[3GScottishUser]

Vodafone is to revamp its brand and marketing for the first time in four years after chief executive Vittorio Colao has decided that beefing up the company’s image should be one of his top priorities.

The mobile-phone giant is ditching its “Make the most of now” tagline after four years in favour of “Power to you” as it prepares to launch a suite of new services to capitalise on the growing popularity of the mobile internet.

“It is not the brand talking any more and telling the customer what to do,” said Colao. “It is the customer who will decide. I am trying to steer the whole company in this direction.”

Colao wants to transform Vodafone, which has 315m customers, into one of the world’s best-loved brands and drive the switch to smartphones such as iPhones and BlackBerrys, where customer use typically increases by 700%. This autumn it will take on Apple’s “app store” by launching a service to sell applications that can be downloaded from other content providers.

"Power to you” is only Vodafone’s second global brand campaign since “How are you?”, introduced the name into several markets in 2001 after a spree of acquisitions. Vodafone spends almost £600m a year on advertising. The new tagline will begin appearing on all of its communications over the next six weeks.

Full Story: http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/industry_sectors/telecoms/article6841167.ece

[Hands0n]

“It is not the brand talking any more and telling the customer what to do,” said Colao. “It is the customer who will decide. I am trying to steer the whole company in this direction.”

Talk is cheap. Show me the colour of your money :D

If he does as he states he wants to do then it will likely be a superb transmutation of Vodafone from being the scrooge of Mobile Broadband into something completely different. Have Vodafone got the will to go down this road? Will they finally unfetter their world-class network, giving access to the masses instead of keeping it a premium service? Is this the end of their generous 500MB "Unlimited" service?

I wish Colao and Vodafone all the luck in this. Because if they don't get this right, they'll find themselves wondering what happened in a few years time.

[3GScottishUser]

I suspect if any company can get it right then Vodafone is the most likely candidade.

Vodafone have a tendancy to sit on the fence then leap into the market with some breathtaking stuff.

Their track record on 3G has been quite impressive, (mobile tv, etc), and I expect LTE will be their next big thing.

Of course they will keep banging on with Vodafone live and their mobile broadband (now being upgarded to 14.4Mb/s) but that aside I expect Vodafone to be quietly plotting the next stage in the evolution of wireless in the UK and that is traditionally what they have been very adept at.

[Ben]

A major branding push couldn't come at a better time, what with the Orange/T-Mobile supermerger taking place on its home turf.

Lets hope the new message spawns better TV ads than their last awful batch.

[miffed]

I am all for it if it means I might see a 3G signal from them anytime soon.

Power to me !