Vodafone chalks out strategies for brand relaunch

With the completion of the acquisition of Hutch Essar earlier this month, British mobile major Vodafone is chalking out strategies to relaunch the rechristened 'Vodafone Essar' brand in India.

Sources associated with the process said the acquisition has just completed earlier this month and the process on the entire roadmap for relaunching the new brand has just started.

First the company has to apply to the Registrar of Companies seeking change to the new name, after which RoC would have to ensure that the proposed name is not owned by anybody else, before approving it.

Hutch Essar MD Asim Ghosh was unavailable for comment. 

While industry sources said the company is likely to relaunch the service in August, people in the know of the process said, in the next 2-3 weeks the time for relaunch would be clearer as it involved issues like branding, business plans, roll out time-frame in circles, rural area thrusts, new services and packages and advertisements.

Keeping in mind the cost of mobile handsets in emerging markets to mobile telephony penetration Vodafone launched its first ultra-low cost handsets -- Vodafone-only branded handsets on Monday.

In markets such as India or Tanzania the cost of purchasing a mobile handset can be one of the key barriers to accessing mobile services, the company said in a statement.

Vodafone, immediately after acquiring stake in Hutch, had announced an investment of up to $2 billion to expand services, especially in the rural areas.