Comprehensive Marketing Report: Vodafone's Strategies and Analysis

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of Vodafone's marketing strategies. It begins with an introduction to marketing concepts, current trends, and the marketing process, followed by an examination of Vodafone's marketing plan. The report covers key responsibilities of a marketing manager, the influence of the marketing department on other departments, and the application of the marketing mix. It includes an executive summary, company overview, analysis of marketing situations, objectives, strategies, segmentation, targeting, positioning, budget, and control mechanisms. The report highlights the importance of marketing in the telecommunications industry, focusing on Vodafone's approach to customer relationship marketing, market segmentation, and the overall marketing process. The report concludes with key insights and recommendations for Vodafone's future marketing endeavors.

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
TASK 1............................................................................................................................................1
1.1 Concept of marketing and their current and future trend,................................................1
1.2 Different marketing process.............................................................................................4
1.3 Key responsibilities of the Marketing Manager in Vodafone..........................................7
1.4 How roles of marketing manager influence the other department in the Vodafone........8
PART 2............................................................................................................................................9
P3 and M3 Comparing the organization by applying marketing mix ...................................9
P4 and M4 Marketing plan for Vodafone.............................................................................10
Executive..............................................................................................................................10
Company Overview..............................................................................................................11
Analysis of Marketing situations..........................................................................................11
Objectives ............................................................................................................................14
Strategies..............................................................................................................................14
Segmentation, Targeting and Positioning.............................................................................15
Budget...................................................................................................................................16
Control..................................................................................................................................17
Conclusion.....................................................................................................................................18

INTRODUCTION
In recent times, the most important and tough task of business enterprises are to
increase financial profit and compete their competitors, it can be possible if organisations
have strong merchandising channel. Through marketing essentials companies can introduce
them as well as their products in market place in effective manner. Generally includes
marketing plan of firm, different approaches of market research and how promotional
activities of marketing will affect the marketplace. In other words, merchandising is a process
by which managers of organisation create, promote and deliver their products & services to
their potential customers. Marketing is essential for not only goods but also for individuals,
enterprises, experiences, property, events, information, ideas and different places. With the
help of merchandising concept organisations can identify various needs, demands and
preferences of their customers. This project report is based on multinational telecom
company ''Vodafone'' which is situated in United Kingdom. It provides its services in many
regions like Europe, Asia, Oceania and Africa. Also, it has approx 111,556 employees. In
this report various roles and responsibilities of its marketing department has been explained
to evaluate its significance in other functions of organisation. Along with this, merchandising
plan of this company has been determined in detail.
TASK 1
1.1 Concept of marketing and their current and future trend,
Concept of marketing
Marketing is the management process which help the organisation to produce and
serve goods and services to the consumer in order to fulfil their expectations. It is co-
ordinated with four elements that are product, price, place and promotion which includes:
 Identification, selection and production of product,
 identification and deciding the price,
 selecting distributors that can help them to reach at customers and
 Development and execution of promotion strategy so that awareness can be generated
(Lynch, and et.al., 2012).
1

There are five concepts of marketing which help organisation to satisfy customer need and
want in different ways and each of then vary in their function. The concepts were developed
to deals with the different market situation such as demand, supply, cost etc. As the market
scenario changes, the concept have be changing, these are as follows:
Illustration 1: Marketing concept
(Source: Concepts of Marketing, 2017)
 Production concept: This is the oldest concept in marketing which state that
customer will prefer those products that less expensive and hold large variety on the
basis of colour, shape, size, features etc. in this concept, marketing manager try to
achieve large production at low cost with the large distribution. The marketers believe
that the consumer will prefer those products that are largely available and at low cost
(LiPuma, and Doh, 2013). This type of strategy will work in those countries where
customer is interested in purchasing the product rather than its characteristics.
 Product concept: In this strategy, producers produce those goods which have
innovative features, high quality and performance. In this concept, managers
concentrate to produce superior quality products as well as improving them time to
time. They think that customer will appreciate and buy those products which have
high performance and good quality, so their key focus is to produce high quality
products and services which satisfy needs and wants of the consumer.
2

 Selling concept: In this concept, organisation need to focus on more sales, they put
effort that what so ever the goods have been produced, that should be sold in the
market. They try to build relationship with the clients and then sell their products. In
this organisation need to have large sales force and aggressive promotion strategies so
they can able to generate awareness to large target market. This type of concept is
used when the organisation have large tools to do marketing and promotion to make
great sales (Light, 2015).
 Marketing concept: This is the mix of selling, production and product concept and
this is very complex for organisation to implement. This concept is used when the
company want to achieve competitive edge and to be the leading organisation in the
market. The key focus of this concept is to identify customer needs then production of
those products which is demanded by the clients. It is developing, delivering and
communicating customer value to the target market. There are four factors that affect
the marketing concept that are customer needs, profitability, integrated marketing and
target market (Kindsfaterienė, and Lukaševičius, 2015).
 Social marketing concept: In this concept, organisation's focus is to identify
customer interest, needs and wants of the target customer and satisfy their desire and
satisfaction more than competitors. Their key focus is to produce those goods that are
for the society well being.
Current and future trend of marketing
There are different trends in marketing that helps the company to promote and market
their products, because generating awareness is very important part for every organisation. It
helps them to create sales and make large profits, so different trend are as follows:
Relationship Marketing
In this marketing strategy organisation try to create and retain large number of
customer by making relationship with them rather than making sales. It is very different
strategy from other marketing concept, where market build long term value of relationship by
the means of effective communication which help them to transfer promotional message. It is
short term arrangement where seller and buyer have been interesting in serving more
3

satisfaction in exchange. To maintain relationship with the customer, organisation tries to
give some post purchase services and benefits which help to retain more customers in the
future. This type of strategy is used when there is large competition in market and consumer
is confused that who which brand will provide more benefits to him (Lynch, and et.al., 2012).
For relationship management, organisation is using customer relationship management
software that helps company to analyse and keep track of customer taste, preferences, likes,
dislikes, complains and activities. With the growing mobile and internet platforms,
relationship marketing have become more easy to open up they technology and social
communication channels. The key objective of relationship marketing is to retain customers
by building relationship which help them find, attract and win consumers for them.
Business or Industrial Marketing
It is the strategy to sell goods and services to the industry who can re-sell their
products, use their goods to produce other products and help them to support their operations.
As time passes it is called as business to business selling. There is tremendous change in the
business marketing in the recent years are due to revaluations occurs in the world that are
technology, entrepreneurial and marketing revaluations. Technology is growing in the
unprintable way which help them to produce quality goods and services. Entrepreneurial
revaluation where competition have been increasing day and day which help them to increase
flexibility, adaptability, innovativeness, aggressive and speed. Marketing help them
entrepreneurial to lead by finding untapped needs, market segments and new users for the
new and existing products. Marketing evaluation where organisation are adopting new
techniques, theories, framework, concepts and framework which helps organisation to deal
with the different business.
Societal Marketing
In this type of marketing, organisation focus on the customer, they identify needs and
wants of the consumer so that they can able to deliver satisfaction to their target market. They
also have special emphasis on corporate social responsibility and sustainable development.
They keep special track on the customer satisfaction and welfare of the society at large basis
which can be attain from producing eco friendly products. In this marketing strategy,
organisation keep focus on well being of society, should eliminate deficient products.
4

1.2 Different marketing process.
Marketing process is the process of analysing the different opportunities in the
market, selecting the target market by STP, development of marketing mix and managing the
marketing efforts.
Illustration 2: Marketing process.
(Source: Marketing Process Steps, 2017)
Analysis of the Opportunities in the Market
In this stage Vodafone need to analyse the market situation which helps them to find
different opportunities which can be garbed by them in order to gain competitive advantage.
The opportunities may include the needs and wants of the consumer which other companies
are not able to satisfy (LiPuma, and Doh, 2013). They focus on improving the performance
of organisation by serving high experience to the customer related to products and services.
For finding opportunities, Vodafone need to collect information from internal as well as
external sources. Management information system is complimented which helps the company
to collect raw data from their different stakeholders and target market. The firm can also
organise research by the means of conducting surveys, interviews etc of the customer,
5

competitor, special and general trends and other unplanned and extra-ordinary change that
can take place in the market environment. As the data is being collected, special tools are
implemented that can help them to analyse the raw data to make it relevant information in
order to identify opportunities. After that whole market place is slip into different target
groups and that are divided on the basis of income, geographical location, age group etc.
After that each segment is evaluated properly to find that which group will provide large
profits and revenues (Light, 2015).
Selection of target market
It is the most significance stage where organisation decide their target market to
whom they are going to serve their products and services. For this stage, they create an
effective analysis of target market so that they can able to find their final consumers. As it is
known that, an organisation cannot fulfil the desires and expectation of total population
therefore, they need to deride population into small target group and choose best segment and
serve goods and services to create position in the market, it includes three stages, that are as
follows:
Market Segmentation: It is process by which whole target market is divided into small
segments. In simple words it can be said that when whole market is slip into different types
of customers where each segment have similar features, wants and behaviour which wants
different marketing strategies and mixes. It can be classified on the basis of gender, age
group, income class, marital status and occupation
Market Targeting: To select the most potential and suitable where the organisation want to
enter, they need to analyse the attractiveness of each group which is being slitted from the
total market. The most suitable way to select the target market is to find that the group is
serving opportunities to create customer value for the long run (Kindsfaterienė, and
Lukaševičius, 2015). Company can also choice niche marketing where they can only select
one or two target market and create strategies, products and services for them. The most
effective method is focus where the company have key focus over one or two segments so
that they can effectively able to provide quality goods and services to them.
6

Market Positioning: Their main objective of organisation is to create position in the eye of
customers as compare to their competitor. In simple words it can be said that the company
tries to create clear and specific image in consumer about their products and services.
Development of Marketing Mix
Marketing mix includes various aspects that are mixed by the organisation in order to
create certain desire response in the target market as well as demand for the goods and
services is also effected by the application of activities of marketing mix. The mix includes
product, price, place and promotion.
 Product states customer solution: it is the offering made by the company in terms
of goods and services. These are those who satisfy needs and wants of the consumer.
It can be tangible or intangible and may be in the form of goods or services.
Organisation need to produce that types of goods which satisfy the expectation of
consumers. The important part for the products are their quality, size, colour, features
etc.
 Price states Customer Cost: It is the money which is paid by the customer in return
for the goods and services. Organisation need to decide price of their products
according to their product specification, cost and competitors price. There are
different strategies which can be adopted by the company to achieve their objectives
that includes price skimming, price penetration, mark up pricing, price bundling,
every day low pricing, psychological pricing etc.
 Place states Convenience: It includes ensurety that goods should be reach to the
customer and they fell convenience while purchasing the products. There are different
types of distribution on goods and services that includes intensive, exclusive,
selective and franchising (Lynch, and et.al., 2012).
 Promotion states Communication: It is the effort made by the organisation to make
sure that products should be sold to the customer by providing information about the
advantages and disadvantages of the goods and services. There are various ways by
which firm can promote their brand and products that includes sales promotion such a
7

providing discounts, coupons or public relations, advertising and digital or social
media marketing.
1.3 Key responsibilities of the Marketing Manager in Vodafone.
 Organising marketing research: It is the key responsibility of the marketing
manager of Vodafone is to conduct the market research in order to understand that is
competitor doing and what are the needs and wants of the consumer. The research
help them find different opportunities so that they can able to gain competitive
advantage over their rivals. It includes external analysis of the organisation which
consist of competitors, customers, suppliers etc. so that they can able to produce
superior goods than their competitors and employee effective and efficient marketing
strategies. They may conduct research by organising survey or face to face interview
(LiPuma, and Doh, 2013).
 Developing the Marketing Strategy: Marketing manager of the Vodafone need to
create marketing strategies for their company, this will help them to promote their
products and services to their target market. Their main aim is to generate awareness
among their customer so that they can make sales for their goods and services in order
to generate revenue and cover large market share.
 Customer Relationship Management: It is said that customer is god for the
companies, all the activities that are arranges in the organisation are made for the
clients. Vodafone need to customer their needs and demands of the customer by
communicating with hem which help them to build relationship with them. If
customer are satisfied with the brand, then he or she will not switch to other company
which help Vodafone to retain old customer and attract large customers.
 Employee Management: There is large sales force under marketing manager, he
need to take care that all the employees are working properly or not or they are able to
need the target. It is responsibility of marketing manager of Vodafone to assign task
and duties as well as set targets for their department staff. He need to evaluate the
performance of employee to find their efficiency.
 Brand Development: It is responsibility of the marketing manager to create
attractive advertisement for the by using logo's, sounds such as music which can be
8

given in the radio and TV. Brand is the image which comes in the mid of customer
while thinking about the company. Every organisation have their own brand, if the
brand is good than more customers will attract and if not than consumer will switch to
other brand, so it is responsibility of the marketing manager to create good brand
image to attract and retain customers (Light, 2015).
1.4 How roles of marketing manager influence the other department in the Vodafone.
 Finance department: When marketing manager is making plans, he need to consider
financial information about the new and existing products and services. Marketing
can be considered as the supporting management while making investment decision.
 Production and operational: Marketing manager of Vodafone will help production
department to find the number of products and services to be produced. It helps to
influence demand for the goods and services according to the timing and levels.
 Research and development: Vodafone marketing manager help research department
to find idea for the new products and services for the implementation. It will help to
find that which product is profitable and fruitful.
 Sales: Marketing manager of Vodafone help to create health relationship between the
customers which will enhance sales (Kindsfaterienė, and Lukaševičius, 2015).
Importance of effective relationship with the different department in Vodafone.
It will create trust between the all the departments with the help of effective
communication which helps to build confidence in all the employees. It will improve
customer service where clients need not to suffer bureaucratic referrals. It will increase the
efficiently of all the employees in Vodafone as their task are clearly known by them and
resolve conflicts between them which was arises due to in-proper co-ordination (Lynch, and
et.al., 2012).
PART 2
P3 and M3 Comparing the organization by applying marketing mix
Marketing mix is an essential component which puts the right product at right place in
order to increase the sales and get correct price for it (Clow and James, 2013). There are 7Ps
of marketing mix which can be applied on Vodafone and EE Ltd in the following manner:
9

Marketing Mix Vodafone EE Ltd.
Product
It provides various opportunities for the
customers such as, chat, play games,
change ring tones, receive information
related to travel, sports, politics etc.
It provides voice transfer and
video calling services to its
customers and connect people
with each other.
Price
It follows value pricing structure where
services are provided at affordable prices.
It has daily, weekly and monthly
packages.
It has slight premium pricing
strategy. It is recommended to
go for penetration strategy.
Place
It has around 300 stores in UK where it
even sells to independent retailers. It has
already covered around 75% of the
operational area.
It works on three basis, direct,
sales staff and intermediary.
Promotion
Vodafone promote itself through TV,
magazines, internet, billboards etc. It also
provides special offers to its customers.
Target its potential customer
through internet. Set up its
social media pages and remain
active on them.
Process
It provides emphasis on speed and
accuracy and makes the services' easy and
convenience to its customers
It provides effective services
to its customers by providing
speedy Internet and
uninterrupted voice services.
People
It involves high customer interaction by
developing customer care centres in order
to satisfy them. It provides training and
development to its employees and recruit
them based on education and training.
Customer services of the entity
is planned and organized. It
provides incentives to its
employees by way of training,
bonus, benefits etc.
Physical evidence It has used a Zoo Zoo as a symbol It has adopted effective
10