Safaricom is the leading telecommunications company operating in Kenya. It provides a host of products and services for telephony, GPRS, 3G, EDGE and data and fax.
It has been faced with a number of problems with time, one of which is the entry of many other telecommunication companies into the market over the years. The companies include, Telkom Orange, Yu and Zain. So far the main rival is Zain. The problem caused by the entry of other companies is that they bring about unwanted competition (decrease in market share). This problem can be solved by conducting a marketing research.
The first step in the marketing research process is identifying and defining your problem. Defining the problem would mean expanding on it and explaining why it should be seen as a problem. In this case Safaricom has identified number of competitors as threat of losing customer reducing the market share and which will lead to lower profit margins and growth at the end of the year, contrary in what they want.
Step two is to develop you approach, generally speaking the approach should be developed almost exclusively around a defined set of objectives. Clearer objectives developed in step one will lend them to a better approach development. Developing your approach should consist of an honest assessment of your team’s market research skills, establishing a budget, understanding your environment and its influencing factors and formulating hypotheses.
Safaricom has to find an approach to counter the problem they are facing, which is competition. A chosen team at Safaricom came up with a number of possible solutions and chose one that was effective. The first solution would be to introduce lower call rates for subscribers and introduce a competition which only Safaricom subscribers can participate. The second solution Safaricom can have a charity event were the money the make goes to a special cause for example food aid, tree planting etc this would effect the market socially. And the final solution would be Supremacy to control the telephony industry by outmatching other operators to be the first to launch Apple’s iPhone 3G. To do all this they have to carry out extensive research to help in a decision.
Safaricom decided to be the first to launch the Apple’s iPhone 3G increasing the competitor advantage. The third step would be to market research to enable the firm to make an appropriate decision on all the elements of the marketing mix as well as reduce the risk of investing in an unprofitable marketing venture.
In 1990s, ground-based wireless phone service grew rapidly around the world. A key factor in the growth of wireless phones was the adoption of a single standard, known as GSM, in Europe and parts of Asia. There were 480 million cellular subscribers worldwide by January 2000 and it reached more than billions before 2005. The economy of scale that introduced will provide the extent of competitive pressure in the business environment. It helps to stimulate Iridium to consider price-performance tradeoff that offered by the substitutes and the need of product differentiation alternatives in advance.
In today’s telecommunication market there is a lot of competition by industry giants such as Sprint, MCI, and AOL, but simultaneously the very high cost involved with entering and competing in this industry also makes it very unattractive for new entrants. These are just some of the big names who are planning to and are presently providing parts of the pipe dream that AT&T seems to seek. In this industry it is very important to have customer awareness of the line of products you carry. Most of the public hears the name AT&T or Sprint or MCI and they think telephone bills but many consumers do not realize that these companies have expanded their field of services from cellular phones to wireless web services. The reason mainly being the lack of marketing, and direct consumer advertising provided by these firms on the other line of p...
In order to solve our research problem, we used a descriptive research design with two types of sample surveys that estimated the strength of competition, what attributes students value most in a haircut, and the potential effect of promotional tools on demand. The answers to our experiment will ultimately give us a general idea of how promotional tools will affect the demand of our target market, what our target market wants, and an overall sense of competition intensity.
Years later, the Telecommunication Act of 1996 triggered dramatic changes in the competitive landscape. SBC Communications Inc. established itself as a global communications provider by acquiring Pacific Telesis Group and becoming the new AT&T. The merger of AT& T and BellSouth, along with the ownership consolidation of Cingular Wireless and YELLOWPAGES.COM, will speed convergence, competition and continued innovation in the communications and entertainment industry, creating new solutions for consumers and businesses and positioned to lead the industry in one of its most signifi...
The principal conclusions of this report show that the iPhone is a successful product that combines interesting features: iPod, internet browser and mobile phone, which satisfy the customer’s needs moreover it is also exceeding their expectations thanks to its fashionable design. However the UK current mobile market is very competitive, so Apple will have to deal with tough competition against established mobile phone manufacturers. The report finally comes up with some recommendations that can help improving Apple’s performance and the marketing environment for the iPhone, these are mainly:
One.Tel was launched by Jodee Rich and Brad Keeling in 1995 (Cook, 2001). At first, it looked to get the advantages from deregulation of telecommunication industry by reselling other network’s capacity and making money through stock market speculation. Rich and Keeling tried to increase the company’s shares rather than to profit the company (Cook, 2001). Initially, One.Tel used to develop the culture of strong teamwork and togetherness. There was no hierarchy in the structure of the company. However, the dissonance of its culture and system is the main factor that led to One Tel decline.
The following report will analyse Vodafone and their current position in the international market. This report will cover the competitive strategy of Vodafone and their influence of products and services in relation to the demand of the market.
Tactical problem: Inability to go against the government`s decision to open the 1800Mhz for mobile communication with concession for a third player. Advantage of Vodafone is starting a business year earlier than WESTEL. In addition, WESTEL is not sure about what kind of strategy that Vodafone will use to penetrate into Hungarian market. -S.W.O.T ANALYSIS- -STRENGTHS- Strength: WESTEL has a local partner (Hungarian Post and Telecommunication Company). Strength: In 1990, WESTEL had generated a waiting list of 3000 customers, without any advertising. Many customers had never seen an actual phone. Strength: In 1992, the management decided to lower entry barriers and launched the affordability campaign. Teaming up with a leasing finance company, clients could lease equipment and pay the joining fee. Strength: In 1993, the geographic coverage became more complete, smaller equipment became available, and consumers started to utilize the service up to its full potential. Strength: GSM technology was a major departure from the previous system and the WESTEL had selected Ericsson to build its GSM system. Strength: WESTEL had a strong emphasis on quality and received the ISO 9001 certificate. Later it was dominated and selected for the Hungarian National Quality Prize, and the European Marshall Award. Strength: In a company survey a great part of WESTEL customers was willing to recommend the company to others. Strength: Subscription services provide excellent opportunities to cross-sell, basically providing content or other products to the customers. Further, these services offer to opportunities to upgrade, to brand and loyalty programs. Loyalty programs later have become an important factor in consumer retention. WESTEL has created its loyalty program early on, so it is a advantage for WESTEL. Strength: In May 1996, WESTEL launched its first major promotion bringing down entry barriers to an unprecedented low. During 12 days the company sold more subscriptions than WESTEL 450 in three years.
This report is mainly based on the case study Emerging Nokia, using the frameworks and concepts we have learned to analyze the case. This report is divided into 5 parts, first is the summary of the case, the second part is about the competition Nokia faced, the third part is the factors that contributed to the success of Nokia, then the challenges Nokia may face in China and the recommendations to them and the last part is the conclusion of the report.
When Apple saw that the iPhone market was mature and stable, the organization introduced other innovative products to create a new market (Ritson, 2013). This is the philosophy of the planning school of strategy and it is all about engaging an existing market while forecasting the future market.
Polaris Marketing Research (2008). Marketing Research Process: An Overview. Retrieved May 8, 2008, from http://www.polarismr.com/edctr_overview.html
Briefly it is a systematic design, collection, analysis, and reporting of data and findings relevant to a specific marketing situation facing the company, allows management to make the changes necessary for better results through adopting a proactive approach. Therefore, if a company wants to know what type of products or services would be profitable it should make a market research. Furthermore, a comprehensive research will enable the company to know about the product imperfections (if there are) and to know if it has been able to satisfy customers’ needs. It attempts to provide accurate information that reflects a true state of affairs. Due to market research the company can formulate a viable marketing plan and estimate the success of its existing plan. There are two main sources of marketing research information:
On the other hand, weaknesses existed. The primary research was the most difficult and frustrating sector, for it was difficult to keep in touch with the potential competitors; hence, a chance to learn more and analyse deeper from the potential competitors was missed. To conclude, the result and analysis of primary and market research which was based on the questionnaire was not convincing enough, and it was the main sector which needed to improve in the future.
Authors McDaniel and Gates prefer to define marketing research as planning, collecting, and analyzing data relevant to decisions required for marketing. The analysis should also provide communication and insights to management (McDaniel & Gates, 2006).
In November 2000, Mauritius Telecom entered into a strategic partnership with Orange (formerly France Telecom) with a view to strengthening and securing its market share, pending the total deregulation of the telecommunication sector in Mauritius. By combining the technological and global strength of Orange, and the local and regional experience of Mauritius Telecom, the two companies have been able to offer innovative and useful technologies to new markets. Orange has shared a lot of its Information technology expertise to Mauritius Telecom.