Marketing Strategies / Strategic Marketing Case Study

Ringing Youngsters – Virgin's Distinctive Market Segmentation in India

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Abstract:
In 2008 the Virgin group entered into a franchisee agreement with Tata Teleservices Ltd to launch its mobile services in India. Virgin believes that youth have a high propensity to subscribe to mobile services. Hence they have entered the Indian market focusing on the youth segment. According to a survey by Virgin, as of 2008, there were more than 215 million Indians aged between 14-25 years. In the next three years, Virgin expects this segment to increase to over 50 million new youth subscribers which could bring in revenues of about 350 billion rupees. The Tata-Virgin deal is regarded by market watchers as a typical instance of micro segmentation of customers that is considered vital for a late entrant into the highly competitive Indian telecommunications market. The case analyses Virgin's segmentation strategies to enter into the highly competitive Indian telecommunications market.

Pedagogical Objectives:

• To concept of market segmentation.
• To the entry / penetration strategies of Virgin mobile into India.
• To marketing strategies, a late mover in a competitive telecommunications market.

Keywords :  Marketing entry, Market segmentation, Virgin, Richard Branson, Tata Indicom, Telecommunications, India, MVNO (mobile virtual network operators), Micro segmentation