Case Study on Vodafone Rebranding for India PDF

Preview

Summary

Download Case Study on Vodafone Rebranding for India PDF

Description

CASE ST TUDY ON VODAFONE V E’S RE-BRAN NDING STR RATEGIES IN I INDIA: HUTCH H TO VODAFO ONE Launch of Vodafon e Essar Vodafoone is the world’s leadinng internatioonal mobile communicaations companny. It presently has operaations in 25 countries accross 5 conti nents and 40 partner net works with over 200 million m custo omers worldwide. Vodafoone has parttnered with the Essar Group as itts principal joint venturee partner for the Indian market. m The Essar Grou up is a diverssified businesss corporatioon with interests spannning the maanufacturingg and service sectors likee Steel, Ennergy, Pow er, Commuu nications, Shipping & Logistics and Group has an asset basee of over Rs.400 R billio on and emplloys over 200,000 Construcction. The G people. Vodafone Essar wass launched iin India on 21st Septem mber 2007. Vodafone w as welcomed in India witth the “Hutc h is now Vo odafone” cam mpaign. The popular andd endearing brand Hutchh was transitionned to Vodaafone acrosss India. This marked a significant chapter in the evolutioon of Vodafone as a dynam mic and ever-growing brand. b This b rand unveilled nationallly through a high profile caampaign covvering all important meddia. Vodafone, the world ’s leading mobile m telecommunicati on o company, completed the t acquisitiion of M 2007 and the comppany was foormally renamed Vodafoone Essar inn July Hutchisoon Essar in May 2007. Thhe transitio n from Huttch to Vodafone is prrobably the largest braand change ever undertaken in this co ountry and arrguably as big b as any in the world. It I is even larrger than Huutch’s own prevvious brand transitions. The migratiion from Huutch to Vod dafone was oone of the faastest and mos t comprehennsive brand transitions i n the histor y of the V odafone o Gro up, with 4000,000 multi braand outlets, over o 350 Voodafone storees, over 1,0 0 0 mini storees, over 35 mobile m stores and over 3,0000 touch-po ints rebrandded in two months, m withh 60% comp pleted withinn 48 hours of o the launch. o is to be t he commun ications leadder in an inccreasingly coonnected woorld – The Vodafone missi on enrichingg customers’ lives, helpiing individuals, businessses and com mmunities bee more connected by deliveering their t otal o communnication needds. Vodafon ne’s Marke ting Strategiies: Hutch t o Vodafonee Vodafone’s new advvertising cam mpaign in Inndia carried on with thee same popu ular pug thaat has become a brand ambassador foor Hutch. ‘W Where ever you go, ourr network follows,’ waas the previous slogan with h the pug folllowing the child wherever he goes.. Now, with Hutchison Essar

becoming part of the Vodafone Group, the new campaign had started with Vodafone Essar earmarking Rs. 2.5 billion on the transition from Hutch to Vodafone. The main message of the brand transition exercise: The new Vodafone is the same old Hutch. In the advertisement, the pug sees a new home when it returns after an outing and feels the change is better. The new catch phrase will be ‘Make the most of now.’ Vodafone had tied up with Star India to run a complete roadblock of its fresh campaign on the entire network by unveiling the 24-hour nationwide rebranding campaign. Vodafone used all of the commercial airtime across all 13 channels in five languages (Hindi, Tamil, Bengali, Marathi and English) from 9 pm on 20 September to 9 pm on September 21. This exercise included TV commercials, transition bumpers and contest spots to promote the Vodafone Essar brand. Commercial spots had also been purchased on Sony. Conventionally awareness for a new brand takes some time to build. However, Vodafone wanted to achieve this task at the shortest possible time. Hence, Maxus and Star Network worked closely to address this challenge and came up with the idea wherein during the day of the launch a complete roadblock on the Star Network channels was conceptualized. Considering that the Star Network is the lead network in India, this was the most apt platform for Vodafone launch. This strategy helped not only in achieving build rapid brand awareness but also breaks the clutter during such an important launch in the most happening category – telecom. This is a first of its kind mega media initiative in India by any brand. While the campaign was heavy on television, it also included all other media vehicles. The print campaign kicked off on 21 September, a day after the television splash. While the brand campaign had been addressing the transformation, the Company, on the other hand was swiftly preparing for a price war in the Indian telecom space. Indeed, it was preparing to provide mobile handsets to new subscribers at ultra-cheap prices, ranging from about $19 to $25. Vodafone Essar launched low priced cell phones in India under the Vodafone brand, and also cobranded handsets sourced from major global vendors. By bringing in millions of low-cost handsets from across the globe into India, Vodafone Essar distributed bundled handsets through its existing 400,000 distribution outlets. By flooding the market with its low-cost handsets, Vodafone also became a mass mobile phone brand like Nokia, Samsung, Motorola, and Sony Ericsson in addition to continuing as telecom services provider. Previously, similar handset-driven expansion strategies to grow subscriber bases were adopted by CDMA players, like RCOM and Tata Teleservices. Vodafone is the first GSM operator to follow suit.

The Vodafone mission is to be the communications leader in an increasingly connected world – enriching customers’ lives, helping individuals, businesses and communities be more connected by delivering their total communication needs. Vodafone’s logo is a representation of that belief – The start of a new conversation, a trigger, a catalyst, a mark of true pioneering. Vodafone’s Advertising Strategies: Hutch to Vodafone Advertising is probably one of the most frequently used vehicles for Rebranding, as it is fairly easy, flexible and quick to change. It is a powerful way of reaching a broad or targeted audience quickly and is effective at signalling a change in positioning, however real or broad that may be. There are many examples of where advertising has either repositioned or strengthened brands, other good examples of where advertising has built a new position for a brand or built a strong emotional link with the public are where companies have created a sort of soap opera out of their advertising. The Advertising agency of Hutch and now Vodafone, Ogilvy & Mather (O&M), had a two-fold task to achieve: announce the entry of Vodafone into India and highlight the metamorphosis of Hutch into Vodafone. O&M realised that they had a fantastic property in the Hutch pug, which they had been using for about five years. Therefore, to show the transition from Hutch to Vodafone, O&M launched a rather direct, thematic ad showing the trademark pug in a garden, moving out of a pink coloured kennel which symbolised Hutch making his way into a red one that is the Vodafone colour. A more energetic, chirpier version of the ‘You and I’ tune associated with Hutch was played towards the end, and it concludes with ‘Change is good. Hutch is now Vodafone’. O&M has also rolled out four Commercials featuring Hutch’s animated boy and girl, ‘introducing’ the new brand’s logo to consumers. The four creatives which were of five seconds each included the duo peeping over a wall to see the logo; parasailing with the logo flying high behind them; releasing a rocket bomb wherein the explosion reveals the logo; and lastly, drawing curtains aside to show the logo. Four other ads with the pug did the rounds of telly screens. These five and 10 second spots cast the dog in situations where he, literally, saw red, using the colour as a visual mnemonic to remember the brand by. The pug was shown in a red basket, popping up from a red cart, drying himself on a red mat, and hiding in a red blanket. Each of these made use of the ‘Hutch is now Vodafone’ tagline. The print ads, in all major languages in several leading dailies, were kept unbelievably simple: a still shot of the pug inside a red kennel. The same creative was used in outdoor hoardings as well, in all the 16 circles in which Vodafone now operates.

It wasn’t easy integrating Vodafone with Hutch; the latter, as is known, is a subtle, understated brand, while globally, Vodafone represents high energy, dynamism and young vitality – all represented by its bright red speech mark logo. And so they put in elements such as a more energetic tune and feel to the ads. A few advertisements include: 

Hutch is now Vodafone: If you watch any of the star channels or tuned into 20-20 world cup, you would have seen this ad. On 11 February 2007, Vodafone agreed to acquire the controlling interest of 67% held by Cheung Kong Holdings in Hutch-Essar for US$11.1 billion and now had to rebrand itself so it has decided to run a new ad series which piggy banked on Hutch’s dog mascot and the theme “Change is Good”. This required nearly 250 crores of spending by Vodafone but they have successfully painted the town red. An interesting part of this campaign was on the opening day roadblock where they made a deal with Star India so that besides them no other commercials were aired (apart from inchannel promos) on the Star India’s channels for 24 hours.



Vodafone Valentine Day Special Ads: Vodafone had released a simple and sweet ad for musical greetings targeted at couples during the valentine week the feature of this campaign is its simplicity and believability and is quite well received. It uses the positioning “Make the most of now” enjoy the video



Vodafone Chota Credit Ink Ad: This new ad had come as refreshing change and more so that this ad takes a very refreshing look at school and at fountain pens. This ad creates a wonderfully subtle message which really puts the point of chota (small) credit across....