24/7 writing help on your phone
Save to my list
Remove from my list
Vodafone is the world's largest mobile telecommunications community, employing over 65,000 staff and with over 130 million customers. The business operates in 26 countries worldwide. Vodafone is a public limited company with listings on the London and New York stock exchanges. Global recognition of the Vodafone brand is growing as the company rolls out its identity into new markets. However, it retains local names and imagery in markets where this is essential to maintaining the trust of customers.
To help promote its image worldwide, Vodafone uses leading sports stars from high profile global sports, including David Beckham, Michael Schumacher and Manchester United.
Vodafone has to be highly visible as 'the brand to buy', in order to be the best. Effective marketing is the key to this high visibility.
Marketing involves anticipating customers' needs and finding the right product or service to meet those needs, thereby encouraging high sales levels. Vodafone goes further by looking to impress on its customers not merely what its products are i.
e. features, but also what they can increasingly do i.e. benefits. This involves effective communication.
There is a slowdown in sales of mobile handsets, in some markets like the UK, as the mature part of the product lifecycle is reached. Customers are exposed to a barrage of different images and messages by mobile phone companies, as the competition gets tougher. Vodafone appeals to new customers and aims to keep its existing ones by emphasising the uniqueness of the brand.
Vodafone's aim is to grow its revenue and improve its profit margin by adding value to its products and services i.
e. earning more from each product sold. The 'Vodafone live!' service enables customers to use picture messaging and to download polyphonic ring tones, colour games, images and information, through an icon-driven menu.
This service will soon be further enhanced by picture messaging libraries, video clips and video telephony (seeing the person you're calling) and improving download speeds. Another service is the Vodafone Mobile Connect Card, which enables customers to access their normal business applications on a laptop when out of the office. Such services add value to the product, and high profile effective promotion will help sell these services to existing and new customers.
David Beckham is more than a footballer. He is also regarded as a fashion icon, a caring family man and a nice guy: an overall image that attracted Vodafone to him.
Beckham's popularity with football fans comes largely from his England team captaincy. As a footballer, he is well regarded around the world. Other young men who might aspire to his success and style also tend to identify with him. He appeals to many females because of his reputation as a fashion and lifestyle icon. He is also married to a female icon in her own right.
Vodafone's sponsorship of the Manchester United team appeals to a broad section of the global football/sports audience, whereas aspects of Beckham's broader image have grown to appeal to a much wider section of society. That suits Vodafone, who needs to appeal to different segments of the market.
Beckham's healthy lifestyle allied to his talent suggests an energy and a controlled passion for life; an image that Vodafone would also like to project for itself. On a football field, Beckham is innovative, creative, exciting; characteristics that Vodafone aspires to. Beckham the family man comes across as caring and empathetic; Vodafone wants people to appreciate that it too understands and cares about what people want and need. Beckham is generally seen as dependable; Vodafone wants to communicate a similar image.
Vodafone: Leading the Global Mobile Communications Industry. (2020, Jun 02). Retrieved from https://studymoose.com/vodafone-report-new-essay
👋 Hi! I’m your smart assistant Amy!
Don’t know where to start? Type your requirements and I’ll connect you to an academic expert within 3 minutes.
get help with your assignment