Logoistic - Airtel || Gautam Gopal || IIM Shillong || August 2015 edition

Airtel India’s leading Telecommunication Company has expanded its operations in many other countries and is presently operating in more than 19 countries in Asia and Africa. The pace at which Airtel has spread its wings is truly remarkable and this goes on to prove their metal in the field of telecommunication business. In the year 2010 Airtel’s subscriber base touched the 200 million mark which led them to change their logo. They switched from their Traditional Airtel logo which had black and white lettered on white and red background respectively to white lettered on a red background with a different “a” on it. What is the relevance of doing so? What did earlier logo symbolise? In what way does the new logo make difference? 

Pre 2010 logo 
Airtel came into picture in the year 1995 when the call rates were really high and the

subscribers were ignorant of the various application of mobile phones and the network provider’s services. Airtel being the budding company needed to show a lot of commitment to build a new subscriber base for them. Airtel came up with its first logo having two swoosh design, the idea behind having this logo was to represent coming “era” which went in tandem with their positioning, the tagline “touch tomorrow”. In the year 2000 in order to rebrand itself Airtel had gone for a logo change. This logo was a symbol of innovation and leadership and was also called “flag logo “because of its appearance. The red dot over black “I” symbolised the importance of “innovation “which the company stands for, resulting in a sea change in their services. They took up the responsibility of educating its consumers through various campaigns about their services like – roaming, international calling, coverage area etc. 

Post 2010 logo 

With the changing era and of mobile communication Airtel made another logo change. The new logo is called the “wave” and the whole rebranding campaign was done at a cost of around INR 300 crore with a new tune composed by A.R Rahman going along with its launch. There are various other attributes that the new logo depicts which includes the feeling of being alive because of the curved “a” which depicts dynamism. The name was coined through an online contest “The name game “which lasted for six months and had seen a mammoth participation of almost 1.5 lakh consumers. The campaign created a positive buzz in public. Contrasting colour combination of red and white, where “red “colour in the logo depicts passion and strength, which is the salient feature of Airtel since its inception in 1995. The management believes that the alive nature of the logo brings customer closer to them. The new unboxed logo means freedom from boundaries as Airtel has found its presence as a leading

telecommunication company in multiple nations. The new logo resembles Vodafone and Videocon logo which has disappointed many but the way Airtel has been repositioning itself from “Touch tomorrow“ to “Express yourself” It is totally justified how the brand has evolved from being local to international. Overall one can say that it is a positive step by Airtel to celebrate its 200 million consumer base. The rebranding strategy which it’s following through remodelling its logo is a step-stone towards a mark of globalisation and it’s a statement to other global players that Airtel will target the global market in their quest of becoming the global market leader.