Unilever and Vodafone Comparison

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Running Head: UNILEVER AND VODAFONE 0
unilever and vodafone

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UNILEVER AND VODAFONE 1
Executive summary
Vodafone is among the top service industries providing communication services such as call,
high speed internet, messaging, voice call and video messaging. The motive of Vodafone is
to bring global digitalisation and easy connectivity. Some of the strategies adopted by
Vodafone to obtain competitive advantage are focus strategy, cost and differentiation. But
Vodafone is still lacking in connectivity because Vodafone customers are not directly
accessible to the system, instead they have to contact the agents for any kind of message or
query. Vodafone must improve the connectivity area of the company to understand the
customers better. However, Unilever own brands such as; Magnum, lux, dove, breeze and
other brands over 400 in different sectors such as beauty products, homecare, food and
beverages. Unilever have a motive to give healthy and improved life to people. Unilever
adopted product differentiation, product development and diversification strategies to
compete. But the company lack in diversification, because sometimes the stakeholders,
investors are not confident about the decision of the company to diversify.
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UNILEVER AND VODAFONE 2
Table of contents
Contents
Table of contents.................................................................................................................... 2
Introduction ...................................................................................................................... 3
Mission statement for Vodafone.............................................................................................4
Connectivity........................................................................................................................ 4
Digital society......................................................................................................................4
Competitive strategies used by Vodafone..............................................................................4
Cost leadership...................................................................................................................4
Differentiation......................................................................................................................4
Focus strategy....................................................................................................................4
Mission statement of Unilever................................................................................................4
To give a strong and active life to its customers-................................................................4
Healthy lifestyle-................................................................................................................. 4
Competitive strategies by Unilever.........................................................................................5
Market penetration-............................................................................................................. 5
Product development-.........................................................................................................5
Diversification..................................................................................................................... 5
Case study for Vodafone as a service industry.......................................................................5
Differentiation......................................................................................................................5
Transparency......................................................................................................................5
Issue in Connectivity...........................................................................................................6
Case study for Unilever as a manufacturing industry..............................................................6
Product development..........................................................................................................6
Issue in Diversification........................................................................................................6
Conclusion............................................................................................................................. 7
References............................................................................................................................. 8
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UNILEVER AND VODAFONE 3

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UNILEVER AND VODAFONE 4
Introduction
Vodafone is headquartered in UK and it is one of the top service industries in UK, in
communication sector. Vodafone provides communication services such call, voice call,
internet packages, text messaging and video messaging (Vodafone UK, 2005). Vodafone
have millions of mobile customers, broadband customers and TV customers around the
world. Vodafone also provide money transfer services such as M-Pesa (Vodafone Group,
2020).
Unilever is a manufacturing goods company (RH Nuttall, 2019), Since, Unilever is a FMCG
company and FMCG companies are included in manufacturing companies (Spacy, 2019).
Unilever is headquartered in UK and it provides goods in areas such as personal care,
energy drinks, beauty care products, cleaning agents, food items and ice creams. Some of
the brands owned by Unilever are; Dove, Lipton, Surf and others, over 400 companies
(Unilever, 2020). Approximately 2.5 billion people use Unilever products each day and
Unilever products are sold in approximately 190 countries (Unilever, 2020).
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UNILEVER AND VODAFONE 5
Mission statement for Vodafone
Connectivity
The major mission statement for Vodafone is to improve the life of people by easy
connectivity and good network. Vodafone have a good network covering maximum area
globally.
Digital society
Another mission on which the company focus is to create a digital society, which provides
people ease to connect anyone from any part of the world (Vodafone Group, 2020). As
today, people have lack of time, so, by providing with digital convenience to people.
Competitive strategies used by Vodafone
Cost leadership
A company can achieve cost leadership by lowering the cost, Vodafone focusses on cost
leadership to gain a competitive advantage (Butler, 2018).
Differentiation
Vodafone involved differentiation and innovation to capture the customer base. Vodafone
focuses on providing unique features in its product to gain larger customer area.
Example- Vodafone created a distinctive logo, although Vodafone made many revisions. The
uniqueness of logo created a distinctive image in the mind of the customers.
Focus strategy
Focus is another competitive strategy followed by Vodafone which focuses on targeted
market. In this, Vodafone focus on a specific market segment, to gain an advantage by
making niche marketing as the base line (Butler, 2018).
Mission statement of Unilever
Mission statement of Unilever focuses on providing its customers with their everyday needs
of personal care, hygiene and nutrition to improve the life quality of its customers (Unilever,
2020).
To give a strong and active life to its customers-
Unilever contributes in everyday needs of people by providing them with hygiene, nutrition
and a better living. Unilever also provide variety for giving them the best choice and
convenience for its buyers as today time is a major issue.
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UNILEVER AND VODAFONE 6
Healthy lifestyle-
Unilever focuses on providing people with healthy products and nutrition with an ease,
because of growth of urbanisation and health issues with people, the need for healthy
options are increasing (Unilever, 2020).
Competitive strategies by Unilever
Market penetration-
Unilever uses a strategy to capture maximum market area to increase the sales and income
of the company. It also focuses on the quality, differentiation and attractiveness of its
products to grab maximum market area.
Product development-
Another strategy on which Unilever focuses is, by introducing new products and revising
them with improvements continuously. It also provides uniqueness and innovation to its
products.
Diversification
Unilever focuses on the growth of its company by continuously involving in the mergers and
acquisitions (M&A) with other companies to reach the global consumer product companies.
Example- Unilever acquired a company called “Astrix” which manufactures personal care
and home products such as dish washer, surface cleaners, toilet cleaner and baby products
(Unilever, 2020).
Case study for Vodafone as a service industry
Vodafone has bought ways to do business digitally. As world is changing with time people
are shifting towards digital options. It has bought digital platform to work, using tool and
communication system, which is introduced to assist customers. EVE is a programme
introduced by Vodafone for digital transformation. In which Artificial Intelligence (AI), digital
platform and human interaction is altogether used to provide a platform for business with the
customers of Vodafone. It also made easy accessibility for customers (Vodafone, 2020).
Differentiation
Vodafone has differentiated its services from others in terms of digitalisation. Vodafone has
given its customers a reason of being Vodafone customers, by providing them with cost
benefit and differentiated services. For example-Vodafone introduced with differentiation
potential system (DPS) to ensure that customer voice reaches to the company for the
development of the company and the development of product, which can be processed by
understanding the customers (Barta , 2007). Vodafone initiatives to introduce 5G internet,
again is a competitive advantage for Vodafone. Therefore, Vodafone gave both a

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UNILEVER AND VODAFONE 7
differentiation and cost benefit to its customers, as the company will not charge premium
charges for the service (Vizard, 2019)
Transparency
Transparency and also the quality have improved after the introduction of EVE. And the
customers found it satisfactory as they are provided with easy access and easy interaction
with the company. Digital platform reduces the chances of faults, which results in the
increase of efficiency and the employer can spend more time in other important tasks, and
can give more time in taking important decisions.
Issue in Connectivity
Sometimes, Vodafone created an issue in ease of connectivity when the demand of
customers is increasing, the company may not be able to respond to each customer on time,
as customers want a faster way to interact. This system is time consuming, so it is better that
the company gives customers a direct access to system to type their message and then the
system can fed the message automatically (Vodafone, 2020). Using the combination of
human skills, digitalisation, technology and Artificial Intelligence resulted as a growth and
success for Vodafone and enabled Vodafone to build a global platform.
Case study for Unilever as a manufacturing industry
Unilever builds its competitive advantage over other brands by satisfying customers. Unilever
maintained growth by providing customers with combinations of strategies in the product
development.
Product development
Unilever is continuously involved in development of its products to compete with the
changing preferences of the customers. Example- Persil Powergems is a laundry detergent
formula by Unilever, the company modified the product according to its need, as the product
allowed less packaging, so the company improved the product by investing less in the
packaging, which is appropriate for today’s eco-friendly customers (Unilever, 2020).
Issue in Diversification
Though diversification may prove to be a success to a company, but sometimes it may also
result in creating issues for the company. Diversification may bring a negative impact in the
confidence of the business groups or the investors involved. It is unknown whether the
market will respond negatively or positively regarding the M&A (Nazarova, 2015). Example-
Kraft Heinz is a US company whose deal to takeover Unilever failed recently in 2017.
Unilever focuses on marketing and long-term sustainability, whereas, kraft Heinz
concentrates more into cost cutting (Newyork times, n.d.).
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UNILEVER AND VODAFONE 8
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UNILEVER AND VODAFONE 9
Conclusion
It can be concluded that the mission of Vodafone is to bring digitalisation and better
connectivity. Somewhere it has achieved success in the innovation and digitalisation, but the
connectivity is still lacking. Vodafone customers can give their messages to the system
through the agents, which is time consuming. So, Vodafone must improve its connectivity by
giving direct access to the customers to post their messages directly to the system. To
achieve growth Unilever used strategies for product development, diversification and market
penetration to achieve success. But the company sometimes lacked in diversification, as
investors or business companies connected with the company may lose confidence with the
decision of diversification. So, if the company need to diversify it must involve its investors
and other companies connected with the consequences, of the decision to diversify.

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UNILEVER AND VODAFONE 10
References
Barta , T., 2007. Market leader. The marketing society.
Butler, A., 2018. Vodafone Generic and Intensive Growth Strategies. [Online]
Available at: https://www.essay48.com/13626-Vodafone-Porters-Generic-Strategies
Nazarova, V., 2015. International Business Management. Medwell Publications.
Newyork times, n.d.
RH Nuttall, 2019. RH Nuttall. [Online]
Available at: https://www.rhnuttall.co.uk/about/
Spacy, J., 2019. simplicable. [Online]
Available at: https://simplicable.com/new/manufacturing-industry
Unilever, 2020. Unilever. [Online]
Available at: https://www.unilever.com/
Vizard, S., 2019. Vodafone brings together marketing and digital teams as it renews focus
on innovation. marketingweek.
Vodafone Group, 2020. about vodafone group. [Online]
Available at: https://www.vodafone.com/about
Vodafone UK, 2005. about vodafone UK. [Online]
Available at:
https://www.vodafone.co.uk/cs/groups/configfiles/documents/contentdocuments/
cr_report_2005_06.pdf
Vodafone, 2020. Enhancing the Customer Experience with Digital. [Online]
Available at: https://www.vodafone.com/business/news-and-insights/case-study/enhancing-
the-customer-experience-with-digital
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