The brand is used for mobile services, DTH, fixed-line telephony, IPTV, broadband as well as managed communication services for large corporations. Customers thus range from socio-economic categories A and B to below the poverty line, urban and rural, multinationals to small businesses.

The challenge for Airtel is to communicate to all of them for different services without offending any one of them.

At the moment, the brand strategy seems to be working.

In mobile services, Airtel's consumer market share has improved from 22.9 per cent in 2007 to 24 per cent in 2009. More important, its revenue market share has shot up from 26.4 per cent to 31.8 per cent during the two-year period.

"It is clear that we are getting more high-value customers," says Kohli.