Virgin Mobile to tie up with 50 brands

Richard Branson-led Virgin Group's mobile brand, Virgin Mobile, is launching one of the biggest co-branding exercise in the telecom space. The company is in talks to tie up with 50 top brands in the country across sectors like apparel, restaurants, electronics and even consumer goods.

Virgin hopes these tie-ups with 'youthful' brands will increase its reach to the younger generation by participating in their lifestyle. "The idea is to connect with the youth and be a part of brands that they identify with. If you look at the telecom market now, there is no compelling reason why a customer should stay with an operator. If Virgin also gives the standard telecom offerings, we will not be able to retain a customer. The idea of this is to go beyond the same old telecom tariff offerings and create a brand value and brand loyalty," said a top official from Virgin Mobile.

The company is looking to target the age group of 16-26. The entire marketing exercise could cost between Rs 150-200 crore, sources say. However, this spend will not be made by Virgin alone and contribution to these co-branding initiatives will come from the brands it associates itself with. Sources say this initiative is designed to help both Virgin and the other brands involved, to get mutual mileage.

Virgin Mobile has a brand franchise with Tata Teleservices which has around 11 per cent market share in the Indian telecom market. According to the marketing alliance, the company uses Tata's spectrum to offer its services branded under the Virgin name, exclusively to the younger generation of users. It currently operates across 14 circles like Mumbai, Maharashtra, UP, Punjab and Haryana.

The company had earlier claimed it planned to acquire 10 per cent market share among the youth. It offers both GSM and CDMA services and offers innovative schemes like where every consumer gets 10 paise credit for an incoming call.

Virgin Mobile operates in the UK, United States, Australia, Canada, France, Qatar and South Africa. Like in India, the company restricts its activity to branding initiatives only.

Apart from mobile branding, the group which calls itself a branding venture capital organisation, has interests in aviation, music, games, and even consumer goods.