Vodacom name will stay for at least another five years

These shareholders finally came round during the course of last year and budgetary approval was received in November 2010. The company and its partners have been planning nonstop since then to roll out Vodacom's new image.

With the massive rebranding campaign of Vodacom's corporate colours now well underway, a fair amount of confusion seems to exist around why it's changing its colours to those of Vodafone but sticking to the Vodacom brand.

Scarcella says that, while minority shareholders bought into organisational changes and the associated brand revamp, the Vodacom brand was considered too valuable to change at this stage. Because of costs it is safe for at least the next five years, says Scarcella, after which stage a name change might well be up for discussion again.

Biggest undertaken by Vodafone group

Vodacom is the third biggest company in the Vodafone empire and the brand revamp is the biggest ever undertaken by the Vodafone group.

Apart from pressure by Vodafone, which considers it standard practice to rebrand majority owned businesses in its own image, Vodacom was running the risk of becoming the incumbent telco company in South Africa, and was possibly becoming way too comfortable in its entrenched position.

For this reason, explains Scarcella, and because the local telco landscape has changed so dramatically over the past several years with the launch of 8ta, the rebranding of Cell C and marketing successes for MTN, the business felt it had to change and reinvigorate itself, as well as its brand.

The business is moving to data, yet its stores are still all about handsets, says Scarcella. In short, Vodacom needed a culture shift, in line with changed consumer requirements and expectations and products in keeping with changed demands on the ground.

Designed to prove substantive proposition

The first part of the campaign is designed to facilitate the identity migration. From business cards to Vodacom's 40 000 points of presence, all need to be moved to the new brand identity, a process that is expected to be completed by Sunday, 4 April 2011. What follows is a campaign designed to prove the substantive proposition of the new brand.

Internally, a process to modernise the business is also underway. On a cosmetic but symbolically important level, group CEO Pieter Uys (@uyspj) is moving out of his corner office into an open plan office, while IP protocols that restricted access to social media sites such as Facebook has been opened up. These form the foundations of building a new organisation for a new age, says Scarcella, which will see every single customer touch point reengineered.

In terms of changes in the formal telco market, and Scarcella points out that Vodacom's competition is much broader than that:

• MTN has finally managed to make an emotional connection with consumers through its 'Ayoba' campaign. It's also making a concerted push into the data space - one Vodacom believes it owned up to now.
  
• Cell C has been relaunched and is investing in its network while positioning its messages as disruptive in the marketplace.
  
• 8.ta is the new player on the market but for the moment remains a relatively unknown entity.

All the players have upped their marketing spend, which brings renewed customer focus on this sector.

Fragmented in the past

As the new marketing campaign rolls out across South Africa, Scarcella says around 50% of stores have been converted to the new image to date. While Vodacom's visual identity was quite fragmented in the past, the new image will be monolithic across the country.

The new identity is being rolled out in all of Vodacom's markets except for the DRC. Mozambique, Lesotho, and Tanzania saw the new brand identity rolled out at the same time as SA.

On Internet rumours that Vodacom paid Cell C off to change its own corporate colours from red to black when it did, Scarcella has a chuckle, and says he can categorically deny these claims. It was fortuitous that Cell C changed it branding when it did, but as Scarcella points out, Vodafone successfully competes with Bharti Airtel in several markets, whose corporate colour is also red.

In total, the rebranding project will cost R200 million in hard costs, while media spend around the marketing campaign has been integrated into the current media budget. Hard costs would be signage, the new logo atop Ponte tower, changes in store, etc.

Relied on Vodafone's best practice

Since Vodafone has widespread international rebranding experience, the company relied on Vodafone's best practice to roll out the local rebrand, with considerable assistance from Vodafone's offices in London and Dublin in particular.

It's too early to say how the campaign has been received, but initial research indicates a high level of consumer awareness that Vodacom's branding has changed. Criticism of the heavy flighting schedule on local TV has resulted in that being pulled back, says Scarcella. The proof will ultimately be in the pudding when the second phase, with its focus on substance rather than the colour red, is launched and, of course, beyond.

Scarcella admits Vodacom's website doesn't deliver to standard for a tech-focused company and promises improvements in the next several months. Consumers should be able to initiate their relationship with the company online, search for products and packages that suit them, purchase those, and make use of services such as billing etc online.

While Vodacom might be playing catch up on its web offering, it is looking at leapfrogging Vodafone companies in other markets soon. The real world experience and the digital experience need to match, says Scarcella, and soon it will.

Renewed focus on data services

With a renewed focus on data services, Vodacom will be redesigning stores to move the customer experience beyond mobile handsets. It is currently aiming to introduce smart phones at under US$100 cost-to-customer because it sees these devices are the first point of 'Net access for many South Africans. Scarcella expects users to migrate from smart phones to tablets and finally laptops as they gain web proficiency.

Tablets are a major growth area for Vodacom. Research indicates that, by 2015, tablet sales will outpace laptop sales globally - a trend Scarcella sees playing out in SA in roughly the same time frame.

Soon consumers will realise the difference brought about at Vodacom is about much more than blue and green vs red and white, Scarcella insists. Ultimately the rebranding exercise will prove to be about more than new corporate colours but about a new way of servicing customers.

Vodacom can expect South Africans to hold them to that promise.

For more:

• Bizcommunity: What kind of Vodacom is red?
  
• Bizcommunity: DDB/Draftfcb furore highlights industry confidentiality issues
  
• TechCentral: Vodacom vs Cell C: the gloves are off
  
• Bizcommunity: Vodacom, Cell C spat takes nasty turn
  
• Bizcommunity: Vodacom sees red over Cell C taunts
  
• Bizcommunity: Draftfcb lights up 'Power to you' rebranding exercise
  
• Bizcommunity: Vodacom rebrands, turns 'red and simpler'
  
• Bizcommunity Search: Vodacom Cell C
  
• Twitter Search: Vodacom Cell C or Vodacom Draftfcb

• Google News Search: Vodacom Cell C