External communication Vodafone

Individual Assignment – Types of Communication in an organisation

- External Harshit D. Bora Roll No. 8 PGDM-RM Business Communication

Abstract

For any company to be perceived as a good company and survive for long, profits and

reputations are not enough resources on which it can rely on. It is very important that the

company creates a good working environment for its employees and also have zeal in

attracting new customers. For this, it is very important that company knows it’s internal and

external environment.

Companies should know their employees to prevent that they become dissatisfied with

working conditions, feeling unpleasant or unheard. This is the aim of internal

communication to prevent it, as from the internal communication processes in a very

straight way depends what image company's employees are going to deliver to the external

audiences. It is of the interest of company to know their customers, so as to properly

advertise and promote their products, in the same time being able to attract more

customers continuously. On the other hand, relationships of customers and employees are

directly affected by their perceptions and attitudes towards the company. So, the aim of

external and internal communication is to form those attitudes in Accordance with how

they want to see themselves in the future.

Communication

Communication (Latin commūnicāre, meaning "to share") is the activity of conveying

information through the exchange of thoughts, messages, or information, as by speech,

visuals, signals, writing, or behaviour. It is the meaningful exchange of information between

two or a group of living creatures. Pragmatics defines communication as any sign-mediated

interaction that follows combinatorial, context-specific and content-coherent rules.

Communicative competence designates the capability to install inter subjective interactions,

which means that communication is an inherent social interaction.

One definition of communication is “any act by which one person gives to or receives from

another person information about that person's needs, desires, perceptions, knowledge, or

affective states. Communication may be intentional or unintentional, may involve

conventional or unconventional signals, may take linguistic or non-linguistic forms, and may

occur through spoken or other modes.”

Communication requires a sender, a message, and a recipient, although the receiver doesn't

have to be present or aware of the sender's intent to communicate at the time of

communication; thus communication can occur across vast distances in time and space.

Communication requires that the communicating parties share an area of communicative

commonality. The communication process is complete once the receiver has understood the

message of the sender.

Corporate Communication

Corporate communication is the set of activities involved in managing and orchestrating all

internal and external communications aimed at creating favourable point-of-view among

stakeholders on which the company depends. It is the messages issued by a corporate

organization, body, or institute to its audiences, such as employees, media, channel partners

and the general public. Organizations aim to communicate the same message to all its

stakeholders, to transmit coherence, credibility and ethic. Corporate Communications help

organizations explain their mission, combine its many visions and values into a cohesive

message to stakeholders. The concept of corporate communication could be seen as an

integrative communication structure linking stakeholders to the organization.

Corporate communication can be further classified into two

1. Internal Communication

2. External Communication

Internal Communication

Internal Communication is also interpreted as employee communication. Internal

communication is the communication that exists within a company, between and among

employees. It can take many forms, such as face to face casual conversations, formal

meetings, phone calls, emails, memorandums, events and activities, reporting pattern etc.

Communication within an organization is key to success. An organization’s adaptability to

external changes relies on efficient communication internally

External Communication

External communication is a very important corporate communication element. It is crucial

for creating brand image. It forms of various activities like advertising, customer service,

public relations building, annual reports, launching of products and services etc. Existing and

potential customers have perceptions towards the corporate brand based on the

organization’s external communication. In other words, external communication is what is

visible to the non-employees of the company.

Importance of Communication

Apart from other required skills to survive and grow in the corporate world, communication

skills are an inseparable part of it. The advancement of technology and office automation

leap has its own important role to play but the importance of good and effective

communication skills can’t be denied. Be it any workplace situation- whether making phone

calls or face to face presentation or interaction, sending office memos or emails where a

person has to constantly express his ideas and opinions or decisions or be it promoting a

product or service where a company has to convince the new and existing customers about

their products and services. Without effective communication no organization can be

successful.

Vodafone

Vodafone India is the third largest mobile network operator in India. It is one of the wide

spread telecom operator with highest number of loyal customers. It also has one of the

most dynamic and innovative marketing strategy. Also I have been using Vodafone since last

7 years so I am fairly familiar with its external communication.

In this assignment, I will cover external communication of Vodafone which will majorly

comprise of television advertisements.

Background

Vodafone is derived from Vo- voice, Da-Data and Fone-Phone. Vodafone Entered Indian

market in 2001 but it was in 2007 when they acquired the Hutchison India, that they

became a well-established telecom player in India. On 11 February 2007, Vodafone agreed

to acquire the controlling interest of 67% held by Li Ka Shing Holdings in Hutch-Essar for

US$11.1 billion, pipping Reliance Communications, Hinduja Group, and Essar Group, which is

the owner of the remaining 33%. The whole company was valued at USD 18.8 billion. The

transaction closed on 8 May 2007. Hutch was often praised for its award winning

advertisements which all follow a clean, minimalist look. Now that task was to be handled

by Vodafone.

Introduction to Vodafone’s Advertisements

Vodafone is known for its unique advertisement campaign such as pug, happy to help

service and latest released Zoozoos advertisement campaign. The Zoozoos’ advertisements

were created in South Africa by Ogilvy & Mather (O&M), an international advertising,

marketing, and public relations agency and Nirvana Films (Bangalore based company) used

some animated characters to make these advertisements. It became so famous at little time

that they made 30 advertisements on Zoozoos. They spent near Rs. 30 million to make these

advertisements and soon it became one of the most admirable advertisements in India as

seen from its members on facebook page which is increasing rapidly. Vodafone India’s page

on facebook has around 700 thousand likes while Vodafone ZooZoo’s page on facebook has

more than 15 million likes. This clearly shows how successful Vodafone’s ZooZoos strategy

has been.

Timeline of Advertisements

2007 – Hutch is now Vodafone

When Vodafone started its advertising campaigns it did not have any famous celebrity with

it like Airtel which had Shah Rukh Khan and Sachin Tendulkar as its brand ambassador. Thus

Vodafone had a huge task of creating its own visible space through advertisements. It

continued with some of its older friends like the “pug”. To show the transition from Hutch to

Vodafone, O&M launched a rather direct, thematic ad showing the trademark pug in a

garden, moving out of a pink coloured kennel (symbolising Hutch) and making his way into a

red one (the Vodafone colour). A more energetic, chirpier version of the ‘You and I’ tune

associated with Hutch, plays towards the end, as the super concludes, ‘Change is good.

Hutch is now Vodafone’. They also rolled out four commercials featuring Hutch’s animated

boy and girl, ‘introducing’ the new brand’s logo to consumers. The four creatives include the

duo peeping over a wall to see the logo; parasailing with the logo flying high behind them;

releasing a rocket bomb wherein the explosion reveals the logo; and lastly, drawing curtains

aside to show the logo. Four other ads with the pug did the rounds of telly screens. The pug

was shown in a red basket, popping up from a red cart, drying himself on a red mat, and

hiding in a red blanket. Each of these made use of the ‘Hutch is now Vodafone’ tagline.

It wasn’t easy integrating Vodafone with Hutch; the latter, as is known, is a subtle,

understated brand, while globally, Vodafone represents high energy, dynamism and young

vitality – all represented by its bright red speech mark logo. The pug remained the brand’s

soul even after the takeover by Vodafone.

2008 – Happy To Help

In 2008 Vodafone changed its tag line from “where ever you go network follows” to “Happy

To Help”. This transition made a great impact as this was the time when people seriously

doubted the customer service provided by the telecom companies. Vodafone made dozen

of advertisements showing that the pug, its brand ambassador, successfully helping and

taking care of its master, little kids in the advertisement.

2009 – ZooZoos

In 2009 Vodafone introduced ZooZoos during the second edition of IPL. Vodafone

introduced a new advertisement every day of the match creating huge anxiety and curiosity

among the audiences. This not only helped Vodafone but also helped IPL to increase its

viewership. Vodafone created 30 ZooZoos advertisements. These advertisements were

super hit among the Indians. This can be seen from the memberships on Facebook page.

Vodafone India’s page on facebook has around 700 thousand likes while Vodafone ZooZoos’

page on facebook has more than 15 million likes. ZooZoos are white creatures with

ballooned bodies and egg heads who are used to promote various value added services of

Vodafone. Although these characters look animated, they are actually humans in Zoozoos

costumes.

2010 – Power to You

In 2010 Vodafone made dozen of advertisements on the theme of Football World Cup. It

also introduced Shakira in its advertisement to download the Football World Cup anthem. It

also moved on from ZooZoos to classroom kids to Lewis Hamilton. But it also used ZooZoos

to highlight its various other services. In 2010 it had its tagline as “Power To You” which was

also the theme of the Nation at that time with Anna Hazare leading the anti-corruption

march and seeking for more power in common man’s hand.

2011 –Super Week

In 2011 Vodafone introduced and promoted its 3G service. It used various gaming activities

to show that how 3G is faster and better. Besides ZooZoos it used other live games like

“snakes” to show how gaming is a fun activity when used with proper internet and also

made some games available to download from its website. It also created a format called

“super week” like “music super week”, “cricket super week”, “email super week” etc. which

provided particular service for free for a week to highlight various services of Vodafone.

2012 –Made for You

In 2012 Vodafone focused more on teenage groups and their needs like grandfather playing

with his grandson or gifting him something special or a two best friends made for each other

or how network can connect. It also reintroduced “pug” in couple of advertisements.

Effectiveness

From the above advertisements from 2007 to 2012 it is evident that Vodafone is keeping its

target audience in mind constantly as well as looking at the current situations and needs of

that time and using them to communicate to the audiences. In 2007 it positioned itself. In

2008 it communicated that it is ready to help its customers at any given time. In 2009, when

the IPL-2 which was basking on the success of its first edition, Vodafone capitalized on IPL

and created a new brand ambassador for itself which showcased “change is good”. In 2010

when common man needed power, it came up with a tag line “Power to You”. In 2011 when

the 3G licences were just allocated, it promoted its services through the message “Gaming is

Fun”. The simple yet powerful advertisement campaigns won it many admirers which made

Vodafone one of the most well-known brands in India. It is also seen that Vodafone doesn’t

bring in well established brands on its board, rather it creates a new brand own its own

which can connect to people easily.

Competitors' strategies / opinions / reactions

The main competitor of Vodafone is Airtel. After analysing Vodafone’s advertising strategy,

Airtel realized that using a well-known face is no longer the best way to make your

dominance. It did not renew its contracts with Sachin Tendulkar and Shah Rukh Khan. It also

shifted its focus to youth and the friendship theme “Har Ek Friend Zaroori Hota Hain”. Even

Idea Cellular reduced the number of advertisements that they made with Abhishek

Bachchan and started creating advertisements with unknown faces which are more diverse

and less expensive. Thus communicating in a way common man can associate with.

Conclusions

Communication strategy changes according to time and place. People understand it better

when they can associate it with themselves. Vodafone tried to make customize solutions for

its customers as well engaged its audience through exciting advertising campaign. It

experimented with innovative ideas of communicating and created new brands like ZooZoos

which is more liked than the company it created. This shows the success of its

communication campaign. Vodafone website is very interactive and friendly which also

helps in easy navigation and this shows how strong its external communication is. They have

also put up all the advertisements made till date. You can find them here

[https://www.vodafone.in/pages/tvads.aspx?fid=0&year=2011&title=&currentpage=1]. This

shows that they respect their work and are proud of it. Also they are easily available on all

the social media platforms and connect to their customers on demand. I have personally

used their service through twitter and which has been very helpful for me. Now whenever I

have any problem regarding anything, I just tweet to them and within 24 hours, their

executive gets in touch with me and tries to solve my problems. Thus Vodafone gets thumbs

up from my side as far as external communication is concerned.

Recommendations

The suggestions I would like give is that it’s been long i.e. since 2009, Vodafone is using

ZooZoos. It should create another brand ambassador now and keep changing it after a

regular interval of say 3-4 years, as people like to see changes and new exciting stuff. Also it

should start a Vodafone theme park where its customers can connect with already

successful brands like pug and ZooZoos.

Sources

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vodafone_India

http://www.afaqs.com/news/story.html?sid=19184_India+calling:+Vodafone%E2%80%99s+

strategy+unplugged

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ZooZoo

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corporate_communication

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Communication

http://pure.au.dk/portal/files/48563031/Thesis_Final.pdf