Airtel rebranded

Sunil Bharti Mittal, chairman and managing director of Bharti Airtel, poses after unveiling the brand's new identity in New Delhi on Thursday. Photo: AFP

With an eye on the youth in Bangladesh, India and Sri Lanka, India's top mobile phone operator Bharti Airtel has rebranded itself as 'airtel' and launched a global campaign that will rebrand its operations across the world.
The new brand identity has been created in sync with the launch of the company's third generation (3G) services.
The new identity will be introduced in Bangladesh by year-end, the telecom operator said.
The company's Chairman and Managing Director Sunil Bharti Mittal unveiled the new logo -- an artistically written small 'A' above 'Airtel' with the letters in lower case -- all in red against a white background.
Subsequently, the brand name -- Zain Telecom in Africa and Warid Telecom in Bangladesh -- will be changed to 'airtel'.
Music maestro AR Rahman has created the new tone for the brand that will be available for consumers for download. Airtel's previous tone has been downloaded more than 150 million times, used by consumers as caller tones.
Created by UK-based Brand Union, the new logo will form the face of the operator, which has crossed the 200 million subscribers mark.
Over the coming months, Airtel will invest heavily in outdoor, radio and digital advertising, as part of its marketing and advertising budget pegged to be close to Rs 300 crore.
Terming the rebranding a strategic shift in positioning since the company was catering to customers' needs in more than 19 countries, Mittal said: “The brand needs to speak to different countries... think internationally.”