There has been a lot of talk about the re-branding exercise that Airtel executed. They spent an obscene amount of money for this exercise. This exercise coincided the launch of 3G services by Airtel.
Now I have the following questions:
- Does an end-user care if Airtel’s logo or the corporate tune changes?
- Was the timing for the re-branding right?
I question the timing because amid all the discussions that ensued on the re-branding exercise, the launch of 3G services by Airtel took a backseat. I would have thought that the money Airtel spent on the re-branding could have been better utilized if it was used for creating buzz around its 3G services. The message Airtel wanted to send out with their new logo and tune is not clear.
The telecom market has already been in a scanner due to all the wrong reasons. To top it the telecom operators paid huge amounts of money to get the 3G spectrums. Adding to all the woes of these operators, TATA DoCoMo was the first to offer 3G services and that too with negative premium. This puts all the other operators in a dilemma as they can not charge premium now without loosing customers.
This was a pretty smart move by DoCoMo. In my opinion there is going to be an overhaul of the Indian telecom industry soon and DoCoMo might emerge as the biggest and the strongest player in the market. Their pricing strategy has been extremely successful and they have been gaining market share consistently.
