Company Name- Vodafone.
Founders: Ernest Harrison and Gerry Whent (Vodafone Group).
Vodafone or Vodafone group is one of the largest telecommunications companies based in the United Kingdom.
Vodafone Group is a multinational mobile network operator and is Britain’s third-largest company.
It became one of the world’s largest mobile telecommunication network companies in terms of revenue and market value leading the global market with a 7% market share.
How it all started
Vodafone started in the year 1984 with the vision “to be the world’s mobile communications leader’. Their mission is to create opportunities for people with the aid of communication.
Vodafone Group with its headquarters in London and Newbury, it operates in the regions of Asia, Africa, Europe, and Oceania. Vodafone is ranked 4th in the number of mobile customers (313 million) as of 2018.
Launching
Vodafone launched in 1982 with the establishment of the Racal Strategic Radio the UK’s largest maker of military radio technology.
They formed a joint venture with Millicom called ‘Racal’ but Vodafone was launched officially on 21st September 2007 which is independent under the name Vodafone in recent times.
Vodafone owns and operates networks in 25 countries. They also have partner networks in 47 further countries.
Vodafone is now globally recognized and provides telecommunications and IT services to corporate clients in over 150 countries.
Marketing strategy and its successes of Vodafone
Global presence in the market-
Vodafone constantly tried to develop new ideas and their flexible policies made it a global company. Vodafone became one of the companies giving a major fight in the market and is ranked 395th amongst the world’s top 2000 brands by Forbes.
Vodafone is best known for its wide distribution and network coverage. Vodafone is the second-largest subscriber base in India also the second-highest ranked telecom operator.
Vodafone is behind only China Mobile. Vodafone now operates in more than 25 countries across the globe.
Cost-effective prices–
Vodafone to take over the market and give a severe blow to its customers needed to give more offers and reduce its prices.
But in India, the telecommunication market was expanding rapidly and the competition was getting tougher and tougher.
Surprisingly Vodafone anyhow managed to increase the rates and tariff for the air time per minute and messages in the beginning. If we compared the prices in Europe and US Market they were far lower.
Vodafone to attract new customers they started selling low-cost handsets like Vodafone 150 and 360, with connectivity at very low and attractive prices found in Vodafone’s annual reports, 2009.
Later on, Vodafone slashed its STD and Roaming Call rates to Rs 1.30 and Re 1 respectively, while in roaming and an outgoing call was priced at Rs 1.50. This step of Vodafone leads to a massive price war in the telecom industry.
But luckily Vodafone managed to attract and retain their customers while selling their products.
Customer support–
Vodafone believed in giving quality Customer experience as it is the key to penetrating the competitive market in the twenty-first century.
Vodafone needed to keep pace with all other major technology brands and other industries, companies who are investing more in understanding and providing superior customer service.
To give tough competition to its rival companies Vodafone started a new project called CXX or Customer experience excellence.
The main aim of this project which will strengthen the leadership position Vodafone has built in the market, to make this program a success. .
Vodafone started linking the KPIs with employee bonuses and now CXX focused upon customer convenience as well as service quality.
Vodafone gained customers rapidly and now has more than 417.1 million customers of Vodafone’s mobile services in Europe. Vodafone also has more than 118.7 million customers in Africa, the Middle East, and the Asia Pacific and is constantly growing.
They focused on user convenience which helped them to reduce the rate and gain customer loyalty.
Low-cost Products–
Vodafone not only took over the telecom market but also started selling different low-cost handsets to its customers which encouraged them to subscribe to Vodafone.
In the Indian market, Vodafone introduced various suitable and affordable products and services for the different types of customers in India.
Vodafone when one step ahead by thinking of the low-income customers and provided them facilities of pre-paid mobiles.
On the other hand, for the high-income customers, Vodafone served them with post-paid mobiles.
Vodafone now wanted to take over the market in the rural area of India by introducing easy-to-use and low-cost mobiles for the rural community who could not afford mobile phones at high prices.
Campaigning
Vodafone to promote their company gave into advertising, sales promotion in various platforms, especially on television.
Vodafone’s famous advertisements of Zoo Zoos and pug became a television sensation which also got popularity in many social networking sites like Facebook and other sites.
Also, celebrities like Irfan Khan promoted Vodafone which gained massive popularity in the market because due to his style.
Vodafone’s campaign extended to sponsoring many sporting events also the Indian Premier League which helped Vodafone to come under the limelight of the customers.
They also sponsored an MTV reality show named Splits villa which is famous among Indian youngsters also helped Vodafone to gain success in the market.
The zoo-zoo advertisement got an overwhelming response from the customers and it gained remarkable exposure.
Conclusion
Vodafone became one of the revolutionary companies in the telecommunication market.
The journey of Vodafone was a difficult one in India as it is the fifth-largest economy in the world and has the third-largest GDP in the entire continent of Asia.
India is one of the markets in the world which has high chances for growth and earning for all areas of business.
Vodafone introduced them in India with the ‘Hutch is now Vodafone’ campaign and the transition from Hutch to Vodafone and became the largest telecommunication brand in India.
And now Vodafone became one of the very few brands that could penetrate rural India.
Vodafone will always be remembered for its innovative ideas and excellent customer service.
And will be known for the tough completion it gave to other rival telecommunication companies.
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