A STUDYON CAUSEAND IMPACTOF RE-BRANDINGIN TELECOMMUNICATION INDUSTRY WITH REFERENCE TO AIRTEL STUDYON CAUSEAND IMPACTOF RE-BRANDINGIN TELECOMMUNICATION INDUSTRY WITH REFERENCE TO AIRTEL.”

: Competitor pressures, plummeting sales revenue and outdated marketing strategy are some reasons behind a company’s need to reposition itself and remain financially viable. India's telecommunication network is the second largest in the world based on the total number of telephone users (both fixed and mobile phone). It has one of the lowest call tariffs in the world enabled by the mega telephone networks and hyper-competition among them. This research sought to know the impact of rebranding on the loyalty of the network’s subscribers and the general attitude of the People towards branding in the telephony business. A survey was carried out on subscriber attitude towards Airtel as a result of the multiple rebranding through which it emerged .


What is Rebranding?
Rebranding is the way or ways in which a place is re-developed and marketed so that it gains a new identity. It can then attract new investors and visitors. The purpose of rebranding is to develop a place economically, socially and even environmentally in some cases. Towns which are deprived are given a second chance at reliving through rebranding.

India's Telecommunication Network
India's telecommunication network is the second largest in the world based on the total number of telephone users (both fixed and mobile phone). It has one of the lowest call tariffs in the world enabled by the mega telephone networks and hyper-competition among them. It has the world's third-largest Internet user-base with over 137 million as of June 2016. Major sectors of the Indian telecommunication industry are telephony, internet and television broadcasting.
This research confirms communication as the vehicle for transferring brand equity; shows that multiple rebranding does not significantly affect attitude towards telecommunications brands; and that people do not really care about branding in telecommunication and/or the telecommunication companies are not doing a good job of branding. This study focuses on only a segment of the global satellite mobile (gsm) marketstudents of a higher education institution. The perspective of the students may not be representative of the whole global satellite mobile (gsm) market. This is an original work in the sense that there is no literature anywhere on the phenomenon of multiple rebranding, let alone its effect on customer loyalty.
Globalization has spread its wings across industries but the one industry that has been impacted the most is Telecommunication. The changes that have taken place in Airtel Wireless, the first mobile telephone company to start operations in India, epitomises this impact. It started business in 2001, became Vodacom for only three months, after that V-mobile, then became Celtel in 2006, then Zain in 2008and finally became Airtel in 2009. The network that is today called Airtel in India has undergone five revolutionary rebranding (Muzellec& Lambkin 2006) exercises within eight years of operation. The whole essence of branding is to build brand equity (Aaker 1996). Renaming, a revolutionary rebranding, destroys the equity of the previous brand. By extension, multiple renaming may destroy even more equity than single renaming. However, rebranding enhances, regains, transfers and/or recreates brand equity (Muzellec& Lambkin, 2006). Brand equity consists of the assets and liabilities of a brand (Aaker 1992). Customer loyalty accounts for a sizeable part of a brand's assets. The purpose of this research, therefore, is to know customers' feelings and attitude (Rundle-Thiele 2001) towards the multiple rebranding of the network that was Airtel Wireless; hence, the question: What is the effect of multiplerebranding on customer loyalty? This model is to show that multiple corporate rebranding happens when a business organization rebrands.

The Relationship between Rebranding and Customer loyalty
The interaction between rebranding and customer loyalty is mediated by communication.

Theoretical Framework of Hypotheses
Based on the factors involved in the model for the relationship between customer loyalty and rebranding, three hypotheses were developed for testing: H1: Communication transfers brand equity in multiple rebranding.
Customers store information concerning a brand and reshuffle it when new information about the brand is received. This way, a consumer assimilates the changes that occur around a brand and determine his disposition towards the brand. This disposition may be loyalty, disloyalty or indifference.
H2: Rebranding does not affect customer loyalty.
Consumer loyalty is measured by behaviour or attitude. Behaviour is measured by repeat purchase and share of pocket; while attitude is measured by repurchase and positive recommendations based on services offered. The attitude of customers towards a brand is a very good measure of loyalty in the service industry (Rundle-Thiele 2001).
H3: Customers do care about branding in the mobile network.
A brand should stand for something in the minds of consumers. Their bond with the brand should go beyond its functional benefit to include an emotional attachment that makes them easily recall such brand properties as its tagline, brand ambassador, mascot, logo and other associations with the brand's positioning.
The tests for the hypotheses will be done empirically.

Research Methodology
The question to be researched through the methodology is: 'What is the effect of multiple rebranding on customer loyalty?' [79]

Survey Design
To know the feelings and attitude of subscribers towards Airtel as a result of the rebranding through which it emerged, correlation survey design was adopted for this study. Cluster sampling technique was used to administer questionnaires.

Characteristics of Study Population
The population of the study is all gsm subscribers in general and those of Airtel in particular. However, sampling was carried out mainly in Navi Mumbai region. Navi Mumbai has the good number of gsm subscribers and a good representation of gsm users.

Sample Size and Sampling Procedure
110 questionnaires were designed for Airtel and other gsm customers. An online survey was done through this questionnaire. Nevertheless, in the process of administering the questionnaires some were either not filled at all or not completely. These account for the shortfall in the numbers recorded.

Type of Data and Data Collection
Primary data was collected through the instrumentality of a questionnaire. Some questions were closed-ended; using the Likert scale or requiring simple 'Yes' or 'No'. The data collected from Airtel customers was somewhat different from the one for the rest of the customers of the gsm companies, which was the same in every way, except company name. The data requested from the customers of other GSM companies apart from Airtel was essential to find out if they left Airtel for their present network, and whether or not they were loyal to their present network and the reason behind it. The data for both sets were divided into two halves: one, for psychographic questions and two, for demographic questions.

Presentation of Data
Frequency Test           Chisquare Test

Hypothesis Analysis
The question to be answered through the results of the data analysed was: 'What is the effect of rebranding on customer loyalty?' The results will now be used to confirm or refute the hypotheses

H1: Communication transfers brand equity in multiple rebranding.
From the result of the cross tabulation, more than half of qGSM subscribers were well aware of the rebranding exercises (60%). It is also clear that most subscribers got to know through the media (44.9%); based on Integrated Marketing Communications employed during each exercise or the word of mouth it generated (23.4%). The equity of a brand revolves around its brand name. Ultimately, all the desirable associations are eventually built around the brand name.

H2: Multiple rebranding does not affect customer loyalty.
Results show that more than half the subscribers, no matter how long they have been on the network, were happy about the rebranding (37.6%) and indifference toward it (35.5%). Results also show that total of 43.3% subscribers were loyal to the network (will not move from the network even if they have the opportunity) after the rebranding. While 42.3% have negative feelings towards the network. While out of 48 who are aware of rebranding, 26 of them would stick with airtel while 22 will like to switch from airtel. 73.1% of the subscribers will recommend the network. Only 26.9% have negative feelings towards the network. Therefore, the results suggest indifference to multiple rebranding. It confirms the hypothesis.

H3: Customers do not care about branding in the People mobile telephony.
From the results, about half the respondents for all networks do not care about rebranding in telephony ; and close to half do not associate their networks to anything as judged by the lack of information on that question; and, for those who do, there was little or no association with brand slogan, icons, symbols, colours, or any such brand property. The impression here is either that people do not really care about branding in mobile telephony or the telecommunications companies have not done a good job of positioning their brands in the minds of subscribers. It confirms the hypothesis.

Summary of Findings
This research confirms communication as the vehicle for transferring brand equity; shows that rebranding does significantly affect attitude towards telecommunications brands; and that people do care about branding in telecommunications and/or the telecommunications companies are doing a good job of branding.

Discussions
The findings on each hypothesis will now be looked at more closely in the light of factors internal to the research, and the result of similar works done around the world.

H1: Communication transfers brand equity in multiple rebranding.
The work of Daly and Moloney (2004) confirm the ability of integrated marketing communication to register a new brand name in the minds of customers. Customers who recognise the brand by its new name and continue to do business with it are part of transferred brand equity. The equity of a brand revolves around its name. From the results, people were more concerned with functional issues like brand awareness, reliability of network, service price, keeping of contacts, etc., which have been suggested as good antecedents for customer loyalty in emerging markets (Kim & Lee, 2010). Although each of the networks has had consistent logo, slogan, colours, etc., over the years, these were not associated with the brands un-prompted. They do not seem to be as important to the people as the ability to communicate. It would seem that people just want to communicate, not minding who provides the services. The use of gsm and cdma lines as the available means of telephony for the majority of the people can also be an explanation for this

Conclusion
Based on the results of this research, it is clear that in India, where GSM and CDMA lines are the source of telephony to the majority of the people, subscribers are aware of such phenomenon as rebranding, but are indifferent to it, in so far as the network gives them the needed telecommunication services and has good customer relations. Furthermore, none of the GSM networksstand for anything distinct in the minds of the subscribers, except the names of the networks.

Recommendations
From this study, the following recommendations can be made: 1) It is better not to rebrand very often in the telephony business, but if that must happen, the functional benefits of such a network should remain very good or even better. Plus, excellence should be maintained in customer service on the part of company staff. All these will help keep subscribers loyal in spite of multiple rebranding 2) Telecommunications companies should spend less on product advertisement, and divert more money into building quality networks with low call tariff. The present practice of promotional activities and the creation of products that require huge advertising spend should be either scrapped or curtailed. And the efforts in brand building should be geared towards making the network stand for something in the minds of subscribers.