Vodafone Analysis: Marketing Mix, SWOT and PESTLE

Vodafone Analysis: Marketing Mix, SWOT and PESTLE OBJECTIVES OF THE BRAND AUDITING To know the these days market scenario of Vodafone Cellular Services w.r.t. not only the Indian, on the other share extremely for the field wide Cellular Services. To know the Marketing-Mix of the Vodafone Services. To find elsewhere the customer response for the Vodafone Services. BACKGROUND OF THE CELLULAR Utility INDUSTRY In November of 2006, India reached 100 million GSM subscribers. This places it at 3rd, persist China and Russia, in national subscribers to GSM. All told, there are 140 million cellular subscribers in India. With a total population of 1.1 billion, this system that 12.7% of the population uses cell phones. Compare this to China, with 449 million subscribers and a population of 1.3 billion, with 34.5% saturation. Both countries have cellular concentrations in their major cities, with some spotty coverage in outskirt villages. If you contemplate at this graphic, youll see that the major cities of Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, and Chennai cause up about 20.7% of cellular usage. Not only does the native land have margin for growth, on the other artisan the governments rationale is to have 500 million subscribers by 2010. GSM will provide the course of action for this duration as will expansion of companies enjoy Texas Instruments. With that in meaning, finding an entrance into the Indian cellul ar market can be difficult. So, many of the companies have operations in other countries and are not a pure play. Hutchison Telecom Int Ltd (HTX) is a multinational society based in Hong Kong, whose Indian manner, Hutchison Essar, has an impressive 25% market knowledge in Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, and Chennai. They extremely have an impressive presence in the smaller cities and more rural areas of India. Their business in India is just a parcel of the puzzle, as Hutchison Telecom has operations in a number of Asian markets. HTX isnt the meaning to enter into this market, as they are looking to sell off the Hutchison Essar division, for 14 billion USD. Maxis Communications BHD [5051.KU], U.S. private-equity kingdom Texas Pacific Quota [TPG.XX], Vodafone Plenty PLC (VOD), Indias Reliance Communications Ltd. [532712.BY], and Indias Essar Quota are among those interested in buying the native land. Whoever buys this division will ease from the strong market presence, GMS capability and duration practicable. A kingdom with a mini footprint in the cellular market is Mahanagar Ring Nigam Ltd (MTE), which trades in ADRs on the NYSE. Unfortunately, they have a petty market presence (2.3 million subscribers) and offer cellular servicing only in Delhi and Mumbai. Land-line call services bring in the majority of their revenue. Revenue from mobile services only brought in 10% of their revenue in the persist fiscal year. Between March and November, their cellular subscribers have grown 21%. The cellular market in India stands to facilitate their duty and if they can increase the scope of their internet services, the credible of that market will extremely facilitate them. COMPETITIVE Subject OF CELLULAR SERVICES IN INDIA Airtel is ranked number one in terms of building brand equity. Vodafone is ranked second in maintaining reliability, knowledge, esteem. The brisk competitor of Vodafone is Airtel followed by Sense, Tata, Reliance and BSNL. Brand equity can be managed by stressing on brand loyalty, creating brand responses .i.e. how customers respond to the brand marketing career, focusing on the customers personal impression and probation, by increasing brand quality .i.e. services that are been provided by Vodafone ,brand credibility .i.e. the kingdom should have a beneficial reputation in the minds of the customers. Airtel is in a superior way than Vodafone in terms of Brand Reputation bill. Vodafone is having highest Brand equity valuation in the Indian Cellular Services Industries. Airtel This kingdom was established in 1995 by Sunil Mittal as a Universal Limited Gathering, Airtel is the largest telecom overhaul provider in Indian telecom sector. With market capitalization of over Rs. 1,360 billion, Airtel has 31% of total market knowledge of GSM servicing providers. Providing GSM services in all the 23 circles, Airtel was the first private player in telecom sector to connect all states of India. Extremely, Airtel is the first mobile overhaul provider to introduce the generation prepaid services and electronic recharge systems. After establishing itself in the domestic market, Airtel is these days spreading its wings in US by providing its mobile overhaul under the reputation call home to the NRIs. Having achieved huge success in mobile services- postpaid and prepaid- Airtel has at once entered fixed-line telephony providing broadband services in 92 cities across India. The society has an optical fiber network of 35,016 km and a customer mould of 35,440,406 GSM mobile and 1,819,083 broadband subscribers. About Vodafone The society was formed in 1984 as a subsidiary of Racal Electronics. By 1991, it was a separate class, known by its present reputation, and with its first controlled overseas development in Malta. A combination of acquisitions and partnerships with other networks has made Vodafone the worlds largest mobile telecommunications society, with equity interests in 26 countries across five continents and partnerships in another 14. Vodafone is teaching itself quickly to have a deeply ingrained customer understanding in line to cause it nimble while developing the scale, scope, and potency of a large multinational. The focus on customer understanding and segmentation knowledge is highly salient to insure that Vodafone doesnt get sluggish and is able to deliver on customer needs rapidly. Vodafone is the worlds largest mobile telecommunications community, employing over 65,000 staff and with over 130 million customers. The business operates in 25countries worldwide across 5 continents 40 partn er network with200 million customer worldwide. Vodafone is a public limited convention with listings on the London and Virgin York stock exchanges. Global recognition of the Vodafone brand is growing as the gathering rolls elsewhere its identity into modern markets. On the other share, it retains limited names and imagery in markets where this is authentic to maintaining the trust of customers. To relieve promote its image worldwide, Vodafone uses leading sports stars from high profile global sports, including David Beckham and Michael Schumacher. Basically our objectives were to find elsewhere the behaviors of the consumers towards the Quality of the product. After the cost of the product. After the acceptable presentation of the product which includes the utility. If the consumer is after or comes for particular product and why, either by rationale of of effective advertisement on the media enjoy television or info papers or other means of advertisement. Vodafone Essar in India is a subsidiary of Vodafone quota commenced transaction in 1994 when its predecessor Hutchison telecom acquired cellular licenses for Mumbai. These days it has operations in 16 circles covering Indias mobile customer mould with 34.1 million customers. Vodafone Essar under hutch brand has named the most respected telecom society best mobile servicing in native land. They are most effective creative advertiser of the year. Vodafone has partner with Essar plenty as its principal joint venture partner for Indian market. Vodafone launched there brand across in India on 21st September 2007 Essar plenty has diversified Office Kingdom with governance in manufacturing as well as utility sector. Steel Force Potency Indication Shipping logistics Constructions Mission Statement We will be the communications leader in an increasingly connected area Vodafone Quota Plc is the worlds influential mobile telecommunications kingdom, with a significant presence in Europe, the Middle East, Africa, Asia Pacific and the United States through the Companys subsidiary undertakings, joint ventures, associated undertakings and investments. The Groups mobile subsidiaries manipulate under the brand term Vodafone. In the United States the Groups associated undertaking operates as Verizon Wireless. During the persist two financial years, the Quota has extremely entered into arrangements with network operators in countries where the Parcel does not hold an equity stake. Under the terms of these Partner Network Agreements, the Quota and its partner networks co-operate in the development and marketing of global services under dual brand logos. At 31 December 2008, based on the registered customers of mobile telecommunications ventures in which it had ownership interests at that h our, the Plenty had 289 million customers, excluding paging customers, calculated on a proportionate target in accordance with the Companys percentage polity in these ventures. The Companys ordinary shares are listed on the London Stock Interchange and the Companys American Depositary Shares (ADSs) are listed on the Virgin York Stock Interchange. The Gathering had a total market capitalization of on all sides of  £74 billion at 31 December 2008. Vodafone Portion Plc is a regular limited society incorporated in England under registered number 1833679. Its registered office is Vodafone Habitat, The Connection, Newbury, and Berkshire, RG14 2FN, England. Vodafone is the worlds largest provider of voice and string letter services to consumers and enterprise customers. The society employs about 66,000 community on all sides of the existence. The native land headquarter is situated in Berkshire, UK. Vodafone operates through single reportable business segment: servicing of communications services and products. At the speck of March 2007, the native land had 206 million customers worldwide. (Vodafone, 2007) VODAFONES STRATEGIC OBJECTIVES Revenue stimulation and cost reduction in Europe Innovate and deliver on our customers total memo needs Deliver strong activity in emerging markets Actively manage our portfolio to maximize returns Align capital structure and shareholder returns policy to strategy Key issues and problems Key issues and problems for Vodafone insert how the kingdom manages to coordinate its growth and to maintain its competitive servicing in the dramatically changing market area of the dynamic telecommunication sector. BRAND ELEMENTS OF VODAFONE VODAFONES BRAND MANTRA Vodafones internal brand mantra is simple and memorable. It stands for Prize, Reliability and Innovation. It is referred to throughout all business activities across the existence. BRAND Bill BRAND PERSONALITY OF VODAFONE A series of virgin corporate values and four desired brand personality traits for Vodafone were identified: Energetic Passionate Proactive Expert To instill the contemporary brand personality traits within the attitudes of employees at Vodafone, NKD chose a teaching pathway that involved hands-on experiential learning using a range of sensory techniques. At each learning interval, employees were immersed in a friendly, themed existence which exuded the virgin Vodafone brand personality. NKD focused on three core programmers to reinforce the modern kingdom branding. A series of live events called Winning Together was used to inspire the companys 400 retail employees and equip them with world-class sales skills. This has by target of become the induction program for all modern retail employees. All shop managers and limited area managers attended a two-day session called Salient Together, which provided leadership and governance skills designed to be applied back in the workplace. Staying Together was a live subject of key community processes, transforming them where necessary to reflect the modern retail promise, brand person ality and society culture. VODAFONES PERSONALITY CAMPAIGN Strengths Influential Consistent Integrated Weaknesses Not own able Not sustainable Vodafones brand essence is: Red: For the prize and spirit. Rock Solid: dependable and empathetic Restless: always challenging to improve and career funny. COMPETITIVE Utility The competitive utility of Vodafone Services was that, that it is equally strong as Mobil ink on the other share at an affordable bill. This function possesses some kind of uniqueness which the other brand does not possess. Which differences to promote Not all brand differences are salient or worth-while not every difference makes skilled differences are primary or worth-while not every difference practise a beneficial differentiator. Each difference has the feasible to draw up society costs as well as customer benefits .therefore; the kingdom must carefully appropriate the ways in which it will distinguish itself from competitors. A difference is valuation establishing to the extents that it satisfies the later criteria: Affordable: Our services are a unique in many aspects; one of them is the valuation. We have offered our comment services at low cost than the other services. We are able to do this by target of of the virgin technology, equipments, and accessories. The contemporary techniques relieve us to minimize the valuation in the tea production. Influential: The difference delivers a highly valued facilitate to target buyer. Superior: The difference is superior to other ways that customers might receive the same facilitate. Communicable: The difference is communicable and visible to buyers. Preemptive: Competitors cannot easily draw up the difference. Profitable: The product must provide a authentic advice to consumer. With a large market knowledge in Indias major cities and presence elsewhere of the cities, they will be able to capitalize on Indias cell call expansion. Hutchison has said that it will not select anything less than 14 billion and assorted think that the offers are creeping closer to 20 billion. Vodafone is a major player in this acquisition, on the other artisan they have some hurdles to overcome. Vodafone has levy forward a non-binding offer of 16.5 billion, on the other share Essar has a chance to match this, and with the backing of Reliance Communications, the ante could come close to 20 billion. Essar Groups these days 33% stake in the society gives them salient influence if Vodafone were to try to practise changes to the society post-acquisition. If Vodafone does really get Hutchison Essar, the knowledge valuation might drop pending the final purchase cost. I would wait and examine the outcome of this before making a move on Vodafone. If its shares drop when the offer is announ ced, I would pick them up. The street meaning Vodafone spent extremely all the more when it acquired Turkeys Telsim Mobil Telekomunikasyon, on the other share Vodafone quickly turned that native land on all sides of and it is in a all the more in a superior system position. Facing cellular saturation in the European market, Vodafone has found acceptable activity credible in emerging markets and acquiring Hutchison Essar would only strengthen its office as Indias cellular market begins to explode. VODAFONES MARKETING MIX -4PS A longer reputation marketing strategy is underpinned by careful planning and a successful marketing mix. The marketing mix is a combination of many features that can be represented by the four Ps. Product features and benefits of a skilled or utility Place where the acceptable or servicing can be bought Valuation the valuation of a acceptable or utility Promotion how customers are made aware of a skilled or overhaul. Product A product with many different features provides customers with opportunities to chat, play games, dispatch and appropriate pictures, moderate ring tones, select string about travel and sporting events, hire billing string and soon impression video clips and dispatch video messages. Vodafone live! Provides on-the-move string services. Place Vodafone UK operates over 300 of its own stores. It extremely sells through independent retailers e.g. Machine ring Warehouse. Customers are able to examine and practice products they are considering buying. Community are on labourer to ensure customers needs are matched with the correct product and to explain the different options available. Bill Vodafone wants to practise its services accessible to as assorted community as practicable: from the young, through apprentices and high powered business executives, to the more mature users. It offers various pricing structures to suit different customer groups. Monthly reward plans are available as well as prepay options. Call users can top up their telephone on dossier. Vodafone UK gives NECTAR reward points for every  £1 spent on calls, subject messages, picture messages and phone tones. Promotion Vodafone works with icons such as David Beckham to communicate its brand values. Above the list Advertising on TV, on billboards, in magazines and in other media outlets reaches large audiences and spreads the brand image and the comment extremely effectively. This is known as above the borderline promotion. Below the dossier Stores have special offers, promotions and speck of sale posters to attract those inside the stores to purchase. Vodafones stores, its products and its staff all project the brand image. Vodafone actively develops skilled regular relations by sending press releases to national newspapers and magazines to explain contemporary products and ideas. BRAND AND CUSTOMER COMMUNICATIONS Among all the Brand most powerful brands ranking is Ranked 9th globally. Vodafone has continued to focus on delivering a superior, consistent and differentiated customer participation through its brand and communications activities. A virgin Marketing Framework has been developed and implemented across the office, which includes a contemporary vision of expanding the Groups category from mobile only to total communications to be the communications leader in an increasingly connected existence. Brand and customer participation continues to implement Vodafones promise of helping customers cause the most of their interval. The brand utility has extremely developed a methodology to develop competitive limited market brand positioning, with limited brand positioning projects these days implemented in 12 markets. To enable the consistent practice of the Vodafone brand, a fix of guidelines has been developed in areas such as advertising, retail, online and merchandising, all including naked truth on how to cause the brand duty across every touch speck. By rationale of June 2006, eight markets have implemented the global retail base. In September 2007, Vodafone welcomed India with the Hutch is these days Vodafone campaign. The migration from Hutch to Vodafone was one of the fastest and most comprehensive brand transitions in the novel of the Plenty, with 400,000 multi brand outlets, over 350 Vodafone stores, over 1,000 petty stores, over 35 mobile stores and over 3,000 touch points reframed in two months, with 60% completed within 48 hours of the regulate. Vodafone regularly conducts Brand Health Tracking, which is designed to measure the brand performance against a number of key metrics and practise insights to facilitate the polity of the Vodafone brand across all Vodafone branded operating companies. This tracking has been in place by rationale of 2002 and provides continuous historical list against key metrics in all 19 Vodafone branded operating markets. Each operating society manages a interpret that complies with the standards and methodology fix by Vodafone Plenty Insights. An external accredited and inde pendent market trial aggregation provides global coordination of the methodology, reporting and subject. As a result of these activities the Vodafone brand is these days ranked number 11 in the Brand Top 100 global brands record, recently published in The Financial Times, with an estimated bill attributable to the brand of  £18.7 billion. For the 2008 financial year, Vodafone brand preference among its own users reached 81.9%, up 2.0 percentage points on the previous financial year, and a performance level that is 1.0 percentage speck higher than its closest competitors. In addition, the brand control among non-users of the brand has increased in the 2008 financial year to 33.5%, 1.8 percentage points above its market knowledge. STP Controversy Segmentation Mode Generation Overhaul usage Area of customer Duration of overhaul Geographical poser Targeting Vodafone is adopting a multi segment approach. They are offering a series of differentiated products to their respective market. Habitat calling cards for the family of those professionals who used to business abroad. Rs. 10 recharge for mini users. Cheap SMS facilities for youth. Facilities for circle users. Positioning -Where you go network follows you. Hutch as a brand always tried to connect with consumers in simple honest authentic transaction, while Vodafone is more young fun brand. So consumers will scrutinize a shift reflecting a more vibrant brand. The pug actor Irfan Khan will be retained for the brand promotion. They are talking about the exclusively of the network services they are offering to customers. Stores Mass media coverage Innovative distribution to reach customer Exclusive shops Hubs spoke Associate distributor Customer function Shop call centers Vans Relieve desk BRAND POSITIONING OF VODAFONE IN 1997-98 Brand Positioning of Vodafone currently VODAFONES POSITIONING OPPORTUNITY Differentiate the market using two vastness: service and consumer mindset. Telstra, as the traditional market leader, was perceived to have an audience comprising a conservative and older mindset. Its communications reinforced this perception. Optus with a servicing focus was increasingly becoming a conservative son of Telstra. BRAND EQUITY Probation OF VODAFONE Vodafone stands 9th position among all over the worlds brands in the terms of brand valuation. Points of Parity and Points of Difference of Vodafone Airtel Points of Parity Both the brands have same pricing strategies. Both the brands have same market segmentation. Points of Difference Target customers of Vodafone are middle troop citizens whereas Airtel targets the elite and up market aggregation citizens. Airtel positions itself as a lifestyle brand whereas Vodafone positions itself as habitual mans brand. SWOT Subject OF VODAFONE Strengths Diversified geographical portfolio with strong mobile telecommunications operations in Europe, the Middle East, Africa, Asia Pacific and to some amplitude the US Network infrastructure Influential presence in emerging markets such as India Weaknesses Slender focus of coercion of mobile on climate. Negative reimburse on assets (ROA) under perform key competitors liking ATT, BT Portion, Deutsche Telecom US business not nearly as strong as European/rest of the existence operations 80% of its duty is generated in Europe (see below for explanation) Opportunities Improve accessibility to wide range of customers Focus on cost reductions improving returns Majority stake in Hutchison Essar in India Probation and development of modern mobile technologies Threats Highly competitive market All the more lags extreme major competitors in the US Besides high penetration rates in key European markets European Union rule on cross-border cell telephone usage by customers Airtel is the biggest threat in India, it has maximum market participation in India. Meet the rising expectations of the brand loyal customers. PEST Examination Its an controversy of native land at broad macro level examines the kingdom under heading of political,  economic, social technological factors. Political- governmental legal issues affecting how gathering operates Edict Infrastructure Banning of telephone in trustworthy circumstances Health issues Economical Factors influencing the purchasing force of customer companies publish of capital. Valuation of 3G licenses Reward of telephone duration driven down. Worldwide recession. Third existence countries. Social Demographic cultural aspects of existence witch influence customer needs market bigness. Health subject. Demographic social trends. Picture phones. Mobile Etiquette. Saturation site. Technological Modernization innovativeness over a hour of generation influential to contemporary contemporary  technology. The cellular services has been started modern technologies enjoy following- 3G UMTS (2.5G) GPRS/WAP SMS/MMS The VRIO Framework Reward Rarity Imitability Aggregation Competitive implications Network infrastructure Yes No No Yes Competitive parity Diversified revenue base Yes Yes No Yes Temporary competitive utility Salient market position Yes Yes Yes Yes Sustained competitive function Network infrastructure One of Vodafones key technologies and wealth is the strong network infrastructure that supports its operations. To be able to provide mobile services, a strong network infrastructure is fundamental for the society. Vodafone operates 2G networks, through GSM networks, in all its mobile operating subsidiaries, offering its customers services such as voice, subject messaging and basic string services. All the networks application GPRS or 2.5G as well, which enables wireless access with mobile devices to list networks prize the internet. Vodafone extremely controls 3G networks offering its customers mobile broadband record access services allowing list download speeds of up to 384 kilobits per second. 2006 launched High Rapidity Downlink Packet Access (HSDPA) technology shortens download times significantly with record transmission speeds of up to 3.6 megabits per second and makes the usage of mobile broadband services all the more more skilled for the customers. HSDPA is enabled in the existing 3G network with after software updates. (Vodafone, 2007) The strong network infrastructure is a primary resource and enables the native land to respond to the growing customer needs with high quality services these days and in the ultimate. This salient resource is not a rarity in the wireless telecommunication industry and therefore it cannot be costly for the competitors to imitate. Many of the worlds large mobile operators have the same access to the same technology as Vodafone and a governance over massive networks. Vodafone is extremely well organized to exploit the all-inclusive competitive practicable of the network infrastructure by providing the employees a productive and safe working nature with good-looking performance based incentives. This resource is an organizational compel and generates a competitive parity. Diversified revenue mould By acquisitions, stakes in companies, and partner networks Vodafone has strategically expanded its presence to consider the whole existence. The native land has equity interests in 25 countries. Vodafones partner network arrangements extend to a further 38 countries. (Vodafone, 2007) Vodafone has significant mobile operations in countries such as Germany, Italy, Spain, UK, E gypt, Kenya, South Africa, Australia and Contemporary Zealand. In 2007 the largest geographic region was Germany with a contribution of 17.1% to the total revenue, followed by UK 16.3%, Spain 14.1%, Italy 13.5%, and other Europe 13.5%. Arcor and Pacific contributed 9%, Middle East, Africa and Asia 8.2%, and Eastern Europe the rest 9% of the revenues. (Datamonitor, 2007) Vodafones global reach and geographically diversified revenue base is a leading resource for the native land. This primary resource helps the kingdom to compensate its risks and losses. As diversified as Vodafones revenue replica is it is a rarity within the wireless telecommunication industry. Vodafones strategy is to actively plain their portfolio by investing into markets that offer a strong limited position. With strict financial investment criteria Vodafone maximizes its and its shareholders returns. (Vodafone, 2007) Vodafones competitors would not face a bill disadvantage in trying to imitate this resource. It is more about the strategy that a society implements than about the financial resources. Vodafone is well organized to exploit the plentiful competitive feasible of this leading and infrequent resource. The Boards argument is to generate trustworthy that the companys employees are aware of Vodafones strategic goals and mutual obligations. This resource is an organizational vigour and distinctive potency and generates a temporary competitive utility. Influential market position Vodafone is the worlds primary mobile telecommunications society. Vodafone operates in Europe, the Middle East, Africa, Asia Pacific and the US by subsidiary undertakings, associated undertakings and investments. In countries with significant operations Vodafones market shares are impressive; Germany 36%, Italy 33%, Spain 31%, UK 26%, South Africa 58%, US 25%, Egypt 48%, and Australia 18%. (Dossier monitor, 2007) A strong market share with the market leader position is an extremely influential and meagre resource which improves the companys brand image and gives it a solid foundation to enter contemporary credible markets. This resource is imperfectly imitable and the competitors would face a cost disadvantage in obtaining or developing it. Vodafones market leader position is based on the liking and effort of the companys employees. The society is well organized to plain effectively its employees to reach their all-inclusive practicable and benefiting themselves and the native land. This resource is an organizational coercion and sustainable distinctive potency and generates a sustained competitive overhaul. Porter Five Forces Of Vodafone Rivalry The threat of rivalry in this business is impacted by the low number of big firms in the market. There are a sporadic numbers of large firms worldwide that competes for the market share; this lowers the threat of rivalry. The firms that are in the profession on the other artisan are besides competitive and by rationale of of a relative slow market activity in this industry the firms fight over the market shares that are elsewhere there and that increase the threat. There is extremely a low level of switching costs to