Vodafone Australia's Marketing Strategies

This assignment examines Vodafone Australia's marketing strategies to increase market share in both Australia and China. It delves into internal and external factors influencing their market position, utilizing a PESTEL analysis. The paper further proposes strategies for growth and development within the global telecommunications landscape.

Running head: MARKETING STRATEGY AND PLAN
Marketing Strategy and Plan
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

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Executive summary
The purpose of the following paper is to draw up a marketing strategy for Vodafone Australia.
This organization has been one of the leading organizations in the telecommunications industry.
They have expanded in many countries. This adds to the fact that the fact that it is of utmost
importance to design the marketing plan and strategy for Vodafone Australia. They have very
strong contenders in the market like Telstra and Optus. They need to incur many new strategies
regarding developing their market and increase their market share. The portable modems have
been selected as the product and the ways it can be dispatched to more customers have been
discussed. The communication strategies and distribution channels have been discussed in this
course as well.

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Table of Contents
1. Introduction..................................................................................................................................3
2. Value Analysis.............................................................................................................................3
Product portfolio and value proposition......................................................................................3
Challenges and resistances..........................................................................................................4
Costs and benefits........................................................................................................................4
Ansoff growth matrix..................................................................................................................5
3. Analysis of uncontrollable forces................................................................................................5
4. Segmentation, target and positioning..........................................................................................7
5. Marketing Mix decisions.............................................................................................................8
Modification of products.............................................................................................................8
Core product features...................................................................................................................8
Selling method and pricing strategies..........................................................................................8
Pricing comparison......................................................................................................................8
Communication strategy..............................................................................................................9
Potential risks...............................................................................................................................9
Distribution channels...................................................................................................................9
6. Analyzing competitors.................................................................................................................9
7. Conclusion.................................................................................................................................10
8. References..................................................................................................................................11

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1. Introduction
The purpose of the following paper is to determine the marketing plan for the
telecommunications company Vodafone Australia. This company is one of the leading ones in
global communications. The objectives for making the background plan is the fact that Vodafone
needs to grow its market within Australia and outside the country as well (Vodafone Australia
2017). They have been segmenting their markets by taking up certain strategies so that they can
grow their business. They have selected their market by focusing on the telecommunications
industry and the people who are very much internet savvy. Vodafone Australia was founded in
2009 and have made notable developments in their sector since then (Vodafone Australia 2017).
They are behind Telstra and Optus at the moment, so they want to expand their consumer
markets actually.
2. Value Analysis
In this segment, the value analysis of the organization has to be done since it is important to
develop the strategies by identifying what the customers really want and it has to be provided to
them in perfect time (Bodie 2013). It is due to the desire of foreign market entry for Vodafone
that they have to identify the challenges and resistances so that expand into that market properly.
They can try to expand into the Chinese market because it is the biggest market in Asia. All
telecommunication companies are eyeing to stretch their business in China so Vodafone should
also be doing the same.
Product portfolio and value proposition
Vodafone Australia provides many services and products to its customers. The most
important service they provide is the internet data and a better network all the time. The Chinese

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people are keen to utilize the opportunities of the fast mobile internet networks that the mobile
operators provide (Eggers 2012). Vodafone provides 4G internet at really affordable costs along
with prepaid and posts paid cell phones. These phones are also offered at reasonable rates so that
the people can buy these products and it will be in line with the current Chinese economy. Thus
the value proposition of the products is very much attractive to the customers, and they want to
grab some advantages from Vodafone. Their major competitors like Telstra and Optus have also
introduced new offers that would be threatening to Vodafone, but they are committed to gift the
best network with the best internet download speed.
Challenges and resistances
There are particular difficulties and resistances in this process as the market entry in the
Australian and Chinese markets. One of the most pertaining challenges in Chinese market entry
is the Intellectual Property Protection (Drahos 2016). This problem has affected most of the
content providers in China. The intellectual property protection is the primary barrier for the
managers to expand their market in China. Another important barrier is that there are no clear
criteria for the application procedure and the time for review is not adequate as well (Eggers
2012).
Costs and benefits
There are some advantages of the product, and these products are cost-effective as well. The
Vodafone mobile network is used by a huge number of people. They sell various mobile phone
and tablets in their retail stores with different cost-effective offers, and they provide the return
offers as well (Hastings 2015). The different kinds of mobile phones they sell include the
Android and iPhones. Apart from that, they provide free SIM card along with bonus 4G data and

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additional benefits as well. Portable modems, attractive data plans and prepaid internet benefits
are supplied by them as well.
Ansoff growth matrix
According to the Ansoff growth matrix, Vodafone has to implement certain strategies so
that they can grow into individual countries and most importantly in China (Hussain et al. 2013).
They have to apply the market penetration strategy if they want to develop their business with
the existing products. As they sell the best telecommunication devices available in the market,
they should be focusing on the portable modems that provide the fast internet connections.
They must try to persuade the current customers to increase their usage of the services
they provide. They must also seek to improve the primary and secondary demand of the product
by introducing new features and upgrading it different means. They must also do the survey and
convince the users of their competitive companies to use their products and experience the
differences (Hussain et al. 2013).
They might also look to develop new geographic markets. Segmented markets and
marketing channels for the products should emerge. New marketing strategies should also be
formulated in this context as well.
3. Analysis of uncontrollable forces
The forces that cannot be controlled are the external forces that have an enormous impact
on the businesses. These forces are divided into six segments, and this analysis is called the
PESTEL analysis (Jurevicius 2013).
Political forces

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China is a politically stable country and a republic country ruled by the Communist party.
There are no such political conflicts, and Vodafone can expect all the government supports if
they expand over there (Jurevicius 2013).
Economic factors
Vodafone has to understand the economy of China and compare it with the global
economy. They should be able to scale their product prices according to it so that they do not
suffer from the wrath of global inflation (Ferroni and Mojon 2014).
Social factors
The social factors like the demographic factors have to be analyzed in this context.
Vodafone must address these social issues and make their target markets according to the age,
gender, income and occupation of their target consumers (Jurevicius 2013).
Technological factors
China is a technologically advanced country so Vodafone Australia should make the major
decisions to implement the technological tools to their products and upgrade them. This will
boost the Chinese economy as well.
Legal factors
Vodafone Australia must abide by all the legal frameworks of the Chinese government if
they want to expand their business to China. They can be punished if they violate these rules.

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4. Segmentation, target and positioning
Vodafone Australia must be segmenting their target markets properly that will be helpful
for them to devise their marketing strategies (Riefler, Diamantopoulos and Siguaw 2012). They
should be targeting the young people more because they use the internet more frequently than
others. If they get good internet speed and the good network, they can communicate faster.
This will benefit them as well as cater to the growth of development of Vodafone
Australia as well. The additional data benefits will serve as the key to consumer loyalty.
Vodafone Australia should be positioning their products like portable modems to capture the
attention of the audiences (Riefler, Diamantopoulos and Siguaw 2012). Their brand image
should depend on how they provide the services to the Chinese people and what added benefits
could be provided compared to their competitors. The age group that they should target must be
between 20 and 30 who are addicted to the internet.
The brand values and brand image of the products are solid since Vodafone Australia is a
well-reputed company in Australia with numerous customers. The data plans at a cheaper rate
should be the key to attract the consumer attraction for Vodafone.
Their main competitors in the market Telstra and Optus have followed many
strategies like strong network support and primary benefits, but Vodafone Australia has adopted
policies to give more benefits to customers if they recharge through the official mobile app of the
company. This decision will be effective as it will save the time and make faster communication
as well (Ramer et al. 2012).
Australian market Expansion

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The competition in Australian market is very much in the modern times and the CEO of
the organization Inaki Berroeta has confirmed that they are trying to do their best in their efforts
to overcome the challenges in the Australian telecommunications market. Another important
thing inb this context is that they have to open more stores around the country so that they can be
able to expand their markets in the whole country.
They also want to introduce new features within their network like ‘video-on-demand’
and others (Martin and Foetschl, 2016). This way the Australian customers can be manipulated
in a huge manner. The customer servicing issues will have to be discussed and they have to
resolve these cases to serve their customers better (Schaarschmidt and Kilian 2014). They will
have to indulge into making more content partnerships that will help them to cater to more
number of customers. They could even plan to sell off their joint venture partnership with
Hutchison. Some of the major offers they have been offering in the recent times are like signing
up to Vodafone unlimited broadband data and home phone plus NEON, the customers could be
benefitted for a 12 month term. They could tend to offer a three-year strategy and implement it
on their customers. This could include a fixed line strategy and bring new lucrative offers to the
customers (Singh 2014).
They will be continuing with their innovation process and this could be very much
effective in beating their arch rivals in the market like Telstra and Optus. They could offer their
new phones in New Zealand and in many provinces in Australia and they could even deal with
the Netflix-style content with the Sky-TV owned NEON. Vodafone Australia also has
announced to to partner with Fairfax media and music streaming platform like Spotify this would
provide the customers with free or discounted news and music contributions for the customers.

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These strategies would really be effective in terms of customer satisfaction and market expansion
for Vodafone Australia (Fabling and Sanderson 2013).
5. Marketing Mix decisions
Modification of products
The product that is the centre of the product, the portable modems can be modified for
the use in China. Certain new features can be added to preinstalled games, web browsers and fast
internet surfing facilities (Gordon 2012).
Core product features
The core product portable modem can be introduced in the market in a new avatar by
adding those above mentioned features. The packaging has to be done innovatively with a new
tagline like ‘World at Your Feet in Seconds' and others. The product can be differentiated by
displaying it innovatively to the customers and drawing their attraction. The product quality
should be of utmost priority to Vodafone Australia for gaining the customer satisfaction.
Selling method and pricing strategies
The products will not be sold via retail stores as they will have their own outlet stores.
They must design those outlet stores entirely with balloons, banners and attractive interior
decoration (Gordon 2012). The pricing strategies should be flexible since Chinese people do not
share the same social status. Rich people should buy it at a higher rate while middle and lower
class people should be able to avail it at a lower price by showing their income certificates.

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Pricing comparison
If the competitors like Telstra can fix their pricing strategies to get the market advantage,
Vodafone Australia should be looking to get the attention by promoting more lucrative offers.
For example, if Telstra offers 10 GB 4G data at $70, Vodafone Australia must provide the same
at $50 so that customers will find it better to avail Vodafone's offer (Nagle, Hogan and Zale
2016).
Communication strategy
The target audiences have to be communicated properly so that they can be aware of their
daily offers. Vodafone Australia should persuade the recipients to install the official app of theirs
to stay connected and follow them on social media where they have a significant presence
(Gordon 2012).
Potential risks
These may bring some potential hazards like fall of the internet speed if a huge number of
people avail their offers. The line can become congested, and it will take a longer time to
download the files. This may be overcome by installing more towers in China over the main
cities (Nagle, Hogan and Zale 2016).
Distribution channels
The selected core product can be distributed to the customers via different channels like
courier or online methods. They must make partnerships with leading logistics companies.
Customers can also buy those products from their stores (Gordon 2012).

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6. Analyzing competitors
The strategic position of Vodafone Australia is always on the high, especially for taking
up the rebound strategy and this strategy has paid off really well for them.
Vodafone Australia has slammed the Asia strategy of Telstra by various means. They
have attempted to occupy the market share to a large extent by introducing these new features.
This will seriously strengthen their position in the Asian market.
7. Conclusion
This paper can be concluded by saying that Vodafone Australia has taken up certain
important marketing strategies that could cater to market development and increase the market
share in Australia as well as in China. China is considered as the biggest market in Asia, and it is
important to keep a hold in the Asian market to improve its brand reputation. The external
factors have been discussed over here in this segment and the paper has contributed to the need
of discussing the marketing strategies and plans that they need to develop to grow their market in
the global sphere.

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8. References
Bodie, Z., 2013. Investments. McGraw-Hill.
Eggers, J.P., 2012. All experience is not created equal: learning, adapting, and focusing on
product portfolio management. Strategic Management Journal, 33(3), pp.315-335.
Fabling, R. and Sanderson, L., 2013. Exporting and firm performance: Market entry, investment
and expansion. Journal of International Economics, 89(2), pp.422-431.
Ferroni, F. and Mojon, B., 2014. Domestic and global inflation. mimeo.
Gordon, R., 2012. Re-thinking and re-tooling the social marketing mix. Australasian Marketing
Journal (AMJ), 20(2), pp.122-126.
Hussain, S., Khattak, J., Rizwan, A. and Latif, M.A., 2013. ANSOFF matrix, environment, and
growth-an interactive triangle. Management and Administrative Sciences Review, 2(2), pp.196-
206.
Jurevicius, O., 2013. PEST & PESTEL Analysis. Strategic Management Insight, 13, p.2013.
Martin, A. and Foetschl, H.P., Sony Corporation, 2016. Video-on-demand system. U.S. Patent
Application 15/299,817.
Ramer, J., Soroca, A., Doughty, D. and Karasic, N.J., Karasic Neal J, 2012. System for Targeting
Advertising to Mobile Communication Facilities Using Third Party Data. U.S. Patent
Application 13/459,239.
Riefler, P., Diamantopoulos, A. and Siguaw, J.A., 2012. Cosmopolitan consumers as a target
group for segmentation. Journal of International Business Studies, 43(3), pp.285-305.

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Schaarschmidt, M. and Kilian, T., 2014. Impediments to customer integration into the innovation
process: A case study in the telecommunications industry. European Management
Journal, 32(2), pp.350-361.
Singh, P.N., 2014. Verizon acquired Vodafone: Analysis of market reaction. Industrija, 42(3),
pp.163-182.
Vodafone Australia. (2017). Vodafone Australia. [online] Available at:
http://www.vodafone.com.au/ [Accessed 20 Sep. 2017].