Vodafone has launched its branded service across India, rolling out what it called the world's largest rebranding campaign, following its purchase of a majority stake in Hutchison Essar from Hutchison Telecommunications for 11.1 billion dollars earlier this year.
India represents the world's fastest growing cellular market, and Vodafone has said it wants to make its services top of the list. Hutch has already moved from fourth to third place since being acquired.
As part of the rebranding campaign, Vodafone has joined up with Star TV network to launch a 24-hour nationwide "brand awareness" campaign.
Partly in response to Vodafone's market saturation efforts, Bharti Airtel has joined forces with Nokia to offer bundled phones at subsidized rates. The two companies have entered into a "joint go-to-market strategy," combining some advertising and marketing initiatives aimed at the mid-and lower-end segments, according to India's Economic Times.
"We are deepening our alliance with Nokia on a large scale…We can synergize our operations as both employ strategies such as using rural vans to promote services and running outlets across the country. We are also working towards common outdoor advertising and exploring other areas of partnership," Bharti Airtel's marketing and communication head Gopal Vittal told the paper.
The report also said that Bharti plans to launch a suite of value-added services within the next few days.