After the adorable pug and lovable Zoozoos, Vodafone now introduces us to a quaint town to herald the launch of ‘Vodafone Red’ in India. Ronita Mitra, Senior Vice President, Brand and Consumer Insights, Vodafone India talks about the brand’s latest campaign, creating brand relevance and increasing brand affinity (and not awareness) and the challenge to take Vodafone to the next level
By Simran Sabherwal
Q] You have just launched a new post-paid offering, Vodafone Red. What are the insights used for your marketing communication?
Vodafone Red is a post-paid product with a bundle of benefits. We wanted to bring alive these benefits so that consumers understand what they are buying into. Therefore, we took a feature-based route. A product concept research before launch showed that the combo plan was a key hook for any consumer to adopt the product. It was like a foundation for the product. Pool and share were seen as innovative and made news in the category. Relationship had a huge delight and wow factor around it. So, we decided to take these three important features and base our communication around it. The holding thought would be brought alive and executed through the creative idea. Therefore, a separate world of Red has been created with very happy, simple people and we have used them to bring alive each feature.
Q] Vodafone Red is a global product which has been brought down to India. How does the Indian communication differ from the global one?
The umbrella thought is again around many good things, as it is a product with many good things. Globally, the product has evolved over a period of time but in India, we have brought in all the features together during the launch itself which is why globally the communication has taken a more thematic approach. Over here, we decided to take the features and benefits route.
Q] What is the target audience for this service?
It’s a post-paid product, therefore the target audience is any potential post-paid customer including an existing post-paid customer of Vodafone or of the competition or a high-end pre-paid consumer.
Q] Being a global brand, what are the challenges you face to maintain the balance between the essence of global brand with the tonality of India?
We are clear that we have to be relatable to the Indian consumer and that is the bottom-line of any communication that we create. It has to connect with the Indian consumer from the point of view of relevance of proposition, the strength of the creative idea and the appeal of communication. Globally, the brand is held together by the global brand pyramid and that becomes the guiding principle for whatever every country does. The brand promise ‘Power to You’ is held constant across the world and it includes the personality of being passionate, playful, personable and professional. We have differentiating brand pillars and the communication is designed around those brand pillars and these are the elements that hold the communication together across the world.
Q] What are the fundamental pillars of your marketing strategy and what are the targets you have set?
For us, the key brand pillars are around being confidently connected - which is around the network’s strength, unmatched customer experience and integrated worry-free solutions, and we basically ensure that all communication is designed around these brand pillars. The targets are at different levels – for awareness, Vodafone is at a very high level. Creating brand relevance is very important through compelling propositions that are meaningful for the consumer and increasing brand affinity through consumer engagement activities. These two are really the important tasks for the brand right now and of course, leveraging the brand to drive business. From the point of view of brand metrics, it would be the emotional image parameters. For example, data is a big priority for the organization, so how do we help in achieving those business metrics?
Q] How do you leverage the various media verticals in your media mix?
We follow a 360-degree media approach for any of our campaigns because different mediums have different roles to play. Typically, Television plays the role of creating awareness and emotional affinity, Outdoor reinforces that awareness and helps us get that spike in awareness, Radio helps in creating buzz and frequency. We use Print whenever there is a need for education. So in Vodafone Red, for example, where we need to detail out the features, Print will play an important role. Digital plays an important role for us because the base is increasingly growing and the consumers we target for most communication requirements have a high affinity with Digital. For Vodafone Red, the consumers we are looking at are digitally savvy and therefore we are using Digital to create awareness and the TV ad will be amplified on Digital through YouTube and embedded videos. It will also be used for education to help the consumer discover and unfold the product and then finally aim at conversion with product adoption. Digital will be used for the entire value chain. TV still has a higher proportion than the other mediums.
Q] While on Digital, the Vodafone Zoozoos page particularly is very popular. What have you done right in the digital space to garner the huge fan base?
As far as Facebook and social media are concerned, Zoozoos help us create engagement with consumers. When we bring out a Zoozoo campaign during IPL, the buzz we see with consumers is really high. There is an inherent endearment that the Zoozoos bring about and inherent love that consumers have for Zoozoos. On social media, consumers want to engage with the brand and talk in a language which is conversational and appeals to them. The Zoozoos allow us to talk to them in that language. We also actually design our content around three areas - brand communication, product or business communication and topical communication. We use topical events, like sporting events, festivals, Valentine’s Day, which have a high importance for the consumer, to engage with them.
Q] What kind of return on investment (RoI) do you see on your digital campaigns as against traditional media?
Digital as a medium allows sharp targeting; so in that sense the RoI is more measurable and the effort is constantly to optimize and better your RoI. We use digital to create and amplify our campaigns and also to drive adoptions and performance and that’s where there is a constant process of optimization that goes on to constantly better your RoI.
Q] Your ads have always managed to catch people’s attention. What is the secret behind their success?
What’s worked is the simplicity and the single-mindedness of our communication. It is also always pegged on a tangible product or benefit, and we have hardly ever done thematic communication. It’s the simplicity, the single-mindedness and finally it is the whole creative idea that Ogilvy is able to conceptualize. Ogilvy has been an integral part and an important partner in the entire journey of building the brand. We have also had the advantage of a consistent team on the Vodafone brand for many years; in fact, some have been there since the days of Orange. There is continuity, consistency and ownership for the brand at Ogilvy.
Q] With all telecom providers providing a similar category of service, how do you set Brand Vodafone apart?
We seek to differentiate ourselves at every level for the consumer, be it network, customer service, availability or the kind of products we have for post-paid.
Q] What are the challenges you face in marketing Brand Vodafone?
The thing about managing a very successful brand is how to take it to the next level and that is the challenge for Brand Vodafone right now. It’s such a loved and successful brand, so how do we now take it to the next level?
About The Brand
Vodafone India is a fully-owned subsidiary of the Vodafone Group Plc. with operations across the country, serving over 170 million customers. Vodafone has built a robust business in a highly competitive and price sensitive market. Serving the needs of businesses, Vodafone Business Services provide total telecommunications (Voice and Data) solutions across mobility and wireline platforms. With the advantage of global expertise and experience and the knowledge of local markets, the business is run through the a few verticals – Vodafone Global Enterprise (VGE), National Corporate (NC), Small and Medium Enterprise (SME) and a dedicated vertical for government customers.
Marketing tip
A marketer needs to remember not to work for personal gain but really to work in the best interest of the brand and to be completely single-minded and passionate about that
Facts
Creative agency: Ogilvy & Mather
Media agency: Maxus
PR agency: Adfactors PR
CMO File
Ronita Mitra, Senior Vice President, Brand and Consumer Insights, Vodafone India leads brand and insights for Vodafone India. In her current role at Vodafone India, Mitra has developed relevant insights on how consumers are progressively using the Internet to learn new things, while on the move. Prior to it, she was head of Corporate Brand Group at ICICI Bank, and launched the new brand identity of ICICI Bank articulated as ‘Khayaal Aapka’ post the economic crisis. Earlier, she was involved with the relaunch of the masterbrand, Castrol, for which India was chosen as the first country across the world.
