Vodafone’s One branding impressive – but ‘flawed’

AUCKLAND, Thursday: “Marketing experts are impressed by the look and feel of Vodafone NZ’s new One New Zealand brand – but say there are some hard yards ahead to establish its new identity, in part because TVNZ already has dibs on One,” reports the NZ Herald’s Chris Keall.

“Vodafone chief executive Jason Paris said his company will make substantial savings by no longer having to pay brand fees to its former parent.

“But the flipside, says Andy Lark – a Kiwi executive who has held senior marketing roles with Dell in the US, Xero in NZ and CBA in Australia – is the cost of establishing an identity for One NZ and the new green roundel symbol that goes with it.

“The design looks like it will work well to create brand availability – a marketer’s phrase for being memorable,” Lark told the Herald.

‘My concern is that in NZ TV, One occupies the one place in our minds and that will be hard to overcome, Lark said.

“Vodafone is such a powerful global brand – so they lose that as well.

“Recreating the same mental availability for the new One NZ brand will cost tens of millions, if not hundreds of millions.

“Some said it sounded like a right-wing nationalist party; others that it would be difficult to Google. More broadly, the NZ Companies Office lists 1300 local firms that include One in their name.”

“A project like this would be a minimum of $ 250,000 $ 500,000 for the base design and brand identity work. And much more to do the research, so, I’d peg it between $ 500,000 and $ 1 million.

“Revamping existing stores and signage would cost $ 5m to $ 10m – and then there would be the brand campaigns on top of that.”

Keall: “Earlier, Auckland University branding expert Bodo Lang raised the concern there could be brand confusion – particularly given One NZ even has a similar type style to the One News logo used by TVNZ until 2016.

“The One NZ branding also drew a range of negative comments on social media.

“Some said it sounded like a right-wing nationalist party; others that it would be difficult to Google.

“More broadly, the NZ Companies Office lists more than 1300 local firms that include One in their name.”

“I think this is a brand New Zealanders can take more ownership of, Lang said. “The colours and the logo design are lovely.”

• Read Chris Keall’s full story here