The Hindu Business Line : ‘Sophistication level here is high’

International mobile carrier Vodafone made its India foray in September 2007 amidst great media flurry. Five months down the line, the hullabaloo over the re-branding exercise of Hutch as Vodafone has died down and the pug has comfortably settled in its new home. Or has it really? BrandLine caught up with Grace Molenaar, Head of Brand Development, Vodafone Global Brand, to find out.

Vodafone underwent re-branding exercises in several countries including Germany and Ireland. Was doing it in India any different?

I must say, working with the Indian team has been very impressive. The level of sophistication here is high, compared to other markets. And since the team handled the brand migration well, it left us with sufficient time to review Vodafone’s position in the Indian market place, the competitors we would encounter, awareness required, preference and consideration aspects.

The idea of the dog moving out of a pink home (Hutch’s) into a red home (Vodafone’s) was conceptualised by Ogilvy & Mather locally. As it was so warm, direct and emotional, we agreed to go ahead with it and it worked.

Do you think the brand migration from Hutch is complete or are there still some issues to be resolved?

For any new brand to establish itself, it takes a time of about 18 months, we feel. It has been five months for us in India and I would say that the signs are positive. We have managed to create more than 95 per cent awareness. I know there is a problem with the brand name not changing in some mobile phones. Some handsets still show Hutch or sometimes, even Orange, instead of Vodafone! But that problem will take care of itself when the user switches handsets.

What is your global brand strategy? Is it homogeneous throughout or does it depend on the local market?

We have a single global strategy, where the brand is the central organising principle that drives performance. But the creative is developed in the local markets. We are in different stages of development in different markets so we work to develop a local market position that recognises the local nuances in culture, the mobile category and how people perceive our brand promise. So we designed a (60-second television spot) programme promising improved service, simplified tariffs, straightforward pricing programmes, taking away things like expiry dates and delivering a superior in-store experience.

How is your retail business doing? Do we see any new initiatives on that side?

Our retail business is doing well and recently, we implemented a new retail design concept in eight countries. Hungary, Iceland, Netherlands, Greece, Turkey and the UK are among the places where we have started it and all of them have shown a remarkable increase in sales figures. In Netherlands, the sales increased by about 20 per cent post establishment of the new stores. So, we might take this concept to other countries also. In India, we have one at Mumbai currently, but we plan to set up more, going forward.

Vodafone was ranked 11th by a recent survey of the most popular brands in the world, which was topped by Coca-Cola.

Yes. Vodafone was ranked 11th, but we do not have any survey to see where we stand against our competitors. We are a little more sophisticated than that. At present, we are in the process of devising an internal mechanism, by which we would be able to conduct a formal review of our brand. Customer Delight Index or CDI, as it will be known, will enable us to judge how highly regarded our brand is. It will be based on four key measures. Through customer surveys, asking questions like ‘how often is your brand talked about,’ we will try to probe the consumer’s perception of our brand.

The Vodafone brand logo has undergone subtle changes. Are you consciously reinventing the brand?

That’s right. We have played around with the logo a bit. The font has improved and we will consistently have the red box in all our ads. Now there is clear spacing around the Vodafone logo, making it appear crisp. Our focus is to make the brand more sophisticated and progressive. Henceforth, we will maintain clarity and consistency with our brand experience. Also, we have switched from having sub-brands to a mono brand as we feel it makes things easier for the consumer and removes confusion. Our tariffs will also have different names, which will be service-driven, directly conveying to the consumer what he wants.

We have a real drive to improve branded consumer experience. For example, in Portugal, our operators provide consumers with bicycles so they can pass the time while their handsets are being fixed. Our customers there really like that. We have removed the asterisk to remove the complexity and increase transparency. (The asterisk usually denotes some fine print.) We have been focused on improving our tone of voice consistency in our communications and so we developed a new set of advertising and tone of voice materials. We are also trying to eliminate jargon and offer simple tariff plans. We have implemented these changes in the Czech Republic, Turkey and Romania, where we have had a very positive response to the changes.

Vodafone might have 200 million customers worldwide and 40 partner networks in 25 countries, but its brand managers are not taking a breather yet. With a tagline of ‘Make the Most of Now,’ they are focused on building a crisp brand which consumers feel passionate about.

“Our brand is known by many people, but we still have to achieve that passionate feel around it. Our next step is definitely to get emotionally connected to our customers and gain brand loyalty,” she says.

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