University of Northampton: Vodafone UK Marketing Audit (MKTM028)

This report presents a strategic marketing audit of Vodafone UK, conducted for the Master of Business Administration module MKTM028 at the University of Northampton. The audit encompasses a thorough analysis of the macro-environment using PESTLE factors, assessing political, economic, social, technological, legal, and environmental influences on Vodafone's operations in the UK. It further delves into the micro-environment, examining the UK mobile network market, customer demographics, and key competitors like BT Group, EE, and O2. Internal analysis evaluates Vodafone's strategies, functions, and productivity, including its 5G network rollout and digital transformation initiatives. The report also includes a SWOT analysis, identifying Vodafone's strengths (e.g., 5G coverage), weaknesses (e.g., network reputation), opportunities (e.g., 5G discounts), and threats (e.g., competition). Key strategic challenges, such as maintaining a sustainable market position and implementing digital solutions, are also discussed. The report concludes by highlighting the importance of customer-centric marketing and government support for Vodafone's future growth in the UK telecom sector, referencing several academic articles and industry reports.

Strategic marketing

Contents
Introduction................................................................................................................................2
Pestle analysis of Vodafone UK................................................................................................2
Swot analysis of Vodafone UK..................................................................................................3
Micro analysis............................................................................................................................3
Market: Mobile network market of UK..................................................................................3
Customers...............................................................................................................................4
Competitors............................................................................................................................4
Internal analysis.........................................................................................................................4
Functions................................................................................................................................4
Strategy review.......................................................................................................................4
Productivity review....................................................................................................................5
Conclusion..................................................................................................................................5
References..................................................................................................................................6

Introduction
Vodafone is one of the leading telecommunication players in different countries including
UK. Vodafone has it’s headquarter in UK. Vodafone Plc. is responsible for the wireless
operation in UK. It provides voice calling as well as data services including multimedia and
text messaging. It has around 18 million mobile customers in UK. Vodafone is innovative
company that is effectively known for its excellent marketing. In order to acquire the faster
growth, company is giving emphasis on digitalisation and customer engagement. In the
paper, discussion has carried on the macro environmental analysis (pestle analysis) and micro
analysis including customer, competitors and performance.
Pestle analysis of Vodafone UK
Political factors: political forces have grown the importance in the 21st century. The level of
government intervention in the world of business has increased. It further leads to the
increasing pressure on international companies such as Vodafone. Due to the increasing
government rules and regulations, telecom industry is also facing pressure.
Economic factors: It is found that Brexit has created some of the effect in Vodafone
profitability of UK. Vodafone has stated that UK is toughest and challenging environment for
it due to Brexit. Due to Brexit, it is also seen that Vodafone warned to move its head office
from UK. Vodafone Group was increasingly worried about the risk as per the Company
Executive.
Social factors: due to the changing customer demand, Vodafone has worked on improving the
customer experiences. Vodafone has been recognising the importance of technology. In order
to meet the demand of customers for better network, it continuously invests in the network
automation by bringing 5G network.
Technological factors: the recent report published states that Vodafone has shown the link
between business confidence and digital transformation in UK. Research launched by
Vodafone also shows that more than around 3 quarter of leaders from sports organisation sees
the improvement in fan engagement. 5G technology other than any other technology is
driving change and delivery the experiences. Technological up gradation and 5g technology
in UK is improving the fan engagement with several applications such as mixed reality

experiences, live streaming video, as well as real time across to the information. Around 80
per cent of the sports companies believe that 5g technologies will definitely underpin how
they run their companies. Through this change, it wants to help the organisation in
understanding the benefits from responsiveness, speed and reliability.
Swot analysis of Vodafone UK
Strengths: In UK, 5g coverage is the biggest strength of Vodafone. 5G network is recently
available in more than 30 UK cities and towns. The different plans are available for Vodafone
in UK. Vodafone has strong base in UK by serving customers from last few years. It has
maintained its brand image in the market which do not led customers to easily switch to other
countries.
Weaknesses: Vodafone is regarded as poor network provider in UK. It was best network
provider in the past year. However, its image has been changed as rated as worst network. It
is seen that Vodafone is already committed to maintain its investment programme in UK. It
can gain several opportunities by ensuring proper spending in the coming years.
Opportunities: In its 5G plan, Vodafone can work on providing enough discounts to the
customers. This will help the customers in using more of its mobile network. Telecom market
is forecasted to grow in the near future due to increasing globalisation. Government support
is also encouraging the mobile networks to grow in the market.
Threats: Vodafone faces several challenges in UK. The first threat is the fierce competition
from several competitive brands. Vodafone is also under fire for charging more with the
customers in last year. During the year 2016, it is found that Vodafone has posted the total
£186m that is down from the £336m the previous year data.
Micro analysis
Market: Mobile network market of UK
Telecom market of UK is seen as the biggest in Europe and characterised by tough
competition. it is found that mobile broadband will place several pressure in the coming
years. It is also supported by efforts of government to encourage the correct economic
environment in UK by the year 2033. In the market of UK, government has also committed to
provide £500 million that will help LTE network in its sharing plan. In UK telecom market, it

has generated around £3.4bn in the retain revenue. Moreover, it is found that number of
mobile voice calls as compare to previous year has been decreased while use of mobile data
has increased substantially (Palattella et al, 2016).
Customers
Due to the increasing digitalisation, demand of mobile network provider has been increased.
UK is one of the 26 countries in which Vodafone running its activity. From the customer
satisfaction report, it is found that Tesco mobile has the highest entry for telecommunication
sector. Vodafone also come under the most improved organisation in the mobile network
provider. Around 91 per cent of the people are satisfied by taking the services from mobile
sector in UK. Due to customer complaints, it is seen that Vodafone has fined £4.6m in the
year 2016. From the customer complaint satisfaction, it is seen that Vodafone has recorded
just 47 per cent (Niaz and Medina, 2018).
Competitors
The major competitors available in the UK mobile network market are BT group, EE, O2,
Virgin Mobile, Sky, Lycamobile, Talk Talk Group, and Giffgaff. These mobile network
companies provide broadband services, fixed and mobile line services, as well as broadband
network solutions (Curwen and Whalley, 2016). In the near future, competition might
increase due to increasing market of mobile network provider.
Internal analysis
Functions
In UK, Vodafone has network expert who are basically technical experts. They have the
responsibility to design, plan, operate, and test the Vodafone mobile and fixed networks.
They work closely with the main technology vendors for identifying the best technology
related solution for its network. It has also adopted the digital tools in UK for driving its cost
and automate its operation. For this, it has introduced the chatbot with the name Tobi for
handling the basic customer service as well as online sale (Ang, 2016). It believes that
automating the operation can help telecom across the world to lower down the cost. In order
to promote the high standard of its corporate governance, Vodafone is planning to seek the
compliance with corporate governance code (Jones and Comfort, 2019).

Strategy review
It is seen that the recent business strategy of Vodafone is to grow its business through the
geographical expansion. It however gives major emphasis in its marketing for retaining the
market leadership (Kumar, 2019). The major strategy of Vodafone in UK is product based by
utilising the advance technology. Among the young people, UK mobile phone market has
approached the maturity in shorter period of time.
Vodafone has done the strategic transformation into the converged leader by owning the
Europe’s biggest 5g and 4g mobile network. Vodafone also follows the content strategy.
Following this strategy, it works closely with the international and national partners rather
than creator and owner of unique content that requires some different focus and skill set
(Vodafone, 2019).
Productivity review
Vodafone struggles in UK as its financial results have shown that the total revenue fell by 3.6
per cent to the £11.8 billion. Due to this, it brought the changes in its performance by offering
5G or more than 100 cities and towns in UK. The chief technology officer of Vodafone UK
has also said that 5G network has allowed it in introducing the market leading unlimited
broadband and mobile services. It is seen that with the launch of 5G data, telecom giant are
fighting with each other.
From the annual report of the Vodafone, the business revenue grew by 0.3 per cent. It has
also done the partnership with IBM in order to provide the access to every cloud offerings.
Due to the increasing digital world, Vodafone has seen the emergence of new and innovative
technologies including artificial intelligence agents, big data analytics, as well as robotic
process automation. It has also accelerated the implementation of its Digital Vodafone
Programme from three to five years.
TOWS matrix
Strengths Weaknesses

Internal factors
External factors
 Network access
 Distribution network
Customer loyalty
Perception regarding offers
Opportunities
 Exposure to
several
discounting
schemes
Rural data marketing
SO- strategies
Using wide customer
base for the mobile payment
banking services
WO- strategies
Expanding the data market
Threats:
Providing claims to
retailers for their
online recharge
claims
ST strategies
Pricing for 5g network should be
competitive
WT strategies
Online recharge
Key strategic challenges
In the recent time, maintaining the sustainable position is becoming challenge for the
companies. Due to this, societal change remains a significant challenge for the industries.
However, Vodafone is working on implementation of digital Vodafone in order to enhance
the experience of customers. In spite of this, bringing automation and simplification in the
processes proves to be key strategic challenge for the company.
Conclusion
In the limelight of above discussion, it can be concluded that Vodafone is creating the
customer centric image by giving emphasis on the marketing including user engagement,
promotions. However, customer complaints have been increased in the UK telecom industry.
from the report, it is seen that customer complaints are not given major consideration. It has
started giving digital assistance to its customers so that their concerns can be solved quickly
and effectively. The government support is likely to increase in the near future which can

bring several growth opportunities for Vodafone in the market. In addition to this, Vodafone
is already committed to maintain its investment programme in UK.

References
Ang, R., 2016. Vodafone Global Telecommunications: Optimizing Operations. IUP Journal
of Operations Management, 15(4), p.46.
Curwen, P. and Whalley, J., 2016. Mobile telecommunications in a high-speed world:
Industry structure, strategic behaviour and socio-economic impact. Routledge.
Dey, B.L., Al-Karaghouli, W., Minov, S., Babu, M.M., Ayios, A., Mahammad, S.S. and
Binsardi, B., 2020. The Role of Speed on Customer Satisfaction and Switching Intention: A
Study of the UK Mobile Telecom Market. Information Systems Management, 37(1), pp.2-15.
Goddard, J.B. and Gillespie, A.E., 2017. Advanced telecommunications and regional
economic development. In Managing the city (pp. 84-109). Routledge.
Jones, P. and Comfort, D., 2019. Mobilising the 5G network. Town and Country
Planning, 88(6), pp.246-250.
Kumar, B.R., 2019. Vodafone Acquisition of Mannesmann. In Wealth Creation in the
World’s Largest Mergers and Acquisitions (pp. 17-29). Springer, Cham.
Niaz, H.M. and Medina, I.G., 2018. Vodafone: The relationship between brand image and
online marketing strategies. IROCAMM-International Review Of Communication And
Marketing Mix, (1), pp.7-31.
Palattella, M.R., Dohler, M., Grieco, A., Rizzo, G., Torsner, J., Engel, T. and Ladid, L., 2016.
Internet of things in the 5G era: Enablers, architecture, and business models. IEEE Journal on
Selected Areas in Communications, 34(3), pp.510-527.
Vodafone. 2019. Annual report. [online] Available from:
https://www.vodafone.com/investors/investor-information/annual-report/downloads/
Vodafone-strategic-report-2019.pdf

Appendix
Company Overview
Name Vodafone
Type Public listed company
Areas served Worldwide
Key competitors  BT group
 Sky
 EE
 O2
 Virgin Mobile
 Talk Talk Group
 Lycamobile,
Industry Telecommunication
Products and services  Mobile phone
 Broadband services
 Internet television
 Digital television
 Internet of things

Macro model framework
Micro model framework
Market: Tough
competition in
market and
governemnt
intervention
competitors: ,
Talk Talk
Group,
Lycamobile,
and Giffgaff.
customers:
Increasing
digitalisation

Internal environmental analysis
strategy:
strategic
transformation
productivity:
offeirng 5G has
improved the
productivity
functions:
network
experts