Will Hutch pug be wiped out?

Exactly a year ago, billboards across Mumbai sported one simple word 'Hi", marking Hutchison-Essar's changeover from brand Orange to Hutch.

Will the same billboards be replaced with 'How are you' (Vodafone's successful global communication campaign)? Following Vodafone's winning bid, the question on everyone's mind is, what of the pug?

Advertising and marketing experts believe transition of telecom brands is not as difficult as FMCG or consumer durables. Pranesh Misra, president and COO, Lowe said, "It is easier to transit from one service brand to another as there is an ongoing customer interaction with the brand."

Brand consultant Harish Bijoor agrees, "The telecom space is robust. It wouldn't be too optimistic to expect a seamless transition from Hutch to Vodafone in 40 days flat." He adds, "In this case there is no brand equity clash.

In the local context, Hutch enjoys an understated, international imagery, and Vodafone is an international brand." Besides, indicated most, when you're migrating to a bigger brand such as Vodafone (No 66 on the Fortune global 500 list of 2006), it becomes easier to accept.

However, Vodafone has suggested they will adopt a dual-branding strategy to start with (Hutch-Vodafone), presumably with Essar paying Hutchison Whampoa royalty for the continued use of the brand Hutch.

This has been Vodafone's standard modus operandi. Upon entering a market through equity acquisition, Vodafone has the tendency to maintain dual-branding before taking acquisition up to 100 per cent (or other permissible levels) and wiping out all vital signs of the previous brand.

This will be the fourth change of brand name for the GSM services provider, that transitioned successfully from MaxTouch to Orange in 2001 and the very next year began the shift from Orange to Hutch.

And while all three times, one key element of brand imagery was retained- the colour orange (until the transition to Hutch was completed and orange became pink), marketing analysts believe it is unlikely any visual devices will be borrowed by Vodafone.

Brand consultant Sarvajeet Chandra says that eventually there's more to a brand than its imagery. He said, "Ultimately, when consumers realise that they will benefit from the services of a global telecom giant, the warm fuzzy feeling derived from the pug will fade away."

However, Misra added that Vodafone will need to follow this transition up with a highly visible multimedia campaign in the initial two months. "This will instill confidence among consumers that their brand is in the right hands," he said.

Advertising spends in the telecom space are estimated to be in the range of Rs 1,300 crore with Bharti, Reliance and state run telecom companies VSNL, MTNL among the major spenders. Industry estimates suggest the transition could spike communication budgets by upwards of Rs 25 crore.

Hutch's creative agency O&M may, or may not benefit from any of that. Given Vodafone's leaning towards aligning its global communications, the creative responsibility for the new brand may land with JWT, Vodafone's creative agency in key markets

With Cheeka (the pug), the threat of redundancy is immediate. Will the price of pugs "" that rose with along with the brand's conspicuity "" drop? Likely. Hopefully, the brand's valuation won't follow suit.