On day 2 of e4m India Brand Conclave, Nair, Chief Digital Transformation & Brand Officer, Vodafone Idea, spoke about rebranding Vodafone into VI and building a brand in the digital era

The 4th edition of the exchange4media India Brand Conclave virtual event saw industry leaders and brand experts share how they innovated and stayed relevant during the COVID pandemic. On the second day of the virtual event, Kavita Nair, Chief Digital Transformation & Brand Officer, Vodafone Idea Ltd delivered an insightful session on ‘Creating a Brand for the Digital Age’. Nair highlighted the principles of rebranding in this new digital era.

Starting the session, Nair shared the key factor of building a brand in the digital age said: “I had the privilege of building a telecom brand four times from Max Touch, Orange, Hutch to now VI. In this era, it is not just the logo and the brand name that has changed. The consumers and the marketing landscape has changed as well. When we were planning this brand integration, we said that along with borrowing from legacy, we must build for the future. Digital has given consumers a new purpose and newer business models to work together and make this happen. We thought about how we will be communicating with the digital Indian.”

Nair remarked that VI was built for the new age India. They wanted VI to be relevant not only today but also in the years to come. A brand is what a brand does. Nair said, “We wanted to create something that will help us build a future for the organization.”

“The designing was done prior to the lockdown. We did not launch just a brand identity but the whole positioning around it. We created a brand for the screens both the small and large screens. It was flexible not just as a design system but also consumer enterprise, rural and urban social economic classes and different age groups. The brand can be seen in different ways and we had flexibility in building it for the new kind of people consuming our brands. It reflects the interest of digital India. We would like to be a brand that is together for tomorrow and that is the purpose of the brand. We would like our customers to get ahead in their lives and altogether build a better tomorrow”, stated Nair.

Talking about her learnings, Nair remarked, “The small screen has changed the way consumers look at brands and how they consume content. The path to purchase is no more linear. This brings in the opportunity of data and analytics to better navigate it. We decided to challenge the status quo. We knew the journey was messy but participated in this consumer journey which will help our brand in the long run.”

Speaking about the potency of partnerships and integration Nair says, “With this integration of Vodafone and Idea, we had a lot of collaboration with partners to participate in the conversation of partnering with VI. With this gem of an idea, we had people organically participating in this conversation and becoming our ambassadors and advocates. It worked for us. It is the consumers that really build a brand. You need to know how to use it and participate in an engaging manner in this new age world.”

Nair explained that we need to engage with consumers on their terms. “Marketing, data and technology is all coming together. The power of the three is just immense. These principles will help create personalization at scale and leverage technology to create immersive experiences.”

On a parting note, Nair concluded saying, “This is just the beginning for us. A brand is what a brand does and there is a lot more to be done.”