Vodafone a world wide leader in telecommunication sector decided
to enter a huge Telecom market Japan in 2001 collaborating with
Japan Telecom Co. Japan's telecommunication market was increasing
at the rate of 3-4 % year on year.
Vodafone was welcomed in Japanese market as it was having good
Telecom giant image and despite of being restricted market of Japan
for foreign companies , Vodafone did not face such issues.
Vodafone marketing was as good as any other market.leader in
Japan then also it failed.
We will discuss the causes of failures and learning we shousld
take away from those causes -
- Lack of market understanding - Vodafone could not understand
the very Agile nature of Japanese market and considered it similar
to European market. Japanese mobile users' preferences were getting
changed very frequently which Vodafone could not come up . Any
organization who is going to get in to a new market should study
the market , consumer behaviour of the place where they are
going.to enter.
- Infrastructure facilities were not adequate enough to satisfy
Japanese customers like very few investment on 3G services , very
poor Network coverage, very late updates etc. Organization must
spend good investment over basic infrastructure which is sufficient
to provide good services to customers.
- Another issue with Vodafone was the design of the handset which
they we offering in market. They were providing the same handsets
which they were offering in Europe. However in Japan mobile users
were well ahead in terms of technology and aesthatics of the mobile
sets. Vodafone failed miserably while.providing old fashioned hand
sets yo Japanese customers. Any organization which should offer the
product based on the choice of the local customer they are
targeting.
Finally in 2006 , Vodafone decided to close all operations in
Japan and sold shares to Soft Bnak of Japan.
Thanks
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