Who is Vodafone?
Vodafone is an international telecom brand that originated in the UK. In the Netherlands, the Vodafone brand was created from the Libertel brand since 2002. As of 2017, Vodafone forms a joint venture with Ziggo. This has led to a substantial increase in new customers, particularly in the recent period. The advertising campaign "The Future is Exciting. Ready?" has been running in the Netherlands since the end of 2018.
Challenge
Research questions
So Vodafone customers have come to the brand through very different paths over the years. This raises the question of how the "Vodafone" brand, that network of associations, currently sits in the minds of consumers. What are the real pillars on which the brand rests in the Dutch market? And: to what extent is that in line with the international brand strategy? How do customers and non-customers differ in the way the brand image has established itself with them? But also: can effects of the new advertising campaign - already now - be observed, or could the so-called 'hidden power of advertising' be demonstrated?
Vision
Solution
The Brand Memory Assessor applied
The Brand Memory Assessor™ (BMA) was deployed to provide the answer to all of these questions. The BMA creates the completely unique situation where one is unable to identify the displayed brand name but in the meantime has processed its meaning. In this case: one does not know that one has perceived the brand name Vodafone but in the meantime we can probe the brain for the meaningful relationships that have or have not been built around the brand 'Vodafone'.
There is no other method that can do this (!): provide a pure, non-distorted view of the brand because the test takes place "double implicitly": one does not know that it is about brands, let alone the brand in question, and one can therefore only arrive at answer choices based on intuition driven from the brain. The issue here is not response times but whether something (an aspect) is there or not. Moreover: 'lying' is not possible if you don't know what about, rationalizations or pleasantries are excluded. In short, the BMA provides hard evidence of how the brand is really in the mind. It also shows the effects of advertising directly on the brand image. This is different from assuming that the effect of advertising on the brand is okay because the advertising itself is well judged.... (!)
Result
Outcomes
A total of 60 telecom users, both Vodafone customers and non-customers, were selected to participate in an "observation test," a controlled experiment at central locations.
It was proven that the Vodafone brand in the Netherlands rests on 4 pillars, namely Leadership, Adventure, Positivity and Excitement. This corresponds to a large extent to the brand strategy, but 'Partnership' and 'Future-oriented' could not be sufficiently demonstrated in the brand image. However, these latter aspects were seen among those who were confronted with the new advertising campaign. It was also proven that Vodafone customers are mainly attracted by the 'Positivity' that the brand exudes; for non-customers, it is mainly 'Leadership' that comes to the fore, something that current customers no longer appeal to. Finally, it was even shown that the last campaign expression did a better job in that the aspects Excitement and 'Inclusiveness' showed up more strongly in the brand image than as a result of the penultimate expression.
Useful use of outcomes by Vodafone
For Vodafone, these results meant that more focus had to be placed on one of the two advertisements in order to strengthen the brand in precisely those aspects that now appeared to be insufficient pillars under the brand. This was not known until then. Furthermore, certain (negative) aspects came more to the fore among non-customers, an indication that these aspects might stand in the way of becoming a Vodafone customer. Suspicions about this were now suddenly proven. It also became clear which terms would best suffice in the briefing process in working with brand professionals, in order to continue to clearly communicate the meaning of the brand.
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