FeaturesVirgin Mobile Jumps into India!

Virgin Mobile Jumps into India!

When a firm launches its product, it usually ropes in brand ambassadors to promote the brand. But the Virgin Group, they are different. The founder, Sir Richard Branson himself is the biggest publicity magnet, mainly because of doing things differently. And that’s what he did! Virgin Mobile was launched yesterday in India.

As customary for the Virgin Group, there was an act by Sir Richard Branson, who was dressed in a chic Indian outfit. Well, that was not the act! After unveiling the Virgin Mobile India, the red knight went up some fourteen floors waving and slapping a drum. When he reached there, he waved and jumped! Yes, he jumped, with the people gasping below, even though he was strung with ropes. Momentarily he was hosted near the logo, trying to grab the red balloons. Then safely, Sir Richard Branson descended below on the stage, opened the bubbly and officially marked Virgin Mobile’s entry into India.

Unlike other operators, who usually target corporate customers, Virgin’s target is just like their tagline, “Think Hatke”, as they are targeting the youth segment. Sir Branson was enthusiastic about Virgin Mobile’s entry into India. He said that India is a country that his close to his heart and they will not be pursuing scale for scale’s sake. They have tied up with Tata Teleservices (TTL). They will not be a mobile virtual network operator (MVNO) as it was being speculated by many.

Sir Richard Branson Jumps

Sir Richard Branson said, “Our association with the Tata’s unites the passion of our two business groups for putting customers first and finding innovative, fun ways of enriching their lives, and it represents Virgin Group’s strong focus on India. In true Virgin tradition, Virgin Mobile brings to all its customers ten firsts to the Indian telecoms market – we’re even going to pay our customers to talk.” Now that really is Think Hatke!

Anil Sardana is the managing director of Tata Teleservices. He commented, “We are very excited about our association with the Virgin Group. Their service innovation and strong brand resonance with the youth segment will allow Tata Teleservices to offer a truly world-class service experience to our youth subscribers. This association also supports our efforts to be the fastest growing mobile network in India.”

Jamie Heywood is the deputy chief executive officer of Virgin Mobile India. He concurred, “There are more than 215 million Indians aged between 14 -25 years old. Over the next three years, we expect this segment to be adding over 50 million new youth subscribers and to have mobile service revenues of over Rs 350 billion. By focusing exclusively on a single segment and by continuing to deliver innovative services that cater to this segment’s distinct needs, we believe Virgin Mobile can capture more than 10 percent of this incremental market within 3 years of launch.”

Virgin Mobile has bought many “firsts” into India. The most interesting one is that it is the first one to pay its customers for talking. Yes, you read it right! You get paid ten paise for every in-coming minute received from any network. Besides that, the plans have been made in such a way that the more you talk, the less you pay. One interesting thing that they mentioned is that their customer care executives will be more helpful as they have been empowered to take decisions themselves and will not converse from a written script. Virgin Mobile and TTL also assured the handsets would be 100% colour, 100% FM. Virgin does want the youth of India to go on yapping on their phones!

Anil Sardana and Richard Branson

It is great to see the entry of Virgin Mobile in India and the way they have aggressively promoted themselves. But many people are wondering why they tied up with Tata Teleservices. Sir Richard Branson mentioned yesterday that they had found that Tata offered the best services in India. But is that true? Not many users are impressed with Tata, when it comes to telecom.

In fact, yesterday at the Virgin Mobile India press event, an attendee even asked Anil Sardana that if they can make so much progress in the automotive sector (Nano, anyone), how come they can’t do the same in the telecom sector. He even went on to ask why they have to rely on a foreign brand like Virgin Mobile to offer decent services here. Mr. Sardana diplomatically averted the question but the issue still is that will users who will sign up for Virgin Mobile India’s services hang on to it? The comment box is below, as an user, are you looking forward to using Virgin Mobile because of their great plans or are you put off by Tata’s image as a mobile operator (or the lack of it)?

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