In this section I will look at each of the 7 P’s, confirm what effect it has on Vodafone and recommend how that method can be improved in order to complete my original aims that I stated at the beginning of my investigation. Effect of Product on Vodafone Vodafone’s product ranges from Pay-As-You-Go to monthly contract to international calls packages. I found in my research that the monthly contract option was the most popular. I also found that Vodafone serves over 12 million UK customers, which makes it the largest mobile phone retailer in the UK.
This could be suggesting that the quality of the phone company is excellent. This is also suggested in my survey where there seemed a high percentage of customers happy with the range of Vodafone products on offer. However, Vodafone’s services are similar to their competitors so I conclude that the product may not have as big a factor on a mobile phone company such as Vodafone to the likes of a business in the retail industry. I would recommend Vodafone to keep their current investment of i?? 10 million per week in order to improve the quality that they show in order to keep one step ahead of competitors.
Effect of Price on Vodafone Vodafone seems to set prices similar to competitors as they are in an imperfect market. This means that firms are less willing to participate in price wars and are more willing to price fix. In the survey, I found that the majority of customers were satisfied with the prices that Vodafone have set. I conclude that Vodafone are not effect by price as much as other firms in different markets mainly due to Vodafone’s massive market share and already large profit margins and their oligopolistic market position.
My recommendation to Vodafone keep the price similar to what they are now due to their ability to price fix and their healthy profit margins. In my view, there is little point in Vodafone starting a different pricing technique such as destroyer or psychological pricing as they simply wouldn’t make Vodafone much better off than before due to the market they are in. Effect of Promotion on Vodafone Vodafone have spent a lot of money on big name sponsorships such as Manchester United FC, Ferrari F1 Racing Team and the Vodafone Derby horse race. However, judging by the survey, over half of the people were not attracted to Vodafone by advertising.
This leads me to conclude that Vodafone have other ways to reaching customers such as word of mouth. Therefore, I recommend to Vodafone that they should reduce spending on promotion and big name advertising, as they have not attracted extra customers this way according to my survey. Effect of Place on Vodafone According to the survey, 80% of the people found that the Vodafone store was well located. Having said this, the survey was only used in Lisburn so I can’t vouch for the rest of the UK on saying that the people were generally happy with the location of the store.
I conclude that Vodafone has thoroughly thought out where to locate in towns like Lisburn, allowing for easy access from the main town centre. I recommend that Vodafone keep up their efforts on good location for the public in order to give themselves a non-price competitive advantage over the other mobile phone retailers. Effect of Process on Vodafone Vodafone talk to the customers about the projected time a customer would spent on the phone or what time they would use the phone or international calls in order to find the best deal for the customer.
This can be either a hindrance or help for the customer, especially if they feel that too many questions are being asked. In conclusion, Vodafone will see the selling process as important as they will want the customer to get their good as fast as possible and what the customer requires. As my observation showed, some customers felted that they were being pressurised by staff when wanting to purchase a Vodafone mobile phone, which led to the process not being an enjoyable one for the customer. My recommendations would be that staff should deal with customers better in order to let the customer get the good they want without hassle.
A more efficient way of buying goods on the Vodafone website would also allow the buying process to speed up as customers aim to purchase Vodafone services online. Effect of People on Vodafone Vodafone would be displeased by the results of my survey on the opinion of staff as only one person graded them above average out of twenty-five. Vodafone have always praised them on the assumption that their customer service was second to none though the survey suggests otherwise. My conclusion is that Vodafone takes the look at people in the marketing mix very seriously and therefore will need to improve its staff service to keep a good image.
I would recommend retraining staff in order to deal with customer needs better, having the staff put themselves in the customer’s position to have a better view of what the customer wants and talking to the customers on the same level, i. e. , not using technical jargon to the customer but at the same time not patronising them either. Effect of the Physical Environment on Vodafone From the consumer comments, I found that a lot of people saw the outlay of the Vodafone store as clean, spacious and tidy.
However, some of the survey found that the Orange store, also in Lisburn, was better than the Vodafone store in the same town. As my conclusion, I believe that Vodafone find the psychical environment very important due to first impressions and the ease to see goods from the customer’s point of view. As a recommendation, I would suggest to Vodafone that they look at the differences between their psychical environment and Orange’s and see what can be improved in Vodafone’s in order to gain a better image in this department of the marketing mix.
Vodafone have considered all 7 P’s in the marketing mix, though some more so than others. Little needs to be changed for Vodafone as they are already the largest mobile telecommunications company in the world. Despite finding a lot of small faults in Vodafone’s marketing mix, I still think that they succeed in their marketing plans as they have shown in recent years and with continued effort by Vodafone, they should keep this dominant position in the market for years to come.
