Vodafone Idea is likely to relaunch its brand on Monday, unveiling a completely new identity and communication around it, it is reliably learnt.
The relaunch is to have a combined brand identity and advertising around it as the organization has till now been advertising the two brands separately, officials familiar with the matter said.
The entire leadership of the entity – which was born out of merger of Vodafone India and Idea Cellular on August 2018 – is likely to announce the renewed brand positioning as it tackles a tough business scenario where parent Vodafone Group is unwilling to commit any additional funds.
The unveiling of this new brand is to communicate the superior quality of calls and top notch service around it, officials said.
The attempt is to attract a new set of subscribers on the promise of assured quality under this brand and stem further user erosion, it is learnt.
While erstwhile Idea Cellular had a more rural reach, Vodafone was popular in the urban areas. The telco has already integrated its post paid plans under the Vodafone brand.
But the telco has been steadily losing its customers to rivals Reliance Jio and Bharti Airtel.
It has seen its user base plunge to nearly 280 million at June end from 408 million at the time of merger. Its revenue market share (RMS) also plunged 448 basis points (bps) sequentially to 23.3 per cent in the June quarter, triggered by heavy market-share declines in urban circles, analysts said. Market leader Jio, in contrast, reported strong sequential growth – 702 bps to 41.8 per cent – in its RMS in the April-June period, while Airtel’s RMS too climbed 391 bps on-quarter to 34.8 per cent.
Last Friday the telco announced that it plans to raise funds of upto Rs 25,000 crore(US$3.4million) via a mix of debt and equity instruments in one or more tranches, which will be used to pay statutory dues and invest in network operations to take rivals. https://telecom.economictimes.indiatimes.com
