Azaadi...

The following is what I feel after being liberated from Vodafone, the erstwhile hutch, which was the erstwhile Orange.

I have never ever come across such a network. You have got to experience the technical service to believe it. Its worse than pathetic. This is one network, which spends good amount of money only on painting itself in different colors.

Building a brand identity is indeed very important, but then just indulging in brand identity while ignoring the quality of the service? I don't know which smart guy/gal thinks it works that way?

Lets look at the things they have done...

They officially became Hutch from Orange!!!

They then indulge in a massive marketing and brand re-building campaign which also involved, educating the user that Hutch is now pink and that its not orange any more... Like any body gives a damn if the color is orange or pink when we cant use the network at all, especially at times when its really important.

The amount involved for this marketing campaign was huge, had they invested this in their infrastructure, they would have retained far more customers and this would have added to their revenues.

But then who cares, its more important to paint things from orange to pink.

Next, they are bought over by a British company Vodafone...

Now what happens is that, they again need to paint things different all over again... this time from pink to red. And the best is that after Vodafone took over, things have gone from bad to worse, its like from the frying pan into the fire. If you look at their latest ad campaign, its like they realize, the only thing that they can claim good about themselves is the customer service. Other than that in the things that actually matter, the network and the quality of their infrastructure, they are zilch...

Every time they have changed their colors, they must have spend a good amount of time and effort and labour in updating their stationary, websites and most of the other things that were associated with the brand. Isn't it ridiculous that instead of focusing on their core competency, which is providing a good network, they have indulged in stupid PR gimmicks.

If this goes on, I am sure Vodafone would be doing just what the British had to do in 1947.