Marketing Essentials: Vodafone's Strategies and Analysis Report

This report provides a detailed analysis of Vodafone's marketing strategies, covering various aspects such as the roles and responsibilities of marketing, the interrelationship between marketing and other organizational units like HR, Finance, and Research & Development. It also includes a comparative analysis of Vodafone and British Telecom based on the 7 Ps of marketing, highlighting differences in product offerings, pricing strategies, distribution channels, promotional activities, and customer service. Furthermore, the report delves into the importance and value of a marketing plan, outlining Vodafone's mission, vision, and objectives, along with a SWOT analysis to assess its strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. The report also examines the 4 Ps of marketing (Product, Price, Place, and Promotion) and the STP analysis (Segmentation, Targeting, and Positioning) of Vodafone, offering a comprehensive overview of the company's marketing approaches. The report concludes with a discussion on financial planning and monitoring and controlling measures in the context of Vodafone's marketing activities.

MARKETING
ESSENTIALS

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
LO 1.................................................................................................................................................3
Roles and Responsibilities of Marketing- ..................................................................................3
Interrelationship between marketing and other units of an organization-...................................5
LO 2.................................................................................................................................................6
Difference between Vodafone and British Telecom on the basis of 7 P's-.................................6
LO 3.................................................................................................................................................7
Importance and value of Marketing Plan-...................................................................................7
SWOT analysis of Vodafone-.....................................................................................................7
4 P's of Marketing- .....................................................................................................................8
STP analysis of Vodafone- .........................................................................................................8
Financial planning.......................................................................................................................9
Monitoring and Controlling-.....................................................................................................10
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................10
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................12

INTRODUCTION
Marketing is the study of promoting and selling products through advertising and research and
development to satisfy the consumers. Vodafone is British multinational public listed
conglomerate which is situated in London. The company is serving its network across 25
countries and is ranked at 4th position globally. It offers unified communications , cloud
computing, their global enterprises serves in 65 countries. Company has even launched the
cheapest mobile of the world which was known as Vodafone 150 and the pricing of the product
was around $15. they also have services like mobile money transfer and m health service. The
questions covered in this project are SWOT analysis, STP , Mission, vision and objectives<
differentiation between Vodafone and British Telecom on the basis of 7 P's their financial plan
and their marketing plan in relation with HR, Finance and research and development.
LO 1
Roles and Responsibilities of Marketing-
Finding the Best Distribution Channels-
Distribution is concerned with making goods available into the market for the prospective
buyers. As Vodafone is a multinational company and operates in different countries to generate
higher revenues it is difficult to establish an effective distribution system in an interconnected
world so they have open up their own centres and shops to serve their products and services for
their target customers and setting up an effective distribution process like this, it helps Vodafone
to earn higher profits.
Financing an Enterprise-
To make more money Vodafone is emphasizing on taking out the money through investments,
loans or capital for innovation of new products and their promotion.
Market Research-

Vodafone gathers information which concerns to their prospective buyers so that they can ensure
them why choose them over their competitors and to come up with up that an analysis or
research is needed to be done.
Setting Prices-
Vodafone keeps a balance between price so that they don't charge more and loose customers and
don't set their prices too low that they ran out of money.
Product and Service Management- After determination of prices the goal of Vodafone is to
mange their services, listen and responds to their needs and wants of customers and keep their
services up to date accordingly.
Promotional Channels-
Vodafone is familiar with the importance of promotion. So Vodafone believes in advertising
more to attract more customers and retain existing customers.
Matching Products to Customers-
After determining and considering all the factors according to the needs and wants of customers
they make their services according to them and then sell into the market.
Roles and Responsibilities of Marketing in Relation with Marketing Environment-
In case of a wider organizational approach of Vodafone marketing has different roles and
responsibilities. Gathering and analysis of market is the first role and responsibility of marketing
as it helps in identifying the taste and preferences, their liking's and demand accordingly
regarding advertisements. It helps in achieving organizational objectives and targets by creating
different strategies.
When it comes to design or develop products and services. Thus they have introduced Vodafone
doodle to introduce their services with them as it is a different idea to announce their services
and plans and creates a different identity for the brand and increase its value and for this reason
most of the people know about Vodafone.
Vodafone has various units which functions in departments like research and development,
finance, customer service and many others. Finance department helps Vodafone in bringing
profits and this department helps in setting target and objectives of the company for the coming
year. (Kerr and Moloney, 2018)
Customer service helps the department to understand views and perceptions of the customers
whereas department of Research and Development gives different reports to the team of

marketing so that they can make strategies accordingly and on the basis of these reports given by
these various departments and information provided by them marketing team set strategies to
meet the required needs and complete the target of production whereas customer service is
different from those units and leaves a small impact on the team of marketing.
Interrelationship between marketing and other units of an organization-
Marketing with HR-
It is also known as Consumerization of HR. These two departments in Vodafone work together
on the problems whether it concerns to internal or external matters of the company. Recruitment,
selection and development are now controlled and monitored by both the HR and Marketing
departments instead of just HR in order to create the brand of Vodafone. Marketing department
of Vodafone spread the brand to the consumers whereas collaboration of Marketing and HR
spread the importance of the brand to employees by using tools like social media. HR recruits the
best to build and promote the company whereas Marketing department spread the awareness of
the brand to employees.
Marketing in relation with finance-
Vodafone integrates finance with marketing to meet the expected results for the future growth of
the company. If they don't go hand in hand company will suffer from high losses. Finance
includes all aspects relating to money like cost, profits, financial performance and growth in
sales whereas Marketing includes sales in volume, sales in comparison with their competitors,
targets completed or not. Without sales no profit will be there and without Marketing there will
be no finance. Vodafone has strong finance because of successful marketing and that is how
company set their goals, targets plans and strategies. Both the departments are interrelated and
cannot be isolated. That's why Vodafone does not considers them as different departments. They
focus on working together to achieve organizational goals. (Kose and et.al., 2016)
Marketing in relation with Research and Development-
Vodafone gathers and understands information about the customers. Information is the purpose
of research and development. They also test new products and services. Vodafone gathers
information by testing of products, conducting surveys and taking immediate feedback from
customers. They study on how to reach new customers, research is done to identify and resolve

the problem under the budget funded by finance department. To increase awareness they build a
list of customers and send email and special coupons. (Linton, 2017)
LO 2
Difference between Vodafone and British Telecom on the basis of 7 P's-
Basis Vodafone British Telecom
Product Deals in fixed line telephones,
mobile phones, broadband, internet
television, digital television, IPTV,
dongles
Deals in the same products
Vodafone does except British
Telecom has more to add in their list
of products such as fibre optic
communication, IT and network
services, Home security, fleet
management, supply chain
management and
telecommunications equipment.
Price Vodafone uses penetration pricing
strategy for their products and
services.
British Telecom uses skimming
pricing strategy for their products
and services.
Place Headquarters of Vodafone is in
London, England and it operates in
25 countries.
Headquarters of British Telecom is
also situated in London, England and
it operates with a wide network in
180 countries.
Promotion Vodafone promotes their schemes
and services in short
advertisements with their doodles
which they use in sport events like
ICC world cup and in IPL etc
Their strategy is to continuously
evolve to emphasize on connectivity
and services and with the help of
social media and other tools.
People People who are working in
Vodafone has less job security as if
People who are working in British
Telecom has high job security as

the company don't like your work
they will fire you.
they believe in retention of
employees for a long period of time.
Physical Evidence They have mini stores available for
all of their services in 25 countries
they operate.
They have full size stores as they
serve wide range and variety of
products and services.
Process Category management, value
creation, strong capabilities of back
office, academies for SCM, 3rd
party business, excellence in
operations. They believe and rely
on complex and multi global
supply chains.
They have 850 people for the
distribution process. They handle
40,000 to 50,000 orders per day
LO 3
Importance and value of Marketing Plan-
Mission- To enrich the lives of customers by power of mobile communication.(Niaz and
Medina, 2018)
Vision- To be the leader in the market of communication in this increasingly connected world.
Objectives-
To increase sales of new product by 10% till the end of year 2020
To increase the market share by 30% till the end of year 2022
To enhance consumer experience by 10% in upcoming 6 months
To increase the profitability by 20% till the end of year 2020.(Mogos, 2015)
SWOT analysis of Vodafone-
Strength-
Vodafone has one of the largest coverage of market. Forbes has ranked Vodafone at 395th rank
among 2000 of them as it has a wide and network and distribution coverage and in India it has a
second largest base of subscribers. (Sajid, 2016)
Weakness-

Vodafone is performing poor in Europe because of the poor economy in Europe it is not
performing good in its home country. Most of the revenue that is around 40 per cent of revenue
is generated from India.
Opportunities-
People rely more and more on smartphones and that increases the use of cellular network and
that brings more profitability to the network operators. It is a potential segment which will
always be in demand and challenge is to acquire or obtain more and more market share.(Singh,
2018)
Threats-
Portability of a mobile number is a major threat for the company because whenever a competitor
launches a new, better and cheaper scheme which is more affordable by the consumers, then the
consumer won't think again even if he is loyal he will switch over to the competitor's network
(Orlando, 2016)
4 P's of Marketing-
Product- Vodafone is putting their emphasis on being the first one to come up with 5 G network
in every market they operates they have done their research put a large amount of their funds and
resources into this project so that they can obtain more share in the market (Baker, 2016)
Place- Currently Vodafone operates in 25 countries with their head office in UK but now they
want to expand their business and get into more countries to set up and establish their brands
there to generate a high no. of revenue. Also they want to introduce with 5 G their new service in
the market to gain attention of the new consumers rapidly so that it would make it easy to enter
into another markets.
Price- Vodafone is launching 5 G service with affordable pricing to gain more customers and
take over more competitors and gain the trust of people in the market. Poor or rich both won't
mind services which are better and cheaper that is why they are adapting this strategy.
Promotion- To make their new service successful they have already announced it and
conducting regular promotional schemes like sponsorship events, campaign or exhibition events
to aware the prospective buyers of their schemes to create buzz among people before they have
launched it.(Martin, 2017)

STP analysis of Vodafone-
Segmentation-
Vodafone breaks the segment for its users on the basis of age, lifestyle of people, standard of
living, income, usage of services by households and on the basis of geographical location (Kerin
and Hartley, 2015)
Targeting-
They are adopting a approach which is multi segment. In every targeted market they are offering
different schemes and different products for the market accordingly so that they don't loose the
reputation in the eyes of prospective buyers.
Positioning-
Vodafone has positioned themselves as wherever you go you will be followed by our network
and a more fun brand. Company will make a shift in the promotion strategies. (Davis, 2017)
Financial planning

Jan Feb March April May June
Cash inflow
Sales 15000 16000 17000 18000 19000 20000
Total cash inflow 15000 16000 17000 18000 19000 20000
cash outflow
rent 2000 2000 2000 2000 2000 2000
marketing
expenses 3000 2000 4000 3000 3000 3000
raw material
purchase 4000 4000 4000 4000 4000 4000
utility bills 500 600 500 600 500 600
wages 2500 2500 2500 2500 2500 2500
Total cash outflow 12000 11100 13000 12100 12000 12100
Net cash flow 3000 4900 4000 5900 7000 7900
Monitoring and Controlling-
KPI of Vodafone-
The company uses key performance indicator to evaluate their success of the particular schemes
and services introduced and they choose the right KPIs which helps in good understanding of
what is important for the organization.
Cost and Sales analysis of Vodafone-
By doing this analysis company figure out how much the cost of their product is and how much
sales is done of their products so that they can take out the exact figure of profit and can evaluate
the investments according to the deviations or future growth prospects of the company and how
much gap is there between them and their competitors. (Bailey and Ingram, 2017)
CONCLUSION
From the above study it has been summarized that marketing has helped company in promoting
their products. It has helped firm in increasing their sales. Company like Vodafone has made use
of various marketing tactics which has supported company in achieving their objectives. Firm
has been able to do market research which has supported them in knowing about consumer
demands and preferences. By knowing that company has created their growth opportunities. This
has helped achieving their goals and objectives. Company has also brought new product which
has helped them in creating goodwill in market. It has helped them in creating their brand value.

REFERENCES
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