Pug stays with Vodafone, little master vanishes

The legendary pug, which made Hutch into a household name, will stay. With the Hutch brand name and logo being changed to Vodafone from Thursday, the company confirmed that Chika (pug) would inaugurate its campaign.

However, the fate of Chika's little master is uncertain "" he will surely not be there in the initial campaign for the launch of Vodafone.

"We have decided to continue with the pug as he is synonymous with the brand and the robust network of the company. Hutch was a successful brand and there would be no discontinuity as there is only acceleration, and we will continue with all the good things associated with it," Harit Nagpal, director, marketing and new business, Vodafone-Essar, told Business Standard in an interview.

However, the fresh campaigns to be released on Friday on Sony and Zee TV will not have the boy, whom Chika religiously follows. The child will not feature in the first phase of the campaign, though he may appear in the second phase.

The earlier campaigns had the dog following his little master across the countryside, a football field and back home, with the tagline that the network follows the user everywhere.

The pug was more of an emotional attachment and was also important from the creative perspective. The child was not important, though he would be featured in the second phase, said Nagpal.

On the investments for the brand-building exercise, Nagpal said it would be "large", but declined to share details.

The brand-revamping, covering 50 centres, 4 lakh shops and touching 35 million users across all the 23 circles in the country, will begin by Thursday evening.

The company expects 80 per cent of the campaign to be completed in the next 3-4 weeks.

The company plans to double its network rollout by installing around 1,900 base stations and adding around 1.6-1.7 million users each month.

Vodafone-Essar is looking at new subscribers with entry-level handsets and new services, and is in talks with global handset makers, including Huawei and ZTE.

The company is also looking at replacing its existing brand name "" Hutchison Essar "" at a single go with the new name, Vodafone-Essar. This is contrary to the earlier decision of the dual-branding strategy, of straddling both brand names for sometime.

The UK-based telecom major is looking at single-name branding of its Indian joint venture firm, Vodafone-Essar (formerly Hutchison-Essar).