Comparative Analysis of Marketing Strategies

Question: Discuss about the Comparative Analysis of Marketing Strategies. Answer: Introduction According to Kotler et al. (2015), marketing strategy refers to the process of achieving the organizational goals by making optimal use of the limited resources of the organization. Marketing strategy combines all the marketing goals of an organization and helps to achieve them by making effective marketing mix plans. Marketing mix refers to the 4-Ps i.e. Product, Price, Place and Promotion. Marketing strategies demand proper market research. The main objectives of Marketing Strategy are to maximize the profit and sustain the business as the success of a business depends on the correct implementation of marketing strategies (Al-Debei and Avison 2013). This study is the comparison of marketing strategies of two big telecommunication companies i.e. Vodafone and Telstra. These companies follow various marketing strategies regarding target group, cultural elements, media management, etc. The primary objective if the study is to evaluate and compare the marketing strategies regarding the above factors of these two companies. Target Group Vodafone Vodafone Australia targets all types of the customer group. They have plans for the earning people as well as non-earning people. After the year 2013, Vodafone Australia has taken some major steps to gain the lost target market. From then, Vodafone has given more emphasis on the segment of corporate customers as this particular target market in Australia is very high and has a high potential for future growth (www.theaustralian.com.au 2016). Vodafone is in the neck to neck race with its rival companies to launch the 5G services. This strategy will help to tap the segment of corporate customers. On the other hand, Vodafone has some low cost packages to cater to the needs of the nonearning clients. Vodafone is planning to tap all segments of customers by reducing the price of the SIM cards and the prepaid services (Simkin 2016). Telstra Telstra has divided their target groups into three segments i.e. age, gender and income. They have launched several products to fulfill the needs of these groups. For example, Telstar has a special SMS plan for the young generation who use to message each other a lot. There are less expensive prepaid mobile services for the young generation. Gender is another important factor. According to Telstra, women and men have different demands. Thats why they develop different types of packages for them. On the other hand, as Telstra only operates in Australia, they have divided the segment into cities and states. It is obvious that people from different regions have different choices and needs. Telstar has successfully identified this variation and has come up with different products for them. Telstra has products based on the lifestyle, class of the people. Telstar also has the family package products. It is a customized product designed for all the members of the family (Wedel and Kamakura 2012). The Message Vodafone Vodafone Australia has a rich culture and values. The tagline of this company and the different taglines of the various products reflect the values and cultures. Every tagline and slogan have some cultural meanings. The main tagline of Vodafone all over the world is Power to you." This tagline has an inner meaning. This tagline refers to that it will empower the subscribers. The tagline tries to say that all kind of packs irrespective of price will give the subscribers the best service. Vodafone believes in the empowerment of people and the tagline is perfect for them as it conveys the ideas of the company. Other slogans of Vodafone are Be happy o or network. If you are not happy, were not happy and "We've got you covered." These taglines define that Vodafone is a customer oriented company where the utmost priority is the customers (Ziga, Torres and Niculescu 2016). Telstra Telstra is Australias leading telecommunication company. As per the vales and purposes of the company, Telstra believes in creating new products for everyone for the present and the future. The taglines of Telstra reflect the culture and values of the company. The former tagline of the company was Thrive On It's How We Connect." It means the company is telling the customers to rely on them as the company will not disappoint them. The recent tagline of the company is Magic of Technology." This tagline defines that Telstra believes in innovation, and they are always trying to come up with something new that can cater to the needs of the customers (Noor et al. 2015). From the above discussion it can be said that both the companies are successful in conveying the message to the customers. Both the companies are always ready to fulfill the needs of the customers as the customers are their priority. The Media Vodafone Vodafone Australia uses various types of communication media for different purposes. Nowadays this is the era of technological progress. Every company is using technology for the purpose of promotion and communication. 4 to 5 years ago Vodafone Australia used the conventional mediums for communication like television adv., hoarding advertisement, FM Radio advertisement, etc. But now in the era of internet, mobile and computer technologies, the company has chosen all kind of media relation to the internet for the purpose of communication and promotion. Vodafone is using social media like Facebook, Instagram, etc. for communication. Vodafone has taken a unique strategy to promote the products. At the time of the product launch, the amount of advertisement is high. On the other hand when the product is at the end of the lifecycle, then they reduce the amount of promotion on that product (Stacks and Salwen 2014). Telstra In the area of media communication, Telstra is a bit ahead of Vodafone Australia. Telstra has adopted a unique strategy for the media communication. They are using social media, emergency medias, RSS Feeds, etc. to communicate with the contacts. The company releases the press release on a regular basis so that all the customers can get the news about the company. Another media they are using is the social media. According to Telstra, nowadays social media is changing the way of life. Social media is an integral part of connecting people to each other. This is the reason Telstra takes help of different social networking sites i.e. Facebook, Twitter, Google+, Linkedin, Vine, Tumblr and Instagram (www.telstra.com.au 2016). Telstra uses to give the updates about the network performance to the customers so that there is transparency in the relation. People can connect to Telstra by having the email accounts with the company. These are media by which Telstra communicate with the contacts ( Sullivan, J., 2012). Centralized or Decentralized? The concept of Centralized and Decentralized is a vast subject. The centralized system refers to the system where the power stays in the hand of a particular person or group of person. The decision making power stays in the hands of those people. The example of a centralized system is the kingdom of a king where the decision of the king is the ultimate decision. But Decentralized system is the system where equal power stays on the hand of all the people. The authority of decision making stays on several people instead of one. Both the system has both advantages and disadvantages (Mulu et al. 2014). In the case of Vodafone and Telstra, the system should be partly centralized and partly decentralized. There are reasons behind this statement as there are both advantages and disadvantages in both systems. In the case of a fully centralized system, the decision maker will be a person or group of person. In that case, the decisions will not be effective as each country has different cultures, rules and regulations. On the other hand, in the case of a decentralized system, the authority of decision making will be on several persons. This will cause in lack of coordination and the customers will face inconveniences. But if the system becomes partially centralized and partially decentralized, then people from all level can contribute to the cause of the company in the decision making process. In that case, the decision will be effective as well as convenient to the end customers. There are other advantages of this kind of system i.e. there will be enough coordination among the top level managers from different countries and the decisions will be based on the culture, rules and regulation of the respective countries. So it is desirable to have a partial centralized and partially decentralized system for both Vodafone and Telstra (Schmitt et al. 2015). Conclusion Marketing strategies help to achieve the goals the organizational goals of the companies. According to the above study, both Vodafone and Telstra have well-structured strategies about the different aspects of the business i.e. target segment, communication media, etc. In some aspects, they have adopted almost same strategies and in some aspects, they have taken different strategies. But the intention of both the companies is clear i.e. to fulfill the need of the customers by providing them the best service in the field of telecommunication. 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