This document discusses the external communication strategies of Vodafone India. It begins with background on Vodafone's acquisition of Hutch in 2007. It then describes Vodafone's major advertising campaigns over time, including using the Hutch pug in 2007, introducing the "Happy to Help" tagline in 2008, and launching the successful ZooZoos campaign in 2009 during the IPL. The ZooZoos campaign involved releasing a new animated advertisement daily and became extremely popular in India.

1. Individual Assignment – Types of Communication in an organisation
- External
Harshit D. Bora
Roll No. 8
PGDM-RM
Business Communication
Abstract
For any company to be perceived as a good company and survive for long, profits and
reputations are not enough resources on which it can rely on. It is very important that the
company creates a good working environment for its employees and also have zeal in
attracting new customers. For this, it is very important that company knows it’s internal and
external environment.
Companies should know their employees to prevent that they become dissatisfied with
working conditions, feeling unpleasant or unheard. This is the aim of internal
communication to prevent it, as from the internal communication processes in a very
straight way depends what image company's employees are going to deliver to the external
audiences. It is of the interest of company to know their customers, so as to properly
advertise and promote their products, in the same time being able to attract more
customers continuously. On the other hand, relationships of customers and employees are
directly affected by their perceptions and attitudes towards the company. So, the aim of
external and internal communication is to form those attitudes in Accordance with how
they want to see themselves in the future.

2. Communication
Communication (Latin commūnicāre, meaning "to share") is the activity of conveying
information through the exchange of thoughts, messages, or information, as by speech,
visuals, signals, writing, or behaviour. It is the meaningful exchange of information between
two or a group of living creatures. Pragmatics defines communication as any sign-mediated
interaction that follows combinatorial, context-specific and content-coherent rules.
Communicative competence designates the capability to install inter subjective interactions,
which means that communication is an inherent social interaction.
One definition of communication is “any act by which one person gives to or receives from
another person information about that person's needs, desires, perceptions, knowledge, or
affective states. Communication may be intentional or unintentional, may involve
conventional or unconventional signals, may take linguistic or non-linguistic forms, and may
occur through spoken or other modes.”
Communication requires a sender, a message, and a recipient, although the receiver doesn't
have to be present or aware of the sender's intent to communicate at the time of
communication; thus communication can occur across vast distances in time and space.
Communication requires that the communicating parties share an area of communicative
commonality. The communication process is complete once the receiver has understood the
message of the sender.
Corporate Communication
Corporate communication is the set of activities involved in managing and orchestrating all
internal and external communications aimed at creating favourable point-of-view among
stakeholders on which the company depends. It is the messages issued by a corporate
organization, body, or institute to its audiences, such as employees, media, channel partners
and the general public. Organizations aim to communicate the same message to all its
stakeholders, to transmit coherence, credibility and ethic. Corporate Communications help
organizations explain their mission, combine its many visions and values into a cohesive

3. message to stakeholders. The concept of corporate communication could be seen as an
integrative communication structure linking stakeholders to the organization.
Corporate communication can be further classified into two
1. Internal Communication
2. External Communication
Internal Communication
Internal Communication is also interpreted as employee communication. Internal
communication is the communication that exists within a company, between and among
employees. It can take many forms, such as face to face casual conversations, formal
meetings, phone calls, emails, memorandums, events and activities, reporting pattern etc.
Communication within an organization is key to success. An organization’s adaptability to
external changes relies on efficient communication internally
External Communication
External communication is a very important corporate communication element. It is crucial
for creating brand image. It forms of various activities like advertising, customer service,
public relations building, annual reports, launching of products and services etc. Existing and
potential customers have perceptions towards the corporate brand based on the
organization’s external communication. In other words, external communication is what is
visible to the non-employees of the company.

4. Importance of Communication
Apart from other required skills to survive and grow in the corporate world, communication
skills are an inseparable part of it. The advancement of technology and office automation
leap has its own important role to play but the importance of good and effective
communication skills can’t be denied. Be it any workplace situation- whether making phone
calls or face to face presentation or interaction, sending office memos or emails where a
person has to constantly express his ideas and opinions or decisions or be it promoting a
product or service where a company has to convince the new and existing customers about
their products and services. Without effective communication no organization can be
successful.

5. Vodafone
Vodafone India is the third largest mobile network operator in India. It is one of the wide
spread telecom operator with highest number of loyal customers. It also has one of the
most dynamic and innovative marketing strategy. Also I have been using Vodafone since last
7 years so I am fairly familiar with its external communication.
In this assignment, I will cover external communication of Vodafone which will majorly
comprise of television advertisements.
Background
Vodafone is derived from Vo- voice, Da-Data and Fone-Phone. Vodafone Entered Indian
market in 2001 but it was in 2007 when they acquired the Hutchison India, that they
became a well-established telecom player in India. On 11 February 2007, Vodafone agreed
to acquire the controlling interest of 67% held by Li Ka Shing Holdings in Hutch-Essar for
US$11.1 billion, pipping Reliance Communications, Hinduja Group, and Essar Group, which is
the owner of the remaining 33%. The whole company was valued at USD 18.8 billion. The
transaction closed on 8 May 2007. Hutch was often praised for its award winning
advertisements which all follow a clean, minimalist look. Now that task was to be handled
by Vodafone.
Introduction to Vodafone’s Advertisements
Vodafone is known for its unique advertisement campaign such as pug, happy to help
service and latest released Zoozoos advertisement campaign. The Zoozoos’ advertisements
were created in South Africa by Ogilvy & Mather (O&M), an international advertising,
marketing, and public relations agency and Nirvana Films (Bangalore based company) used
some animated characters to make these advertisements. It became so famous at little time
that they made 30 advertisements on Zoozoos. They spent near Rs. 30 million to make these
advertisements and soon it became one of the most admirable advertisements in India as
seen from its members on facebook page which is increasing rapidly. Vodafone India’s page
on facebook has around 700 thousand likes while Vodafone ZooZoo’s page on facebook has

6. more than 15 million likes. This clearly shows how successful Vodafone’s ZooZoos strategy
has been.
Timeline of Advertisements
2007 – Hutch is now Vodafone
When Vodafone started its advertising campaigns it did not have any famous celebrity with
it like Airtel which had Shah Rukh Khan and Sachin Tendulkar as its brand ambassador. Thus
Vodafone had a huge task of creating its own visible space through advertisements. It
continued with some of its older friends like the “pug”. To show the transition from Hutch to
Vodafone, O&M launched a rather direct, thematic ad showing the trademark pug in a
garden, moving out of a pink coloured kennel (symbolising Hutch) and making his way into a
red one (the Vodafone colour). A more energetic, chirpier version of the ‘You and I’ tune
associated with Hutch, plays towards the end, as the super concludes, ‘Change is good.
Hutch is now Vodafone’. They also rolled out four commercials featuring Hutch’s animated
boy and girl, ‘introducing’ the new brand’s logo to consumers. The four creatives include the
duo peeping over a wall to see the logo; parasailing with the logo flying high behind them;
releasing a rocket bomb wherein the explosion reveals the logo; and lastly, drawing curtains
aside to show the logo. Four other ads with the pug did the rounds of telly screens. The pug
was shown in a red basket, popping up from a red cart, drying himself on a red mat, and
hiding in a red blanket. Each of these made use of the ‘Hutch is now Vodafone’ tagline.
It wasn’t easy integrating Vodafone with Hutch; the latter, as is known, is a subtle,
understated brand, while globally, Vodafone represents high energy, dynamism and young
vitality – all represented by its bright red speech mark logo. The pug remained the brand’s
soul even after the takeover by Vodafone.

7. 2008 – Happy To Help
In 2008 Vodafone changed its tag line from “where ever you go network follows” to “Happy
To Help”. This transition made a great impact as this was the time when people seriously
doubted the customer service provided by the telecom companies. Vodafone made dozen
of advertisements showing that the pug, its brand ambassador, successfully helping and
taking care of its master, little kids in the advertisement.
2009 – ZooZoos
In 2009 Vodafone introduced ZooZoos during the second edition of IPL. Vodafone
introduced a new advertisement every day of the match creating huge anxiety and curiosity
among the audiences. This not only helped Vodafone but also helped IPL to increase its
viewership. Vodafone created 30 ZooZoos advertisements. These advertisements were
super hit among the Indians. This can be seen from the memberships on Facebook page.
Vodafone India’s page on facebook has around 700 thousand likes while Vodafone ZooZoos’

8. page on facebook has more than 15 million likes. ZooZoos are white creatures with
ballooned bodies and egg heads who are used to promote various value added services of
Vodafone. Although these characters look animated, they are actually humans in Zoozoos
costumes.
2010 – Power to You
In 2010 Vodafone made dozen of advertisements on the theme of Football World Cup. It
also introduced Shakira in its advertisement to download the Football World Cup anthem. It
also moved on from ZooZoos to classroom kids to Lewis Hamilton. But it also used ZooZoos
to highlight its various other services. In 2010 it had its tagline as “Power To You” which was
also the theme of the Nation at that time with Anna Hazare leading the anti-corruption
march and seeking for more power in common man’s hand.

10. 2011 –Super Week
In 2011 Vodafone introduced and promoted its 3G service. It used various gaming activities
to show that how 3G is faster and better. Besides ZooZoos it used other live games like
“snakes” to show how gaming is a fun activity when used with proper internet and also
made some games available to download from its website. It also created a format called
“super week” like “music super week”, “cricket super week”, “email super week” etc. which
provided particular service for free for a week to highlight various services of Vodafone.

11. 2012 –Made for You
In 2012 Vodafone focused more on teenage groups and their needs like grandfather playing
with his grandson or gifting him something special or a two best friends made for each other
or how network can connect. It also reintroduced “pug” in couple of advertisements.
Effectiveness
From the above advertisements from 2007 to 2012 it is evident that Vodafone is keeping its
target audience in mind constantly as well as looking at the current situations and needs of
that time and using them to communicate to the audiences. In 2007 it positioned itself. In
2008 it communicated that it is ready to help its customers at any given time. In 2009, when
the IPL-2 which was basking on the success of its first edition, Vodafone capitalized on IPL
and created a new brand ambassador for itself which showcased “change is good”. In 2010
when common man needed power, it came up with a tag line “Power to You”. In 2011 when
the 3G licences were just allocated, it promoted its services through the message “Gaming is
Fun”. The simple yet powerful advertisement campaigns won it many admirers which made
Vodafone one of the most well-known brands in India. It is also seen that Vodafone doesn’t
bring in well established brands on its board, rather it creates a new brand own its own
which can connect to people easily.
Competitors' strategies / opinions / reactions
The main competitor of Vodafone is Airtel. After analysing Vodafone’s advertising strategy,
Airtel realized that using a well-known face is no longer the best way to make your

12. dominance. It did not renew its contracts with Sachin Tendulkar and Shah Rukh Khan. It also
shifted its focus to youth and the friendship theme “Har Ek Friend Zaroori Hota Hain”. Even
Idea Cellular reduced the number of advertisements that they made with Abhishek
Bachchan and started creating advertisements with unknown faces which are more diverse
and less expensive. Thus communicating in a way common man can associate with.
Conclusions
Communication strategy changes according to time and place. People understand it better
when they can associate it with themselves. Vodafone tried to make customize solutions for
its customers as well engaged its audience through exciting advertising campaign. It
experimented with innovative ideas of communicating and created new brands like ZooZoos
which is more liked than the company it created. This shows the success of its
communication campaign. Vodafone website is very interactive and friendly which also
helps in easy navigation and this shows how strong its external communication is. They have
also put up all the advertisements made till date. You can find them here
[https://www.vodafone.in/pages/tvads.aspx?fid=0&year=2011&title=&currentpage=1]. This
shows that they respect their work and are proud of it. Also they are easily available on all
the social media platforms and connect to their customers on demand. I have personally
used their service through twitter and which has been very helpful for me. Now whenever I
have any problem regarding anything, I just tweet to them and within 24 hours, their
executive gets in touch with me and tries to solve my problems. Thus Vodafone gets thumbs
up from my side as far as external communication is concerned.
Recommendations
The suggestions I would like give is that it’s been long i.e. since 2009, Vodafone is using
ZooZoos. It should create another brand ambassador now and keep changing it after a
regular interval of say 3-4 years, as people like to see changes and new exciting stuff. Also it
should start a Vodafone theme park where its customers can connect with already
successful brands like pug and ZooZoos.

13. Sources
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vodafone_India
http://www.afaqs.com/news/story.html?sid=19184_India+calling:+Vodafone%E2%80%99s+
strategy+unplugged
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ZooZoo
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corporate_communication
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Communication
http://pure.au.dk/portal/files/48563031/Thesis_Final.pdf