Airtel New Advertising Campaign A Critical Analysis Marketing Essay

Published Date: 23 Mar 2015

The first question we encounter in the study of advertising and brand promotions as students is 'why advertising'? 'Is it really important'? After all, how much role does 'promotion' play as part of the 4Ps in realizing the ultimate marketing objectives of the brand or the company? The new advertisement campaign of Airtel provides a fascinating case that helps us in studying these questions with all their criticalities.

Background

Airtel is an Indian multinational telecom service provider with presence across 19 countries. In India it is one of the most reputed brands. Outside India, it is known as "Zain" in Africa and "Warid "in Bangladesh. Having revolutionized the telecom industry in the fifteen years since its inception, Airtel decided to reposition the brand with a new logo, jingle and advertisements so as to have a uniform presence world-wide. The idea behind the new positioning was to signify Airtel's journey towards the new world of digitization. It wanted to make its presence felt in the 3 G, social media and mobile based e-commerce space and connect with the new age customers. Hence a London based ad agency came up with the new logo with letter 'a' in lowercase, with Airtel written beneath it in lowercase. In the words of Sanjay Kapoor, the CEO of Bharti Airtel, "The new logo is modern ,vibrant , friendly and signifies Airtel's commitment to reach out to its shareholders and consumers , the letters in the lowercase is a symbol of its humility " .

New logo Old Logo

http://www.afaqs.com/all/news/images/news_story_grfx/2010/28828_2.jpg

http://www.afaqs.com/all/news/images/news_story_grfx/2010/28828_1.jpg

The Launch

The new logo is paired with the tagline "Dil jo chahe pass laye "again reinforcing Airtel's commitment to the users. The new look was promoted through all the advertising channels such as TV, print, outdoor and digital campaigns. In an attempt to make the customers identify with the new look, Airtel even launched a campaign where the customers had to name the new logo of Airtel .To reemphasize the new look of the Airtel ,A.R Rehman was roped in to compose a fresh jingle for Airtel .

The story so far looked good .With the big names such as JWT, Madison Media Plus, Digitas and Web chutney working behind the campaign, one could have been assured of the success of the campaign.

The Backlash

What happened next took everyone by surprise. Social media space and newspapers alike were abuzz with the negative criticism of the new look and campaign.

Social media conversations about the rebranding exercise

In a survey conducted by brand monitor analysis the sentiment of tweets, the results showed that Almost 62% of the conversations about the new Airtel logo were negative

 Facebook discussions and LinkedIn discussions the Position team analyzed, 3 distinct themes around the reactions emerged:

Approximately 15% of the conversations were direct comparisons of the new Airtel logo to the Videocon and Vodafone logos

Approximately 10% of the conversations suggested that Airtel should have invested money in improving their customer service and network availability instead

A very small minority (1%) called for a reinstatement of the old logo or a fresh redesign exercise

(Source: http://blogs.position2.com/airtel-brand-revamp-social-media-response)

Fans even went to the extent of comparing the logo with Videocon & Vodafone logo

Click to enlarge: Logo Comparisons Created by a fan

Primary Research

In order to get a first-hand account of the user reaction the Airtel's new advertising campaign I interviewed some fellow B school students who have done their specialization in marketing. Given below are excerpts of some of the interviews

Sayan Majumder: "I don't connect with new brand identity of Airtel .I had more emotional attachment with the previous one. It is true that a company needs to know to evolve but there was no need for Airtel to rebrand itself. It could have focused on providing more on customer satisfaction "

Sakyabrata Dutta: "Airtel visual appeal has gone for a toss .In an attempt to appeal to a global audience the advertisement has lost its local flavor "

Sandeep Somisetty: "The new promotion strategies of Airtel are definitely a deliberate attempt to connect with the young 3G audience. The focus on technology as the underlying theme of its advertisements definitely reinforces the brand as a technology savvy one. However, I am not sure how much this drastic brand repositioning will translate into enhanced top-line growth for the company. From my little knowledge of the telecom sector, most of the sources of revenue lie in the untapped rural market. It is hard to find them connect with this new urban, cosmopolitan avatar of the brand".

The Learning

In spite of the initial negative sentiments ,consumers have now started to connect with new brand identity and may eventually come to like it .But whatever may be the final results for Airtel ,this campaign will always be remembered for the fuss it created and a

few lessons an advertising professional can learn.

Customers own the brand for them it's a way of life and any change in the brand proposition should be done taking customer into consideration; otherwise the millions spend on advertising just go down the drain.

Such a fiasco can even affect the sales of the company. In one instance a salesman was dejected that the shopkeepers were making fun of the new merchandise of the Airtel.

Advertisement forms an integral part of the marketing of a brand. It is a means to reach the consumers and should be designed keeping in mind the final marketing objective to be achieved.

Finally, advertisers should learn that 'If it ain't broke, don't fix it'. The Airtel brand itself was build through years of tremendous hard work & exemplary performance. It is not clear what prompted this change of positioning, may be the recent telecom troubles acted as catalysts. However, evidences suggest that whatever be the motive, it was not successful. The brand managers of Airtel may be forced to take a lesson like those at Coca-Cola who famously introduced the 'New Coke' in 1985 in response to Pepsi & had to take it back after huge consumer backlash.