Vodafon Proj

A

Project

On

Advertisement Effectiveness of VodafoneZoozoo’s

Submitted in partial fulfillment of requirement of MASTER OF BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION (MBA)

Himachal Pradesh University Business School (HPUBS) Himachal Pradesh University, Shimla

Under the Guidence of :

Prof. Yashwant Singh Gupta

Advertisement Effectiveness of Vodafone ZooZoos - HPUBS, Shimla(H.P)Page2

DECLARATION

I, C h a n d a n S i n g h T h a k u r , Roll No. 2716, hereby declarethat the work presented herein is genuine work done originallyby me and has not been published or submitted elsewhere forthe requirement of degree programme.Any literature, data or works done by others and cited withinthis dissertation has been given due acknowledgement andlisted in the reference section.


Name: Chandan Singh ThakurRoll No. 2716,Examination roll no. 2586MBA- III, Specialisation in. - Finance, MarketingSession – 2012-2014

CERTIFICATE

This is to certify that the project entitled “Advertising

Effectiveness of Vodafone’s ZOOZOOs” is the bonafide work carried

out by Chandan Singh Thakur, MBA (Marketing & Finance), Himachal

Pradesh University Business School(HPUBS), Shimla, during June

2014, in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the

award of the Degree of Master of Business Administration

and that the project has not formed the basis for the award

previously of any degree, diploma, associate ship, fellowship or

any other similar title.

Prof. Yashwant Gupta Professor, HPUBS, Shimla Place:

Date:


CONTENTS

Pages

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT 05

PREFACE 06

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY 08

INTRODUCTION TO THE INDUSTRY 10

INTRODUCTION TO THE COMPANY 13

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY 14 Title

Need of the study

a. Significance of the Industry

b. Significance of the Research

Objective of the Study

Scope of the Study

Research Technique

Sampling Methodology

Sampling unit

Sampling Area

Limitations

MARKETING STRATREGIES OF THE COMPANY 18

DATA ANALYSIS AND INTERPRETATION 23

FACTS AND FINDINGS 31

CONCLUSION & RECOMMENDATIONS 34

BIBLIOGRAPHY 37

ANNEXURE 38


Questionnaire

AcknowledgementI am highly obliged to our Honorable Sir Prof. Yashwant Singh

Gupta, Faculty in Finance, HPUBS for guiding me at each and everystep towards fulfillment of my project Objective.

I would like to thanks sir for his constant review and excellentsuggestions that helped me a lot throughout the accomplishment ofmy training.

I would like to thank Prof. C.L Chandan, Director, Himachal

Pradesh University Business School, Shimla for his kind support.

My special thanks to my project guide Prof. Yashwant Gupta for

his timely guidance, valuable support and encouragement at every

step of doing capstone project.

I specially appreciate the help and guidance of all those people who have directly or indirectly helped me making my industrial training a success.


Preface

Advertisements just have one job to do -- communicate about the product servicewithin a short period of time.

There are few amazing marketing insights from Vodafone's ZooZooseries of advertisements that have been a rage in India andcertainly would be on everybody’s mind that we need to study as amarketer.

Today’s media landscape advertisers find it ever more challenging

to break through the clutter of competing ads in order to shape

consumers attitudes and intentions and move them to purchase.

An alternative strategy to greater advertising spending may be more

creative advertising, which has been proposed to promote

advertising effectiveness. However, researchers have neither agreed

on a model of advertising creativity nor conclusively linked.

In today’s world of competition, firms are selling goods and

services through a wide variety of direct and indirect channels.

In mass advertising, marketers are exploring new forms of

communication, such as experimental, entertainment and viral

marketing. Such innovative idea is with Vodafone, “Vodafone’s

Zoozoo ad campaign” and there is a great deal if we look into

measurement of its effectiveness. Never in History of Indian

advertising, have marketers witnessed a campaign that generated so

much curiosity among all the sections of society whether it is

young or old.

Vodafone is known for its unique advertisement such as “PUG” (happy

to help) and latest released “ZOOZOO” advertising campaign.

As Vodafone was a new brand in India, it had a challenging task to


develop its own entity and it had done it in a splendid way.

Vodafone has benefitted immensely by the zoozoo campaign and it has

been proved as a great marketing story.

So to develop a good marketing insight, there is a fruitful result

in understanding the marketing strategies used by Vodafone, the

efforts that have been put in the making of ZOOZOO, and the impact

it had on the customers mind, and how it caught the attention and

fancy of consumer, aroused curiosity, told stories and made people

retell the story.

Based on a sample of twenty real life campaigns from Vodafone’s

ZooZoo Campaigns, and a panel of consumer responses, this thesis

provides strong support for a of ZooZoo characters based on

novelty, meaningfulness, humor, positiveness, and well-craftiness.

It concludes that these particular ads were more effective in

promoting ad and brand attitudes, brand interest, purchase

intentions, ad and brand WOM intentions, as well as perceived ad

expenditure and effort.

as Vodafone was a new brand in India, it had the task of developing

its own identity which it has done in a splendid way.

Results hold even among consumers with a negative general attitude

towards advertising.

A test of the relative effect of Zoozoo ad campaign and media

expenditure on sales value produces inconclusive results, however.

Finally, the study shows that the ZooZoo campaigns were considered

more creative among consumers and were more effective in their

communication.


EXECUTIVE SUMMARYIn today’s world of competition, firms are selling goods andservices through a variety of direct and indirect channels. Massadvertising is not nearly as effective as it was, so marketers areexploring new forms of communication, such as experimental,entertainment, and viral marketing. One such innovative idea isVodafone’s Zoozoo campaign. Never in the history of Indianadvertising we witnessed a campaign that generated so much interestand curiosity among all the segments of the society be it young orold.

Advertising has long been viewed as a method of mass promotion inthat a single message cans reach a large number of people. But this


mass promotion approach presents problems since many exposed to anadvertising message may not be within the marketer’s target market,and thus, may be an inefficient use of promotional funds.

However, this is changing as new advertising technologies and theemergence of new media outlet offer more options for targetmarketing.

Advertising also has a history of being considered a one-way formof marketing communication where the information receiver is not ina position to respond to the message. In fact it is expected thatover the next 10-20 years advertising will move away from a one waycommunication model to the one that is highly interactive. Anothercharacteristic change as advertising evolves is the view thatadvertising does not stimulate immediate demand for the productadvertised. That is, customers cannot quickly purchase a productthey see advertised. But as more media outlets allow customers tointeract with the messages being delivered the ability ofadvertising to quickly stimulate demand will improve.

In this report, we analyze the marketing strategies used byVodafone, the efforts that have been put in the.

Vodafone operates in a market what is known as Oligopoly. AnOligopoly has and unique feature which is characterized by a fewsellers an more buyers with products Homogenous and have Mutualinterdependence.

Innovation is always a part of advertisements and the advertising agencies reach out for new ways to capture the prospective consumer’s heart. Vodafone capitalizes on the innovative ideas and always came with the new advertisements that took the brand on heights always. Out of all the commercials launched by Vodafone, ZOOZOOZ are the best.

Here by means of ZOOZOOs, Vodafone has tried to represent an image of the urban common Man who is the main drive force behind the increased usage of telecom and VAS services in the telecommunication industry.


Spending on advertising is huge. One of the leaders in India’s

mobile company, Vodafone’s aggressive addition of mobile customers

and a more stable pricing environment is certainly giving its

competitors a moment of panic.

Vodafone is one of the leading global brands and in brand value

ranking and it is ranked as the 11th largest telecommunication

company in the world and 2nd in Europe.

In the same way Vodafone Essar is one of the leading

telecommunication service providers in India. It serves about 35

million customers who are located in different parts of the

company.


INTRODUCTION TO THE INDUSTRY

Telecommunication Industry

Telecommunication is defined as the science and technology ofcommunication over a distance. The ability to convey informationquickly, accurately, and efficiently has always been one of themain focuses driving human innovation.

'Telecommunication' is a term coming from Greek and meaning'communication at distance' through signals of varied nature comingfrom a transmitter to a receiver.In ancient times, the most common way of producing a signal wouldbe through light (fires) and sound (drums and horns).

The true 'jump' in terms of quality came with the advent ofelectricity. Electromagnetic energy, in fact, is able to transportinformation in an extremely fast way (ideally to the speed oflight), in a way that previously had no equals in terms of costsreliability.

The history of telecommunication illustrates this never-endingpush for progress as it steadily parallels human growth, becomingmore widespread and efficient as the development of moderncivilization unfolds.

Prehistoric Era:

Fires, beacons, smoke signals, communication drums,horns: Prehistoric man relied on fire and smoke signals as


well as drum messages to encode information over a limitedgeographic area as they attempted to contact neighboringclans.

6th century BCE:

Mail: Cyrus the Great was a Persian emperor at the height ofPersia's power in the 6th century BCE. He is credited as havingestablished the first postal system in the history of theworld.

5th century BCE:

Pigeon post: Persia and Syria are credited with establishingthe first pigeon messaging system around the 5th century BCEdue to the discovery that pigeons have an uncanny ability tofind their way back to their nests regardless of the distance.Travelers would bring doves and pigeons along with them,attach messages to them and release them to fly back home.Later on, pigeons would be used by Romans to report theoutcomes of sporting events and by Egyptians for militarycommunications.

4th century BCE-

Hydraulic semaphore: The hydraulic semaphore was designed in ancient Greece as a method of communication, and it was vital during the first Punic War.

Very much like early smoke signals or beacons, it involved a network of identical containers on separate hills, each with avertical rod floated in it. These rods would have predetermined codes inscribed at various intervals. A particular message for particular rod would be obvious when water floats through these vertical rods.

We may say that the starting point of all “modern telecommunications” was the invention of the electric cell by Alessandro Volta (1800).


In 1838: Electrical telegraph: Samuel B. Morse discoveredthat when connecting two model telegraphs together and runningelectricity through a wire, you could send messages by holdingor releasing the buttons in a series of intervals. This becameknown as Morse code.

In 1876: Telephones: The year 1876 was a big one for Alexander Graham Bell. He was successful in transmitting the speech Electronically.

Many other innovations were soon to come:

In 1920, valve amplifiers made their first appearance; In 1923, the television was invented; In 1947, the invention of transistors gave birth to the field

of electronics; In 1958, the first integrated circuit was built; In 1969, the first microprocessor was invented. In 1985, Guglielmo Marconi invented the 'wireless telegraph'

(radio)

In1973: The First modern-era mobile phone: Inventor Martin Cooper placed the first cellular mobile call in 1973 to his rival at Bell Labs, Joel Engel. Thefirst mobile phone had a maximum talk time of 30 minutes, and it took a year for the battery to recharge.

In 1981: The First mobile phone network: The first commercially automated cellular network was launched in Japan in 1981. The network was originally launched only in Tokyo in 1979 and then was expanded.

Advent of Telecommunication in India


India's telecommunication network is the second largest in theworld based on the total number of telephone users (both fixed andmobile phone).

It has the world's third-largest Internet user-base.

Mobile telephone Industry in the country which is in an ongoingprocess of transforming into next generation network, employs anextensive system of modern network.

Indian telecom industry underwent a high pace of marketliberalization and growth since the 1990s and now has become theworld's most competitive and one of the fastest growing telecommarkets.

The Industry has grown over twenty times in just ten years.

Telecommunication has supported the socioeconomic development of

India and has played a significant role to narrow down the rural-

urban digital divide to some extent.

It also has helped to increase the transparency of governance with

the introduction of e-governance in India. The government has

pragmatically used modern telecommunication facilities to deliver

mass education programs for the rural folk of India

History of Telephony in India

The history of Indian telecom can be started with the introduction

of telegraph. The Indian postal and telecom sectors are one of the

world’s oldest.

In 1850, the first experimental electric telegraph line was

started between Calcutta and Diamond Harbour.


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diamond_Harbour

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kolkata

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Telegraph

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E-governance

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_divide

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Next_generation_network

In 1851, it was opened for the use of the British East India

Company. The Posts and Telegraphs department occupied a small

corner of the Public Works Department, at that time.

INTRODUCTION TO THE COMPANYVodafone Group plc is a British multinational telecommunicationscompany headquartered in London and with its registered office inNewbury, Berkshire.

It is the world's 2nd-largest mobile telecommunications companymeasured by both subscribers and 2013 revenues (in each case behindChina Mobile), and had 434 million subscribers as of 31 March 2014.

Vodafone owns and operates networks in 21 countries and has partnernetworks in over 40 additional countries.

Its Vodafone Global Enterprise division providestelecommunications and IT services to corporate clients in over 65countries.

Vodafone has a primary listing on the London Stock Exchange and isa constituent of the FTSE 100 Index.

It had a market capitalization of approximately £89.1 billion as of6 July 2012, the third-largest of any company listed on the LondonStock Exchange.

It has a secondary listing on NASDAQ.

The name Vodafone comes from “VOice DAta FONE, chosen by thecompany to "reflect the provision of voice and data services overmobile phones". The Speechmark logo of its suggests conversation.

The evolution of 'Vodafone' brand started in 1982 with theestablishment of 'Racal Strategic Radio Ltd', a subsidiary of RacalElectronics plc (UK's largest maker of military radio technology).


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Racal

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Racal

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NASDAQ

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Market_capitalization

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FTSE_100_Index

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/London_Stock_Exchange

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vodafone_Global_Enterprise

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/China_Mobile

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_mobile_network_operators

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Newbury,_Berkshire

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/London

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Multinational_corporation

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_East_India_Company

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_East_India_Company

By initiative of Jan Stenbeck, Racal Strategic Radio Ltd, formed ajoint venture with Millicom called 'Racal Vodafone', which laterevolved into the present day Vodafone.

Vodafone in India

Vodafone is the most valuable as well as leading internationaltelecommunication company. It has partnered a joint venture inthe Indian market with the Essar Group.

Essar is a perfect example of the diversified businesscorporation which is spanning the services and the manufacturingsectors, for eg, steel, shipping and logistics, communications,energy etc. This group has a base asset of about 400 millionrupees and an employee group of more than 20,000 people.

Vodafone India Limited, formerly Vodafone Essar Limited, is thesecond largest mobile network operator in India after Airtel bysubscriber base. It is based in Mumbai, Maharashtra.

It has approximately 160 million customers as of December 2013.

On 21st September 2007, there was a fantastic launch of memorablejoint venture, the Vodafone Essar group.

Vodafone in India was welcomed with a fantastic phrase “Hutch isnow Vodafone” campaign. Hutch was as it is very famous among peopleof India, now it was wisely transitioned to Vodafone. This was asignificant chapter in the history of telecom, as the evolution ofVodafone, considered to be a very dynamic and at the time ever-growing brand.

This brand across India was unveiled country wide through highprofile ad-campaign.

This migration of Hutch to Vodafone was the fastest and mostcomprehensive in the history, with 400,000 multi-brands outlets,from which over 350 were Vodafone stores, over 1,000 mini stores,


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Millicom

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jan_Stenbeck

over 35 mobile stores and over 3,000 touch points that wererebranded within 2 months.

The company now has 74.08 million customers. It has earned titlesover the years that are “Most Respected Telecom Company”, the “BestMobile Services in the Country”, “Most Creative and Most EffectiveAdvertiser of the Year”.

The study has found out that the advertisement strategies that havebeen used by the Vodafone Essar have give them better results byincreasing their sales.This fact has been proved by the variousresearch tools that can be used such as the correlation, hypethesistesting.

This research will sure help the companies to work and improvetheir advertising strategies, because advertisements are the bestways to convince the people about our brand or product, and maketheir minds to go and get them.

RESEARCH METHODOLOGYA. Title

A project on Advertisement’s Effectiveness of Vodafone’sZooZoos.

A project to study the effect of Advertisement of Vodafone’sZOOZOOs on its sales, and brief study of how ZOOZOOs were ableto do it. Was it the curiosity that it generated in the minds ofpeople, or a strange acting led it so?

This chapter of advertising in the History of Indian ad-makingwas certainly a milestone and would be remembered every timeanybody thinks or talks about Vodafone.


B. Need of the StudyThere is a need to study the Vodafone’s Advertising method and

how would a marketer take Risk and think out of the BOX just

like how Rajiv Rao, the mind behind the story lines, has done

it.

For the purpose it is required to understand the significance of

the industry and what would be the significance of the research.

Significance of the Industry

Telecommunication industry has always been an industry of

significance.

With the advent of 4G technology coming into the way, there is

a need to focus on this industry so that the marketing

innovations

Significance of the Research

Knowing about Vodafone’s successful strategy by making ZooZoos

is important on the part of any Marketer.

To boost up market’s sales sometimes it is very important to

initiate a courageous act just like how Rajiv Rao did so.

So it’s important to identify the successful strategies that

successful marketers adopt. Here Vodafone is successful in

boosting up its sale through eccentric Advertisement.

C. Objective of the Study To understand the advertisement strategies of Vodafone Essar.


To find out Advertising Effectiveness of Vodafone Zoozoos.

How much has the share grown up since the Company decided to

use ZOOZOOs for its Advertising campaign.

How much do people like these zoozoos.

Has Vodafone’s this strategy been successful.

Has Vodafone’s this provided some benefits on market share

basis.

D. Scope of the StudyThe scope of study is limited to the area of Himachal Pradesh

only.

What effect of marketing by zoozoos has had on its market share

would be a matter to be discussed as a marketer.

In other way, how effective was Vodafone’s Strategy in lifting

its market share.

E. Research TechniqueThe process of finding out the primary data is through simple

random sampling and a group of 50 people are provided with the

questionnaire from where the information is obtained.

They are asked various questions regarding how do they perceive

about Vodafone’s services, marketing activities and how do they

identify themselves with its Vodafone’s product.

Based on the data a brief report about the respondent’s

inclination is prepared.

A concise inference is derived out of it and it is represented

in the form of charts to make the data simple.


Sampling MethodologyA group of 25 respondents are selected and presented with a

questionnaire on a random basis and data is collected from

them.

Another group of 25 students on a stratified sampling basis

are mailed the same questionnaire and data is collected from

them.

Sampling unitSampling unit would be individual persons of age group of 20-

30, as they are more likely to get influenced with marketing

strategy of the company.

Sampling AreaSampling area is limited to Himachal state only.

LimitationsThe study would have a few limitations:

1. The Study is limited to an area of Shimla only. The

views would be limited and the responses might be biased

to a demographic variable.

2. Errors related to sampling might be always there.

3. Responses would be limited to only an age group of 20-30,

which would mean we would be eliminating the rest of the

entities who might influence our inference and


conclusion.

MARKETING STRATREGIES OF THE COMPANY

Marketing Strategy is a key part of overall corporate strategy,which is concerned with developing plans for finding out whatcustomers want and then effectively meeting their requirements.Vodafone’s marketing aim is to attain market leadership, networkquality and maximize the customer satisfaction. They strategy usedby Vodafone is customer focused and product led; the company iscontinually developing new products and services which utilize thelatest technological advances. The aim is extended to provide thecustomers with e value added services and also competitive chargesto the existing customers.

The objective of the study is to understand the advertisementstrategies adopted by Vodafone Essar in India, and to study theeffectiveness of the campaign of Vodafone- “Indian Premiere LeagueSeason – 2” and to make a study of effectiveness of theadvertisement strategies of Vodafone in their current market.


customers aren't looking for big fancy companies to buy from, theyare looking to buy things they want and from those entities thatthey trust. Here are some amazing marketing insights fromVodafone's ZooZoo series of advertisements that have been a rage inIndia:

“Everyone likes Funny commercials. Creative people like creatingthem. Advertiser are pleased to be running them. The consumersenjoy watching them.”(Roman and Mass, 1976)

O&M the mastermind behind Vodafone Zoozooz Advertisements and themain objective was to set the position of Vodafone as an innovativeleader in the mobile services sector. The promotion strategy was tohit massive levels by maximizing the target audience. IPL-2 was thebest option for Vodafone to do go for. The advertising strategybehind it proved itself from the fact that the name Zoozooz gotcoupled with the brand Vodafone and gathered more publicity andreception than IPL. Repetition of the advertisements of Zoozooz maybore the viewers, so O&M came up with new Zoozooz Ad every day.Zoozooz were the new brand ambassador for Vodafone, has created afurore in the advertising industry. Zoozooz succeeded in giving theexact makeover Vodafone was looking for along with amazing brandpresence.

The main reason of the advertisement to succeed was that is wasvery well planned and launched during the time of the IndianPremiere League- 2 using it as its platform. Cricket in India innothing less than religion, and Zoozooz captured attention of allthose people who saw the matches, and this count was huge nearly 2billion people were targeted through this campaign. People were soattracted that they use to wait eagerly for the break to come andto watch more stories of Zoozooz. Zoozooz has become such a hero in


history of advertisements that people will not forget ingenerations to come.

Zoozooz are basically animated character, with egg shaped head,round belly, but hands and legs are extremely thin. It was brandnew and innovative concept and also Vodafone wonderfully promotedtheir services by creating different and more interesting storiesfeaturing Zoozooz in it. The charm of the Zoozooz was so much thatself-marketed strategy was also followed and they were instantsuccess to the mass of people. Zoozooz for themselves created suchhuge audience and also gave boost to the brand of Vodafone.

People were as it is excited about the cute and lovable characterzoozoo, but this curiosity heighted when Vodafone disclosed thatZoozooz were not animated, rather humans were playing theircharacters. People became hungrier to know about their favouriteZoozoo.

In the second phase Vodafone started promoting these characters onsocial media sites, which is considered to be a wise decision.People started joining fan club of Zoozooz on these socialnetworking sites like Orkut, Facebook, Youtube, Twitter and manymore. Also the communication started building amongst these people.

Vodafone also came up with the Zoozoo goodies like zoozoo toys,zoozoo mugs, zoozoo keychains, zoozoo t-shirt, etc. Zoozooz havenow become a brand.

“Vodafone Zoozooz are the new Hutch Puppies”

One often wonders what is it about these advertisements that theyclicked the people to certain extent. Is it merely because theZoozooz are cute or is it because of the humour that is the basetheme of the advertisements.


Whatever it may but it has given Vodafone, the world’s leadingmobile telecommunications company. Zoozooz were launched in theIPL-2 whereas in 2008 i.e. IPL-1 Vodafone came up the advertisementwith tagline as “Happy to Help” services. An animated character washired in 25 commercials to promote the various Value AddedServices(VAS).

SWOT ANALYSIS of Vodafone ZOOZOOs

It is Indispensible to talk about Success of zoozoos, with outtheir Strength, weakness, Opportunities and Threats, as it wouldlead us to the basic ingredient that made Zoozoos a success.

STRENGTHS

1. Campaign penetrated both in media as well as in socialNetworking sites.

2. It was a representation of a common man depicted as acartoon character ZOOZOO.

3. Wide media coverage, more precisely through video.4. Easy and inexpensive animation leading to low production

cost.5. No celebrity endorsement, No associated risks and costs

were there.

Weaknesses

1. Had an undermining effect on the brand Vodafone2. Difficulty in understanding faced by rural population.

Oppurtunities

1. Revolution in the conventional way of advertising thatwas through public figures and celebrity.

2. Low advertising cost leading to provision of cheaperservices.

3. IPL in India has been a platform for Vodafone’ssuccessful growth as per TRPs.

4. Huge Indian Market


Threats

1. A major intimidation of the brand VODAFONE.2. Ads could get lost In major marketing Wars.3. Bharti Airtel, Idea are biggest competitors.

TYPE OF SEGMENTATION used

1. It was a segmentation on the basis of the types of servicesused. Urban and Rural customers were separated out.

2. Targeted customers were the ones using VAS services wheredifferent kinds of services were offered for different kindsof customer.

3. Urban customers were not in focus.4. About 30 different TVCs for VAS including Cricket, beauty

alert, phone backup, chota credit, Vodafone maps, Vodafonecalls filter, live games, musical greetings etc. 20-30 secondads with the message about VAS ending with “Make the Most ofNow”.

5. There was a dedicated micro site provoking with-”What kind ofZOOZOO are you? ”

Vodafone operates in the “Oligopoly”. Oligopoly is a marketstructure that has unique features because it is characterised byfew sellers and mutual interdependence. Price, Quantity and Revenueare the main players of this market. There are various “price wars”(cutting down the price) as well as “non price wars” taking place.Advertising is the non-price war where advertisements are the way


to cut the chance of the competitors by making use of variousstrategies.

Tight focus – all roads lead to one destination: Pick up any ZooZooadvertisement and you will see that there is never anything vagueabout the ads. You will that all roads lead to one destination andthat there is never a single clip in the advertisement that doesn'tseem to make sense. Every act, every move, every word, everyelement of the advertisement is all geared up to communicatewhatever the advertisement is about in a short period of time. Onceagain, these ads prove the efficacy and the immense power ofclarity in communication.

Short and crisp -- coming to the point: Some of the ads running inthe industry are either too short or too long for optimum messagedelivery. Some ads go with a song and are too long – not being ableto keep the customer engaged. Most advertisements try to talk abouta lot of things at once and are usually in a hurry to communicate.Vodafone's ZooZoo advertisements are very short, very crisp, quickand effective. In less than two minutes, the message is delivered.

One campaign per feature/benefit: Needless to say, the Indiantelecommunication Industry is growing at a scorching pace and italready has some of the lowest tariffs in the world. Also, thereare way too many features and benefits Vodafone offers to theIndian cell phone user. One of the best things Vodafone did withthe ZooZoo series is that it picked every standard and Value AddedService it could and made separate advertisements to address eachof them. Vodafone's one campaign or advertisement perfeature/benefit is an incredibly effective idea. Isn't it?

Closing the sale and calling for action: One thing that stands outvery clearly in all the ZooZoo ads is that at the end of everyadvertisement, there is a message displayed which is short butextremely effective in driving the point home and nailing it to thewall. Even though the advertisement must have been enough tocommunicate, there is always a strong call to action – equivalentof a sales person's closing-the-sale act. It applies a valuable


marketing insight that says that you must never assume that acustomer "knows" – whether or not customers know, always "say-it-aloud".

Fun and memorable: When you like something, you will remember. Inbusiness, if I tend to remember an advertisement because it wasfunny, deep and touching, or for whatever reason, the advertisementis showing promise; it's fetching returns. Out of all the reasonsmentioned above, one of the most effective ways to make anadvertisement memorable is to make it funny or add a dash of humourto it. Vodafone's ZooZoo advertisements do just that and hence eachof these advertisements can be remembered.

DATA AND INTERPRETATION The following Data has been derived from the results of the


questionnaire

1. From the data we can infer that most of the people use

Airtel which is about 32% of the whole lot questioned.

From here it can be seen that Vodafone resides on the

second spot with a market share at 21% and BSNL follows

both Airtel and Vodafone. Certainly Airtel is the leader

in Indian telecom industry.

Airtel has been leading the Indian Telecom industry since

2005.

2. It can be seen that Advertisement definitely plays a major

role in deciding the carrier for the mobile telephony.


A major percentage of the respondents agree to this while

near about 26 Percent of the people say that

advertisements do not influence their buying behavior.

From this we can certainly conclude that advertisements is

one of the key marketing strategy that is essential for

any company or firm to capture a good market position and

compete with its competitors in order to maintain its

position.

3. Most of the people say that Advertisements “helps in

knowing the attributes and basic feature of the product”.

Also a lot of people also say that it helps in “comparing

the features of the service with other services” in the

same product market.

More than half of the respondents also say that all the

mentioned features of the product are accentuated in the

advertisement of the product.


They say that without advertisement of the product it

would be impossible to know about what the product is,

what it deals in.

Others say that because of Advertisement, it is easy to

compare the features of one product with other products.

Reinforcement of belief about the product, about its

attributes.

Near about 53 percent of the people say that,

advertisements certainly provide with all the benefits

both to the user and seller.

4. 42 percent of the people say that they like the

Advertisement of the Vodafone the most,


while Airtel remains at second place in market share with

22 percent.

5. When asked about Vodafone’s ads, Most of the people say

that the ads of Vodafone are very good, appeals to

everybody eyes and catches the attention of everybody.

6. We can 96 Percent of the respondents have recognized the

cartoon character named ZOOZOO, the Mascot of Vodafone.


From this we can say that presently people are quite

updated on the advertisements.

7. When asked about peculiarity they see in the Vodafone’s

advertisements, most of the people say that in its

advertisements, Message that Vodafone wants to convey is

very clear.

Near about ……. Percent of the people say that the

advertisements were very creative and catches their

attention in a short span. Few others say that it makes a

visual impact as the advertisements are very successful in

making a visual impact. While ……….. of the respondents say

that Vodafone’s advertisements are really successful in

making an overall impact.


From this we can say that the advertisements of Vodafone

attract the majority of the people very well.

8. A ….of the people say that they truly relate their own

need with the mascot “ZOOZOO”.

They are able to identify their own need with the message

that the Mascot wants to convey.

9. 18 % of the people say that they like “Good Network

Advertisement” of the company.


…………… of the people like advertisement related to “Value

Added Services”, and say that they like the way Zoozoos

act in the Advertisement .

10. 90 % Of the people say that the BEST MASCOT for Vodafone

is ZOOZOO. While two percent of the respondents say that

PUG was a good representative for Vodafone. And rest (8% )

say that Irfan Khan was a good face for its

representation.


From this we can infer that Vodafone’s advertisement

campaign has not only attracted woth the concept of ZOOZOO

but it has done same with the concept of PUG as well

through the years.

11. ……… of the people say that they would go for Vodafone’s

services after they have been persuades by the Mascot

“ZOOZOO”.


They would certainly give a try for Vodafone’s services

for atleast once.

12. 90 percent of the people say that they do not want ZOOZOO

to be replaced with anybody, be it any celebrity or

sportsperson.

While 4 percent of the people do say that Irfan Khan is a

good actor and it should again show its influencing power

and become a face of Vodafone again.


FACTS AND FINDINGS Vodafone has already had a 10% stake in Hong Kong based

telecom unit, Hutchinson Essar

On 11 February 2007, when foreign investment promotion board

approved a proposal from Vodafone to buy a controlling stake in

Hutchinson Essar, A Vodafone reacted quickly to do so and

acquired a controlling interest of 67% prviviously held by

Cheung Kong Holdings in Hutch-Essar for US$11.

When we talk about the Impact that Zoozoos created when they

were launched in April 2009, would be a matter of discussion.


Impact of ZOOZOO’s

In April 2009, India-based Vodafone Essar Limited (Vodafone

Essar), launched a campaign, focusing on the different value

added services (VAS) offered by the company, introduced new

characters called the Zoozoos.

Launched on April 20, 2009 with about 30 different TVCs for

various VAS.

It was a big Hit in the Market. There were more than 3lakhs

fans in official fan clubs for Zoozoo on Facebook and Orkut in

just 4 months. Without the name zoozoo being displayed anywhere

in the advertisement.

Induced a curiosity about the character, as they look like

semi-human in their walk, talk. They showed emotions in just a

way the normal Humans do. The expressions were executed in the

form of Emoticons.

According to Advertising Age : World’s most viewed video

advertisement campaigns capturing first position.

Currently , total number of Vodafone India

Subscribers : 141,519,840, i.e. 18.19% of the

total 657,158,013 Indian mobile phone subscribers.

This figure is certainly commendable in this cut-throat

competition where Airtel leads owing to the economies it

created while showing presence in Indian market for a long time

Also Airtel has the Home Advantage.


As it is obvious that from the table below that Vodafone has always

been a Market challenger to the Market leader AIRTEL since its

entry into the Indian Market in 2005.

Market Share of Telecom GiantsColumn1 2006 2008 2011 2012 2013 2014

Airtel 21.83 33.17 28.26 20.62 28.01 22.53

Vodafone 16.64 23.6 23.63 16.93 22.46 18.19

Idea 9.5 13.25 15.88 12.82 25.7 14.78

Reliance 20.47 4 4.64 15.06 1.39 13.05

BSNL 16.13 16.02 14.77 11.22 10.78 10.5

AIrCel 3.08 6.23 9.68 7.33 9.36 7.65

Tata 9.87 3.21 2.22 4.59 1.42 6.99

Others 2.48 0.52 0.92 11.43 0.88 6.31

TOTAL 100 100 100 100 100 100

From the Table we can infer that after Vodafone acquired

full control over Hutch, Vodafone has gained a lot of

market share, i.e near about 35% growth rate. It rose to

23.6% share in Market from 16.64%, becoming second in this

Market war, which is commendable.

For a long period of time, it has maintained this second

spot just with one bump in 2013, after which it has again

recovered to gain its spot.

From here we can infer that Airtel has been a constant

leader in the market, maintaining its number one spot.


IDEA defeated reliance and gained 3rd spot of market

follower, from the year 2006. Although it has been a bumpy

ride for it also as there has been a constant attack from

RELIANCE, BSNL and TATA teleservices for this spot.

This Graph shows the overall position of Vodafone with

respect to all the Telecom Giant

WE can see that Airtel as a market leader has always been on

top, as expected from a market leader. It has never

experienced any kind of Hiccups starting from 2006 to 2014,

and is certainly commendable.

Vodafone has shown a commendable growth rate after it acquired

Hutch telecommunications.

Also after it launched a marketing campaign of Zoozoos,

from 2009 to 2011 it has seen a boom in its growth rate,

credit goes to the Marketers for their Out-of-Box

thinking.


Recently it has again started its series of Zoozoo

advertisements, after remaining quite for sometime, which

is why we are certainly going to see a good rate of growth

in the coming future.

Zoozoo’s campaign has worked very well in favor of

Vodafone’s growth and its popularity is going to take it

to the places which is why Vodafone poses a threat to the

market Leader.

CONCLUSION & RECOMMENDATIONS

With the sucesss of Zoozoos, Vodafone India can claim about

something that their own. ZOOZOOs have itself has become a

phenomenon. The number of facebook fans are growing amazingly even

surpassing amazingly the bollywood and cricket icons like Sachin

Tendulkar, Amitabh Baccan.

The real test of effectiveness of Vodafone lies in its objective

achievement.

This campaign was set out for some fuzz around the brand and break

the clutter surrounding Vodafone for being undervalued in India.

ZooZoo advertisements in India helped to increase its customer base

by a large number.

The reason behind the Zoozoos becoming so famous is its familiarity

with cartoons which people used to watch when as a kids and invokes

pleasant memories and fantastic world in which people used to

live as children.


It did not produced any kind (class, creed, religion etc.) and

hence strategy of Vodafone has been able to capture the imagination

of millions across the country.

Each age group is interested in the advertisements promoting

various products of Vodafone and hence it is the most interesting

ads on TV now.

There is no doubt that the Vodafone’s ad campaign is a big hit and

has become popular with everyone from kids to adult.

The ad campaign has given a new look that will go a long way in

further improving its brand image.

The commercials have hit the Indian market like storm and will now

probably go into history as one of the brilliant advertising idea

for the industry. The responses from the Indian audience are

phenomenal. Zoozooos have become a brand in themselves with zoozoo

t-shirts and other accessories being sold at retail chain apart

from thousands of visit to their YouTube advertisements and over 2

million fans on Facebook pages.

ZOOZOO is a great marketing story. Vodafone has benefitted

immensely by this campaign. It caught the attention and fancy of

the consumers, aroused curiosity, told stories and made people

retell the story.

Although the experts claim that the ads did not achieve the target

of increasing the VAS usage.

This campaign didn’t generate the sales number to justify the

return on massive investment.


The main reason of the advertisement to succeed was that is was

very well planned and launched during the time of the Indian

Premiere League- 2 using it as its platform.

Cricket in India in nothing less than religion, and Zoozooz

captured attention of all those people who saw the matches, and

this count was huge nearly 2 billion people were targeted through

this campaign. People were so attracted that they use to wait

eagerly for the break to come and to watch more stories of Zoozooz.

Zoozooz has become such a hero in history of advertisements that

people will not forget in generations to come.

In the second phase Vodafone started promoting these characters on

social media sites, which is considered to be a wise decision.

After going through the Advertisement Strategies of Vodafone, I

would conclude that promotion whether it be through print media or

through the ads shown on television, plays a very important role in

building a Brand.

Hutch and Vodafone rebranding is the memorable and most big event

in the telecommunication industry. And the advertisement made this

event bigger by continuously broadcasting the ads for 24 hours on

national television. The main motive is to make people know about

your brand. And that is what is done excellently by Vodafone.

The advertisement also puts a very big question in front of the

other telecom companies, does having big movie stars and cricketers

as their brand ambassador really help? Doesn’t a simple white

character with egg shaped head, round belly and thin legs called


Zoozoo can gain the attention of masses. This is definitely a new

trend and also a new wave.

Thus it can be seen that oligopolistic market structure of this

industry has played a significant role in the generation of revenue

for Vodafone, especially through this unique advertising strategy.


BIBLIOGRAPHYLiterature

Kotler, P., & Keller, K. L. 2009. Marketing management. Upper Saddle River, N.J: Pearson, Prentice Hall.

Healey, J. 1974. A Model of Communi cati on Impact and Consumer Response. Associati on f or Consumer Research, Advances in Consumer Research 1: 384-392. Available on theweb at(http://w ww.acrwebsite.org/search/view-conferenceproceedings.aspx?Id=5671

Hui, C.; Magdon-Ismail, M.; W allace, W . A. & Goldberg, M.2012. Inf ormati on Cascades in Social Media in Response toa Crisis: a Preliminary Model and a Case Stud y. [online, ref erred to 16.3.2013] available on the web athttp://www.cs.rpi.edu/~m agdon/ps/conference/InfoCascadesSW DMwww2012.pdf

Electronic Sources

Young Entrepreneur Counc il. 2012. 5 W ays Social MediaTakes Customer Relationships To The Next Level.(http://www.f orbes.com/sites/theyec/2012/12/24/5-ways-social-media-takes- custom er-relationship s-to-the- ne xt-le vel-2/ [Retrieved16.3.2013]).

O’Reilly, T. 2006. W eb 2.0 Compact Definition: Trying Again. (http://radar.oreilly.com/2006/12/w eb-20-com pact -definiti on-tr yi.html


ANNEXURE

Questionnaire

The following questionnaire was prepared and

presented to the respondents.

HPUBS, Himachal Pradesh University, Summer Hill, Shimla-05

Name (Optional) ………………………………………… Age …… yrs Gender ………….

Phone no (Optional) …………………………. Educational Qualification………………………..

(Please fill this Questionnaire as per your belief and Knowledge)

1. What is your current Mobile service provider?

Vodafone Airtel BSNL IDEA

Aircel Reliance Any other……………..

2. Do advertisements play any role in deciding your service provider?

Yes NO Neutral

3. If yes what role does it play?

Helps in knowing the attributes of the service

Comparing the features with other services


Reinforces the beliefs about the product

All of the above

4. The advertisements of which service provider attract you the most?

Vodafone Airtel BSNL IDEA

Aircel Reliance Any other……………..

5. How well does the ads of Vodafone catches your attention?

Very well Not so well Can’t Say

6. Can you identify this cartoon character?

7. What according to you stands out in Vodafone advertisements?

Message clarity

Product Appeal

Creativity

Visual Impact

All of the above

8. Can you associate your need with Vodafone’s mascot “ZOOZOO” message?

Yes NO Neutral

9. Which ad of Vodafone influenced you most?

Good network ads

Discount scheme ads

Value Added services

All of the above


Chota Bheem

ZOOZOO

Captain America

Mogli

10. Which one according to you was best MASCOT for Vodafone’s Advertisements?

ZOOZOO PUG (wherever you go, our network follows) Irfan Khan

11. If not a current user of Vodafone, would you go for its services following “ZOOZOO” ads?

Yes NO Neutral

12. Do you want any celebrity to replace ZOOZOO In the ads? If so then who………….13. Irfan Khan Somnath Mukharjee14. ZOOZOO

Thanks for Your Valuable Time !


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