Brand management is the application of marketing techniques to a specific product,

product line, or brand. It seeks to increase the product's perceived value to the customer
and thereby increase brand franchise and brand equity. Marketers see a brand as an
implied promise that the level of quality people have come to expect from a brand will
continue with future purchases of the same product. This may increase sales by making a
comparison with competing products more favorable. It may also enable the
manufacturer to charge more for the product. The value of the brand is determined by the
amount of profit it generates for the manufacturer. This can result from a combination of
increased sales and increased price, and/or reduced COGS (cost of goods sold), and/or
reduced or more efficent marketing investment. All of these enhancements may improve
the profitability of a brand, and thus, "Brand Managers" often carry line-management
accountability for a brand's P&L profitability, in contrast to marketing staff manager
roles, which are allocated budgets from above, to manage and execute. In this regard,
Brand Management is often viewed in organizations as a broader and more strategic role
than Marketing alone.
The annual list of the world’s most valuable brands, published by Interbrand and
Business Week, indicates that the market value of companies often consists largely of
brand equity. Research by McKinsey & Company, a global consulting firm, in 2000
suggested that strong, well-leveraged brands produce higher returns to shareholders than
weaker, narrower brands. Taken together, this means that brands seriously impact
shareholder value, which ultimately makes branding a CEO responsibility.
The discipline of brand management was started at Procter & Gamble PLC as a result of
a famous memo by Neil H. McElroy.[1]

Contents
[hide]

• 1 Principles

• 1.1 Types of brands

• 1.2 Β ρ α ν δ
Αρ χ η ι τ ε χ τ υ ρ ε

• 2 Techniques

• 3 Χηα λ λ ε ν γ ε σ

• 4 Σε ε αλσ ο

• 5 Ρεφ ε ρ ε ν χ ε σ
[edit] Principles
A good brand name should:

• be protected (or at least protectable) under trademark law

• be easy to pronounce

• be easy to remember

• be easy to recognize

• be easy to translate into all languages in the markets where the brand will be used

• attract attention

• suggest product benefits (e.g.: Easy-Off) or suggest usage (note the tradeoff with
strong trademark protection)

• suggest the company or product image

• distinguish the product's positioning relative to the competition.

• be super attractive

• stand out among a group of other brands - like that one compared to the others

[edit] Types of brands

A number of different types of brands are recognized. A "premium brand" typically costs
more than other products in the same category. An "economy brand" is a brand targeted
to a high price elasticity market segment. A "fighting brand" is a brand created
specifically to counter a competitive threat. When a company's name is used as a product
brand name, this is referred to as corporate branding. When one brand name is used for
several related products, this is referred to as family branding. When all a company's
products are given different brand names, this is referred to as individual branding. When
a company uses the brand equity associated with an existing brand name to introduce a
new product or product line, this is referred to as "brand leveraging." When large retailers
buy products in bulk from manufacturers and put their own brand name on them, this is
called private branding, store brand, white labelling, private label or own brand (UK).
Private brands can be differentiated from "manufacturers' brands" (also referred to as
"national brands"). When two or more brands work together to market their products, this
is referred to as "co-branding". When a company sells the rights to use a brand name to
another company for use on a non-competing product or in another geographical area,
this is referred to as "brand licensing." An "employment brand" is created when a
company wants to build awareness with potential candidates. In many cases, such as
Google, this brand is an integrated extension of their consumer.
[edit] Brand Architecture
The different brands owned by a company are related to each other via brand
architecture. In product brand architecture, the company supports many different product
brands each having its own name and style of expression but the company itself remains
invisible to consumers. Procter & Gamble, considered by many to have created product
branding, is a choice example with its many unrelated consumer brands such as Tide,
Pampers, Ivory and Pantene. With endorsed brand architecture, a mother brand is tied to
product brands, such as The Courtyard Hotels (product brand name) by Marriott (mother
brand name). Endorsed brands benefit from the standing of their mother brand and thus
save a company some marketing expense by virtue promoting all the linked brands
whenever the mother brand is advertised.. In the third model only the mother brand is
used and all products carry this name and all advertising speaks with the same voice. A
good example of this brand architecture, most often known as corporate branding, is the
UK-based conglomerate Virgin. Virgin brands all its businesses with its name (e.g.,
Virgin Megastore, Virgin Atlantic, Virgin Brides) and uses one style and logo to support
each of them.

[edit] Techniques
Companies sometimes want to reduce the number of brands that they market. This
process is known as "Brand rationalization." Some companies tend to create more brands
and product variations within a brand than economies of scale would indicate.
Sometimes, they will create a specific service or product brand for each market that they
target. In the case of product branding, this may be to gain retail shelf space (and reduce
the amount of shelf space allocated to competing brands). A company may decide to
rationalize their portfolio of brands from time to time to gain production and marketing
efficiency, or to rationalize a brand portfolio as part of corporate restructuring.
A recurring challenge for brand managers is to build a consistent brand while keeping its
message fresh and relevant. An older brand identity may be misaligned to a redefined
target market, a restated corporate vision statement, revisited mission statement or values
of a company. Brand identities may also lose resonance with their target market through
demographic evolution. Repositioning a brand (sometimes called rebranding), may cost
some brand equity, and can confuse the target market, but ideally, a brand can be
repositioned while retaining existing brand equity for leverage.
Brand orientation is a deliberate approach to working with brands, both internally and
externally. The most important driving force behind this increased interest in strong
brands is the accelerating pace of globalization. This has resulted in an ever-tougher
competitive situation on many markets. A product’s superiority is in itself no longer
sufficient to guarantee its success. The fast pace of technological development and the
increased speed with which imitations turn up on the market have dramatically shortened
product lifecycles. The consequence is that product-related competitive advantages soon
risk being transformed into competitive prerequisites. For this reason, increasing numbers
of companies are looking for other, more enduring, competitive tools – such as brands.
Brand Orientation refers to "the degree to which the organization values brands and its
practices are oriented towards building brand capabilities” (Bridson & Evans, 2004).

[edit] Challenges
There are several challenges associated with setting objectives for a brand or product
category.

• Brand managers sometimes limit themselves to setting financial and market

performance objectives. They may not question strategic objectives if they feel
this is the responsibility of senior management.

• Most product level or brand managers limit themselves to setting short term
objectives because their compensation packages are designed to reward short term
behaviour. Short term objectives should be seen as milestones towards long term
objectives.

• Often product level managers are not given enough information to construct
strategic objectives.

• It is sometimes difficult to translate corporate level objectives into brand or

product level objectives. Changes in shareholders' equity are easy for a company
to calculate. It is not so easy to calculate the change in shareholders' equity that
can be attributed to a product or category. More complex metrics like changes in
the net present value of shareholders' equity are even more difficult for the
product manager to assess.

• In a diversified company, the objectives of some brands may conflict with those
of other brands. Or worse, corporate objectives may conflict with the specific
needs of your brand. This is particularly true in regard to the trade-off between
stability and riskiness. Corporate objectives must be broad enough that brands
with high risk products are not constrained by objectives set with cash cows in
mind (see B.C.G. Analysis). The brand manager also needs to know senior
management's harvesting strategy. If corporate management intends to invest in
brand equity and take a long term position in the market (i.e. penetration and
growth strategy), it would be a mistake for the product manager to use short term
cash flow objectives (ie. price skimming strategy). Only when these conflicts and
tradeoffs are made explicit, is it possible for all levels of objectives to fit together
in a coherent and mutually supportive manner.

• Brand managers sometimes set objectives that optimize the performance of their
unit rather than optimize overall corporate performance. This is particularly true
where compensation is based primarily on unit performance. Managers tend to
ignore potential synergies and inter-unit joint processes.
 • Brands are sometimes criticized within social media web sites and this must be
monitored and managed (if possible)[2]

[edit] See also

Four months ago, Anil Ambani hired AC Nielsen, the market research agency, with a
mandate to conduct research on how stakeholders and customers responded to the
"Reliance" brand.
The agency interviewed over 2,100 respondents, including company shareholders,
professionals, general public and trade partners across 13 cities and came out with some
interesting findings.
First, the good news: the Reliance brand scored high on parameters such as size, speed,
financial stability, performance, scale and promises delivered. That is expected and
understandable.
But the bad news was that it lagged behind in a host of other key attributes - it wasn't
seen as a very emotive, approachable or accessible, and youthful brand.
The second issue according to the survey was even more serious: the brand recall of the
existing logo was nothing to drive home about. Even though the respondents were
familiar with Reliance and its association with the Ambanis, few remembered the punch
line "Growth is Life".
These findings have now formed the basis of one of the country's most ambitious and
expensive brand makeovers, which will give an identity to the Reliance Anil Dhirubhai
Ambani group.
Ambani's executives won't tell, but industry estimates suggest that in the next 12 months,
the group will fork out over Rs 500 crore (Rs 5 billion) to Rs 700 crore (Rs 7 billion) to
make an impression.
This, despite the fact that under the partition agreement between the Ambani brothers,
both sides can use the existing Reliance logo.
Starting this week, the group will revamp signages in hundreds of Reliance Webworld
retail outlets across the country, rework creatives for television and print, change the
stationery and visiting cards of thousands of employees in various ADA companies and,
of course, come out with an aggressive corporate campaign with a new punch line "Think
Bigger", all across the country. The deadline for a complete roll out is expected to be in
the next three months.
That's surely ambitious. And to ensure that everything moves smoothly, the group has set
up a "brand council" consisting of marketing and brand professionals from various group
companies as well as some senior executives of the group who have spearheaded the new
brand identity.
It has also taken external help. The group hired the US-based brand strategy outfit, Profit,
with renowned brand guru David Aaker offering critical advice. And at the downstream
level, it also hooked up with UK design house Landor (which also designed the "Indian"
brand logo for Indian Airlines) to execute the design for the new logo.
New realities
So what necessitated the great brand identity makeover? After all, Reliance has been a
solid brand, time-tested through the last three decades and has become a household name.
The answer lies in the changing nature of Reliance ADA's businesses.
After the split, the Anil Ambani group now straddles businesses that are clearly focused
on the customer and more at the retail level - mobile phones, power, financial services
and insurance.
The existing brand identity and logo was a powerful corporate brand conceived in a
business scenario where the undivided group was largely into B2B businesses such as oil
and gas and petrochemicals.
But with the group split, it was felt that the nature of Reliance ADA's businesses
demanded a more customer-friendly approach and also a brand identity, which could
relate more to people and at the grassroots level.
"The research clearly showed that we needed a brand identity which addresses the
customer more closely than the existing brand offerings. The new brand identity had to
be more youthful, approachable and emotive," says Yogendra Vashisht, head of branding,
Reliance Energy [Get Quote] and a key member of the brand council.
Of course, there were crucial challenges in drawing out the makeover. These emanated
from the nature of the group's business as well as the diverse nature of its customers.
Further, it was a fact that the split in the family had created confusion in the minds of
customers. For instance, unlike an Airtel, which is only in the telecom business, or a
Hindustan Lever [Get Quote] in FMCG products, Reliance ADA straddles diverse
businesses.
So a niche brand identity relating to the attributes of one business was not workable.
Two, the customer base is also diverse - from high-end corporates who use leased lines,
for instance, in Reliance Infocomm, to the rural masses, which uses its mobile services.
So, a brand identity which, would address a niche segment of the market (such as Hutch,
which largely focuses on the upper and middle end of the market) was again ruled out.
Third, in most of the businesses that it straddles, chances are that there would be a large
segment of customers who would be common. Many of them probably use a Reliance
phone, buy power from Reliance Energy and invest in Reliance mutual funds.
"We realised that we needed to create a monolithic brand identity, which would synergise
all the group companies together. The message is that you can get a range of services and
you need not go to anyone else for them," says Ajay Kakar, head of branding in Reliance
Capital [Get Quote] and a member of the brand council.
Lastly, the group was well aware that there could be the possibility of confusion in the
minds of people after the split. Even though, both the groups can use the same logo, the
problem could be on how customers would identify which company belongs to which of
the Ambani brothers.
So, it was felt that there was a need to create a distinct identity even while using the same
name "Reliance". And that, it needed to break the clutter of existing and competing
brands that were already there in the market.
Execution challenges
Kakar gives one example of the complexity of the challenge: while choosing the colour
of the logo, there was need to ensure that it didn't reflect a snooty corporate attitude
addressing only a niche market segment.
But at the same time, it was not possible to choose loud colours that would not appeal to
them at all. The answer, in this instance, was found after about 50 to 60 meetings of the
brand council: create a brand identity that has universal attributes rather than specific to
any business and make it simple and contemporary.
So a red arrow was conceived, which conveys a group that is fast-forward, has clear
targets and a lot of potential for expansion.
The symbolism, insiders say, makes immense sense, because all the businesses in the
Reliance ADA group are like startups with tremendous growth potential. The elongated
A also represents Anil Ambani as distinct from his brother's (Mukesh Ambani) group.
To cut the clutter and make the brand identity more approachable and youthful, experts
used both a combination of upper as well as lower case in the font.
Argues Vashisht, "Most old companies have a consistent font, which is reflective of
formality and a hierarchical organisation. We wanted to break that by saying we will not
have any set pattern and use both upper and lower case fonts. This makes us look more
approachable and, of course, youthful."
The group also took an important decision that the colour code and the logo style would
be common across all companies. Till now, different companies used different colour
codes.
For instance, Infocomm had green, Reliance Capital used orange and blue, and Reliance
Energy had orange colour codes. As a benchmark, the brand managers studied the GE
model, which also has diverse businesses but with a monolith brand.
However, it does allow group companies to choose different colours - a formula that
Ambani's managers decided not to follow. The reason, says Kakar, is, "We concluded
that a monolith model with a single look and feel would work much better for our group
rather than the GE model."
Even the colour combination of blue and red was perceived with care. "Blue represents
calm and serenity, while red represents passion and are universal colours that appeal
across segments," says Vashisht.
But how do experts and competitors see the new brand identity makeover work? Says
Preet Bedi, president of Rediffusion DY & R, "A logo change is always an external
manifestation of an internal change in a group's DNA. You need at least two to three
years before you can really judge whether it is working."
Others are less charitable: "Reliance was earlier a zamindari brand, powerful and strong;
now it is trying to become a consumer brand. Such a strategy will only work if it is
matched by differentiation in quality of service. If brands could be built by changing the
logo, everyone would do the same."
Adds another brand watcher, "It has a B2B psyche, and a mere brand makeover will not
do the trick. They need to change organisationally to establish a long-term relationship
rather than a transactional relationship with customers."
There are other close Ambani watchers who, however, have a different view. They aver
that more than being a brand trying to get close to its customers, the rebranding is an
attempt by Anil Ambani to emerge from the shadows of his brother Mukesh.
Says a senior executive of a competitive company, "They might talk about stakeholders,
but the logo is an attempt by Anil Ambani to consolidate his name and create an imprint
on his organisation after being in the shadows. It is more personal."

Printed from

Companies chase brand new image with trendy

logos
21 Jun, 2008, 1535 hrs IST,Purva Bhatia &
Nitasha Chawla, ET Bureau

NEW DELHI: The 112-year-old Godrej logo is

now a vibrant mix of red, yellow and blue.
Similarly, the rhino running next to Ceat’s logo
for 50 years is now no longer a part of the
company’s logo; the tagline is gone and bold ‘E’
is now a symbol of its much talked about
toughness.

Also, Bajaj Electricals has a new logo indicating

its multi-product profile. Not far behind are
relatively younger brands like Shoppers Stop,
now without an apostrophe and a recognisable
circle, and VLCC, which highlights its
association with natural products with a new
green logo.

The adage ‘old is gold’ seems to have lost its

meaning in this era of revival for survival, at
least for the India Inc, where five big brands
have gone for a younger and vibrant look.

Need to re-invent

Companies who have gone in for a makeover say

fierce competition, plummeting sales revenues
and need for marketing innovation made
rebranding inevitable for them.

Harish Bijoor Consults brand specialist & CEO

Harish Bijoor explains the need to rebrand a
company’s image. “The younger generation feels
jaded with old images and fonts. So, the brands
want to have shades of contemporary design and
style. Each brand is dictated by the whims and
fancy of its customers,” he says.

A makeover may include essential changes to

the brand’s logo, advertising theme or even the
brand philosophy. Sometimes, it is just the need
to connect with the changing times that a brand
may want to change its look.

Stories
Retail M&A seen restarting with a bang
Mukesh Ambani compared to Gandhi for bold
ideas to transform India
Global dreams intensify Ambani family feud
Baby-faced chief executives save face better for
companies

Take for instance, Shoppers Stop, which aims to

strike a chord with the younger generation by
upgrading its appearance, along with customer
services. Shoppers Stop GM (marketing) Sheetal
Choksi says, “We recognised the changing
aspirations of our customers and, hence, decided
on a makeover.”

A new classy box has now replaced the old

round black-and-white logo, and the apostrophe
in its name is also missing. In addition, the store
has replaced its older tagline ‘Shopping And
Beyond’ with ‘Start Something New’.

On the contrary, Bajaj Electricals felt the need to

sport a new logo to create an identity different
from its parent company, as the company
believes that it is a different entity with different
set of stakeholders. So, Bajaj Electricals has now
been registered as a new brand, BAJAJ written
in vermilion orange and a new logo: a forward-
looking eye, which represents the company’s eye
on the future and readiness to accept challenges.

Time for change?

Samsika Marketing Consultants MD Jagdeep

Kapoor points out the situations that justify the
makeover. These include setting up of a new
entity by a company which needs a new identity,
M&As and when a company wants to give a new
direction to itself and establish a new connection
with its customers. This may be done by
adapting a theme either contemporary or modern
and still not lose its pedigree.

Mr Bijoor feels no matter how successful a

brand is, rebranding can help it reach new
heights. “Brands have an opportunity to
showcase their newness to customers by
rebranding themselves. A logo can be perennial
provided it’s contemporary. However, in the
current context, a brand cannot remain insulated
for more than 25 years.”

It is perhaps for this reason that Ceat decided to

bid adieu to its 50-year-old rhino in the logo.
The company feels the new logo is younger in its
approach and connects better with today’s
consumers.

Says Ceat V-P (sales & marketing) Arnab

Banerjee, “The old logo and the tagline worked
wonders for the company in an era where the
chief requirement from a tyre was to handle
overloading. However, now the transportation
game has changed. A tyre is now associated with
mileage, cushioning, speed and parameters like
cost per km, so the change in company’s
marketing approach was inevitable.”

The company is said to have spent Rs 40 crore in

rebranding. Meanwhile, beauty and health care
brand VLCC spent Rs 4 crore to get a new lush
green and aqua blue logo called VLCC Natural
Sciences for its personal care division in May
this year.

VLCC Personal Care CEO Harmeet Pental says,

“In an audit, we had found that customers
recognised the brand, but were ignorant about
the fact that it offered products to suit skin and
hair problems. So, we decided to go for a re-
positioning exercise wherein the brand is
promoted as a natural-products company that
provides solutions for skin, hair and other
cosmetic problems.”

It doesn’t always pay

There have been some rebranding fiascos in the

past to take a lesson from. Like the Air India
rebranding exercise in the late eighties didn’t
take off as desired. Air India introduced a new
‘sun’ livery that was mostly white but had a
golden sun on a red tail.

The new logo, however, had to be dropped after

it was applied to around a half of Air India’s
fleet as customers complained about phasing out
of the classic colours. As a result, after two years
the old scheme was returned. Since then, Air
India has been opting for only minor updates and
facelifts.

Coca-Cola’s attempt to introduce the new Coke

in 1985 was a major flop as it was sweeter than
the original, much to the dislike of Coca-Cola
lovers. The company had to rebrand itself and
launch Coca-Cola Classic, which had the taste of
the original cola.

“Rebranding is a powerful weapon like

bhramastra, which should be used once in a
while. It should justify the reason to enhance the
brand equity and help a brand reach the next
level rather than being a fad,” says Mr Kapoor.
Mr Bijoor stresses on the need to understand
market demands and preferences. “Rebranding
success depends on how well you gauge your
customers’ aspirations,” he says.

Agrees Ashwini Deshpande of Elephant Design

(the company that gave Bajaj Auto a facelift).
“Rebranding is not a trend; it is a need for
alignment in the lifecycle of a brand. It has been
done whenever the brand sees a gap between the
product or service and its perception with the
intended audience. If the gap is wide, it affects
adversely on existing and prospective investors,
employees, users/consumers and ultimately the
bottom line.”

Lessons to learn

Consider GE, which used the technique wisely

when it decided to reposition itself in 2003. It
 wanted to be known as a provider of more than
just lighting and appliances and raise awareness
of such GE businesses as wind power, water
technologies, security systems and jet engines. A
series of advertisements using humour and
innovation showcased its different businesses.

Whereas Xerox only changed its logo that has

helped it to position itself as a global company
with human connections. The company recently
unveiled a new logo, which is a lowercase
treatment of the Xerox name in vibrant red,
alongside a sphere-shaped symbol sketched with
lines that form an ‘X’.

Says Xerox India executive director (production

systems group) Vipin Tuteja, "The new brand
has given Xerox a contemporary look, which is
relevant to the business today, a less formal,
livelier image with strong association to our
heritage.”

'Branding is about detail, advertising is about big picture' Arcopol Chaudhuri/ DNA
MONEY
Saturday, 28 June , 2008, 12:17
Last Updated: Saturday, 28 June , 2008, 12:42
Ceat, Arvind Mills, Shoppers Stop, Godrej, Sify, Cisco, Canara Bank, Network18 —
all have got a brand makeover in the recent past. It's a great time for design
agencies, isn't it?
Yes! There is so much on our hands that we have to turn away work everyday. We've
done the branding for Mumbai, Bengaluru, Delhi and Hyderabad airports. Since January,
we also did four brand launches — Ceat, Trident, Arvind and Shoppers Stop.

Are companies looking at it as a long-term investment?

It has to be long-term. Changing your brand identity every now and then can be too
painful. Internationally, there are hardly any companies who changed logos.
More India business stories
How long does a re-branding process take? And how much would you charge for
single re-branding exercise?
It takes about six months to a year. It depends if the company's made some acquisition or
taken some strategic initiatives. Most of the time it happens if it has entered into a new
business.
We are the most expensive strategic design agency in India and we don't benchmark our
rates with Indian firms in the business. We charge about 10 times more than the next
agency.
About Rs 10-15 crore?
Well, at least that much.
Generally, what do companies expect you to do — increase market shares, push
sales?
Both. Also, address perception issues. It's something the public sector banks faced when
they were unable to address the youth. But design is only a small part of the solution.
Today, it is about looking into the entire picture. We've been tracking Indian consumers
for decades.
Most of the times brands become out-of-tune with customer aspirations. Customers have
evolved faster than brands. And the Indian consumer has become extremely demanding.
The rate of change in his aspirations and desires in the last 5-7 years is much higher than
what it was in the last two decades.
Today, because of the media, there is a convergence between urban, rural and small
towns. They all consume the same media, so their aspirations are shaped in the same way.
How do you go about the re-branding process?
We do interviews with a cross section of employees of the company; then we brainstorm
with separate sets of employees through workshops. We also run anonymous surveys.
Then we speak to all other relevant stakeholders, like customers, competition, analysts
and even the media.
We also include desk research, where we bring in international expertise from The Brand
Union. We scan international trends in that industry and decide on the brand strategy.
How do you ensure that brand makeover is not cosmetic? Does it permeate to areas
like customer service, work atmosphere?
You know, people often people say that, "Oh, they just changed the logo". But think
about it. Changing every interface on that logo costs a lot of money and headache. The
owners of these companies have spent their blood, money and sweat to grow them where
they are, and they wouldn't opt for a brand makeover if there wasn't a good enough
reason for it.
With Canara Bank, for example, people only saw the logo change. What they didn't see
was that we employed management consultants and recommendations were made to
bring people closer together, boost morale. So there was an HR consultancy also working
with us. It's just that these initiatives don't get plastered on Marine Drive. But the logo
does!
Once a brand makeover has happened, how do you measure the success or failure of
the entire exercise?
In most cases, its not difficult to do it. Product branding, for example. We used to do it a
lot in the past, like Fair & Lovely, Kissan and Mother Dairy. You can measure it because
your sales go up. Corporate branding is measured through either a general perception
index or through audits, which we do very often.
Earlier branding addressed only external customers. Today, branding is targeted at even
your employees, because you need them and there's a huge talent crunch! Employees
want to engage with the brand that they're working for, but organisations don't allow
them to do it.
Aren't ad agencies trying to turn the tide by forming own design cells?
Ad agencies don't have the specialisation required for this. Branding is about detail, while
advertising is about the big picture. Clients are clear about what they want.
More India business stories
Which agency would you rate as No 2 and by how far?
That's a terrible question to ask (Laughs). There are hundreds of smaller boutiques who
do very pretty work on brochures, pamphlets. But these firms are not attractive to buyers.
I don't know anyone who looks at the whole brand and aligns it with the entire business,
like we do.
In the last few years, every single global firm looking to enter India wanted to do it
through R+K. But I wish people would grow up from small 2-4 agency strong outfits.

July 6, 2006
Extreme Image Makeover Will Give One Lucky Coachella Valley Business a Fresh New
Look
 FPRIVATE "TYPE=PICT;ALT="
Jeff Beckelman (President of the CVA), Don Adolph (La Quinta Mayor) and Kate Spates
at the announcement of Image Marketing Concepts "Extreme Image Makeover" contest.

Palm Desert, CA - Image makeovers are common for fashions, homes, cosmetics and overall
appearance. Makeovers give anyone the ability to quickly go from out-dated to trendy. Lasting
impressions are the key to success and as styles and trends change, so why shouldn't this hold
true for a professional brand image?
Image Marketing Concepts slogan is "Image is everything" and it's the core business philosophy
for this brand new innovative company. To that end, they announced today the details of an
"Extreme Business Image Brand Makeover". IMC's image consultants will award one local
business with a complimentary professional makeover on September 8, 2006.

India now sports the world's biggest telecom brand in the true sense! Hutch is now
Vodafone and the company is spending nearly Rs 250 crores to sell its new brand name
in the Indian market.
Vodafone plans to paint the town red with its innovative tariff schemes, new value added
services and low cost handsets costing Rs 666.
The Vodafone director refused to confirm this: “I cannot share pricing details but there
will be no discounts or subsidised handset offers. Instead, Vodafone Essar may come up
with innovative handset-bundled schemes for its 35 million consumers.” Company
sources also said that the bundled handsets will primarily be distributed through
Vodafone Essar’s four lakh-odd distribution outlets. “Vodafone Essar is also entering
collaborative arrangements with some of the top vendors to achieve unprecedented
sales,” a top company official was quoted as saying.
While CDMA players like RCOM and Tata Teleservices have adopted handset-driven
expansion strategies to drive up subscriber base, this is the first time that a GSM player is
venturing into this space on a pan-India level.
China’s ZTE, which is looking to set up a cellphone manufacturing unit in India, is
expected to provide many Vodafone handsets in India. Early this year, Vodafone inked a
global low-cost handset procurement deal with ZTE.
ZTE global vice-president (handset systems) He Shiyou told ET that as per the deal,
Vodafone would offer ZTE’s handsets to its subscribers in India. “ZTE hopes to ship
over 10 million of these to India. Though, we ship high-end phones to the West, our plan
for India revolves around low-cost phones, which we offer in collaboration with
operators there,” Mr Shiyou added.
The company will unveil the Vodafone brand on Thursday in one of the biggest brand
transition exercises in the recent times. According to PTI, Vodafone will keep in-tact its
predecessor’s assurance of following customers wher-ever they go, but will replace
Hutch’s ‘Wherever you go our network follows’ catchline with ‘Make the most of now’.