‘A lot depends on who calls the shots’

It is too early in the merger to figure out who actually is in the driver’s seat. A lot depends on who calls the shots going forward. Inevitably, the choices are fairly simple:

Keep both brands. That sounds a bit improbable and also, unnecessarily doubles the cost of maintaining two brands with nothing substantially to differentiate the two.

Keep one, kill one. The dominant partner will mostly get to retain the brand. If Vodafone runs the show, Vodafone stays, Idea goes. Or vice versa. But if speculation is to be believed that Vodafone wants to ‘exit’ India, then they may not want to continue usage of their global brand name in India and Idea gets to stay. Keep none, launch new. Which brand to retain is as much a political as it is a marketing decision. Easiest, though not necessarily the wisest, or most cost effective, decision is to launch a new brand.

In the case of Vodafone and Idea millions of dollars have been spent etching and engraving respective brand names into consumer minds. Equally, billions of rupees have gone into creating signages, brand shops, dealer boards, packaging and so on. Chucking it all out of the window for either of the brands will be a huge loss of value. If it is done for both, the value loss will be even more colossal.

Whatever the choice, the positioning of the new entity could be anchored around the following binaries: 1. Global versus local, 2. Premium/Prestigious versus Common/Cheap, 3. Better performing and better value rather than better priced, 4. Tried and tested versus new and 5. Better coverage, better network versus better deals Please note that this is not an exhaustive list and there will be more as the deal matures.