Academic Year: PGP 2012- 2014

Vodafone

Faculty: - Ms. Anju Gulla and Ms Sneha Ghambhir

Student:-

1) Pankaj Gupta2) Apurva Singh 3) Charu Rana4) Tanvi Suri5) Saloni

Acknowledgement

We would like to express my special thanks of gratitude to Ms. Anju Gulla and Ms Sneha Ghambhir, who gave me the golden opportunity to do this wonderful project on the topic Vodaphone, which also helped me in doing a lot of Research and I came to know about so many new things. I am really thankful to him. Secondly I would also like to thank my college mentor, parents and friends who helped me a lot in finishing this project within the limited time.I am making this project not only for marks but to also increase my knowledge.THANKS AGAIN TO ALL WHO HELPED US.

Content

1) Introduction2) Brand Elements 3) Segmentation4) Business Segmentation5) Enterprise Service6) Market and Competitive Analysis7) Branding, Advertising, Pricing and Distribution8) Macro and Micro Environmental Factors9) SWOT analysis10) Future Strategies11) Analysis of Ansoff’s Matrix12) Product Life Cycle13) Recommendation

INTRODUCTION:

Vodafone Essar is an Indian subsidiary of Vodafone group and commenced its operations in 1994 when its predecessor Hutchison Telecom acquired the cellular license for Mumbai. The company now has operations across the country with over 78.68 million GSM mobile customers. Over the years, Vodafone Essar, has been named the ‘Most Respected Telecom Company’, the ‘Best Mobile Service in the country ‘and the ‘Most Creative and Most Effective Advertiser of the Year’.

Vodafone is the world’s leading international mobile communications group with approximately 315 million proportionate customers as on 30 June 2009. Vodafone acquired an indirect controlling interest in Vodafone Essar, their local operating company in India, in 2007-08. Vodafone currently has equity interests in 31 countries across five continents and around 40 partner networks worldwide.

Vodafone Essar is now largest operating company for Vodafone when measured by customer numbers and its sheer scale and rapid growth makes it unique. It has nearly 10,000 employees and employs more than 90,000 contractors. The network is rapidly expanding to meet demand and extend telecommunications to more rural areas, with more than 2,500 new base stations deployed each month.

BRAND ELEMENTS

Memorability :These elements should be easily recognised and memorised.

Meangingful: The brand eements should be meaningful and should be associates with the value of the brand.

Likeability: These elements should be fun or interesting and should be liked by the customers and attach positive connections with the brand.

Transferability: Brand elements need to be same for the different geographics, market for product categories or service categories.So, transferability across boundary is critical.

Adaptable: the elements need to adaptable so that they can be changed as and when required.

Protectability: The elements need to be legally portected from copyright voilation.

According to the above citeria the brand elements of vodafone is stated below:

Brand Name

Vodafone logo calls it “speechmark logo” a quatation mark in a circle. The company’s name vodafone is written below. And the same logo is used globally.This vital as it indicated the company offers the same quality of services worldwide.The logo has been the same over a long period of time and it is memorable. The red color is likeable bybone and all. It is a likeable logo which is recall by the customers.as the logo appears.

URL:

The website link for the global website is http://www.vodafone.com and for the Indian website it ie http:/www.vodafone.in These are the registered domains.The URL has the name of the brand and in for India. Hence it is easy to remember and effective brand element.

Characters

Characters represent a certain type of brand symbol one that takes on real life characters. Since Vodafone enteredin the Indian market it has been associated with certain characters. The first was the famous pug advertisment and potrayed the consistency of services in the tagline which stated “wherever you go, our network follows” .The second and extremely popular character which vodafone potrayed was Zoozoo. Real people wore grey suits to potray comical characters ina major comminication campaign which aimed at providing value added services provided by the company. The campaign includes every channel from television to hoardings to billboards at the point of sale. The charcter Zoozoo have been loved by everyone and has helped in increasing brand awarness.

Slogan

Slogans help in increasing brand equity in multiple ways.They play a major rolein building brand awarness and image and contains product related information.Vodafone current slogan “Power to you” The company wishes to communicate the various services provided by the company.

There slogans like “Happy to help” , “wherever you go our network follows” and “Power to you” have always been able to able to associate different meanings with the brand. Which potrays the following meanings like the consistency in services, and high quality of netwrk services and the power to choose what srevicres to avail and what to pay for.

Jingles

Most consumers remember “You and I in this beautiful world” the most popular jingle.The other one was “The little things you do” the sweet and melodious song that potrays the intended message very well. Vodafone’s jngles stongest point is their likeability and consumers intend to remember them very convinently.

Communication campaign

Vodafone comes out with new campaign at regular intervals.The company ran the pug campaign initially.Then it launched Zoozoo campaign.Next was the voadfone delight campaign. These changes in campagin shows shows changes in the communication stategies.And innovativeness in advertisment.The company thries to come out with the innovative ideas which is remembered by the consumers.

The company advertises it product through different media including:

Television Advertisment Hoardings Small prints ad at the point of sale.

SEGMENTATION:

Product Segmentation

Consumer Segmentation

Customers are typically classified as prepaid or contract customers. Prepaid customers pay in advance and are generally not bound to minimum contractual

Telecommunication

Means

Landline Mobiles

GSM CDMA

AIRTEL VODAFONE RELIANCE

GSM

BSNL AIRCEL OTHERS

commitments, while contract customers usually sign up for a predetermined length of time and are invoiced for their services, typically on a monthly basis. Increasingly, Vodafone offers SIM only tariffs allowing customers to benefit from the Vodafone network whilst keeping their existing handset.

o The following segmentation variables are used by Vodafone in order to segment the market :

Geographic:

Vodafone segments its market as metros, A-circle, B-circle and C- circle. Here, the segmentation is Done on the basis of regions in which they operate. Also, rural and semi-urban markets are fast Emerging as profitable market segment, so Vodafone is trying to enhance its operations effectively Further in these segment.

Demographic:

Income:

Vodafone further segments its market according to various incomes levels and has various plans for every strata of society.

Age:

Vodafone does not primarily segment its market on the basis of age but they have specific Plans for youth. Nature of the Customer: Depending on the fact that whether the customer is institutional or sole, the services and plans provided by Vodafone vary and thus, it forms important bases for segmentation.

Psychographic:

Lifestyle and Personality:

Vodafone segments its users on the type of service they use based on their lifestyle such as different plans for students, professionals etc.

Behavioural:

Benefits Sought:

Vodafone segments its customers on the basis of the benefits sought by them such as such as: local call, STD call or ISD call makers; users of value added services, connectivity, and coverage.

Usage Rate:

Vodafone also classify its users as one with heavy usage rate, medium usage rate and light usage rate and have different targeting schemes for each of them.

Type of the service:

The Type of the service provided by Vodafone to its customers also plays a crucial role in deciding the segmentation strategy implemented by Vodafone.

BUSINESS SEGMENTATION

The Group continues to grow usage and penetration across all business segments. VGE manages the Group’s relationship with Vodafone’s 270 largest multinational corporate customers. VGE simplifies the provision of fixed, mobile and broadband services for MNCs who need a single operational and commercial relationship with Vodafone worldwide. It provides a range of managed services such as central ordering, customer self-serve web portals, telecommunications expense management tools and device management coupled with a single contract and guaranteed service level agreements.

The Group continues to expand its portfolio of innovative solutions offered to small office home office (‘Soho’), SME and corporate customers. Increasingly these combine fixed and mobile voice and data services integrated with productivity tools.

Targeting:-

Vodafone has full market coverage with differentiated offerings. Market is targeted through many different tariffs, services and propositions for every segment according to specific customer preferences and needs. These often bundle together as: voice, messaging, data and increasing value added services. The various examples for this include:

Home calling cards for the family of those professionals who use to work abroad. Rs.10 recharge for small users Cheap SMS facility for youths Facilities for circle users etc.

POSITIONING:

Vodafone has continued to build brand value by delivering a superior, consistent and differentiated customer experience. Their tagline “Where ever

you go our network follows” gives the customer indication of their vast coverage.

They differentiated themselves from other mobile service providers by delivering the promise of “helping customers make the most of their time” and their communication strategy has always focussed on “Happy to help” which tends to strike an emotional chord with the customer.

The Group’s vision is “to be the communications leader in an increasingly connected world” expanding the Group’s category from mobile only to total communications. To enable the consistent use of the Vodafone brand in all customer interactions, a set of detailed guidelines has been developed in areas such as advertising, retail, online and merchandising.

In April 2009 a campaign, focusing on the different value added services (VAS) offered by the company was launched, introduced new characters called the Zoo zoos that seem to be in between the world of animation and reality. Several advertisements in which the Zoo zoos featured were shown on television during the Indian Premier League (IPL) Season 2 and were instant hit among the customers but the conversion of this excitement into revenue is yet to be seen.

ENTERPRISE SERVICES :

Voice services

Pre – Paid Post – Paid

Value Added Services

Tunes and downloads Entertainment Devotional Sports News and Updates Call Management Services Astrology Finance Travel Mail, Messaging Dial in Services

Bill Info

Vodafone Live Vodafone Business Solutions

Mail on the move Business application Vodafone Office Vodafone Business Solution

MARKET AND COMPETITIVE ANALYSIS

32.29

24.1615.57

14.9

7.093.94 1.33 0.720000000000001

market%

Bharti AirtelVodafone EssarBSNLIdea CellularAircelReliance GSMMTNLLoop

Bharti Airt

el

Vodafone

BSNL

IDEA Cell

ularAirc

el

Relian

ce GSM

MTNL

Loop

0

20,000,000

40,000,000

60,000,000

80,000,000

100,000,000

120,000,000

GSM SUBSCRIBERS base in India as in June 2009

SUSCRIBERS

40

/existingusers/se

0

Vodafone Essar is the second largest GSM operator in India after Airtel from the perspective of market share and subscriber base and is increasingly expanding its share (the detail figures are given in Appendix). It still is quite far from Airtel due to Airtel’s strong presence in rural areas and loyal customer base along with larger reach and first mover advantage.

Branding, Advertizing, Pricing and Distribution :

Vodafone’s products and services are available directly, via Vodafone stores and country specific Vodafone websites, and indirectly via third party service providers, independent dealers, distributors and retailers, to both consumer and business customers in the majority of markets under the Vodafone brand.

Customer strategy and management

Customer Delight Index:

The Vodafone Group has created a Global Customer Value Management team to support operating companies with their aim to engage with customers directly through a data driven approach. Recent examples of this include: rollout of a consistent and innovative store, successful trial of an innovative handset based self-service solution and creation of a global training academy for customer facing staff.

Vodafone continues to use a customer measurement system called “customer delight” to monitor and drive customer satisfaction in the Group’s controlled markets at a local and global level which identifies areas for improvement and focus.

Marketing and brand:

1. 68.8 million Vodafone subscribers across India as at 31 March 2009 (up from 44.1 million as at 31 March 2008)

2 million new subscribers a month on average 18% market share

Logo

A new visual identity—from the deep pink logo of Hutchison-Essar to Vodafone’s trademark deep red speech mark introduced in 1998.

Advertisement:

The inaugural TV commercial showed the trademark pug (minus the boy) moving out of a pink kennel into a red one. An energetic version of Hutch’s signature ‘You and I’ tune played towards the end, as the super concluded, ‘Change is good. Hutch is now Vodafone’. There were four more commercials featuring Hutch’s animated boy and girl, introducing the new brand’s logo to consumers.

Vodafone put in close to Rs 150 crore into the first phase of the rebranding exercise—with Rs 60 crore in mass media and another Rs 90 crore in retail activities.

In the second phase, Vodafone ushered in its global strapline—“Make the most of now”, which replaced “How are you?” in 2001. By then it was apparent, the boy-and-pug chapter would soon be over. In 2008, Vodafone used the platform of cricket when it unveiled the ‘Happy to Help’ series during the first season of the Indian Premier League (IPL).

This season the Zoo zoos are all the rage. These characters have virtually hijacked the online media as well as television—to convey a value added service (VAS) offering in each of the new commercials.

In Indian scenario when other major telecom service providers are using celebrities(Airtel- Shahrukh Khan, BSNL-Deepika Padukone, Aircel-Mahendra Singh Dhoni, Idea-Abhishek Bachchan) as their brand ambassadors, Vodafone is standing out proudly with Zoo zoos and pug as successful ad campaign.

Products and services in India:

Average cost of calls: 2 US cents per minute Average revenue per customer: US$6.4 per month 853,039 points of sale, covering 65% of the population With more than 3 million Vodafone-branded, affordable handsets sold in

2008/09, Vodafone ranks among the top five handset brands in India

Brand and customer communications

In the BrandZ most powerful brands ranking: Ranked 11th globally. In telecom industry it proudly stands as world no. 2 after China no. 2

GSM service provider in India after Airtel

A new Marketing Framework has been developed and implemented across the business, which includes a new vision of expanding the Group’s category from mobile only to total communications “to be the communications leader in an increasingly connected world”. Brand and customer experience continues to implement Vodafone’s promise of “helping customers make the most of their time”. The brand function has also developed a methodology to develop competitive local market brand positioning, with local brand positioning projects now implemented in 12 markets.

In September 2007, Vodafone welcomed India with the “Hutch is now Vodafone” campaign. The migration from Hutch to Vodafone was one of the fastest and most comprehensive brand transitions in the history of the Group, with 400,000 multi brand outlets, over 350 Vodafone stores, over 1,000 mini stores, over 35 mobile stores and over 3,000 touchpoints rebranded in two months, with 60% completed within 48 hours of the launch.

Brand Health Tracking:

Vodafone regularly conducts Brand Health Tracking since 2002, which is designed to measure the brand performance against a number of key metrics and generate insights to assist the management of the Vodafone brand across all Vodafone branded operating companies.

Sponsorships

Vodafone majorly sponsors the following teams and events, apart from various regional and timely sponsorship:

Kshitij, Annual Techno-management festival of IIT Kharagpur, Strategic Partner 2008

Indian Premier League (Cricket), Associate sponsor England cricket team Vodafone McLaren Mercedes Formula One team, title sponsor Triple 8 Race Engineering , V8 Supercars team, primary sponsor (since 2007)

Distribution

Direct distribution-Number of directly owned stores - 1150

Vodafone directly owns and manages over 1,150 stores. These stores sell services to new customers, renew or upgrade services for existing customers, and in many cases also provide customer support.

A standard store format, which was tested in 2006, was rolled out in 11 markets during the 2008 financial year. All stores in India were rebranded as Vodafone and over 40 stores were refurbished to the Group’s standard format.

The Group also has 6,500 Vodafone branded stores, which sell Vodafone products and services exclusively, by way of franchise and exclusive dealer arrangements.

The internet is a key channel to promote and sell Vodafone’s products and services and to provide customers with an easy, user friendly and accessible way to manage their Vodafone services and access support.

Additionally, in most operating companies, sales forces are in place to sell directly to business customers and some consumer segments.

Indirect distribution

The extent of indirect distribution varies between markets but may include using third party service providers, independent dealers, distributors and retailers.

The Group hosts MVNOs in a number of markets. These are operators who buy access to existing networks and resell that access to customers under a different brand name and proposition. Where appropriate, Vodafone seeks to enter

mutually profitable relationships with MVNO partners as an additional route to market.

Presence in India:

Presence in all 23 Indian telecom circles (up from 16 in 2007/08) Over 78,000 base stations across India Around 2,600 new base stations deployed each month Network deployment and maintenance of 56,933 base stations in 16 circles outsourced to Indus Towers, of which Vodafone Essar has a 42% shareholding 8,163 base stations directly managed by Vodafone Essar in the remaining seven circles A further 13,225 base stations shared with other operators

MACRO AND MICRO ENVIRONMENTAL FACTORS:

Factors affecting growth of mobile telecommunication

Market potential Buying decision process Infrastructure Country’s political, social and economic scenario Government policies and business climate(Interest rates and Inflation) Technology and Special zones Competition Income levels Employee skills and unionization of employees Ethical considerations Changing Lifestyles of Consumers

PRINCIPAL RISK FACTORS AND UNCERTAINTIES:

The following discussion of principal risk factors and uncertainties identifies the most significant risks that may adversely affect the Group’s business, operations, liquidity, financial position or future performance.

Adverse macro-economic conditions in the markets in which the Group operates could impact the Group’s results of operations.

Adverse macro-economic conditions and further deterioration in the global economic environment, such as a deepening recession or further economic slowdown in the markets in which the Group operates, may lead to a reduction in the level of demand from the Group’s customers for existing and new products and services. In difficult economic conditions, consumers may seek to reduce discretionary spending by reducing their use of the Group’s products and services, including data services, or by switching to lower-cost alternatives offered by the Group’s competitors. Similarly, under these conditions the enterprise customers may delay purchasing decisions, delay full implementation of service offerings or reduce their use of the Group’s services. In addition, number of the Group’s consumer and enterprise customers that are unable to pay for existing or additional services might increase, having material adverse effect on the Group’s results of operations.

The continued volatility of worldwide financial markets may make it more difficult for the Group to raise capital externally, which could have a negative impact on the Group’s access to finance.

The Group’s key sources of liquidity in the foreseeable future are likely to be cash generated from operations and borrowings through long term and short term issuances in the capital markets as well as committed bank facilities. Due to the recent volatility experienced in capital and credit markets around the world, new issuances of debt securities may experience decreased demand. Adverse changes in credit markets or Vodafone’s credit ratings could increase the cost of borrowing and banks may be unwilling to renew credit facilities on existing terms.

Regulatory decisions and changes in the regulatory environment could adversely affect the Group’s business.

As the Group has ventures in a large number of geographic areas, it must comply with an extensive range of requirements that regulate and supervise the licensing, construction and operation of its telecommunications networks and services. In particular, there are agencies which regulate and supervise the allocation of frequency spectrum and which monitor and enforce regulation and competition laws which apply to the mobile telecommunications industry. Decisions by regulators regarding the granting, amendment or renewal of licences, to the Group or to third parties, could adversely affect the Group’s future operations in these geographic areas. Additionally, decisions by regulators and new legislation, such as those relating to international roaming

charges and call termination rates, could affect the pricing for, or adversely affect the revenue from, the services the Group offers.

Increased competition may reduce market share and revenue.

The Group faces intensifying competition and its ability to compete effectively will depend on, among other things, network quality, capacity and coverage, the pricing of services and equipment, the quality of customer service, development of new and enhanced products and services, the reach and quality of sales and distribution channels and capital resources. Competition could lead to a reduction in the rate at which the Group adds new customers, a decrease in the size of the Group’s market.

The focus of competition in many of the Group’s markets continues to shift from customer acquisition to customer retention as the market for mobile telecommunications has become increasingly penetrated. In addition, the Group could face increased competition should there be an award of additional licences in jurisdictions in which a member of the Group already has a licence.

The Group uses technologies from a number of vendors and makes significant capital expenditures in connection with the deployment of such technologies. The introduction of software and other network components may also be delayed. The failure of vendor performance or technology performance to meet the Group’s expectations or the failure of a technology to achieve commercial acceptance could result in additional capital expenditures by the Group or a reduction in profitability.

The Group may experience a decline in revenue or profitability notwithstanding its efforts to increase revenue from the introduction of new services.

As part of its strategy, the Group will continue to offer new services to its existing customers and seek to increase non-voice service revenue as a percentage of total service revenue. However, the Group may not be able to introduce these new services commercially, or may experience significant delays due to problems such as the availability of new mobile handsets, higher than anticipated prices of new handsets or availability of new content services. In addition, there is no assurance that revenue from such services will increase ARPU or maintain profit margins.

Expected benefits from cost reduction initiatives may not be realised.

The Group has entered into several cost reduction initiatives principally relating to network sharing, the outsourcing of IT application, development and

maintenance, data centre consolidation, supply chain management and a business transformation programme to implement a single, integrated operating model using one ERP system. However, there is no assurance that the full extent of the anticipated benefits will be realised in the timeline envisaged.

Changes in assumptions underlying the carrying value of certain Group assets could result in impairment.

Vodafone completes a review of the carrying value of its assets annually, or more frequently where the circumstances require, assessing whether those carrying values can be supported by the net present value of future cash flows derived from such assets. This includes an assessment of discount rates and long term growth rates, future technological developments and timing and quantum of future capital expenditure, as well as several factors which may affect revenue and profitability identified within other risk factors in this section such as intensifying competition, pricing pressures, regulatory changes and the timing for introducing new products or services.

The Group’s geographic expansion may increase exposure to unpredictable economic, political and legal risks.

As the Group increasingly enters into emerging markets, the value of the Group’s investments may be adversely affected by political, economic and legal developments which are beyond the Group’s control.

Expected benefits from investment in networks, licences and new technology may not be realised.

The Group has made substantial investments in the acquisition of licences and in its mobile networks, including the roll out of 3G networks. There can be no assurance that the introduction of new services will proceed according to anticipated schedules or that the level of demand for new services will justify the cost of setting up and providing new services.

The Group’s business would be adversely affected by the non-supply of equipment and support services by a major supplier.

Companies within the Group, source network infrastructure and other equipment are as well as network-related and other significant support services, from third party suppliers. The withdrawal or removal from the market of one or more of these major third party suppliers could adversely affect the Group’s operations and could result in additional capital or operational expenditures by the Group.

SWOT analysis:

Strengths

Strong international presence and brand recognition Well-defined cost reduction initiatives, managed outsourcing Stable operating profit The India operations are backed by its huge expertise and diversified

geographical portfolio. Sharing of network infrastructure Leading presence in India Brand value built by delivering a superior, consistent and differentiated

customer experience.

Vodafone’s customer strategy endeavors to ensure that customers’ needs are at the core of all products and services.

Weakness

Benefits of investment in technology are not realized Little penetration in rural market Have not entered broadband services, smart phones segment Advertising campaigns do not have the emotional connect to the lower

income classes and rural customers Perception of customers in lower segment that Vodafone is a costly brand

Opportunities

Focus on capturing rural sector through cost reductions improving returns Research and development of new mobile technologies Mobile Broadband Improve accessibility to wide range of customers Vodafone can offer voice, messaging, data and fixed broadband services

through multiple solutions and supporting technologies to deliver on its total communications strategy.

The advancements in 3G networks and download speeds, handset capabilities and the mobilization of internet services, could contribute to an acceleration of data services usage growth.

Threats

Existing competitive market Entry of many new players in immediate future Government regulations Change in technology Change in consumer preference Adverse macroeconomic conditions like recession and economic slow

down non-supply of equipment and support services by a major supplier Emergencies like war, terrorism, natural calamity etc.

FUTURE STRATEGIES:

Factors and Trends Relevant for Future Policy Initiatives

Based on global trends and Indian experience, the rate of growth of cellular mobile services would continue to be higher for a number of years. Its two important implications are further lowering of average cost per line and cellular mobile/WLL-M becoming a major tool of expansion in rural areas.

The capital requirement for investments in the next five years are expected to be lower than the present cost due to continuing decline in equipment cost as well as lower network costs due to competition resulting from entry of infrastructure providers Railways, Power Grid Corporation, etc. and huge capacity addition by other players.

A small portion of the subscriber base provides a large share of call revenue. High revenue subscriber category would form the core of competition among operators which may lead to a fall in the tariffs applicable to this type i.e. long distance calls. As a result, long distance tariffs may be even lower than those specified by the regulator.

Margin of surplus will decline over time due to competition. However, the break-even revenue per subscriber will also be lower due to decline in costs.

Data services are expected to grow much faster than voice telephony. This underlines the need in due course to focus on broad-band linkages to enable the provision of these services at the required rate.

Due to large uncovered areas in rural and remote regions of the country which are also expected to be low paying is going to bring the next revolution in the telecom sector.

The trend towards convergence of services may lead to major changes in the structure of industry and markets.

The new mantra for the Telecom sector is:

“ROTI, KAPDA, MAKAAN AUR MOBILE”

Market /Products Present New

Present Prepaid/Post-paid services Wi-max,3G

New Rural Sector M2M services,WiBro

Analysis of Ansoff’s Matrix:

1. Market penetration (Present market/Present products):

Since Vodafone is still riding high on its current zoo zoo advertising campaign, it should capitalize on this and try to increase their presence by opting for further emphasis on their urban distribution network. As the impact of any promotional strategy does not last for more than a limited timeframe, it is imperative for Vodafone to make sure that they retain their current popularity levels by pushing forward their advertising campaign in a much more aggressive manner. In the case of Mumbai, Vodafone has made its presence felt by opening 25000 distribution outlets and has hence captured the numerous Uno slot in this metropolis. A similar business model can be adapted and customized as per the regional parameters in order to become the nation’s leading cellular service provider.

2. Market Development:

India is still an agrarian economy and 70% of its population still dwells in rural areas. According to recently conducted surveys, statistics showed that 45% of the overall telecomm sector growth is to come from the rural sector. A major chunk of Vodafone’s revenue is still generated from tier 1 and tier 2 cities. This leads us to conclude that Vodafone needs to place further focus on rural penetration so as to create economies of scale as well as the top line growth of revenues. Development of infrastructure in rural areas is a bottleneck due to the cost factor associated with it. Project MOST (Mobile Operators' Shared Towers) by COAI was initiated in order to reduce these heavy costs by sharing

infrastructure between the service providers, hence resulting in better coverage and quality. Optimal rural penetration can be achieved by taking into account the economic environment prevailing in the rural sector. This would encompass the socio economic factors and would hence provide a more regional focus to the adverting and promotional strategies in order to establish a good connect with the rural customers.

3. Product Development:

Vodafone is further trying to provide new services in order to establish a stronger foothold in its current subscriber base. It is in the process of rolling out its 3G service in India which would be a quantum leap for browsing and internet based mobile applications and services. 3G would also result in improved connectivity and clearer reception as it provides a greater network capacity which is achieved through improved spectral efficiency. This step is being implemented by Vodafone to further enhance the revenue generated from its “premium” segment. Also WiMAX service implementation in India would result in a significant surge in Vodafone’s revenue from the segment mentioned above. According to recently updated government regulations, the 3G market is open only to 4 telecom sector players in that particular circle. Hence getting the license for providing 3G services in India would further give Vodafone a distinct advantage over its competitors.

4. Diversification:

In order to diversify its current market portfolio, Vodafone is launching a global Machine to Machine (M2M) service platform for helping companies to deploy and manage large, wireless M2M projects for applications in customer service enhancement and central control and automation of projects. In the Indian context, M2M is an untapped sector with enormous potential for growth. WiBRO (Wireless Broadband) has the capacity to overcome data rate of limitation of mobile phones by providing a staggering 30 to 50 MB/s speed. As in the case of M2M platforms, WiBRO is a very promising market in India. Providing these two services in India would open new avenues of growth for Vodafone and would help it diversify into different market verticals.

PRODUCT LIFE CYCLE:

mar '97

jan-m

ar'07

apr-j

un'07

jul-sep

'07

oct-dec'

07

jan-m

ar'08

apr-j

un'08

jul-sep

'08

oct-dec'

080

50010001500200025003000350040004500

PLC

Time-period

Reve

nue

Marketing Strategies: Growth Stage

• Rapid increase in sales if product has acceptance:

The current perception of Vodafone in India is that of a brand that provides high quality customer service at reasonable prices. Even though Vodafone has not hired a known face to endorse itself, it has still managed to establish a very high “emotional connect” with its customers through its brilliantly conceived marketing strategies. Excellent examples of this would be the recent “Zoo zoo” campaign and the well-received “Vodafone Pug” campaign. In the case of the “Pug” campaign, Vodafone managed to project itself as a service provider which would always be “following” the customer through the tagline “Wherever you go, our network follows.” And in the case of the “Zoo zoo” campaign, Vodafone further strengthened their image among their customer base and the market in general.

New competition enters as opportunity presents itself:

Vodafone currently faces stiff competition since new players have also entered the fray recently. Players like Loop, Hash10, and MTS etc are set to roll out their services due to which Vodafone may find it difficult to maintain its current share of customer base in India. Expansion, further focusing on its current segments, implementation of a revised business model and intensive marketing would be the key features Vodafone should be concentrating on in order to retain its current position in India.

Introduce new product features:

Vodafone is currently in the process of adding further verticals to its market portfolio in order to increase its presence and expand its customer base. 3G services are currently in the pipeline. Also Vodafone can venture into providing broadband and WiMAX services which have a very high potential for revenue generation. M2M or Machine to Machine platform is also present on Vodafone’s strategy for market diversification. The platform, which is an enterprise solution designed by Vodafone for providing automation and wireless controlling is still under the process of patenting. But once patented, it can be a key factor in Vodafone’s enterprise market expansion.

• Expand distribution:

The current distribution model of Vodafone has been very successful in penetration of the urban segment. It has a presence in all the 23 Indian telecom circles and has set up 78,000 base stations spread across India. And Vodafone is still deploying 2,600 base stations each month. Even in Mumbai, Vodafone has a total of 25,000 distribution outlets, out of which 35 are Vodafone Stores. Even though the presence is considerable, Vodafone needs to focus on a more intensive distributional model in order to keep up with competitors like Airtel etc.

Recommendation

Although Vodaphone is doing a remarkable job with the brand vitalizing and had sustained as one of the top brands in the metros, non- metros and tier 2 city’s market, but they should also look forward to tier 3 and 4 type city and can create a strong hold in such city’s for that they need to come up either with a culture related advertisement may be a village zoo zoo or something which also people at tier 3 and 4 city will able to understand and a trauma can be create of a such brand. Secondly, Branding of Broadband products seems to be very weak which as a result they are lacking behind with regards to its competitor. Hence they should come up with more brands vitalizing on such product. Vodaphone should also look forward to demographic segment especially towards the Income classes and rural customer in order to give their brand an extension to it. CDMA market is also an area of opportunity where Vodaphone has the capability to put on a strong hold if the constraints with regards to Govt. regulations and license had a way through.

Thank you