A couple of weeks ago, when the first leaked picture of Airtel’s new logo flashed on my twitter timeline, I had a very clear reaction in my mind. “This must be one of the initial options offered by an agency to Airtel. Fortunately the heads at Airtel choose to go for what we know as its current logo and not this. Good decision!” Oops…Bharti Airtel, world’s fifth largest telecommunication company and India’s largest mobile service provider, launched its new brand (logo) on 18th November, 2010, marking the company’s 200 million customer milestone. It is backed by a re-branding exercise costing about Rs. 350 crores. The company has also launched a new tagline, “Dil jo chahe, pass laye” and signature tune by A.R. Rahman.Chairman and Managing Director, Bharti Airtel, Sunil Bharti Mittal announced, “Fifteen years ago Bharti airtel started its journey in India with a promise of delivering world class and affordable services… reinforces our promise to deliver innovative services and a superior brand experience to our 200 million customers across Asia and Africa.” He also describes the new brand as “youthful, international, inclusive and dynamic – representing the journey of the first Indian brand to go truly global”.Just to let you know, Airtel is present in every nook and corner of India, distributed in every possible media, from a simple leaflet to a multi-crore television advertisement. And after its $9-billion acquisition of an African telecom, the presence expanded to 19 countries across Asia and Africa. So when a rebranding of such a company is being worked on, it is a big step! Sometime back, even Gap tried to attempt a similar one.The new logo of Airtel has been designed by a London based agency, Brand Union. It has the letter “a” in lowercase, forming a mark for the brand and airtel, written in lowercase under it. Call it a co-incidence if you like but the same agency is behind the Vodafone logo as well. Does that ring a bell? Brand’s new positioning is being handled by JWT in India, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh while Ogilvy is taking care of the same in African nations.

Airtel's old logo and Zain Telecom is equal to Airtel's new logo?

Reactions on the new Logo

According to a poll on Fonearena, out of 2100 people who voted, a considerable 50% dislike the logo while 38% support it and 12% seem to not care. Even the reactions on Twitter and Facebook are hardly in favour of the brand. Many users termed the new logo as “non-appealing”. Some of them also seem to miss the old connect, they felt with the brand. On the other hand, a few have confessed a connect with the logo’s youthfulness.Honestly, the previous logo of Airtel was not great, technically or aesthetically. Over the years, coupled with such widespread presence, we probably started liking it. The new logo is almost similar in terms of aesthetics and appeal. Whereas, with a new brand, the expectations always steer towards the higher side.

Again, without being involved or aware of the branding process, I cannot say much. I personally believe it is a good move from Airtel’s side, given the fact that they are going global by the hour. However, it is not a great choice for the logo they finalized. As mentioned before, the type has very low aesthetic appeal. I did not get to research on the type used here but I guess it is very close to Dax and Aller. Though both of them are beautiful types, may be their customization has played bad with the final outcome.

The mark works and doesn’t work at the same time. Why does it work? It works because with Airtel going global, it needed a symbol or a mark to make the brand independent of any language, especially with non-English speaking countries. Why does it not work? In the case of Airtel, it needs a mark/symbol that signifies its identity without stating the brand in text. It must also not seem related to other pre-existing marks and have a unique personality.The new logo of Airtel seems to have uncanny resemblance to the likes of Vodafone, Videocon, Air Arabia and the telecom company, Airtel acquired, Zain Telecom. Moreover, the mark faintly displays an Uppercase D. Do you agree with these resemblances?

Airtel's new logo and the logos it resembles

Nevertheless, the first television commercial of the rebranding, “Endless Goodbye” has got great response overall. Almost everyone has appreciated the concept, the message and its implementation.What is missing?As we see it, there are a few relevant and critical things missing from the latest branding of Airtel.

Consumer Connect – Essentially, a logo should resonate with the brand and its consumers. They should have ideally helped its consumers with a Brand Story to ease the connection with its new brand.

Consistency – It is said for corporate brands that if you are consistent, you have won the war with your competitors.  Again, with a rebrand, change of brand colors is possible and rational. However, it is ought to be done in a way, which helps its consumers in making the shift. Red is Vodafone. Airtel has been Red and White, not just Red. This jump is intricate.

Competition – Ideally, a brand has to steer away from its competition and find itself a unique personality. As mentioned before, the mark and colors of new Airtel logo have resemblance with many existing brands.

Famous Brands that work without their Logotype

Here is a witty take by a friendThis is how the rebranding process would have started!Sunil Bharti Mittal: I think we should change our logo, I like the Vodafone logo, the red, the font, the presence.Brand Union (Agency): Aapka Dil jo chahe pass laye but hum zyaada paas nahi ja saktebecause ‘same to same’ ho jayega.

(In English) Whatever your heart wishes, bring it closer but we cannot do that because it will look too similar.

Sunil Bharti Mittal: Thode paas chale jao and give me the new logo.

(In English) Get close enough and give the new logo.

Brand Union (Agency): Here is the new logo.Sunil Bharti Mittal: This is great. And yeah please put the line ‘Dil jo chahe pass laye’ as the new brand message too. Here is 300 Crores. Sab jagah chap do ab. (In English) Post it everywhere possible.Reactions:Airtel: Very Happy, Users: Very Angry, Vodafone: Doesn’t matterConclusionKeeping the future strategies and plans in mind, it is definitely an intelligent move from Airtel. At the same time, they could have added a lot more by backing it with a more appealing logo, unless of course, they were trying to recreate the Gap story. With such a vast presence in India and other countries, this logo will surely find acceptance. However, a good brand campaign will help in pacing the process.What do you think of the new logo? What are the key learnings for you?Airtel’s New Signature Tune

Brand Airtel brands its logo; names it 'Wave'By Ashwini Gangal, afaqs!, Mumbai,May 13, 2011 Section: News Category: Marketing

The name 'Wave' refers to the sweeping changes that the brand strives to bring towards enriching the lives of its customers, and symbolises the brand's virtues of progress and prosperity.

After undergoing an elaborate identity change, repositioning and logo redesigning in 2010, telecom giant Airtel has now gone a step further and named its new logo. The name - Wave - has been crowd-sourced through a six month long online contest that was initiated by Airtel in November 2010. This was when the positioning was switched to 'Dil jo chahe paas laye', a stand that's reiterated in the brand's communication currently on air.

The online contest, called The Name Game, invited customers to recommend a name for the company's new logo. This consumer engagement programme that led to the naming of the symbol pulled in more than 1.5 lakh consumer entries. 'Wave' was one of the three shortlisted names for the logo; the other contenders - also consumer-generated - were 'Hug' and 'Curve'. Ultimately, 'Wave' out-voted the other two.

The name Wave apparently refers to the sweeping changes that the brand strives to bring towards enriching the lives of its customers. It is also symbolic of progress and prosperity - virtues that brand Airtel stands for.

The logo's journey so far

In 1995, Airtel's two-swoosh design, crafted by the then national creative director of Rediffusion-Y&R, Gullu Sen, was meant to position the brand as one that spoke about the coming era; the then tagline, 'Touch Tomorrow', was in tandem with this positioning.

In 2002, the brand underwent a change that brought all its sub-brands - Telemedia, DTH and the Enterprise business - under one roof, namely, 'Airtel'. The new look that accompanied this change was designed by Bengaluru-based brand consulting and design company, Ray+Keshavan.

Last year, Airtel re-introduced itself with a brand new logo, a large 'a'. This time it also changed the letters in the name from upper case to lower case. This modification was born out of the need for a symbol that stood for humility and was one that the consumer could easily connect to. The logo was modernised and the curves made it look like a living object. This new logo was designed by London-based brand agency, Brand Union.

Maneesh Rangra, executive business director, JWT Delhi, tells afaqs! the reason for naming the symbol. "Big, global brands need to generate powerful tools that work as assets of communication. These work as shorthand for the brand," he says, adding that the current change is meant to appeal to the consumers' youthful mindset.

A 'Wave' of utility or futility?

Akin to McDonald's 'Golden Arches' (the yellow 'M' logo) and Videocon's 'Chow' and 'Mow' (the two personified parts of the brand's new curvaceous logo, the letter 'V'), Airtel's 'Wave' adds an extra bit of verve to the erstwhile inanimate logo. Will it work, though?

afaqs! asked brand experts what purpose such 'symbol branding' may serve. Shouvik Roy, director, Brand Planet Elephant has an interesting take on the issue. He remarks, "Often, this naming business is not just for external purposes; it serves to influence the internal custodians of the brand such as the employees, partners, suppliers and distributors."

According to Roy, naming the logo gives the brand an additional talking point and makes the brand story more credible. "Everyone needs a story to latch onto," he reasons, "and storytelling is a very important part of branding today."

According to Roy, when a brand is not merely a "product brand" (for instance, say, a shampoo or a pen), but is also a "corporate brand", it can't afford to focus only on consumers and needs to take such steps for the sake of its internal custodians.

Jagdeep Kapoor, managing director, Samsika Marketing Consultants harbours a very different view on the issue of logo naming. While Roy spoke about the effect of such symbol-branding from the perspective of the brand's custodians, Kapoor assesses the matter from the consumers' viewpoint. "Naming the Airtel symbol 'Wave' is a strategically wrong, useless exercise," he remarks, calling it nothing more than a "mere creative quirk".

His argument is that when a brand's logo is given a name and is thus branded in its own right, it destroys the original brand. "Naming the logo distracts the consumer from the main brand name," Kapoor says, claiming that doing so is like generating unnecessary internal competition for the brand.

"The word 'Airtel' is beautifully entrenched in the minds and hearts of consumers; why divide their attention by introducing a new name?" he questions. Kapoor reasons that if the symbol is an easily recognisable one, then the brand doesn't need to give it a name.

Bharti Airtel is the world's fifth largest telecommunication company and has more than 150 million users in India, 40 million in Africa and another 10

million in Bangladesh and Sri Lanka. In November 

2010, Airtel said its subscriber base has crossed the 200 million mark and unveiled a new logo to mark the achievement. 

The logo as shown alongside is a modern representation of the letter 'a' on a bright red background. Here are some notes and comments from Bharti on

their design  The unique symbol is an interpretation of the ‘a’ in airtel.

The curved shape & the gentle highlights on the red color make it warm & inviting, almost as if it were a living object. 

The logo represents a dynamic force of unparalleled energy that brings us and our customers closer," it added.

 The “unboxed” having been freed of its rigid boundaries.  The color "Red is part of our heritage. it is the color of energy & passion that

expresses the dynamism that has made Airtel the success it is today, in India, and now on the global stage

 Some other notes on the logo. 

- The logo has been designed by creative agency JWT- The logo is called "The Wave"

- The entire re-branding campaign has apparently cost the company close to Rs 300-Crore

- A new theme tune, composed by A.R Rehman has also been released 

 

The old logo shown alongside, also called the flag logo because the look resembled just

that — the colours red and white alternating with each other. The word ‘Air’, in black, was

placed against a white background, while ‘Tel’, in white, appeared against a red

backdrop. To keep the continuity going, the dot of the letter ‘i’ in the word, was also red. 

Overall, for the amount spent and the hoopla around the logo, I don't feel so gung-ho about the logo. It seems more like the shape of an ear that 'a' (Logo Parodies anyone?) . Maybe its to represent the fact that you need good ears

to listen to their poor network. The general reaction has been mixed so I wonder if the spend was worth it. In any case, it has generated a lot of buzz.

- See more at: http://www.dinesh.com/history_of_logos/india_logos/bharti_airtel_logo_design_and_history.html#sthash.rRIlBKIZ.dpuf