‘Major’ Vodafone Rebrand Suggests Confidence Has Returned To Newbury

Vodafone has initiated the most significant rebrand of the company in decades as it seeks to capitalise on growing momentum following a couple of difficult years.

We don’t often cover marketing campaigns at Silicon (aside from Ben Sullivan’s seminal piece on the Lexmark rebrand of 2015) but Vodafone is one of the UK’s biggest technology companies, with a presence in 36 countries.

Aside from a new slogan, “Ready?”, which will then be followed by a strapline in a local language, Vodafone has a new logo. The speech mark emblem was first introduced in 1998 and had evolved into a 3D logo. Vodafone has now reverted to 2D to reflect its new focus.

Vodafone rebrand

So why the rebrand? Well, Vodafone says the change reflects growing optimism that technology will transform living standards and society, in particular green energy, medical tech, 3D printing, transportation and the Internet of Things (IoT).

“We believe there are very good reasons to be optimistic about the future as emerging innovations in science and technology begin to have a profoundly positive impact on society,” adds Vodafone Group Chief Commercial Operations and Strategy Officer, Serpil Timuray.

“Vodafone has a long and proud history of bringing new technologies to hundreds of millions of people worldwide, enhancing quality of life and transforming the workplace. Our new brand positioning is intended to embody Vodafone’s mission and purpose to help our customers and communities adapt and prosper as these remarkable new trends reshape the world.”

Ignoring the marketing guff, there is some significance to the rebrand. For the past few years, Vodafone has struggled in its traditional strongholds of Europe as intense competition, difficult regulatory environments and falling legacy revenue have contributed to disappointing performance.

But the multi-billion pound ‘Project Spring’ network upgrade programme, huge investments in fixed line broadband and a focus on IoT have helped turn things round.

Only last week, Vodafone agreed a deal with Portuguese telco NOS to build and share a fibre to the premise (FTTP) network in the country, serving 2.6 million properties.

The UK remains a sore spot, with revenues falling 4.5 percent to €1.8 billion in the most recent quarter, but Vodafone is confident about the future. As it will tell you in its “biggest ever” marketing campaign over the next few months.

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