Ever since we launched the scheme, more than 60 per cent of the new subscribers have taken a connection on the students plan. Just proves that there is a market there waiting to be tapped," says Anil Jain, Senior Deputy Director-General, Marketing, BSNL.

One for the BPO crowd

As if that was not enough, some operators are creating sub categories for niche users. BPL Cellular has, in fact, launched a scheme specifically for youngsters working in BPOs. "Youngsters like to talk a lot and since they are working in BPOs they do most of their talking in the night. That's also the time when our network is the least used. So we offer these niche users special discounts to talk through the night," says Ramteke. BPL has bagged four big BPOs in Mumbai as its clients since the launch of the scheme.

"The underlying factor making Generation Y an ever attractive demographic is its growing purchasing power. The trend is being fuelled by higher disposable incomes resulting from more generous allowances and teens opting to work part-time during schooling, less reliance on parents to make purchases, and heightened media awareness," says BSNL's Jain.

A call of caution

While the operators slug it out to gain a foothold in these segments, market analysts point out that the mobile industry has not really matured enough to reap the benefits of demographic segmentation. "There is not much of a difference between the packages that are targeted at specific users and general tariff packages. Except for a few packages, the so-called niche schemes do not lure a woman, for instance, to go for the ladies special plan instead of the general packages which already offers low tariffs. That apart, since the Indian mobile industry is growing exponentially anyway, it is really difficult to know whether the niche packages are reaching the target users," says a telecom analyst.

"It may be true that as of now even a 45-year-old-man could be using a package for women. So one cannot assess the success of a segmented plan easily," admits a cellular operator.

Analysts draw a parallel to the TV industry that is offering region-specific and viewer-specific channels. "It will take some time before market segmentation in the mobile industry reaches the maturity level of the TV industry. That is going to happen only when the cellular mass market gets saturated like it has happened in the US," says an analyst.

Nevertheless, the beginnings have been good. Whether Indian women will be able to break through the male bastion like their counterparts in Finland will depend on the capability of the operators to be innovative in segmentation.

Pictures by G.R.N. Somashekar and Bijoy Ghosh

tkt@thehindu.co.in

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