VODAPHONE Sales and Promotion Product

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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principal provider of local and domestic long distance

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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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has a network of over 45 million lines covering 5000 towns with

over 35 million telephone connections.

67

With latest digital switching technology like

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Its responsibilities include improvement of the already

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instilling confidence among its customers.

BSNL has managed to shoulder these  responsibilities

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99.9% of its exchanges digital, nation wide Network management

& surveillance system (NMSS) to control telecom traffic and over 

4,00,000 route kms of OFC network, Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd is

a name to reckon with in the world of connectivity. Along with its

vast customer base, BSNL's financial and asset bases too are vast

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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of India.

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69

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Short Message Service (SMS)

All India R oaming

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.

70

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

71

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

72

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,

76

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.

77

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.

78

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.

79

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.

80

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.

81

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

82

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.

83

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

84

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.

85

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

92

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)

93

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

94

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

95

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

98

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.

101

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.

103

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

104

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

108

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.

109