Vodafone Marketing Strategies: A Comprehensive Analysis

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MARKETING ESSENTIALS
VODAFONE

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION........................................................................................................................3
COMPANY OVERVIEW..............................................................................................................4
LO1 ROLE OF MARKETING AND ITS INTERRELATIONSHIP WITH THE OTHER FUNCTIONAL
UNITS OF THE COMPANY......................................................................................................... 5
KEY ROLES AND RESPONSIBILITIES OF MARKETING FUNCTION...........................................5
ROLES AND RESPONSIBILITIES OF MARKETING IN THE CONTEXT OF MARKETING
ENVIRONMENT OF THE COMPANY...................................................................................... 6
HOW ROLES AND RESPONSIBILITIES OF MARKETING RELATES WITH THE WIDER
ORGANISATIONAL CONTEXT................................................................................................7
THE SIGNIFICANCE OF THE INTERRELATIONSHIP BETWEEN MARKETING AND OTHER
FUNCTIONAL UNITS OF THE COMPANY................................................................................8
LO2 WAYS IN WHICH ORGANISATIONS USE THE ELEMENTS OF THE MARKETING MIX TO
ACHIEVE OVERALL BUSINESS OBJECTIVES..............................................................................10
APPLICATION OF MARKETING MIX TO THE MARKETING PLANNING PROCESS..................10
EVALUATING DIFFERENT TACTICS APPLIED BY THE ORGANISATIONS TO DEMONSTRATE
HOW BUSINESS OBJECTIVES HAVE BEEN ACHIEVED..........................................................13
LO3 DEVELOPING AND EVALUATING A BASIC MARKETING PLAN..........................................14
MARKETING PLAN.............................................................................................................. 14
CONCLUSION.......................................................................................................................... 20
REFERENCES........................................................................................................................... 21
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INTRODUCTION
Marketing is one of the prime function of every large and small business organization. A
marketing function focuses on identifying customer demands and fulfilling their demand
through advertising and promotional activities (Hollensen, 2010). Thus, it can be said that
the marketing function is a fundamental function of a business organization. The roles and
responsibilities of the marketing function in the Vodafone Company within the marketing
environment will be discussed in this assignment report along with its relationship with the
other functional units of the company. The marketing mix elements of the company will also
be compared with its competitor to analyze the way in which the business organizations
apply marketing mix elements to the marketing planning process of the organization. At last,
a basic marketing plan for the company will be produced by involving the major aspects of
the marketing plan to support the achievement of the marketing and business goals of the
company.
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COMPANY OVERVIEW
Vodafone is a multinational telecommunication organization based in the UK. Ernest
Harrison and Gerry Whent founded the company in the year 1991. It is a leading mobile
communication provider across the world that operates in across 26 countries and works in
partnership with the networks in more than 55 countries across the globe. The company has
around 444 million customers across the world and 19.5 million in the UK (Vodafone, 2019).
The company has diversified its businesses from just being a mobile telephone company to
the market player in the communication service industry by dealing in the internet of things
(IoT), broadband services, mobile and cloud services.
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LO1 ROLE OF MARKETING AND ITS INTERRELATIONSHIP WITH THE
OTHER FUNCTIONAL UNITS OF THE COMPANY
Vodafone is a multinational organization that needs to have a competitive marketing
strategy to compete with other communication organizations in the international and UK
market. A proper understanding of the marketing and marketing function and the
environment is very important for formulating an effective marketing strategy for the
company to achieve the ultimate goal of the organization.
DEFINING MARKETING
Philip Kotler has defined marketing as the science and art of identifying, developing and
delivering the value for satisfying the needs of the target market. Marketing aims at
identifying the unfulfilled needs and desires of the market. it defines and measure the size
of the identified market and supports in identifying the market segment where the company
is capable of serving best and promotes the appropriate products and services (Kotler,
2012).
Mary Ellen Bianco has defined marketing as Marketing involves research, targeting,
communication, and public relations. Marketing prepares the business audience to receive a
direct sales pitch. In simple words, marketing is the process of identifying and fulfilling
market needs to earn a profit. The marketing function at the organization emphasizes on
setting and achieving the marketing goals to meet the ultimate needs of the organization.
KEY ROLES AND RESPONSIBILITIES OF MARKETING FUNCTION
A marketing function helps the company to identify and source successful products for the
marketplace and then promoting the product by differentiating it from the available
products in the market. The key roles and responsibilities of marketing functions are;
 Conducting market research: identifying the market need is the core responsibility
of the marketing function. It involves market analysis and research to identify new
opportunities in the market.
 Product promotion and Advertising: marketing function is responsible for promoting
the products and services of the company in the wider market (Kotler, and
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Armstrong, 2010). It involves communicating the product information and qualities
to the targeted customers.
 Building and maintaining brand image: to develop a brand image and differentiate
the brand in the wider market is the key role of marketing to support the
organization in gaining competitiveness in the market.
 Product Distribution: it is the responsibility of marketing to develop an effective
distribution system to ensure the availability of the products to the targeted
customers.
 Maintain customer relation: marketing function is the only function that links the
company with the customer (Wilson, 2010). Thus, it is the prime task of marketing to
build an effective relationship with customers.
 Analyzing competition: it is the responsibility of the marketing function to analyze
the competition level in the market and overcome competition through effective
marketing strategies.
ROLES AND RESPONSIBILITIES OF MARKETING IN THE CONTEXT OF MARKETING
ENVIRONMENT OF THE COMPANY
The above-discussed roles and responsibilities of the marketing functions support the
Vodafone in achieving competitive advantage through marketing activities for the company.
the wider marketing environment involves three key factors i.e. macro environment, and
internal environment. The macro level factors are broadly classified as political, legal,
economic, environmental, technological, and social (Armstrong, et al., 2015). In the context
of the macro environment, the marketing function is responsible for formulating strategic
decisions for dealing with changes in the above-mentioned factors and identifying
opportunities as well as threats created due to these factors to ensure business growth and
development.
Moreover, the marketing environment is responsible for regular analysis of the
microenvironmental factors like competitors, suppliers, customers, and retailers to ensure
proper flow of operations within the company and maintain the brand image in the related
market (Hill, et al., 2012). The internal marketing environment factors are employees,
organizational culture and system. These factors have a direct impact on the company's
performance and thus, the marketing function is responsible to comply with the
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organization’s culture and values while formulating marketing strategies for the
organization.
HOW ROLES AND RESPONSIBILITIES OF MARKETING RELATES WITH THE WIDER
ORGANISATIONAL CONTEXT
Marketing is one of the five core functions of the business organization. an overall business
organization is equally dependent on all the five core functions of the organization that
mutually formulates the overall organization. The other four important functions of
marketing are; finance, human resource, operations and research and development (Baker,
2014). The relation of the roles and responsibilities of the marketing function with the wider
organizational context in Vodafone can be effectively determined with the value chain
analysis.
A values chain analysis is used for evaluating the value of business functions and operations.
It covers all the core functions of the organization and supports in analyzing their relations
within the company (Baker, 2014). The value chain analysis involves two activities i.e.
primary activities and support activities.
Primary Activities:
Inbound logistics: it emphasis on developing a strong relationship with suppliers that are
important to obtain, store and distribute products. Vodafone’s suppliers involve the
suppliers of radioactive equipment and retrieving raw material.
Operations: After procuring the raw material, it is important to design and manage the
business operations for producing desired products. It involves operational activities to
deliver products and services to a group of customers. Vodafone strategically outsources its
business operations to the third party.
Outbound logistics: it involves the retail distribution of the products and services to the
customers (Hollensen, 2010).
Marketing and sales: this activity involves the marketing and promotion activities of the
business. The company is focused to differentiate itself from its competitors.
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Services: it involves pre-sales and post-sales services to develop customer loyalty and
improve company performance in the market.
Support Activities:
Procurement: this activity is related to the accumulation of raw material to produce the
company's products. It focuses on producing products at the lowest possible price along
with maintaining the quality of the products.
Technology development: telecommunication industry is continuously experiencing
technological advancements. The regular research and development activities of the
company support in complying with the new changes in the market (Hollensen, 2010).
Human Resource Development: human resource function deals with the procurement and
management of the skilled and talented workforce to perform different activities of the
organization.
Firm Infrastructure: it denotes to the range of different organizational activities like quality
management, strategic management and another planning mechanism to control the
overall functions of the organization.
All the primary and support activities are linked with each other for successfully achieving
the aims and objectives of the organization.
THE SIGNIFICANCE OF THE INTERRELATIONSHIP BETWEEN MARKETING AND OTHER
FUNCTIONAL UNITS OF THE COMPANY
The interrelations of all the above-discussed functional units of the company with the
marketing functions are discussed as below:
Human resource and marketing: the human resource function deals with the recruitment,
selection, training, and management of the organizational workforce for performing
different activities at the organization (Le Meunier-FitzHugh and Lane, 2013). The human
resource function supports having a skilled and trained workforce to perform marketing
activities and the marketing function supports in attracting talent toward the company.
Finance and marketing: the finance function is responsible for managing budgets and
financial performance of the company. It the responsibility of finance function to allocating
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budget for every business functions. The activities of the marketing department are based
on the budget allotted by finance function and the marketing function supports in increasing
organizational revenue.
Operations and marketing: the responsibility of the operations function is to manage the
supply chain and operational process at the organization by ensuring availability of raw
material and required resource (Le Meunier-FitzHugh and Lane, 2013). Operations function
is based on the marketing function in identifying the market demand and similarly,
marketing function works on the basis of the operational and production capacity of the
company.
Research & development and marketing: the research development function is responsible
for identifying new opportunities, developing, and innovating new products to offer in the
market. It supports the marketing department to differentiate the company in a highly
competitive market and marketing function provides leads to the R &D function regarding
the need for new product development.
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LO2 WAYS IN WHICH ORGANISATIONS USE THE ELEMENTS OF THE
MARKETING MIX TO ACHIEVE OVERALL BUSINESS OBJECTIVES
The most critical function of marketing is to formulate an effective and comprehensive
marketing plan that would cover all the major aspects of marketing to achieve the business
objectives of the company. Here, the marketing planning process of the Vodafone will be
compared with its competitor BT (British Telecom) Group to gain an insight understanding
for formulating a successful marketing plan for a business.
BT Group is a UK based multinational telecommunication company. It was founded in the
year 1969. The company operates in around 180 countries. It is the largest company in
providing fixed-line, mobile and broadband services in the UK (BT, 2019). It also provides IT
services to customers. Both Vodafone and are leading telecommunication service providers
in the UK.
APPLICATION OF MARKETING MIX TO THE MARKETING PLANNING PROCESS
The marketing planning process of Vodafone and BT is analyzed and compared to
understand how the marketing process supports in meeting the ultimate business objectives
of the organization. The key stages of the marketing planning process are;
 ANALYSIS OF MARKET OPPORTUNITIES:
This stage is concerned with the identification and analysis of the existing challenges and
opportunities in the current market environment (Wilson, 2010). by analyzing the prevalent
market opportunities the company can effectively identify unsatisfied customer needs and
develop or improve their products accordingly.
 SELECTION OF TARGET MARKET:
it is the second stage of the marketing planning process that is concerned with a
thorough analysis of the current market to identify the target audience for the product. It
involves the classification of the market into segments to direct all the marketing activities
towards obtaining the attention of the targeted segment.
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 DEVELOPMENT OF MARKETING MIX:
Marketing mix refers to the planned mix of the different important marketing elements.
Vodafone and BT both focus on formulating a strategic blend of all the elements of the
marketing mix to differentiate themselves in the highly competitive marketing environment
in the telecommunication industry (Wilson, 2010). Development of the right blend of
marketing elements is one of the most critical tasks. The 7P’s, i.e. important elements of the
marketing mix for the service organizations like Vodafone and BT is compared below;
 Product: products refers to the goods or services offered by the company.
Vodafone offers a wide range of products involving voice, data, messaging and
fixed line solutions with the aim of fulfilling the communication needs of its
customers (Mba Skool, 2019). The main products of Vodafone are Post-paid, Pre-
paid and VAS services. the company has products in different genres such as
branded phones, handsets, internet services, VAS, Smartphones. The core use of
its products is communication through calling and texting. On the other hand, BT
has a diversified product range including a mobile telephone, landline, digital
television, and IT services.
 Price: price may be stated as the exchange rate of production for the customers.
Vodafone follows a competitive pricing strategy. Its pricing strategy is different in
different consumer segment based on the quality of the service such as
bandwidth and high speed. It focuses on delivering high-quality services at the
lower or equal price to its competitors. While BT follows bundle pricing. In the
case of internet and business broadband, the company provides different offers
on the basis of utility rate of the customers (Mba Skool, 2019). thus, it can be
said that both companies follow a competitive based pricing strategy.
 Promotion: it is related to obtaining customers attention towards the company
and its products. Vodafone follows an aggressive promotional strategy by
promoting its product through billboards, TV, print media and online media. It
also follows celebrity endorsement to increase brand value. Vodafone
differentiates advertising strategy like Vodafone ZooZoos easily differentiate the
company from others. Similarly, BT also promotes its product through radio,
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print media, billboards, television, and internet. The company also provides
customer discounts and offers to attract a large number of customers.
 Place: it refers to the location from where the company sales its products to the
customers. The products of Vodafone are sold through customer care centers
and independent retailer shops. The company has a large number of stores
across different locations of the country. BT uses different distribution channels
for different products (Mba Skool, 2019). The company more often uses direct
mode of communication such as door to door sales, e-mails and it has open
reach subsidiary to connect with its customers.
 People: it involves key people such as employees customers suppliers. Vodafone
serves more than 400 million people across the world with a staggering range of
employees of over 100,000. Employees and customers both are a vital part of the
company. While BT has a larger number of employee and customer than
Vodafone i.e. more than 106,400 employees across the world. In order to
manage its key people, the provides regular training to the employees and
incentives to the customers.
 Process: it involves the process of producing products. Vodafone strongly focuses
on its business process. Having fully functional towers and easy availability of the
top-ups is very important for the company. The internal process of the company
is aimed at maintaining good network availability. On the other hand, the
business process of BT is to ensure easy access to customers. Both companies
focus on providing customer support.
 Physical Evidence: it may refer to how other people evident the products of the
service organization in the market (Mba Skool, 2019). For Vodafone, Physical
evidence is its SIM cards, recharge vouchers, service outlets and stores, and
digital TV services. the physical evidence of BT is stores or the annual reports and
financial reports, and digital TV services.
 MANAGEMENT OF MARKETING EFFORTS:
After developing the effective marketing mix, the next stage is to successfully develop and
implement a marketing programme. This stage is referred to as an action Phase that
involves marketing planning, implementation of plan and marketing control (Wilson, 2010).
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