Dual branding introduces Vodafone logo appearance

Eircell and Vodafone have introduced dual branding as a first step towards the phasing out of the Eircell brand name. From this week the familiar purple Eircell logo will be replaced by a SIM card-shaped symbol featuring both logos. The name change to Vodafone will be completed by June 2002, over one year after Eircell officially became a subsidiary of the global telecommunications company.

It is a relatively long name-change period for a major brand but, according to Eircell, the longer timeframe means the integration process can be managed in the most cost-effective way possible.

Vodafone, which has acquired networks in 28 countries, is going through a rebranding process in several other markets, including Greece and Italy. It will use the same SIM card symbol as a visual device to show both the old and the new brand names side by side.

Eircell is one of the most familiar brand names in Ireland - a familiarity that was created through vast expenditure on advertising and sponsorship. Last year £30 million (€38.09 million) was spent supporting the brand through a broad spectrum of marketing activities ranging from direct mail campaigns to the sponsorship of Who Wants To Be A Millionaire? on RT╔. Each year for the previous four years sums exceeding £20 million were spent on similar brand-building activities. Eircell was fiercely protective of every aspect of the carefully-built brand identity right down to registering the familiar purple colour. The company was incensed when rival Esat Digifone used the colour in a mocking poster campaign.

All this will change over the coming year as the red-and-white Vodafone mark begins to appear on advertising, customer bills and all marketing communications materials.

Late last month the company began a £250 million sterling (€402 million) "How are you?" global branding campaign which can be seen on the British commercial stations. The company hopes this will play a part in the Irish name change due to the overspill of UK media into the Irish market.

At the same time Eircell is starting to flex its muscles as the State's single largest media buyer. With a budget of £6 million its new media agency, AIM/Carat, has been seeking discounts from key media suppliers before buying space. Eircell's decision to seek discounts - in some cases more than 50 per cent less than the rate card - is sending a worrying signal to media owners already concerned about falling advertising revenues due to the slowdown in the economy and the fallout from the attacks on the US.

A spokesperson for Eircell, however, says the company "is not looking for anything that other major media buyers are not getting". In the UK Vodafone is known as a tough negotiator when it comes to seeking bulk discounts on the purchase of its media. This strategy has been tried here before without any great success and there is understood to be widespread resistance to such discounting.

bharrison@irish-times.ie