unit 2 marketing essentials assignment - ee mobile

unit 2 marketing essentials assignment - ee mobile

Introduction

Marketing includes all the activities and the communications from the marketers of the goods and services in order to inform the markets about the availability of the products that will help in generating satisfactions in customers through fulfilling of the needs and wants (homburg et al, 2012). The paper basically aims to discuss the case of the ee mobile company located in uk which is basically in the mobile network providing company which was formerly known as everything everywhere and is a division of the larger bt (british telecom) group. This is the largest 4g network services provider in uk and has more than 28 million customer base.

As the organization is facing a lack of the marketing orientation in the organization thus the study aims to address the scenario in the organization on part of its team as through the power point presentation.  Later, the paper discusses about the 7 ps in marketing mix of the organization considering the case of ee services organization at uk and the designing of the marketing planning for the organization in order to attain the objectives as involving high levels of customer satisfaction in the organization. The internal and the external environments of the organization are analyzed followed by swot analysis in order to reach strategies and tactics in attain its objectives.

Task 2

A.Ways in which oranization use the various elements of marketing mix in acheivement of business objectives

Marketing mix is the process of setting or using the various marketing variables in order to attain the marketing objectives or to attain a desirable position in the markets (kotler et al, 2012). For the services it consists of the seven elements as will be discussed below for ee as:

Product- The product includes the goods or services that are exchanges in the process of transaction between the company and the customer and in this case it is a service which allows people to connect with others as through voice apart from providing 3g and 4g network services to allow access through internet including the video calling facility to the customers (christopher, 2010). The company provides sim cards and must ensure the quality of the signals for customer satisfaction while the other part of tangibility includes the mobile phones which must be provided as per customer tastes and convenience. The 4g enabled phones have yielded good level of excitement in the existing customers while the company may aim to attain high loyalty as through providing various offers and packages to suit the customer needs thus helping to attain the competitive advantage for the company and setting it out from other established names like vodafone. Vodafone network services provide various features to its customers as through providing live chats, video messages, movie info, sports updates, etc  (homburg et al, 2012).

The ee can offer new services that allows the customer to upgrade their phones while also allowing the calculation of the existing plan rates and this allows the building of the long term relationship switch the customers while also allowing the customer loyalty and satisfaction towards the brand. Also company may launch the personalized mobile cases in order to enhance the brand image and visibility in target markets (langston, 2013).

Price- Price relates to the value of the exchange taking place between the customer and the company and in this case the consumers are more and more aware of the prices of the internet services as in case of uk where usage of internet is high thus the company must design the pricing with caution (kotler et al, 2012). As ee was first to launch 4g services thus it was capable of charging premium prices in the starting but with the current scenario the prices has to be competitive as others in the industry also provide similar services (texiera, 2012). For the 3g products the company used the penetration or low prices to allow more usage and in the case of 4g also this has to be allowed as this will help the company to keep their 4g service users stick to brand rather than switching for low prices provided by the competitors like vodafone and telefonica (langston, 2013).

For the price sensitive customers the company may make use of the odd pricing as for example 9.99 euro, 8.95 euro etc to beat the heat from competition. Vodafone which is a tough competitor allows reward or nectar points to the customers for every euro spent on its services like ringtones, messages, calls, etc ad offer varying price structures to attract youth and business customer groups. The company must focus on maintaining its huge and early adopters 4g customer base while converting 3g users in to 4g by advertising the benefits and offers  (langston, 2013).

Place- This component is related to the distribution of the company services to the customers and the target market and in case of ee the distribution is done through (kotler et al, 2012)

• Direct methods as through provision of online packages, telephones, company channels, etc
•  through intermediaries like merchants and franchises  (langston, 2013)
• Through use of the company sale staff at the retails stores of the company

The company own website and the use of internet play an important part in the distribution of the company services and thus the company may enhance the convenience of the users of the website through providing user friendly interface, making customer care services more prompt and thus enhance customer satisfactions through efficient design of distribution. The competitors of ee at uk vodafone also have more than 300 retail stores where the customers can see and make purchases apart from online purchase of services.

also as the company distributes the services through the own retails outlets located in various parts of uk thus it must ensure the sales person are well behaved, qualified and attend the customer concerns in a rightful manner to enhance customer loyalty and satisfactions. The ee services company must maintain the levels of motivation and skills of its staff to ensure customer services and hence satisfactions followed by brand loyalty.

Promotion- The promotion includes the activities of the marketing communication as through use of advertising, banners, billboards, emails, etc and this help the company in conveying the price, availability, benefits, etc of the company products and services to the target markets (kotler et al, 2012). The ee services company may focus on the video calling facility through the use of the 4g services in order to inform the customers of the services to fulfill their wants and needs. The competitors vodafone communicates about brand through use of icons like david beckham and mc claren which has impact on target customers while it involves in promoting relationship with customers through press releases and putting in attractive offers at vodafone stores apart from advertising on media thus giving tough competition to ee services. The vodafone zoo-zoo gets particularly famous in dragging customer attention at time of cricket tournaments (tedlow et al, 2014).

Internet in this case is the main media in the advertisement and Promotion strategy of ee as more and more consumers are the internet users thus the company may place the campaign videos on the youtube, facebook, twitter, etc in order to allow cost effective high reach to potential customers (homburg et al, 2012). The company may also gain the 4g market shares and the customer attention through allowing the broadcast of the famous music or singers show in order to allow word of mouth publicity for the company and its services mainly 4g services. Thus the use of the social networking and the internet is the main concern for the promotion of the company products and their benefits in fulfilling the needs and wants of the customers as through providing high speed connectivity and video calling to any part of the world.

People- The success of any organization including the ee service provider is dependent on its people including the managers, top management, employees, sales personnel, etc and thus the company must not ignore the people element of the marketing mix in order to ensure its success (texiera, 2012). As this organization is a service provider thus the role of the company staff as including sales staff and the customer services and relationship management staff is main in representing the organization and eliciting high customer satisfaction through proper handling of the client concerns and their needs. The company must train, motivate through monetary and other rewards and must maintain the skills and attitudes of its people element and in turn allow the quick handling of customer queries and complaints to allow better services and satisfactions of the customers.

Physical evidence- The physical evidence corresponds to the tangible evidence of the company and is an important consideration for the service provider organization including ee services (kotler et al, 2012). The physical representation of the company as through brochures, leaflets, stores, etc will help the customer evaluate the services before making a purchase decision and thus the company must be representing quality in order to attract the potential customers to use its services.

Processes- In case of any services organization, the process that are related to the production of the services are very important consideration and the ee services which is basically providing mobile and internet network services must ensure the efficiency of the various processes in the organization to allow high speed and connectivity to its users. Also it must allow easy access of the customers to the company executives and services through streamlining the processes.

B.Develop and evaluate a marketing plan

Executive- The report tends to analyze the performance of the ee at uk through conduction of analysis of the external environment as through pestel analysis and internal environment followed by a swot analysis to understand the overall situation of the ee organization at uk and within the respective or telecommunication industry. As the company ee is having some issues relating to its existing performance, orientation towards marketing and the generation of satisfaction in the customers, the study aims to provide effective marketing planning for the company at uk.

The mobile network providing industry was analyzed to be at 15.8 billion in 2013 and the industry is estimated to grow at a steady rate of around 7 % up till 2018 because of the continuing rise in the number of mobile phone users across the world and including uk. As the most of the technology oriented industries were experiencing downturn with the economies around the work, the mobile network industry maintained to be resilient. The consumers in the industry are switching from pre paid to post paid formats thus allowing long term binding with a particular service provider through the contracts and this trend is supposed to continue in future of the industry.

Company overview- Ee which was earlier known as everything everywhere located at uk, is basically in the mobile network and internet providing company and has the largest customer base at uk serving more than 28 millions of customers across the country (jackson, 2014). It’s a part of the large british telecom group at uk and was established in 2010 as a 50:50 venture among the leading companies orange s a as orange in uk and deutsche telecom as t mobile in uk. The company is the largest provider of the 4g network services in the entire europe with more than 700 retail stores (langston, 2013).

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Current market situation analysis-

Internal analysis
The company has a well defined organization structure and the company financial performance is quite robust and the revenues in 2013 stood at 6.7 billion which was showing a decline of around 2.5 % compared to the past year performance. The staff is also highly motivated and committed to the organization which is the largest service provider at uk. The company holds the website ee.co.uk and has around 700 retail stores located at prime locations across the country. Based on the bcg matrix, the company 4g products classifies as being stars in the industry as the 4g is constantly gaining new customers and the company holds more than 46 % customers or 4.2 million customers in 2013 in the 4g product. Thus the company must invest sufficient cash flows in the development of the technology in this area.

External analysis – pestle analysis

Political factors-

• Government examines the problems in the national coverage of the networks
• Areas far from urban areas face network issues
• Government and ofcom investing 150 million euros in the network development in non urban areas

Economy-

• Effect on the consumer spending habits from economic downturn in 2008
• Rise in inflation in uk economy
• Rise in vat to 20%  (holton, 2012)

Social factors

• In 2011-13 rise in the teens using the internet and mobile phones from 61-81% at uk (jackson, 2014)
• High use of internet including social networking sites
• Free calling facilities using the variety of applications in the internet popular among the youth
• Many of the citizens entering uk for employment, studies, etc needs

Technlogical factors

• Network coverage is based on the level of the technological advancement
• Innovation of the new technologies to provide the customers with exceptionally high performing networks  (holton, 2012)

Legal factors

• Ofcom regulates the industry for having health competition and strategies
• Right to the consumer to terminate the contract with the telecom provider without having to pay any penalty (jackson, 2014)
• Degradation of the roaming charges in the industry

Environmental factors

• Impact on the local environment and nature must be considered for developing towers and the network facilities
• Use of handsets and networks is causing bad impact on health safety of the people along with causing accidents  (langston, 2013)

Swot analysis

Strengths

• More than 28 million customer base  (gordon, 2011)
• Huge coverage and largest network at uk
• Sponsorship of movie and sports events increases brand visibility
• Launched the 4g services before the competitors
• More than 570 retail stores located at prime locations like malls  (holton, 2012)
• Tagline- no other network is as big, faster and reliable

Weaknesses

• Mainly focus is on business segment and not on individual customers (dominici, 2009)
• Weak brand recall as compared to established names (jackson, 2014)

Opportunities

• Continuous growth of telecommunication industry
• B2b business growth  (holton, 2012)
• Rise in mobile phone usage
• Revenues from the selling of the 4g functional phones as also the company is a market leaders with first launching the 4g network

Threats

• Intensifying competition in the 4g service markets can make the ee to lose the shares in the industry  (holton, 2012)
• Rise in the it attacks on the mobile phones may discourage the use of data packs on the phones and thus will have a negative impact on the margins of the company (goi, 2009)
• Decline in the use of the voice services offered by ee due to rise in the number of messaging applications
• Competitors like vodafone group, telefonica uk, etc are continuously innovating new strategies and service packages

Objectives

The main marketing objectives of ee include:

• Generation of high satisfaction in the customers thus leading to brand loyalty and the leadership image for the ee at uk  (langston, 2013)
• Constant rise in the number of 4g subscribers along with rising revenues and profitability for the investors of the organization
• Improving brand recognition and recall (holston, 2012)

Strategy

Segmentation is the process of dividing the markets in to smaller sub sections based on the common features such as age, location, etc or behaviors and main basis of the market segmentation are behavioral, geographic as based on the area or locality, demographic as based on age, income, etc and psychographic which is based on the division of customers based on personality and lifestyle of the customers (gibbs, 2008). Behavioral segmentation is used in case of ee mainly and the customer groups are divided in to three ways as based on the local calls, national and international or isd calls and they can further be based on high or medium usage of networks (tedlow et al, 2014).

Target market needs to be selected in order to design the elements of the marketing-mixbased on the target customers (kotler et al, 2012). The ee designs various strategies in order to target the various segments of the customers but the main focus is on the organizational customers such as financial institutions, large organizations, etc and the company has launched in the city campaign for this segment while for the early adopters of the 4g services the company holds separate campaign (khan, 2014).

Positioning strategy deals with the placement of the brand in the minds of the target markets and the manner in which the company services are perceived in relation to its competitors like o2. Ee positions itself with brands like orange as providing the cutting edge 4g services by telling no other network is safer and more reliable  (tedlow et al, 2014).

tactics and action: The company needs to work on its approach towards marketing in order to generate high level of satisfaction in the users of the services and it must be keeping up the competitive advantage through placing focus on the 4g services (marilyn, 2007). In order to attain a high level of customer satisfaction, loyalty, the market leadership the company and the objective of the rise of the number of subscribers in the 4g services can be done through use of following strategies:
Product/ services- as the services to the customers are provided through channels like social media, complaint handling department, etc thus the customer must be made valued and as being a part of the organization in order to enhance satisfaction (christopher, 2010).

The customer must be provided quick resolution and effective handling of the complaints.

The company may add satisfaction by providing opportunity to client to change among the various products and services provided by the company as in case of models of handsets, etc. The company may allow the enhancement of the 4g enabled phones in the markets (holton, 2012).

People: The company must build a more efficient complaint handling mechanism through anointing highly qualified and trained staff in order to convert client dissatisfaction and grievances to satisfactions (holton, 2012).

Promotion: As the management of the promotion of ee is done through use of the pr or the public relations tool thus the company must involve in the surveys with the customers in order to have an understanding of the customer needs and expectations. This will help the company in having an understanding of the problems that the network users face and this could be published through the company websites in order to promote the image of the company as being more oriented towards the concerns and issues of the service users and thus drive customer satisfactions.

• Also the company must focus on the high valued customers and handle relationship with them in order to impact the image of the company in a positive manner (kotler et al, 2012).
• Direct marketing can be utilized in case of ee in order to provide the customers with the offers and packages that are suited to their needs as through use of sales personnel of the company (tedlow et al, 2014).
• The customer must be made aware of the benefits of the existing plans and package to avoid them being most to the competitors in the industry.
• The promotions must be focusing on the benefits of the 4g packages of ee as through use of advertisements and display outdoors, etc (langston, 2013).
• Social media can be used by the company in order to raise the awareness and the subscription of the 4g packages of the company and to gauge the purchase intention of the users of the networks.

Price: As ee is a market leader in case of the uk markets and holds the position of the launcher of the 4g services (moore et al, 2008).
The company may opt for skimming its prices in order to gain a more valued position than other competitors like o2. If the company is changing the premium prices then it should allow additional benefits for its customers as subsidies incase of their handsets are lost or damaged (holton, 2012).

It is not advisable for the company to reduce the price of the packages but increase the additional benefits for 4g users.

Place: It denoted the availability of the products and services of the organization and as in case of ee, the availability is ensured to the customers through a variety of channels including retail outlets (kotler et al, 2012). The company may make use of the online platform or the company website in making the services package available to the users and thus developing the customer or subscriber base in the 4g services of the company.
The company may plan to enhance the availability of the products and services of ee to the users through increasing the number of local shops with availability of the company products and services (jackson, 2014).

Physical evidence: The company may focus on improving the quality proposition order to attract more and more subscribers to use the company services as through improving the displays at stores and including new design of leaflets, brochures, etc while also providing high level of training to sales staff.

Budget: The budgets for the implementation of the strategies and tactics for the ee services providing organization and in order to improve the level of customer satisfaction, loyalty and brand subscribers could be as follows:

Control: The control is an essential element of any marketing plan and the company must keep a check on the validity of the various strategies and tactics designed through measuring the customer satisfactions, loyalty, etc through the conduction of the surveys and research in order to understand the level of success of the existing market plan and may plan to incorporate changes if the need so arises. This will help the ee organization to ensure the working of the marketing plan and incorporating changes to enhance effectiveness.

Conclusion

Though ee is comparatively new in the uk markets, it has many distinguishing features that allow the ee services to stand out amongst the competitors like vodafone, etc. The company can be capable of increasing the customer retention through focusing on its weakness including the low level of the brand recall as the surveys show (moore et al, 2008). The company must improve the level of the customer satisfaction through improving communication through use of internet and the social networking sites. The company revenues and market shares would be rising if it is capable of attracting the customers from the competitors and make them to use the 4g services. This will help the company in making mist efficient utilization of its resources while also allowing rise in markets shares, profits and revenues for ee.

Conclusion and recommendations

As the organization ee mobiles operational at uk is facing problems in the operations and performance thus the re-understanding of the marketing concept by its employees along with the discussion of the various processes involved in marketing is very essential for its employees and mainly the marketing departments (kotler et al, 2012). Marketing essentials is a sum of all the activities done by the organization or its marketing department in order to communicate with the target markets in the most effective manner and keeping them informed about the price, features, availability, location, etc of the products and services is of utmost importance. Segmentation involves dividing the markets based on some common features in order to easily design the products and services for the specialist market segment. The various p involved in the process of marketing as including the product, price, place promotion along with the extended marketing mix as including people, physical evidence and process have been discussed for the organization.

References

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