Vodafone's Marketing Essentials: Roles, Environment and Functions

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Added on 2024/07/03

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This report provides a comprehensive analysis of Vodafone's marketing essentials, focusing on the roles and responsibilities of the marketing function, its relationship with the wider organizational context, and the impact of the marketing environment. It examines the key roles such as market research, product development, pricing, and promotion, and how these functions relate to production, R&D, sales, finance, and HRM within Vodafone. The report also analyzes the marketing environment, considering both micro and macro factors such as competition, governmental policies, natural forces, socio-cultural forces, demographic factors, and technological changes. Furthermore, it explores the interrelationships between marketing and other functional units, including production, finance, and human resources, highlighting the importance of collaboration for achieving organizational goals. The analysis incorporates the marketing concept and current/future trends to provide a holistic view of Vodafone's marketing operations.

Marketing Essentials
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Table of content
Introduction......................................................................................................................................3
Scenario ONE.................................................................................................................................. 4
Task 1...............................................................................................................................................4
Task 2...............................................................................................................................................7
Scenario TWO............................................................................................................................... 13
Task 1.............................................................................................................................................13
Task 2.............................................................................................................................................16
Conclusion:.................................................................................................................................... 21
Reference List................................................................................................................................ 22
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Introduction
Marketing is an essential part of business, which is being operated by the marketing team of any
business organizations. The key purpose of this unit is to promote the organizational
communication with the consumers. The role played by the marketing department is essential for
all the other business functions in the organization. In this context, it is vital for the marketers to
understand the key roles and functions played by the marketing team in an organization. The
marketing department promotes the brand image through undertaking several marketing
strategies and procedures. These procedures are aligned with the organizational objectives and
goals. Thus, it is important for the marketing staffs to understand the marketing fundamentals
and essentials, which are the key focus of this current assignment. In order to understand the
importance of marketing and related strategies, the case study of Vodafone will be demonstrated.
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Scenario ONE
Task 1
As highlighted above, the marketing is one of the most crucial parts of business functions,
playing significant role in promoting the products and services provided by the organization. In
this context, it is crucial to understand the key roles and responsibilities played by the marketing,
which is demonstrated for Vodafone in the below section.
a) Explain the key roles and responsibilities of the marketing function. (P1)
The key roles and responsibilities of marketing functions
Market research – It is one of the crucial roles played by the marketing department of Vodafone.
The marketing manager of the organization is influencing the team to gather information about
the market, analyze the market trends, identify customer’s needs and the service related data of
the competitor companies, so that the organization can develop the best strategy to overwhelm
the competitors and grab attention of target audience through proper marketing plan (Babin and
Zikmund, 2017).
Product development and management – It is also a crucial duty of the marketing department.
For instance, it is the role of marketing manager to communicate with the production unit and
convey the key findings regarding the customer’s needs and shape the product or service
features, based on which the production plan is developed.
Pricing – The pricing function of marketing department of Vodafone is indicating that the
marketing unit is conducting the market research and determines the overall price of the
products. It is done by comparing the products from the other competitor organizations, in order
to ensure that the organization is getting the competitive advantage over the other competitor
organizations (Baker, 2015).
Promotion – It is the key function of the marketing department, which is done for making the
target customers aware of the products and services offered by the organization. Vodafone is
using unique promotional and advertisement strategies for grabbing attention of the potential
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target customers towards their products. Promotional activities by the marketing department are
prioritized by the organizational goals and objectives. The organization is utilizing both online
and offline channels for promoting its products and reach to the wider customer pool.
Vodafone’s Zhu Zhu advertisement has got huge customer attention, which has been seen in
enhanced profit margin of the company (Blythe, 2017).
b) Explain how roles and responsibilities of marketing relate to the wider organizational
context. (P2)
In Vodafone, marketing is an integral part of business, which has been conducted aligning with
all the organizational objectives as well as other functions. Thus, marketing roles and
responsibilities are related to the wider organizational context.
Production and marketing – It is the crucial responsibility of marketing department to assist the
production unit in the organization by collaborating with the unit and shaping the producing plan
according to the key market trends and customer’s needs identified through the market research.
These two departments in Vodafone work hand in hand to satisfy the customer’s needs and
sustain the market growth of the organization. The role of marketing department in shaping the
production and supply chain function also helps the organization to gain competitive advantage
over the other competitive organizations (Brooks and Simkin, 2017).
R & D and marketing – One of the key roles of marketing department in conducting market
research. By doing this, the marketing unit of Vodafone is assisting the collection of data related
to the current market trends and the demands of customers. Based on these aspects, the R & D
team of Vodafone works to invent unique features, which can be added to the products and
services, which are different from the other competitors. As a result, the company is gaining
significant competitive advantage over others as well as improving the customer satisfaction.
Sales and marketing – The sales and marketing units in Vodafone Inc. are aligned or intertwined
in most of their functions. It is difficult to separate the contribution of these two units in
achieving organizational success. Marketing unit develops the promotional strategies and grabs
attention of the customers, based on which the sales strategies are developed and sales forecast is
done to influence the purchase decisions of the targeted customers (Lamb et al., 2017).
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Finance and marketing – Based on the marketing strategies and tools, the organizations like
Vodafone develops the budget and financial forecasting. Therefore, it is evident that marketing
plays a key role in shaping the financial functions of the organization. The information from the
market research is crucial in developing budget and price for each product as well as for
predicting the annual growth and financial profits.
HRM and marketing – The marketing department is also aligning its function with the human
resource management. For instance, this unit is ensuring that the workforce of the organization is
efficient enough to meet the organizational demand as well as customer’s needs. The marketing
department identifies the key needs of the organization, based on which the human resource of
the organization is shaped. For example, based on the customer’s expectations, the organization
Vodafone’s human resource department identifies the key strengths and weaknesses of the
organizational workforce, followed by the arrangement of talent management, including training,
development programs as well as reward system (Malhotra, 2018). As a result, organizational
workforce would become competent enough to meet customer’s needs.
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Task 2
a) Analyze the roles and responsibilities of marketing in the context of the marketing
environment using the organization of your choice. (M1)
Marketing concept:
The marketing concept is a conviction that a firm should analyse the needs and demands of their
consumers and make appropriate decisions to maintain the competitive advantages in the market.
Vodafone adopts this idea to develop their marketing concept as per the current and future trends
(Philip, 2014). They are developing their marketing concept on the basis of six factors such as:
production Concept, product concept, selling concept, marketing concept, concept of social
marketing.
Current and future trends of marketing:
Some business trends are taking time to build up and some happens overnight. The current and
future trends of marketing are discussed below:
Current trends of marketing:
The current trend of marketing is based on the previous trend that has been improved upon, such
as TV ads and print (Pike, 2015). The new strategies are focused on the inbound practices of the
company. Some of the most common current marketing trends are as follows:
 Social media marketing
 Targeted emails
 Advertisement via text messages
 Advertisement via internet videos
 Targeting campaigns
Future trends of marketing:
Though it is clearly unpredictable what new marketing trends are waiting in the market but based
on the previous trends, a general idea can be generated in this context.
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 Technology will increasingly available to the general public and the people will be more
receptive to the marketing tactics.
 Many rudimentary marketing tactics will fizzle out. Radio advertisement, cable TV
advertisement will lose their popularity in the market and forum alternative will capture
the market place.
Marketing environment:
External environment:
The external environment of the company establishes factors which are external to the business
and on which the marketers have less control. It can be classified by two factors. Those factors
are:
 Micro environment:
It is a micro component of external environment which consists of external forces that directly
related to the company. The micro environment includes partners, intermediaries, customers,
competitors and public.
 Macro environment:
The macro environment of marketing constitutes the external forces which affects the company
as a whole and do not have any direct effect (Malhotra, 2015). The macro environment consists
of six different parts such as demographic environment, economic environment, physical
environment technological environment, political environment and social environment.
Influences on marketing environment:
There are six factors in external environment that influences the marketing activity of a
company. Those factors are:
 Competition:
Competition refers to create competitive products to increase the market capitalization. The
marketer if the company might not have the direct influence on them but an effective strategy
can be built by using controllable variables.
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 Governmental policies:
Government restrictions are playing as a hinder for marketers in a particular field. It affects the
business operation in this scale.
 Natural Forces:
It refers to natural resources that can hinder the production output. It refers to the physical
environment of the business.
 Social and cultural forces:
It refers to structure and dynamics of individuals and their behaviours, believes and lifestyle that
affects the marketing operations.
 Demographic factors:
It refers to analyze people as per their age, gender, occupation and family size (Bauer, 2018).
Accurate forecasts of these demographic factors enable the marketer to forecast the future trends
and consumption of product.
 Technological changes:
It is most challenging factor for the marketer. It affects the kind of product a company can offer.
The skills and knowledge applied for the production can also create impact on the smooth
running of business.
Role and responsibilities of marketing:
The role and responsibility of marketing managers are as follows:
 Developing the marketing plans:
The marketing manager needs to identify the customer requirements and deliver them by adding
value to the products. Strategic planning is developing process to maintain the balance between
organisational resources of changing market opportunities. There are four levels in strategic
planning such as: corporate, division, business unit and product.
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 Monitoring the environment of market:
The marketing manager of Vodafone needs to identify the current and future trends of the market
and find out the opportunities in global market (Vodafone.co.uk, 2018). In the era of
globalisation the marketing manager needs to monitor six environmental forces such as
economic, demographic, technological, political, legal and socio-cultural forces.
 Market research:
Specific knowledge about current market is one essential skill of marketing manager of
Vodafone. As a global company, Vodafone hires modern marketing manger to undertake market
research.
b) Analyze the significance of interrelationships between marketing and other functional
units of the organisation of your choice. (M2)
Marketing is strategic regulation which underpins most of the business activities and an essential
component of business strategy as it is communicated in the marketing plan. Marketing functions
are carried out different department of Vodafone as it signifies interrelationship between
marketing and other functional department of Vodafone.
Production department:
The marketing department closely works with the production department of Vodafone to ensure
three factors such as:
 Appropriate research and development plan is implemented in order to satisfy the current
needs of customers
 The products can be manufactured as per the quality and designs specified by the
consumer
 The volume of products generated by Vodafone is meeting the deadline
The marketing department of Vodafone sets the deadline to elongate the capabilities of
production department (Waite and Perez Vega, 2018). The marketing managers wish to release
the product in the market as soon as possible to certify the competitive advantages. The
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production department of Vodafone will check the product to ensure that, there are any defective
items or not.
Finance department:
The marketing department of Vodafone closely works with the finance department to ensure one
factor such as:
 Sufficient budget is there to meet the research, promotion and distributional needs
The financial department of Vodafone looks after the financial capabilities of the company. They
accompany with all other departments with their allocated budget. The marketing department of
Vodafone focuses on the sales volume and the market share of the company. They wish to
overspend if there is any opportunity of profitable marketing. The finance department of
Vodafone focuses on the cash flow, investment possibilities and other covering costs.
HR (Human Resource) Management:
The marketing department of Vodafone closely works with Human resource management to
ensure three factors, such as:
 New research materials and product ideas have been developed
 Meet the production targets
 Create an effective and proficient sales team
The human resource department of Vodafone looks after the recruitment and training process of
the company (Holbrook, 2018). This creates a balance with the marketing department to
implement the corporate strategy in the business (Purvis, 2016)
c) Critically analyze and evaluate the key elements of the marketing function and how they
interrelate with other functional units of the organisation of your choice. (D1)
Marketing function consists of different functions such as finance, distribution, advertising etc.
Apart from that the key elements of marketing functions are discussed below:
Marketing Research:
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Marketing Research is a crucial marketing function for the company Vodafone. The marketing
research provides valuable information of the market, apart from that logistic, finance and other
aspects of business can be achieved by proper marketing research.
Marketing planning:
After a successful marketing research, Vodafone develops the financial planning for the market.
This financial planning includes distribution, advertising, sales market and so on
(Vodafone.co.uk, 2018). Major strategies are planed during that time to convert the
organisational goal into a success factor.
Tactics:
This element is an extended part of financial planning. Vodafone implies this strategic planning
process to boost p the promotional activities of the company. They implement various
promotional offers on their products such as buy one get one offers and so on.
Interrelation with other functional units:
The marketing research, marketing planning and tactics are interlinked with the finance
department and human resource department of Vodafone. The economic resources in order to
implement the strategies, planning and research are being provided by the finance department.
The human resource department of Vodafone is providing the charts of promotional activities,
advertisements and set the organisational goals in this process.
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