India’s leading telecom services provider, Bharti Airtel launched its new brand identity in 19 countries across Africa and Asia last week. According to Airtel, the new brand identity has more curves and lively effects compared to the old logo, signifying the innovative approach and dynamic nature of the company. With the launch of the new logo, signature tune, television commercials and online presence, Airtel promises continued commitment and excellence in serving its customers. So much so that customers received an SMS from the CEO of Bharti Airtel Ltd., Sanjay Kapoor, informing them about the revamp, why it was done and what to expect in the months following the revamp.

The online response to the much-hyped $65 million revamp of the largest telecom service brand in India has been mixed. What is interesting though, is the whole Airtel re-branding event and the online media buzz generated by it bears a striking resemblance to the recent GAP rebranding. GAP changed its logo for just a few days and then had to revert to the original logo due to public resentment.

Social Media – The Cynical Multitude

According to research by Position², right after the launch of the new logo on Friday, November 19, 2010, the conversation volume on Twitter about Airtel’s new logo increased drastically from 173 tweets to 7247 tweets in just 4 days. However, most of the conversations carried a negative tone.

The Brand Monitor™ team at Position² analyzed the sentiment of the top tweets from high ranking influencers. The analysis shows that:

• Almost 62% of the conversations about the new Airtel logo were negative.
• Only a small percentage of customers (6%) reacted positively about the new look and feel of the brand.

From the thousands of tweets, Facebook discussions and Linkedin discussions the Position² team analyzed, 3 distinct themes around the reactions emerged:

1. Approximately 15% of the conversations were direct comparisons of the new Airtel logo to the Videocon and Vodafone logos
2. Approximately 10% of the conversations suggested that Airtel should have invested money in improving their customer service and network availability instead
3. A very small minority (1%) called for a reinstatement of the old logo or a fresh redesign exercise

Some examples of the many social media conversations around the rebranding exercise:

Sample Facebook Discussion:	Sample LinkedIn Discussion:	Logo Comparison Created by a Fan:
Airtel wants to be perceived as a contemporary brand. But as the news of the logo change spread, a majority of people did not react to the news with positive statements. Many commented and blogged about comparisons to the old logo and on the new logo’s similarities to other logos of brands in the same category.		Position² tracked the conversations on Twitter and blogs through its social media monitoring tool Brand Monitor™; According to Brand Monitor™, about 30% of twitter conversations say that the logo is a copied version of other companies like Vodafone, Videocon, Uninor, etc.

News And Blogs – The Other Side Of The Coin

The coverage in news sites and blogs was less polarized. While most believe that the old Airtel logo was a strong, contemporary, and confident symbol for the brand, there are others who confess that the new logo is more fresh and dynamic. Approximately 74% of news articles seem to be in favor of the new face of Airtel. Approximately 73% of bloggers expressed a balanced view of the new logo and signature tune.



The Verdict – Your Customer Owns Your Brand Too

While social media platforms are brimming with negative comments and posts from customers, traditional media seems to have either a positive or a neutral outlook towards the re-branding exercise. Today, social media offers a chance for everyone to play critic – one can ridicule, rave, rant and vent on any subject or individual. The new Airtel logo has received severe criticism on social media, mostly from customers or people who identified better with the old brand identity.

This also brings up a significant mindset change that brands need to embrace – your customers own your brand as much as you do – and today social media provides them with a platform to express their views. GAP could roll back to the old logo since it was only soliciting feedback from the customer base. However, it is highly unlikely Airtel will revoke the change since the campaign was executed and announced simultaneously.

We’ll track this story for a few weeks, on the #airtel Twitter channel and across social media to see if sentiment changes over a period of time. Perhaps this logo will eventually find acceptance due to Airtel’s vast presence in India and other countries. If you would like more information on social media sentiment, volume and other statistics, take a look at Brand Monitor™.

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Search engine visibility of a brand is an integral part of an Online Marketing strategy. A Press Release (PR) is a great way to increase your brand’s visibility in Search Engines.

Generally, a PR is used to spread news about your service, product, product features, alliance or acquisition.  There are two phases to get the maximum exposure in search results from a PR:

1. Writing the PR

2. Promoting the PR

Writing the PR

Ensure that your PR is Search Engine Optimized (SEO). Include the top keywords and the brand name in the title and repeat these in the summary and description.  We do this because Search Engines give more importance to keywords that are repeated at the top of the PR. Therefore, there is a higher possibility of your PR being ranked better in search results.

Promoting the PR

• Choose the right site for submission

Make a list of PR submission sites (paid/free) based on its Page Rank Value (PRV) and Alexa rank. Make sure the site you are submitting the PR to shows up for similar PRs in Search Engines for keywords similar to yours.

• Choose the right category

Select the appropriate category in PR submission sites for approval processing of your PR. In addition, some PR submission sites syndicate PRs to other sites. So choosing the right category for your PR is very important, as your PR will be syndicated across to your service/product-specific sites based on your category.

• Submission

Submit your PR to the shortlisted sites over a period five to six days. This is to ensure that your PR will show up on the news/web search results throughout the week for your top keywords.

• Bookmarking

Bookmark the active PR from the PR submission sites in websites such as Digg, Stumbleupon, etc. to enhance Search Engine visibility.

Follow these simple rules and do not forget to check if your PR is optimized in Search engines, news/web search results for your top keywords.

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In today’s internet-dominated world, search engine marketing has become an essential part of every business. Organizations aspire to attract as much visibility online as possible. Search is by far the most used function on the internet and it is natural that search engine optimization should be indispensible to marketers, to increase visibility online.

Creating a website alone is no longer enough; it needs monitoring and nurturing. It is also important to sustain growth through continuous search engine optimization and result tracking. One of the things that play a role in a site’s performance is its domain name.

The domain name is an important part of the website. It plays a vital role in the discovery and recall of a website. Using the name of a business as the domain name is a common practice. Always, customers identify a website by the business name. Using your company name is the best way to create easy recall of the site. However, you should consider other parameters. In a nutshell, the domain name should be short, catchy, interesting, easy to remember and spell, and as dissimilar to a competitor’s domain name as possible.

Here are some tips on choosing a domain name:

1. Get the top keywords

The first thing to do while deciding the domain name for your website is to pick top keywords that directly relate to your website, its content or your business offering. Once this list is ready, try using the top keywords in the domain name. Using the keywords in the domain name will improve your the chances of the website ranking high in search results for these keywords.

2. Choose the right Top-Level Domain (TLD)

Do not choose a “.com” Top-Level Domain (TLD) just because it is common practice. Choose one that is most relevant to your business. If you are a commercial business, “.com” is the most widely accepted and credible TLD. If your website is a public service or information website, you may want to consider a “.org” domain. If yours is a government operation, consider  “.gov”, and if you are a university, or a deemed university, “.edu” would be the right TLD for you. Your market can also determine your TLD. If your business offering is essentially local, you may consider a country-specific TLD, such as “.us, .uk, .in, etc.”

3. A unique domain name

It is a mistake to use a domain name similar to a popular site. If your target audience confuses your website for some other website, it is will not help your brand. Never choose domains that are simply the plural, hyphenated or misspelled versions of an existing, established domain name.

4. Easy to type and remember

An easy to spell, short and easy to remember name will deliver the best marketing value through easy recall. Simple domain names are easy to recognize and help in building a website’s brand.

5. Keep it short

Short names are easy to type and remember. They also allow for more characters in the URL, so, more of your URL will display in search results. They also fit better on business cards and other offline media.

6. Have a unique identity

Be sure you are not infringing on anyone’s copyright with your site’s name. Visit copyright.gov and search before you buy a domain.

7. Avoid hyphens and numbers

Both hyphens and numbers make it hard to remember or type the domain name. Try not to use spelled-out or roman numerals in domains, as both can be confusing and mistaken for the other.

8. Relate to your brand

Using a unique domain name is a great way to build additional value with your domain name. A “Brand” is much more than just a combination of keywords. A person should easily relate your domain name to the category in which you operate. The brand name should be unique and memorable on the one hand, and should describe the function and core offering of the site on the other.

9. Use an Ajax domain selection tool

Using Ajax domain selection tools such as Domjax makes it easy to check availability of domain names. You can choose an available domain and then register the domain through a registrar.

Contributed by Sandhya Katiyar

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