Mobile telecommunications is a fast developing market and the competition is strong. Customer’s can move from one network to another. Vodafone has retained its leadership by keep giving their customer’s better value, better products and better service. It has:
- Highest quality and most reliable networks.
- Leading-edge products and services.
- Highest quality of customer care.
Vodafone;
- Focuses on individual customers, delivering an ever-wider range of personalized services in all of its market areas.
- Has increased its geographic reach by winning new licences and through strategies.
- Has accelerated its organic growth with huge investments in networks, marketing and distribution.
- Has great strength in its development spending on new services.
Vodafone has a simple ambition:
- To enable more people to do more things from more places.
- To exceed customer expectations, because word of mouth is the most powerful marketing tool of all.
To achieve this ambition Vodafone has to develop the following vision:
- To be the world’s leading wireless telecommunications and information provider, and bringing more services and more value to more customers than any other.
- Vodafone's vision is based on an understanding of the tremendous benefits of mobile communications. Its growth is founded on the ability to deliver those benefits through focused customer service and a commitment to being at the forefront of innovative services.
Vodafone has a three ways to achieve its vision:
- Accelerated customer growth.
- Geographic expansion.
- New services for all our customers.
Vodafone is one of the world's largest companies by market capitalization and recognises that size confers responsibility as well as opportunity. Vodafone's duty of care extends beyond its employees, its customers and the communities in which they live, to standards of social responsibility and the natural environment.
When I did more research on Vodafone I had found out that their market share has fallen. In year 2000 Vodafone shares were £3.99, but now the shares are 98p. So there has been a dramatic fall in their shares. The tables below shows Vodafone’s dramatic fall in market shares.
Vodafone aims to bring more services and more value to more customers. It can do that by being the worlds leading wireless telecommunications and information provider.
Political
It is important that sales people remain within the law when they are trying to male a sale. This means that they must have a working knowledge of laws relating to this area. The most important laws are:
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Consumer Protection Act – This Act states that Vodafone’s customers shouldn’t be mislead by the prices of the products. For example if a mobile phone is on sale for £100, then the store can not sell it any more than or less than that price.
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Data Protection Act - In this Act it say that when every customer gives the company their personal details then the company should always keep that information confidential and up-to date. If a customer wants to see all the information that company has got on them then the company have too show it them. The only way the company can pass on their customer’s details is with the customer’s permission.
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Trade description Act – This is an important form of customer protection, by making it illegal to wrongly describing their products. For example, a mobile phone is described as having excess to the Internet. If it doesn’t then they company is breaking this law.
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Sales of Good Act – This Act has three main parts;
- Goods must be of a merchantable quality. This means that the Goods have to be in work order and it works the way it should do, and also it is in a reasonable quality for the price charged. If there is something wrong with the product the customers should be aware of it before they buy the product.
- Goods must be fit for the purpose for which they were made.
- Goods must fit the description given to the customers.
If any of these conditions are breached, then the company must refund the customer’s money. The customer could agree to take a replacement, but they do not have to accept a credit note. Credit notes allow the customer to buy another product sometime in the future, up to the value of the one they bought before, but only in the same store.
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Sale and Supply of Goods Act – This Act states that the products sold to the customers must meet three conditions:
- They are of a satisfactory quality which means that the products should work properly and not be damaged. Likewise, services should be satisfactory and at a reasonable rates.
- They are fit for the purpose for which they are purchased.
- They are described accurately.
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Healthy and safe environment. The employees that Vodafone employ have to be working a safe and healthy environment so that they are not harmed while they are at work.
Economical
There are things that affect the way that Vodafone does in their competitive market such as their competitors. Their competitors are:
- T-mobile.(Global competitor)
- Orange. (Locally & nationally)
- Virgin. (Locally & nationally)
- J-Phone Co Ltd (Global competitor)
The reason why competitors affect how well Vodafone does tin the market is by attracting more customers to join their networks. So to avoid this they would have to do everything in their power to attract more customers than their competitors.
Most customers of Vodafone are getting unwanted text messages from companies that are trying to make money. The way that is done is by receiving a text message from some company and it would say that you have won a prize, but to see what they have won they have to ring a number. When people ring this number they notice that one phone call can cost at least £1.75 per minute.
This would affect Vodafone because if people keep on getting these sorts of messages then they might just not stay with that company cause they might think that they network has given their details to another company.
There have been some tests done to try to find out whether that mobile phones are safe to use and it wouldn’t harm your health. But scientists have done some research and say that mobile phone does have some affect on people. Scientist have warned children not to use a mobile phone because they have thinner skulls, smaller heads, and still-developing nervous systems, all factors which can make them more vulnerable to any adverse effects from the phones.
It is said that radiation can trigger cancer, memory loss, and Alzheimer's disease.
When people hear about this, especially parents then the number of mobile phone sale would fall because the parents wouldn’t buy their children a mobile phone. To a certain extent parents might not even buy a mobile phone cause they may feel that radiation can affect them too.
Social
- More youngsters buying mobile phones.
In the research I have found that there are a lot of young people that buy mobile phones. This can be a worry because young people are the easiest targets for people that steal phones. So therefore the more youngsters own a mobile phone the crime for mobile robbery would increase.
- Customer’s tastes are changing.
This happens very often because there is a lot of technology that is available in mobile phones, so therefore if the network companies want to well then they would have to upgrade or introduce more and better mobile phones. The reasons why people can change their taste can be because of fashion.
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Mobiles are increasing. (see appendix 1)
The graph is basically showing that more people are buying mobile phones. They are also increasing over the world for example they are getting bigger in Japan because they have just bought 10% stake of Japan Telecom Co Ltd.
Technology
All mobile networks have brought out a mobile phone that customers can prepay for their bill. This makes it easier for the customers to pay off their bill with out any hesitations. One of the reasons why the mobile networks brought this out is because they found that they had a lot of customers were not paying their bills, so this way they can make sure that they will pay first.
There are many accessories for mobiles for example there are;
- Hands free kit.
- Cameras. If people have a camera on their mobile phone they can then send a picture message.
These kinds of accessories would want customers to buy them because they make life much easier by things done by their mobile phones.
- Smaller mobile phones and more stylish.
Nowadays people prefer to have a mobile that they can put in their pockets and it isn’t heavy to carry. So now there are many mobile phones that are small enough to put in your pocket and also it isn’t too heavy.
Also people want to have a small mobile phone just because it looks more stylish and it looks better than the other phones.
- Internet on Mobile phones.
When this was possible life was made easier for people that travelled a lot and use the internet a lot. This is a great advantage because people can find out anything they want at any time.
Vodafone Internet Access gives you full Internet access on your laptop, or handheld PC when you're out and about.
The advantages are;
- Check internet-based e-mail
- Download files
- Browse information
- Chat online
- Pay bills.
- Personal organiser
All without the need for a fixed phone line
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Introduction of 3G phones.
Appendix 1.
Total Mobile Subscribers
Source: Oftel Market Information and Oftel estimates