Airtel decide to screw it up by trying to improve but Not Impressive there new logo , no way better than the one before and Looks like hybrid of kwality walls ~ Videocon and Vodafone …Airtel spending billions on Flex’s ~ Banners ~ Tshirts and Much More in short a Wastage of Public Money ….
No no no Alok you don’t get it. Airtel are thinking about 3000 years ahead. That’s their coverage area around the Milky Way….the white is the no fly zone Klingon space….
umm it also looks like a gaping mouth with a bad case of tonsils
300 crores a worthwhile investment no doubt for a 3000 year business plan. b-)
Honestly, check out the hoardings in India and you will not be ridiculed for mistaking it’s a Walls or Cornetto ad, with couples looking lovey duvey. In fact, the logo looks like an inverse-coloured of the Walls logo! [https://www.google.com/search?q=walls+logo]
No no no Alok you don’t get it. Airtel are thinking about 3000 years ahead. That’s their coverage area around the Milky Way….the white is the no fly zone Klingon space….
umm it also looks like a gaping mouth with a bad case of tonsils
300 crores a worthwhile investment no doubt for a 3000 year business plan. b-)
the brand is intact whatever they use. somebody sold them a good con – equivalent to branding cows. somebody told the cow herd owner that he needs a new brand. Immediately he sends all his cows to get the current branding lasered out and then cows’ brand manager makes a killing with his chacha chachi crony crew. the ego strut in the corporate jungle is the more likely motivator than anything else.
Agree. Saw this a couple of week ago as someone i know does their printing. Very hush hush. The only worse effort should be ADAG group’s logo which incidentally was done by Ray & Kesh.
Hmmm it could be argued that the new logo with its curves is a younger, leaner, fitter, sexier airtel as compared to the stodgy ole font. Probably a reaction to Docomo’s market share gains. Some goof CxO would have shared their fears with an ad man who would have ripped the existing logo and blamed the shifting loyalty to the brand image. 🙂
I bet there is at least another 300 crores running behind this face lift (face drop?) in direct advertising.
This thread is increasingly becoming a commentary on style, rather than on business 🙂
How important IS a LOGO and a name when forming a business? Why does a business need to do it? Is it something large companies do when they start to lose focus, and need to re-define their core focus? Is it passed off as an excuse to share-holders to explain dwindling market share?
I remember Canara Bank spending crores in their rebranding activities in 2008. But they did this after 100 years of establishing their business. But even after all that, banks like ICICI, HDFC, etc. are still leading the pack.
I believe you are using Ning for this site. Is there a way to not use the commenting system of Ning and instead add the facebook comments widget on each page? This way we don’t have two disjoint discussions on the same topic 🙂
I don’t think you care as much about having comments sitting in your database vs the Facebook database.
anuj – absolutely right abt the database part…the system doesnt allow it :-((
Anuj Khurana said:
I believe you are using Ning for this site. Is there a way to not use the commenting system of Ning and instead add the facebook comments widget on each page? This way we don’t have two disjoint discussions on the same topic 🙂
I don’t think you care as much about having comments sitting in your database vs the Facebook database.
Just yesterday I had an Issue with my Airtel Broadband TV connection and the customer support line was down for more than 2 hours. Who cares about branding when the company doesn’t care about the customers woes with respect to their product. Invest the 300 crores into customer service and product development and they’ll have happier customers.
My 11 years old son asked ‘have they been bought by Videocon’! Alok, as someone who services Airtel closely let me tell you the guys inside the company are as baffled!
This is what happens when you see India from a place south of Worli (no offense intended to you, Alok ;-)) and brief a design shop in London to do the logo. The philosophy is that this is young, international and just kewl you know. My guess is this goes Vodafone way which is pretty cold everywhere other than Bombay. The disconnect with the hinterland just got wider.
My 11 years old son asked ‘have they been bought by Videocon’! Alok, as someone who services Airtel closely let me tell you the guys inside the company are as baffled!
This is what happens when you see India from a place south of Worli (no offense intended to you, Alok ;-)) and brief a design shop in London to do the logo. The philosophy is that this is young, international and just kewl you know. My guess is this goes Vodafone way which is pretty cold everywhere other than Bombay. The disconnect with the hinterland just got wider.
Sir how else do you explain this atrocity? My expertise is rural com. Can’t help 🙂
Alok ‘Rodinhood’ Kejriwal said:
Kya Sir,
South Bombay ko blame kar diya :-))))
Jitendra Chaturvedi said:
My 11 years old son asked ‘have they been bought by Videocon’! Alok, as someone who services Airtel closely let me tell you the guys inside the company are as baffled!
This is what happens when you see India from a place south of Worli (no offense intended to you, Alok ;-)) and brief a design shop in London to do the logo. The philosophy is that this is young, international and just kewl you know. My guess is this goes Vodafone way which is pretty cold everywhere other than Bombay. The disconnect with the hinterland just got wider.
Abey, hey have spent close to 100 crores in just the design fee to the london agency. The overall spend is humongous.
Abey John said:
Hmmm it could be argued that the new logo with its curves is a younger, leaner, fitter, sexier airtel as compared to the stodgy ole font. Probably a reaction to Docomo’s market share gains. Some goof CxO would have shared their fears with an ad man who would have ripped the existing logo and blamed the shifting loyalty to the brand image. 🙂
I bet there is at least another 300 crores running behind this face lift (face drop?) in direct advertising.
A software company I used to work with had a specification doc for their logo that was about 74 pages. Everything from the color tones, to the type of font to the philosophy behind the logo and how it intermeshed with their company philosophy. I marveled at the amount of bullshit money that does the rounds. This is a left over from the anally retentive attention to protocol and detail which the erstwhile royal families indulged in. Need the frills to prove that they matter…..identity crisis.
No Alok, I think its a very good logo….and my belief is that it has been launched at the time of 3G. If we carefully analyse the logo it will catch ur attention…..it looks like a EAR plus it has 3 plus G so in all…it gives a headphone effect also it shows you connectivity…so it shows that Airtel is a total brand providing all services…plus i think maximum amount has been spent on the catchy video and music they made…I think its worth the investment that they did….and it will pay back soon…..so i differ from most of other replies…..
This is the anti climax… My 11 year old daughter told me she LOVES the new Airtle logo… She just bought it up on her own and when I probed, she said she loves the way the logo animates on TV.
As a potential pre paid customer, Airtel certainly has her attention and mind share!!
Also, anything that is getting so much attention and mindshare means that it is working somehow on the mind…
One of my copywriting gurus recounted how his girlfriend used to only watch the American Superbowl for the ads. Not because she was interested in their products but because of the creativity in the ads. Hitting the “Like” button is easy, Facebook has proved that without a shadow of doubt. What will separate the men from the boys is when they hit the buy button. Logo or no logo. Here, in Chennai we go with Airtel for the land line and broadband because 1)getting the connection was easy (unlike BSNL) and 2)their uptime is flawless and speeds are fairly acceptable (though my general complaint is that decent broadband starts at 10Mbps Unlimited 😉 and piddly 1 and 2 Mbps at eye gouging rates is ridiculous). So as far as we are concerned the Airtel “brand” is great with or without the logo. By that same token if they screw up we’ll be ready to look for alternatives in a flash. Logo or no logo.
At the same time we have only sweet curses for Hutch and its latest avatar Vodafone. Though come to think of it after the Vodafone takeover, the service has disappeared into the background which is where they should be. Every good utility makes its presence felt by being invisible. Till then its all just noise, smoke, n mirrors.
IMHO the Airtel makeover its an anti-anxiety pill for the CxOs who worry about the “brand’s currency and relevancy”. A 300-crore anti-anxiety pill. 😉
I don’t think it’s bad, It happens when anything changes(Remember the Hutch to Vodafone days). As the time goes on the business need to update it’s image. from more formal image now they have changed their image as the time is changing
We are taking a very urban, even metro, perspective of this. It is the upcountry markets where consumers are and where most disconnect happens. I have title doubt that the new logo will do well in more hip markets of Mumbai, Delhi, Bangalore, Ahmedabad and the likes, but upcountry is a different game. Even the Shahrukh and co ads of Airtel had tough time connecting in Rural markets.
As one Marcomm head of Airtel puts it “Shahrukh and co communication was bad enough, this takes us much farther on the disconnect matrix”.
Of the 200 mn subscribers that Airtel has some 40 mn are in Africa ad another 10 mn odds in Bangladesh etc. That leaves about 150 n subscribers in India. Of these over 90 mn are rural customers alone.
As you look at these numbers, the error becomes obvious. In trying to get a more urbane, youthful image the guys just alienated the bread and butter customer. They are going the Voda way, which is scarcely anywhere else save the metros. Unfortunately, in telecom you can’t be a niche player.
Well i agree the services of Airtel is getting bad to worse. Hence no matter what you do with your logo if you dont have the customer services of the best quality logo will not save you.
I m still awaiting refund for a payment which i made for taking multiconnection of Airtel DTH, i paid with my credit card but they said they have not received the money whereas my credit card statement says Rs1190 paid to Airtel DTH. i have been writing mails to them but have got no response.
Anuj Khurana
Well if What’s in a name? Then shouldn’t the same apply to the logo 🙂
Sure they must have spent a bomb in redesigning the logo and all that…but why does Rodinhood care!
Alok Rodinhood Kejriwal
Anuj, you caught me there!!
Anuj Khurana said:
Anushka Shroff
They have spent 300crores on this logo and branding, would have been better if it was for quality customer service and no FUP . Maybe Domino Effect
Ashwin Patel
Airtel decide to screw it up by trying to improve but Not Impressive there new logo , no way better than the one before and Looks like hybrid of kwality walls ~ Videocon and Vodafone …Airtel spending billions on Flex’s ~ Banners ~ Tshirts and Much More in short a Wastage of Public Money ….
Dev
No logos matter till they’ve build their brandname. A logo can link also to thiefs. Branding means building a sustainable name, Logos follows.
Aditya Babbar
300 Crores spent … They may as well have flushed it down the crapper.
I would be curious to know whom did they hire to this “exercise”
Anushka Shroff said:
Abey John
No no no Alok you don’t get it. Airtel are thinking about 3000 years ahead. That’s their coverage area around the Milky Way….the white is the no fly zone Klingon space….
umm it also looks like a gaping mouth with a bad case of tonsils
300 crores a worthwhile investment no doubt for a 3000 year business plan. b-)
Mahesh Khambadkone
Honestly, check out the hoardings in India and you will not be ridiculed for mistaking it’s a Walls or Cornetto ad, with couples looking lovey duvey. In fact, the logo looks like an inverse-coloured of the Walls logo! [https://www.google.com/search?q=walls+logo]
Alok Rodinhood Kejriwal
This is really funny!!!!
Abey John said:
Abey John
🙂
Rabi Gupta
logo is non-sense but fonts look even more immature…!
Alok Rodinhood Kejriwal
It’s looks like a tadpole that’s having it’s periods…..sorry that was gross but that’s what popped up in my mind.
Anushka Shroff
It’s actually “O” as the front page of TOI …
Abey John
my initial reaction was even more gross which is why I settled for a bad case of tonsils 😉
Neel Shah
this new logo sucks big time… it doesnt look like an “A” at all…
also the fonts used are, i suppose, to match the recent “bharti” rebranding which also has such sleek block letters…
but Airtel is hard-bound to lose all the brand equity earned…
they wanted to do a rebranding to shed the old image and come up with something new… its new alright, but not good 🙁
lets see who becomes the scapegoat…
Abey John
the brand is intact whatever they use. somebody sold them a good con – equivalent to branding cows. somebody told the cow herd owner that he needs a new brand. Immediately he sends all his cows to get the current branding lasered out and then cows’ brand manager makes a killing with his chacha chachi crony crew. the ego strut in the corporate jungle is the more likely motivator than anything else.
Shiv Senthilvel
Agree. Saw this a couple of week ago as someone i know does their printing. Very hush hush. The only worse effort should be ADAG group’s logo which incidentally was done by Ray & Kesh.
Abey John
Hmmm it could be argued that the new logo with its curves is a younger, leaner, fitter, sexier airtel as compared to the stodgy ole font. Probably a reaction to Docomo’s market share gains. Some goof CxO would have shared their fears with an ad man who would have ripped the existing logo and blamed the shifting loyalty to the brand image. 🙂
I bet there is at least another 300 crores running behind this face lift (face drop?) in direct advertising.
How to Milk a Rich Fat Corporate House
Mahesh Khambadkone
This thread is increasingly becoming a commentary on style, rather than on business 🙂
How important IS a LOGO and a name when forming a business? Why does a business need to do it? Is it something large companies do when they start to lose focus, and need to re-define their core focus? Is it passed off as an excuse to share-holders to explain dwindling market share?
I remember Canara Bank spending crores in their rebranding activities in 2008. But they did this after 100 years of establishing their business. But even after all that, banks like ICICI, HDFC, etc. are still leading the pack.
Alok Rodinhood Kejriwal
Check these gems from my Facebook wall:
Dhaval J Patel – Top layer of “Cafe Mocha”
Nimesh Dadia – Its like a duplicate of the original…
Sunil R Nair- videocon logo married vodafone logo and in between had an fling with uninor – the result is the new airtel logo 😛
Venurao Dindi – truly telling its air-tales……:-)
Vishal Gupta – venaash kale vipret logo
Anuj Khurana
I believe you are using Ning for this site. Is there a way to not use the commenting system of Ning and instead add the facebook comments widget on each page? This way we don’t have two disjoint discussions on the same topic 🙂
I don’t think you care as much about having comments sitting in your database vs the Facebook database.
Alok Rodinhood Kejriwal
anuj – absolutely right abt the database part…the system doesnt allow it :-((
Anuj Khurana said:
Abey John
Neil there was nothing specifically Indian about the last logo.
Neil Bahal said:
rajiv
Just yesterday I had an Issue with my Airtel Broadband TV connection and the customer support line was down for more than 2 hours. Who cares about branding when the company doesn’t care about the customers woes with respect to their product. Invest the 300 crores into customer service and product development and they’ll have happier customers.
Jitendra Chaturvedi
My 11 years old son asked ‘have they been bought by Videocon’! Alok, as someone who services Airtel closely let me tell you the guys inside the company are as baffled!
This is what happens when you see India from a place south of Worli (no offense intended to you, Alok ;-)) and brief a design shop in London to do the logo. The philosophy is that this is young, international and just kewl you know. My guess is this goes Vodafone way which is pretty cold everywhere other than Bombay. The disconnect with the hinterland just got wider.
God save the company!
Alok Rodinhood Kejriwal
Kya Sir,
South Bombay ko blame kar diya :-))))
Jitendra Chaturvedi said:
Jitendra Chaturvedi
Sir how else do you explain this atrocity? My expertise is rural com. Can’t help 🙂
Alok ‘Rodinhood’ Kejriwal said:
Jitendra Chaturvedi
Abey, hey have spent close to 100 crores in just the design fee to the london agency. The overall spend is humongous.
Abey John said:
Abey John
A software company I used to work with had a specification doc for their logo that was about 74 pages. Everything from the color tones, to the type of font to the philosophy behind the logo and how it intermeshed with their company philosophy. I marveled at the amount of bullshit money that does the rounds. This is a left over from the anally retentive attention to protocol and detail which the erstwhile royal families indulged in. Need the frills to prove that they matter…..identity crisis.
Chand Nair
..its a Bluetooth hearing device!
arpit shekhar
No Alok, I think its a very good logo….and my belief is that it has been launched at the time of 3G. If we carefully analyse the logo it will catch ur attention…..it looks like a EAR plus it has 3 plus G so in all…it gives a headphone effect also it shows you connectivity…so it shows that Airtel is a total brand providing all services…plus i think maximum amount has been spent on the catchy video and music they made…I think its worth the investment that they did….and it will pay back soon…..so i differ from most of other replies…..
Alok Rodinhood Kejriwal
This is the anti climax… My 11 year old daughter told me she LOVES the new Airtle logo… She just bought it up on her own and when I probed, she said she loves the way the logo animates on TV.
As a potential pre paid customer, Airtel certainly has her attention and mind share!!
Also, anything that is getting so much attention and mindshare means that it is working somehow on the mind…
arpit shekhar
Its catching Alok…..the music is too good people are liking it….specialyy the young ones and your daughter tooo…..
Abey John
One of my copywriting gurus recounted how his girlfriend used to only watch the American Superbowl for the ads. Not because she was interested in their products but because of the creativity in the ads. Hitting the “Like” button is easy, Facebook has proved that without a shadow of doubt. What will separate the men from the boys is when they hit the buy button. Logo or no logo. Here, in Chennai we go with Airtel for the land line and broadband because 1)getting the connection was easy (unlike BSNL) and 2)their uptime is flawless and speeds are fairly acceptable (though my general complaint is that decent broadband starts at 10Mbps Unlimited 😉 and piddly 1 and 2 Mbps at eye gouging rates is ridiculous). So as far as we are concerned the Airtel “brand” is great with or without the logo. By that same token if they screw up we’ll be ready to look for alternatives in a flash. Logo or no logo.
At the same time we have only sweet curses for Hutch and its latest avatar Vodafone. Though come to think of it after the Vodafone takeover, the service has disappeared into the background which is where they should be. Every good utility makes its presence felt by being invisible. Till then its all just noise, smoke, n mirrors.
IMHO the Airtel makeover its an anti-anxiety pill for the CxOs who worry about the “brand’s currency and relevancy”. A 300-crore anti-anxiety pill. 😉
Rajat Sahu
I am feeling good about the agency who did it..at least some one is smart the other side.
Parveen Yadav
I don’t think it’s bad, It happens when anything changes(Remember the Hutch to Vodafone days). As the time goes on the business need to update it’s image. from more formal image now they have changed their image as the time is changing
Rajendran Velu Swamy
Good one.
Jyoti Shukla said:
Jitendra Chaturvedi
We are taking a very urban, even metro, perspective of this. It is the upcountry markets where consumers are and where most disconnect happens. I have title doubt that the new logo will do well in more hip markets of Mumbai, Delhi, Bangalore, Ahmedabad and the likes, but upcountry is a different game. Even the Shahrukh and co ads of Airtel had tough time connecting in Rural markets.
As one Marcomm head of Airtel puts it “Shahrukh and co communication was bad enough, this takes us much farther on the disconnect matrix”.
Of the 200 mn subscribers that Airtel has some 40 mn are in Africa ad another 10 mn odds in Bangladesh etc. That leaves about 150 n subscribers in India. Of these over 90 mn are rural customers alone.
As you look at these numbers, the error becomes obvious. In trying to get a more urbane, youthful image the guys just alienated the bread and butter customer. They are going the Voda way, which is scarcely anywhere else save the metros. Unfortunately, in telecom you can’t be a niche player.
Pradeep Chaudhary
Rotate it a little and it will look like videocon
Font of Airtel is good, but logo they really lost it.
Munish Goyal
Ha ha. Well they are big so wont matter much. we will get used to this not-so-appealing logo over time 🙂
to me they hope they don’t do something like this to their services.
Jyoti Shukla said:
Vandana Parikh
Its a Videocon logo upside down! Someone’s taken Air Tel for a real spin..! This logo has no recall value..whatsoever.
Vishal Agrawal
ALOK, its like a Videocon ‘V’ with Vodafone Background!
Ashwin C Parulkar
What Arpit says is correct-
iT was a 300 crore , Re branding exercise to give Airtel and the brand a more “youthful and international” look.
For Alok- ‘Its an alphabet SMALL ‘A’-a , a new swoosh, Simple Graphic representation of ‘EAR’
Ashwin Adhikari
Well i agree the services of Airtel is getting bad to worse. Hence no matter what you do with your logo if you dont have the customer services of the best quality logo will not save you.
I m still awaiting refund for a payment which i made for taking multiconnection of Airtel DTH, i paid with my credit card but they said they have not received the money whereas my credit card statement says Rs1190 paid to Airtel DTH. i have been writing mails to them but have got no response.