[blackwasp]

Vodafone Idea Ltd on Monday launched an integrated brand called VI, two years after the completion of Vodafone India Ltd and Idea Cellular Ltd merger. The company’s chief executive Ravindar Takkar said the unified brand has a strong and reliable network, and built to meet the digital need of customers.

Vodafone and Idea continued with their independent brand and advertising campaigns post the merger in August 2018. Idea has always been a mass rural-focused brand, whereas Vodafone has a premium urban appeal. The telecom operator, however, saw that the urban-rural appeal of the two brands diluted under Vodafone Idea.

The rebranding decision comes amid the company’s plans to raise funds. Vodafone Idea on Friday said it will raise up to ₹25,000 crore. Its board approved fundraising after getting clarity from the Supreme Court on staggered payment of government dues.

The fundraising will be through the sale of shares or non-convertible debentures (NCDs). Both routes of fundraising have a limit of ₹15,000 crore each. The proposed fundraising is subject to regulatory and shareholders’ approvals. Vodafone Idea will take up the proposal at its annual general meeting on 30 September.

Telecom experts believe that Vodafone Idea needs fresh equity, higher tariff and concession in various government levies to continue operations besides paying the annual instalment of the AGR dues that include spectrum usage charges, license fee, interest, penalty and interest on penalty. Vodafone Idea owes the government ₹58,254 crore.

The mobile operator will need to more than double its average revenue per user (Arpu) to meet its AGR repayment obligations. Vodafone’s Arpu fell to ₹114 in the June quarter from ₹121 in the fourth quarter of fiscal year 2020.

Source

[ValarMorghulis]

I have no clue which agency designed this new VI logo but it looks really tacky. The original Vodafone logo was far superior IMO.

[Saanil]

I am not sure if this rebranding exercise will help the company in improving their financial health. If I remember correctly, Vodafone continues to lose mobile subscribers and market share to competitors. Vodafone should have focused on upgrading their network coverage and call quality. I have been a Vodafone user for many years now and I am contemplating shifting to Jio as I am tired of frequent call drops in my area.

[Shreyans_Jain]

I fail to understand these high paid marketing grads. The company is in losses. It has a huge debt burden. It is bleeding cash. Their solution: change the logo and abbreviate the name. And spend big money on a PR exercise to promote these. I mean, a three year old can do a better job.

[Abhi5868]

Their commercial is all over the television specially on the news channels. Boy if that isn't the most annoying TVC of 2020. It's hard to believe these advertisements are coming from Vodafone/Idea as both of them have produced some wonderful campaigns in the past. Infact the Vodafone zoozoos were a personal favourite and I'm sure that's the case of many other BHPians.

[srishiva]

Little OT, but the operator space is bereft of meaningful competition. And the services are also a mirror to that. I hope the govt reduces the license pricing of spectrum in future and allow multiple operators to co-exist.
Best of luck to VI

[motorworks]

I think this is a bad move. In a market where both Vodafone and Idea have been losing market share steadily, the only thing that kept customers glued on to was the brand identity. Vodafone was always more metro,urban, if you can call it that. And Idea was more of appealing to the masses. These were brands that were built over many years with distinct marketing campaigns and story telling. I still remember how Vodafone changed all Hutch brand material to Vodafone at record speed and quickly got customers from the Hutch pug campaign to their zoozos and so on.

How long would it take to establish VI? How much money would they spend at time when they have so much of debt and the spectrum dues? Couldnt they have kept the name Vodafone idea as is and then moved on to a new marketing campaign?

VI needs something to sustain, it may been some tie up on content etc, there was a rumoured stake share to Amazon, something like that has to happen for them to keep customers from not moving away to Jio or even Airtel.