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Case Study on Vodafones Re-Branding Strategies in India: Hutch toVodafone

Launch of Vodafone Essar



Vodafone is the worlds leading international mobile communications company. Itpresently
has operations in 25 countries across 5 continents and 40 partner networkswith over 200 million
customers worldwide. Vodafone has partnered with the Essar Group as its principal joint venture
partner for the Indian market. The Essar Group isa diversified business corporation with
interests spanning the manufacturing andservice sectors like Steel, Energy, Power,
Communications, Shipping & Logistics andConstruction. The Group has an asset base of over Rs.400
billion and employs over 20,000 people.

Vodafone Essar was launched in India on 21st September 2007. Vodafone waswelcomed in
India with the Hutch is now Vodafone campaign. The popular andendearing brand Hutch
was transitioned to Vodafone across India. This marked asignificant chapter in the evolution
of Vodafone as a dynamic and ever-growingbrand. This brand unveiled nationally through a
high profile campaign covering allimportant media.

Vodafone, the worlds leading mobile telecommunication company, completed
theacquisition of Hutchison Essar in May 2007 and the company was formally
renamedVodafone Essar in July 2007. The transition from Hutch to Vodafone is probably
thelargest brand change ever undertaken in this country and arguably as big as any in
theworld. It is even larger than Hutchs own previous brand transitions. The migrationfrom
Hutch to Vodafone was one of the fastest and most comprehensive brandtransitions in the history of the
Vodafone Group, 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.

The Vodafone mission is to be the communications leader in an increasinglyconnected world enriching
customers lives, helping individuals, businesses andcommunities be more connected by delivering
their total communication needs.














Vodafones Marketing Strategies: Hutch to Vodafone

Vodafones new advertising campaign in India carried on with the same popular pugthat 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.Now, with Hutchison Essar becoming part of the
Vodafone Group, the new campaignhad started with Vodafone Essar earmarking Rs. 2.5
billion on the transition fromHutch to Vodafone. The main message of the brand transition
exercise: The newVodafone is the same old Hutch. In the advertisement, the pug sees a new
home whenit returns after an outing and feels the change is better. The new catch phrase will
beMake the most of now.

Vodafone had tied up with Star India to run a complete roadblock of its freshcampaign on the
entire network by unveiling the 24-hour nationwide rebrandingcampaign. Vodafone used all
of the commercial airtime across all 13 channels in fivelanguages (Hindi, Tamil, Bengali, Marathi
and English) from 9 pm on 20 September to 9 pm on September 21. This exercise included TV
commercials, transition bumpersand contest spots to promote the Vodafone Essar brand.
Commercial spots had alsobeen 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 andStar Network
worked closely to address this challenge and came up with the ideawherein 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 notonly in achieving build rapid brand awareness
but also breaks the clutter during suchan important launch in the most happening category
telecom. This is a first of itskind mega media initiative in India by any brand. While the campaign was
heavy ontelevision, it also included all other media vehicles. The print campaign kicked off
on21 September, a day after the television splash.

While the brand campaign had been addressing the transformation, the Company, onthe 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-cheapprices, ranging from
about $19 to $25.Vodafone Essar launched low priced cell phones in India under the

Vodafone brand,and also co-branded handsets sourced from major global vendors. By bringing inmillions
of low-cost handsets from across the globe into India, Vodafone Essar distributed bundled
handsets through its existing 400,000 distribution outlets. Byflooding the market with its low-
cost handsets, Vodafone also became a mass mobilephone brand like Nokia, Samsung,
Motorola, and Sony Ericsson in addition tocontinuing as telecom services provider.

Previously, similar handset-driven expansion strategies to grow subscriber bases wereadopted
by CDMA players, like RCOM and Tata Teleservices. Vodafone is the firstGSM operator to
follow suit.

The Vodafone mission is to be the communications leader in an increasinglyconnected world enriching
customers lives, helping individuals, businesses andcommunities be more connected by delivering
their total communication needs.Vodafones logo is a representation of that belief The start of a
new conversation, atrigger, a catalyst, a mark of true pioneering.

Vodafones Advertising Strategies: Hutch to Vodafone

Advertising is probably one of the most frequently used vehicles for Rebranding, as itis fairly
easy, flexible and quick to change. It is a powerful way of reaching a broad or targeted
audience quickly and is effective at signaling a change in positioning,however real or broad
that may be. There are many examples of where advertising haseither repositioned or
strengthened brands, other good examples of where advertisinghas built a new position for a
brand or built a strong emotional link with the public arewhere companies have created a sort
of soap opera out of their advertising.

The Advertising agency of Hutch and now Vodafone, Ogilvy & Mather (O&M), hada two-
fold task to achieve: announce the entry of Vodafone into India and highlightthe
metamorphosis of Hutch into Vodafone. O&M realized that they had a fantasticproperty 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 coloredkennel which symbolized Hutch
making his way into a red one that is the Vodafonecolor. A more energetic, chirpier version
of the You and I tune associated withHutch was played towards the end, and it concludes with
Change is good. Hutch isnow Vodafone.

O&M has also rolled out four 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; parasailingwith the
logo flying high behind them; releasing a rocket bomb wherein the explosionreveals 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 secondspots cast the dog in
situations where he, literally, saw red, using the color as a visualmnemonic to remember the
brand by. The pug was shown in a red basket, popping upfrom a red cart, drying himself on a red
mat, and hiding in a red blanket. Each of thesemade use of the Hutch is now Vodafone tagline.

The print ads, in all major languages in several leading dailies, were keptunbelievably simple:
a still shot of the pug inside a red kennel. The same creative wasused in outdoor hoardings as well,
in all the 16 circles in which Vodafone nowoperates.

It wasnt easy integrating Vodafone with Hutch; the latter, as is known, is a
subtle,understated brand, while globally, Vodafone represents high energy, dynamism
andyoung vitality all represented by its bright red speech mark logo. And so they put inelements such as a
more energetic tune and feel to the ads.

A few advertisements include:


1) Hutch is now Vodafone: If you watch any of the star channels or tuned into 20-20world cup, you
would have seen this ad On 11 February 2007, Vodafone agreed toacquire 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 Hutchs dog mascot and the theme Change is Good.This required nearly
250 crores of spending by Vodafone but they have successfullypainted the town red. An
interesting part of this campaign was on the opening dayroadblock where they made a deal
with Star India so that besides them no other commercials were aired (apart from in-channel
promos) on the Star Indias channelsfor 24 hours.


2) Vodafone Valentine Day Special Ads: Vodafone had released a simple and sweet adfor
musical greetings targeted at couples during the valentine week the feature of
thiscampaign is its simplicity and believability and is quite well received. It uses
thepositioning Make the most of now enjoy the video

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

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