Business Research

Business Research
Is the advertisement strategy used by Vodafone in India successful?
Submitted to Submitted by Batch Reg. No. Prof. Dilip Hitesh Goyal Sheron Prabu PGPRM-9 MBA12 B BLR 0903071001 BLR 0903031042

Page 1

Business Research
1. Introduction
Vodafone is known for its unique advertisement campaign such as pug, happy to help service and latest released Zoozoo advertisement campaign. The Zoozoos

advertisements were created in South Africa by Ogilvy & Mather, an international advertising, marketing, and public relations agency and Nirvana Films (Bangalore base company) used some animated characters to make these advertisements. It became so famous at little time that they made 30 advertisements base on Zoozoo. They spent near Rs. 30 million to make these advertisements. Now days it is one of the most admirable advertisements in India for example it has 35000 members on Facebook page which is increasing rapidly.

2. Company background
Vodafone is one of the leading global brands and in brand value ranking 2008 and it is ranked as the 11th largest telecommunication company in the world and 2nd in Europe. In the same way Vodafone Essar is one of the leading telecommunication service providers in India. It serves about 35 million customers who are located in different part of the country. It was during the year 2007, an UK-based Vodafone Group took over Hutchison Essar in India and renamed as Vodafone Essar. Hutchison Essar was controlled by Li Ka-Shing who was a Hong Kong billionaire. Vodafone paid $11.1 billion in order to get the 67% stake of Hutchison Essar. The acquisition of Hutchison Essar in India gave Vodafone an access to enter one of the fastest mobile growing markets, where the providers add about six million new connections every month. The company provides prepaid and postpaid connections; the company had the best mobile service in the country, most creative and an effective advertiser of the year. The company launched Apple iphone during 2008 to use in their 2G networks. Now the company has about 53 stores across India. The Company entered into agreement with NTT Do Como
to launch I-mode mobile Internet service in India during 2007 (Capitaline, 2009).

Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI): TRAI was established under the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India Act, 1997 enacted on March 28, 1997. The goals

Page 2

Business Research
and objectives of TRAI encourage greater corporation in the telecom sector together with better quality and affordable prices.( trai.com)

3. Objective
y y y y y y y y y To learn how to make a business report To learn how to do business research Role of advertisements on the buying behaviour of the customer. To study the consumers perception about Vodafone advertisement To study whom Vodafone is targeting Analyze why they changed their advertisement from pug to Zoozoo To recommend Vodafone how to make more effective advertisement strategy How to do a primary and secondary research to collect data How to do a proper sampling, selecting a particular group for the sampling

4. Executive summary
In this report we have analysis the present scenario of the Indian telecommunication sector and the main object to make this report is to study the effectiveness and the response towards the advertisement strategy used by Vodafone in India and other objective are clear the concept how to make business report and do business research. To complete this report we have used the primary data which we have collected by questioner from sample size of 30 people and interview with senior distributor of Vodafone and secondary data which we have collected from relevant website, journals and academic books

5. Literature review
Telecommunication sector in India: Telecommunication is an array of technology that sends information over a long distance; they have such as satellite, mobile, landlines. There are many big domestic as well as multinational players in Indian telecommunication market like Airtel, Idea, BSNL, Vodafone and Tata Indicom but the largest market share owned by private companies Page 3

Business Research
near 85% The total numbers of telephone and mobile subscriber have reach out up to 282.67 million at the end of January 2009 in India .

What is advertising?
Advertising is an important tool that helps to market the product, service and idea by means of newspaper, magazines, television, internet and they can also be found in play ground, back of the bus, in stores. It is a communication force which is visible and most important way of marketing communication. Most of the companies consider advertisement expenses as the future investment (Kotler & Keller, 2008).

Managing advertisement decision:

Advertisements play a vital role for any type of business whether it is small or large company but we can say that there are different skills and effort needed for large or multinational companies. They have to establish separate R&D department for different country by keeping in mind their demographic, geographic and culture factors. They have to take decision whether they should establish separate selling and advertisement department or done by outside advertisement companies (Kotler & Keller, 2008).

Type of advertising:
Product oriented advertising: In this type of advertisement company advertise their product, idea or service. The main object of it is to convey the message to consumers about product or service and attract them to sell or use the product and service.

Image and advocacy advertising: In this type of advertising company does advertising to make its image among customers. Company provides information about its employees, profit, infrastructure and share price. Firstly Vodafone used this advertisement by their Pug advertisement campaign.

Page 4

Business Research
Public service advertising: Mostly these types of advertisements are done by nonprofit organizations and the government such as Polio drops, AIDS, consumer protection (Kotler & Keller, 2008).

Advantages and disadvantages of advertisement:

There are a lot of advantages of advertising. Firstly it gives information about the product, organization and service. It helps large number of people to provide information in a short period of time. Secondly it creates a brand image among the public, sometime the slogan line of the product struck in people mind. Advertisement encourages innovation and the development of a new product it gives the investment and job opportunities. Last but not the least it helps in increasing the growth of the media 60 % of magazines revenue, 70% of newspapers revenue comes from advertisement (Kenneth & Baack, 2007).

However there are some issues which cause for the downfall of the advertisement they are social and economy issues. In social issue our culture, lifestyle includes sometimes when the foreign company thought of expanding their business to a new country they should think of changing the advertisement too. When the advertisement is not according to the culture there might be a bad thought among people mind. It also increases the market price of the product. (Onkvisit & John, 2000)

Displaying ads is the most non classified ads which include TV and it could be found on the news paper, magazines and internet. Vodafone is using displaying ad to create brand image and to promote their product. They follow national advertising in India which will be undertaken by the marketer of branded product. In fact it conveys a mass marketing effort, the goal of national advertising is to inform consumer about a company. (Kotler & Keller, 2008)

Page 5

Business Research
6. Methodology
We are using questionnaire for collecting primary data and websites, journal for secondary data. We follow descriptive research methodology to complete this report.

7. Sampling
The sampling technique that chose is simple random sampling. The group that we choose is students and a Vodafone senior distributor at district level in Haryana. About 144 villages and town comes under him or in other way he provides Vodafone simcards and service alone to near 144 villages and towns and near 72 salesmen work under him. The characteristics are stated below.

Target sampling Students, post graduated and Vodafone senior distributor Target size 30 Qualification pursuing MBA Gender male, female Income level < 10,000 rupees Status single, married Age 20-30

8. Data sources
In this data source we have used both the primary source and secondary sources, in order to gather primary source we use questionnaire and interview method. And for secondary source we reviewed journal article and relevant websites.

9. Justification
We have chosen descriptive research method because we want to know the attitude of the consumer towards the Vodafone advertisement. We did not choose exploratory research because our research question was clearly defined.

Page 6

Business Research
For sampling we have chosen simple random sampling because we wanted to get the feedback from different age group consumer how they feel about Vodafone advertisement.

We have chosen questionnaire because it is easy to analyze, it is less disturbing when compared to face to face survey or telephone survey and it is familiar to most of the people which reduces the nervous among them. Using questionnaire we will find out how the customer feel about Vodafone advertisement. We wanted to even know what made the Vodafone to change their advertisement strategy and how was the business after using the new advertisement, so we have chosen interview method which allows us to have a direct respond from people who have telecommunication store and dealer of Vodafone.

Page 7

Business Research
10. Questionnaire
1. How many times have you watched Vodafone advertisement in a day? (a) Never (b) 1-3 times (c) More than 3 times

2. Which one do you prefer? (a) Pug (b) Zoozoo

3. What do you think about Vodafone advertisement? (a) Is it just entertainment (b) does it gave any information about the product

4. Have you ever mentioned Vodafone advertisement to someone? (a) Yes (b) No

5. How memorable did you find the Vodafone advertisement? (a) Memorable (b) Undecided (c) Not memorable

6. Does the advertisement made you to change your mobile connection? (a) Yes (b) No

7. Did you find that the advertisement is creative? (a) creative (c) Not creative

8. How would you rate this Vodafone advertisement? (a) Excellent (b) Fair (c) Poor Page 8

Business Research
9. Based on advertisements made by company, would you like to go for connection for you or your family in future? a) Yes b) No c) Not decided

10. Which telecommunication company has good advertising strategy? a) Air Tel b) Vodafone c) Any other

Page 9

Business Research
11. Findings
Primary research In this research we are including the data that we got from questionnaire.

1. How many times have you watched Vodafone advertisement in a day?

7%

33%

60%

never 1-3 times more than 3 times

2. Which one do you prefer?

37%

63%

pug zoozoo

Page 10

Business Research

3. What do you think about Vodafone advertisement?

27%

73%

is it just entertainment does it give inf ormation about the product

4. Have you ever mentioned Vodafone advertisement to someone?

30%

70%

yes

no

Page 11

Business Research

5. How memorable did you find the Vodafone advertisement?

27%

50%

memorable 23% undecided not memorable

6. Does the advertisement made you to change your mobile connection?

40%

60%

yes no

Page 12

Business Research

7. Did you find that the advertisement is creative?

7%

creative 93% not creative

8. How would you rate this Vodafone advertisement?

10%

23%

67% excellent fair poor

Page 13

Business Research
9. Based on advertisements made by company, would you like to go for connection for you or your family in future?

30%

43%

Yes 27% No Not decided

10. Which telecommunication company has good advertising strategy?

17%

33%

Air Tel 50% Vodaf one Any other

Page 14

Business Research
Secondary research A period of six months ago Vodafone briefed Ogilvy agency in India to create some uncommon characters, the starting point was that the character should be simple which lead to the born of Zoozoo. During the first Indian premier league (IPL) Vodafone have unveiled the happy to help series. During the second season it has brought a new character called Zoozoo, which conveys the value added service offering of Vodafone in their newly released commercial. They made 25 such adds, among them 10 was already on air. The rest were aimed of release of one per day to sustain till the end of IPL.

The chief marketing officer of Vodafone Mr. Harit Nagpal said that we are getting many customers but a large number of them dont know the extra service that we offer for example phone backup. During this second season of IPL we planned to spend four months worth of marketing money in just one month, so we choose not to just do one or two add but twenty five ads. Which actually make the viewer feel boring watching the same add again and again. (Brand report, 2009)

At first there was a dog in hutch campaign it has survived $19 billion buyout. And it become so popular that peoples started having that breed of dogs called pugs. Now its the nutty and entirely little men in white called Zoozoo, which is one of the main broadcasts of IPL. The company has spent about Rs 250 crore on ads across mediums. During the first ten days of IPL, the viewers number reached 89 million, its higher compare to 70 million viewers last year. (Buisnessline, 2009)

Due to Zoozoo advertisement Vodafone has won the glitter box award by PETA (people for ethical treatment for animals) this award is given to the business that use human instead of using real animals in their advertisement. Zoozoo became so popular because it conveys a message without using an animal. Animal used in films are often treated as more than props according to Anuradha Sawhney who is the shief functionary of PETA. This Zoozoo replaces the older add of using pug in their advertisement, which actually made this pug free now. (Business standard, 2009)

Page 15

Business Research
12. Analysis and interpretation

When Hutch started visual advertising, they started with unique campaign compare to other telecommunication companies such as where Airtels brand ambassadors are bollywood famous actors and singer like AR Rahman, Madhvan, Saif Ali Khan and actress Karenna Kapoor, Vidha Balan and in the same way they sponsored cricket players like Idea cellular does but Hutch used a small child and a pug in a very simple way. In a short time it made a strong brand image in India with their slogan Wherever you go our network follows and it increased their sale as well as profit. It also helped them to get more money from Vodafone at acquiring time. But soon Vodafone stopped the pug campaign advertisement while it was working well and started with new campaign Happy to help service which did not work and had negative effect on brand image but soon they found the way to become again popular among people and regain their market share by introducing most effective and unique advertisement campaign Zoozoo campaign.

Page 16

Business Research

When we asked questions and collected data, we found that Zoozoo campaign is the most effective and successful advertisement strategy used by Vodafone and it helped them to increased their sales, profit and built strong brand image. When we asked how many time in a day you watch the Zoozoo advertisement, we got positive response from them. They told at least 8-10 times in a day especially at night time when IPL matches were going on. As we know people are passionate about cricket in India so we found that their strategy was to target those people who like cricket and by cricket they reached out a vast number of people. They released thirty different advertisements during IPL-2 and they had contract with Sat-Max to show advertisement up to 300 seconds in a day in-between an IPL match and they paid 2 lakh Rs. Per minute and 12 lakh Rs. per minute during final match. Vodafone also was the one of the biggest sponsors of IPL-2. They promoted their service and made positive brand image between people. So, consider these all points, we can say that Vodafone used effective advertisement strategy. Secondly, when we asked which advertisement do you prefer Pug or Zoozoo: most of people told they like Zoozoo advertisement because in Pug advertisement campaign Vodafone main concern was inform people about their network. They never try to inform consumer about their service, offer and scheme which they provide but in Zoozoo Page 17

Business Research
advertisement campaign Vodafone inform consumers which type of service they provide, about talk time value, STD call rates and other services such as GPRS, stock, live cricket score. By using animated cartoon which behave like human and show them using services Vodafone try to attract consumers emotionally. Many people switch off from other mobile services and started using Vodafone. We found that Zoozoo is not a source of entertainment, they are very effective tools to provide information and increase sale and make positive brand image. We had interview also with Vodafone senior distributor in Haryana, Mr. Mahesh Goyal. He told that we distribute Zoozoo posters and Zoozoo t-shirt to small retail store and to customers in small villages who buy new sim-card and use Vodafone. In villages we have met many people who are not so literate, come to store and they do not know the name of Vodafone but by Zoozoo poster they demand for services and use it because they have seen the advertisement. We have not seen huge change in sale but it helps to sustain present customers.

13. Conclusion
At last, consider all these points we would like to say that Vodafone is using simple but unique and effective advertisement strategy compare to other telecommunication companies in India. Their advertisement strategy in India is totally different from England and other countries. Where football is famous in England in the same way they know cricket is considered as religion in India. So they targeted people through huge advertising during IPL. They use indoor like TV, radio and internet as well as outdoor sources like posters, pamphlets, billboards in playgrounds and many others for advertisement. We also have found that Zoozoo advertisement campaign is most effective campaign compare to Pug and Happy to help service campaign because of its way of making and giving information to customers. In the same way, we learnt that how to do business research, how to collect relevant data, how to sampling and how to analysis the fact. Through this report we have clear idea that how to make an academic report. It helped us also to enhance our knowledge about how a company does effective advertising, how they make different advertisement strategy for Page 18

Business Research
different area, how they segment the market and targeting. Whatever we mentioned above our objective, almost we found and completed.

14. Recommendation
During sampling we have found that many people felt difficulty to understand these advertisements because as we know these are nonverbal advertisements. They do not speak anything. By their body language we have to understand what massage they want to convey to us. So if Vodafone use verbal advertisement then it would be more effective for both consumers as well as for company.

Page 19

Business Research
References Kotler, P. & Keller, K. (2008).Marketing Management (13th ed).New Delhi: Prentice Hall of India Kothari. (2004), Research methodology (2nd edition). New age international private limited. New Delhi

Kenneth, E., Baack, D. (2007). Integrated advertising promotion and marketing communication (3rd edition). Dorling Kindersley India private limited. New Delhi Lawrence, W. (2006). Social research method (6th edition). Dorling Kindersley pvt limited. New Delhi Onkvisit, S. , John, J. (2000). International marketing analysis & strategy (3rd edition). Dorling Kindersley private limited. New Delhi Saunders, M., lewis, P., Thornhill, A. (2003). Research method for business student (3rd edition). Dorling Kindersley private limited. New Delhi

About Vodafone. Retrieved on 20th may 2009. http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/industry_sectors/telecoms/article1368947.e

About Vodafone. Retrieved on 20th may 2009. http://www.capitaline.com/user/framepage.asp?id=1 About Invasion of Zoozoo on 15th May 2009 Joshi, D. (2009). Invasion of Zoozoo, Brand Report Magazine ( May,2009). volume no. 20 Retrieved on 28th may 2009 about Zoozoo. http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/2009/05/01/stories/2009050150721300.htm

Page 20

Business Research
Retrieved on 28th may 2009 about Zoozoo achievements. http://www.business-standard.com/india/news/vodafone%5Cs-%5Czoozoo%5C-ad-winspeta-award/62522/on

About Telecom Regulatory Authority of India http://www.trai.gov.in/Default.asp

Page 21