RIZVI INSTITUTE OF MANAGEMENT STUDIES AND RESEARCH

MARKETING AUDIT

PROJECT ON ‘BRAND AUDIT OF VODAFONE’

SUBMITTED TOSUBMITTED TO

Prof. GARIMA SHARMAProf. GARIMA SHARMA

ONON

12 th OCTOBER 2010

PREPARED BY:

Ebrahim Pachorawala - Hrishit Amlani -

Maaz Shaikh - Nashfi Qureshi – 69

Samarth Wagh – 89

Taranjit Kaur Mutti - 108

TABLE OF CONTENTS

1

TOPIC # PARTICULARS PGNO.

1 Introduction 3

2 Indian Telecom Industry 4

3 Brand Equity of Vodafone 8

4 Brand Value and Brand Personality of

Vodafone

9

5 Competitive advantage of Vodafone Services 10

6 Porters Five Forces of Vodafone 13

7 SWOT Analysis of Vodafone 15

8 Brand Audit of Vodafone 18

9 Conclusion 29

10 Annexure 30

11 Bibliography 32

2

INTRODUCTION

In May 2007, in one of the biggest brand transition exercises, Hutch, which was country’s

fourth-largest mobile service provider, was renamed as Vodafone. Vodafone spent

somewhere in the region of Rs 250 crore on this high-profile transition.

Vodafone acquired 67 per cent in Hutchison Essar from Hong Kong-based Hutchison

Whampoa, and completed the acquisition of Hutchison Essar in May 2007.

Vodafone Group Plc today is the world's leading mobile telecommunications company, with

a significant presence in Europe, the Middle East, Africa, Asia Pacific and the United States

through the Company's subsidiary undertakings, joint ventures, associated undertakings and

investments.

Vodafone India has 18.8% customer market share and 20.7% revenue market share.

The objective of the study is to carry out a Brand Audit of Vodafone in order to find out the

Customer response for Vodafone services.

INDIAN TELECOM INDUSTRY

3

The Indian telecommunications industry is one of the fastest growing in the world. According

to the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI), the number of telephone subscriber

base in the country reached 653.92 million as on May 31, 2010, an increase of 2.49 per cent

from 638.05 million in April 2010. With this the overall tele-density (telephones per 100

people) has touched 55.38. The wireless subscriber base has increased to 617.53 million at

the end of May 2010 from 601.22 million in April 2010, registering a growth of 2.71 per

cent.

The various players in the Indian telecom industry are:

AIRCEL

The Aircel group is a joint venture between Maxis Communications Berhad of Malaysia and

Sindya Securities & Investments Private Limited, whose current shareholders are the Reddy

family of Apollo Hospitals Group of India, with Maxis Communications holding a majority

stake of 74%.  Aircel commenced operations in 1999 and became the leading mobile operator

in Tamil Nadu within 18 months. In December 2003, it launched commercially in Chennai

and quickly established itself as a market leader – a position it has held since.  

Aircel began its outward expansion in 2005 and met with unprecedented success in the

Eastern frontier circles. It emerged a market leader in Assam and in the North Eastern

provinces within 18 months of operations. Till today, the company gained a foothold in 21

circles including Chennai, Tamil Nadu, Assam, North East, Orissa, Bihar, Jammu &

Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh, West Bengal, Kolkata, Kerala, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka,

Delhi, UP(West), UP(East), Maharashtra & Goa , Mumbai, Haryana , Madhya Pradesh and

Punjab. 

With over 43 million happy customers in the country, Aircel is a full-fledged national

operator. 

AIRTEL

4

Bharti Airtel Limited, formerly known as Bharti Tele-Ventures LTD (BTVL) is a

company offering telcommunication services in 19 countries. It is the largest cellular service

provider in India, with more than 141 million subscriptions as of August 2010.  Bharti Airtel

is the world's third largest, single-country mobile operator and fifth largest telecom operator

in the world with a subscriber base of over 180 million. It also offers fixed line services and

broadband services. It offers its telecom services under the Airtel brand and is headed

by Sunil Bharti Mittal. In India, the company has a 30.7% share of the wireless services

market.

LOOP MOBILE

It was initially known as BPL, the country’s oldest mobile telecom service provider, changed

its name to Loop Mobile, following the expiry of its brand-use agreement with the TPG

Nambiar-owned BPL Group. It is present only in the city of Mumbai. Its subscriber base is

2.91 million.

IDEA

IDEA Cellular is an Aditya Birla Group Company, India's first truly multinational

corporation. Idea Cellular is a wireless telephony company operating in all the 22 telecom

circles in India, based in Mumbai. It is the 3rd largest GSM Company in India with over 72

million subscribers, under brand IDEA.

TATA DOCOMO

Tata DOCOMO is Tata Teleservices Limited's (TTSL) telecom service on the GSM

platform-arising out of the Tata Group's strategic alliance with Japanese telecom major NTT

DOCOMO in November 2008. Tata Teleservices has received a pan-India license to operate

GSM telecom services, under the brand Tata DOCOMO and has also been allotted spectrum

in 18 telecom Circles. TTSL and has already rolled out its services in various circles.

The launch of the Tata DOCOMO brand marks a significant milestone in the Indian telecom

landscape, as it stands to redefine the very face of telecoms in India. Tokyo-based NTT

DOCOMO is one of the world's leading mobile operators-in the Japanese market, the

company is clearly the preferred mobile phone service provider in Japan with a 50 per cent

market share.

5

VODAFONE

The company was formed in 1984 as a subsidiary of Racal Electronics. By 1991, it was a

separate organization, known by its present name, and with its first controlled overseas

operation in Malta.

A combination of acquisitions and partnerships with other networks has made Vodafone the

world’s largest mobile telecommunications company, with equity interests in 26 countries

across five continents and partnerships in another 14.

Vodafone is teaching itself quickly to have a deeply ingrained customer understanding in

order to make it nimble while developing the scale, scope, and power of a large multinational.

The focus on customer understanding and segmentation knowledge is highly important to

insure that Vodafone doesn’t get sluggish and is able to deliver on customer needs rapidly.

Vodafone is the world's largest mobile telecommunications community, employing over

65,000 staff and with over 130 million customers. The business operates in 25countries

worldwide across 5 continents &40 partner network with200 million customer worldwide.

Vodafone is a public limited company with listings on the London and New York stock

exchanges.

Global recognition of the Vodafone brand is growing as the company rolls out its identity

into

new markets. However, it retains local names and imagery in markets where it is essential to

maintain the trust of customers. To help promote its image worldwide, Vodafone uses leading

sports stars from high profile global sports, including David Beckham and Michael

Schumacher.

Vodafone Essar in India is a subsidiary of Vodafone group & commenced operation in 1994

when its predecessor Hutchison telecom acquired cellular licenses for Mumbai. Now it has

operations in 16 circles covering India's mobile customer base with 34.1 million customers.

Vodafone Essar under hutch brand has named the most respected telecom company best

mobile service in country. They are most effective &creative advertiser of the year. Vodafone

has partner with Essar group as its principal joint venture partner for Indian market.

Vodafone launched their brand across in India on 21st September 2007. Its mission is to

become the communications leader in an increasingly connected world”

MARKET SHARE OF THE INDIAN TELECOM SERVICE PROVIDERS

6

VODAFONE’S STRATEGIC OBJECTIVES

7

Revenue stimulation and cost reduction

Innovate and deliver on our customers’ total communication needs

Deliver strong growth in emerging markets

Actively manage our portfolio to maximize returns

Align capital structure and shareholder returns policy to strategy

BRAND EQUITY OF VODAFONE IN INDAIN SELLULAR SERVICES

BRAND VALUE & BRAND PERSONALITY OF VODAFONE

8

A series of new corporate values and four desired brand personality traits for Vodafone were

identified:

Energetic

Passionate

Proactive

Expert

To instill the new brand personality traits within the attitudes of employees at Vodafone,

NKD chose a teaching method that involved hands-on "experiential learning" using a range

of sensory techniques. At each learning event, employees were immersed in a friendly,

themed environment which exuded the new Vodafone brand personality.

NKD focused on three core programmers to reinforce the new company branding. A series of

live events called Winning Together was used to inspire the company's 400 retail employees

and

equip them with world-class sales skills. This has since become the induction program for all

new retail employees. All shop managers and regional area managers attended a two-day

session called Leading Together, which provided leadership and management skills designed

to be applied back in the workplace. Staying Together was a live review of key people

processes, transforming them - where necessary - to reflect the new retail promise, brand

personality and company culture.

COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE OF VODAFONE SERVICES

9

The competitive advantage of Vodafone Services was that, that it is equally strong as Mobil

ink but at an affordable price. This service possesses some kind of uniqueness which the

other brand does not possess.

Not all brand differences are meaningful or worth-while not every difference makes good

differences are meaningful or worth-while not every difference make a good differentiator.

Each difference has the potential to create company costs as well as customer

benefits .therefore; the company must carefully select the ways in which it will distinguish

itself from competitors.

A difference is worth establishing to the extents that it satisfies the following criteria:

Affordable: “Our services are a unique in many aspects; one of them is the price. We

have offered our communication services at low price than the other services.

We are able to do this because of the new technology, equipments, and accessories.

The modern techniques help us to minimize the cost in the tea production.”

Important: The difference delivers a highly valued benefit to target buyer.

Superior: The difference is superior to other ways that customers might obtain the

same benefit.

Communicable: The difference is communicable and visible to buyers.

Preemptive: Competitors cannot easily copy the difference.

Profitable: The product must provide a real benefit to consumer.

With a large market share in India's major cities and presence outside of the cities, they will

be able to capitalize on India's cell phone expansion. Hutchison has said that it will not accept

anything less than 14 billion and many think that the offers are creeping closer to 20 billion.

Vodafone is a major player in this acquisition, but they have some hurdles to overcome.

Vodafone has put forward a non-binding offer of 16.5 billion, but Essar has a chance to

match this, and with the backing of Reliance Communications, the ante could come close to

20 billion.

Essar Group's current 33% stake in the company gives them substantial power if Vodafone

were to try to make changes to the company post-acquisition.

BRAND AND CUSTOMER COMMUNICATIONS

10

Among all the Brand most powerful brands ranking is Ranked 9th globally. Vodafone has

continued to focus on delivering a superior, consistent and differentiated customer experience

through its brand and communications activities. A new Marketing Framework has been

developed and implemented across the business, which includes a new vision of expanding

the Group’s category from mobile only to total communications “to be the communications

leader in an increasingly connected world”. Brand and customer experience continues to

implement

Vodafone’s promise of “helping customers make the most of their time”. The brand function

has also developed a methodology to develop competitive local market brand positioning,

with local brand positioning projects now implemented in 12 markets.

To enable the consistent use of the Vodafone brand, a set of guidelines has been developed in

areas such as advertising, retail, online and merchandising, all including detail on how to

make the brand work across every touch point. Since June 2006, eight markets have

implemented the global retail design.

In September 2007, Vodafone welcomed India with the “Hutch is now Vodafone” campaign.

The migration from Hutch to Vodafone was one of the fastest and most comprehensive brand

transitions in the history of the 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 reframed in

two months, with 60% completed within 48 hours of the launch.

Vodafone regularly conducts Brand Health Tracking, which is designed to measure the brand

performance against a number of key metrics and generate insights to assist the management

of the Vodafone brand across all Vodafone branded operating companies. This tracking has

been in place since 2002 and provides continuous historical data against key metrics in all 19

Vodafone branded operating markets. Each operating company manages a study that

complies with the standards and methodology set by Vodafone Group Insights. An external

accredited and independent market research organization provides global coordination of the

methodology, reporting and analysis. As a result of these activities the Vodafone brand is

now ranked number

11 in the Brand Top 100 global brands list recently published in The Financial Times, with an

estimated value attributable to the brand of £18.7 billion.

BRAND EQUITY EVALUATION OF VODAFONE

11

Vodafone stands 9th position among all over the world’s brands in the terms of brand value.

PORTER’S FIVE FORCES OF VODAFONE

12

Rivalry

The threat of rivalry in this business is impacted by the low number of big firms in the

market.

There are a few numbers of large firms worldwide that competes for the market share; this

lowers the threat of rivalry. The firms that are in the business however are very competitive

and because of a relative slow market growth in this industry the firms fight over the market

shares that are out there and that increase the threat. There is also a low level of switching

costs to the consumer and a low level of product differentiation and this further brings the

threat level of rivalry up. So in the mobile network industry the threat of rivalry is fairly high.

Substitutes

The threat of substitutes for voice and data communication over the traditional network is

moderate. People calling over long distances could instead of picking up a phone go to a

computer and call through that. The low costs of computer calling could potentially take over

most long distance calling. The more local calls and business calls would be more secure for

the mobile market, although cell phones with the ability to use the internet to make calls are

being made available and will soon take a considerable market share of calls made. The threat

of substitutes can be reasonable high in this industry.

Buyers

The threat of buyers in this industry can be considered fairly low. The individual buyer has

no impact on the price of the products offered.

Suppliers

Supplier’s power in some aspects of this industry is high. In the cell phone part of the

business the suppliers of the phones can have a big impact on the price of products and the

condition of the deal they make with the provider. One clear example of this is when apple

launched their new I-phone. They made an exclusive contract with AT&T so they had the

exclusive right to be the service provider to their phone in America. So the supplier’s power

in this industry is high.

New Entry

13

The threat of entry is highly influenced by the economy of scale of the existing companies.

The large well established companies that have a strong foothold in the market and a known

brand name would make entry for a new company costly. Although there are some new

arrivals the larger firms control the market and will put pressure on any new entries.

The threat of new entries is fairly low for the bigger companies.

Vodafone and Linksys 3G/Wireless Router Opens New Market and Demonstrates Strategic

Collaboration.

Launched in Spain in September 2005, the Vodafone and Linksys 3G/Wireless Router is now

available in Australia, Austria, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, the Netherlands, New

Zealand, Portugal, Spain, South Africa, and the UK. It is the first solution of its kind to be

widely available through established third-party distributors and resellers, supported by an

extensive customer service infrastructure. The team believes it is at least 12 months ahead of

competitors. Using Vodafone’s Mobile Connect 3G/UMTS (Universal Mobile

Telecommunications System) data card in combination with the Linksys WRT54G3G

Wireless-G Router, it is a “plug-and-go” solution that works wherever there is 3G/UMTS

coverage (or the lower-bandwidth General Packet Radio Service [GPRS]) and a power

supply. The technology enables wireless networking for up to five users and access to

additional devices, such as printers, via Ethernet or wireless connections. Access to e-mail,

remote corporate networks, and the Internet operates at up to384 kbps over 3G/UMTS.

The Vodafone and Linksys 3G/Wireless Router brings together two tried-and-tested

technologies to create a solution that crosses traditional fixed/mobile boundaries, born of the

growing user demand for fixed/mobile substitution and convergence.

SWOT ANALYSIS OF VODAFONE

14

Strengths

Diversified geographical portfolio with strong mobile telecommunications operations

in Europe,the Middle East, Africa, Asia Pacific and to some extent the US

Network infrastructure

Leading presence in emerging markets such as India

Weaknesses

Little focus of impact of mobile on climate.

Negative return on assets (ROA) under perform key competitors like AT&T, BT

Group,

Deutsche Telecom

US business not nearly as strong as European/rest of the world operations

80% of its business is generated in Europe (see below for explanation)

Opportunities

Improve accessibility to wide range of customers

Focus on cost reductions improving returns

Majority stake in Hutchison Essar in India

Research and development of new mobile technologies

Threats

Highly competitive market

Still lags behind major competitors in the US

Extremely high penetration rates in key European markets

European Union regulation on cross-border cell phone usage by customers

Airtel is the biggest threat in India, it has maximum market share in India.

Meet the rising expectations of the brand loyal customers.

MARKETING STRATEGY OF VODAFONE

Advertising

15

Vodafone works with icons such as David Beckham, Irfan khan to communicate its brand

values.

Advertising is largely done on TV, on billboards, in magazines and in other media outlets

which reaches large audiences and spreads the brand image and the message very effectively.

Besides Stores have special offers, promotions and point of sale posters to attract those inside

the stores to buy. Vodafone actively develops good public relations by sending press releases

to national newspapers and magazines to explain new products and ideas.

Nothing has been as popular as cricket during cricket seasons in India.

The recent ads of Vodafone, telecom provider in India, named ‘ZooZoo’ have got an

exception to it. The ZooZoo ads have melted the millions of Indian hearts making it more

popular than India Premier League (IPL – Twenty20 cricket).

In 2007, Vodafone acquired 67% stake in Hutchisson and re-branded Hutch telecom into

Vodafone.

Following is the story told by the ads it of how Hutch’s brand image transitioned to

Vodafone’s brand image while pulling along the consumer’s perceptions and preference

towards the Hutch brand.

The Hutch Brand – ‘Wherever You Go Our Network Follows’

Hutch had a very strong brand personality. The slogan “Wherever you go our network

follows’, was closely tied up with the Hutch – Pug campaign. The Hutch network was

personified as the adorable pug dog following the owner, who is normally a very cute kid.

Let’s look at these ads.

After watching these above ads, one would definitely fall in love with the brand. The ads had

a very simple message that was communicated through the dog with backdrop of a beautiful

song.

The Hutch network was personified as the dog and the Hutch brand automatically drew the

brand personality of being adorable, cute. The dog was named Hutch dog and became very

popular in India. The dog became the brand ambassador and a great brand asset to Hutch.

Hutch leveraged this popularity of the dog and used the dog in its websites and in all its

communications.

Hutch was able to make a close connection with the people through this Hutch- Pug dog

campaign and will this relationship sustain after its acquisition by Vodafone?

Vodafone – India Launch

16

Vodafone spent around 50 million USD ( 250 Cores INR) for this brand transitioning.

Vodafone very well understood that Hutch dog represents the network and communicated the

change to

Vodafone beautifully without losing the charm present in earlier Hutch ads. Later, Vodafone

continued to use the Hutch dog in their commercials, but, in different way.

You might have noticed that the new Vodafone ads liked girls than boys and have changed

the song. Yet, these ads resembled Hutch ads closely.

Vodafone differentiates itself from other telecom operators through its value added services

(VAS) and it wanted to educate the customers about it. Unfortunately, the hutch dog had its

limitations and was fired from the commercials and Vodafone brought in traditional

commercial with adults to stress on the VAS.

These ads didn’t appeal much although communicated the message very well. The ads were

no more sweet and cute although they had a wider appeal owing to the young generation in

the ads and the intentional humor. But just when everyone thought that these cute ads have

grown into adults there come the savior – Zoo Zoo ads by O&M. They simply did the job of

communicating the various VAS in a fascinating way. I can say they are simply the best.

The Vodafone’s services were personified as quirky and lively personalities named Zoo Zoo.

The comical way of communicating the message brought in the good old connection what

Hutch earlier had with people. I can hear the whispering that the Hutch’s ad are ‘cute’ again

or even ‘cuter’.

Vodafone India understood what Hutch stood for and tried to connect to people in the same

way.

Vodafone could have forced its global appeal to Indian market but, it didn’t, rather it created

a whole new persona for itself in the Indian telecom market. This confirms that there are no

global brands but there is definitely global brand management. Hats off to Vodafone are for

being

glocal (Global and local) in their approach.

Vodafone is continuing to invest in the mobile advertising market .Vodafone already has an

offer of advertising spaces aimed at advertisers and advertising agencies covering various

formats on offer on the Vodafone live portal that is header banners, channel sponsorship and

sponsorship of free MMS alerts.

Various brands have been contacted to advertise via this new medium, which has great

interactive potential and a very wide audience.

17

BRAND AUDIT OF VODAFONE

Brand Recall

A brand is said to have recall if it comes to consumers’ minds when its product class is mentioned.

It indicates stronger brand positioning in the mind. Still at a higher level is the top of the mind recall; it is the brand, which comes first to the mind. The top of mind awareness indicates a relative superiority a brand enjoys over others. Sometimes a brand becomes so dominant that it becomes the only recalled brand in the product category.

Keeping this theme in mind we asked the consumer which was the cell phone service provider that first came to their mind.

On analysis, we found a well distributed brand recall amongst the telecom service provider brands that exists in India. Furthermore, it was encouraging to observe that Vodafone was the single most recalled brand amongst all telecom service providers. This indicates that a huge outlay on advertising, innovative brand communications, and high visibility and availability of the brand have translated into making Vodafone the top of the mind recall for consumers.

Brand Recall Pie-Chart

33%

23%17%

13%7%

7%

VodafoneAirtelTataIdeaRelianceOthers

18

Brand Preference

Selective demand for a company's brand rather than a product and the degree to which consumers prefer one brand over another is called brand preference. In an attempt to build brand preference advertising, the advertising must persuade a target audience to consider the advantages of a brand, often by building its reputation as a long-established and trusted name in the industry. If the advertising is successful, the target customer will choose the brand over other brands in any category.

The approach to measure brand preference was to first ask the consumer which was the brand he is currently using and which brand would he like to use. This would tell us if his preferences have changed and would also give us an insight into how consumers perceive their current telecom service providers. It is important to note this emotion of the consumer in the light of the upcoming Mobile Number Portability (MNP) rule which the government and service providers are currently mulling about.

Exhibit 1 shows the current service providers of the consumers and Exhibit 2 shows what they would actually prefer.

Exhibit 1

17%

20%

23%7%

30%

3%

Idea Vodafone AirtelReliance Tata Other

The pie-chart in Exhibit 1 represents the current usage of service providers with Airtel and Idea forming a 53% majority of the service provider in use. Vodafone is third with 20% of the people currently using the brand.

19

Exhibit 2

27%

27%20%

13%3% 10%

Idea Vodafone AirtelReliance Tata Other

When asked about the service provider they would like to use the share of Vodafone users increased from 20% to 29%. This shows that if the MNP were to come into place and if the shuffle of telecom subscribers were to happen, Vodafone would be a net gainer and this would be largely because it enjoys an elevated level of brand preference. This is a constructive sign for the company as high brand preference is very hard to achieve in the modern state of competition. As we move forward we will find the reasons as to why Vodafone is so highly preferred.

20

Opportunity for the Brand

A static brand can quickly become irrelevant. But brand innovation also has its risks. Patterns that have played out in other industries can help managers anticipate when and how a brand must change. Once a brand achieves strong relevance and awareness, it serves to create longstanding barriers to entry even when newer competitors' products are superior or much cheaper.

Brand innovation can take place internally through research & development or it could occur externally by understanding the opportunities that are being created due to increased competition and an informed consumer. A brand has to continually scout for opportunities to better itself and its perception among the consumers of its product.

Brand opportunity can be gauged by understanding consumer behavior. One needs to understand what is pulling a consumer away from your brand and what feature about your brand is underperforming to have the same effect – pulling the consumer away from your brand. The Exhibit 3 shows the reasons why people are with their current telecom service providers and Exhibit 4 shows which features of Vodafone brand promise are underperforming to create a negative perception of the brand. In short it is the opportunities that are being missed by Vodafone to make it a better brand.

Exhibit 3

40%

20%7%

23%

10%Value for MoneyCoverage and QualitySwitching costsSchemes and BenefitsOthers

What is understood till now is that schemes and benefits which provide value for money are the factors that pull consumers to subscribe to a telecom service provider.

21

Exhibit 4

10%

53%

17%

13%7%

Coverage & Voice Clarity Customer Service QualityPricing SchemesOthers

It is appalling to observe in Exhibit 4 that one of the vital brand promises of Vodafone i.e. customer service quality, is the one factor that consumers feel is impeding Vodafone from being the best cell phone service provider. Value for money, another imperative brand promise is the factor they feel is second; to customer service quality, is impeding Vodafone from being the best.

From the observations, an understanding of the opportunities that Vodafone can capitalize on is created. Vodafone is a company which focuses on customer service through its brand communications in the form of “Power to You” and “Happy to Help”. It has to ramp up its customer service and is value propositions to make the brand more effective in the market.

Vodafone should try to focus on promises it has made to its customers and faltering on these would be detrimental to its survival. Pricing has to be made innovative and should be centered on creating value for the customer through product bundling and pioneering tariff styles.

22

Brand Image

Images evoked by exposure to a named brand are known as Brand Image.

Like brand personality, brand image is not something you have or you don't. A brand is unlikely to have one brand image, but several, though one or two may predominate. The key in brand image research is to identify or develop the most powerful images and reinforce them through subsequent brand communications.

The term "brand image" gained popularity as evidence began to grow that the feelings and images associated with a brand were powerful purchase influencers, though brand recognition, recall and brand identity. It is based on the proposition that consumers buy not only a product (commodity), but also the image associations of the product, such as power, wealth, sophistication, and most importantly identification and association with other users of the brand. In a consumer led world, people tend to define themselves and their Jungian "persona" by their possessions.

Good brand images are instantly evoked, are positive, and are almost always unique among competitive brands.

Brand image can be reinforced by brand communications such as packaging, advertising, promotion, customer service, word-of-mouth and other aspects of the brand experience.

Vodafone over the years has had many different brand communications. The study was to measure which of these brand communications was the most successful and to know if the brand communication was strong or the brand itself stronger.

It was encouraging to find out that the consumer did not mistaken a non-Vodafone communication to be a Vodafone communication. This shows the effectiveness of Vodafone brand communications.

But the brand was remembered more for its innovative campaigns rather that its brand promise and brand attributes. This was something that was caused due to the innovative and memorable “Pug” and “Zoo Zoo’ advertisements. They formed 70% of the brand images that people remembered when they hear Vodafone. Vodafone needs to focus more on communicating and performing its brand attributes rather than just coming up with innovative campaigns as sales is the bottom line for all these activities and a well kept brand promise will go a long way to increasing sales.

23

Brand Image Pie-Chart

13%

23%

47%

7%10%

Red and White Colours

Walk and Talk

Pug

Zoozoo

Formula 1 and Louis Hamilton

Happy to Help

Power to You

Express yourself

Ab Mera Number hai

24

Brand Recognition

Brand Recognition is the extent to which a brand is recognized for stated brand attributes or communications.

In some cases brand recognition is defined as aided recall - and as a subset of brand recall. In the case, brand recognition is the extent to which a brand name is recognized when prompted with the actual name.

When the respondents were asked what they most associated with Vodafone a continuation of the brand image trend occurred. 50% of the respondents said they associate the name Vodafone with Zoo Zoo’s and 30% said they associate it with the brand logo. In this case the brand logo is dwarfed by the Zoo Zoo which is not necessarily a good observation. This means that repeatedly the brand Vodafone is being associated with the character of Zoo Zoo. It is not known for its logo nor known for an experience which the customer remembers when interacting with the different brand attributes of Vodafone. It is known by a character in its brand promotions and this is dangerous as experiences give an emotional attachment rather than characters from brand promotions.

Brand Recognition Pie-Chart

50%

20%

30%

ZoozooPugVodafone Logo

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Brand Satisfaction

Brand Satisfaction is established only by the experiences that customers have, across each of the brand’s touch-points, over the course of time. Like it or not, these customer experiences—more than our design and marketing—define what the brand is all about. Vodafone being a service provider has many customer touch points.

The customer will form the basis of his experience on the treatment that he receives at every touch point. This experience will form the basis for his brand satisfaction or dissatisfaction. Vodafone has touch points from the time the customer buys a sim card, network service while calling, and assistance available in solving problems, changing customer schemes to paying bills in the automated Vodafone kiosk.

A majority of the respondents felt that their brand satisfaction with the Vodafone brand fall in the range of “Good” to “Satisfactory”. Very few thought it is excellent but over one-third of the respondents feel the Vodafone brand is not satisfactory. This is menacing for a brand trying to focus on customer service. A minority in the “Excellent” category and a one-third majority in the “Not Satisfactory” category lead us to conclude that more of Vodafone’s customer base is disgruntled with it than delighted. Dissatisfied customers do more harm than customers in any other category. Vodafone should focus on reducing these dissatisfied customers rather than try and gain new ones in newer markets as they soon will fall into the “Not Satisfactory” category if the current way on failing on fundamental brand promises continues.

Brand Satisfaction Pie-Chart

7%

27%

30%

37%

Excellent GoodSatisfactory Not Satisfactory

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Brand Personality

It is a comprehensive concept, which includes all the tangible and intangible traits of a brand, say beliefs, values, prejudices, features, interests, and heritage. A brand personality makes it unique.

Brand personality is seen as a valuable factor in increasing brand engagement and brand attachment, in much the same way as people relate and bind to other people.

Majority of respondents have said that they feel the brand personality of Vodafone is in the strong network that it carries. This is a direct relation to the “Pug” campaign where the dog represented the network and the message communicated the strength of the network. This gives us a strong pointer that the Zoo Zoo campaigns did a lot for the brand recall but did not change the brand preference and hence the Vodafone is still known for its network coverage rather than its customer service - the communication given out through its latest advertisements.

Brand Personality Pie-Chart

40%

10%

23%

27%Strong NetworkCustomer ServiceInnovative SchemesValue Added Services

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Brand Loyalty

Brand loyalty, in marketing, consists of a consumer's commitment to repurchase or otherwise continue using the brand and can be demonstrated by repeated buying of a product or service or other positive behaviors such as word of mouth advocacy.

The audit tried to determine the consumer's commitment to repurchase, advocate or recommend the Vodafone brand to others.

Along with brand preference, brand loyalty has been the two measures where the Vodafone brand had failed miserably. With a majority 63% of respondents saying they will not recommend Vodafone to anyone else, it is a very worrying statistic and one which may sound the death knell for the Vodafone brand in India. Mobile Number Portability (MNP) is now a real threat along with companies trying to gain an edge with their 3G and Wimax services. In such a situation having unfavorable brand loyalty and downbeat word of mouth may be disadvantageous to the brand.

Brand Loyalty Pie Chart

37%

63%

Yes No

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Conclusion

The brand audit of Vodafone has given many insights into where the brand currently is, where it should be per se its communications and where it has gone wrong. The major finding in the audit has been to discover that Vodafone enjoys a great brand recall value but is badly affected in the brand satisfaction and brand loyalty areas of the audit. This means that Vodafone does exist as a telecom service provider in the minds of telecom consumers but it may not be the most preferred service provider.

Vodafone is currently in a very delicate situation with close to equal amounts of customers wanting to move away from Vodafone and one-third of the consumers wanting to move to Vodafone. This situation has developed because the company has a focus on gaining new customers as compared to retaining the current ones, which is leading to dissatisfaction. The dissatisfaction is because the current customers are given below par customer service; one of the fundamental brand promises and the focus lies on advertisements and innovative brand communications. Innovative brand communications is healthy for brand recall but not relevant for brand satisfaction and brand loyalty, as this can be achieved only through performance and not through communications.

A significant number of people still want to be part of Vodafone family as it is perceived to have a strong network, an attribute missing with most of its competitors. It should couple this with their current brand promise of customer satisfaction to gain considerable market share when future challenges like Mobile Number Portability (MNP) and 3G and Wimax are introduced in the Indian telecom market.

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ANNEXURE

Name_____________ Age__________ Occupation________________

1. Which cell phone service provider is the best according to you?a. Ideab. Vodafonec. Airteld. Reliancee. Tataf. Other

2. What cell phone service provider do you subscribe to?a. Ideab. Vodafonec. Airtel d. Reliancee. Tataf. Other

3. Why are you with your service provider?a. Value for moneyb. Coverage and qualityc. Switching costsd. Schemes and benefitse. Others

4. What comes to your mind when you think of Vodafone?a. Red and white schemeb. Walk and Talkc. Pugd. Zoo Zooe. FI and Louis Hamiltonf. Happy to helpg. Express yourselfh. Make the most of nowi. Others

5. You associate Vodafone more with which of the following:

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6. Vodafone as a service provider isa. Excellent b. Good c. Satisfactory d. Not Satisfactory

7. What impedes Vodafone to be the best cell service provider?a. Coverage and voice clarityb. Customer Service Qualityc. Pricingd. Schemese. Others

8. Would you recommend Vodafone as a service provider?a. Yes b. No

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BIBLIOGRAPHY

www.vodafone.in

www.wikipedia.com

Brand Management – by Y.L.R. Murthy

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