Brand Management Individual Project On

Submitted by:Varun Bhargava (2010258)Section: D2E

Submitted to:Prof. Rajeev Kamble

INSTITUTE OF MANAGEMENT TECHNOLOGY, NAGPURPGDM 2010-12

Contents

Company Overview3STP Analysis4Hutch in India: Branding5Transition: Hutch to Vodafone7Hutch is now Vodafone campaign7Change is Good Campaign9Make the Most of Now campaign9Happy to Help campaign10Value for Money Campaign10Effects of the campaign11A New Beginning: Introducing Vodafone ZooZoos12Failures while re-branding13Vodafone MAGIC BOX14Vodafone & IPL15What were competitors doing?16Recommendation17

Company OverviewVodafone is a mobile network operator headquartered in Berkshire, England, UK. It is the largest mobile telecommunications network company in the world by turnover. Vodafone currently has operations in 25 countries and partner networks in a further 42 countries. The name Vodafone comes from Voice data fone, chosen by the company to "reflect the provision of voice and data services over mobile phones."Vodafone Essar, formerly Hutchison Essar, is a cellular operator in India that covers 23 telecom circles in India. It is based in Mumbai. It is the second largest mobile phone operator in terms of revenue and third largest in terms of customers. Vodafone had about 134.5 million customers as of February 2011. The official name being Vodafone Essar, its products are simply branded Vodafone. It offers both prepaid and postpaid GSM cellular phone coverage throughout India with good presence in the metros.The company started its operation in India in 1994 as Hutch and later on 15th March 2007, Vodafone acquired Hutchison Telecommunications International Limited (HTIL) of companies with interests in Hutchison Essar Limited (Hutch Essar).The Vodafone mission is to be the communications leader in an increasingly connected world by enriching customers lives, helping individuals, businesses and communities be more connected by delivering their total communication needs. Vodafone logo is a representation of that belief; the start of a new conversation, a trigger, a catalyst, a mark of true pioneering.

STP AnalysisSegmentation: Vodafone services are spread wide across India so the segmentation is done based on the geographical conditions and on the service usage by the customer, for instance, usage in terms of Post-paid or Pre-paid and further it could be classified based on Value Added Services. To an extent, the nature of customer also a segmentation strategy as a customer can be defined as a sole customer who purchases the connection on his name and uses it himself, and the other can be defined as Institutional where a company or any corporate purchases the connection and gives it to their employees whereby the bills expense would be borne by the company.Targeting: Vodafone is adopting a multi-segment approach. They are offering a series of differentiated products to their respective markets. For instance, they have come out with Home calling cards for the family to those professionals who use to work abroad. They are targeting middle class customers which can be clearly justified by their products they are offering like Rs 10 chota recharge, inexpensive SMS facility for the youth.Positioning: Initially, Hutch positioned themselves as Where you go the network follows you. Hutch is a brand that always tried to connect with customers in a simple, honest and real manner, while Vodafone is a more of a young and a fun brand. The positioning strategies have been highly successful for Vodafone as they made a wise decision of restraining the pug which was a very powerful visual imagery. Vodafone have always talked about the exclusivity of the network, and the services they are offering to the customers very effectively.

Hutch in India: Branding

Hutchinson Essar acquired license to start its services in Mumbai in 1994. Its initial advertising campaign with bold letters Hi printed on the right side if huge billboard without mentioning the company. This created curiosity and interest among the people and finally announced its arrival in India stating We are Hutch and we are in India.

Vodafone outsourced its branding, promotion and advertising to Ogilvy and Mather which came up with a new tag line Wherever you go, our network follows. The advertisement which they came up with instead of hiring celebrities came up with a simple TV commercial featuring two characters a pug named Chika and a boy. The jingle You and I, in this beautiful world, green grass, blue sky, in this beautiful world of this commercial became popular across India. The performance by both the characters, the pug following the boy wherever he goes and the ad ending up with the tag line Wherever you go, our network follows created a strong image of Hutch in the mindset of people across India. The commercial was communicated in an easy manner showing a strong network of Vodafone.The pug which featured in many Vodafone commercial had a strong effect in the brand of Hutch and with the popularity became the brand ambassador of Hutch. The company then was placed among worlds top 100 most powerful brands.

Transition: Hutch to Vodafone

Vodafone Essar came to India after acquiring Hutch Essar on 21st September 2007. The popular and endearing brand Hutch was transitioned to Vodafone across India. This marked a significant chapter in the evolution of Vodafone as a dynamic and ever-growing brand. This brand unveiled nationally through a high profile campaign covering all important media.Hutch is now Vodafone campaign

Vodafone entered India with Hutch is now Vodafone campaign. In the initial phase it was difficult for Vodafone to build its brand stronger as people were influenced by the Hutch branding. The migration from Hutch to Vodafone was one of the fastest and most comprehensive brand transitions with 400,000 multi brand outlets, over 350 Vodafone stores, over 1,000 mini stores, over 35 mobile stores and over 3,000 touch-points rebranded in two months, with 60% completed within 48 hours of the launch.Vodafone after acquiring Hutch had to build its brand image in shortest possible time. Star Network which is the leading TV network in India along with Maxus 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. This strategy helped in achieving build rapid brand awareness. The print campaign kicked off on 21 September, a day after the television splash. 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 operated.

The Advertising agency of Hutch and now Vodafone, Ogilvy & Mather (O&M), had a tough time announcing 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. Vodafone continued with the same pug coming up with TV commercial featuring pug, it was broadcasted on all major television networks. These commercial shows the pug in a red basket, popping up from a red cart, drying him on a red mat, and hiding in a red blanket. Each of these made use of the Hutch is now Vodafone tagline.

Change is Good Campaign

Thereafter O&M launched another commercial 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 different version of the You and I tune associated with Hutch was played at the end, and it concludes with Change is good, Hutch is now Vodafone. This implied that even if a well-loved brand changes, there are always positive aspects to it in the long run.O&M rolled out another commercials featuring Hutchs animated boy and girl, introducing the new brands 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. Make the Most of Now campaign

Vodafones new advertising campaign in India carried on with the same popular pug that has become a brand ambassador for Hutch. Where ever you go, our network follows was the previous slogan with the pug following the child wherever he goes but after Hutchison Essar transforming to Vodafone Essar, the new campaign had started with Vodafone Essar 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 was Make the most of now. Happy to Help campaign Another campaign initiated by Vodafone, the Happy to Help You campaign featured the pug wherein the commercial showed pug helping a girl in her daily activities. Value for Money CampaignThe pug started disappearing from TV commercial replacing bollywood actor Irfaan Khan to deliver value for money message.

Effects of the campaign1. The high media buzz and Vodafone being an international brand was successful in portraying itself as large brand. 2. Consumers welcomed the change with greater sense of pride in associating with an premium and international brand3. The brand has successfully created a well rounded image by mixing western values with Indian warmth and friendliness. 4. It also conveys a continuation and not a disruption of the Hutch experience by discontinuing the use of pug. 5. Every customer touch-point, from the logos on television to the stamp at the Vodafone reception, wore the new Vodafone look from Day 1

A New Beginning: Introducing Vodafone ZooZoos

Vodafone and O&M decided upon to come up with some different creation to be featured in its TV commercial. After so much of discussion they came up with some unique character, little white coloured, called ZooZoos. These were featured during Indian Premier League to showcase and promote their Value Added Service each day.Vodafone came up with its proper brand communication strategy at a proper time and targeting to right section of customer, created a long impression in the minds of people through ZooZoo campaign. The launch of these commercial during IPL was a successful step to build up the brand. The ZooZoos commercial that were featured during the IPL were highly praised by everyone. Apart from TV commercial a page on facebook was created ensuring maximum brand visibility. The ZooZoos had attracted people of all ages and status. Vodafone also came up with ZooZoos merchandize available across all cities. The ZooZoos successfully became brand ambassadors of Vodafone thus replacing Hutch pug.But somewhere it was noticed that it was difficult to supersede the image of the pug which had won hearts of many Indians. Vodafone lately decided to bring back the pug keeping aside the ZooZoo campaign. The new Vodafone advertisements were made on same old philosophy Happy to Help. Failures while re-branding

After acquirng Hutch, Vodafone found it difficult to build a strong brand image as Hutch did. They had to continue with the pug which had won the hearts of many. Vodofone had brought in bollywood star Irfaan Khan to promote its brand but which they had to restrict to deliver value for money message.Vodafone introduced ZooZoos to promote their brand which got an overwhelming response from people around the world. But there were speculations whether ZooZoo would be able to retain its image as brand ambassodor as pug did for a longer duration. Vodafone failed to supersede the image of pug so they had to postpone ZooZoo campaign and to re-introduced pug after 10 months.

Vodafone MAGIC BOX

Vodafone Essar launched Magic Box which consists of low priced handsets in India under the Vodafone brand and outsourced handsets from major global vendors. This was used a strategy to grow subscriber base. These handsets were both monochrome and colour handset with a SIM card available at price starting from Rs 1199. It also comes with additional benefits to make the whole package attractive. Only CDMA players like Reliance and Tata adopted expansion strategy by giving similar low cost handset to grow subscriber bases. Vodafone was the first GSM operator to follow suit.

Vodafone & IPL

Vodafone is the major and most noticed sponsor in the Indian Premier League ahead of title sponsor DLF real estate. Vodafone has emerged as the most recalled brand during the weekend. Vodafone customers can book tickets for the IPL matches with their Vodafone Live service and they can also participate in the Predict the Man of the match contest.

Vodafone also came up with Star of the Match contest where Vodafone customer has an opportunity to meet their favorite cricket captains and share the limelight and take home a autographed match ball

What were competitors doing?

The Airtel TV commercial shows the feeling of togetherness and nostalgia with its tag line Get closer to what you love. Airtel has endorsed biggies like Saif Ali Khan, Kareena Kapoor, Shahrukh Khan, Vidya Balan and Madhavan for their TV commercial. The Airtel popular jingle composed by A.R. Rahman has been a great hit and proved to be major contributor for brand building.

Idea cellular on the other hand used Abhishek Bachchan as its brand ambassador and is the main sponsor for Mumbai Indians. The popular tagline What an Idea, sirji created a buzz among many people in India. Idea cellular also indulged in various social activities to promote their brand to create a strong brand image in the eyes of customers.1. Use Mobile, Save Paper (Save tress)2. Walk when you talk3. Break the language barrier

Recommendation Most of messages of the zoozoo ads were written in English in the end. This made it difficult for the rural audiences to connect with. They had difficulty in understanding the VAS services. Rural audiences could have been shown with messages in Hindi or any other regional language. Using zoozoo and pug in the same ad could generate more interest among audiences, they will be able to relate to traditional image that hutch had created and new sensation that zoozoo has created could also be taken advantage of. Effective branding at outlets through various means like setting up canopies, updating customer with recharge options and advantages on buying a new SIM.

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