Vodafone India Case Study: How Africell should have handled rebranding in Uganda

In 2014 Orange Uganda was acquired by Africell. Africell being a less known brand in eastern Africa cast a lot of doubts and questions on their ability to take over, establish and maintain the services that Orange Uganda was known for. Their first challenge was to successfully rebrand in Uganda which despite some attempts hasn't been successful yet.

In the case study below, I show how Vodafone India faced similar (or probably harder) circumstances and how they handled rebranding in India. I also make suggestions on what Africell Uganda can do to successfully rebrand.

The year was 2007, Vodafone had just acquired 67% stake in India’s Hutchison Essar from Hong Kong-based Hutchison Whampoa. The acquisition was completed in May 2007. The company was renamed Vodafone Essar and Hutch Telecom was rebranded into Vodafone. Most interesting, was the nature of the Indian telecom sector at the time. It was one of the biggest and fastest growing in the world with very fierce competition from both private and government owned telecom companies.

As of 2007, India had a total of 250 million active mobile connections. In 2013 India had 886.3 million mobile subscribers and a total telecom revenue of $32 billion as of FY 2010–11. At the time of acquisition, Hutch was the 4th largest telecom with 35 million subscribers and over 40,000 stores. By September 2014, Vodafone was the 2nd largest telecom in India by subscriber base with 173 million customers after Bharti Airtel representing about 21% of the total mobile subscription in India. How did they do it?

When Vodafone was rebranding, it spent about $4M on the entire campaign but that may seem justified for a company that had a huge financial base and could afford to hire the best to execute the transition strategy. Let’s look at how they did it and what Africell Uganda can learn from Vodafone India.

How Vodafone did it in India

Knowing how competitive the Indian market was and the fact that Vodafone didn't want to lose the clients from Hutch Mobile during the transition, they found out what already worked and carried on with it.

The year was 2003 in India, several telecommunications companies were competing for a share of the rapidly growing mobile phone market. Hutch Mobile wanted to convey the message that its service was robust enough to provide coverage in every part of its coverage areas. It hired Ogilvy & Mather Mumbai to create an advertisement campaign focusing on this theme. Mahesh V. and Rajeev Rao, Senior Creative Directors at the agency, spent a whole night developing the idea. After bouncing off a couple of ideas, they then came up with what would later make a historical campaign.

Thinking creatively around the theme “Wherever you go, our network follows”, they toyed with the idea of using a dog to portray certain values like reliability and unconditional support. They then hatched the idea for the campaign: a dog (Man’s best friend) that follows a boy in the most unlikely places — school, bath, barber shop, etc. Using a Pug dog that was then perceived as ugly, they went ahead to create one of the most successful Ad campaigns in India. (The Pug went on to become a very popular breed of dog in India not to mention it became quite expensive to buy one too)

When the takeover by Vodafone was finalized, India was in love with the pug and the previous Hutch ads. Vodafone went on with the same concept to create series of ads to help them execute a successful transition and rebrand. Looking at the ads, they addressed the major concerns that customers would have. This had the effect of assuring Hutch customers that they need not worry about the transition. In any case, the rebrand was a promise of all they had before but just bigger and better.

Vodafone replaced the boy with a girl and equally pulled off some of the most emotionally evoking ads. Here is a compilation of some of the Vodafone ads with the Pug dog. Some are not so clear but you still will be able to watch.

The pug concept worked for a while until they had to move on to something else. By this time, Vodafone had slowly crept into the hearts of many customers with their charming ads. Vodafone is now the 2nd largest telecom in India by subscriber base holding about a 21% market share with close to 173M customers. I wouldn't assume that all the success of Vodafone as a brand was dependent on the transition campaign but it’s evident that the transition helped create acceptance of the new brand in a volatile and highly competitive market.

How Africell can do it in Uganda

Rebranding in and of itself has never been easy. There are many global horror stories of rebranding campaigns that went terribly wrong. That shouldn't be the case with Africell. I offer a couple of suggestions on how Africell can manage the rebranding exercise.

Understanding the Implications of rebranding

A rebrand isn’t just a name change, new colors or a logo, it’s a new and unfamiliar direction for very many. It means winning over the hearts of those who are skeptical about the new direction, calming down their fears while making a promise of continuity and improvement. Rebranding is a process that has to effectively communicate and engage with the current stakeholders managing their interests and expectations to ensure establishment of the brand.

“ Whether you’re educating your employees or your customers about the decision to rebrand, communications should be ongoing and transparent throughout the campaign. Change is never easy, so winning the hearts and minds is crucial to the success of your rebranding campaign. But not just any communication will do: It must be strategic.” — CMSWire

While you shouldn’t ignore the realities associated with the initiative, it’s vital that the different stakeholders (partners, employees, customers, suppliers, financial institutions, government and society as a whole) understand why change is happening and the outcomes a company hopes to achieve by implementing changes. In rebranding, transparency is key. The more stakeholders feel as if they are properly informed and educated, the more likely they’ll support the initiatives and become brand ambassadors. If they don't, they most certainly might oppose the initiative and frustrate any efforts in that direction. This can manifest in things like issues with government and regulatory bodies, employee mass exodus and customer churn.

Get the right partner to handle Marketing/PR and the entire transition

One of the worst things you can do as a company is try to handle rebranding in house. A successful campaign requires more than a revamped logo and change of colors. It demands a vision that inspires customers, employees, investors, and others to see the company in a new light. A light that, just like a moth is attracted to light, will attract people to it.

These kind of campaigns as seen above are not the kind that are done by people without the expertise and experience to pull it off. We have several Marketing, Advertising and PR firms in Uganda. Among them are SCANAD, MAAD, Star LEO, Metropolitan Republic, Moringa, QG Saatchi & Saatchi, BrainchildBM, Media Analyst and Tonic among others. Africell should invite a couple of these firms to pitch and choose the best to help them not only manage the transition but compete favorably in Uganda.

Get the marketing right

Brand and market positioning are going to be vital for Africell to make it in Uganda. Orange Uganda was known for reliable and fast internet. What will Africell be known for? given the current market developments like Google’s project link, the entry of Vodafone and multiple ISP’s, Africell will have to be super strategic to keep up the data niche. Obtaining a critical mass of voice clients is not going to be any easier and neither is Mobile Money.

Africell now has to redefine who they want to be in Uganda and come up with killer strategies to make it happen. Even though it’s an uphill task, it’s far away from impossible — It can be done!