Reliance Marketing Plan For Australia Part-1

Executive Summary

This report deals with the introduction of the Telecommunication giant in India Reliance communications, by giving a brief introduction about the company, its scope and its position in India. It also provides the financial strength of the company and the overall market position of the company in India. This report will attempt to identify the strengths and weaknesses of the company. It will also identify the opportunities and threats for the company in the Australian market, as the company is planning to launch its mobile phone service in Australia. The report also provides the critical success factors of the company and the strength and opportunity statements in context to the Australian mobile phone market. The main aim of the report is to find out the SWOT analysis of the company in the growing Australian mobile phone market.

1. Introduction

Reliance вЂ" Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group, an offshoot of the Reliance Group founded by Mr. Dhirubhai H Ambani (1932-2002), ranks among India’s top three private sector business houses in terms of net worth. The group has business interests that range from telecommunications (Reliance Communications Limited) to financial services (Reliance Capital Ltd) and the generation and distribution of power (Reliance Energy Ltd). (Reliance, 2007a)

Reliance Communications is a Mobile phone service provider whose corporate office is located in Mumbai, India. It was founded by Mr. Dhirubhai Ambani. On December 27 2002 it started its operation all over India. After the demise of the founder Mr. Dhirubhai Ambani in 2002 the company is now looked after by its new chairman Mr Anil Dhirubhai Ambani. Under his leadership the company, Reliance Communications, became India's largest private sector information and Communications Company, with over 40 million subscribers. There are over 33,000 employees and the total revenue of the company is over US $ 6.1 Billion.(Reliance, 2007b) The company ranks among the top 3 communications company in India. At present, Reliance Communications GSM cellular services are available in 340 towns within its eight-circle footprint. Reliance's CDMA services are available in 19 states and cover about 65% of the country, state wise. Reliance Communications also offered for the first time in India, mobile data services through its R-World mobile portal. Reliance Communications has a reliable, high-capacity, integrated (both wireless and wireline) and convergent (voice, data and video) digital network. It is capable of delivering a range of services spanning the entire infocomm (information and communication) value chain, including infrastructure and services for enterprises as well as individuals, applications, and consulting.

1.1 The various types of services provided by reliance communications can be broadly categorised into:

• Mobile (CDMA and GSM)

• Broadband

• Landlines

• Wireless phones

• Reliance IPTV

• Audio/Video conferencing

• Reliance PCO

• Reliance Webworld (A chain of Internet Cafes all over India)(Reliance, 2007a)

The Vision Statement of Reliance Communications

“We will leverage our strengths to execute complex global-scale projects to facilitate leading-edge information and communication services affordable to all individual consumers and businesses in India. We will offer unparalleled value to create customer delight and enhance business productivity. We will also generate value for our capabilities beyond Indian borders and enable millions of India's knowledge workers to deliver their services globally.”(Reliance, 2007a)

2. SWOT Analysis of the Company.

The overall evaluation of a business's strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats is called SWOT analysis. SWOT analysis consists of an analysis of the external and internal environments.(Philip Kotler, 2006)

2.1 Internal Environment Analysis

2.1.1 Strengths

• Reliance has fully integrated IP-enabled infrastructure platform thus implying application convergence, service convergence and network convergence.

• It has been successful in building right alliances in the form of network alliances with Ericsson and Cisco Systems, IT alliances with HP Compaq, Lenovo, and Intel interconnecting alliances. Thus it can focus on its main business of marketing its service.(Reliance, 2007b)

• Reliance has been able to maintain a strong distribution capability. It has a product and services selling capacity of 25 million per annum. It has 90000 handset outlets and has presence in 5000 towns serviced by 1500 distributors.(Reliance, 2007b)

• It can leverage its strength in wireless connectivity in the future to offer mobile telecom services. It has wireless connectivity available in 4500 towns with a speed of 144kbps.

• Backing by a healthy balance sheet of the parent company helps in investing in assets for long term growth. Also the Reliance culture focuses on financial conservatism, thus providing it with good human skills at managing capital.

• Reliance is fully equipped with more than 33,000 employees to serve the customers.

• Reliance Communications owns and operates the world's largest next generation IP enabled connectivity infrastructure, comprising over 165,000 kilometres of fibre optic cable systems in India, USA, Europe, Middle East and the Asia Pacific region.(Reliance, 2007b)

2.1.2 Weaknesses

• The Reliance network does not deliver on the Quality of Service parameters as decided by Telecom Regulatory authority of India (TRAI). Due to this it suffers from high call dropping rates and a reduction in brand equity.(Reliance, 2007a)

• Reliance has a major presence only in limited areas of India. It needs to establish itself also in other areas so that it can compete with player like Airtel communications (One of the biggest competitors of Reliance Communications) on a national scale.(Reliance,