Case Studies

Achieving Differentiation Through Branding

Vodafone is the largest mobile telecommunications network company in the world. Vodafone has interests in mobile networks in 28 countries across five continents, with over 101 million customers worldwide. It aims to be the world's leading wireless telecommunications and information provider, generating more customers, services and value than any of its competitors.

Challenges

Build compelling brand preference in a market place glutted with undifferentiated competitors

Protect Vodafone’s position in the market (27% share in Europe), making customer retention and reducing “churn” critical

Identify ways to acquire new users in a maturing market, without relying on price discounting

Understanding opportunities to get consumers to use their cell phones more

Translating the Vodafone global brand positioning across Europe and Asia-Pacific, while building ownership at the local market level

Approach

Created a multi-dimensional brand architecture that lets Vodafone take full advantage of the many drivers of preference in the category

Developed a positioning around owning “To Communicate” that extended Vodafone’s market

Conducted research to understand how people make choices between carriers, and developed strategies to overcome switching

Identified new usage occasions, as well as opportunities to drive more usage from existing occasions, and evaluated potential new programs with consumers to understand impact on usage

Conducting opportunity assessment in Japan to determine relevance of global architecture to local needs

Results

60% towards completion of integrating local brands into a single, pan-European brand

The company has begun to develop localized versions of the global Vodafone brand architecture to direct all activities that touch consumers

Facilitates Vodafone’s annual long-term marketing planning session

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