Vodafone
Mobile & popular
Eastern European markets had only shortly enjoyed the emergence of capitalism when the global financial crisis arrived — a harsh recession that deeply marked the making of the new homo economicus and the consumers’ relationship with the global corporations. It was in this context, in 2009, that Vodafone Romania commissioned Brandient to localize the global brand: a telecom market following the global trend of commoditization, close to saturation, and a consumer for whom affordability had suddenly become the deciding factor.
Brandient audited the internal and external brand status, clarifying its opportunities and limitations under the new paradigm of competition and customers’ behavior. At the heart of the work stood a crisis-sharpened paradox: Vodafone was the most loved telecom brand on the Romanian market — and at the same time perceived as the least accessible, years of high-quality technological superiority having quietly attached the "expensive" label, and with it a distant, foreign aura no recession-era consumer would forgive.
The strategic answer rested on a conviction: a true leader must generate positive change, and a great brand owes its customers loyalty precisely in tough times. Vodafone embraced a positioning closer to value for money without affecting the fundamentals of the brand — the premium authority recast as a popular leader, for everyone and for each; every message recalibrated around affordability and the worth of belonging to the network; the authoritarian aura lessened into popular charisma.
The strategy was operationalized as the "Brand Localization Kit" — the local brand platform on which Vodafone works together with its advertising agencies: the affordability vocabulary, a true, witty, down-to-earth tone of voice, and a creative concept drawn from the brand’s own DNA — the speech mark of the logo opened into a conversation with Romanians, famous and ordinary alike. The platform would prove to achieve exceptional brand equity metrics.
Client:
Vodafone Romania
Industry:
Technology and Telecom
Project type:
Brand localization
Date:
2009
Services:
Brand Audit
Brand Positioning
Brand Name, Narratives and Voice
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