Report on Marketing Management of Telstra Corporation Limited

Question: Discuss about theMarketing Management of Telstra Corporation Limited. Answer: Introduction Marketing Management is a process that defines overseeing and planning new development for products, advertising, sales and promotion (Cant, M, Strydom, J and Jooste, C, 2009). It means to create an advertising plan and implement the same. The heart of a business lies in its marketing plan (Kotler, P, 2013). Without marketing it becomes difficult for the company to survive in the market, sales may crash and the company may have to stop its business activities (Kotler, P and Keller, K, 2016). This report is based on Telstra Corporation Limited and its Marketing Management Strategies. It is Australias largest telecommunication company. It has an image of a dominant player in the market due to its marketing and branding strategies. In the report it clearly defines the importance of marketing management and the way to implement such marketing strategies. Telstra adopted Defensive marketing to be its management strategy due to which they were able to predict the potential consumers and their wants (Roberts, J, 2005). This strategy is the most effective one as the company was able to establish defensive plans before any other rival industry could do that. Current Market Position of Telstras Telecommunication services The current market position of Telstras products and services is strongly dominating in the market; it is dominating the entire Australian market of telecommunication and holds over 62% market shares by revenue (Lancaster, H and Harpur, P, 2015). The market share of the company is though declining in the broadband sector; still the company has been able to retain its dominance in various other sectors such as in mobile voice and data related segments. Currently, they have invested in network upgrades and are the first launcher of mobile data services. They are the first player in the market for the launch of such services and are easily being able to reap the advantages by performing well and reaching to attract more customers. The services of telecommunication offered by Telstra are based on a robust, ubiquitous and affordable infrastructure that can help the company to move to next stage. We know that the world is very brave in accepting the internet media. The company is leading in the industrial sector by adopting innovation and taking up new business opportunities. Telstra is not only financially strong but also has a well position in the digital and network market. The company is successful in transforming itself into a full service ICT company. It is considered as the most superior service provider in the market. SWOT Analysis of Telstra Corporation Limited Telstras SWOT Analysis provides a strategic plan of the companys business and operations. (Ferrell, O and Hartline, M, 2010). The SWOT analysis gives an overview of the position of the company (Pahl, N and Richter, A, 2009). The view of the companys strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats has been mentioned below: Strengths: Telstra is successful in reducing the labour cost. It has a dominate position in the market because of its high profitability and revenue (Zhao, Fang, 2006). It has no barriers of market entry because the name of the company has earned a good reputation in the market in the past years. This reduces the barriers to entry in a new market. The existing distribution process is an efficient one and customers shows high satisfaction for the services that has been availed through such distribution channels. The company can manage to increase the value of the money of their customers. It has been able to install their website and having stores throughout the globe. Telstra is carrying out many promotional programs and events to maintain the loyalty of the customers to attract more customers. Telstra communications is a strong platform of trained personnel who are successful in delivering the financial base in such a way that the company can meet its long and short term liabilities . The telecommunication services that Telstra provides, ensures sustainability due to the strong values that is integrated in the rules and regulations of the company. Company ensures initiatives in improving their telecommunication services to meet the wide variety needs of the customers. Weaknesses: Telecommunication market is strongly a competitive market in Australia. There are many network providers; it is basically conducting its business activities in a highly competitive market. Telstra has to invest a lot of money in conducting research and developments. The company has set a high price for its services as compared to its rivalry businesses such as Optus and Vodafone. The population residing in capital cities and regional town centres are still not being able to enjoy the 4G services. The marketing strategies of Telstra are totally focusing only the Australian customers. It is necessary to make aggressive moves so that they can broaden their services worldwide. Opportunities: Telstra Corporation Limited positively participates in conducting surveys and tries to develop new opportunities by producing new products and services. The company takes the full advantage of its partner Hutchinson and is trying to make full controls over the 4G services. Due to the advanced services of 3G and 4G, the company is making a huge profit throughout the year. Telstra is managing their 4G services by spreading it to cover almost 80 regions in Australia (Strang, K, 2010). The company has come up with the new advertisement to represent the diversity of its customers. Threats: The major threats faced by Telstra are that in Australia the tax rates keeps changing. It becomes difficult for the company to calculate the amount of tax to be paid. Along with the tax issues there is an increasing rate of interest for the loan availed by the company. Telstra keeps changing the price of the services and products that it offers. This makes the customers confused and they are now making complaints for the same. Telstra is a dominant telecommunication service provider and hence keeps a high cost for their services; this can be a major threat. Although the country is leading in the technology and communication market, the rival companies are not less; they are not so far in achieving the same advantages. Due to the constant economic change in the world the company may require to revise their plans and prices to attract new customers. The company is facing some challenges from the management in the process of recruiting as the managers of Telstra are not being t ransparent adequately. This is a major setback for those people who are interested in making some investment in the shares of the company. As a result of this there is political involvement in the services that company offers. Objectives and Values of Telstra Telstra is experiencing enormous growth and the digital technology is changing the globe. Telstra is the heart of such change as its objective is to help in making this happen by connecting everyone with everything. Telstra works to connect the future for everyone in a brilliant way. Telstras main purpose is to handle the responsibility of creation. It is obvious that the world cannot connect to the brilliant future on its own. It needs delivery and Telstra can bring together the required parts to create it. The company looks forward for a connected future as its aspiration. It is the responsibility of the company to take such things seriously; to fulfil the needs of the customer. The company wants to serve everyone. It is understood by the company that change cannot be possible by choosing only a few customers. Transformation is the result only when enough people can access the technology that ultimately creates economical, social and cultural changes. According to Telstra a purpose is not enough on its own. They need values to express their objectives and what they stand for. The main value of the company is to align everything that they do. The five core values of Telstra is that they want to show the care, work better and collectively, deliver trust, make complex issues into simple and find courage (Telstra.com.au, 2016). These values can be fulfilled by the company only when it willingly takes it as their responsibility and holds desire to learn. The company should have courage to challenge themselves to meet these values. Marketing Strategy of Telstra In order to improve the telecommunication services that company is engaged in providing for the needs of the customer, the company developed a strategy so as to respond to the market needs (Mullin, R, 2006). The company follows a defensive marketing strategy (Roberts, J, 2005). The scientific and technological change in the telecommunication process should be a continuous one. The main strategy related to the pricing, distribution and promotion should be that the cost incurred in delivering telecommunication services to the customers must not exceed the expected returns. The marketing strategy of Telstra Corporation Limited in improving and enhancing their telecommunication services is discussed below. Product: There are mainly three products available under Telstra, such as- broadband, mobile tablets and mobile broadband. The home broadband line is basically called as BigPond. They offer internet connection through ADSL as well as through a cable. As far as mobile broadband is concerned the customers has the option to choose among BigPond post paid services or Telstras pre-paid services. It has four types of tablets with various plans. They are Apple I-Pad, Motrola Xoom, Acer Iconia and Acer Netbook. Price: In Telstra the price varies from one plan to another plan. It totally depends upon the services that the customer wants to avail from them. The company mainly aims at keeping the price of their services comparatively high as compared to its competitors (Brown, A, 1996). There are various plans available by Telstra such as its cheapest plan starts from $29 and the most expensive plan is at $89. The company is trying to cut down its prices to keep customers (Crozier, R, 2010). Place and Distribution: Place is a geographic designation that helps in marketing (Valenzuela, F, 2013). It also means how the product is brought to the knowledge of the customers (Ferraioli, T, 2016).The channels that the company uses to make available the services to the customer helps in lessening the final cost. In order to beat all its competitors the company ensures that their telecommunication services are made available to the entire Australian population. Except for this, Telstra builds more vending machines that can allow an access to the customers to add credit or to pay bills. Promotion: In this type of marketing strategy the company has to tell everything that it does to make the customers attracted towards their product and services (Solomon, M, et al., 2013). Through promotion we send the information about the products and services to the customers. Telstra manages it promotion strategy by rewarding their customers for being so loyal and also avails them a certain amount of discount whenever they use the services offered by the company. The company is making deals with other companies as well to offer contests to attract more customers. Telstra is distributing CD-ROMS in the areas having high traffic to educate and aware the general public regarding their new 3G and 4G plans and improvement in telecommunication services. Communication Mix Strategy of Telstra Communication Mix refers to that specific process used by the company to promote their products and services in the targeted market. It is essential for every business to plan an effective communication mix strategy to achieve the desired goals of the company (Pride, W, et al., 2012). Communication mix includes advertising, sales promotion; direct marketing and public relations, etc (Koekemoer, L and Bird, S, 2004). Through this strategy the company can make aware about the existence of their product and services to the general public who can desire to make use of such offered products and services. It is basically to create attention and awareness among the potential customers. Telstra is not focused on traditional form of advertising for fixed line products and services; rather it believes to spend more in the advertising of new products and services that they offer. Such as, the company firmly believes that advertising telecommunication network will bring more revenue to the company. This is possible as the company monopolizes the landlines and people will still continue to avail services of fixed line services. The company aims at doing so in the future as well to spend more in marketing of new services. This will help in meeting the needs of the emerging market. The promotion in Telstra is generally done through media. For example the promotion of Telstras telecommunication services is done by making the use of humour and celebrities in their advertisements. Electronic billboards are also used by this company along with an advertisement on trams. Company keeps updating their website to advertise their new products. Product bundling is used very often by Telstra to attract more customers so that they can sign up for the products and services at a lower price. Despite of having a strong communication mix strategy, Telstra is not being able to aware the public about the newly features included in their telecommunication services as this is only being advertised through the website of the company. Consumers are not really aware about the uses of such newly developed technologies and their benefits. Benefits of Marketing Management We know that in the present business world it becomes very difficult for the companies to survive in the competitive market (Mudie, P and Pirrie, A, 2012). To maintain stability in the activities and conduct of the business it is essential to know the advantages and importance of marketing management (Walker, O, 2015). It helps Telstra in learning about the behaviour of customers and also helps in deciding the market place. The business will only succeed when the company can manage the motivated customers and offer them useful services. Marketing management helps in determining the ideal customers and their needs and motives (Lovelock, C, 2011). Even if Telstra is offering useful product the company cannot make profits without an effective management strategy. The company should develop an effective promotional strategy to gain competitive advantage over its rival competitors. Interaction with customers is also a part of management plan. Conclusion Telstra is one of the leading telecommunication service providers in Australia and this has been possible only because of competitive strategic plans. The marketing mix strategy of Telstra is strongly an effective one. The company has adopted a market based management system so as to provide better products and services to the customers. The company is trying to make their services available to the entire population of Australia because the company thinks that a transformation is possible when it is available to all. For the company to improve and develop their telecommunication services it becomes essential that efficient tools of marketing are employed. Growth in an organization is must to maintain sustainability in its activities. The company has been able to increase its revenue due to increased sale. We know that all the marketing efforts do not bring profitability but it can contribute in customer retention and loyalty. The company measures the return that is achieved from marketing strategies to relate them to their goals and costs. Advertising plays an important role in making the customers of Telstra aware about the new technological advancements that the company initiates. Due to the commitment made by Telstra the population of Australia can connect themselves with the future projects. 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