brand migration - vodaphonedoc

7/27/2019 brand migration - vodaphonedoc

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A NEAT SWITCHM Venkatesh and Sapna Nair it operates in 25 countries across five continents and has 40 partner networks (including five in

Asia - Hong Kong, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore and Sri Lanka) with over 200 millioncustomers worldwide. So when Vodafone took over Hutchison's controlling stake in Hutchison

Essar for $11.1 billion earlier this year, it had the perfect credentials to build on the Hutch legacy.

Look at what it was taking over. A $1.3 billion company (calendar year 2005). A brand that wasoperating in 16 out of the 23 telecom circles in India. A brand with 34.1 million customers- andhigh recall. With that great base to build on, it doesn't exactly seem an uphill task for the £31.1million ($61.2 million) British communications (it supplies mobile voice, paging, mobile data andinternet services) giant.

Perhaps the biggest challenge Vodafone found staring at it in the face was that it was following atough act. Hutch had already made its place in the consumer's mind. With another brand namesuddenly replacing it, what - and there was bound to be - would be the confusion in their minds?

The two-pronged branding strategy involved communication and marketing, especially the back-end and retaining some of the elements of Hutch. The pug had become such an integral - andendearing - part of Hutch that Vodafone dared not tamper with the imagery.

The pug stayed, but what took over was a massive brand migration - and marketing - effort thatwas breathtaking simply because of the speed - and scale - at which it unfolded.

The brand itself is no stranger to alteration. Six years ago, Max Touch - as it was known then -became Orange. Within four years it had become Hutch (though it stayed Orange in Mumbai for some time) and changed its colour to pink.

When Vodafone took over early this year, it decided to change the complexion completely in aseries of quick moves.

Tell them what is happening From 9 PM on September 21 to 9 PM on September 22, Vodafonetook over 13 channels of STAR TV - no other ad was beamed during that slot. Everyoneconcerned claims that it is a first anywhere in the world. But it made sense for Vodafone since anestimated 50 million viewers would be on some STAR channel.

"The immediate single objective was to communicate and to get high saliency. And we had to getthat over hours. So we went to the media agency and said: 'give us a front-page Solus equivalenton TV," says Harit Nagpal, marketing and new business director, Vodafone Essar. When indoubt, go all out. And go for an environment that is not cluttered with other messages.

MAXUS, the media buying agency, was listening. Says Ajit Varghese, managing director,MAXUS, "The need for the brand was that of 'Day 1 awareness'. Normally, brands launchcampaigns and it takes two to three weeks for the impact to be felt. Since we are talking of a

brand with over 34 million subscribers and growing, we felt we had to have an impactful launchfor them and other mobile users in the category - on Day 1."

The team met a few channels for roadblocks and it was STAR that extended the idea for its entirenetwork spanning across genres and participated in it with enthusiasm and initiatives. "Ideation toexecution took just under two weeks," says Varghese.

An SMS-based contest and some of the five-second stings or break bumpers were STAR's ideas."We deployed our creative talent in the process. We didn't want it to be like the way it always is -



broadcasters get the tape from the agency and merely play it on the channels. We wanted toparticipate by innovating, ensuring value to the brand in return. The absence of clutter made surethat there was an impact," says Uday Shankar, COO, STAR India. These uncluttered messageswent out to those 50 million viewers of the STAR channels (aMap figures). "The biggest multiplier comes when there is a powerful idea and a partnership going," says Varghese, adding with asmile, "we didn't realise it was an amazing idea till it happened. I'm happy that the client had theguts to back a powerful idea."

All bases covered

The advantage Vodafone got out of choosing STAR was the range of genres. Music, Hindi soaps,news, environment and regional language entertainment. Vodafone ads hogged the limelight onSTAR Plus, STAR Ananda, STAR Majha, STAR Vijay, National Geographic, Channel [V], STAROne and six other STAR channels. So how did STAR manage to pacify the other advertisers whohad booked slots on that day? "They were all understanding and supportive," is all Shankar says.

Vodafone made one thing clear, however. The pug may be endearing, the concept may be eye-catching but Vodafone didn't want to put off the viewer. The company briefed both the agency

and the channel that the customer should not get irritated and that the whole communicationshould not be too in-the-face. None of the channels played the Vodafone communication for theentire air time taken by the company. "We told the channel that if there is ad space of 10 minutesin an hour, please don't play it for all 10 minutes," reveals Nagpal. Vodafone used only 40-50 per cent of the time it had paid for - the rest went into promos for STAR's own programmes.

Interestingly, the ad first broke inside a serial. The characters in the serial who were watching TVsaw an ad that said, 'Hutch is now Vodafone'. In STAR News, on the other hand, the 'Hutch isnow Vodafone' showed as a Breaking News caption. "It served the purpose," says Varghese "of informing everyone that Vodafone, one of the leading global telecom companies is in India." Hefeels that more and more clients will look forward for more ideas that are insightful, clutter-breaking and create a difference to the brand's media plans.

Shankar is mightily pleased with the way things have turned out and can't resist taking a dig atmedia planners. "This serves as an answer to the bureaucratic media buyers' community, whichlacks imagination and creative thinking. No media buyer, so far, had the courage to undertakesuch an activity," he says. Shankar is convinced that this experiment would kickstart aninnovation and that there "will be a huge departure from the non-imaginative trend that mediabuyers practice."

Vodafone also took first-page Solus positions in major newspapers. The internet and radio wereother obvious outlets. Talking directly to customers helps. Existing subscribers got SMSeswelcoming them to the fold and a message asking them to SMS back if they wanted theVodafone logo on the phone screens. "Lots, lots," says Nagpal emphatically when asked if subscribers responded to that one.

Behind the scenes: marketing change

The question the consumer could ask is: will my life remain the same? "The thing to look out for,"says Nagpal "is that there should not be any discomfort in the head of the user. Are the goodthings that I am used to going to remain the same?" For that, the communication has to transfer some of the properties liked by the consumer.

Two of Hutch's properties that were liked by consumers were the pug and the animated



characters used in advertising the brand's value-added services. "Nobody knew Vodafone. It waslike a stranger entering the market," says Rajiv Rao, executive creative director, South Asia,Ogilvy. Rao and the late V Mahesh were responsible for creating the original pug TVCs. "Oncewe decided that we retain the pug, it was easy. And we thought it was the best way tocommunicate the change," he says.

The experience of the customer is very important in a category like this. That too needs to makethe same transition. A category like mobile services cannot be drawn on a piece of paper or is notan FMCG product that the consumer can see. It is also not about changing the wrapper, theperfume or the flavour.

To achieve that it gave the creative team full freedom. Says Rao, "We have a great client whounderstands and appreciates good creative work. We have never had a tough time selling anidea or convincing them about one." This is a product that the consumer can only use. So thecompany's approach becomes that much more important.

"It is passed on to the customers through human beings who run this company. Whether it is insales, marketing, billing, IT or collections, customer service or networks. It is the human beingthat is creating the product and giving it to the customer," says Nagpal. Once that is identified,each of these human beings has to be trained in a way so that the quality of service offered is

superior and the plus points of the previous brand are retained. "It is like shifting houses. One hasto decide what can be discarded. In Vodafone's case, that will be what the customer did not like inthe existing set-up. When people shift homes, they don't carry the junk with them," says Nagpal.

Vodafone is looking at this opportunity to improve some of the processes (like its call centreoperations) the consumer did not like. So it used the re-branding to revisit the process. Identifyingthe back-end clean-up operations started three months ago - possibly the fastest changeVodafone has done in any country.

The migration too was unlike the steps Vodafone followed elsewhere where it goes through a twostep brand change. When Vodafone acquires a brand, it lets that operate for sometime beforeappending Vodafone to that brand's name. Later, it is changed to just Vodafone.

Take Portugal, for instance. From 1992, when it took over Telecel, the brand was known asTelecel Vodafone till January 2001 when it became Telecel Vodafone. Ten months later thatname gave way to Vodafone (it was the first in the Group to make the definitive name change). InIndia, however, the jump was immediate.

The communication strapline changed too, not just in Portugal but the rest of the world as well.From 'How are You?' – Vodafone's first global communication campaign in 2001 - it became,'Make the most of now' in 2006.

The company adopted the same strategy in Japan when it took over J-Phone but Japan turned tobe a nightmare market and it had to exit. So why didn't Vodafone go with Hutch-Vodafone for some time? "Going through two brand changes in a country as large as India becomesexpensive," says Nagpal. And how much would that be? He refuses to be drawn into any

discussion on spends - either on the communication or the back-end.

The second mammoth task ahead of Vodafone was changing what the consumer sees -hoardings, backlit displays, billing stationery, printing new recharge coupons. Nagpal says thatover 60 per cent of the spend on the brand transition went into changing its point of sales display- and signages - at over 400,000 shops. A logistics exercise that will take six to eight weeks.

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The next call

Now that it has painted the towns red, what's ahead? What does Vodafone stand for and what willit do specifically? Hutch had established itself as a network of choice, strong customer serviceand providing value-added service relevant for every segment, explains Nagpal. That willcontinue. What will also continue is the very suitable line, "Wherever you go, our network follows"for all communication related to the network's reach.

Vodafone's corporate tagline will, however, be the one it follows globally - Make the most of now."What that means," says a visibly-pleased Nagpal, striding about the war-room that served as thenerve-centre and headquarters during Operation Hutch=Vodafone, "is that my target user couldbe in any segment or geographical location. He is progressive. He needs to be in multiplegeographical places, multitasking, or having fun or both. It could be a housewife, student,shopkeeper a farmer or an executive. So it is my job to create the product and service which willhelp him make the most of now."

Is there an essential difference between Hutch and Vodafone? "It has to do with scale andexperience. We are in 25 countries and have over 200 million subscribers. The help we get fromVodafone is their experience in multiple markets which we can replicate in this country through

better products and services," says Nagpal.

Stage Two for Vodafone also involves targeting the rural consumer without alienating the existingones. Other categories like FMCG can create a brand or product for the rural market while havinga separate brand (premium) for the urban one. That is almost impossible for a telecom servicebrand. "It is a perception product. You can't eat or smell it. Yet, everybody has a point of view,"says Nagpal. Next up for Vodafone is getting everyone to have a positive point of view.

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brand migration - vodaphonedoc