Rebranding/Repositioning

Why Rebranding? Rebranding is the creation of a new name, term, symbol, design, or a combination of them for an established brand with the intention of developing a differentiated (new) position in the mind of stakeholders and competitors This may involve radical changes to the brand's logo, brand name, image, marketing strategy, and advertising themes. These changes are typically aimed at the repositioning of the brand/company, sometimes in an attempt to distance itself from certain negative connotations of the previous branding, or to move the brand upmarket. However, the main reason for a re-brand is to communicate a new message for a company, something that has evolved, or the new board of directors wish to communicate. Rebranding can be applied to new products, mature products, or even products still in development. The process can occur intentionally through a deliberate change in strategy or occur unintentionally from unplanned, emergent situations.

Why Airtel undergo Rebranding? To establish youthful dynamic and international personality Logo is a representation of that.

Airtel is one of the Indian MNCs that has made it big in the global arena, thereby becoming the worlds fifth largest telecom operator, catering to around 200 million customers across 19 countries. The Rebranding has elevated the brand Airtel to the Global Player league. It provides Airtel a much needed instant and uniform recognition across the diverse international markets in which it operates.
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. From large hoardings, to banners to small kirana store in the nooks and corner of the city, every Airtel Ad had the new logo. 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.

Airtel has rebranded its logo to a white colored curvy model along with an orangish background. On top of it, the brand is using its media strength to advertise the change it has brought especially with the introduction of 3G.
Well in the course of expanding internationally Airtel has acquired a whole lot of companies like Zain in Africa and Warid in Bangladesh. Now as these entities transition to the brand Airtel the company is trying to gain an international image -- a new, modern, more friendly and accessible image in the minds of all the users in these various countries.

The change in the brand identity is very essential as Airtel is no longer restricted to the voice-based services alone. It is all set to create new milestones in the application based services also, with the introduction of the 3G services. This transformation of the brand of Airtel needs to be emphasized to its

growing customer base. The rebranding has infused a lot of youthful energy into the brand Airtel that has been in the maturity stage of the Product Life Cycle for quite some time and would connect well with the young Indian market.
Elements of Airtel rebranding The new logo: which is similar to the competitor Vodaphone. The logo is a stylized character a with airtel (all small) written at the bottom. It certainly looks fresh and simple. The new jingle Commercials featuring foreign models..new launch add campaign

Effectiveness
Airtel being Market Leader should have just tried to include some humour in their communications and spend bucks on establishing the Brand Associations rather than spending such a huge amount of money on rebranding exercise. And i cant understand what was wrong with the Previous Airtel Logo. It was simple yet distinct. It was one of the strongest Brand Association of Airtel. I fear customers now might not be able to recognise the new logo, so the brand might face little challenge mainly in the semi urban and rural markets On top of it i feel rebranding is an exercise which can be used if the brand was dying. But Airtel just needs a face lift thats all. Rebranding wasnt an exercise which it should have entertained. It is giving even more leverage to Vodafone in its own uncertainty Subscriber Analysis Dec-10 Wireless Airtel users(in millions) Wire line Airtel users(in lakhs) Market Share(%) Market Share(%)(in rural areas) 152.49 32.57 29.29 26.46 Jan-11 155.79 32.68 27.61 25.19

In GSM ,bharti airtel has the maximum share in 2011,but it has gone down from last year. According to research more than 50 % of people disliked the image Positives: No. 1 in the telecom industry both in rural and in urban areas Successfully introduced 3G through wide distribution network and trying to retain back their customers through its products at the attractive prices.

Negatives: Rebranding strategy was not effective as customers are not getting familiar with the logo. Maximum customer complaints has resulted loss of 3.2lakh customers after introduction of MNP(Mobile Number Portability). High rebranding cost has put Bharti Airtels net profit down by 41%.