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Sales Promotion Schemes of Vodafone'
Sales Promotion Schemes of Vodafone'
NEW DELHI
THESIS ON
“SALES PROMOTION SCHEMES OF VODAFONE’’
SUBMITTED TO:
SUBMITTED BY:
DIVYA DEWAN
ALUMNI ID NUMBER: DF79-M-0301
BATCH:PGP/FW/2007-09
ABSTRACT
Sales promotion consists of a variety of companies. Sponsored promotional
activities that supplement both advertising and personal set up. These
activities are impersonal and can be directed at industrial buyers,
intermediaries or consumers. Sales promotion consists of a diverse collection
of incentive tools, mostly short term, designed to stimulate quicker or greater
purchase of particular products or services by consumers of the trade. Sales
promotion tools vary in their specific objectives. Incentive type promotions are
used to attract new buyers, to reward loyal customers and to increase the
repurchase rates of the occasional users. Sales promotion often attracts the
branch switchers, because users of other brands and categories do not
always notice or act on a promotion.
In using the sales promotion a company must establish its objectives, select
the tools develop the program, a pretest the program, implement and control it
and evaluate the results.
This is to confirm that Divya Dewan, student of IIPM, NEW DELHI, is doing a
live project(Thesis) on the topic “Sales Promotion schemes of Vodafone”
under my guidance and that the work being done by the candidate is original
and is of the standard expected by an MBA student.
Warm regards
This is to inform that the thesis topic “A Study on Sales Promotion Schemes of
Vodafone”, as proposed by you, has been approved .Thisemail is an official
confirmation that you would be doing your thesis work under the guidance of Mr.
Mudit Shastri . Make it a comprehensive thesis; the objective of a thesis should be
value addition to the existing knowledge base.
Please ensure that the objectives as stated by you in your synopsis are met using the
appropriate research design.
You must always use the thesis title as approved and registered with us.
You are required to correspond with us by sending at least six response sheets to
Prof. Vijay Kr. Boddu at boddu.vijay@iipm.edu. Ph-011-42789931 ( format attached
along with this mail) at regular intervals, before 31st July 2009(the last date for thesis
submission).
Regards,
Sumanta Sharma
Dean (Academics)
The Indian Institute of Planning and Management
New Delhi
Sumanta.sharma@iipm.edu
Phone: 011– 42789910,876
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
Also, I express my gratitude to Prof. Sumanta Sharma and Prof. Vijay Kumar
Boddu for their kind cooperation.
CONTENT
ABSTRACT........................................................................................ii
SIGNATORY PAGE..........................................................................iii
ACKNOWLEDGMENT......................................................................v
1. INTRODUCTION ...................................................................................1
2. COMPANY PROFILE...........................................................................18
3. LITERATURE REVIEW........................................................................38
4. RESEARCH METHODOLOGY............................................................67
6. RECOMMENDATION...........................................................................85
7. CONCLUSION......................................................................................87
8. BIBLIOGRAPHY...................................................................................90
9. ANNEXURE – QUESTIONNAIRE........................................................91
APPROVED THESIS SYNOPSIS
Student Details:
Guide:
Mr Mudit Shastri
Designation: Relationship manager
Mobile No: 9811918629
Email: mudit.shastri@vodafone.com
Marketing
Title of thesis:
Research Objective:
Research methodology:
Primary research
Secondary research
1) Internet
2) Magazine and newspapers
Internal Guide:
Dean (Projects)
External Guide:
Mr Mudit Shastri
Designation: Relationship manager
Mobile No: 9811918629
Email: mudit.shastri@vodafone.com
1
INTRODUCTION
TELECOM INDUSTRY
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The telecommunications industry is growing at a very rapid pace in India. Also
India is one of the fastest growing telecom markets in Asia. India is the 4 th
largest telecom market in Asia. The telecom Market consists of mobile
phones, cellular service providers, and broadband network.
The telecom industry is one of the fastest growing industries in India. India
has nearly 200 million telephone lines making it the third largest network in
the world after China and USA. With a growth rate of 45%, Indian telecom
industry has the highest growth rate in the world.
Cellular services can be further divided into two categories: Global System for
Mobile Communications (GSM) and Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA).
The GSM sector is dominated by Airtel, Vodfone-Hutch, and Idea Cellular,
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while the CDMA sector is dominated by Reliance and Tata Indicom. Opening
up of international and domestic long distance telephony services are the
major growth drivers for cellular industry. Cellular operators get substantial
revenue from these services, and compensate them for reduction in tariffs on
airtime, which along with rental was the main source of revenue. The
reduction in tariffs for airtime, national long distance, international long
distance, and handset prices has driven demand.
Indian Telecom sector, like any other industrial sector in the country, has gone
through many phases of growth and diversification. Starting from telegraphic
and telephonic systems in the 19th century, the field of telephonic
communication has now expanded to make use of advanced technologies like
GSM, CDMA, and WLL to the great 3G Technology in mobile phones. Day by
day, both the Public Players and the Private Players are putting in their
resources and efforts to improve the telecommunication technology so as to
give the maximum to their customers
The Indian telecom sector can be broadly classified into Fixed Line
Telephonyand mobile telephony. The major players of the telecom sector are
experiencing a fierce competition in both the segments. The major players like
BSNL, MTNL, VSNL in the fixed line and Airtel, Hutch, Idea, Tata, Reliance in
the mobile segment are coming up with new tariffs and discount schemes to
gain the competitive advantage. The Public Players and the Private Players
share the fixed line and the mobile segments. Currently the Public Players
have more than 60% of the market share
Both fixed line and mobile segments serve the basic needs of local calls, long
distance calls and the international calls, with the provision of broadband
services in the fixed line segment and GPRS in the mobile arena. Traditional
telephones have been replaced by the codeless and the wireless instruments.
Mobile phone providers have also come up with GPRS-enabled multimedia
messaging, Internet surfing, and mobile-commerce. The much-awaited 3G
mobile technology is soon going to enter the Indian telecom market. The
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GSM, CDMA, WLL service providers are all upgrading themselves to provide
3G mobile services.
Tata Indicom Airtel has the largest customer base with 31% market share,
followed by Hutch and BSNL with each holding 22% market share.
The 2008 budget has brought further relief to the customers with the reduction
in the tariffs, both local and long distance, and with slashing down the roaming
rentals. This is likely to lead to even more people going for cellular services
and more and more use of the value added services. However, landline
telephony is likely to remain popular, too, in the foreseeable future. MTNL, the
largest landline service provider, has recently taken some bold initiatives to
retain its market share and, if possible, expand it.
The cellular phone industry is one of India's rapidly growing industries. Since
the industry came into being in the mid 1990s, its average per annum growth
rate has been a phenomenal 85 percent. By the end of 2009, the Indian
cellular phone industry had over 10 million subscribers. The industry has
undergone a number of changes over the years. The National Telecom Policy
1999 was an important landmark in the development of the cellular telecom
industry in India; the tariff rationalization and policy regulation introduced in
the Policy helped the industry grow at the pace it did. The years 2007 and
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2008 saw an increase in level of competition in the industry with more
operators being given licenses, and fixed line providers also entering the
mobile market.
International studies indicate that for every one percent increase in the tale
density (penetration rate of telecommunications) of a country, there is a
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corresponding increase of three percent in the gross domestic product of the
country... The Indian telecommunications has been zooming up the growth
curve at a feverish pace, emerging as one of the key sectors responsible for
India's resurgent economic growth. India is set to surpass US to become the
second largest wireless network in the world with a subscriber base of over
300 million by April, according to the the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India
(Trai). The month of April 2008 will see India’ wireless subscriber base that
currently stands at 250.93 million surpassing that of the US to become the
second wireless network in the world.
The year 2009 saw India achieving significant distinctions: having the world's
lowest call rates (2-3 US cents), the fastest growth in the number of
subscribers (15.31 million in 4 months), the fastest sale of million mobile
phones (in a week), the world's cheapest mobile handset (US$ 17.2) and the
world's most affordable colour phone (US$ 27.42) and largest sale of mobile
handsets (in the third quarter). Segment-wise growth Wireless segment has
emerged as the preferred mode of telephone service by the consumers,
reflected in the rising share of mobile phone connections to total connections.
The share of mobile phones has increased from 71.69 per cent at the end of
March 2009 to 87.68 per cent at the end of May 2008. While total mobile
subscriber base was 277.92 million, wire line subscriber base was 39.05
million.
Consequently, overall tele-density has increased to 27.59 per cent at the end
of May 2008. India is likely to be second largest mobile market in the BRIC
nations, with 560 million mobile users representing the next great growth
curve for both mobile and interactive marketing industries, according to a
report by eMarketers. Also, private sector has become the dominant player in
the industry. While public sector companies added 53.6 million subscribers
during 1998-2007, private companies have added a whopping 133.58 million
subscribers during the same period. The dominance has been much more
pronounced in the mobile market, where private operators have added 124.68
million subscribers, while public sector operators added only 31.79 million
subscribers.
8
Investment
Idea Cellular, which operates in only eighteen circles, is the third largest
operator with a subscriber base of 32 lakh. Unlike fellow public sector
undertaking, MTNL, which operates in Mumbai and Delhi, BSNL has been a
very aggressive player in the market. "Cellular operators who expected BSNL
to go the MTNL way, were taken by surprise and did not take effective steps
to counter it, till it was too late in the day," said a telecom analyst.
The cellular subscriber club expanded by 21.31 lakh last month. This is much
higher than 5.9 lakh subscribers added in February 2005 and 2.13 lakh in
January 2005. Idea, which operates in Seven circles, is the fourth largest
operator with a subscriber base of 17.80 lakh, higher than BPL's 11.31 lakh
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subscribers across four circles. The subscriber numbers per operator drop
sharply with the sixth largest operator, Spice Communications, having a
subscriber base of 9.40 lakh, followed by Reliance Telecom's 8.9 lakh
subscribers. MTNL is the ninth largest operator, with a base of 8.32 lakh
subscribers.
Among the metros, while Mumbai added 1,63,180 subscribers, higher than
the 1,58,646 added by Delhi, the Capital's cellular subscriber base of over 80
lakh is still higher than Mumbai's 66.89 lakh. While the cellular industry has
been on roll for the first three quarters of the previous financial year with an
average of 16.75 lakh monthly additions in the third quarter, the first two
months of 2007 had seen the growth slowing down.
With a population of around 1.1 billion growing at roughly 1.7 per cent a year,
India is potentially one of the most exciting GSM markets in the world. After
two rather difficult years, the past 12 months have seen the region's promise
beginning to come to fruition. Much of this success can be attributed to the
stabilisation of the licensing and regulatory environment.
Competition in the mobile sector has already had a visible impact on prices
with calls currently costing less than 9 cents per minute. This means that
service costs have fallen by 60 per cent since the first GSM networks became
live in 1995. It also helps explain why a recent Telecom Asia survey revealed
that more than 70 per cent of Indian mobile subscribers felt that prices were
now at a reasonable level.
One of the challenges facing GSM operators in India is the diversity of the
coverage regions -from remote rural regions to some of the most densely
populated metropolitan areas in the world. India has more than 40 networks,
which cover the seven largest cities, over 7000 towns and several Lacs
Delhis. Such depth of coverage has required enormous investment from
India's operators. It is estimated that more than Rs200 billion had been
invested in India's GSM industry by mid-2009, a figure that is set to be
supplemented by a further Rs. 300 billion over the next five years. The good
news is that subscriber growth is beginning to look healthy. With India's low
PC penetration and high average Internet usage -at 14-20 hours a month per
user it is comparable to the US -the market for mobile data and m-commerce
looks extremely promising. WAP services have already been launched in the
subcontinent and the first GPRS networks are in the process of being rolled
out. In the year ahead, GSM India will work with its members to realise the
potential of early packet services in anticipation of the award of 3GSM
licences.
India is expected to have 145 million GSM (global system for mobile
communications) customers by 2009-10 compared to 26 million subscribers
as on March 2005, according to the Global Mobile Suppliers Association. "For
GSM, India is a success story. It is one of the fastest growing markets with its
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subscriber base doubling in 2005. At this pace, the target of 150 million
subscribers by 2009-2010 is definitely achievable," Alan Hadden, president of
GSA, said at a news conference in New Delhi. Globally, the GSM market
reached 1 billion users in February 2005, he said, adding GSM accounted for
80 per cent of the new subscriber growth in 2005."Almost every Latin
American operator has chosen GSM. In North America GSM growth is bigger
than CDMA (code division multiple access)," he said. Commenting on the
raging debate over GSM versus CDMA in mobile services arena, Hadden
said: "GSM is the world's most successful mobile standard with over 1 billion
users, and is an open mobile standard. It also supports automatic
international roaming, which is a major contributor to business plans."
“But the potential to do much better exists as there is still huge demand in the
sector.” Ramachandran said the sector was still losing money but declined to
elaborate. Sales jumped because of a doubling of the GSM (Global System
of Mobile Communications) user base as more people entered the flourishing
market thanks to one of the lowest call rates in the world. But the monthly
average revenue per user, a key measure of profitability, declined 17.4
percent to 432 rupees in the fourth quarter compared with 523 rupees in the
first quarter due to a cut in tariffs and excessive competition among
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companies. Growth slowing, demand untapped: The association has not
included the financial performance and the GSM-user base of state-run firms
Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd, the second-ranked player, and Mahanagar
Telephone Nigam Ltd, Ramachandran said. There are 150 million GSM
customers and more than 96 million users of the rival CDMA-based mobile
services in the country.
The pace of growth in monthly additions is slowing after just 1.25 million users
took up the service in April compared with 1.9 million in the previous month
and 1.63 million in February. Ramachandran blamed the slowdown on a
majority of small GSM operators being unable to expand networks into rural
swathes where demand remained largely untapped.
“Our surpluses are not enough to cover costs of network expansion and
financing charges on loans. We are making money only to cover operating
expenses,” he said. Carriers are now subsidising handset costs to woo users
into the underpenetrated industry forecast to have more than 250 million
customers by 2007. Roughly three percent of Indians own a mobile phone
compared with about 20 percent in China. About a dozen firms such as Tata
Indicom Airtel Ltd, 28 percent owned by Singapore Telecommunications,
Reliance Infocomm Ltd and the Indian GSM-unit of Idea Cellular group battle
in the hotly competitive sector.
GSM EDGE
GSM operators are not the only ones who are worried about the rapid strides
made by CDMA mobile players Reliance Infocomm and Tata Indicom in the
Indian cellular market? The GSM suppliers – both handset and equipment -
who incidentally also have their other foot firmly placed in the CDMA pie, are
beginning to lose some sleep over what was earlier termed as `niche’ and
`minuscule’ data carriage market by the operators Apart from the strong
success of the two CDMA operators whose networks are based on code
division multiple access (CDMA), the miserable showing of the four global
standard for mobile (GSM) based networks that launched general packet
13
radio service (GPRS) service for data connectivity in last three years, has the
vendors worried. Global mobile Suppliers Association (GSA) now believes
that even though India will primarily remain a voice traffic-led market in next
two-three years, the data traffic component will grow by 25-30 per cent, an
optimism that it’s trying to make GSM operators feel as well.
CDMA players had launched their services with CDMA 2000 1X-based
networks, which can give hi-speed, always-on connectivity to the Internet, and
other data services. GSM operators, on the other hand, have had to migrate
from the frustrating experience of WAP (wireless application protocol) to
GPRS, which has not significantly improved the subscriber’s experience of
surfing the Net on/from mobile. The top brass of GSA, an organisation
comprising Nokia, Siemens, Ericsson, Alcatel and Lucent Technologies - met
on Tuesday in the capital to persuade the operators to adopt EDGE
(Enhanced Data rates for GSM Evolution) and leave GPRS behind as a
dream gone sour. Only Airtel, Idea Cellular, BPL Mobile and Idea Cellular had
launched GPRS, but the data transfer speeds of GPRS have been abysmal.
The field trials gave a speed of around 54 kbps, but the actual speeds have
not exceeded 14-18 kbps, a major reason why GPRS growth has been so
slow. As against the total GSM cellular base of 5.61 crore, the country has
between 2,80,000 lakh GPRS users only. In comparison, the two CDMA
operators have about 120 lakh connections. All these sets are data compliant.
Though no figures are available as to how many use these for data services,
the figure is believed to be respectable as a percentage ratio for CDMA.
But first, the EDGE! Tata Indicom Cellular is close to commercially launching
its EDGE service in Delhi and Mumbai by end May or early June, sources
said. The company was the first to conduct field trials in November with its
equipment supplier Ericsson. Idea too held EDGE field trials in February this
year with its vendor Nokia. Idea Cellular and BPL are yet to hold the trials.
The two companies would eventually migrate to EDGE, but perhaps after
seeing the response to Tata Indicom ’s service. EDGE holds the promise of
delivering data speeds of around 170-180 kbps (as against the theoretical
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speed of around 380 kbps) which, if achieved, promises the launch of many
data applications. The scalable cost of migrating from GPRS to EDGE is not
too high and mainly comprises software upgrades in case of a modern
network such as Tata Indicom and Hutch, claimed chairman of GSA India
chapter Rakesh Malik.
At the GSM Evolution Forum held in New Delhi, GSA president Alan Hadden
predicted that GSM growth will far outstrip CDMA as was happening globally.
He felt India could have as many as 200 million GSM subscribers by 2008-
2009, up from nine million in December 2009. According to GSA, there are
over 1.1 billion GSM subscribers worldwide as against 250 million CDMA
customers. The revenue of top 25 global operators from data averages 18 per
cent and 22 of these operators run GSM networks. Overall, there are 76
operators in 50 countries that have committed to deploy EDGE. Almost every
country has a GSM-based network and even those US operators, which
operated on now-defunct TDMA technology, were migrating gradually to GSM,
not CDMA, pointed out Hadden at the GSM Evolution Forum. The Forum is a
global GSA program to assist the operators for evolution to third generation
(3G) technologies. “People are using their phones for much more than voice.
Fifteen networks have commercially launched EDGE as it can run 3G like
services in the existing spectrum for the operators without needing a 3G
license. Even the migration to a full-fledged 3G level of Wideband CDMA
(WCDMA) will be smooth with EDGE,” said Hadden.
To Grow 70% YOY to Rs. 9760 crores by end June 2009 & Rs.16520
crores by end June 2010.
The Report also compares the pro’s and cons of the soon to be
launched 3G services in India:
17
The report also provides the revenue share between all the VAS
players which clearly indicates an unfair % going to the operators while
the content owners suffer.
COMPANY PROFILE
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 is
the world's leading international mobile communications company. It now has
operations in 25 countries across 5 continents and 40 partner networks with
over 200 million customers worldwide. Vodafone has partnered with the Essar
Group as its principal joint venture partner for the Indian market.
While entering India their main objective and mission was to create a visibility
of their company and promote it in a very positive way by promoting the global
image of Vodafone. The other objective was to appear as a leader.
Hierarchy:
The PR dept in Mumbai has been started only a month back and it only has 1
employee i.e the PR Head
Budget:
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There is a pre-determined budget. This budget is devised by the central unit
of India and is then passed down to various circles, Mumbai being one of
them. PR head needs to formulate all the strategies along with the outside
agency i.e Genesis which sits in the corporate office only. The major expense
of the PR department is the fees that they pay to the outside agency.
Press Releases: Vodafone in USA has a separate press office that issues all
the Press Release. They press officer makes the entire press release and
then it’s confirmed by the spokesperson of Vodafone USA and is then
released. There they believe Press Releases help in order to maintain very
good relations with the media and it also helps them to be in the eye of the
audience. It had also held and India Analyst and Investor Day in London to
talk about its operations in India. It has issued a press release on it on 10 th
December, 2007.
WoD creates the opportunity for individuals to work for one year for a
charitable partner organisation, with salary and related support provided. The
winners are chosen on merit through a public competition. To date, 52
individual winners have participated or are currently participating.
It has also come up with Vodafone Stadium of Fans wherein fans can make
teams and play for themselves.
England Cricket Team: Vodafone can’t get enough of the England Cricket
Team – 11 years on and their support is still going strong as the principal
partner of the Team. And it’s not just about a logo on a shirt. This partnership
gives employees and lucky customers unbelievable access to get up close
and personal with the Team.
As you can imagine, the life of a cricketer means the team are on the road 10
out of 12 months of the year so a BlackBerry is a must have. The Team use
their handsets to email friends & family, surf the net, listen to music and send
texts which keep them up to speed no matter where they are in the world.
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Internal PR: Vodafone operates a range of all-employee share plans to
encourage widespread employee share ownership throughout the company.
Vodafone won a Global Equity Organization award for best share plan
communications in 2006 for the second year running.
They also operate a number of pension plans which vary according to the
conditions and practices in the countries concerned. These are provided
through defined benefit and defined contribution arrangements. Defined
benefit schemes provide benefits based on the employees’ length of
pensionable service and their final pensionable salary or other criteria.
Defined contribution schemes offer employees individual funds that are
converted into benefits at the time of retirement. They also involve them in the
decisions of the company. They conduct training programs also for the benefit
of the employees and for better experience. They also promote leadership on
a large scale. This is done in order to maintain very good relations with the
employees of the organization.
They also have running ads on Star India about the news updates or new
services or new tariff plans. Vodafone has entered into a Rebranding
Campaign with Star India in order to promote the Essar Brand.
Newsletter: Vodafone India issues house journals for its employees named
Baatchit. They believe this helps in maintaining good relations with them. It is
issued by the HR Head.
Agency: The last PR strategy that they use is that they have hired an agency
that goes to the Vodafone store with genuine problems. Then they report to
the top management of the company stating how the executives at the store
responded to their queries and how did they behave with them. This helps the
company in making the decisions regarding those executives at the stores.
This strategy has helped them a lot in making Vodafone stores a better place
so that their customers get even better service.
26
Successful Strategies:
Vodafone has had many successful strategies. One of them is the success of
Vodafone in India. Vodafone for the Indian masses was a completely new
brand name. Therefore, Vodafone had to see that the positive image of
Vodafone is built up in the minds of the people.
In order to promote the brand Vodafone in India, a Central PR team was set
up in India. They handled all the promotion activities. They held many press
conferences and issued press releases. They also arranged for media
interviews. They released many positive articles about the Vodafone company
in all the CAT 1 papers.
Crisis:
It had faced a huge crisis during bomb blasts and floods. There was no
network at all. The cell sides were damaged in water. They had the Motorola
machine. It couldn’t take the heavy load of calls. That is why it became slow.
There were no generators so the whole system stopped functioning because
the supply of electricity was cut off.
This was a very delicate situation. The company and the PR dept dint lose
their cool. They were calm and were cautious and quick in taking steps. At
that time they immediately flashed news on all the news channels that people
shouldn’t take more time to talk as it was blocking the call lines. The PR dept
also informed all its employees not to use their mobile phones so that that
much load is reduced. They also held an immediate press conference in order
to explain what was going on and why was there no network.
As a result of this crisis, they immediately took steps to evaluate what went
wrong. They immediately planted generators everywhere. They started using
fibre optic cables. They immediately changed their Motorola machine and
27
replaced with one of a more superior quality. After this incident they also
started with a Disaster Management Cell in the company.
PROMOTIONAL STRATEGY
The new identity will have the logo in Red, Black and White colours along with
lower case typography to convey warmth. Vodafone will incorporate the latest
branding in all of its communication and will soon be going in for an enhanced
promotional drive to establish the brand's presence.
PRE-PAID card users need not worry anymore about recharging their
coupons every month. Company has launched a plan that allows users to
take a pre-paid connection with lifetime validity for a one time payment of Rs.
999. Subscribers availing themselves of this scheme will also get full talk time
28
for the recharge coupon they purchase and also have the option to buy
Taiwanese manufactured Bird mobile handsets for as low as Rs. 1,399.
The move is aimed at stopping the churn in the pre-paid subscriber base.
Once a subscriber takes this plan, he will always be an Vodafone subscriber
whether the mobile is being used or not.
MARKET SITUATION
The first mover in the market was Vodafone which launched its services in
Delhi in Aug 1995 (Informal launch). Essar Cellphone followed by launching
its services informally in Oct 95. At this point of time, the market was at a
nascent stage, awareness level was low and both operators independently
tried to spread awareness and educate the people
COMPETITIVE SITUATION
Vodafone launched its services before Essar and skimmed the market picking
up the bulk of the high usage premium clients. This is a very competitive
industry with the two companies differentiating either on value-added services
or price. Vodafone is perceived as the high quality provider and has a
premium image. Essar, on the other hand, is perceived as the lower end
service provider. Vodafone positions itself as the market leader on the basis
of the number of subscribers. Essar is trying to counter this by emphasising
on the reach of its network and the quality of its service. However, Essar is
29
somewhat not been very successful largely due to the inconsistency in
advertising
Forecasting of sales
Handling distribution
Target achievement
C. Distribution Support
30
1. Logistics
2. Rental
3 Telesales
4 Audit
5. Retail
MARKET SEGMENTATION
31
Segmentation is beneficial because of better predictability of the target
consumer group, minimization of risk exposure, better ability to fine-tune a
product / service to the requirement of target buyer and the resultant ease in
designing a proper designing marketing mix strategy In this case
segmentation is on the bade of income.
In evaluating different market segments the company looks at two factors The
overall attractiveness of the segments and the company's objectives &
resources The present market for Cellular phones, pagers and conventional
phones is as follows
Cellular Phones X X X - - -
Pager X X X X - -
Conventional X X X X X -
Phones
Vodafone has targeted the premium and upper middle class. The rationale
behind it is that only those segments should be targeted who value time and
have the paying capacity. It Is also planning to target the business tourists
during their stay in the capital
About 60% of the clientele are top executives of corporate houses. About
15% are foreign organisations and the rest are professionals and small
businessmen. During the introduction stage there was intense pressure to get
consumers across to hook up with their brand, because getting them to switch
brand loyalty later would be hard
The product or service is the heart of the marketing mix. Without a product or
a service customers' needs cannot be satisfied.
This involves the selection of the suitable hardware (handset) and its software
(its services.) with reasonable price in order to deliver maximum price
performance to its customers. In addition, it offers free Airtime services and
other concessions to make the prices and thus the product more attractive. It
has also opened a 24 hours customer service.
v) Caller ID
Displays calling person's number.
To prevent or limit outgoing calls, for example, in peak hours. Also possible to
exclude one or several countries, or any geographical region, to permit only
local calls, or to limit the outgoing calls to a listed number.
* Manual Roaming means a separate SIM card is provided for each city
** Semi automatic roaming means one card has the facility for different
cities.
a) They take personal responsibility to "get" the answer for any problem
faced by the customer
c) They give answers to the questions & requests, quickly & efficiently.
d) They have a positive tone & manner while interacting with customers.
Vodafone realises that attracting people 'Is easy but converting them into loyal
customers is hard, hence emphasis is on maintaining a 'Smiling and a
Friendly Atmosphere' to please and retain the customer.
35
PRICE AND PRICING POLICY
VODAFONE has realised that the Indian market is price sensitive. Therefore
it care of the has come up with various innovative tariff schemes to take
needs of different category of customers- Generally, the cellular services are
more expensive than the land line based telephone services. This is due to
the reason that the operating companies are required to pay a fee to the
government for using airtime.
As of today the awareness level Is 60% unaided. This implies that if potential
or knowledgeable consumers are asked to name a Cellular phone service
provider that is on the top of his/her mind 60% of them would name Vodafone.
As for aided it -is 100% (by giving clues and hints etc.).
Every company has a goal, which might comprise a sales target and a game
plan with due regard to Its competitor. Vodafone 's campaign strategy is
designed keeping in mind its marketing strategy. The tone, tenor and the
stance of the visual ads are designed to convey the image of a market leader
in terms of its market share. It tries to portray the image of being a "first
mover every time" and that of a "market leader".
The status of the product in terms of its life cycle has just reached the maturity
stage in India. It is still on the rising part of the product life cycle curve in the
maturity stage.
The diagram on the left hand side shows the percentage of the users
classified into heavy, medium and low categories. The right hand side shows
the revenue share earned from the three types of users.
The population which has just realised the importance of cellular phones has
to be roped in. It is for this reason that the service provider offers a plethora
of incentives and discounts. Concerts like the "Freedom concert" are being
organised by Vodafone in order to promote sales. The media channel is
chosen with economy in mind. The target segment is not very concrete but,
37
there is an attempt to focus on those who can afford. The print
advertisements and hoarding are placed in those strategic areas which most
likely to catch the attention of those who need a cellular phone. The product
promise (which might cost different 1 higher) is an important variable in
determining the target audience.
Besides this, other promotional strategies that Vodafone has adopted are .
(i) People who have booked Vodafone services have been treated to
exclusive premiers of blockbuster movies. Vodafone has tied up with
Lufthansa to offer customer bonus miles on the German airlines frequent
flier's programs.
LITRATURE REVIEW
Definition:
38
“Sales promotion includes incentive-offering and interest-creating activities
which are generally short-term marketing events other than advertising,
personal selling, publicity and direct marketing. The purpose of sales
promotion is to stimulate, motivate and influence the purchase and other
desired behavioral responses of the firm’s customers.”
More on it...
Sales promotion offers a direct inducement to act by providing extra worth
over and above what is built into the product at its normal price. These
temporary inducements are offered usually at a time and place where the
buying decision is made. Not only are sales promotions very common in the
current competitive market conditions, they are increasing at a fast apace.
These promotions are direct inducements. In spite of the directness, sales
promotions are fairly complicated and a rich tool of marketing with
innumerable creative possibilities limited only by the imagination of promotion
planners. Sales promotion is often referred to by the names of ‘extra purchase
value’ and ‘below-the-line selling’.
Sales promotion is a separate and distinct element in the promotion mix and
is an important and powerful tool of marketing. The aim of sales promotion is
goal-oriented to achieve sales/marketing objectives which are short-term and
immediate.
Writing about sales promotion tools, Prof. Philip Kotler observes – “they have
3 distinctive characteristics.”
39
1. Communication: they gain attention and usually provide information
that may lead the customer to the product.
Price discrimination
As sales promotions are mostly announced for a short period, customers may
feel a sense of urgency and stop comparing the alternatives. They are
persuaded to act now rather than later.
With every 500g pack of Bournvita, you get a free mug . Offer valid only till
stocks last.
In our over communicated society and because of selective attention, it is
not uncommon to ignore many advertisements. Sales promotion deals such
as discounts, debates, coupons, premiums, etc also increased the attention
getting power of advertisements and convey the advantages and benefits of
the brand, including price information. By using promotions, marketers can
reach the deal prone customers and encourage brand switching.
Regional Differences
41
The South is generally characterised by greater degree of going out and
people tend to drink outside the house. The Tamilian, consumer in particular,
is value oriented, rational and looks up to film stars, while the Keralite is more
international in his outlook. The Bangalorean is as cosmopolitan as his
Mumbai or Delhi counterpart." That sort of diversity believes Coca-Cola, calls
for a corresponding variety in promotions. The place to attract is the retail
zone. Coca-Cola recently launched a promotion called ' world of Coca-Cola'
covering Chennai in Tamil Nadu and Bangalore and Mysore in Karnataka. It
was a value deal, aimed at the consumer disposed towards global- style
outings. The consumer pays Rs 20 along with a label of a 500 ml of PET
bottle to get a card that entitles him to gifts and discounts at 29 outlets,
including those of global chains such as TGI Friday and Baskin and Robbins
this, in these cities. About four years ago, Pepsi had a similar promotion with
its Pep cards. This, however was on a national level, while the Coca-Cola
promotion is South based build retail level activity matters more than it does in
the North. The primary aim is to help the retail raise volumes.
Consumers wait for the promotion deals to be announced and then purchase
the product. This is true even for brands where brand loyalty exists.
Customers wait and time their purchases to coincide with promotional offers
on their preferred brands.
In case of deals for the trade, many dealers forward buy, in excess of their
inventory requirements. This is particularly happens if a product is low bulk,
much in demand and the inventory holding costs are favourably low. This is
true both for wholesalers as well as retailers. Forward buying of excessive
stocks on deals or quantity discounts can lead to diversion of some of the
stocks in non-deal areas. Forward buying of excessive stocks on deals or
quantity discounts can lead to diversion of some of the stocks in non- deal
areas. Wholesalers and retailers do not hesitate in selling these excess
stocks in non- deal areas on prices that are less than the list price, but
keeping some reasonable margin for themselves. This is likely to have a
negative effect on price discrimination efforts of the company as dealers and
those areas would not be buying even the normal requirements from the
company.
Short-term orientation
Sales promotions are generally for a short duration. This gives a boost to
sales for a short period. This short-term orientation may sometimes have
negative effects on long-term future of the organization. Promotions mostly
43
build short-term sales volume that is not maintained. Heavy use of sales
promotion, in certain product categories, may be responsible for causing
brand quality image dilution.
This will result in lasting brand identities reflecting brand image will keep
customers loyal to the brand.
But both advertising and sales promotions go hand in hand. Both are very
essential to achieve success. Both are complementary to each other.
Increasing Competition
Consumer Acceptance
Woodland has a scheme of upto 50% off on Woodland shoes and apparel.
With the entry of many different brands of consumer durable products in the
same product category, consumers anticipate that the prices of durable goods
will come down. This encourages them to postpone their purchases. To speed
up the purchase in this segment of consumers, sales promotions are an
effective and attractive method. Consumers evaluate the incentives
associated with their purchase decision and are motivated to act now, rather
than wait for the anticipated decrease in price. The marketers should ensure
that the extra benefit is attractive enough to create a sense of urgency in
consumers.
All the advertising media have become quite expensive. Audio-visual medium,
which is considered as the most effective for short-duration ads, may cost in
excess of Rs. 1 lakh for a 10 second exposure during prime time. In many
cases, consumers have reached a point of boredom due to excessive
advertising on TV. Some consumers even consider advertising as an intrusion
into their privacy, leading to zapping (surfing channels). Firms with small
budgets cannot compete with big companies which spend huge sums of
46
money on advertising. For these small budget firms, sales promotion is a
more cost-effective promotion method to produce sales results.
Pepsi offers silver coins to their dealers stocking Pepsi cases during
Diwali season. And the promotions offer differs across dealers.
Towards achieving the long-term profit goals, manufacturers try to attain high
sales volume. Brand managers and product managers find themselves under
pressure to achieve short-term sales results for the sake of their careers.
Compared to any other promotional method, sales promotion is a more
effective method to generate short-term sales volume.
There are a number of promotions which are often called interest promotions.
Some of the more popular interest promotion techniques are samples,
contests, and sweepstakes, free premiums and mail-in premiums. These
promotions create an element of interest and excitement, and consumers
47
enjoy these and response enthusiastically to such contests and sweepstakes,
etc.
This strategy is followed by soft drink majors like Pepsi and Coke on a large
scale. They pay huge sums of money to keep their products in front so that
they are visible.
Excess Stocks
In case of using a pull strategy, marketing efforts are directed at the ultimate
consumer and consumer promotions such as consumer contests and
sweepstakes, rebates, coupons, free samples, consumer premiums, etc are
used. If this strategy is also chosen to include advertising, there are large
advertising expenditures. The objective of such promotional efforts would be
to create sufficient consumer demand to pull the product through the
channels, that is the consumers are encouraged to demand the product from
retailers who in torn place orders with wholesaler or manufacturer to meet the
consumer demand.
PULL
This strategy may require little promotional efforts from the resellers except to
stock input the product on shelves.
PUSH
If a firm decides to use push strategy, its efforts are directed at resellers and
the manufacturer becomes very dependent on their personal selling abilities
and efforts. The promotional efforts are focused at pushing the product
through the distribution channels; the resellers may be required to display,
demonstrate and offer discounts, to sell the product. The communication to
resellers is generally through trade circulars or the sales force.
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PUSH
Retailer promotion: Buy Cadbury’s products worth Rs.3000/- and get any 30
chocolates worth Rs.5 each free.
Through this offer the company is pushing its product to the retailers and now
that the retailer has enough incentive the retailer stocks more and thus it
becomes essential for the retailer to push the product to the consumers.
Tie-in promotion
Financing incentives
Special events
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Premiums
Bonus packs
Exchange offers
It is quite important for brand managers to analyze and identify the stage of a
particular brand in its life cycle before deciding about using sales promotion.
During the stage of product introductions, a product requires different sales
promotional tactics.
Likewise, during the product growth stage, its maturity and the decline stages,
the sales promotion tactics required are likely to be quite different.
Promotional strategies are also likely to be affected for different non-durable
and durable products. Also important in the development of promotional
strategy would be the target audience is towards whom the
Introduction stage
When the product is being introduced, the major objective is to increase the
trial rate and distribution of the product. For increasing trial sampling,
coupons, demonstration which are all pull promotions, can be used. To make
the product available in distribution channels, it may become necessary to use
some kind of incentive scheme for the resellers to encourage them and
minimise their risk associating stalking a new product. Manufacturers can
offer display allowances to resellers to make the product highly visible. There
could be liberal guarantees to take back the stocks, if unsold, to reassure the
trader. These are all push promotions. For most new products, it would be
51
difficult to be successful without pull promotions. In fact when new products
are introduced, much more emphasis is given to pull rather than push
promotions.
Growth stage
In this stage, the dominant objectives are to expand the market for increasing
the number of new customers who would try the product for the first time and
to encourage the repeat purchase by those who have already tried the
product. Another important objective is to expand or at least maintain the
distribution. For increasing trial, pull promotions are appropriate however as
the trial rate increases free samples become quite an expensive proposition.
To encourage repeat purchase by consumers, in pack or on-pack coupons
can be used.
This would also help in converting those customers who have already tried
the product into regular users of the product. Another tool of sales promotion
that can be used is to offer bonus packs containing additional quantity at the
same price as an incentive to encourage repeat purchase. To expand the
distribution, push promotions such as different types of discounts, free goods
that increase the profitability of the trade, can be used.
Maturity stage
When the product is in maturity stage, many similar brands are available to
customers. Due to price discounts or other extra benefits, consumers often
switched brands. This phenomenon of brand switching is more common if the
product category happens to be one of low involvement. The sales
promotional strategy in this stage can focus on attracting maximum number of
brand switchers, reward and reinforce the loyalty of regular users and use
more of push promotions to build inventories with resellers. Many tools of
sales promotion such as premiums, price discounts, extra goods, displays,
dealer contests, feature advertising become important.
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Generally a combination of pull and push promotions prove more effective
during maturity stage of a product life cycle. The market share of the brand is
an important factor in gaining the support of resellers.
allowance
Incentives
The following basic objectives can be pursued with sales promotions in the
consumer market.
When a firm wants to attract new users sales promotions tools can reduce the
consumer’s risk of trying something new. A reduced price or offer of a rebate
may stimulate trail purchase.
In-package coupons good for the next purchase, or the accumulation of points
with repeat purchases, can keep consumers loyal to a particular brand.
The most prominent frequency programs are found in the airline industry
where competitors try to retain their most lucrative costumers by enrolling
them for various perks such as frequent flyers can earn free travel, hotel
stays, gifts etc.
Many soaps brands are doing sales promotions to stimulate larger purchases.
When people generally come to buy soaps, and see the offers like,
Because sales promotions can attract attention and motivate trial purchase, it
is commonly used for new brand introductions.
Price deals are probably the most commonly used promotional techniques. A
price deal for a customer means a reduction in the price of the promoted
product and the consumer saves money on purchase.
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Boost 500gm pack, Rs. 10 off on normal price, now available at Rs. 90
only.
The main advantage of this tool is that it has a very Strong consumer
response
Such discounts are short term and are unlikely to produce any long-term
gains because the incentive is to purchase now by creating sense of urgency.
When the discount is withdrawn the sales may fall below the level of pre-
promotion period. And in the long run the sales would return to pre-promotion
period level.
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Price pack deals
They can take any of the two forms: one is bonus pack and banded pack.
The offer is termed as “banded pack” when 2 or more units of the products
are sold at a reduced price compared to the regular price.
Another variation of this technique is “buy 1 get 1 free” or some similar offer, it
could be “same for less” or “more for the same.”
The main advantage of this tool is that extra product may encourage
increased usage and help sustain the habit. Also among other similar brands,
a bonus pack stands out at the point of sale.
Coupon
Media distributed
Product distributed.
Contests and sweepstakes can draw attention to a brand like no other sales
promotions technique.
A contest has consumers compete for prizes based on skill or ability. Winners
in a contest are determined by a panel of judges or based on which
contestant comes closest to a predetermined criterion for the contest.
Contests tend to be somewhat expensive to administer because each entry
must be judged against winning criteria.
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Contests were very often used earlier where people has to write slogans,
poems, stories etc. generally “I like the product because …” and the best ones
won prizes. But off lately, contests are becoming less and sweepstakes
increasing. People are more willing to play on luck rather than participate by
showing their abilities. A sweepstake is a promotion in which winners are
determined purely by chance.
Contests and sweepstakes often create excitement and generate interest for
a brand, but the problems of administering these promotions are substantial.
One problem is that the game itself may become the consumer’s primary
focus, while the brand becomes secondary. The technique thus fails to build
long-term affinity for the brand.
Britannia khao world cup jao campaign has taken the market by a
swing.
Under the offer you collect points available on Britannia biscuit packets and
exchange 100 points for a scratch card, which has various gifts and the 100
world cup tickets. The offer was actually introduced during the last world cup
and had shown phenomenal results. Sale increased tremendously; there was
an increase in the sales by 25%, claims the company. So it is being done this
year too. This year too the contest is showing good results.
Sampling
Getting consumers to simply try a brand can have a powerful effect on future
decision-making. Sampling is a sales promotion technique designed to
provide a consumer with an opportunity to use a brand on a trial basis with
little or no risk. Saying that sampling is a popular technique is an
understatement. Sampling is particularly useful for new products, but should
not be reserved for new products alone. It can be used successfully for
established brands with weak market share in specific geographic areas.
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In-store sampling
Door-to-Door sampling
Newspaper sampling
On-package sampling
Mobile sampling
Trial offers
Trial offers have the same goal as sampling – to induce consumer trial use of
a brand- but they are used for more expensive items.
Premiums
They are items offered free or at a reduced price, with, the purchase of
another item. Many firms offer a related product free.
Premiums have become very common today. Many companies are offering
lots and lots of premiums. The main advantage of Premiums is that they offer
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not only that one product but also another product, which may influence the
customer, a lot to buy the product. Especially if the other product is worth it.
Also new products are given free with established brands to stimulate trial of
the new brand.
Advertising specialties
Popular advertising specialties are caps, t-shirts, toys, mugs, mouse pads,
pens, calendars, etc.
Many other kids products are influence a lot by such specialties especially
liked by the kids like tattoos, masks, tazo, cricket bats etc. hence products
that have such offers sell more than the other brand available.
Continuity/frequency Programmes
In recent years, one of the most popular sales promotion techniques among
consumers has been “frequency Programmes”. The main objective of such
Programmes is encouraging repeat purchases or repeated visits to particular
retail shops. Frequency Programmes offer consumers discounts or free
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product rewards for repeat purchase or patronage of the same brand or
company.
sBrand placement
Marketers and advertisers used to think that brand placements affected only
consumers’ perceptions of a brand, much like advertising. But recent brand
placements have shown that the technique can have a sales impact like a
traditional sales promotions.
Brand placement has varying results; if the brand name is spoken aloud the
impact can be dramatic but less obvious placements, referred to as
background placements are considered by some as a waste of money.
Event sponsorship
Exchange offers
If a family bought a refrigerator 10 years ago and the machine is still giving
reasonable service then the family is unlikely to buy a newer and more
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advanced version of the refrigerator unless they get rid of the older one by
selling it to someone. No one in our
country is prepared to throw it as junk. Same thing is true for a number of
products such as televisions, microwave ovens, washing machines, cars, two-
wheelers, computers, etc.
This segment of present owners is sizeable enough yet to sell new brands to
those who already own a similar product is not easy. To attract this segment,
manufacturers regularly announce exchange offers.
Consumer durables market is the one where exchange offers are used the
most. Almost all the TVs, Refrigerators, Washing Machines, etc. have
exchange offers.
Internet promotions
They are the most recent form of sales promotions. They are promotions that
are done via the Internet. It is becoming increasingly popular because of the
large use of Internet. But still it has a lot to develop.
Marketing communications
Advertising
Aimed at masses
Continuous reminder
Increases goodwill
Objectives
Stimulate interest
Create a desire
Market research
Co-ordination
Test results
Personal sales
Personal interest
Interesting presentation
Sales promotion
Effectively news
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Boosts enterprise's image
Customer focus
Many companies today have a customer focus (or customer orientation). This
implies that the company focuses its activities and products on consumer
demands. Generally there are three ways of doing this: the customer-driven
approach, the sense of identifying market changes and the product innovation
approach. In the consumer-driven approach, consumer wants are the drivers
of all strategic marketing decisions. No strategy is pursued until it passes the
test of consumer research. Every aspect of a market offering, including the
nature of the product itself, is driven by the needs of potential consumers. The
starting point is always the consumer. The rationale for this approach is that
there is no point spending R&D funds developing products that people will not
buy. History attests to many products that were commercial failures in spite of
being technological breakthroughs.
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67
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
Research Objective:
2) What are the additional benefits that the customers get by the promotional
schemes?
Delhi and NCR – South Delhi: Saket, Vasant Kunj, Gurgoan, Faridabad,
Vasant Vihar.
Research methodology:
Primary research
2. In-depth interviews.
Secondary research
3) Internet
Consumer
Awareness
Friends/relative 12
Newspaper/Magazine Stalls 45
Internet 9
Advertisement 30
Hoardings 4
As per our study suggested that the consumer awareness of the Vodafone
increasing due to of the advertisement Through digital media as well as one
aspect of the consumer awareness of the Vodafone also increases due to of
its promotion though Newspaper and Magazine stalls. Increasing level of
consumer awareness is also help any organisation to retain more and more
consumer base.
Preference of Vodafone
70
Price 12
Brand Name 11
Quality 20
Sales promotion 22
Easily Available 9
Scheme / Offers 13
Packaging 7
Others 6
As per our study suggested that people prefer Vodafone because Sales
promotion of the Vodafone is always has a top preference of the people
which has very positive impact on the sales of Vodafone . As we seen from
the tabular graph and the data chart which is shown above of this
interpretation, As one of the objective of our study also to justify this term with
the sales promotion.
22% of the people purchasing Vodafone because they like the promotional
strategy of the company while 20% of the people prefer Vodafone because of
the content quality of the magazine. Since brand name of the Vodafone also
making positive impact towards the sales promotion, as per out study
71
suggested that 11% of the people like the brand of Vodafone so in this area
Vodafone need to improve.
1 Yes
2 No
72
Recommendation
Yes 98
No 2
In this study my primary research result suggested that 98% of the people out
of 100 will recommend to others for purchasing of the Vodafone while only
2% are those population area who is either don’t want to give this kind of
recommendation due to of personal or other reason. This is good sign for the
company to grow faster than the competitor with the help of word of mouth
publicity.
Promotional Activity
Discount 34 28 18 12 8
73
Coupons 12 16 37 22 13
Extra Talktime 15 19 42 14 10
Free Gifts 38 21 15 16 10
Contest 19 18 38 16 9
As this study suggested that if Vodafone gives discount and free gifts both for
sales promotion it would give impact on the sales by 90% another scenario
tells us that if Vodafone management allow coupons and extra Talktime that
will increase Vodafone sales by 91.2%, while coupon & contest will help
Vodafone to achieving its 88.2% sales then the others.
Price-off
Promotion 14 15 38 27 6 100
Loyalty
schemes 17 21 47 10 5 100
Guarantees 12 32 20 14 22 100
Welcome-
Cocktail 21 22 38 12 7 100
As per our study suggested that the in future people are very particular about
the some of the promotional strategies, for the price off promotion 38 people
are said they want good report on this as a price promotional strategies. 39
people out of 100 people suggested that they want premium offers which
gives extra leverage to the Vodafone customer.
Excellent 64 28 36 17 34
Very 11 18 27 29 23
good
Good 6 13 11 12 11
Fair 6 16 12 18 9
Poor 7 12 9 10 16
Don’t 4 6 3 6 5
Know
Refused 2 7 2 8 2
Excellent 43 64 43 75 67
Very good 32 11 32 10 10
Good 1 6 12 9 7
77
Fair 9 6 2 1 8
Poor 6 7 9 1 1
Don’t Know 7 4 1 2 4
Refused 2 2 1 2 3
As per our study suggested that the quality of sales scheme of the Vodafone
is very satisfactory while we analyze the data, Innovativeness and the
Frequency of sales promotion is the biggest factor which contributed to the
sales promotion of the Vodafone while this has been proved through the
which we applying above 93.5% chances of the getting best deal through
these situation. While as per the correlation test also showing the sufficient
stock would necessarily to have when any new sale promotion launched by
the Vodafone these factor are highly correlated to each other which is about
to 99.3%.
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8. Do you find that the government’s telecom policy has had the most
radical impact on the development of mobile service providers?
Company Yes No
Airtel 4 1
Vodafone 3 2
Idea 3 2
MTNL 5 --
Company Yes No
Airtel 2 3
Vodafone 3 2
Idea 3 2
MTNL 2 3
10. To what extent, does you find that mobile service providers is a very
complex standard?
80
Company To some extent To great extent
(1-5) (6-10)
Airtel 3 2
Vodafone 2 3
Idea 2 3
MTNL 3 2
CONSUMER LEVEL
11. Do you believe that mobile service providers comes close to fulfilling
the requirements for a personal communication system?
Company Yes No
Airtel 9 1
81
Vodafone 8 2
Idea 8 2
MTNL 5 5
As the above shows 30 (75%) out of total 40 respondents are of the belief that
mobile service providers comes close to fulfilling the requirements for a
personal communication system, whereas 10 (25%) of them are in no way to
this belief.
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12. Do you find that mobile service providers as the most exciting and
satisfying mobile standard?
Company Yes No
Airtel 9 1
Vodafone 7 3
Idea 8 2
MTNL 8 2
As the above shows 32 (80%) out of total 40 respondents find that mobile
service providers as the most exciting and satisfying mobile standard,
whereas the remaining 8 (10%) respondents deny this.
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13. Do you believe that your service provider has a genuine commitment
to creating a modern and efficient communications?
Company Yes No
Airtel 10 --
Vodafone 8 2
Idea 10 --
MTNL 8 2
As the above shows 36 (90%) out of total 40 respondents are of the belief that
their service providers have a genuine commitment to creating a modern and
efficient communications whereas the remaining 4 (10%) respondents deny
this.
RECOMMENDATION
84
Today the marketer truly understands the needs of the Delhi consumers, he
should strive to provide them with those products and services that would
meet their requirements. The marketer has to focus on his core competencies
like the technological expertise to design the products for the Delhi masses.
Companies like Cavin Care who launched their shampoo in sachets, Britannia
who conveniently packaged its Tiger brand biscuits with low price tag are the
best examples of understanding the Delhi customer's needs and providing
them with the desired products.
The marketer's basic need is to understand the pulse of the Delhi masses and
serve them accordingly. The companies need to make proper assessment
while marketing for the Delhi India. This could most probably happen in one
way by changing the profile of their managers. As most of them are
management graduates bred in urban areas and are taught marketing
principles and strategies applicable for the western countries, there is a
mismatch in their thinking and the requirements of the Delhi consumers.
Hence, hiring professionals who have expertise in Delhi marketing would go a
long way to improve the situation as they can truly understand the Delhi
traditions and cultures, understand the feelings of Delhi people before
designing and actually launching the product. It is very essential for the Delhi
marketer to understand the psychology of their consumers in terms of their
usage habits and shopping behavior along with their emotions and value
systems. The integration of both technological and managerial knowledge
would help them to develop the various marketing strategies for the Delhi
Indian markets. This will further lead to technologically superior, robust and
low cost products that would be in resemblance with the Indian tradition and
culture.
The marketers may also consider depending more on traditional media when
marketing for Delhi consumers. This unconventional method acts as an
effective way to create awareness as mass media is unreliable as it is too
glamorous and interpersonal for the Delhi market. Uses of skits, magic shows,
and education by NGOs are some of the most preferred traditional media
which the marketers can usually use as it goes well with the tastes of the
Delhi consumers
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According to our sample size 300 here are the question would gives the
insight Study on buying behaviour of Delhi consumer indicates that the Delhi
retailers influences 35% of purchase occasions. Therefore sheer product
availability can affect decision of brand choice, volumes and market share.
Some of the FMCG giants like HLL took out project streamline to significantly
enhance the control on the Delhi supply chain through a network of Delhi sub-
stockists, who are based in the Delhis only.
Form our survey result it is showing that 31% of says that Vodafone
connection or recharges are easily available in their respective area and they
are strongly agree with this.
Now the segment of people where they not strongly agree with the statement
that Vodafone product reached their respective area 27% respondent said yes
some time they will get and some time not also they suggested that some
time new connection is not available. Also 34% respondent responded that
they either strongly disagree or disagree with the statement that Vodafone not
reached their respective area so far. Only 8% respondent says that they have
neutral opinion on this.
Recommendation for Vodafone would be company can target first 34% people
those who are disagree and not satisfied with the product availability of the
Vodafone so at least Vodafone have more than 60% market share of those
people who at least knew the product is available near store so they can
easily bought them.
CONCLUSION
India that has lot of money with it definitely offers a great potential for the
companies where the chances of outnumbering the urban areas in all aspects
are very high. But only those companies would survive at these places and
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win over the Delhi consumers who can spend time and money on
understanding the needs of them and come up with innovative ideas.
The companies should also strive to give more focus to the Delhi market in
order to make it a market leader. This can happen only with the firm
commitment of the top management and extension of full support to the
marketing personnel by each and every department of the organization. In
most of the Delhi areas of Delhi in different parts of the country, there is
considerable awareness on various latest products that are available in the
market. This has been possible due to the penetration of cable and satellite
channels that have brought down the world at the finger tips of the common
man. The media influenced the mindset of the Delhi consumer to such an
extent that people who had money started purchasing the products unmindful
of the costs, just to satisfy their needs as well as their ego. But, the growth of
Delhi market could be attributed to many other reasons that in one way
increased the sales as well as the profits of the companies. Some of the
important causes for the growth of Delhi as a Delhi markets are –
* Timely rains
* Commercialization of agriculture
* Globalization
* Economic liberalization
* Improving infrastructure
Out of 300 sample size we consider to choose first strongly agree respondent
who believes that Vodafone product is affordable for him/her 25% respondent
out of 300 says Vodafone product is affordable in comparative of other
competitor. While 33% are only agree with this statement that Vodafone has
much affordable price of their respective product. Now moving ahead 28%
respondent are still not agree or strongly disagree with this question they
thought Vodafone products are much costlier than the other mobile service
provider companies product.
14% respondent said they have mixed view about the affordability these
people are those who are richer in Delhi region.
Internet
(2) www.marketingtimes.com
Friends/relatives
Newspapers/magazines stalls
Internet
Advertisement
Hoardings
Price Brand name
Quality Sales promotion
Easily available Schemes/offers
Packaging Others
1 Yes
2 No
Discounts
Coupons
Extra talktime
Free Gifts
1. Price-off Promotion
2. Premium offers
3. Couponing
4. Loyalty schemes
5. Guarantees
6. Welcome-Cocktail
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Q6. Quality of Products & Packaging please rank in order of preference
Range of products catering to all types of consumer preference
Attractiveness of consumer packaging
Competitiveness of the product in the market/Ease of selling
Promptness in dealing with products complaints
Proper labeling (way of using)
8. Do you find that the government’s telecom policy has had the most