Marketing and Promotional Strategy - produce a report for a company. The company that I have chosen to use is Orange, a mobile phone company.
Introduction
For my Unit 7 assignment on Marketing and Promotional Strategy, I have been requested to produce a report for a company. The company that I have chosen to use is Orange, a mobile phone company.
My assignment brief concludes that the company is losing market share, therefore my task is to assume the role of a Marketing Manager and to analyse the marketing mix of two rivals. The two rival companies I have chosen are Vodafone and One 2 One.
To produce the report I am going to research each company on the Internet, as well as contacting each company individually.
The Internet sites that I am going to look at are:
www.orange.com and www.orange.co.uk
www.vodafone.com and www.vodafone.co.uk
www.one2one.com and www.one2one.co.uk
This is where I will be able to get more information from, about the marketing and promotional strategies.
Terms of Reference
I am requested to write a report on Marketing and Promotional Strategy, by the Board of Directors. This report is being written to understand and analyse how and which promotional strategies can be used on in conjunction with various products or services. Once the report is completed it will then be given in to the Board of Directors.
Before this report can be completed, I will have to research on the chosen companies. The chosen companies are One 2 One and Vodafone. The third company that I have chosen is Orange; this company is the company that I am going to apply my marketing concept to.
Orange is the company that is losing market share to its main competitors, therefore my task is to analyse the marketing mix of two rival companies (One 2 One and Vodafone).
With this research, I am going to apply the theory and concepts of marketing promotion and components of the promotional plan, which are:
. The communication process
2. Product (brand) positioning
3. Marketing promotion objectives
4. Corporate image
5. Aspects of the promotional mix, that include:
* Advertising/Selling
* Branding
* Packaging
* Public Relations (PR)
* Sales promotion
* Merchandising
* Direct marketing
* Interactive media
* E-commerce and the Internet
The main Internet sites, I will be using are:
www.orange.com and www.orange.co.uk
www.vodafone.com and www.vodafone.co.uk
www.one2one.com and www.one2one.co.uk
I will also make contact with each of these companies.
The Board of Directors has requested the report for 29th October 2001.
Findings
Before I can precede any further with the promotional strategies used by Orange, I will first consider the strategies used by Vodafone and One 2 One. I will then interact these, insinuating for which is applicable to Orange.
Vodafone
Vodafone is the largest mobile telecommunications network company in the world. It has interests in mobile networks in 29 countries across five continents.
In June 2001, Vodafone had approximately 93 million proportionate customers worldwide. By market capitalisation, Vodafone is the largest company in Europe, and is one of the ten largest companies in the world. Capitalisation meaning the main mobile company I the world.
Vodafone aims to be the world's leading wireless telecommunications, informing provider, generating more customers, more services, and more value than any of its competitors.
Vodafone's global strategy embraces voices, data and Internet-based services, and focuses on satisfying customer's needs. This strategy will enable Vodafone to bring an ever wider and richer range of services to its customers, capitalising on new developments in technology.
One 2 One
The One 2 One network has been successfully managing growth since the 1980s, with customer base doubled, network grown by a third and network congestion now at the lowest levels ever.
One 2 One deliberately built a high capacity network to satisfy future demand as the market shifted from voice to a mix of voice and data. The One 2 One network handles around 260 million calls a week, meaning One 2 One is the second largest network to Vodafone, who have 50 million calls a day, with a total of 350 million calls a week.
Now I am going to discuss the similarities and differences of Vodafone and One 2 One.
Similarities
* Both Vodafone and One 2 One are two of the ten largest companies in the world
* Vodafone and One 2 One both have sponsors in the football organisations, Vodafone sponsoring Manchester United and One 2 One sponsoring Everton FC, Rotherham United FC and Boreham Wood FC
* They both have advertisements on TV, in magazines, on billboards, etc
* They both have similar ways of promoting their company, by showing off their logo on football kits, billboards, and even in catalogues
* Vodafone and One 2 One were both founded in the 1980s
* The both companies produce contract phones and 'pay as you go'/'pay as you talk' vouchers and top-up cards.
Differences
* Vodafone has 50 million calls per day, having 350 million calls per week, whilst One 2 One having 260 million calls per week
* One 2 One sponsor more football clubs than Vodafone, they even sponsor the FA Charity Shield
* One 2 One also sponsor the National Association of Disabled Supporters (NADS). To show its support One 2 One works with the NADS to open up the game to more people.
NADS is an independent body, which aims to improve the football experience for disabled fans and their carers. One 2 One has provided backing and technical support for NADS to conduct an audit of every football ground in England. This will assess parking, access, seating, catering, toilets, and tickets allocations.
* In other words One 2 One is a big football sponsor
* Vodafone had different varieties of sports sponsoring that include Manchester United, Formula One, Formula One in 2002, English Cricket, and Vodafone Derby. Whilst One 2 One only sponsor football associated clubs.
* The prices of One 2 One phones and Vodafone phones are different. For example, a One 2 One Nokia 3210 phone costs £79.99 and a Vodafone Nokia 3210 phone costs £99.99
* Vodafone is the largest company in Europe
Evaluation
From the research of the similarities and differences of both Vodafone and One 2 One, I evaluate that both these companies have some things in common, like advertising/promoting their products through sports, mainly football.
But there are quite a lot of differences between each company. The associated differences include, prices, places of popularity, e.g. Vodafone being the largest company in Europe as well as being one of the ten largest companies in the world.
Both companies produce the same products, but there are slight variances between them. For instance, a Nokia 3310 with One 2 One as its network, the price for a call would vary from a Nokia 3310 with Vodafone as its network.
There is also another difference between the products; this is the cover of the mobile, e.g. for each network there is a different colour cover for the phone when bought. For instance, a silver cover for a One 2 One Nokia 3210 phone ad a red cover for a Vodafone Nokia 3210 phone.
Now I am going to write about Orange. My findings will be supported by researched theory with reference to marketing and promotional strategy. My report will focus on the following areas:
. The communication process
2. Product (brand) positioning
3. Marketing promotion objectives
4. Corporate image
5. Aspects of the promotional mix, that include:
* Advertising/Selling
* Branding
* Packaging
* Public Relations (PR)
* Sales promotion
* Merchandising
* Direct marketing
* Interactive media
* E-commerce and the Internet
Orange
Orange began with a vision of transforming the mobile marketplace.
Why couldn't a mobile phone service be friendly, easy to use, easy to understand and excellent value?
By focusing on customers and quality service, orange redefined the market, forcing other networks to follow. Orange was launched in April 1994, the fourth entrant into the UK Mobile market.
As at the end of December 2000, it was the UK's third largest mobile operator and announced its customer base was over 9.83 million - over twice the size than a year before.
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This is a preview of the whole essay
Orange
Orange began with a vision of transforming the mobile marketplace.
Why couldn't a mobile phone service be friendly, easy to use, easy to understand and excellent value?
By focusing on customers and quality service, orange redefined the market, forcing other networks to follow. Orange was launched in April 1994, the fourth entrant into the UK Mobile market.
As at the end of December 2000, it was the UK's third largest mobile operator and announced its customer base was over 9.83 million - over twice the size than a year before.
Orange is expanding its horizons in the hope of growing its business, like in several countries including Australia, Denmark, France, Israel, and Switzerland.
The Communication Process
There are different definitions of the communications process. In the Companion Encyclopaedia of Marketing, Keith Crosier (1995) answers his own rhetorical question, 'What is marketing communications?' by defining seven varieties of marketing communication as follows:
. Advertising communicates via a recognisable advertisement placed in a definable advertising medium, guaranteeing exposure to a target audience in return for a published rate for the time or space used.
2. Publicity communicates via a news release to definable news media in the hope of secondary exposure to a target audience in return for a published rate for the time or space used.
3. Packaging communicates via display, guaranteeing exposures to a potential customer at the point of sale but not normally to a wider target audience.
4. Personal selling communicates person to person via a sales pitch by a sales representative to a prospect, or by a sales assistant to a customer, guaranteeing exposure to a selected individual within a target market.
5. Direct marketing communicates person to person but through an intervening channel, such as the post (mailing), door-to-door delivery (a mail drop), the telephone (telemarketing) of a fax line, guaranteeing exposure to a selected individual within a target market. For many years, the only form of direct marketing in use was direct mail.
6. Sponsorship communicates via explicit association of a product or service with an entity, event, or activity, in the expectation of secondary exposure to a target audience through identification during associated media coverage.
7. Sales promotion communicates via a variety of promotions not encompassed by any of the definitions above, each aiming for exposure to a target audience and some further some offering an incentive to respond actively.
I have chosen this component because without communication, you can't sell your product, and if you don't follow any of the marketing communication then no one would know if the product exists or not.
Communication is probably the main requirement for promoting your product, without it, there would be no popularity or existence of the product.
When using communication to promote Orange products (mobiles), I would use all the seven points, because each one of them is more important than the last one.
First I would use advertising and publicity, as well as, personal selling to show that the product is the latest thing out and to make the audience (customers) interested in buying the product.
Secondly I would use packaging to expose potential customers at the point of sale. Direct marketing would also be used, so while going round door-to-door, I would also promote the packaging of the product.
Once the product becomes popular and everyone stats buying it, I would then try sponsoring other organisations, to increase Orange's popularity.
Product (brand) Positioning
Orange chooses the product (mobile phone) or service's (sponsorship) position in the market place. This could be an exclusive or mass market, and the position could be at the economy or luxury end of that market. Before marketing, it is essential to understand the benefits of any product or service, and take a stance on its position.
A brand represents not only a physical product, like for instance a mobile phone, or service but also the benefits the buyer seeks in that product or service. Building a strong brand is a way to differentiate a product or service from the competition, and can help command a premium price. Customers usually buy a brand for the benefits they associate with that brand, rather than its features.
E.g. people would buy a Nokia phone with Orange as its network, because they like what they see and it is cheaper to buy than any other mobile phone on any other network (like One 2 One and Vodafone).
Marketing Promotion Objectives
A planned strategy for successful development is central to any business. Marketing objectives are a part of this. They help decide what share of the market - size and revenue - is needed to fulfil the company's mission and objectives.
They also decide how the elements of the marketing mix - product, price, promotion, and place - can help achieve these in each customer segment. This marketing strategy should have objectives, which are:
SPECIFIC
MEASURABLE
ACHIEVABLE
REALISTIC
TIMED & TARGETED
Goals must motivate employees and gain their full commitment. A SMART goal that everyone in the company can understand and work towards.
Quantifying what the company wants from its employees and how they will contribute to the objectives, is SMART:
* Specific - sales of mobiles
* Measurable - sales up to 20%
* Achievable - production raised by 15% (Achievable in time scale)
* Realistic - with new sales team
* Timed and targeted - by the end of April 2002 in the mobile company, e.g. Orange.
Once a business has set its objectives, it must decide how it will meet them. There are many ways to develop a successful strategy - most are linked to increasing sales, developing products or markets. Amongst these are:
* Market Penetration
* Market Development
* Product Development
* Diversification
Strategy
Product
Market
Market Penetration
Existing
Existing
Market Development
Existing
New
Product Development
New
Existing
Diversification
New
New
The market penetration strategy offers the lowest risk of failure, as both product and market are known. The highest risk lies in diversification, with new product and market. Market and product development offer some risk, more so if an entirely new product is developed rather than modifying an existing product.
Corporate Image
All businesses project an image to the outside world, whether they say they are aware of it or not. A firm's image is formed by the way it is perceived both externally and internally.
Most firms have a mission and a set of goals and values, even if they aren't stated as such. So Orange network's mission is to become the first global wirefreeTM communications brand wherever they operate or wherever their brand is licensed; and to be the first for service, first for quality, first for innovation, and first choice.
Advertising/Selling
Essentially advertising is a means of spreading information, in other words it's a way of communication. Advertising is paid for, it is a commercial transaction, and it is this, which distinguishes it from publicity.
It is non-personal in the sense that advertising messages, visual, spoken or written, are directed at a mass audience, and not directly at the individual as is the case in personal selling (direct mail).
Professional selling is essential to achievement in any market. Professional sales can be structured to the four-step framework of AIDA.
ATTENTION
INTEREST
DESIRE
ACTION
As in advertising, the first aim of selling is to get the potential customer's ATTENTION. In an advertisement that might be done with a stunning picture. In direct selling, attention must be done from the presence or personality of the sales person.
The next step is to INTEREST the customer, usually by showing the customer the features of the product and their relevance to the situation.
Totally, unlike that interest is DESIRE. A customer desiring a product must believe that the product is necessary and the economics of the offer are viable.
The product's specific benefits are then shown to the customer. Rather than selling products, sales people offer ways to fill gaps in the customer's life with plugs that fit - i.e. benefits.
The customer takes ACTION once their mind is clear that they:
* Need the benefits
* See the features of the product as returning those benefits
* Can afford the price of the benefits as offered by the product
I have chosen advertising/selling, because of the fact of when selling a product you need to advertise it to the nation, so that they will know that a new product has come out into the marketplace.
By advertising it would make Orange a well-known name for the market, just like One 2 One has become more popular, especially in advertisements on the TV.
Branding
When several companies are offering rival products, they will want to identify and distinguish their particular offering. This is called 'branding', e.g. there is a Black & Decker brand, a Revlon brand, and an IBM brand. But the focus here is not on brands but on successful brands. Because people are aware of a specific brand does not mean that it is successful.
People recognised brands like the Sinclair, the Ford Fiesta, or the Co-op, but they did not develop preferences for them. The Landor survey (1991) found, for example, that British Telecom was in the UK's top ten brands for awareness, but in terms of esteem it was rated number 300. BT has been referred to as a strong negative brand. It was known for all the wrong reasons. (Referenced as Companion Encyclopaedia of Marketing).
A positive or successful brand can be defined as follows: A successful brand is a name, symbol, design, or some combination, which identifies the 'product' of a particular organisation as having a sustainable differential advantage. 'Differential advantage' means simply that customers have a reason for preferring that brand to competitors' brands.
I have chosen branding because branded mobiles are sold in every mobile company, for example, a Nokia 3210 is sold in all the mobile networks, from Orange, Vodafone to One 2 One.
This means that all the mobile companies have the same product, but have a different brand name (e.g. Orange Nokia 3210 or One 2 One Nokia 3210). They also add in their own features, and also have different call rates, etc.
Packaging
Nowadays, packaging is an extrinsic product attribute, which is seen to have as much influence on the buyer's perceptions and behaviour as other attributes as price, brand names, and level of advertising.
The basic function of any pack is to protect its contents in transit, in storage, and in use. There are four basic packaging functions; they are:
. Distributor requirements
2. Consumer requirements
3. Legal requirements
4. The resolution of conflict between distributor/user requirements
Below I am going to explain each of the functions.
. Distributor requirements - you must take into account the length of the distribution channel, the amount of handling, which the container will receive, and variations in climate conditions, which may be encountered between the point of manufacture and sale.
2. Consumer requirements - consumers want products and have little direct interest in their packaging. In many cases, however, the satisfaction to be derived from a product is dependent to both technical and aesthetic improvements in pack design.
3. Legal requirements - in addition to providing a distinctive and appealing means of identifying and protecting, the pack must also provide the user with information concerning its contents. The law may require some of the information.
4. The resolution of conflict between distributor/user requirements - such conflict as does between user and distributor requirements is almost invariably resolved in favour of the user. Diseconomies in weight/volume relationships due to the use of odd-shaped containers, and losses due to breakages can often be minimised through the use of standardised outer containers.
I have chosen packaging as one of my components, because packaging is one of the main things in selling your product. Without it your product won't sell well enough.
Packaging is needed to show what is contained in the packaging and other information that concern the contents. It would also show the weight of the product, etc.
All of this would apply to Orange as well because you can't usually sell a mobile without its packaging, and in all shops around the world, whenever you buy a mobile phone you would always receive it in its packaging.
Public Relations (PR)
According to Haywood (1995) public relations barely existed as a management function, outside some Western governments and their military forces, before the 1950s.
Today it is a widely established professional practice with its own professional bodies and qualifications. Public relations is involved in much more than publicity. Publicity is vital in projecting an organisation's personality but is simply the visible expression of corporate policy and strategic intent.
Professional public relations have an important role and contribution to make to the formulation and implementation of both policy and strategy, which goes far beyond the marketing communications process.
PR must work closely with other marketing communications such as advertising, selling, and sales promotion, and be integrated with them to achieve an efficient and effective communication strategy.
PR is one of the components that I have chosen. This is because without it your company won't get enough publicity and then no one would want to buy it.
If PR is used in Orange, it would then make Orange a more successful company than any other company. This would be used with the other components of the promotional mix to make Orange successful.
Sales Promotion
Sales promotion is a facet of marketing, which is adding value, usually of a temporary nature, to a product or service in order to persuade the end user to purchase that particular brand.
As every consumer is aware there is a bewildering array promotional offers available. A short review is given below.
* Free Samples - Of all the promotions this method offers the greatest chance of getting a consumer to actually try the product. At the same time it is the most expensive, and its usage is invariably restricted to brands with potential annual sales of several million pounds.
* Off-price Labels - In terms of consumer acceptability the label featuring "Xp" off the regular price is the most popular promotion. A price reduction is a short-term strategy, however, and the simplest for one's competitors to duplicate. For these reasons it is avoided by companies that are sensitive to a price war wherever possible.
* Banded Offers - This type of promotion takes two forms:
. The use of an existing and well-known brand to 'carry' a free sample of another non-competing product. Both products may be produced by the same firm, for example soap and toothpaste, which has the dual advantage of increasing sales of the carrying brand while securing trial of the carried brand, or complementary products of different producers, for example instant coffee and sugar.
2. Two-for-the-price-of-one.
* Premium Offers - There are three main varieties of premium offer:
. The free gift. This may be contained in the package - plastic animals in breakfast cereals; attached to it - a plastic rose, tea-towels and so fourth; given out at the checkout to those purchasing the item carrying the offer - bowls, china, waste-paper baskets, and so on.
2. The free, send away premium. This type of promotion offers a free gift in exchange for proof of purchase of the product. This approach has greater appeal to the retailer than those promotions, which require him to stock 'giveaways', especially as the promotion usually involves point of sale material that builds store traffic and stimulates impulse purchases.
3. Self-liquidating premium. These differ from the other type of premium in that the consumer has to send both money and proof of purchase to obtain the offer.
* Competitions - Like all other promotions these are no newcomers to the marketing scene, but they have attracted more than their usual share of attention of late as a result of tangling with the betting and gaming laws.
* Personality Promotions - As with the door-to-door distribution of samples, this type of promotion is limited to the big brands with large advertising appropriations. The method employed is to offer a prize if the housewife has the advertised product in her home when the personality calls, provided that she can answer a simple question.
This is one of the components of the promotional mix that I have chosen. This is because it is one of the main components, and without it, again you would not get enough sales for your product.
For Orange this is also an important component. With sales promotion there are different promotional offers. The main offers that Orange should use are:
* Off-price labels
* Premium offers - Orange would use this, e.g. when buying a mobile from Orange you would get £5 free call time.
Merchandising
Merchandising is an extension of the selling process whereby the manufacturer seeks to ensure that the retailer sells his products as quickly and as profitably as possible.
From the manufacturer's point of view the outlet provides the ready availability and convenience, which are so expensive to achieve by direct selling methods.
Once the retailer has taken delivery of goods from the manufacturer they become his property until he can affect their resale to ultimate consumers, and it follows that until he is able to achieve this he will have neither space nor capital with which to purchase further supplies from the producer.
Clearly any assistance, which the manufacturer can give the retailer to stimulate demand and encourage purchase, will be to their mutual advantage - this is the role of merchandising.
I have chosen this as one of the main components, because merchandising is mainly used in nearly all the companies. This is could be used in Orange, be selling T-shirts with the 'Orange' logo on it, even bags, footballs, mugs, etc.
Direct Marketing
More and more major brand manufacturers are placing a greater emphasis on the use of direct marketing techniques. Kotler and Armstrong (1993) describe such techniques as 'marketing through various advertising media that interact directly with consumers, generally calling for the consumer to make a direct response'.
Such techniques include direct mail, catalogues, telemarketing, and electronic marketing. In 1994 Heinz, one of the UK's leading fast moving consumer goods (fmcg) manufacturers, decided to concentrate the bulk of their £12m UK advertising budget on direct marketing techniques backed up by an umbrella branding campaign run on television.
The main reason behind Heinz's change in strategy relate to factors that will affect most fmcg companies in the modern marketplace. Firstly, people's attitudes towards brands are changing and brands are becoming more and more threatened by the retailers' own label brands/product, which in the grocery market have a growing market share.
Secondly, there are more and more products on the shelves for consumers to choose from and so it is less easy for a brand to dominate a sector and distinguish itself.
Thirdly, there is expected to be an explosion in the number of television channels for advertisers to use and so such advertising will become increasingly diluted and the right message may not be reaching the right person - the target consumer.
Because of this market fragmentation Heinz have called upon their successful direct marketing experience in the US to develop a more direct relationship with their customers and thereby aim to induce brand loyalty.
Direct marketing is one of the components that I have chosen. This is because when advertising your product, another technique would be direct marketing.
Orange would use direct marketing by using the techniques of advertising in catalogues, and sometimes by direct mail, instead of on television (as the example about Heinz above).
Interactive Media
The concept of interactivity has been seen as a key distinguishing feature of the new communications media. The ability of computer networks to enable communication from anywhere in the globe at any time removes the constraints of time and space associated with traditional marketplace exchanges.
Second, the shift from one-to-many communication models to many-to-many, where communication can come from both directions results in all parties now playing a role in generating information outputs.
There are three key areas differentiating interactive media from traditional mass media are:
* Communication Style - this refers to the temporal dimension of communications. It involve immediate giving, receiving, or responding to information, such as in face-to-face conversation or telephone conversations.
* Social Presence - this is the feeling that communication exchanges are sociable, warm, personal, sensitive, and active. This is affected by channel attributes, which influence the perception of how 'rich' the medium is in giving immediate feedback, multiple cues, natural language, and personal focus.
* Consumer Control - the ability to control the pace and presentation of product information is a major influence on individuals' willingness to engage in computer-mediated marketing activity, and hence the user-friendly computer interface is an essential ingredient of computer-mediated communications.
This is one of the main components that I have chosen; this is because when selling your product, you need to communicate via interactive media.
Orange should also communicate via interactive media to. They should use techniques such as advertising on the Internet and use computer-mediated communications.
E-commerce and The Internet
E-commerce mainly covers business transactions involving payment over the web. Some people believe that taking payment via an Internet site can be very risky, though it is no more risky than giving a supplier your credit card number over the phone.
The SME is advised to use a website initially for promotion and generating orders while maintaining a separate payment system. At a later stage, and after further investigation, they might consider taking payment via their site.
Over the next five years, as consumers increasingly gain easier and speedier access to the Internet - through platforms such as set-top boxes, television and screen-based telephones - it is anticipated that it will take on even greater strategic significance.
Because of its interconnected nature, the Internet presents many opportunities for companies to exchange both information about their products and services, as well as facilitate exchange.
I have chosen this as one of my components of the promotional mix, because Internet and e-commerce have become very popular over the last decade or so, and nearly every single organisation advertises on the Internet and use e-commerce.
Orange could use this to advertise their products and not only would people in the UK notice that Orange exists, but people around the world would also notice it too. And only then would Orange become popular and would also then be rated one of the top ten mobile companies in the world.
From all the information that I have detained about Orange as well as the two other companies (One 2 One and Vodafone), and the points above, I conclude that the company Orange should refer to the other two companies (in the findings) and see where they are going wrong, and that they should also look at the points about each of the promotional and marketing strategies, to give them an idea of what to do and how to do it.
With this they will then be back in being the recognised company, not only in the UK but also in every part of the world.
Target Market
The target group for Orange would be mainly people between the age of 14 and above. It is also for people who work, e.g. doctors, teachers, business people, etc.
Basically it is for a wide range of people, from different ethnic groups, different ages, male and female, different professions, etc. You name it mobiles are for everyone.
I think most people who are students in schools and colleges would rather buy a mobile phone with Orange as its network because of the cheap call rates it provides and students at that age don't have much money to keep buying top-up cards to top-up their mobile phones.
Most business people would prefer One 2 One as their network because one 2 one have a reasonable call rate too, in this case the business people can afford to pay for top-up cards to top-up their mobile phones.
If they were on contract, with the network (One 2 One), then they would be getting text messages costing them only 8p and having free voicemail, but then again if it wasn't on contract then it would cost them 12p for a text message and it wouldn't be free for voicemail.
On Orange, it would cost them 10p for a text message and normal rate for voicemail, but then again it is cheaper to have your mobile phone on Orange than One 2 One, because contract mobile phone bills are more expensive then normal bills (top-up cards), because you can use a whole £10 top-up card in one month on Orange, and over £10 on One 2 One.
So overall I think the cheapest network would be Orange, because it's cheaper than the rest of the other networks, and it is a favourite for students.
Marketing Plan
I have chosen the following aspects of the promotional mix in this order because I think that you have to first try advertising your product on a small scale, e.g. the local newspaper, and also go to peoples houses, door-to-door, promoting your product. This way a larger group of people (customers) will know about the product.
Second it would be the branding of the product, I would use the Orange network on all brand named mobile phones, from Nokia to Motorola, to Siemens to Philips, so that everyone can have the chance of having a mobile phone with Orange as its network.
With the branding I would choose packaging, because when having all those brand named mobile phones you need the packaging to go along with it, which would include the name of the network (Orange), the name of the brand name (e.g. Nokia), and including with that some extra information about the phone and the network (manual book).
Once the product is known by some of the people (customers), I will then use Public Relations, which will then help to manage the promotion side of the product and the network. This is where sales promotion would come in as well.
PR and sales promotion will help Orange quite a lot because of the extra promotion of the network will make it more demanding in the mobile phone industry, so then more people will want to buy it.
Once the product has reached the 'almost very demanding level', I will then think of using merchandising for selling goods with Orange as its logo, e.g. T-shirts with Orange printed on the front, mugs, etc. This way more people will want to buy the mobile phone with Orange as its network.
Then I will try direct marketing, where I will sell the Orange mobile phone in catalogues, national newspapers, on the Internet, even try advertising the product on the TV so that people can go out and buy the product in shops.
With direct marketing I would use interactive media and e-commerce/the Internet, to sell my product, giving customers a wide range of selections onto where to look and where to buy the mobile phone.
So if they are using the Internet they can buy the mobile phone straight off it and get it posted to their address, or they could simply just go down to one of the shops where they sell mobile phones and purchase it from there. It is basically up to the customers where they want to buy the product.
Conclusion and Recommendation
From all the research on all the three companies (One 2 One, Vodafone and Orange), I recommend that for the future of Orange, I think that Orange should create a better future where people communicate with people, not places, and where individuals are in touch wherever they go.
A future where customers are able to access all the people, information, and entertainment they need, both in their personal and business lives, wherever and however they wish.
I also think that in the future an Orange phone may no longer be just a phone, but a "remote control for life", giving customers complete control over the range of services they employ - their money, their transactions, their work and leisure time, their travel... their lives.
I think that if Orange want to be more popular in the future, then they would need to promote more of their products in different countries, even the Eastern countries, as well as America. With this they could aim to be recognised in almost 50 countries around the world by the year 2005.
From the points in the Conclusion, I think that Orange should use sales promotion as a way of promoting their product. This way more people would buy the product, which will leave the other companies with not as much sales as Orange. An example could be, buy an Orange phone, and get an extra £5 free of calls.
Orange could also begin to sponsor even more organisations where they could be even more recognised than before, and maintain a successful sale.
Signature _________________ Date ____________
Unit 7
Marketing & Promotional Strategy
(Advanced)
Nazima Hussain
Bibliography
These are the types of resources I have used to complete the report.
Books
GNVQ Advanced AVCE Business Dave Needham
Rob Dransfield
Marketing Concepts & Strategies Dibb Simkin
Pride Fernel
Marketing Malcolm McDonald
John Grattona
Companion Encyclopaedia of Marketing Oxford
Web Pages
www.yahoo.com\
www.orange.com
www.orange.co.uk
www.one2one.com
www.one2one.co.uk
www.vodafone.com
www.vodafone.co.uk
Other Resources
Orange Leaflets
One 2 One leaflets
Direct Contact
I did not get any access in contacting any of the mobile companies directly.
