Vodafone is the world’s largest mobile telecommunications company, employing over 92,000 staff and with over 411 million customers. The business operates in 32 countries worldwide. Vodafone is a public limited company. Global recognition of the brand is growing as the company is pushing their name into the market. To help with promotions Vodafone use leading sports stars to attract young or middle aged customers.

Marketing involves anticipating customer’s needs and finding the right product or service in case of Vodafone to meet those needs, therefore encouraging high sales levels. Vodafone focus on promoting to impress customers so that they are attracted to the business not merely what its products are or what their services can do as time goes. The mobiles market is slowing down as there are more products available which allow communications for free or really cheap and therefore it makes it tougher for Vodafone as their competitors will try their best to outrun each other by promoting harder or more effectively. Vodafone appeals to new customers and aims to keep its existing ones by emphasising the uniqueness of the brand. They also aim to grow its revenue and improve its profit margin by adding value to its product and services.

Marketing Mix
A longer term marketing strategy is underpinned by careful planning and a successful marketing mix. The marketing mix is a combination of many features that can be represented by the four P’s:
Product- features and benefits of a good or service
Place- where the good or service can be bought
Price- the cost of a good or service
Promotion- how customers are made aware of a good or service.

Product
Vodafone offer on the move information services such as weather updates, business news, stock market and etc. This feature is mainly to attract a wide range of customers which may use their phone in different ways or for different functions and by having features which best suits the user helps to make the usage of the product or service more comfortable for the consumer. There are also extra features with the service such as chat, games, ringtones, video clips, photos and etc. These features are mostly targeting the young customers as these features involve stuff which youngsters use or would purchase for entertainment. The reason for why this feature is used is because t is providing external features of the service for the customers showing them that the business meets the customer’s needs and cares about their satisfaction and by choosing specific target audience it allows them to develop the features around that customer base. These strategies are helping the company as it is building a stronger loyalty with the customers as well as showing interested consumers that these features are available so that they can feel comfortable using their product and there is also a customer service line functioning to assist them with any problems they are having. By having these external or extra service features it allows Vodafone to stay strong in the current market against competitors and will allow them to optimise their sales to stay the largest telecommunications company.

Place
Vodafone UK operates with over 300 of their own stores and retails to big mobile services lenders based in the UK such as Phones4u and Carphone Warehouse. Within the standalone stores customers are allowed to come in and brose through the handsets and price plans available in the current time and what services or products will be released within the year or month. At the stores there are floor assistants who will aid the customers to see what handheld or service will suit their needs more and what accessories or extra products available will make the use of the purchasable product more comfortable or easy to function. The floor assistants also help current and previous customers by trying their upmost best to solve any queries or problems which have arisen with the product or service and if nothing can be done