of Vodafone
Introduction to Telecom Industry
The telecom network in India is the fifth largest network in the world meeting up with global
standards. Presently, the Indian telecom industry is currently slated to an estimated
contribution of nearly 1% to Indias GDP.
The Indian Telecommunications network with 110.01 million connections is the fifth largest
in the world and the second largest among the emerging economies of Asia. Today, it is the
fastest growing market in the world and represents unique opportunities for U.S. companies
in the stagnant global scenario. The total subscriber base, which has grown by 40% in 2005,
is expected to reach 250 million in 2007.
According to Broadband Policy 2004, Government of India aims at 9 million broadband
connections and 18 million internet connections by 2007. The wireless subscriber base has
jumped from 33.69 million in 2004 to 62.57 million in FY2004- 2005. In the last 3 years, two
out of every three new telephone subscribers were wireless subscribers. Consequently,
wireless now accounts for 54.6% of the total telephone subscriber base, as compared to only
40% in 2003. Wireless subscriber growth is expected to bypass 2.5 million new subscribers
per month by 2007. The wireless technologies currently in use are Global System for Mobile
Communications (GSM) and Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA). There are primarily 9
GSM and 5 CDMA operators providing mobile services in 19 telecom circles and 4 metro
cities, covering 2000 towns across the country
History:
In 1982 Racal Electronics plc's subsidiary Racal Strategic Radio Ltd. won one of two UK
cellular telephone network licenses. The network, known as Racal Vodafone was 80% owned
by Racal, with Millicom and the Hambros Technology Trust owning 15% and 5%
respectively. Vodafone was launched on 1 January 1985. Racal Strategic Radio was renamed
Racal Telecommunications Group Limited in 1985. On 29 December 1986 Racal Electronics
bought out the minority shareholders of Vodafone for GB110 million.In September 1988 the
company was again renamed Racal Telecom and on 26 October 1988 Racal Electronics
floated 20% of the company. The flotation valued Racal Telecom at GB1.7 billion On 16
September 1991 Racal Telecom was demerged from Racal Electronics as Vodafone Group.In
July 1996 Vodafone acquired the two thirds of Talkland it did not already own for 30.6
million. On 19 November 1996, in a defensive move, Vodafone purchased Peoples Phone for
77 million, a 181 store chain whose customers were overwhelmingly using Vodafone's
network. In a similar move the company acquired the 80% of Astec Communications that it
did not own, a service provider with 21 stores.
Vodafones original logo used until the introduction of the speech mark logo in 1998. On
21 September 1999 Vodafone agreed to merge its U.S. wireless assets with those of Bell
Atlantic Corp to form Verizon Wireless. The merger was completed on 4 April 2000.
In November 1999 Vodafone made an unsolicited bid for Mannesmann, which was rejected.
Vodafone's interest in Mannesmann had been increased by the latter's purchase of Orange, the
UK mobile operator. Chris Gent would later say Mannesmann's move into the UK broke a
"gentleman's agreement" not to compete in each other's home territory. The hostile takeover
provoked strong protest in Germany and a "titanic struggle" which saw Mannesmann resists
Vodafone's efforts. However, on 3 February 2000 the Mannesmann board agreed to an
increased offer of 112bn, then the largest corporate merger ever. The EU approved the
merger in April 2000. The conglomerate was subsequently broken up and all manufacturing
related operations sold off.
On 28 July 2000 the Company reverted to its former name, Vodafone Group Plc. In April
2001 the first 3G voice call was made on Vodafone United Kingdom's 3G network. In 2001
the Company took over Eircell, then part of eircom in Ireland, and rebranded it as Vodafone
Ireland. It then went on to acquire Japan's third-largest mobile operator J-Phone, which had
introduced camera phones first in Japan.
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Vodafone Logo
Accomplishments:
-
Over the years, Vodafone Essar, under the Hutch brand, 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 currently has equity interests in 31 countries across five continents and
around 40 partner networks worldwide
Essar employs more than 50,000 people across offices in Asia, Africa, Europe and the
Americas.
The company now has operations across the country with over 78.68 million
customers.
Services:
Staying connected becomes a lot easier with Vodafone. We have a wide range of
services you can access right from your Vodafone phone. From cell banking to
flight updates to call management services, get all that you want, instantly.
Prepaid services(latest):
-
Vodafone Essar, one of Indias leading cellular service providers announced a new
Bonus Card 25 for its prepaid customers in Punjab. With this new bonus card,
Vodafone customers can enjoy the benefit of unlimited national SMS at just
20paisa/SMS. The new bonus card comes with 30 days validity.
Postpaid services(latest):
- Vodafone Essar, one of Indias leading cellular services providers has launched three
new monthly rental plans - Budget 500, Budget 750 and Budget 1000 - for its
postpaid customers in Kolkata and West Bengal. These Budget plans offer
combinations of free minutes over local and STD calls along with free local SMS.
This offer is valid for new and existing customers.
Sridhar Rao, Chief Executive Officer, Vodafone Essar East Limited, said
These budget plans will specially appeal to customers with high usage who can now
manage their mobile bills without compromising on talktime or SMS volume.
- Announced a special offer for its customers in Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh.
Customers can now avail free VIP numbers with every new post paid connection. The
VIP numbers provide customers an option to choose a number of their preference
from a range of special Golden numbers that usually comes with a huge price tag.
Vodafone Online:
Select
the
information
and
key
input
as
requested
on
the
screen.
You will be charged Rs. 2 per outgoing message. Incoming messages are free.
MTNL Directory:
With this facility you can get to know the address and telephone no. of MTNL users.you will
be charged Rs.2 per outgoing message.
STD / ISD Codes:
You don't need to look up your diary or a phone directory to find out STD and ISD codes.
You can find it directly through your Vodafone phone.
Ringtones & Logos:
Now you can change the ringtone on your Vodafone phone according to your
moods. You can download logos as well. With the Vodafone and Yahoo! tieup you
have hundreds of tunes and logos to choose from.
For every ringtone downloaded, you will charged Rs. 7.00 (including the cost of
SMS sent). For every logo/picture message downloaded, you will charged Rs.
3.00 (including the cost of SMS sent).
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Dial-in Services
Vodafone brings you more conveniences at your fingertips. Use our Dial-in-Services to check
cricket scores, horoscope, up-to-the minute news and other relevant information on services
that touch your everyday life.
All Dial-in-Services carry a flat charge of Rs 6 per minute (1 min pulse).
Here's a shortlist of services you can access There are occasions when you may not
want to take a call, or your Vodafone phone maybe busy or simply unreachable.
By paying a nominal monthly access fee, you can now retrieve your messages at
your convenience. Even if you are roaming, you can retrieve your messages
from your voice mailbox through a fixed line, anywhere on earth.
Hotels
and
airport
lobbies.
At speeds of up to 9600 bps within the network or while roaming. You can even
access the Internet.
All you need is a handset compatible data card (PC Card) or a GSM Software,
and a data chord cable with a PC to set up a mobile office.You can also opt for
either Vodafone Fax or Vodafone Data services independently.Your Vodafone fax
number can help you differentiate between incoming voice calls and fax
transmissions. You can also send and receive faxes anywhere on earth with your
Vodafone phoneBy opting for the Vodafone Data Services you can access e-mail,
databases and the Internet. All on your single incoming data number.
Charges to activate the Vodafone Fax and Data service, you just need to pay a
one-time activation fee of Rs 500. To access the Fax service, the fee is Rs. 250.
The usage charges are nominal at Re 1 per minute.
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Voice Response
Get your Vodafone phone to respond directly to your commands. Custom
designed to recognize Indian voices and accents, the Voice Response service
makes your life more convenient. You can get the latest updates on news,
stocks, cricket and your horoscope. Airtime charges will be Rs.6 per minute (1
minute pulse).
Voice Messaging
Voice Messaging has become even more affordable. You can now send voice messages to
cellular phones as well as fixed telephone lines in USA or Canada for just Rs.3.95 per min*
(as against Rs.4.95 per min earlier).
- Vodafone Essar, one of Indias leading cellular services providers, today announced
significant reduction in international roaming rates for its Postpaid customers
traveling to South Africa during the upcoming DLF Indian Premier League (IPL)
cricket tournament. Vodafone Essar is the official partner to DLF IPL 2009
One number across the globe
Your Vodafone phone number and PIN number remains the same whether you
are in Delhi, Chandigarh, London, Paris or anywhere else in the world.
National and International Roaming on Vodafone Prepaid
Roaming on Vodafone Prepaid gives you the most extensive coverage in over
1000 cities, towns and highways across India, and in over 100 countries around
the world. Enjoy Roaming on your Vodafone Prepaid card and stay in touch
wherever you go.
WAP
With WAP, you can have the Internet directly in your pocket. So if you are
looking for quick and easy delivery of information and services, your Vodafone
phone can show it all. Use it to check out news, finance, shopping,
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Group Messaging
Party invitations, movie outings, festive greetings... whatever be the occasion, you can send
your message to all your friends at one go!
With Group Messaging from Vodafone, you can thus save yourself the bother of
painstakingly sending your message to one person at a time whether you are on Vodafone
Prepaid or Postpaid.
Vodafone4help
Vodafone4help now lets you take advantage of a lot more services than before. You can
connect to the nearest fire brigade or mechanic or florist or even order a pizza. If you are
stranded in the middle of the road, or if you you need immediate medical attention or if you
are looking for a police station close by, Vodafone4help gives you instant access to your
nearest source of help, anywhere in Delhi or the NCR.
All the help services are charged@Rs.6/min. while for police and fire help only local airtime
charge is applicable.
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Vodafone Essar, previously Hutchison Essar is a cellular operator in India that covers 21 telecom
circles in India. Despite the official name being Vodafone Essar, its products are simply branded
Vodafone. It offers both prepaid and postpaid GSM cellular phone coverage throughout India and is
especially strong in the major metros. Vodafone Essar provides 2G services based on 900 MHz and
1800 MHz digital GSM technology, offering voice and data services in 22 of the country's 23
licence areas.
Ownership:
Vodafone Essar is owned by Vodafone 52%, Essar Group 33%, and other Indian nationals,
15%.On February 11, 2007, Vodafone agreed to acquire the controlling interest of 67% held
by Li Ka Shing Holdings in Hutch-Essar for US$11.1 billion, pipping Reliance
Communications, Hinduja Group, and Essar Group, which is the owner of the remaining
33%. The whole company was valued at USD 18.8 billion. The transaction closed on May 8,
2007.
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Previous brands:
In December 2006, Hutch Essar re-launched the "Hutch" brand nationwide, consolidating its
services under a single identity. The Company entered into agreement with NTT DoCoMo to
launch i-mode mobile Internet service in India during 2007.
The company used to be named Hutchison Essar, reflecting the name of its previous owner,
Hutchison. However, the brand was marketed as Hutch. After getting the necessary
government approvals with regards to the acquisition of a majority by the Vodafone Group,
the company was rebranded as Vodafone Essar. The marketing brand was officially changed
to Vodafone on 20 September 2007.
On September 20, 2007 Hutch becomes Vodafone in one of the biggest brand transition
exercises in recent times.
Vodafone Essar is spending somewhere in the region of Rs 250 crores on this high-profile
transition being unveiled today. Along with the transition, cheap cell phones have been
launched in the Indian market under the Vodafone brand. There are plans to launch cobranded handsets sourced from global vendors as well.
A popular daily quoted a Vodafone Essar director as saying that "the objective is to leverage
Vodafone Group's global scale in bringing millions of low-cost handsets from across-theworld into India."
While there is no revealing the prices of the low-cost Vodafone handsets, the industry is
abuzz that prices might start at Rs 666, undercutting Reliance Communications' much-hyped
'Rang Barse' with cheap handsets beginning at Rs 777.
Meanwhile, Vodafone Essar sources said there would be no discounts or subsidized handset
offers -- rather handset-bundled schemes for customers.
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SWOT
STRENGTHS: Vodafone has its brand image and its ranking is 2nd in world. So here one
thing is conform that Vodafone has good network and outstanding services thats why its
users are most after china mobiles. At gave some special packages to attract customers. It can
offer international roaming facility more than any network in India. Financially Vodafone is
strong and is able to invest heavy amount in India.
WEAKNESS : It has to take license from PTA and act according to rules of India due to
which it may not give its special services like 3G,vedio calling and call to someone by
hiding your phone number.
OPPORTUNITIES: Vodafone can capture Asian market if it can grow in India ,55% of
population of India is young and mobile phones are most commonly used by young ones.
Demographs of India tell us that in this company Vodafone can earn heavy amount of
revenue. Total mobile users in India is 89.9 million and the population of the country is 1.15
billion. So there is space for market penetration . If Vodafone offers some special packages
for limited time then customer of other networks may switch. Vodafone have better
technology so it can capture the customers of the other networks as well. With India
Vodafone can capture Asia as well because of population or demographs of India.
THREATS: The current recession in market is not good for any kind of business including
telecommunication. Five cellular companies are already working in India. The situation in
India is not good specially political and peace. There are a lot of uncertainties in the country.
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Market Segmentation
After gathering all this data our objective was to segment the market or market targeting. We
tried to follow the theory of the segmentation which says that, to be useful, market segments
must be:
Measurable: The size, purchasing power, and profiles of the segments can be
measured. Certain segmentation variables are difficult to measure. Like for our product 89%
of the population of Mumbai takes tea and more than 70% of the population takes tea more
than one time daily and in that 70% more than 50% of the population takes tea more than
one time to four times a day. And the population of Mumbai is more than 10 million and
according to the report 8.9million people are the customers for the tea. And 70% means 7
million are the potential customers of this product.
Accessible:
The market segments can be effectively reached and served. Like our
advertisement team was working very hard to capture or dominate the mass marketing
strategy we adopted, in the same manner we did make sure that our distribution channels are
capable enough to provide the service to the consumer by making sure that the availability of
the product is certain.
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Affordable:
Our services are a unique in many aspects; one of them is the price.
We have offered our communication services at low price than the other services.
We are able to do this because of the new technology, equipments, and accessories.
The modern techniques help us to minimize the cost in the tea production.
Important:
Distinctive:
Superior:
Communicable:
Profitable:
Pricing.
The pricing of the tea is specially designed for the special purpose that is Affordable for
all. The company had decided earlier that the price factor of Vodafone will be carrying a
unique factor of affordability. But the quality is same as the expensive one. The pricing is
leveled very correctly by our competent team of researchers. Peoples are very loyal to the
brands or they dont want change we introduce (likho)sachets & where the peoples want to
experience and have resources to taste new and can buy more in quantity we introduce the
boxes (packets) etc.
Advertisement
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Customers
Vodafone has 302.6 million proportionate mobile customers across the globe. The Group
seeks to use its understanding of customers to deliver relevance and value and communicate
on an individual, household, community or business level. In delivering solutions that meet
customers changing needs in a manner that is easy to access and is available when required,
Vodafone aims to build a longer and deeper customer relationship.
Vodafone continues to use a customer measurement system called customer delight to
monitor and drive customer satisfaction in the Groups controlled markets at a local and
global level. This is a proprietary diagnostic system which tracks customer satisfaction across
all points of interaction with Vodafone and identifies the drivers of customer delight and their
relative impact. This information is used to identify any areas for improvement and focus.
Customer segmentation
Customer segments are targeted through many different tariffs and propositions, which are
adapted for any localised customer preferences and needs. These often bundle together voice,
messaging, data and, increasingly, fixed line services.
Consumer
Customers are typically classified as prepaid or contract customers. Prepaid customers pay in
advance and are generally not bound to minimum contractual 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
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Vodafone has continued to build brand value by delivering a superior, consistent and
differentiated customer experience. Communication activities are focused on delivering the
promise of helping customers make the most of their time. The Groups vision is to be the
communications leader in an increasingly connected world expanding the Groups 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.
Vodafone regularly conducts brand health tracking, 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. An external
accredited and independent market research organisation provides global coordination of the
methodology, reporting and analysis.
Distribution
Vodafone directly owns and manages over 1,800 stores selling services to customers and
providing customer support. The store footprint is constantly reviewed in response to market
conditions. The Group also has 5,200 Vodafone branded stores, which sell Vodafone products
and services exclusively through franchise and exclusive dealer arrangements. Additionally,
in most operating companies, sales forces are in place to sell directly to business customers.
The internet is increasingly a key channel to promote and sell Vodafones products and
services and to provide customers with an easy, user friendly and accessible way to manage
their services and access support, whilst reducing costs for the Group.
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, selling access to the Vodafone network at a wholesale level. Where
appropriate, Vodafone seeks to enter mutually profitable relationships with MVNO partners
as an additional route to market.
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al/portugal_press_release/vodafone_had_highest.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Customer_satisfaction
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hutch_(Indian_cellular_company)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vodafone
http://bora.nhh.no/bitstream/2330/1919/1/Saplitsa%202008.pdf
www.anacom.pt/render.jsp?contentId=606658
www.iimcal.ac.in/community/consclub/reports/telecom.pdf