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AASUMMER TRAINING PROJECT REPORTSUMMER TRAINING PROJECT REPORT
ON
“SALES AND PROMOTION OF PRODUCT
VODAFONE”
IN PARTIAL FULFILMENT OF THE REQUIREMENT FOR THE AWARDOF THE DEGREE OF
“BACHELOR OF BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION”(2010-2011)
PROJECT GUIDANCE SUMITTED BYMr. SAURABH SHANKHDHAR ARVIND SHARMAFACULTY,IIMS BBA-IVth Sem.
INVERTIS INSTITUTE OF MANAGEMENT STUDIES
BAREILLY
1
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
I wish to express my heartiest gratitude to Mr. SAURABH SHANKHDHAR
(Faculty of master of business administration, Invertis Institute of
Management studies, Bareilly for providing me the opportunity to do
summer training under his wonderful guidance.
I would like to express my heartiest gratitude to Mr. A.K.Malhotra ( Head
Marketing & Sales Promotion-Up East) Vodafone Essar Digilink
Ltd .Lucknow for giving me the opportunity to associate myself to the
world’s largest telecom company and to carry out my project titled sales
& promotion of products in the region of Lucknow .
I am sincerely thankful to Mr. SAURABH SHANKHDHAR under whose
guidance I have successfully completed this project and the time spent
with him has been at great learning experience. I am also thankful to the
entire staff and members of Vodafone Essar Digilink Ltd, Lucknow
for their cooperation and help they rendered.
(ARVIND SHARMA)
2
DECLARATION
I ARVIND SHARMA a student of BBA IVth Semester of INVERTIS INSTITUTE
OF MANAGEMENT STUDIES, Bareilly hereby declare that the summer
training project report titled “SALES AND PROMOTION OF PRODUCTS” is
my original work and the same has not been submitted for the award of any
other diploma or degree.
Place: Bareilly
Date: (ARVIND SHARMA)
3
. Preface
This Project Report is done to study,Sales and promotion of products.
This Project Report is done by collecting the data from some magazine, Vodafone website, text book of telecom.
All the data has been gathered and then properly analyzed. The findings havebeen presented in a lucid manner.
4
CONTENT
Chapter Particular Page no
1 INTRODUCTION
7
2. CONSUMER SALES PROMOTION TECHNIQUES 13
3. TRADE SALES PROMOTION
TECHNIQUES
16
4. POLITICAL ISSUE 17
5. PROMOTIONAL MIX 17
6. CATEGORY:SALES AND PROMOTION 19
7. GROWTH OF THE MOBILE INDUSTRY IN INDIA 22
8. COMPANY PROFILE 29
9. HISTORY OF VODAFONE 33
10. PRODUCT RANGE 58
11 KEY PLAYERS IN THE INDIAN TELECOM INDUSTRY 66
5
12. SWOT ANALYSIS 78
13. RESEARCH METHODOLOGY 79
14. ANALYSIS OF DATA 85
15. CONCLUSION & SUGGESTION 101
16. QUTIONNARE 103
17. FINDINGS 106
6
INTRODUCTION
Sales promotion is any initiative undertaken by an organization
to promote an increase in sales, usage or trial of a product or
service (i.e. initiatives that are not covered by the other
elements of the marketing communications or promotions mix).
Sales promotions are varied. Often they are original and
creative, and hence a comprehensive list of all available
techniques is virtually impossible (since original sales
promotions are launched daily!). Here are some examples of
popular sales promotions activities:
(a) Buy-One-Get-One-Free (BOGOF) - which is an example of
a self-liquidating promotion. For example if a loaf of bread is
priced at $1, and cost 10 cents to manufacture, if you sell two
for $1, you are still in profit - especially if there is a
corresponding increase in sales. This is known as a PREMIUM
sales promotion tactic.
(b) Customer Relationship Management (CRM) incentives
such as bonus points or money off coupons. There are many
examples of CRM, from banks to supermarkets.
7
(c) New media - Websites and mobile phones that support a
sales promotion. For example, in the United Kingdom, Nestle
printed individual codes on KIT-KAT packaging, whereby a
consumer would enter the code into a dynamic website to see if
they had won a prize. Consumers could also text codes via their
mobile phones to the same effect.
(d) Merchandising additions such as dump bins, point-of-sale
materials and product demonstrations.
(e) Free gifts e.g. Subway gave away a card with six spaces
for stickers with each sandwich purchase. Once the card was
full the consumer was given a free sandwich.
(f) Discounted prices e.g. Budget airline such as EasyJet and
Ryanair, e-mail their customers with the latest low-price deals
once new flights are released, or additional destinations are
announced.
(g) Joint promotions between brands owned by a company, or
with another company's brands. For example fast food
restaurants often run sales promotions where toys, relating to a
specific movie release, are given away with promoted meals.
8
(h) Free samples (aka. sampling) e.g. tasting of food and drink
at sampling points in supermarkets. For example Red Bull (a
caffeinated fizzy drink) was given away to potential consumers
at supermarkets, in high streets and at petrol stations (by a
promotions team).
(i) Vouchers and coupons, often seen in newspapers and
magazines, on packs.
(j) Competitions and prize draws, in newspapers, magazines,
on the TV and radio, on The Internet, and on packs.
(k) Cause-related and fair-trade products that raise money for
charities, and the less well off farmers and producers, are
becoming more popular.
(l) Finance deals - for example, 0% finance over 3 years on
selected vehicles.
Many of the examples above are focused upon consumers.
Don't forget that promotions can be aimed at wholesales and
distributors as well. These are known as Trade Sales
Promotions. Examples here might include joint promotions
between a manufacturer and a distributor, sales promotion
9
leaflets and other materials (such as car), and incentives for
distributor sales people and their retail clients.
10
SALES PROMOTION CONCEPTS
Product / Pricing / Promotion
Distribution / Service / Retail
Brand management
Account-based marketing
Marketing ethics
Marketing effectiveness
Market research
Market segmentation
Marketing strategy
Marketing management
Market dominance
Promotional content
Advertising / Branding
Direct marketing / Personal Sales
11
Sales promotion is one of the four aspects of promotional mix.
(The other three parts of the promotional mix are advertising,
personal selling, and publicity/public relations.) Media and non-
media marketing communication are employed for a pre-
determined, limited time to increase consumer demand, stimulate
market demand or improve product availability. Examples include:
contests
point of purchase displays
rebates
free travel, such as free flights
Sales promotions can be directed at either the customer, sales
staff, or distribution channel members (such as retailers). Sales
promotions targeted at the consumer are called consumer sales
promotions. Sales promotions targeted at retailers and wholesale
are called trade sales promotions. Some sale promotions,
particularly ones with unusual methods, are considered gimmick
by many.
Consumer sales promotion techniques
12
Price deal: A temporary reduction in the price, such as happy
hour
Loyal Reward Program: Consumers collect points, miles, or
credits for purchases and redeem them for rewards. Two
famous examples are Pepsi Stuff and AAdvantage.
Cents-off deal: Offers a brand at a lower price. Price
reduction may be a percentage marked on the package.
Price-pack deal: The packaging offers a consumer a certain
percentage more of the product for the same price (for
example, 25 percent extra).
Coupons: coupons have become a standard mechanism for
sales promotions.
Loss leader: the price of a popular product is temporarily
reduced in order to stimulate other profitable sales
Free-standing insert (FSI): A coupon booklet is inserted into
the local newspaper for delivery.
On-shelf couponing: Coupons are present at the shelf where
the product is available.
Checkout dispensers: On checkout the customer is given a
coupon based on products purchased.
On-line couponing: Coupons are available on line.
Consumers print them out and take them to the store.
13
Mobile couponing: Coupons are available on a mobile
phone. Consumers show the offer on a mobile phone to a
salesperson for redemption.
Online interactive promotion game: Consumers play an
interactive game associated with the promoted product. See
an example of the Interactive Internet Ad for tomato ketchup.
Rebates: Consumers are offered money back if the receipt
and barcode are mailed to the producer.
Contests/sweepstakes/games: The consumer is
automatically entered into the event by purchasing the
product.
Point-of-sale displays:-
o Aisle interrupter: A sign that juts into the aisle from the
shelf.
o Dangler: A sign that sways when a consumer walks by
it.
o Dump bin: A bin full of products dumped inside.
o Glorifier: A small stage that elevates a product above
other products.
o Wobbler: A sign that jiggles.
o Lipstick Board: A board on which messages are written
in crayon.
14
o Necker: A coupon placed on the 'neck' of a bottle.
o YES unit: "your extra salesperson" is a pull-out fact
sheet.
15
Trade sales promotion techniques
Trade allowances: short term incentive offered to induce a
retailer to stock up on a product.
Dealer loader: An incentive given to induce a retailer to
purchase and display a product.
Trade contest: A contest to reward retailers that sell the most
product.
Point-of-purchase displays: Extra sales tools given to
retailers to boost sales.
Training programs: dealer employees are trained in selling
the product.
Push money: also known as "spiffs". An extra commission
paid to retail employees to push products.
Trade discounts (also called functional discounts): These are
payments to distribution channel members for performing some
function .
16
POLITICAL ISSUES
Sales promotions have traditionally been heavily regulated in many
advanced industrial nations, with the notable exception of the
United States. For example, the United Kingdom formerly operated
under a resale price maintenance regime in which manufacturers
could legally dictate the minimum resale price for virtually all
goods; this practice was abolished in 1964.
Most European countries also have controls on the scheduling and
permissible types of sales promotions, as they are regarded in
those countries as bordering upon unfair business practices.
Germany is notorious for having the most strict regulations.
Famous examples include the car wash that was barred from
giving free car washes to regular customers and a baker who
could not give a free cloth bag to customers who bought more than
10 rolls.
PROMOTIONAL MIX
There are four main aspects of a promotional mix. These are:
1 Advertising- Any paid presentation and promotion of ideas,
goods, or services by an identified sponsor. Examples: Print ads,
17
radio, television, billboard, direct mail, brochures and catalogs,
signs, in-store displays, posters, motion pictures, Web pages,
banner ads, and emails.
2 Personal Selling - A process of helping and persuading one or
more prospects to purchase a good or service or to act on any
idea through the use of an oral presentation. Examples: Sales
presentations, sales meetings, sales training and incentive
programs for intermediary salespeople, samples, and
telemarketing. Can be face-to-face or via telephone.
3 Promotions- Incentives designed to stimulate the purchase or
sale of a product, usually in the short term. Examples: Coupons,
sweepstakes, contests, product samples, rebates, tie-ins, self-
liquidating premiums, trade shows, trade-ins, and exhibitions.
4 Public relations - Paid intimate stimulation of supply for a
product, service, or business unit by planting significant news
about it or a favorable presentation of it in the media. Examples:
Newspaper and magazine articles/reports, TVs and radio
presentations, charitable contributions, speeches, issue
advertising, and seminars.
18
CATEGORY:SALES PROMOTION
Subcategories
This category has only the following subcategory.
C
[+] Customer loyalty programs (1)
Pages in category "Sales promotion"
The following 29 pages are in this category, out of 29 total. This list
may not reflect recent changes (learn more).
Sales promotion
BBargain
Buy one, get one
free
C
Clip strip
Coupon
G
Grand opening
H
Happy hour
Hoover free
flights
promotion
I
P cont.
Promotional item
R
Rebate
(marketing)
Running of the
Brides
19
D
Discounts and
allowances
Doorbuster
Drug Coupon
F
Free sample
Institute of
Sales
Promotion
L
Ladies' night
M
Magalog
Money back
guarantee
P
Pick 'n' mix
Point of sale
display
Sample sale
Serverbuster
Specialty catalogs
Student Price Card
V
Visual
merchandising
W
Wiki wiki dollar
Y
Young America
Corporation
20
INTRODUCTION OF TELECOM
INDUSTRY
“The cardinal fact in history during the past 50
centuries has been the scope, pace and precision of
inter-communication. Everything else is subordinated
to that.” -H G Wells
The Indian telecommunications industry, which, for
long, was characterized by regulated monopoly enjoyed by
the Department of Telecommunications (DoT), has entered
the age of deregulated market competition in recent times.
The attractiveness of the Indian market due to its low tele-
density, high latent demand and burgeoning middle class,
brought in some of the largest global telecom players,
foreign institutional investors and major Indian industrial
houses to invest in telecom, especially in the cellular
services. Mobile phone usage has permeated across
various economic classes as well as professional
categories. The rapid change in consumer-behavior in this
sector calls for curiosity and the intent to study at least one
21
Growth of the Mobile Industry in India
Till early 1990s, India had one of the most backward
and stagnant telecom infrastructure facilities ridden with
ineffective government regulations, inadequate financial
resources and unaffordability for the common man. The
Center for Development of Telecommunications (C-DoT)
had already changed the telecom services in India for the
betterment, in late 1980s by making inter-city customer-
dialling-also known as Subscriber Trunk Dialling or STD-
available· to most parts of the country. However, the sector
saw trailblazing growth only since 2001, when mobile phone
usage attained the growth stage.
Mobile phone sector emerged in India in the mid-1990s
and has been growing. The growth has been more visible in
the last 3-4 years. Airtel was the forerunner among mobile
service providers, followed by Hutch, Spice and later
Reliance, Tata Indicom and a host of other small players like
Idea, BPL, etc. In fact, the increase in mobile phone
subscribers between 1998 and 2003 was approximately
100%. In the beginning of 2005, there were 50.7 million
mobile users in India1 (including both GSM and CDMA
22
users) and this number is expected to grow ~y 20 million in
the year 2005-06. Intense competition in this sector has
resulted in a substantial decline in tariffs in case of mobile
services and long distance calls in the last two years. On
one hand, due to fall in tariffs, profitability has gone down
while on the other, this has led to an increase in sales due to
the growth in mobile subscriber base.
Among the major changes that were responsible for the
tremendous growth of the industry was the drastic reduction
in tariffs. The common experience curve effect, resulting in
reduction of average cost per subscriber on one-hand ·and
the effect of competition on the other, facilitated this
subscriber-friendly phenomenon. Till the entry of Reliance
Infocom into the cellular market, tariffs were quite high and
unaffordable for the general middle class. However, when
Reliance announced its entry in the year 2000 with call rates
of Rs. 0.40 per minute compared to about Rs. 3.00 of the
other companies and other attractive schemes such as free
national SMS, free incoming calls and free outgoing calls to
Reliance cell phones, the other major Players were forced to
cut down their high tariffs to survive in the industry. The
Calling Party Pays (CPP) regime introduced by mobile
23
operators in response to Reliance's strategy, and making
incoming calls free, resulted in sharp increase in wireless
subscribers in 2003. In this period, the industry witnessed
intense price war, highlighting the fact that demand for
cellular services in India is highly price-elastic. Since then,
however, the prices have become increasingly uniform
across service providers. As a result, the players had to
adopt different strategies to attract more subscribers, retain
the existing ones and differentiate themselves from their
competitors. One of the dominant strategies adopted by most
companies is to offer special short-term schemes in the form
of free SMS, free talk time, lower call-tariff for a particular
group of friends, free calls to one number and so on.
Developments in Mobile Technology in India,
At present there are two mobile technologies used in
India: Global System for Mobile Communication (GSM)
technology, a type of Time Division Multiple Access (TDMA)
cellular network, and Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA)
2000 IX technology. However, GSM technology has
limitations in offering a range of broadband services, which
CDMA 2000 IX technology that powers WLL can provide.
24
The head start, which cellular companies had got in wireless,
was dissipated once WLL, limited mobility from the service
providers like Reliance and Tata Indicom became fully
operational.
There has been an evolutionary change in mobile;
communication systems in every decade. The first-
generation (1G) in the 1980s and second-generation (2G)
cellular systems in the' 1990s have been used mainly for
voice transmission and to support circuit-switched services.
The 1G system were based on analog technologies;
however, 2G systems are digital systems such as the GSM
CDMA One and PDC. These systems operate nationwide
and internationally, and are today's mainstream systems.
Initiatives such as SMS, WAP, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth i-Mode, etc.,
based on 2G have exploited , the data capability of wireless
networks to deliver value-added services to customers. Now,
third-generation (3G) systems have emerged and the central
theme of these technologies is the convergence of
communication and computing. Other than voice, 3G
supports video telephony, video games, multimedia, net-
browsing, network games, e-mail and downloading, all at a
25
very high data-transfer rate. The migration from 3G to fourth-
generation (4G) technology will be a revolution both from
technological and user perspectives. The 4G today is only an
evolving concept and there is no real definition of what it will
be. The concept of convergence has already begun with 3G,
and 4G will bring about convergence of communication,
computing, broadcasting etc.
Government Rules and Regulations
With the advent of GSM in the 1990s, two mobile
licenses were issued per circle. The licenses were, however,
dogged by ineffective government regulations, resulting in
high consumer pricing. In 2001 the deregulation of mobile,
fixed-line and long distance sectors spurred growth and
allowed many new players to enter the market.
The regulatory norms introduced by TRAI had a
significant impact on the prices of long distance call charges,
reducing them by as much as 80% in just one year. It
reduced the disparity between, tariffs of wire line and
wireless services from a factor of 15 to 3. However, the most
important catalyst that transformed the Indian telecom
industry was the WLL controversy which began in
26
November, 2000, when TRAI proposed that Basic Service
Operators (BSOs) should be allowed to use cellular
technology. Mobile calling on the WLL licenses was
restricted to relevant Short Distance Calling Areas (SDCAs).
However, the BSOs exploited a loophole in the license and
offered 'fall mobility services' by using call forwarding and
multiple number registrations. As a result, the GSM-based
operators who had paid a significant license fee ($2.5 bn)
contested this decision. This legal battle continued for three
years and was finally resolved when the government
introduced Unified Licensing, making cellular services
technology neutral and allowing WLL players to provide full
mobility after payment of an entry fee equal to what the
GSM operators had paid. Unified Licensing reduced the
regulatory uncertainty prevailing in the Indian Telecom
industry and provided a Ievel playing field for all the major
mobile service providers.
Emergence of Strategic Alliances
The telecom industry in India started out with many
small and big players. However, with falling tariffs and
increasing demands, it became difficult for smaller players
27
to survive. This led to a consolidation in the industry and as
of now, there are only a few major players left in the field. A
series of strategic alliances, both formal and informal, have
already been entered in the Indian Telecom Sector by
companies who are either constrained by a shortage of
resources, do not have an adequate presence in all
geographical markets or driven by such needs as acquiring
know-how, minimizing risks, gaining critical mass or having
access to brand names. For example, Reliance Infocomm
has entered into a technology agreement with Samsung of
South Korea to manufacture CDMA handsets. Tata
Teleservices and Hughes Tele.com have entered into an
equity arrangement and have further plans to join hands
with Bharti. Under this arrangement , the three companies
will operate in contiguous and complementary circle with full
internal coordination, thus creating a third front in wire line
business, capable of taking on the incumbent public sector
BSNL and MTNL (the first front) and Reliance Infocomm
(the second front). In the cellular segment, a three-company
alliance called "Idea Cellular" has come up. It has a large
footprint (especially in the South) and consists of the cellular
businesses of the Tatas, Birlas and AT&T.
28
COMPANY PROFILE
TypePublic (LSE: VOD,
NYSE: VOD, FWB: VOD)
Founded1983 as Racal Telecom, independent
1991
Headquarters Newbury, England, UK
Key people
Arun Sarin, CEO
Vittorio Colao, CEO Designate
Sir John Bond, Chairman
John Buchanan, Deputy Chairman
Industry Mobile telecommunications
Products Mobile networks, Telecom services, Etc.
Revenue ▲ £35,478 million GBP (2008)
29
Net income ▲ £10,047 million GBP (2008)
Website www.vodafone.com
Vodafone is a mobile network operator headquartered in
Berkshire, England, UK. It is the largest mobile
telecommunications network company in the world by turnover and
has a market value of about £75 billion (June 2008). Vodafone
currently has equity interests in 25 countries and Partner Networks
(networks in which it has no equity stake) in a further 42 countries.
The name Vodafone comes from Voice data fone, chosen by the
company to "reflect the provision of voice and data services over
mobile phones.
At 31 March 2008 Vodafone had 260 million proportionate
customers in 25 markets across 5 continents. ("Proportionate
customers" means, for example, that if Vodafone has a 30% stake
in a business with a million customers, that is counted as 300,000).
On this measure it is the second largest mobile telecom group in
the world behind China Mobile. The eight markets where it has
more than ten million proportionate customers are the United
Kingdom, Germany, India, Italy, Spain, Turkey, Egypt and the
United States. In the U.S., these customers come via its minority
30
stake in Verizon Wireless, and in the other seven markets
Vodafone has majority-controlled subsidiaries.
On 30 May 2006, the company announced a loss before tax of
£14.9 billion for 2005, the biggest loss in British corporate history.
The loss for the year from continuing operations was £17.2 billion
and the bottom line loss for the financial year was £21.8 billion.
The company was pushed into loss by impairment charges of
£23.5 billion, which related to the acquisition of Mannesmann
several years earlier, and losses of £4.6 billion in relation to its
discontinued business in Japan. At an operating level it remained
highly profitable, with an operating profit on continuing operations
of £9.4 billion before impairment costs.
Vodafone in Europe
Networks in Europe
Majority-
owned
Minority-
ownedNo Ownership
Albania France AustriaBeVodafone
ium
Czech Republic Poland BuVodafone
aria
Channel
Islands
31
Germany Croatia Cyprus
Greece Denmark Estonia
Hungary Finland Faroe Islands
Ireland Iceland Latvia
Italy Lithuania Luxembourg
Malta Macedonia Norway
Netherlands Serbia Slovenia
Northern
CyprusSweden Switzerland
Portugal
Romania
Spain
Turkey
UK
HISTORY32
OF
33
HISTORY OF VODAFONE-
Vodafone Essar, formerly known as Hutchison Essar is a cellular operator in India that covers 23 telecom circles in India based in Mumbai.[2] Vodafone Essar is owned by Vodafone 67% and Essar Group 33%. It is the second largest mobile phone operator in terms of revenue behind Bharti Airtel, and third largest in terms of customers.[3]
On February 11, 2007, Vodafone agreed to acquire the controlling interest of 67% held by Li Ka Shing Holdings in Hutch-Essar for US$11.1 billion, pippingReliance Communications, Hinduja Group, and Essar Group, which is the owner of the remaining 33%. The whole company was valued at USD 18.8 billion.[4] The transaction closed on May 8, 2007. Despite the official name being Vodafone Essar, its products are simply branded Vodafone. It offers bothprepaid and postpaid GSM cellular phone coverage throughout India with good presence in the metros.
Vodafone Essar provides 2.75G services based on 900 MHz and
1800 MHz digital GSM technology, offering voice and data
services in 23 of the country's 23 licence areas. It is among the top
three GSM mobile operators of India
34
vodafone's original logo used until the introduction of the
speechmark logo in 1998.
In 1982 Racal Electronics plc's subsidiary Racal Strategic Radio
Ltd. won one of two UK cellular telephone network licences. The
network, known as Racal Vodafone was 80% owned by Racal,
with Millicom and the Hambros Technology Trust owning 15% and
5% respectively. Vodafone was launched on 1 January 1985.[5]
Racal Strategic Radio was renamed Racal Telecommunications
Group Limited in 1985. On 29 December 1986 Racal Electronics
bought out the minority shareholders of vodafone for GB£110
million.
In September 1988 the company was again renamed Racal
Telecom and on 26 October 1988 Racal Electronics floated 20% of
the company. The flotation valued Racal Telecom at GB£1.7
billion. On 16 September 1991 Racal Telecom was demerged from
Racal Electronics as Vodafone Group.
In July 1996 Vodafone acquired the two thirds of Talkland it did not
already own for £30.6 million. On 19 November 1996, in a
35
defensive move, Vodafone purchased Peoples Phone for £77
million, a 181 store chain whose customers were overwhelmingly
using Vodafone's network. In a similar move the company acquired
the 80% of Astec Communications that it did not own, a service
provider with 21 stores.
In 1997 Vodafone introduced its Speechmark logo, as it is a
quotation mark in a circle; the O's in the Vodafone logotype are
opening and closing quotation marks, suggesting conversation.
On 29 June 1999 Vodafone completed its purchase of AirTouch
Communications, Inc. and changed its name to Vodafone
Airtouch plc. Trading of the new company commenced on 30
June 1999. To approve the merger, Vodafone sold its 17.2% stake
in E-Plus Mobilfunk. The acquisition gave Vodafone a 35% share
of Mannesmann, owner of the largest German mobile network.
On 21 September 1999 Vodafone agreed to merge its U.S.
wireless assets with those of Bell Atlantic Corp to form Verizon
Wireless. The merger was completed on 4 April 2000.
In November 1999 Vodafone made an unsolicited bid for
Mannesmann, which was rejected. Vodafone's interest in
Mannesmann had been increased by the latter's purchase of
36
Orange, the UK mobile operator. Chris Gent would later say
Mannesmann's move into the UK broke a "gentleman's
agreement" not to compete in each other's home territory. The
hostile takeover provoked strong protest in Germany and a "titanic
struggle" which saw Mannesmann resist Vodafone's efforts.
However, on 3 February 2000 the Mannesmann board agreed to
an increased offer of £112bn, then the largest corporate merger
ever. The EU approved the merger in April 2000. The
conglomerate was subsequently broken up and all manufacturing
related operations sold off.
28 July 2000: Reverts to its former name, Vodafone Group
Plc
16 April 2001: First 3G voice call on Vodafone United
Kingdom's 3G network.
Vodafone in Iaşi, Romania.
Vodafone's operations in Europe. Vodafone Vodafone's
affiliates Vodafone's partners
37
2001: Takes over Eircell, then part of eircom in Ireland, and
rebrands it Vodafone Ireland.
2001–2002: Acquires Japan's third-largest mobile operator J-
Phone, which had introduced camera phones first in Japan.
17 December 2001: Introduces the concept of "Partner
Networks" by signing TDC Mobil of Denmark. The new
concept involves the introduction of Vodafone international
services to the local market, without the need of investment
by Vodafone. The concept would be used to extend the
Vodafone brand and services into markets where it does not
have stakes in local operators. Vodafone services would be
marketed under the dual-brand scheme, where the Vodafone
brand is added at the end of the local brand. (i.e., TDC
Mobil-Vodafone etc.)
2 February 2002: Finland is added into the mobile
community, as Radiolinja is signed as a Partner Network.
Radiolinja later changed its named to Elisa.
2002: Rebrands Japan's J-sky mobile internet service as
Vodafone live!
3 December 2002: Brand is introduced in the Estonian
market with signing of a Partner Network Agreement with
38
Radiolinja (Eesti). Radiolinja (Eesti) later changed its name
to Elisa.
7 January 2003: Signs a group-wide Partner agreement with
mobilkom Austria. As a result, Austria, Croatia, and Slovenia
is added to the community.
16 April 2003: Og Vodafone is introduced in the Icelandic
market.
13 May 2003:Omnitel is rebranded Vodafone Italy.
21 July 2003: Lithuania is added to the community, with the
signing of a Partner Network agreement with Bitė.
16 February 2004: Signs a Partner Network Agreement with
Luxembourg's LuxGSM.
20 February 2004: Signs a Partner Network Agreement with
Cyta of Cyprus. Cyta agreed to rename its mobile phone
operations to Cytamobile-Vodafone.
April 2004: Purchases Singlepoint airtime provider from John
Caudwell (Caudwell Group) and approx 1.5million customers
onto its base for est £405million, adding sites in Stoke on
Trent (England) to existing sites in Newbury (HQ),
Birmingham, Warrington and Banbury
November 2004: Introduces 3G services into Europe.
39
June 2005: Increases its participation in Romania's Connex
to 99%; also buys Czech mobile operator Oskar.
1 July 2005: Oskar of Czech Republic is rebranded as
Oskar-Vodafone.
17 October 2005: Vodafone Portugal launches a revised
logo, using new text designed by Dalton Maag, and a 3D
version of the Speechmark logo, but still retaining a red
background and white writing (or vice versa). Also, various
operating companies start to drop the use of the SIM card
pattern in the company logo. (The rebranding of Oskar-
Vodafone and Connex-Vodafone also does not use the SIM
card pattern.) A custom typeface by Dalton Maag (based on
their font family InterFace) forms part of the new identity.
28 October 2005: Connex in Romania is rebranded as
Connex-Vodafone.
31 October 2005: Reaches an agreement to sell Vodafone
Sweden to Telenor for approximately €1 billion. After the
sale, Vodafone Sweden becomes a Partner Network.
13 December 2005: Wins an auction to buy Turkey's second-
largest mobile phone company, Telsim, for $4.5 billion.
40
December 2005: Vodafone Spain becomes the second
member of the group to adopt the revised logo, and it is
phased in over the following six months in other countries.
2006 : Rebrands Stoke-on-Trent site to be known as Stoke
Premier Centre, a centre of expertise for the company
dealing with Customer Care for its higher value customers,
technical support, sales and credit control. All cancellations
and upgrades are dealt with by this call centre.
5 January 2006: Announces the completion of the sale of
Vodafone Sweden to Telenor.
February 2006: Closes Birmingham Call Centre.
1 February 2006: Oskar Vodafone becomes Vodafone
Czech Republic, adopting the revised logo.
22 February 2006: Announces that it is extending its footprint
to BuVodafone aria with the signing of Partner Network
Agreement with Mobiltel, which is part of mobilkom Austria
group.
12 March 2006: Former chief, Sir Christopher Gent, who was
appointed the honorary post Chairman for Life in 2003, quits
following rumours of boardroom rifts.
11 April 2006: Announces that it has signed an extension to
its Partner Network Agreement with BITE Group, enabling its
41
Latvian subsidiary "BITE Latvija" to become the latest
member of Vodafone's global partner community.
20 April 2006: Vodafone Sweden changes its name to
Telenor Sverige AB.
26 April 2006: Connex-Vodafone becomes Vodafone
Romania, also adopting the new logo.
30 May 2006: Announces the biggest loss in British
corporate history (£14.9 billion) and plans to cut 400 jobs;
reports one-off costs of £23.5 billion due to the revaluation of
its Mannesmann subsidiary.
24 July 2006: Respected head of Vodafone Europe, Bill
Morrow, quits unexpectedly.
25 August 2006: Announces the sale of 25% stake in
BeVodafone ium's Proximus for €2 billion. After the deal,
Proximus will still be part of the community as a Partner
Network.
5 October 2006: Vodafone announces first single brand
partnership with Og Vodafone which will now operate under
the name Vodafone Iceland
19 December 2006: Announces the sale of 25% stake in
Switzerland's Swisscom for CHF4.25 billion (£1.8 billion).
42
After the deal, Swisscom will still be part of the community as
a Partner Network.
December 2006: Completes the acquisition of Aspective, an
enterprise applications systems integrator in the UK,
signaling Vodafone's intent to grow a significiant presence
and revenues in the ICT marketplace.
1 January 2007: Telsim in Turkey adopts Vodafone dual
branding as Telsim Vodafone.
1 April 2007: Telsim Vodafone Turkey drops its original
brand and becomes Vodafone Turkey.
1 May 2007: adds Jersey and Guernsey to the community,
as Airtel is signed as Partner Network in both crown
dependencies
7 June 2007: Vodafone live! mobile Internet portal in the UK,
relaunched. Front page now charged for and previously
"bundled" data allowance is removed from existing contract
terms. All users now given access to the "full" web rather
than a Walled Garden and Vodafone becomes the first
mobile network to focus an entire media campaign on its
newly launched mobile Internet portal in the UK.
43
1 August Vodafone Portugal launches Vodafone Messenger,
a service with Windows Live Messenger and Yahoo!
Messenger.
17 April 2008: Extends footprint to Serbia as Vip mobile is
added to the community as a Partner Network.
20 May 2008: adds VIP Operator as a Partner Network
thereby extending the global footprint to Macedonia.
29 May 2008: Kall of Faroe Islands rebrands as Vodafone
Faroe Islands.
Vodafone in Asia-Pacific
Networks in Asia-Pacific
Majority-owned Minority-owned No Ownership
Australia China Afghanistan Hong Kong
India Fiji Indonesia Japan
New Zealand India Malaysia Samoa
Singapore Sri Lanka
History
July 1993: BellSouth New Zealand's network went live.
October 1993: Vodafone Australia's network went live.
July 1994: Vodafone Fiji's network went live.
44
November 1998: Purchases BellSouth New Zealand, it later
becomes Vodafone New Zealand.
1999–2000: J-Phone launched the J-sky mobile internet
service in response to DoCoMo's i-Mode service.
December 2002: J-Phone's 3G network went live.
3 November 2003: Singapore becomes a part of the
community as M1 is signed as partner network
October 1 , 2003: J-Phone becomes 'Vodafone'; J-Phone's
mobile internet service J-Sky becomes Vodafone Live!
December 2004: Vodafone Australia agrees to deploy high-
speed MPLS backbone network built by Lucent Worldwide
Services using Juniper hardware
April 2005: SmarTone changed the name of its brand to
'SmarTone-Vodafone' after both companies signed a Partner
Network Agreement.
August 2005: Launches 3G technology in New Zealand.
October 2005: Begins launching 3G technology in Australia
28 October 2005: Announces the acquisition of a 10 per cent
stake in India's Bharti Televentures, which operates the
largest mobile phone network in India under the brand name
AirTel.
45
22 December 2005: Announces the completion of the
acquisition of the 10% stake in Bharti Televentures of India.
25 January 2006: Indonesia, Malaysia, and Sri Lanka are
added to the Vodafone footprint as Vodafone Group signs a
partner network agreement with Telekom Malaysia.
17 March 2006: Announces an agreement to sell all its
interest in Vodafone Japan to SoftBank for £8.9 billion of
which £6.8 billion will be received in cash on closing of deal.
Vodafone Japan later changed its name to SoftBank Mobile
9 October 2006:: Vodafone New Zealand buys New
Zealand's 3rd largest I.S.P., iHug
1 November 2006: Vodafone Australia signs the Australian
Football League (AFL)'s biggest individual club sponsorship
deal with the Brisbane Lions from seasons 2007–2009
6 February 2007: Along with the partnership with Digicel
Caribbean (see below), Samoa is added as a Partner
Market.
11 February 2007: Agrees to acquire a controlling interest of
67% in Hutchison Essar Limited for US$11.1 billion. At the
same time, it agrees to sell back 5.6% of AirTel stake back to
the Mittals. Vodafone will retain a 4.4% stake in AirTel.
46
26 May 2007: It is announced that Vodafone may expand
into Pakistan
21 September 2007: Hutch is rebranded to Vodafone in
India.
10 February 2008: Announces the launching of M-Paisa
mobile money transfer service on Afghanistan's Roshan.
Afghanistan is added to the Vodafone footprint.
Vodafone in the Middle East and Africa
Networks in the Middle East and Africa
Majority-owned Minority-owned No Ownership
Egypt DR Congo Kenya Bahrain
Ghana1 Lesotho Mozambique
Qatar2 South Africa3 Tanzania
1Acquisition announced on 03 July 2008
2Network yet to be launched. Details pending further
announcements.
3Network 50% owned.
47
History
October 1998: Vodafone Egypt network went live under the
name ClickGSM.
18 September 2002: Vodafone signs a Partner Network
Agreement with MTC group of Kuwait. The agreement
involved the rebranding of MTC to MTC-Vodafone.
29 December 2003: Vodafone signs another Partner
Network Agreement with Kuwait's MTC group. The second
agreement involves the co-operation in Bahrain and the
branding of the network as MTC-Vodafone.
3 November 2004: Announces that its South African affiliate
Vodacom has agreed to introduce Vodafone's international
services, such as Vodafone live! and partner agreements, to
its local market.
3 November 2005: Announces that it is in exclusive talks to
buy the 15% stake of VenFin in Vodacom Group, reaching
agreement the following day. Vodafone and Telkom will then
have a 50% stake each in Vodacom.
8 November 2006: Announces a deal with Telecom Egypt
resulting in further co-operation in the Egyptian market; and
increasing of stake in Vodafone Egypt. After the deal,
48
Vodafone Egypt will be 55% owned by the group, while the
remaining 45% will be owned by Telecom Egypt.
10 December 2007: Vodafone Group-led consortium is
awarded the second mobile phone licence in Qatar.
03 July 2008: Acquires a 70% stake in Ghana Telecom for
$900 million
Vodafone in the Americas
Networks in the Americas
Minority-
ownedNo Ownership
USA AnguillaAntigua &
BarbudaArgentina Aruba
Barbados Bermuda Bonaire Brazil
Cayman
IslandsChile Colombia Curaçao
Dominica EcuadorEl
Salvador
French
West Indies
Grenada Guatemala Guyana Haiti
Honduras Jamaica Mexico Nicaragua
Paraguay Peru St Kitts & St Lucia
49
Nevis
St Vincent &
the Grenadines
Trinidad and
Tobago
Turk &
CaicosUruguay
History IN
United States
In the United States, Vodafone owns 45% of Verizon Wireless, the
country's second largest mobile carrier behind AT&T after their
merger with Cingular Wireless. The percentage of the customer
base and revenues of Verizon Wireless that Vodafone
consolidates is slightly lower, since some Verizon Wireless
subsidiaries have minority investors. (Hence the exact
percentages that Vodafone and Verizon report vary from period to
period: in June 2006 Vodafone reported that Verizon Wireless
owned 98.6% of its customers at that date.) Before this joint
venture was formed, Vodafone merged with AirTouch
Communications of the U.S. in June 1999 and changed its name
to Vodafone Airtouch Plc. In September 1999, Vodafone Airtouch
50
announced a $70-billion joint venture with Bell Atlantic Corp. The
first wireless business with a national footprint in the U.S., Verizon
Wireless was composed of Bell Atlantic's and Vodafone AirTouch's
U.S. wireless assets and began operations on April 4, 2000.
However, Verizon Communications—the company formed when
Bell Atlantic and GTE merged on June 30, 2000—owns a majority
of Verizon Wireless and Vodafone's branding is not used, nor is
the CDMA network compatible with GSM phones. This relationship
has been quite profitable for Vodafone, but there have historically
been three problems with it. The first is the above-mentioned
incompatibility with the GSM 900/1800 MHz standard used by
Vodafone's other networks, and the consequent difficulty of
offering roaming between Vodafone's U.S. and other networks.
The other two stem from the fact that Vodafone does not have
management control over Verizon Wireless. Vodafone is thus
unable to use the Vodafone brand for its U.S. operations, and
(perhaps more importantly) has no control of dividend policy at
Verizon Wireless and is therefore entirely at the mercy of Verizon
management with respect to cash flow from Verizon Wireless.
Perhaps as a consequence of these reasons, Vodafone made a
bid for the entirety of AT&T Wireless when that company was for
51
sale in 2004. Had this bid been successful, Vodafone would
presumably have sold its stake in Verizon Wireless, and then
rebranded the resultant business as Vodafone. However, Cingular
Wireless (a joint venture of SBC Communications and BellSouth
(both now AT&T)) ultimately outbid Vodafone and took control of
AT&T Wireless, and Vodafone's relationship with Verizon has
continued.
Early in 2006 Verizon re-iterated their desire to buy-out the
remaining 45% of Stock of Verizon Wireless from Vodafone Group.
Vodafone has also repeatedly indicated that it would be willing to
buy out Verizon's stake.
Verizon has announced that its 4G data network will be LTE, which
is considered part of the GSM path and not the cdma2000 path
Verizon has been using; it has been suggested this is to appease
Vodafone, which uses GSM on its own networks.
Latin America
On 15 November 2005, Vodafone Group announced a group-wide
co-operation agreement with América Móvil of Mexico. The
agreement involves co-operation on international services and
roaming. The services include Voice and GPRS Roaming services,
52
Preferred Roaming and Virtual Home Environment. Included in the
agreement are the 13 networks owned and controlled by América
Móvil (except Tracfone in the United States), and the various
operating companies of Vodafone and its Partner Networks.
On May 11, 2008, Vodafone sealed a trade agreement with the
Chilean Entel PCS Chile, in which Entel PCS enters the world of
equipment and international services of Vodafone, and Vodafone
will be one of the trademarks of Entel for the wireless business. It
is not currently foreseen a sale of Entel PCS to Vodafone, but this
is not ruled out for the future. This step will mean Vodafone will
enter a market of over 17 million mobile numbers, currently divided
among three companies, Telefonica Movistar, Claro and
Vodafone-Entel PCS.
Caribbean
On 6 February 2007, Vodafone Group signed a three-year
partnership agreement with Digicel Group. The agreement, which
includes Digicel's sister operation in Samoa, will result to the
offering of new roaming capabilities. The two groups will also
become preferred roaming partners of each other. Along with
53
Digicel's markets, the Vodafone brand is now present in 81
countries, regions, and territories.
Chief Executives
Name Between
Sir Gerald Whent October 1988 - December 1996
Sir Christopher Gent January 1997 - July 2003
Arun Sarin July 2003 - July 2008
Vittorio Colao July 2008 -
To date Vodafone has had three Chief Executives, with the third,
Arun Sarin, soon to retire from the company and be replaced by
the current Deputy Chief Executive, Vittorio Colao. Each has made
their own individual contribution to the Company.
Sir Gerald Whent, at that time an Executive with Racal Electronics
Plc, was responsible for the bid for a UK Cellular Network licence.
The Mobile Telecoms division was de-merged and was floated on
the London Stock Exchange in October 1988 and Sir Gerald
became Chief Executive of Racal Telecom Plc. Over the next few
years the company grew to become the UK's Market Leader,
changing its name to Vodafone Group Plc in the process.
54
Sir Christopher Gent took over as Chief Executive in January 1997
after Sir Gerald's retirement. Sir Christopher is responsible for
transforming Vodafone from a small UK operator into the global
behemoth that it is today, through the merger with the American
AirTouch and the takeover of Germany's Mannesmann.
Arun Sarin was the driving force behind the Company's move into
Emerging Markets such as Asia and Africa, through the purchases
such as that of Turkish operator Telsim and a majority stake in
Hutchison Essar in India. Faced with increased competition and
penetration rates above 100% in the more mature European
markets it was necessary to diversify from being a mobile-only
business into a company which provided all telecommunications
services. This has seen Vodafone launch DSL and other fixed-line
services in markets such as Germany and the UK.
Financial results
From its 31 March 2006 year end onwards Vodafone will report its
results in accordance with International Financial Reporting
Standards (IFRS). It has issued results amended to IFRS
standards for its 31 March 2004 and 31 March 2005 year ends for
information purposes, and these are shown in the first table below.
55
Vodafone has some large minority stakes, which are not included
in its consolidated turnover. In order to provide additional
information on the overall scale and growth trends of its business it
publishes "proportionate turnover" figures and these are included
in the tables below. For example, if a business in which it owns a
45% stake has turnover of £10 billion, that equals £4.5 billion of
proportionate turnover for Vodafone. Proportionate turnover is not
an official accounting measure and Vodafone's proportionate
turnover should be compared with other companies' statutory
turnover.
Vodafone also produces proportionate customer number figures on a similar basis, eg.
if an operator in which it has a 30% stake has 10 million customers that equals 3
million proportionate Vodafone customers. This is a common practice in the mobile
telecommunications industry.
Year
ended
31
March
Turnover
£m
Profit
before
tax £m
Profit for
the year
£m
Basic
eps
(pence)
Proportionate
customers (m)
2008 35,478 9,001 6,756 12.56 260
2007 31,104 (2,383) (5,297) (8.94) 206.4
2006* 29,350 (14,835) (21,821) (35.01) 170.6
56
2005 34,073 7,951 6,518 9.68 154.8
2004 36,492 9,013 6,112 8.70 133.4
*Losses for year to 31 March 2006 reflect write downs of assets,
principally in relation to the Mannesmann acquisition.
Proportionate turnover includes £7,100 million from discontinued
operations.
The following table shows Vodafone's results under UK generally
accepted accounting principles (UK GAAP). By the end of its key
acquisition drive, which ran from 1999 to 2002, Vodafone had
more than £100 billion of goodwill on its balance sheet. As UK
GAAP requires goodwill to be written off against the profit and loss
account Vodafone has shown large statutory losses since then.
However, this write off of goodwill is purely an accounting
adjustment and does not affect Vodafone's cash position or its
ability to pay dividends. Despite the reported losses it is in reality a
highly profitable company, and this is reflected in the fact that it
has often been ranked among the top twenty companies in the
world by market capitalisation. Vodafone's accounts for the years shown in
the table below include a great number of material one off transactions, and apart
from noting the rapid expansion of the group in the years covered, no conclusions
57
about underlying trends should be drawn from the figures without examining the
accounts in more detail.
Year
ended
31
March
Turnover
£m
Profit/(loss)
before tax
£m
Profit/(loss)
for the year
£m
Basic
eps
(pence)
Amortisation
of goodwill
£m
Proportionate
customers
(m)
2005 34,133 (4,702) (7,540) (11.39) 14,700 154.8
2004 33,559 (5,047) (9,015) (13.24) 15,207 133.4
2003 30,375 (6,208) (9,819) (14.41) 14,056 119.7
1 Vodafone Group Plc. Key Performance Indicator press release
for the quarter to 30 June 2005, 25 July 2005.
58
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KEY PLAYERS IN THE INDIANKEY PLAYERS IN THE INDIAN
TELECOM INDUSTRYTELECOM INDUSTRY
BHARAT SANCHAR NIGAM LTD (BSNL):
It is a public sector
organization, wholly owned by
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October 1, 2000 the Department of Telecom Operations,
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Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited(BSNL).
Today, BSNL is the No. 1 Telecommunications Company
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over 35 million telephone connections.
67
With latest digital switching technology like
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and strong. Consider the figures, as they speak volumes on
BSNL's standing:
1. The telephone infrastructure alone is worth about Rs.
1,00,000 crore (US $22.74 billion).
68
2. Turnover of Rs. 31,400 crore ( US $ 7.14 billion).
Add to which, BSNL's nationwide coverage and reach,
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69
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Call Forwarding(within same Service Area)
Call Conferencing
Call Waiting and Call holding facility
Wireless Application Protocol(WAP): Surf WAP enabled
websites on Internet using this service.
Unified Messaging Services: Integrate your Mobile phone
with the Internet and access your e-mails, faxes, voice mail
etc on your mobile phone.
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BHARTI TELE-VENTURES
Bharti Tele-Ventures Limited, a part
of Bharti Enterprises, is India's
leading provider of
telecommunications services. The businesses at Bharti Tele-
Ventures have been structured into two main strategic business
groups - the Mobility Leaders business group and the Infotel
Leaders business group. The Mobility business group provides
GSM mobile services across India in twenty three telecom
circles, while the Infotel business group provides broadband &
telephone services, long distance services and enterprise
services. All these services are provided under the Airtel brand.
AIRTEL
Airtel comes to you from Bharti Cellular
Limited - a part of the biggest private
integrated telecom conglomerate, Bharti
Enterprises. Bharti provides a range of telecom services, which
include Cellular, Basic, Internet and recently introduced National
Long Distance. Bharti also manufactures and exports telephone
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terminals and cordless phones. Apart from being the largest
manufacturer of telephone instruments in India, it is also the first
company to export its products to the USA. Bharti is the leading
cellular service provider, with an all Indiafootprint covering all 23
telecom circles of the country. It has over 17 million satisfied
customers.
SERVICES
AIRTEL PREPAID
Airtel Prepaid, the Ready Cellular Card from Airtel comes to you
from Bharti Enterprises, India's leading integrated telecom service
provider. Going mobile with Airtel Prepaid is a new way of life. With
a host of great features, also simple to use, Airtel Prepaid makes
everything that you dreamt and believed, possible.
AIRTEL POSTPAID
Airtel welcomes you to a vibrant world of unlimited opportunities.
More exciting, innovative yet simple new ways to communicate,
just when you want to, not just through words but ideas, emotions
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and feelings. To give you the unlimited freedom to reach out to
your special people in your special way.
AIRTEL ROAMING
Airtel's Roaming service allows you to use your mobile phone to
make or receive calls from almost anywhere in India and abroad.
Airtel Roaming gives you two great options:
Airtel National - Enjoy roaming in India across 42 partners
networks and over 750 cities.
Airtel International - Roam across international
destinations, in nearly 119 countries including USA, Canada,
UK etc. with 284 partner networks.
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RELIANCE INFOCOMM LTD
It is promoted by Reliance Industries
Limited and offers mobile telephony
services the CDMA platform on a
nationwide optical fiber cable network capable of supporting
broadband services. Its strategy has been to acquire a large
subscriber base on the back of low tariffs and then promote
calls within its network to enable yet lower tariffs for its
subscribers.
Reliance Infocomm is the outcome of late Dhirubhai Ambani’s
dream of bringing about a digital revolution in India that will bring to
every Indian’s doorstep an affordable means of information and
communication.
"Make the tools of infocomm available to people at an affordable
cost. They will overcome the handicaps of illiteracy and lack of
mobility", was how Dhirubhai, as he was fondly called, spelt out
Reliance Infocomm’s mission in late 1999. He firmly believed the
country could use information and communication technology to
overcome its backwardness and underdevelopment.
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It was with this belief that Reliance Infocomm began laying its
60,000 route kilometres of pan-India fibre optic backbone in 1999.
The backbone was commissioned on December 28, 2002,
Dhirubhai’s 70th birth anniversary, first since his sad demise on
July 6, 2002.
Reliance Infocomm’s network is a high-capacity, integrated
(wireless and wireline), and convergent (voice, data and video)
digital network. The network is designed to offer services that span
the entire Infocomm value chain - infrastructure, services, both for
enterprises and individuals, applications, and consulting. The
network is designed to deliver services and applications that will
change the way we Indians live. It will harbinger a New India.
Reliance offers a suite of SMS based applications where by
subscribers would be able to get access to a host of information on
large range of topics such as News, Ringtones, Convenience,
Entertainment,
Lifestyle, Sports, Finance and Local Information etc. on its own SMS 1234 services as well as other popular SMS services e.g Indiatimes, Rediff, Aj Tak etc. To use applications like Ringtones, Horoscopes, Numerology, Vastu , Cocktails etc. Customers can send keyword based requests from their Reliance IndiaMobile handsets and receive the relevant information in return.
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Tata Teleservices Ltd: Owned by the
Tata Group, it provides basic and
wireless services on the COMA
platform. As compared to its peers, the company has not been
aggressive in expanding in the wireless space.
Tata Teleservices is part of the INR 76,930 Crore (US$17.10 billion)
Tata Group, that has over 90 companies, over 220,000 employees
and more than 2 million shareholders. With an investment of over
INR 9,000 Crore (US$ 2 billion) in Telecom, the Group has a
formidable presence across the telecom value chain.
Tata Teleservices spearheads the Group's presence in the telecom
sector. Incorporated in 1996, Tata Teleservices was the first to launch
CDMA mobile services in India with the Andhra Pradesh circle.
Starting with the major acquisition of Hughes Tele.com (India) Limited
[now renamed Tata Teleservices (Maharashtra) Limited] in
December 2002, the company has swung into expansion mode. Tata
Teleservices operates in 20 circles i.e. Andhra Pradesh, Chennai,
Gujarat, Karnataka, Delhi, Maharashtra, Mumbai, Tamil Nadu,
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Orissa, Bihar, Rajasthan, Punjab, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Uttar
Pradesh (E), Uttar Pradesh (W), Kerala, Kolkata, Madhya Pradesh
and West Bengal.
The investment in Tata Teleservices Limited (including Tata
Teleservices (Maharashtra) Limited) as of March 2005 totals INR
14,446 Crores (US$ 3.21 billion) Having pioneered the CDMA 3G1x
technology platform in India, Tata Teleservices has established a
robust and reliable telecom infrastructure that ensures quality in its
services. It has partnered with Motorola, Ericsson, Lucent and ECI
Telecom for the deployment of a reliable, technologically advanced
network.
The company, which heralded convergence technologies in the
Indian telecom sector, is today the market leader in the fixed wireless
telephony market with a customer base of over 2.8 million for the
period ended September 05.
Tata Teleservices' bouquet of telephony services includes Mobile
services, Wireless Phones, Public Telephony Booth, and Wireline
services. Other services include value added services like voice
portal, roaming, 3-way conferencing, group calling and data services.
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The company has launched Prepaid FWP and Public phone booths,
a range of new handsets, new voice & data services such as BREW
games, picture messaging, polyphonic ring tones, interactive
applications like news, cricket, astrology, etc. These are in addition to
its existing services of Postpaid Mobile , Prepaid Mobile & Postpaid
FWP.
Today, Tata Teleservices Limited along with Tata Teleservices
(Maharashtra) Limited serve more than 7 million customers in 1700
towns and aims at 4000 towns by March'06. With an ambitious rollout
plan both within existing circles and across new circles, Tata
Teleservices is offering world-class technology and user-friendly
services in 20 circles.
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SWOT ANALYSIS
STRENGTH WEAKNESS
Strong Brand Image.
Technically Superior.
Good After Sales.
Very high price
Major Competitors
OPPORTUNITIESTHREATS
Young generations need for
more branded.
Brand image is necessary to
looking rich
Proper advertising for brand
building
Strong competitors like BSNL,
Airtel,
Strong advertising by
competitors.
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RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
The report is the result of a survey which was undertaken in
VODAFONE. The objectives of the project have been fulfilled by
getting response from the customer associated to these segments
through a personal interview in the form of a questionnaire. The
responses available through the questionnaire are used to evaluate
the brand loyalty for the products of VODAFONE and the willingness
of the customer to purchase its products on future.
The project also covers an analysis of the switch over of customers to
Competitors’ products in the market.
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THE RESEARCH PROBLEM
The problem formulation is the first step to a successful
research process. The project undertake the problem of analyzing the
customer satisfaction level of the vodafone and to find the marketing
sales promotion of the product in comparison to other products.
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THE RESEARCH OBJECTIVE
Based on the problem the objective of the research is
divided into two which are as follows:
Primary Objective:
To analyse brand loyalty of customers towards the company’s
products range
Secondary Objective:
Analyse consumer satisfaction and sales promotion of vodafone
overseas ltd. for different cars.
Analyse the after sales service provided by Vodafone
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THE RESEARCH DESIGN
The research design used in the project is exploratory
design.
The investigation is carried upon the customers in VODAFONE . The
reason for choosing this design is to get responses from the
customers so that their perception about the products of the company
and their loyalty could be predicted.
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THE DATA SOURCE
The data has been taken from two sources
Primary data source
The primary data source has been collected through questionnaire
by personally interviewing each respondent on a number of queries
structured
in a questionnaire.
Secondary data source
Secondary data was collected from following sources
Prior research reports
Websites
Books
Newspaper
Personal consultation
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THE AREA OF WORK
The field work is conducted in the Vodafone in various
show rooms situated in different location all over the city.
THE ANALYTICAL TOOLS USED
The analytical tools used are mostly graphical in nature
which include
Pie charts
Cylindrical charts
Column charts
Tables showing percentage
THE SAMPLE SIZE
The sample size consists of 50 units out of which the
most logical and non biased response are selected thus the sample
size is taken out to be 50 units.
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ANALYSIS
Monthly
Income
No. of
respondent
30000-50000 31
51000-
100000
12
above
100000
7
No. of respondent
62%24%
14%
30000-50000 51000-100000 above 100000
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1. – Information source about Vodafone ?
No. of
respondent
News paper 7
T.V ad 2
Trade show 10
Internet 1
Peer group 21
Personal approach by
dealer
14
87
No. of respondent
13%4%
18%
2%38%
25%
News paper
T.V ad
Trade show
Internet
Peer group
Personal approach by dealer
88
2. - Which language News paper and T.V channel do you prefer?
No. of
respondent
Hindi 19
English 26
Other 5
No. of respondent
38%
52%
10%
Hindi English Other
89
3. - Have you seen Vodafone Advertisement (print ad or T.V commercial)?
No. of
respondent
Print ad 37
T.V
commercial
13
No. of respondent
74%
26%
Print ad T.V commercial
90
4. - Was that Advertisement effective?
No. of respondent
Yes 41
No 9
No. of respondent
82%
18%
Yes No
91
6. - What was the influencing power of advertisement?
No. of respondent
Discount 34Brand ambassador 3Free gifts 2performance 11
No. of respondent
68%6%
4%
22%
Discount Brand ambassador Free gifts Performance
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7. - How many times do you see VODAFONE and competitors
advertisement?
No. of
respondent
(monthly) 9
(Weekly) 13
(daily) 17
(15 days) 11
No. of respondent
18%
26%
34%
22%
(monthly) (Weekly)
(daily) (15 Days)
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8. - Which tractor Advertisement is effective? Please rank 1 to 5 as
below.
Rating Scale
No. of
respondent
Vodafone 4
BSNL 1
Airtel 3
other 2
No. of respondent
40%
10%30%
20%
Vodafone BSNL Airtel Other
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9. - What is the influencing power of the advertisement?
No. of respondent
Services 21
Technology 4
coverage area 17
Tariff charges 8
No. of respondent
42%
8%
34%
16%
Service Technology Coverage area Tariff charges
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10. - Which additional benefit attract you for VODAFONE ?
Benefits No. of respondentDiscount 19Free accessories 2Free gift 4Extended warranty 3 Service 7Offers 5performance 12
No. of respondent
34%
4%8%6%14%
10%
24%
Discount Free accessories Free gift
Extended warranty Service Offers
Performance
96
11. – Which feature do you most like in Vodafone ?
Attributes No. of respondent
Services 4
customer care 2
Reliable 6
No threats 22
coverage area 3
performance 13
No. of respondent
8% 4%12%
44%
6%
26%
Services Customer care Reliable No Threats C.V. Performance
97
12. – Which part of promotional activity do you most prefer to buy a
VODAFONE ?
Please rank 1 to 15
Trade Show 1
Discount 3
Free gift 1
Safety feature 5
performance 4
Services 2
clear voice 9
Special Package 1
SMS facility 7
Net performance 5
Small top up with sms 2
Over all feature 1
Technology 6
Brand Ambassador 1
Internet facility 3
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2% 6% 2%10%
8%
4%
16%2%14%
10%
4%2%
12%2% 6%
Trade Show Discount Free gift Safety feature
Performance Services clear voice Special Package
SMS facility Net performance smalltop withsms Over all feature
Technology Brand AmbassadorInternet facility
99
13. Sales promotion activity for Vodafone
Feed back from customer
No. of respondent
Fair 13
Good 19
Excellent 18
No. of respondent
26%
38%
36%
Fair Good Excellent
100
LIMITATION OF THE SURVEY
Though, best efforts have been made to make the study
fair, transparent and error free. But there might be some inevitable
and inherent limitations. Though outright measure are undertaken to
make the report most accurate.
The limitation of the survey are narrated below:
The project is valid for Vodafone only.
It was not possible to cover each and every showroom due to
time constrains.
There may be some biased response form the respondents
Some respondents did not provide the full data.
Unwillingness on the part of the customers to disclose the
information as per the questionnaire.
The decisiveness on the part of the customers regarding some
question hence difficulty faced in recording and analyzing the
data.
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SUGGESTION AND CONCLUSION
This effort for the innovation in sales promotion of car will help
the road shows, TV Advertisement, Mouth publicity etc.
And other thing is provide some offers like Discount, Diwali
offers, Free Gift like music system, Accessories etc.
My project is a key to open the door of greater comfort to the
middle segment.
In this age of electronic sector who is given tractor in low prices
they will blow like sun and vodafone product is low prices.
The customers of vodafone are brand loyal with only a small
percent want to shift over to other brands. Trying of other brands
by customers is mainly because the customer wants to try
something new.
The performance of VODAFONE product good in comparison to
other brands.
Mileage is the basic feature influencing brand loyalty.
The best selling product of Electronics good VODAFONE ,
Samsung, least selling is airtel.
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The competition of VODAFONE product is majorly with BSNL.
Due to high brand loyalty the customers of Vodafone product
recommend it product to others Like Vodafone product .
The customers are satisfied with the product range of Vodafone
product.
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QUTIONNARE
Name & Address of the customer
Occupation Other Vehicle Owned
Age
Annual Income
1. - How you become interested about VODAFONE ?
(1) News paper (2) T.V ad (3) Trade show
(4) Internet \
(5) Peer group (6) Personal approach by dealer
2. - Which language News paper and T.V channel do you prefer?
(1) Hindi (2) English (3) Other
3. - Have you seen Vodafone Advertisement (print ad or T.V
commercial)?
Yes No
Print ad
T.V commercial
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4. - Was that Advertisement effective?
(1) Yes (2) No
6. - What was the influencing power of advertisement?
7. - How many times do you see VODAFONE and competitors
advertisement at T.V in News paper?
(1) Daily (2) Weekly (3) Monthly (4) Hardly
VODAFONE
Ne News paper
T.V T.V ad
_______________________________________________________
________________
BSNL News
paper
T.V ad
_______________________________________________________
_________________
Airtel News
paper
105
T.V ad
_______________________________________________________
_________________
Tata News
paper
T.V ad
8. - Which car Advertisement is effective? Please rank 1 to 5 as
below cars.
Rating Scale- 1 2 3 4
5
Poor So So Fair Good
Excellent
(1) BSNL
(2)Idea
(3) VODAFONE
(4) Others
106
9. - What is the influencing power of the advertisement?
10. - Which additional benefit are you getting with VODAFONE ,
BSNL, Airtel, Others?
Benefits Cars- VODAFONE Indigo
CS
Icon
Ford
Swift
Desire
Discount
Free accessories
Free gift
Extended warranty
Registration
Offers
Test Drive
11. – Which feature do you most like in VODAFONE product ?
Attributes Ratin 1 2 3 4 5
107
g
scale
(1)coverage
area
(2)network
(3)Comfort
(4)Performance
(5)Safety
(6) Small top up
12. – Which part of promotion activity do you most prefer to buy a
tractor? Please rank 1 to 15
(1) Trade Show
(2) Discount
(3) Free gift
(4) Safety feature
(5) performance
(6) coverage area
(7) call rate
(8) Special
Package
(9) performance
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FINDINGS There is a communication gap in distribution channel so retailers are
not getting advantage of discounting & trade scheme.
Company sales executive should inspect the market time to time while
they do not take interest so that some retailers are unsatisfied with
company.
If retailer’s complaints regarding discounting & trade scheme then he
is not responded properly.
Retailers do not get the company’s actual schemes.
Distributors have not maintained proper stock so that retailers do not
get all the products by which sale, discounting & trade schemes are
effected.
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