Recommended Marketing Strategies of Vodafone

A marketing strategy is a plan of action in which Vodafone have utilized in order counter the competition from its rivals and in the process attained a significant market share in the telecommunication industry. Since Vodafone is a big multinational firm in the world it has in the past chosen to compete across entire market in market. However, this strategy has not gone on well with the company in that in some places particularly in Europe it has lost ground in terms of market share. Therefore, the best marketing strategy of Vodafone is to compete in particular segments only that will perform better more than its competitors.
To achieve this market segmentation should be carried out by Vodafone prior to marketing activities (Grant, 2005) Market segmentation involves identifying those target markets that the company will do well. It is only through this strategy that Vodafone can ensure its survival ability in the business. This is because through market segmentation the company will only specialize in few and potential target markets that will yield good returns and also it will require little resources to compete in the segments than competing across the entire market.
The management of Vodafone should ensure that the target market selected provides an opportunity of accessing the market information required in order to save time and financial resources. The company too may focus on market penetration strategies whereby it will be involved in manufacturing of new products as well as offering new communication services for both the existing and potential markets in the industry. Such a strategy if it succeeds will lead to large market share in that the company will maintain the old as well as attracting the new customers (Bagley and Savage, 2006).

Identification of portfolio plan by Vodafone will be an important strategy too for the company in that the management will be able to identify those subsidiaries that are not performing well in the market. Such a strategy involves classifying the branches of Vodafone in to four groups as follows. The first group is that of a star which symbolizes a branch that does well and is said to have large market share in a growing market. The strategy adopted is that of building the business unit. The other group is question mark or problem child, which is a branch of the company characterized by declining market share in expanding industry.
The strategy is that of harvest or divest to other markets. The third group is of cash cow which is characterized by low market share but in a growing industry. Cash cow normally sustains other branches because its cash flows are constant. The strategy associated with cash cow is harvest. The fourth group is that of the dog whereby the business unit in question has low market share in a declining industry. Such a business require a lot of financial resources and time thus losses are experienced. The strategy for such strategy is to divest to other branches or business units in order to avoid losses (David and Fred, 2008).