Current Analysis

Situational Analysis:

O2 came to existence in 2002, a re-launch of the old BT Cellnet. Today it's a complete different brand, In Dec 2005, it took over the Vodafone to became the UK`s top mobile phone operator, with 16 million active customers. In increasingly competitive market, O2 has successfully attained the highest level and award winning market strategy which allowed the company to retain the customer and made existing customers loyal to the company also gave a hard time to competitors, In 2006 January, 02 company reached the level of £18 billion paid for it by the Spanish telecoms group, Telefonica. (02 Casestudy2007)

Industrial expansion for O2 happened on 15 July 2009, when O2 joined the financial service industry with the launch of O2 Money, which was the very first step in the process of incorporating financial services in cell phones. Next plans include introducing Near Field Communication (NFC) technology in mobile phones in the UK. (02, 2012)

SWOT Analysis:

"One of the most productive and memorable planning tool is SWOT analysis. This is the self- assessment framework for examining out Strength and Weakness, our Opportunities and Threats." (Dwyer.R.F & Tanner.F.J, 2006)

Strength:

- O2 is the top player in UK mobile network industry, and achieved so much and so less time, making over £500 million of network investment during 2011. Ofcom puts O2 at number one for mobile broadband speed and performance. (02,2012)

- O2 have the 3rd highest brand awareness, overtaking T- mobile and Virgin, that is in 2002 Nov O2 achieved brand awareness of 56%, compared with T- Mobile`s 47%. (Curtis. J 2003)

- Best for business purposes (unlimited calls to O2 and unlimited calls to 10 landlines), made them won the Mobile Choice Award for Best Network for the last three years, also Mobile News Awards 2011 and Best Network at What Mobile 2010. (02,2012)

- Providing simple Business solutions (Mobiles, Landlines, Broadband, Data networks) all provided in simple terms, one supplier, and one bill.

(02, 2012)

- High affiliation with sports events and entertainment, O2 sponsors Rugby, Football, The O2 Arena, The O2 Academy and many other events.

Weakness:

- Critics say that O2 openly copies Orange`s company creative style with their emotive, aspiration language and its distinctive look.

- Expansion of O2 Company in the time of economy crises was a risky step, 02 Germany announced 15% redundancies of staff and in the crucial market of UK have made the company technological innovation extremely limited. (Telebusillis 2007)

- Limited concentration on youth, O2 have spent mostly on brand and aim to addict the youth in texting.

- Handling different sectors of product and services made the company hard to tackle on concentrating customers' needs.

Opportunity:

- Moving to undiscovered markets, different countries such as Asian countries which have high usage of cellular services.

- Providing other O2 services other than cellular services such as broadband entertainment sector and financial services.

- More technological advancement is possible because they already got so far, they could target the fixed landlines in UK they have possibilities to enlarge the span of their market share.

- Areas of progress are innovation and competition they can be through price, service and brand affinity.

- There is always a space for improving customer relationship with existing customers and new customers and making loyal customers.

Threats:

- Security breach of the online data and bugs in the system is a big threat, valuable customer information if leaked it's a major threat for the company image when you are dealing in telecommunication service provider.

- Competitors trying to capture the market share with their updated services and promotional schemes are big challenge to cope up.

- Companies like H3G, T mobile and Orange is cornering the market with their up to date promotional schemes and pricing.

- Vodafone gives a tough competition to the other companies