This article talks about the current state of Telecom Branding in the Middle East and Africa. It discusses the need and value of a telecom brand

1. May 2008
The Delta Perspective
“If this business were split
up, I would give you the land
and bricks and mortar, and I
would take the brands and
trade marks, and I would
fare better than you.”
— John Stuart,
Chairman of Quaker
(c.a. 1900)

2. 2
Brands came into existence as early as trade when herd owners
used hot irons to mark and identify their cattle. This mark later
developed with the industrial revolution where factories used
certain elements to distinguish their products from others. As
people moved into cities and were no longer exposed to the
manufacturing source of the products available, their purchasing
decision became influenced by the brands that they knew. Brands
have come a long way since, and have become representative of a
significant value of their parent companies.

3. 3
of origin.” If the above is applicable in
a developed market like the UK, the
impact of a trusted brand would deliver
much higher value in high-growth
markets where corporations are less
customer oriented.
Already from the early start-up stage,
setting up a telecom operator is
becoming increasingly standardized; the
investors choose one of three or four
main companies to setup their network,
recruit the same regional telecom
experts from existing operators, and
most likely use the same company to
develop their SIM cards and packaging.
Then, as the market becomes mature,
the main differentiator to attract
customers becomes the brand (look &
feel, communication, and experience)
Operators in a monopolistic situation
typically focus on slowly adding incremental
functionality in order to make customers
spend more money, therefore increasing
revenue. Monopolies would regard neither
price nor brand as priorities because
customers have no other alternatives or
benchmark in the market
As the second player enters the market,
price will increasingly become a competitive
priority. Improved customer service and some
degree of customized products and services
will push the functionality axis slightly higher.
Branding in this case is usually regarded as a
mere visual differentiation between operators
As the more operators enter the market,
pricing will not be a sustainable lever to play
in the long term. In order to differentiate,
operators will need to look to their brand’s
emotional appeal. Since there are caps
in the functional axis (limited to network
capabilities) and financial axis (restricted
by profitability and business sense), a
brand’s emotional appeal is always limitless
and only capped by the operator and its
communication agency’s creativity

4. 4
The process of building a
global telecom brand
The process of building a global
brand can be divided into five key
stages, from deciding on the branding
approach to sustaining the brand in the
long run.
Deciding on the branding•
approach
Developing a governance model•
Defining the corporate identity•
Deploying the new brand•
Sustaining the brand•
The role of a project management office
(PMO) is crucial in a global or regional
(re)branding project to hold the different
elements together and ensure timeliness
and consistency of the different
steps across all the functions of the
operation. Single operator (re)branding
efforts can be managed through
individual functions, provided a specific
department is assigned to manage the
initiative across the organization.
“In the deregulated
markets of today’s
telecom industry, having a
distinguishing brand may
be more important than
ever as telecom providers
seek to define their places
in a complex web of
supply options. Given the
myriad of choices, a brand
must be substantial,
offering more than just a
logo and a tag line. The
brand must define and
deliver differentiators
that represent a
value proposition to
customers.”
- “The Value of Branding
in Telecom Today” by Tyco
Telecom USA
Exhibit 2: The best of breed brand examples which show how to create a
sustainable difference
If we take a look at the main pillars of a telecom value proposition, we notice
that it is almost impossible to create sustainable differentiation in any of the
elements. This is because there exists an upper limit (or best of breed) for
distribution models, products and services, tariffs, handsets, customer service,
and coverage; whereas a brand is not limited by any such ceiling. Below are
some examples of brand activities that go beyond all foreseeable benchmarks:
Emirates Airlines signs the biggest club sponsorship deal in English•
football history with Arsenal FC worth approximately GBP 100 million
and gained naming rights to Arsenal’s football arena “Emirates
Stadium”
52.9% of companies surveyed by the Economist engage in corporate•
social responsibility activities to have a better brand / reputation
Nakeel, the Dubai based real estate developer has committed AED 500•
million to fund research and development activity, and promote active
engagement with international experts on the issues of sustainable
development, construction, management and governance of coastal
communities around the world.
– Nakheel has developed three palm islands in addition to a set of
islands representing the world map, off the coast of Dubai
AT&T killed off the Cingular brand (worth USD 6.6 billion) in order to•
strengthen its own name and empower it with a mobile offering

5. 5
Deciding on the branding
approach
Monolithic brands are necessary for
pan-regional operators to develop global brand
equity from all communication activities in
individual markets
Leveraging on a
multinational
brand
An early assessment on the convenience
to move towards a monolithic or multi-
brand approach needs to be conducted
prior to commencing any new brand
identity development exercise. In order
to do this, several key questions need to
be thoroughly discussed and answered:
Can I have the same strategy•
across all operations, or are there
significant differences?
Can I leverage my footprint to•
have positive spillover in terms of
media, products and services, and
advertising ideas?
How big is my existing local brand•
equity in each market?
Do I have an experienced group•
branding function capable of
succeeding in the endeavor?
Exhibit 3: Brand architecture components
Brand
architecture
Brandhierarchymodel
Businessdivisions
approach
Productlines
Servicenaming
Classification
Monolithic►►
Endorsed►►
Multiple►►
Product/service divisions►►
Customer usage-driven divisions►►
Payment method (prepaid,►►
postpaid)
Usage/user type (premium,►►
youth)
Iconic►►
Descriptive names►►
Technology names►►
Suggestive names►►
Color coding►►
Icons and stylization►►
Service images►►
Brand
hierarchy
model
Business
divisions
approach
Product
lines
Service
naming
Classification
Strategic options
Source: Delta Partners analysis

6. 6
Developing the brand architecture
Operators should define a clear
brand architecture for customers
and employees to understand the
way in which the brands within a
company’s portfolio are referred to
and differentiated from one another
in terms of both market offering
and management structure. Brand
architecture includes the brand hierarchy
model, business division approach,
product line definitions, service names,
and a classification method.
Different brand hierarchy models
Due to the vast wave of mergers and
acquisitions in the MENA region,
telecom operators have inherited a
multitude of brands (see Exhibit 4).
This has resulted in fragmented
identities for holding companies,
and the loss of global leverage in
local markets. Every time a company
purchases a new operator it is faced
with the daunting question: to rebrand
or not to rebrand. Below are some
pros and cons of rebranding.
Pros: Maintaining several brands can
be very expensive for telecom holding
companies. It denies them economies
of scale benefits, as they neither have
the advantage of developing one
regional brand campaign targeting
all OpCos, nor local campaigns
with spill over to other regional
operations which would result in
higher brand equity. Having multiple
sub-brands would also result in brand
fragmentation losing the focus that
can be achieved through strategic
investments in maintaining a
single identity.
Exhibit 4: Example of multiple branding - Orascom Telecom brand hierarchy (May 2008)

7. 7
In order to tackle the above situation,
the concept of a monolithic brand is
gaining popularity among telecom
operators in the MENA region. A
monolithic brand is a single brand used
in all markets and across all product
lines. This approach was followed by
MTC who has developed the new
Zain brand and is applying it across all
existing and new operations. In the
same spirit Vodafone decided to drop
the “live” and “3G” logos from all
their ads to avoid having sub-brands
that dilute the overall Vodafone
brand image.
Cons: Re-branding can be a daunting
task especially in cases where existing
brands have high equity. Brand equity
transfer is never comprehensive,
and changing a brand has deep
repercussions on company perception
across all stakeholders. Despite all
transition efforts a company will lose
some of its customer loyalty. The only
way to minimize the loss is through
extensive research and testing,
starting from customer satisfaction, to
expectations, perception, and adoption.
Another issue to be considered is
the re-branding history of certain
operators, because changing brands
frequently would result in a perception
of desperation and low credibility. In
many cases a single operator would
have had several different identities
within the period of a few years which
makes it very difficult for customers
to relate to the brand and virtually
impossible for the operator to build
brand equity. An example of such an
operator is currently known as MTN
Syria, having changed its identity six
times over a period of seven years (see
Exhibit 5).
Exhibit 5: Evolution of MTN Syria’s brand identity (2000-2007)
2000 Q1 2001 Q2 2001 Q4 2004 Q3 2005 Q3 2007

8. 8
In order to get the necessary attention,
the (re)branding project needs to be
sponsored by the CEO; not by being
involved in every decision, but through
acting as an endorser and reference
point to push the process forward in
deadlock situations and managing
high-level subjective differences. Their
endorsement should be conveyed
through company-wide events
highlighting the benefits to be gained
from (re)branding and its implications
on all areas of the organization. There
needs to be an internal structure in place
(usually set by the Chief Commercial
Officer or Marketing Director) to
manage the branding process.
Since branding directly or indirectly
impacts all areas across an organization,
it requires synchronized efforts from each
function within the company. A steering
committee comprised of empowered
decision makers from each function
should be set up to coordinate project
plans and ensure complete internal
alignment and progress on all matters.
This structure should be replicated at
each operating company / country
and coordinated by a global project
management office reporting to the
group CEO and CCO in the case of a
multinational operator.
According to a study by Harvard
Business Review(4)
, the responsibility for
global brand leadership can follow four
possible configurations:
Business management•
teams: Whereby each product
category is run by a global
category team who work in R&D,
manufacturing and marketing
within their respective regions.
This team defines the identity
and positioning of brands in their
categories throughout the world
(i.e. Proctor and Gamble)
Brand champions:• Senior
executives with other
responsibilities, possibly CEOs
serve as the brand’s primary
advocates and nurturers
(i.e. Sony)
Global brand managers:•
Branding experts for the company
who lie just below the top
line management, but usually
don’t have sign-off authority on
marketing programs (i.e. IBM)
Global brand teams:• Teams
responsible for managing the
global brand consisting of brand
representatives from different
parts of the world, different
stages of brand development,
and different competitive
contexts (i.e. Lycra)
Developing a governance model
Brands should be sponsored by the CEO (the ultimate brand champion) to
ensure a consistent and powerful image across geographies

9. 9
Defining the corporate
identity
Brand positioning should be specific and
meaningful with achievable objectives reflecting
the ideology of the operator as a whole
Brand positioning
should come
from within
Because a brand represents the image
and reputation of a telecom operator,
it should truly reflect its ideals. It
is therefore necessary to carry out
research and internal assessments
prior to brand development. Internal
and external research should be done
to define the conceptual target and
positioning, while incorporating local,
regional, and global company strategy
in addition to competitive landscape.
Other research should be done through
workshops to select the brand name
and derive the brand values. This
requires final Board approval, which is
best achieved by involving the Board
at early stages. It is also important to
check that the name defined does not
have negative connotations in any
language and not directly related to
another branded product (poignant
check-points include the availability
of an online domain name and ease
of pronunciation) Finally, qualitative
research should validate conceptual
target and brand values, and to
profile the segments. By doing the
above, the operator should establish
clear guidelines and foundations for
positioning the new brand, which
needs to be translated across all the
activities and be reflected in the culture
of the organization.
For example, Vodafone considers
mobility at the heart of its business
and reflects that through highlighting
the “now” indicating the power of
mobility and allowing customers to
aspire to it; whereas Orange, France
Telecom’s single brand for internet,
television and mobile services
highlights the power of being “open”
with no restrictions to wires.
In mature markets where customers
expect coverage, voice, roaming, and
customer service quality by default,
brands should have a positioning
that goes beyond those basic needs.
There have been mistakes by telecom
companies on both sides of the
spectrum either by being too narrow
focusing on connecting people

10. 10
(which is the minimum requirement)
or too broad about enjoying life and
the future (which ends up being an
oversell or over promise). A particularly
effective promise has been developed
focusing on the key benefit of
mobility, the “now” whereby you
can get instant access to whatever
you like anytime, no matter where
you are or what you are doing. Their
effectiveness is a result of the promise
being aspirational yet achievable,
while related to the industry and
the offering.
Exhibit 6: Telecom brand promises as portrayed through operator selling lines
Company positioning or promises can be mapped across two axes, specific vs. generic and functional vs.
emotional. The general criteria for a company promise is that it needs to be somewhat emotional for customers
to aspire to, yet somewhat specific in order to be relevant to the services provided and have an achievable
objective (as opposed to over promising). Being in the middle generally results in a bland brand that is neutral to
everything. Brands that are very functional usually commoditize their offering and their promise tends to reflect
what the service is as opposed to an inspiring call to action that stakeholders can buy into.
Emotional
du►►
Add life
to life
Mobinil►►
Communicate from
the heart
Vodafone►►
Make the most of now
T-Mobile►►
Stick together
Qtel►►
Let’s connect
Etisalat►►
Reach
Nokia►►
Connecting people
MTN►►
Everywhere you go
O2►►
See what you can do
Al Jawal►►
With you
Mobily►►
My world, My choice
Orange►►
The future is
bright
Generic
Functional
Specific
Desirable positioning
Source: Delta Partners analysis

11. 11
Developing the brand
A brand is more prominent in the feeling customers get after interacting
with a company and is best catered to through managing overall
communication and experience, as opposed to colors and visuals
Once the previous steps are developed
the creative part of logo development
should commence. This is done through
a Corporate Identity (CI) agency.
Corporate Identity agencies are usually
involved at very early stages of the
brand development process, in most
cases starting with the research,
creation of values, positioning, and
finally the visual identity.
Once a visual identity is developed, the
CI agency would proceed to developing
a comprehensive brand look and
feel guidelines booklet. This includes
advertising templates, instructions
on logo usage, placement, colors,
photography, tone of voice, literature,
stationary, giveaways, etc.
A typical gap found in the Middle East
and Africa is the lack of advertising
and communication guidelines. Such
guidelines are intended to further
elaborate on the positioning statement,
and the insights behind it in order
to ensure a consistency across the
different messages delivered through
advertising. Vodafone’s communication
agency has developed such guidelines
for the Vodafone brand explaining the
“make the most of now” positioning.
This document clarifies the commercial,
brand, consumer and communication
insights, while elaborating on how to
best communicate or advertise
the brand.
In some cases when the decision is
taken to develop these guidelines, a
tough debate may occur on whether
the CI agency, the ad agency, or both
should develop them. This is because
the CI agency is viewed to be more
focused on design and image as
opposed to advertising oriented - yet
they are the agency responsible for
the identity under which advertising
falls. It is recommended to have
the advertising agency develop the
advertising guidelines since they are
the party applying them. It is apparent
that when agencies have ownership
of a brand project they develop better
quality work.
The target audience of a brand must
always include all stakeholders in
The target audience of
a brand must always
include all stakeholders
in the company - namely
employees, shareholders,
and customers. A common
mistake by many companies
is not regarding employees
and shareholders as target
audience when developing
and communicating the
brand, presuming that they
are the responsibility of HR
and investor relations; such
behavior generally results
in a fragmented
(non-cohesive) brand

12. 12
Google brand buildingthe company - namely employees,
shareholders, and customers. A common
mistake by many companies is not
regarding employees and shareholders
as target audience when developing and
communicating the brand, presuming
that they are the responsibility of HR
and investor relations. Such behavior
generally results in a fragmented
(non-cohesive) brand.
In order to create a brand experience
that appeals and applies to all of these
audiences, some companies have been
resorting to sensory branding. Sensory
branding is an innovative branding
methodology that allows the brand
to appeal to each of the five senses.
In this pursuit Singapore Airlines have
created a proprietary perfume (Stefan
Floridian Waters) used by all its staff,
on its wet towels, and embedded in
its leather seats. According to Martin
Lindstrom’s book Brand Sense, research
showed that 80% of people recognize
Singapore airlines from its scent alone
without having to see the logo. In
other examples of sensory branding,
Nokia has developed a signature sonic
branding that is being adapted to the
cultures of all the markets it operates
in; Apple has developed the iPod touch
and the iPhone in addition to many
other products that appeal to the sense
of touch; Coca Cola reverted to the
authentic bottle design to preserve a
visual distinction. This approach has
generated very rewarding results across
a range of different industries but has
not been fully exploited by telecom
operators to date.
Exhibit 7: Some examples of brands who use sensory branding
Coke bottle Singapore Airlines scent iPhone touch screen Nokia tune
Google has been ranked as the top
global brand of 2008 according
to the Brandz ranking by Millward
Brown Optimor. Google is a brand
that anyone who uses the internet
has interacted with and most
probably loved. When you take a
closer look however, you notice
that Google has not developed any
traditional advertising campaigns.
The Google brand was built on
customer experience, and through
their philosophy to “push the limits of
existing technology to provide a fast,
accurate and easy-to-use search service
that can be accessed from anywhere.”
Despite not having any traditional ads
and no monolithic brand Google has
managed to build the world’s best
brand by focusing on the customer
and exuding simplicity.

13. 13
Most of the work for developing a
brand is done after the development of
the actual logo. A brand is built with
every piece of communication, which
includes the company logo. There are
many other parties involved in deploying
and communicating the brand.
After the identity is developed by
the CI agency, it is passed on (along
with the guidelines) to the operator’s
advertising agency, which is responsible
Deploying the new brand
Deploying brand strategy is a task that requires intricate understanding of
the company strategy and therefore should be developed by the strategy
department and later handed over to an operator’s MarCom team
for developing all of the brand
communication including:
A strapline (in a few cases this is•
developed by the CI agency)
A launch campaign and strategy•
Corporate stationery•
Products and services•
communication
Corporate profiles and annual•
reports
Any other advertising•
requirements
Exhibit 8: Parties involved in the deployment and communication of the new brand
Advertising agency PR agency DM agencyMedia agency Web design agency Retail design
Strapline►►
Launch►►
campaign
Corporate►►
stationary
P&S campaigns►►
Corporate►►
profile
Annual reports►►
Media►►
communications
Press releases►►
Events►►
Media bookings►►
Media presence►►
strategy
Corporate►►
website
Micro sites►►
Flash animations►►
Intranet►►
Direct mail►►
CRM►►
Values and positioning►►
Visual identity►►
Identity application guidelines►►
Own shops►►
Dealers►►
Office►►
environments
CI agency
New brand

14. 14
Even though the advertising agency
is generally regarded as the brand
guardian, there are many additional
partners and suppliers involved including
media booking, PR, web design, direct
marketing and retail / interior-design
agencies – all in addition to third party
suppliers usually responsible for printing
and execution.
Operators in the Middle East generally
follow an ad hoc communication
management process, which can be
summarized into the following:
MarComs manage each of the•
agencies individually without
leveraging on a single integrated
communication approach
involving all parties
Even though the MarCom•
department is in charge of
managing the brand internally
and with the communication
agencies, they are superseded by
the marketing department and
C-levels who also occasionally
contact the advertising agency
directly or provide direct
comments to them in meeting
Each agency is responsible for•
directly coordinating with the
advertising agency
The PR department is treated as•
a separate entity and coordinates
separately with all internal
departments, the PR agency,
and the advertising and media
agencies as needed
This approach usually results in
un-integrated campaigns because the
media booking, DM, web content, and
PR are done independently from the
advertising concept. The management
and coordination process becomes
entangled and hard to follow.
A best practice to streamline the process
would involve:
The MarCom department having•
more autonomy over the brand
The advertising agency being•
allowed to manage all forms of
advertising by having the authority
to manage all third parties
The PR department having a•
parallel coordination stream with
CxOs and the PR agency – yet
aligning with MarCom on
brand-related PR content.
Brand strategy governance
The brand is best initially overlooked
and managed by either the strategy
department or professional services
teams directly involved in the overall
operator strategy, and later handed
over to the operators’ MarCom

15. 15
teams to manage across different
communication agencies and disciplines.
The strategy teams in the region are
more dominant in C-level and executive
management meetings and decisions
than communication agencies and
the MarCom teams, which gives them
a clear bird’s eye view of the overall
business as opposed to operating in
one discipline only. By managing the
branding process, the strategy team can
develop a brand strategy that:
Takes into consideration the•
operator’s requirements in the
short and long term
Adheres to financial forecasts,•
and global communication ROI
benchmarks
Incorporates forecasted service•
launch schedules
Is consistent with market•
Exhibit 9: Simplified process structure to ensure alignment, effectiveness and efficiency
segmentation (developed by the
strategy team)
Is constantly updated to respond•
to detailed penetration figures
(which are closely managed by the
strategy team)
Ideally and to help the above process
work seamlessly a telecom operator
should try and assign a regional multi
discipline advertising group to manage
their brand. Large advertising agencies
are usually part of a holding company
that offers advertising, media booking,
PR, DM, and online services. Assigning
one of these companies could help
integrate all branding and
communications across geographies
under one roof allowing sister companies
to work together on all campaigns and
communication initiatives.

16. 16
Sustaining the global brand
Sustaining a global brand requires strong alignment between messages
and media channels to ensure optimal communication, distribution
and continuous brand auditing with global consistency
Global brand management requires a
rigid control process involving a single
brand champion from the holding
company to manage the overall brand
and approve all applications across the
different markets for consistency, short
approval times in order not to disrupt
the work flow and increase time to
market, approval at concept level and
artwork stage to avoid rejecting the
concept after all the work has been
done, and clear guidelines on image and
positioning in addition to those of
logo application.
The approval process needs to be robust
and enforced to ensure compliance with
maximum effectiveness. This can be
done through:
Brand audits that take place•
regularly for each operation
Quarterly presentations from each•
operation to the Group Branding
function
Putting motivational processes•
in place, incentivizing brand
managers who deliver good results
An online brand management•
tool that would help different
operations have access to and
review all the work developed on
the brand across geographies.
To launch the Audi A3 in the USA, Audi allowed people to
participate in the communication campaign that went as follows:
A live theft of the first Audi A3 in the USA from the dealership
on Park Avenue in New York. Passers-by would see two people
break the window and steal the car, security guards running after
a suspect, the placement of police tape around the crime area, and
the handout of wanted flyers.
The following day at the New York International Auto Show the
car was replaced with signs indicating that the car was missing,
and the public would not know how the car was stolen.
The event was covered by bloggers around the world, and
supported by newspaper ads, billboards, and TV ads asking people
to help find the car and providing response channels.
The Audi USA website showed that the company contracted a firm
specialized in the retrieval of high end stolen art named Last Resort
Retrieval.
On the Last Resort Retrieval website, there were thousands of
leads including photos, faxes, phone calls, and emails
CASE Study: Audi “The Art of the Heist”
Last Resort Retrieval was also advertised for months in the
classifieds section of high end magazine (to show that it’s a
legitimate company).
To target video gamers, Audi created a twist whereby a game
developer is trying to find the car, and gives live interviews at E3 the
largest video game expo in the world.
To make sure people were able to follow the story, you could visit
the blog of Todd who was intently following the action from day 1
and posting all the updates and viral films
A few weeks later people would have noticed that the mystery was
solved, and learn why the car was stolen
Campaign results include:
45 million PR impressions•
500,000 story participants•
Over 10,000 leads to dealers•
Over 2 million unique visits to the Audi USA website•
Source: Adforum

17. 17
Common pitfalls observed in ME and Africa
In order to reach an internal consensus on brand related matters,
regional operators tend to adopt the safe brand option which results in
killing creativity
In many cases telecom brands are
perceived and treated as personal
belongings of the chairman or CEO
who is often influenced by revenue
generating potential held in the
marketing department. Therefore
MarCom, as a pure cost center, have
little decision making power over
the brand. Due to this, MarCom
departments usually take a very safe,
risk averse position that does not
contribute to strongly differentiating
the brand.
The advertising approach in the region
has two extremes: brand and tactical.
Ads are either too tactical with strong
predominant calls to action along
the lines of “buy now” (to satisfy
the marketing teams); or brand ads
which are very vague and provide
over promising messages (these are
usually accompanied with expensive TV
productions intended to be a show off
statement as opposed to getting closer
to the customer).
Another regional issue that limits
targeted communication is the limited
availability of data about existing
customers and their behaviors. Not
having this data is a lost opportunity
for effective communications,
and generally results in inefficient
mass communication that in
many cases is irrelevant to many
customers and eventually weakens
the customer-brand bond. It is
strongly recommended that MarCom
departments engage in more research
activities for defining target audience
behavior and testing concepts prior to
going on air.
MEA telecom operators usually lack
a strong local flavor in their brand
identity. This is mainly due to the
lack of trust in regional corporate
identity agencies and resorting to
UK companies for developing local
identities for geographies they are
not very familiar with. Another lack
of flavor is generally a result of media

18. 18
Brands are the only effective and sustainable differentiators for•
telecom operators in the long run
Telecom branding is still in its infancy compared to other•
industries
The benefits of having a monolithic brand outweigh those of•
maintaining a multi-brand approach
It is essential to give autonomy to brand managers, and make•
them the final decision makers for all brand related matters
A CEO should be involved in branding at its early stages to ensure•
a smooth roll-out across the organization
Brand promises should be customer centric, aspirational yet down•
to earth, and achievable
All brand related communication should be consistent and•
integrated across as many media as possible
There should be open channels between MarCom and customers•
as opposed to having all messages filtered through customer
service or marketing
The MarCom function needs to have authority over marketing to•
ensure that the brand transcends products, services, and technical
features
utilization, whereby all campaigns
are developed for mass media and
very little effort is placed on targeting
specific audiences that the service is
developed for.
Fragmentation remains a key
characteristic of telecom branding and
communications in the Middle East
and Africa. Fragmentation is observed
across different brand campaigns,
product launches, and in different
subsidiaries across geographies.
Regional players should put more
effort in communication consolidation
by developing a central branding
department, a clear consistent
strategy, and local brand guardians in
each country.
Key take-aways

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Similar to salad dressing, a strong
brand penetrates all the conventional
ingredients of a telecom operator and
gives it a distinct flavor differentiated
from other operators offering the same
products and services. The brand
dressing should have a strong prominent
flavor that becomes prevalent in all
aspects of an operator from the sign
at the door to the customer care
welcoming statement, HR strategy,
corporate culture, advertising, products
and services, and investor relations.
Only a bold distinct flavor can
make the brand promise “stick” in
Footnotes
Conclusion
stakeholders minds and create a form
of addiction that gets reinforced at
every touch point.
A salad dressing is always developed by
the chef: (in this case MarCom) never
the restaurant manager or any other
staff working at the restaurant.
The salad dressing should fit with the
salad context, which is why you do not
find ranch dressing on a Chinese salad;
and hence brands and promises need to
be tailored to suit the local market and
the telecom context.
Source: MillwardBrown Optimor, the full document is available on http://www.brandz.com/BrandZ_2007_Ranking_1.
Report.pdf
According to Reuters, Preschoolers preferred the taste of burgers and fries when they came in McDonald’s wrappers2.
over the same food in plain wrapping, U.S. researchers said, suggesting fast-food marketing reaches the very young.
“Overwhelmingly, kids chose the one that they perceived was from McDonald’s,” said obesity prevention expert Dr.
Thomas Robinson of the Stanford University School of Medicine, whose work appears in the Archives of Pediatrics &
Adolescent Medicine. Full article available on: http://www.reuters.com/article/latestCrisis/idUSN06428781
The full research by conway.smith.rose is available at: http://www.ofcom.org.uk/static/archive/Oftel/publications/3.
research/2001/bran1101.pdf
From “The Lure of Global Branding” article in Harvard Business Review (November – December 1999) in which4.
executives from 35 companies in the US, Europe and Japan that have successfully developed strong brands across
countries were interviewed

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