Airtel Rebranding A case of

fine execution or..

Guest Author Nov 22, 2010 Airtel Rebranding A case of fine execution or..2014-09-27T23:36:07+05:30Uncategorized 13 Comments

The new Airtel logo has created great discussions ranging from people calling it a mashup of Videocon and Vodafone logo, to some
people criticizing Rahmans tune. If you move beyond that, Airtel has surely executed the rebranding exercise meticulously.]

Rebranding an existing brand for any reason is one of the toughest thing a business goes through. Airtel recently spent
obscene amount of money to rebrand itself with a different logo and tune. There was a huge uproar in the blogger
communityregarding this move. Various tweets were floating around about how AR Rehman has lost it, and how funny and
stupid the logo looks. But all said and done there is a lesson of fine execution to be learnt from Airtel.
Today morning as I picked up the newspaper, ToIs first and second page was Airtels ad with their
new logo. Good. As I walked out of the house to buy some bread I was actually surprised to see the
new Logo already up in the local Kirana store. Excellent. In the afternoon I had to take my daughter
across the town (from uttarahalli to ITPL, for those familiar with Bangalore) for a birthday party.
Decided to take the Volvo bus. What I saw across the city was quite unbelievable. From large
hoardings, to banners to small kirana store in the nooks and corner of the city, every Airtel Ad had
the new logo. I dont remember seeing it yesterday (or it did not impress on me yesterday).
Unbelievable.

I am in sheer awe with the way Airtel executed this exercise. Rebranding is not just changing the logo or the tune. It is
doing at the right time and doing it such finesse that new logo is imprinted on everyones mind immediately. If this exercise
(changing the billboards, and advertisements in all stores) was not done overnight imagine the confusion Airtel would have
had to deal with displaying both the logos simultaneously.

Hats off to whoever in Airtel executed this re-branding. Your thoughts?

Thursday, November 25, 2010

Airtels Rebranding Initiative

November 18, 2010 marked a new beginning for the brand Airtel. As on this day, Airtel launched a huge rebranding exercise to mark the beginning of a new era in
Airtels telecom business i.e. the beginning of the Airtels new initiative, the roll out of its 3G services. And this new rebranding exercise coincides with this new
beginning in the field of 3G world and is a very cleverly and strategically thought out initiative of Airtel. The main driver of this rebranding exercise is the brand
logo that has been changed from a traditional logo where the name airtel was written in simple cases and without any symbol being used in the logo, to an
altogether new logo where the name airtel is written in a very trendy style and has a very artistically designed symbol on top in the logo image which they are using
to signify the modernity and trendiness in the brand airtel as Airtel was losing touch with this new young and vibrant segment of people who were starting to
identify more and more with the other telecom brands like Idea, Reliance, Vodafone, TATA Docomo, Aircel and even newer entrants like Uninor and Videocon
which were targeting the youth segment in a better way and were becoming more and more popular with this youth segment.
And so to come closer to this segment Airtel decided to change the logo and try and become more contemporary and modern in look so as to appeal to this young
and vibrant segment of market which is the largest segment of mobile consumers in India at the moment.
That is why, in a bid to maintain and build on its global presence and to promote its 3G offerings to its customers, Airtel has got a new brand identity with a new
logo and positioning.

And using this whole new brand look Airtel promises its customers to deliver anything that they desire anywhere, anytime, with its new positioning statement, 'Dil
jo chahe pass laye'.
Talking about the new brand identity, Sunil Bharti Mittal, chairman and managing director, Bharti Airtel, says, "Fifteen years ago, Bharti Airtel started its journey
in India with a promise of delivering world-class and affordable services. Airtel is in now present in 19 countries - 16 African countries, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and
India."
Mittal adds that the brand was so far known as Zain in Africa and Warid in Bangladesh. "Thus, the idea was to give the brand a uniform presence across all these
markets. Also, the world is moving towards digitalization. From now, it's also going to be about social media, commerce and 3G. Therefore, keeping the evolution
of the telecom business as well as our expansion in mind, we decided to take brand Airtel to the next level."
Designed by London-based brand agency, Brand Union, the new logo is the letter 'a' in lowercase, with 'airtel' written in lowercase under the logo. Explaining the
new look in detail, Sanjay Kapoor, CEO, Bharti Airtel states that the new identity underlines Airtel's willingness to embrace everything that is new.
Source: http://www.afaqs.com
And as Airtel along with other telecom companies is moving into the data age so this rebranding was necessary for this new Brand identity to reflect this evolution.
If on the one hand the new logo is getting praises from one section of the crowd, then on the other side it is also drawing flak from the other section that is terming
this new logo as nothing but a copy of the brand logos of Vodafone and Videocon only.
So to take care of this issue, a 360 degree marketing and promotional campaign has been lauched to get this new brand look and identity into the minds of the
consumers as early as possible so as to start leveraging any positives that this new look brings to the brand Airtel on the whole which in the recent times had been
loosing out in terms of market share and brand value to its competitors. The new look is being promoted through television, print, outdoor and digital campaigns.
And they are also trying to use this campaign to involve the customers in the brand building exercise through a name the logo contest where the customers can give
a name to the new logo and the winner will have any of his desire fulfilled based on the new positioning statement that has been coupled with this new brand logo
launch.
Url's
for
Advertisements
created
for
this
rebranding
exercise:
-http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=97f8s-FaWgM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yoLqr6g-KKQ&feature=related
A huge amount of funds upto the tune of Rs. 300 crore have been pumped into this campaign to help Airtel stop the slide in terms of market share that Airtel has
been continuously loosing out to its competitors and overturn its dwindling fortunes. But one thing in my view that is looking a bit out of place in this new initiative
is the tune or the jingle that is being used, as it is noway near the quality of the jingle previously made by A R Rehman and has drawn a flak from many sections of
audience with many going to a point where they have criticized A. R Rehman the master himself.
But whatever we say about the new logo or the tune, but one thing is for sure that Airtel has gone about this new rebranding initiative in a very through and
professional manner beginning from the ad in the Times of India, to the outdoor branding of its retail outlets overnight, to having banners and hoardings
everywhere on the main locations of big cities.

Now with this initiative of Airtel the arrow has already left the bow for its target, but
it remains to be seen that whether Airtel is able to get back that trust that people
had on the brand and which has till now helped it remain the market leader in terms
of market share, and gain the lost ground back which it had lost to its competitors.