Vodafone: How to Attract Millennials to the Prepaid Market (Condensed) SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
Sales & Marketing
Strategy / MBA Resources
Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of Vodafone: How to Attract Millennials to the Prepaid Market (Condensed)
On the morning of October 29, 2015, social media was abuzz. It could have been a normal day, but when singer Justin Bieber walked out on the radio show Yu: no te pierdas nada, it was an unexpected and unprecedented moment.The interview already had 200,000 visits on YouTube 18 hours after its recording and the Vodafone Yu marketing team tried to do some damage control. Although Pedro had several things in mind, there were priorities that needed to be addressed. His team had been thinking about hiring an Instagrammer, hoping that the brand's communication campaign could keep up the success it had achieved, which also meant rethinking the media mix.
Swot Analysis of "Vodafone: How to Attract Millennials to the Prepaid Market (Condensed)" written by Julian Villanueva, Pilar Soldado includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Yu Vodafone facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Vodafone: How to Attract Millennials to the Prepaid Market (Condensed) case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, and Sales & Marketing.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Vodafone: How to Attract Millennials to the Prepaid Market (Condensed) casestudy better are - – wage bills are increasing, increasing commodity prices, central banks are concerned over increasing inflation, increasing transportation and logistics costs, increasing government debt because of Covid-19 spendings, increasing energy prices, cloud computing is disrupting traditional business models,
increasing inequality as vast percentage of new income is going to the top 1%, supply chains are disrupted by pandemic , etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Vodafone: How to Attract Millennials to the Prepaid Market (Condensed)
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Vodafone: How to Attract Millennials to the Prepaid Market (Condensed) case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Yu Vodafone, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Yu Vodafone operates in.
According to Harvard Business Review, 75% of the managers use SWOT analysis for various purposes such as – evaluating current scenario, strategic planning, new venture feasibility, personal growth goals, new market entry, Go To market strategies, portfolio management and strategic trade-off assessment, organizational restructuring, etc.
SWOT Objectives / Importance of SWOT Analysis and SWOT Matrix
SWOT analysis of Vodafone: How to Attract Millennials to the Prepaid Market (Condensed) can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Vodafone: How to Attract Millennials to the Prepaid Market (Condensed) case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Yu Vodafone
3. Assessing feasibility of the new initiative in Sales & Marketing field.
4. Making a Sales & Marketing topic specific business decision
5. Set goals for the organization
6. Organizational restructuring of Yu Vodafone
Strengths Vodafone: How to Attract Millennials to the Prepaid Market (Condensed) | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Yu Vodafone in Vodafone: How to Attract Millennials to the Prepaid Market (Condensed) Harvard Business Review case study are -
Learning organization
- Yu Vodafone is a learning organization. It has inculcated three key characters of learning organization in its processes and operations – exploration, creativity, and expansiveness. The work place at Yu Vodafone is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders in Vodafone: How to Attract Millennials to the Prepaid Market (Condensed) Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Yu Vodafone in the sector have low bargaining power. Vodafone: How to Attract Millennials to the Prepaid Market (Condensed) has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Yu Vodafone to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Diverse revenue streams
– Yu Vodafone is present in almost all the verticals within the industry. This has provided firm in Vodafone: How to Attract Millennials to the Prepaid Market (Condensed) case study a diverse revenue stream that has helped it to survive disruptions such as global pandemic in Covid-19, financial disruption of 2008, and supply chain disruption of 2021.
Training and development
– Yu Vodafone has one of the best training and development program in the industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in Vodafone: How to Attract Millennials to the Prepaid Market (Condensed) Harvard Business Review case study by analyzing – employees retention, in-house promotion, loyalty, new venture initiation, lack of conflict, and high level of both employees and customer engagement.
Innovation driven organization
– Yu Vodafone is one of the most innovative firm in sector. Manager in Vodafone: How to Attract Millennials to the Prepaid Market (Condensed) Harvard Business Review case study can use Clayton Christensen Disruptive Innovation strategies to further increase the scale of innovtions in the organization.
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of Yu Vodafone in the segment is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
High brand equity
– Yu Vodafone has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Yu Vodafone to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Successful track record of launching new products
– Yu Vodafone has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Yu Vodafone has effective processes in place that helps in exploring new product needs, doing quick pilot testing, and then launching the products quickly using its extensive distribution network.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Sales & Marketing industry
– Vodafone: How to Attract Millennials to the Prepaid Market (Condensed) firm has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Yu Vodafone to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Sales & Marketing industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Yu Vodafone to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Strong track record of project management
– Yu Vodafone is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Yu Vodafone has innovation driven culture where significant part of the revenues are spent on the research and development activities. This has resulted in, as mentioned in case study Vodafone: How to Attract Millennials to the Prepaid Market (Condensed) - staying ahead in the industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Yu Vodafone are driving operational speed, building greater agility, and keeping the organization nimble to compete with new competitors. It helps are organization to ideate new ideas, and execute them swiftly in the marketplace.
Weaknesses Vodafone: How to Attract Millennials to the Prepaid Market (Condensed) | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Vodafone: How to Attract Millennials to the Prepaid Market (Condensed) are -
Employees’ incomplete understanding of strategy
– From the instances in the HBR case study Vodafone: How to Attract Millennials to the Prepaid Market (Condensed), it seems that the employees of Yu Vodafone don’t have comprehensive understanding of the firm’s strategy. This is reflected in number of promotional campaigns over the last few years that had mixed messaging and competing priorities. Some of the strategic activities and services promoted in the promotional campaigns were not consistent with the organization’s strategy.
High bargaining power of channel partners
– Because of the regulatory requirements, Julian Villanueva, Pilar Soldado suggests that, Yu Vodafone is facing high bargaining power of the channel partners. So far it has not able to streamline the operations to reduce the bargaining power of the value chain partners in the industry.
Aligning sales with marketing
– It come across in the case study Vodafone: How to Attract Millennials to the Prepaid Market (Condensed) that the firm needs to have more collaboration between its sales team and marketing team. Sales professionals in the industry have deep experience in developing customer relationships. Marketing department in the case Vodafone: How to Attract Millennials to the Prepaid Market (Condensed) can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Yu Vodafone is planning to shift buying processes online.
Slow to harness new channels of communication
– Even though competitors are using new communication channels such as Instagram, Tiktok, and Snap, Yu Vodafone is slow explore the new channels of communication. These new channels of communication mentioned in marketing section of case study Vodafone: How to Attract Millennials to the Prepaid Market (Condensed) can help to provide better information regarding products and services. It can also build an online community to further reach out to potential customers.
Ability to respond to the competition
– As the decision making is very deliberative, highlighted in the case study Vodafone: How to Attract Millennials to the Prepaid Market (Condensed), in the dynamic environment Yu Vodafone has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. Yu Vodafone has reasonably good record with similar level competitors but it has struggled with new entrants taking away niches of its business.
No frontier risks strategy
– After analyzing the HBR case study Vodafone: How to Attract Millennials to the Prepaid Market (Condensed), it seems that company is thinking about the frontier risks that can impact Sales & Marketing strategy. But it has very little resources allocation to manage the risks emerging from events such as natural disasters, climate change, melting of permafrost, tacking the rise of artificial intelligence, opportunities and threats emerging from commercialization of space etc.
Need for greater diversity
– Yu Vodafone has taken concrete steps on diversity, equity, and inclusion. But the efforts so far has resulted in limited success. It needs to expand the recruitment and selection process to hire more people from the minorities and underprivileged background.
Low market penetration in new markets
– Outside its home market of Yu Vodafone, firm in the HBR case study Vodafone: How to Attract Millennials to the Prepaid Market (Condensed) needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.
High dependence on existing supply chain
– The disruption in the global supply chains because of the Covid-19 pandemic and blockage of the Suez Canal illustrated the fragile nature of Yu Vodafone supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes mentioned in the HBR case study - Vodafone: How to Attract Millennials to the Prepaid Market (Condensed), it is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left Yu Vodafone vulnerable to further global disruptions in South East Asia.
Products dominated business model
– Even though Yu Vodafone has some of the most successful products in the industry, this business model has made each new product launch extremely critical for continuous financial growth of the organization. firm in the HBR case study - Vodafone: How to Attract Millennials to the Prepaid Market (Condensed) should strive to include more intangible value offerings along with its core products and services.
Interest costs
– Compare to the competition, Yu Vodafone has borrowed money from the capital market at higher rates. It needs to restructure the interest payment and costs so that it can compete better and improve profitability.
Opportunities Vodafone: How to Attract Millennials to the Prepaid Market (Condensed) | External Strategic Factors
What are Opportunities in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The opportunities highlighted in the Harvard Business Review case study Vodafone: How to Attract Millennials to the Prepaid Market (Condensed) are -
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Yu Vodafone can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Yu Vodafone operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Sales & Marketing sector.
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Yu Vodafone in the field of marketing communication. It will bring down the cost of doing business, provide technology platform to build new products in the Sales & Marketing segment, and it will provide faster access to the consumers.
Manufacturing automation
– Yu Vodafone can use the latest technology developments to improve its manufacturing and designing process in Sales & Marketing segment. It can use CAD and 3D printing to build a quick prototype and pilot testing products. It can leverage automation using machine learning and artificial intelligence to do faster production at lowers costs, and it can leverage the growth in satellite and tracking technologies to improve inventory management, transportation, and shipping.
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Yu Vodafone to conduct training and development for its employees across the world. This will result in not only reducing the cost of training but also help employees in different part of the world to integrate with the headquarter work culture, ethos, and standards.
Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains
– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Yu Vodafone can build a diversified supply chain model across various countries in - South East Asia, India, and other parts of the world. This reconfiguration of global supply chain can help, as suggested in case study, Vodafone: How to Attract Millennials to the Prepaid Market (Condensed), to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.
Finding new ways to collaborate
– Covid-19 has not only transformed business models of companies in Sales & Marketing industry, but it has also influenced the consumer preferences. Yu Vodafone can tie-up with other value chain partners to explore new opportunities regarding meeting customer demands and building a rewarding and engaging relationship.
Changes in consumer behavior post Covid-19
– Consumer behavior has changed in the Sales & Marketing industry because of Covid-19 restrictions. Some of this behavior will stay once things get back to normal. Yu Vodafone can take advantage of these changes in consumer behavior to build a far more efficient business model. For example consumer regular ordering of products can reduce both last mile delivery costs and market penetration costs. Yu Vodafone can further use this consumer data to build better customer loyalty, provide better products and service collection, and improve the value proposition in inflationary times.
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, Yu Vodafone is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. Vodafone: How to Attract Millennials to the Prepaid Market (Condensed) case study suggests that firm can utilize new technology to build more coordinated teams and streamline operations and communications using tools such as CAD, Zoom, etc.
Leveraging digital technologies
– Yu Vodafone can leverage digital technologies such as artificial intelligence and machine learning to automate the production process, customer analytics to get better insights into consumer behavior, realtime digital dashboards to get better sales tracking, logistics and transportation, product tracking, etc.
Use of Bitcoin and other crypto currencies for transactions
– The popularity of Bitcoin and other crypto currencies as asset class and medium of transaction has opened new opportunities for Yu Vodafone in the consumer business. Now Yu Vodafone can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.
Reconfiguring business model
– The expansion of digital payment system, the bringing down of international transactions costs using Bitcoin and other blockchain based currencies, etc can help Yu Vodafone to reconfigure its entire business model. For example it can used blockchain based technologies to reduce piracy of its products in the big markets such as China. Secondly it can use the popularity of e-commerce in various developing markets to build a Direct to Customer business model rather than the current Channel Heavy distribution network.
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Yu Vodafone can still utilize the low interest rates to borrow money for capital investment. Secondly it can also use the increase of government spending in infrastructure projects to get new business.
Developing new processes and practices
– Yu Vodafone can develop new processes and procedures in Sales & Marketing industry using technology such as automation using artificial intelligence, real time transportation and products tracking, 3D modeling for concept development and new products pilot testing etc.
Threats Vodafone: How to Attract Millennials to the Prepaid Market (Condensed) External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Vodafone: How to Attract Millennials to the Prepaid Market (Condensed) are -
Instability in the European markets
– European Union markets are facing three big challenges post Covid – expanded balance sheets, Brexit related business disruption, and aggressive Russia looking to distract the existing security mechanism. Yu Vodafone will face different problems in different parts of Europe. For example it will face inflationary pressures in UK, France, and Germany, balance sheet expansion and demand challenges in Southern European countries, and geopolitical instability in the Eastern Europe.
Technology disruption because of hacks, piracy etc
– The colonial pipeline illustrated, how vulnerable modern organization are to international hackers, miscreants, and disruptors. The cyber security interruption, data leaks, etc can seriously jeopardize the future growth of the organization.
Capital market disruption
– During the Covid-19, Dow Jones has touched record high. The valuations of a number of companies are way beyond their existing business model potential. This can lead to capital market correction which can put a number of suppliers, collaborators, value chain partners in great financial difficulty. It will directly impact the business of Yu Vodafone.
Aging population
– As the populations of most advanced economies are aging, it will lead to high social security costs, higher savings among population, and lower demand for goods and services in the economy. The household savings in US, France, UK, Germany, and Japan are growing faster than predicted because of uncertainty caused by pandemic.
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Yu Vodafone is facing in Sales & Marketing sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
Easy access to finance
– Easy access to finance in Sales & Marketing field will also reduce the barriers to entry in the industry, thus putting downward pressure on the prices because of increasing competition. Yu Vodafone can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
High level of anxiety and lack of motivation
– the Great Resignation in United States is the sign of broader dissatisfaction among the workforce in United States. Yu Vodafone needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Sales & Marketing industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
Environmental challenges
– Yu Vodafone needs to have a robust strategy against the disruptions arising from climate change and energy requirements. EU has identified it as key priority area and spending 30% of its 880 billion Euros European post Covid-19 recovery funds on green technology. Yu Vodafone can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Sales & Marketing industry.
Backlash against dominant players
– US Congress and other legislative arms of the government are getting tough on big business especially technology companies. The digital arm of Yu Vodafone business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Yu Vodafone high dependence on third party suppliers can disrupt its processes and delivery mechanism. For example -the current troubles of car makers because of chip shortage is because the chip companies started producing chips for electronic companies rather than car manufacturers.
Increasing wage structure of Yu Vodafone
– Post Covid-19 there is a sharp increase in the wages especially in the jobs that require interaction with people. The increasing wages can put downward pressure on the margins of Yu Vodafone.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, as highlighted in case study Vodafone: How to Attract Millennials to the Prepaid Market (Condensed), Yu Vodafone may face longer learning curve for training and development of existing employees. This can open space for more nimble competitors in the field of Sales & Marketing .
Regulatory challenges
– Yu Vodafone needs to prepare for regulatory challenges as consumer protection groups and other pressure groups are vigorously advocating for more regulations on big business - to reduce inequality, to create a level playing field, to product data privacy and consumer privacy, to reduce the influence of big money on democratic institutions, etc. This can lead to significant changes in the Sales & Marketing industry regulations.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Vodafone: How to Attract Millennials to the Prepaid Market (Condensed) Template, Example
Not all factors mentioned under the Strengths, Weakness, Opportunities, and Threats quadrants in the SWOT Analysis are equal. Managers in the HBR case study Vodafone: How to Attract Millennials to the Prepaid Market (Condensed) needs to zero down on the relative importance of each factor mentioned in the Strengths, Weakness, Opportunities, and Threats quadrants.
We can provide the relative importance to each factor by assigning relative weights. Weighted SWOT analysis process is a three stage process –
First stage for doing weighted SWOT analysis of the case study Vodafone: How to Attract Millennials to the Prepaid Market (Condensed) is to rank the strengths and weaknesses of the organization. This will help you to assess the most important strengths and weaknesses of the firm and which one of the strengths and weaknesses mentioned in the initial lists are marginal and can be left out.
Second stage for conducting weighted SWOT analysis of the Harvard case study Vodafone: How to Attract Millennials to the Prepaid Market (Condensed) is to give probabilities to the external strategic factors thus better understanding the opportunities and threats arising out of macro environment changes and developments.
Third stage of constructing weighted SWOT analysis of Vodafone: How to Attract Millennials to the Prepaid Market (Condensed) is to provide strategic recommendations includes – joining likelihood of external strategic factors such as opportunities and threats to the internal strategic factors – strengths and weaknesses. You should start with external factors as they will provide the direction of the overall industry. Secondly by joining probabilities with internal strategic factors can help the company not only strategic fit but also the most probably strategic trade-off that Yu Vodafone needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.