Brand Management of Vodafone UK: Building and Managing Brand Equity

Desklib provides past papers and solved assignments for students. This report analyzes Vodafone's brand management strategies.

[BRAND MANAGEMENT]
[2019]

INTRODUCTION
Brand management is an important concept nowadays that helps in identifying the perception
of the brand in the market. The purpose of the report is to reflect the brand value and its
importance in a competitive business environment. It also focuses on the advantages of
branding to organization, intermediaries and consumer group.
The report provides insight into developing brand equity of Vodafone UK and thereby
reinforcing and revitalizing brand through innovation. Moreover, it provides a strategic point
of view so as to gain customer value and competitive advantages (Qian, 2014).
The report demonstrates an understanding of the brand with respect to Vodafone UK and
also analyses how brand hierarchies are built and managed. Vodafone Group is the largest
telecommunication company in the UK. It has a significant presence at a global level with its
strong presence in the UK market. The company has a partner network in more than 38
countries and thereby offers a wide range of mobile services that include video call, roaming
service, voice message and other services. Besides this, the company has a strong network
structure comprising of 3G and 4G network. Also, the company provides effective services to
more than 78.68 million mobile GSM customers (MacInnis et al., 2014).

LO1
P1 EXPLAIN IMPORTANCE OF BRANDING AS A MARKETING TOOL AND ITS EMERGENCE IN
MARKET PLACE
BRAND IS POWER
INTRODUCTION
A brand refers to the logo, sign, symbol or name of the company that help in deriving the
individual identity of the organization. It plays a very important role in order to recognition in
the market. This further helps to develop trust and confidence with the customer and help in
gaining customer value. It is regarded as the most valuable asset of the company that helps in
understanding the perception and competitors in the market (Pyper and Gounaris, 2016).
Thereby, it can be said that a brand is the reflection of a company's product or services in the
market place.
Vodafone is the largest telecommunication company and is popularly known in the market on
account of its good brand value. Also, Vodafone is known to be the most effective advertising of
the year and thereby provides effective and creative services to their customers (Steenkamp,
2017).
BRAND EQUITY
Brand equity refers to the added value generated from customer perception and recognizable
name in the market. Appositive brand equity denotes that customer is willing to pay a high
price for the company's product which is, even more, the competitor's price. Also, the company
with high brand Equity is able to generate more profits in the market and able to sell the
products or services to the customer at premium prices.
The overall success of Vodafone depends on the value of the brand and brand equity. Vodafone
uses the slogan, “wherever you go, or network follows you” help the company to increase the
brand value in the market. It is required by the company to build the brand and thereby

creating an impact positive impact of brand in the market (Romeo and Dodds, 2015).
Following are the components involved in Brand building process in order to achieve
competitive advantage.
Defining the target audience
The process of Brand Building requires determining the needs, wants and unmet requirements
of the target audience. Thus, Vodafone is required to draw an effective strategy in order to
meet the core needs or requirements of the customer in the market.
Brand Mission
The main ambition of the Vodafone is to deliver innovative services to their customer so as to
contribute to sustainable living. The company also aims to enhance connectivity and achieve
growth in the emerging market. Moreover, the company seeks the development of ICT
technology that helps in the transformation of a large part of the world (Sevel et al., 2017).
Market research
The Market research is been carried with the purpose of identifying competitor strategy that
helps in strengthen the brand value of Vodafone and create a differentiated product of that of
competitors.
Creating a value proposition
Vodafone tries to focus on maintaining the uniqueness of the brand and thereby enhancing
customer value by offering them a unique value proposition that is beneficial to them.
Determining Brand guideline
These are the set of specific rules that determine the need for interaction with the audience.
This helps the Vodafone to maintain consistency across various channels and become
recognizable at the global level.

Market your Brand
This requires Vodafone to devise appropriate marketing strategy by considering every aspect of
the brand. This further includes promoting the brand by using social media platform and
integration of brand at the different market place (Vigneron and Johnson, 2017).
BRANDING AS A MARKETING TOOL AND ITS IMPORTANCE
In today’s competitive environment, Branding acts as an important marketing tool so as to
derive effective possible outcome. A marketer found Branding as a strategical and tactical tool
in order to gain competitive advantages. The marketing department uses the concept of
branding so as to promote the product or services in the marketplace. It is the root cause of
generating awareness in the minds of the customer.
The marketing department is responsible to build the brand equity by encouraging customer
loyalty and support. The marketer needs to identify the customer needs and wants and make
efforts in order to reshape their thinking by building deeper relation and bond with them. Thus,
it can be said that Branding acts as an important marketing tool in order to gain the customer
loyalty, trust, faith and stand out competitively in the market (Zavattaro et al., 2015).

P2 ANALYZE THE KEY COMPONENT RELATED TO SUCCESSFUL BRANDING STRATEGY FOR
BUILDING AND MANAGING BRAND EQUITY

Elements of branding strategy that helps in building a strong brand
This requires the integration of the core principle of the business that helps in building a strong
brand and enhancing brand equity. This will further improve sustainable growth in the market.
Some of the underpinning elements towards successful brand strategy as follow:
Customer focus
Customer focus id the most important criteria to develop a strong brand. Vodafone needs to
clearly understand the specific need of the audience. This will help in framing the core strategy
of branding by providing satisfactory services to the customer (Steenkamp, 2017).
Uniqueness
The brand must consist of unique proposition value that differentiates the same as that of
competitors. This will really provide benefit to Vodafone in order to cater to the need of the
customer and gaining customer loyalty.
Credibility
This requires building trust and faith with the customer by delivering promised and quality
services to them. Thereby, the Vodafone group delivers the relevant solution as per the
changing needs of the customer. Moreover, the company uses a customer delight system in
order to derive customer satisfaction.
Consistency
Consistency needs to be maintained with respect to the design and quality of services. This will
help the Vodafone group in successfully building the brand in the international market.
Simplicity
This component of simplicity is concerned with simple and easy criteria in order to assess the
value of the brand.

Authenticity and promise fulfillment
The authenticity of Brand can be measured in terms of honesty and transparency while the
promised fulfillment is another important criterion to enhance the brand equity in the global
market. Thus Vodafone is able to keep up to their promised service in order to build a longer
and deeper relationship with the customer (Rosenbaum et al., 2015).
BRAND ELEMENT WITH RESPECT TO VODAFONE
Memorability The various elements of the brand should be recognized and memorized.
Meaningful A meaningful message should always be attached to the value of the brand.
Likeability The various elements of the brand must develop positive connectivity with
the customer.
Transferabilit
y
Transferability with respect to different brand element is critical on account
of different geographic market and product categories.
Adaptability These elements can be changed as per the changing needs of the customer.
Protectability The different elements need to be legally protected by way of copyrights
(Qian, 2014).

LO2
P3 ANALYZE DIFFERENT STRATEGIES OF PORTFOLIO MANAGEMENT, BRAND HIERARCHY
AND BRAND EQUITY MANAGEMENT
A Brand portfolio consists of various segments of a brand that are termed as Brand lines. The
purpose of designing a brand portfolio strategy is to manage the brand and sub-brand in the
target market. Vodafone is using Brand portfolio strategy in order to drive the product
performance and achieve strategic success in the competitive market. Thus, brand portfolio
strategies help Vodafone in determining brand structure (Lilleker, 2015).
o Branded House Strategy
This is known as umbrella branding practice which involves the use of a single brand
name in order to sale two or more related product at the related market place. The
company Vodafone is using Branded House strategy in order to provide value-added
services and data mobile packs to the customer. Also, the company has applied for the
auction of the 5G network that will be launched under the brand of Vodafone with the
purpose of bringing technological revolution across the world.
o House of Brand Strategy
This refers to branding architecture in which new product is launched with different
brand name featuring individual product in order to effectively with the other brand in
the market. The purpose of this strategy is to establish the independent identity of the
product in the market which is distinct from that of the main brand. Also, in case of loss
of any brand equity of the new brand will not impact the perception of the main brand.
o Sub-Branding
This refers classification of two or more brand under the parent brand for the purpose
of using the mixed brand and thereby creating a valuable advantage to the customer
which might result in gaining the trust of the target audience (MacInnis et al., 2014).

o Endorsed Brand
This branding strategy can be used by Vodafone that can provide a greater variety of
positioning alternative. An endorser brand is a mixture of individual and distinct
product brand that are linked together under the parent brand.
o Hybrid Brand
This is a branding architecture which refers to the merger or acquisition of two or
more brand with the purpose of keeping customer happy and provides them with
attractive offerings in future. For Example- Vodafone adopted Hutchison telecom in
order to offer competitive products or services in the telecommunication market. This
acquisition accelerated the controlling position of the Vodafone in the mobile market
(Pyper and Gounaris, 2016).