STRATEGIC BRANDING AS A TOOL FOR ENHANCING COMPANY'S COMPETITIVENESS IN FAST CHANGING BUSINESS ENVIRONMENT CASE STUDY OF VODAFONE ROMANIA (Dissertation Sample)

STRATEGIC BRANDING AS A TOOL FOR ENHANCING COMPANY’S COMPETITIVENESS IN FAST CHANGING BUSINESS ENVIRONMENT. CASE STUDY OF VODAFONE ROMANIA CONTENT ABSTRACT CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION Purpose of the work and Research Objectives Value of the study. Background of the study. Competitive theoretical framework. The concept and strategies of competitiveness improvement. 1.3.2.1.Ansoff”s Matrix. 1.3.2.2.Porter’s Approach 1.3.2.3. McKinsey 7s Model 1.4.Tools 1.5.Brand creation process. Chapter II. 2.1 Co-Branding as a form of Strategic Branding. 2.2.Brand Effectiveness Evaluation Methods 2.3.The world experience of “ Brand Effect” Chapter III. 3.1.How Customer Experience impacts the Brand 3.1.1.Elelements of customer Experience 3.1.2.Managing Customer Experience 3.1.3.Strategies and tools for enhancing Customer Experience Chapter IV 4.1.Vodafone Romania company’s profile 4.2.Brands in Romanian mobile telecommunication sector 4.3.Features of Re-Branding in telecommunication sector 4.4.Vodafone Competitiveness evaluation Conclusions References, Annexes CHAPTER I Introduction Over the past decades, we have observed a sharp increase in the volume of information, which is associated with the growing pace of science and technology development, the emergence of new technologies and their rapid replacement. The markets for raw materials and products facing new business realities that requires constant monitoring of the market, its changes, and its development trends. It is necessary to be able to foresee the further development of the situation and to be ready to change strategy, style of activity and maybe even production technology for the fastest adaptation to new external conditions. In context of the dynamic mobile telecommunications market development and complexity of its infrastructure, information and technology become an important factor of competitiveness and means of increasing efficiency for any enterprise. In order to survive in modern conditions, companies must constantly adapt to fast changing business environment, so it will be able to: Meet changing customer requirements Not to give in to competitors in a highly competitive environment Improve internal processes and expand the range of goods and services Firstly develop business processes, which are oriented to fulfill the customer expectations But this kind of adaptation became a big issue nowadays, and even market leaders suffer major seatbacks. Harvard Business School Professor Clayton Christen in his book “The innovator’s dilemma: when new technologies cause great firms to fail “, has chronicling how innovation takes place, reveals the reasons of market leaders fail as technologies and industries change, and suggest the measures to secure the market leadership. Christensen also makes a distinction between "disruptive" and "sustaining" innovations, which may become crucial for the business In era of high technologies, company’s owners and managers dream to predict the winners in race for innovative growth. In competitive fights some look at the attributes of the companies involved, other consider the attributes of the change, but nobody can know in advance which growth strategy would succeed and which would fail. When the million of questions arise, some answers may be found in researches. 1.1. Purpose of the work and Research Objectives The purpose of this work is to reveal strategic branding as a tool for Improvement of Company’s competitiveness in conditions of fast changing business environment of mobile telecommunication sector. To achieve this goal, the following tasks must be performed: To define the specific of the “competition” notion and strategies to increase the competitiveness of organization Consider tools to improve the company competitiveness To understand the formation of the brand as a factor in increasing the competitiveness of the organization To characterize the strategic branding and re-branding and its strategies To determine methods for evaluating the effectiveness of the brands To indicate the ways in which customer experience has impact to the brand To trace the world experience of the influence of brands on the competitiveness of the organization Assess the company competitiveness Consider brands in the mobile telecommunication sector To study the peculiarities of Re-Branding in mobile telecommunications sphere Assess competitiveness of chosen company at Romanian telecommunication market Thus, the subject of this study is the elements of strategic approaches to brand promotion at various levels of the mobile telecommunications market with the aim of increasing competitiveness. The Object of research is the principles of strategic branding, as exemplified by Vodafone Romania in order to increase its competitiveness on Romanian market. 1.2. Value of the study. The study might be of value to existing and future owners and managers working in Romanian mobile telecommunications industry to use appropriate strategies for their companies in order to adjust business and enhance competitive advantage and performance of the company. It’s also would highlight on the major strategic branding practices crucial for survival and development. The study would be a source of reference material for future researches on the topic, demonstrating the practice of the company from another perspective. 1.3. The background of the study. Working in telecommunication sector I had a chance to witness the great stories of success as well as fails of different companies. In this work I will take a successful example of company’s entry to Romanian market and phases of re-branding it went through, analyze behavior, strategies and decisions taken to understand better “do’s” and “don’ts” in today’s mobile telecommunication business. 1.3.1. Competitive theoretical framework. As we know, competition is driving force of the market and the source of additional funds for the company’s investment activities, which generates a competitive environment. Each enterprise, regardless of the sphere of market economy it operates in, faces a certain competitive environment, and invariably influenced by its factors in different ways. Some companies in telecommunication industry offer new products to the market, but they are not able to provide a sustainable competitive advantage. For instance, the company has only the product, but there are no other components for competitive advantage. Their sales systems do not match to the goods sold or to the required level of services. When the market is not segmented enough, their marketing efforts turn to be not directed, and company simply fails in fast changing conditions of competition and sales. Changes in the external environment have an effect on firms, forcing them to change their behavior, adapt to external changes and continue to support them. In order to adjust to the constantly changing competitive environment, one has to clearly understand the concept of competitiveness and the ways of improvement, which we consider below. 1.3.2. The concept and strategies for competitiveness improvement. In general sense, competitiveness is perceived as a rivalry between individuals and /or businesses, interested in achieving the same goal. For the company, competitiveness is a comparative measure, which expresses the differences in own development from the development of competitive company (in terms of the satisfaction of their goods with the people needs, and the efficiency of production activities) Competitiveness is closely related to presence of “competitive advantage”-term introduced by Michael Porter in his studies. Conform to author; competitive advantage grows out of value a firm is able to create for its buyers that exceed the firm’s cost of creating it. (Porter, 1985) In 1979 Michael Porter has introduced the framework, analyzing drivers in industry competition (Porter’s 5 Forces Model), which was considered to be the ultimate tool. Porters definition of competitive advantage is focused on customers and corporative value and later on, some researchers were arguing about weaknesses of the model and others were stating that it doesn’t take into account all company’s relations with industry determinants. Taking to account information above, we can consider competitive advantage as a relative term, which depends on the external environment of the company. As it was mentioned earlier in this paper, innovation plays a vast role in gaining competitive advantage, especially when it comes to innovation-mediated industry as telecommunications, where it became one of the main competition drivers. Today, enterprises are struggling for a more profitable market position, try to choose competitive strategies that can hardly be simulated and change the strategies from time to time in order to improve current position or to protect their advantages. In current reality company’s opportunities and dynamics of adaptation to conditions of market competition are characterized by its competitiveness. But still, is not enough just to be market leader to gain sustainable competitive advantage. Very few companies can create a sustainable competitive advantage, because it takes clear goals, values and strategies. Let’s make a clear difference when talking about strategies. In organization, term “strategy “is used on three different levels: corporative, functional and business. Either company wants to run business on a long term, maximize the profits or deliver customer value; it will need a strong corporate strategy. Thus, Corporate Strategy - is qualitatively defined long-term direction of the organization’s development, which concerns values, the scope, means and forms of its activities, the system of relationship within organization, as well as position in the environment, leading the organization to its goals. Functional Strategies are or...