VODACOM CHANGES ITS IMAGE
The second largest mobile phone operator in Mozambique, the South African company Vodacom, on Wednesday announced an overhaul in its image, to bring it into line with the image of the major shareholder in the Vodacom group, the British based company Vodafone.The major change is in the company’s colour – up until now, all Vodacom advertising was on a background of blue. But blue has now been dropped, replaced by Vodafone’s bright red. The Vodacom and Vodafone logo now look much the same.“This isn’t happening just in Mozambique, but throughout the Vodacom Group”, the Vodacom-Mozambique Chief Executive Office, Jose dos Santos, told reporters. He pointed out that Vodafone holds 66 per cent of the shares in the Vodacom Group. In addition to Mozambique and South Africa, Vodacom has operations in Lesotho, Tanzania and the Democratic Republic of Congo.Dos Santos could not say exactly how much the rebranding would cost, but admitted “These things are never cheap”.He promised that the changes in Vodacom would not be restricted to replacing blue with red, but would involve “a change of attitude”, so that “clients will be at the centre of Vodacom”.Santos pledged “a true transformation in the way we handle the business, how we deal with our workers and, above all, how we position our clients”. Despite the accommodation to Vodafone, he claimed that the company will remain “faithful to the characteristics which make Vodacom a genuinely Mozambican brand”.He claimed that mobile phone calls on the Vodacom network are seven per cent cheaper than those of its rival, the publicly-owned company M-Cel, and that Vodacom offers “the cheapest Internet rates on the market”.However, M-Cel makes similar claims, and the blizzard of promotions and special offers from the two companies makes comparisons difficult. There is no watchdog that can tell consumers which company really does offer the best deal.Dos Santos said that, in the last 12 months alone, Vodacom has erected 100 new mobile phone masts throughout the country. Freeing itself from dependence on the fibre-optic network owned by the public telecommunications company TDM, Vodacom has laid its own fibre-optic network, linking Maputo to the central cities of Beira, Chimoio and Tete. Cables are currently being laid to connect Beira to Nampula.“The project to update the network and modernize the systems is being implemented with the greatest technical rigour, so as to minimize any constraints for the clients”, he added.Dos Santos declined to give any details of Vodacom’s 2010 balance sheet, for legal reasons to do with the fact that the Vodacom group is quoted on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange. Only in May will the data become available – and only then will we know whether Vodacom-Mozambique has broken into profit. The company has consistently run at a loss since it began its operations in 2004.
The second largest mobile phone operator in Mozambique, the South African company Vodacom, on Wednesday announced an overhaul in its image, to bring it into line with the image of the major shareholder in the Vodacom group, the British based company Vodafone.The major change is in the company’s colour – up until now, all Vodacom advertising was on a background of blue. But blue has now been dropped, replaced by Vodafone’s bright red. The Vodacom and Vodafone logo now look much the same.“This isn’t happening just in Mozambique, but throughout the Vodacom Group”, the Vodacom-Mozambique Chief Executive Office, Jose dos Santos, told reporters. He pointed out that Vodafone holds 66 per cent of the shares in the Vodacom Group. In addition to Mozambique and South Africa, Vodacom has operations in Lesotho, Tanzania and the Democratic Republic of Congo.Dos Santos could not say exactly how much the rebranding would cost, but admitted “These things are never cheap”.He promised that the changes in Vodacom would not be restricted to replacing blue with red, but would involve “a change of attitude”, so that “clients will be at the centre of Vodacom”.Santos pledged “a true transformation in the way we handle the business, how we deal with our workers and, above all, how we position our clients”. Despite the accommodation to Vodafone, he claimed that the company will remain “faithful to the characteristics which make Vodacom a genuinely Mozambican brand”.He claimed that mobile phone calls on the Vodacom network are seven per cent cheaper than those of its rival, the publicly-owned company M-Cel, and that Vodacom offers “the cheapest Internet rates on the market”.However, M-Cel makes similar claims, and the blizzard of promotions and special offers from the two companies makes comparisons difficult. There is no watchdog that can tell consumers which company really does offer the best deal.Dos Santos said that, in the last 12 months alone, Vodacom has erected 100 new mobile phone masts throughout the country. Freeing itself from dependence on the fibre-optic network owned by the public telecommunications company TDM, Vodacom has laid its own fibre-optic network, linking Maputo to the central cities of Beira, Chimoio and Tete. Cables are currently being laid to connect Beira to Nampula.“The project to update the network and modernize the systems is being implemented with the greatest technical rigour, so as to minimize any constraints for the clients”, he added.Dos Santos declined to give any details of Vodacom’s 2010 balance sheet, for legal reasons to do with the fact that the Vodacom group is quoted on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange. Only in May will the data become available – and only then will we know whether Vodacom-Mozambique has broken into profit. The company has consistently run at a loss since it began its operations in 2004.
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