Competitive Advantage Of Vodafone Over Other Telecom Players Marketing Essay

emulous Advantage Of Vodafvirtuoso Over Other Telecom Players Marketing Essay originationA Company is said to stir a competitive receipts if it can sustain a profit that exceeds the average of the industry .According to Michael hall porter there are two basic types of competitive advantage-monetary value Advantage-when a accompany is able to deliver the same benefits as provided by their foes at a lower constitute.Differentiation Advantage-when a company delivers benefits that exceeds the benefits provided by their contests.There are 4 generic commercial enterprise strategies in range to gain competitive advantage oer another(prenominal)s. The intravenous feeding strategies are described in the figure shown on a lower floor.Differentiation Cost liveLEADERDIFFERENTIATIONLEADERleaderBroadDIFFERENTIATIONFOCUSERCOSTFOCUSER specifyStrategy DifferentiationIn this dodging one or much criteria used for selection by buyers in a trade are chosen and then a transmission li ne plan is used to unequivocally meet those criteria. Mostly companies coif up with plan that associates with charging a bonus price for the crossway that often reflect the higher production be and extra value-added features provided to the consumer. Differentiation is about charging a premium price that much than than covers the additional production costs, and about giving customers clear reasons to prefer the product over other, less key outd products.(David Jobber)Vodafone came up with differentiation strategy when they launched I surround service, even though they were charging their customer more than than their competitors but they unflustered got the edge over others by offering free Vodafone to Vodafone calls for life m calls and better network strength compared to other competitors.Strategy Cost leadIn this strategy companys main objective is to be lowest cost producer in the industry. If the achieved selling price can be at least equal (or near)the average f or the market, then the lowest-cost producer go forth (in theory) r invariablye the best profits. This strategy is usually associated with full-grown-scale businesses offering standard products with comparatively little differentiation that are perfectly acceptable to the majority of customers. Occasionally, a low-cost leader pass on also discount its product to maximize sales, particularly if it has a significant cost advantage over the contender and, in doing so, it can further increase its market share.Vodafone has started Home cellphone tariff for its Metro Digital service. In this offer off-peak calls from a undertake location (such as office) for 5 pence (8 cents) a minute were provided. By submission this they have clearly scored a cost advantage over others analogous O2,3,orange.Strategy Differentiation FocusIn this strategy company aims to differentiate within just one or a flyspeck yield of tar function market segments. The special customer needs of the segment think up that there are opportunities to provide products that are clearly different from competitors who may be targeting a broader group of customers. The important issue for any company adopting this strategy is to understand that what customers really needs and wants in other spoken communication that there is a valid basis for differentiation and that existing competitor products are not meeting those needs and wants.Vodafone introduced One Net, a hosted stiff and mobile voice service for SMEs . this move is regarded as to be actually effective move for Vodafone as Vodafones model is to charge per user, per month and claims the conglomeration One Net solution can be 15%-20% cheaper than SMEs hire for typical go currently.Strategy Cost FocusIn this strategy a company seeks a lower-cost advantage in just one or a small number of market segments. The product will be basic perhaps a similar product to the higher-priced and feature market leader, but acceptable to suff icient consumers.Out of these 4 strategies differentiation and cost leadership strategies operates in broad range of market to get a competitive advantage over other competitors .By contrast, differentiation centralise and cost focus strategies are adopted in narrow market to gain edge over others.Why do so galore(postnominal) people choose Vodafone?First of all Vodafone operates in all 3 segments of market i.e they have targeted low train ,middle level and high level market which not only make it open to oversize market but also open ups a competitive advantage over the other major telecom players .Secondly they have put in large investments on strengthening their network so that their customers can make more calls more places and there on they can have an advantage over others by winning costumers confidence over quality and reliability of their services .Thirdly they have reduced their effective cost by slightly 5 times in populate the 3 years so that they can provide bett er value for money to their customers which in cristal gives them a edge over other telecom giants.And of lately they have kept a focused on customers services in order to maintain high standards of customer satisfaction.In addition to above points Vodafone understands the salmagundi in market requirements with time and have always tried to come up with new innovative idea to attract more and more costumers for example-of lately they have understood the need to penetrate in business organizations for which they have started 3 new plans which are as follows-For small business- This plan concentrates at those costumers which are sole traders or those who are running a family firm or those who are working(a) in a growing enterprise because it offers business phone and accessories at huge value price for calls ,e mail and mobile broadband.For medium sized and large sized business- This plan concentrates at organization more than snow to 1000 employees .This aims at providing low ca ll cost and flexible working with in a integrated network. This plan also aims at transforming the business communication with solutions that makes communication more agile and more productive than ever before.For Public Sector-Vodafone has been working with public orbit for more than last 20 years as they are approved supplier in OGC(Office of Government Commerce) frame work. Vodafone has transformed the public service delivery by providing more flexibly and efficient working solutions.Besides targeting the business sector they have also started new services on which none of their competitor has focus on yet, like disability services .They were quick plenteous to notice the increasing complexity in technology and introduced new phone which are easy to use which in turn has opened a all new market for them ,for those who like their things to be simple or are disabled this offer by Vodafone is very lucrative.VODAFONE MARKET luckvNUMBER OF CONNECTIONS200520062006200720082009TotalUn ited Kingdom67,680,00067,437,52568,066,30070,626,52774,375,79776,067,6053 (Hutchison)GBRHU3,358,0003,473,9253,386,0003,633,5273,883,5974,410,105O2 (Telefonica)GBRCN15,981,00016,340,60016,814,30017,751,00019,075,20020,416,500 chromaticGBROR14,858,00014,958,00014,951,00015,097,00015,756,00015,850,000T- ramblingGBRME17,158,00016,361,00016,730,00016,734,00017,124,00016,675,000VodafoneGBRVF16,325,00016,304,00016,185,00017,411,00018,537,00018,716,000ContractUnited Kingdom22,100,36022,113,12022,546,15224,096,23726,883,50230,578,8283 (Hutchison)GBRHU1,880,4801,945,3981,953,4622,164,7142,435,0022,993,888O2 (Telefonica)GBRCN5,502,0005,686,2005,873,8006,298,0007,015,0008,698,500OrangeGBROR4,977,4304,891,2664,731,0004,970,0005,722,0006,298,000T-MobileGBRME3,439,0003,248,0003,611,0003,821,0003,861,0004,109,000 consummate(a) Mobile (Virgin Media)435,700712,300VodafoneGBRVF6,301,4506,342,2566,376,8906,842,5237,414,8007,767,140PrepaidUnited Kingdom45,579,64045,324,40545,520,14846,530,29151,243,2955 1,306,7773 (Hutchison)GBRHU1,477,5201,528,5271,432,5381,468,8141,448,5951,416,217O2 (Telefonica)GBRCN10,479,00010,654,40010,940,50011,453,00011,388,00011,718,000OrangeGBROR9,880,57010,066,73410,220,00010,127,00010,034,0009,552,000Tesco Mobile1,800,000T-MobileGBRME13,719,00013,113,00013,119,00012,913,00013,263,00012,566,000Virgin Mobile (Virgin Media)3,987,5003,305,700VodafoneGBRVF10,023,5509,961,7449,808,11010,568,47711,122,20010,948,860Vodafone has second largest market share in UK telecom market .As per the details shown in the table above total number of lodge provided by Vodafone(19,114,000) are second largest, next to O2 (21,299,300).Vodafone is planning to buy T-mobile which would give them sole market share of around 40% after which they will be the market leaders by outlying(prenominal) leaving O2 behind(financial times).Table shown below compares all the network provider on basis of number of connections provided in last 5 years of time spam .From which we can considerab ly interpret that Vodafone in UK is second largest network at the moment and as per their plan if the T-mobile take over by Vodafone takes place they are vent to the largest network in UK market leaving other telecom players far behind them.