Vodafone Case Study

Company History:                                  [pic 1]

        Vodafone India is a 100% subsidiary of Vodafone Group. It commenced operations in 1994 when its predecessor Hutchison Telecom acquired the cellular license for Mumbai. Brand Vodafone was launched in India in September 2007, after Vodafone Plc. acquired a majority stake in Hutchinson Essar in May 2007. From a single operation base with 31 million customers, the company has expanded its operations across the country to cover all 22 telecom circles and service 210 million customers. A diagrammatic view of how it came into existence.

1995: Hutchison Whampoa launches Operation in Mumbai.

2000: Service in other metros- Delhi & Kolkata and also Gujarat markets through Essar acquisition.

2002: Operations in Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and Chennai.

2003: Acquires AirCel Digilink (ADIL- ESSAR Subsidiary) and launches services in Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh East and Haryana. All Circles rebranded under “Hutch” brand, “Orange” in Mumbai.

2005-06: Starts operations in three more circles- Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Maharashtra, after acquiring BPL Mobile. BPL operates only in Mumbai under the brand ‘Loop Mobile’.

2007: Acquires a 67% stake in Hutchison Essar for $11.1 billion with a subscriber base of 30million. The company is renamed Vodafone Essar and ‘Hutch’ is rebranded as ‘Vodafone’.

2010: April: Vodafone crosses 100 Million subscribers. May: Vodafone acquires spectrum for 9 circles in India in the auction for 3G spectrum. Oct: Soft launch of 3G in India.

2011: Vodafone Group buys out its partner Essar from its India mobile phone business. Pays $5.46 billion to buy Essar’s 33% stake in the Indian subsidiary taking Vodafone’s share to 74%. Vodafone Essar Limited now becomes Vodafone India Limited.

2012: Vodafone Group Plc. acquires Cables and Wireless

2013: Vodafone receives FIPB clearance to increase stake to 100% in India unit.

2014: Vodafone India is fully owned by Vodafone Group.

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VISION:

        Vodafone Group Vision[pic 4]

        Vodafone India Vision[pic 5]

BRAND:

        Vodafone has made it presence felt all round the Globe with its striking speech-bubble mark that makes a bold impression designed since 1998. The 3D look of the logo definitely had a gaudy impact. But now they are moving into a new visual identity which will place much greater emphasis on Vodafone’s iconic ‘speech mark’ in the biggest change to one of the most recognizable symbols of Vodafone since inception. The ‘speech mark’ will now appear as the central graphical focus overlaid on all marketing and marketing communications activity. The logo will also appear in a new 2D design in place of the 3D approach.