Hutch says Hi

Hutch says Hi
by Sravanthi Challapalli

Hutchison Essar is all excited over its new unified brand for cellular services, Hutch. Whether Hutch will do another Orange, once a Hutchison brand, remains to be seen.

Grounded in reality, very much `today', is how the honchos at Hutchison Essar like to describe their new, unified cellular services brand. At a press conference in Hyderabad, where the company announced the launch of Hutch, Keith Kirby, Director of Global Branding, Hutchison, who also created Orange, the well-known global brand then with Hutchison, said the new brand was not about tomorrow or about advertisements which showed stadia filled with millions and sentiment - this to him was unreal - whereas Hutch, which believes in delivering rather than promising, is all about making it real for the consumer.
Hutch marks the company's first common brand across three new circles that it will commence operations in (Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Chennai), and Delhi. Hutchison retains the right to call its cellular service in Mumbai Orange, a brand that is no longer with the Hutchison group worldwide, but with France Telecom. The Hutchison group also operates cellular services in Kolkata and Gujarat under different brands, though the company says there are no moves to bring them under the Hutch umbrella now. "While Orange was a great success and probably the first genuine brand in telecom, it was a 20th century brand; the 21st century needs something more," said Kirby, the brand's creator. Hutch, while moving away from Orange, also hopes to build on its predecessor's values and brand equity - it wants to be perceived as open, simple, positive, human, creative and passionate.
However, beyond a statement explaining what they meant by these traits, it was not too clear how they would translate into the products and services that Hutch would envelop. The top brass would only say that they were going to weave the brand philosophy into their work culture.
Asim Ghosh, Director, Hutchison Essar, told Catalyst that all he could reveal at this point was that Hutch's services would be "feature-rich" and concentrate on the "totality of the consumer experience". Hutch was not just a logo but an entire philosophy that drove the brand, his company's approach to business and the focus on solutions rather than mere promises in the `here, now and today' with convenience and pleasure.
An official at Hutchison Essar says this reticence to talk about the brand, its services, its advertising strategy and other aspects is "with good reason", as the brand philosophy was one of action and not words. Hutch is the first of a family of brands the company will unveil in the future; it plans to progressively move on to national branding but, as Ghosh says, "We will talk about them when we are ready."
With cellular services well on their way to commoditisation, given the lack of a differentiating factor in rates or services, Hutchison will have to come up with something really, really different to make a mark. A question on Hutch's USP evokes a counter from Ghosh: "Why should I reduce my brand's philosophy to a slogan?" Banners with a different face on each saying `Hi' dot the venue of Hutchison Essar's press conference in Hyderabad - a sneak preview of the brand's campaign, which is shrouded in secrecy as the cellular services in the three new circles haven't actually begun operations yet.
Hi is an expression of Hutchison's approach to the world, open and fun, and is representative of the progression from Orange and its Hello, Ghosh said. Hutch was chosen as the brand name because "people call us that, it's simple and easy to say, it's real, and its three tri-star logo was designed to symbolise its dynamism and creativity", according to Kirby, who added that Hutch would also evolve and change over time and that it was "part of the big story".
The reluctance to pinpoint a USP also has something to do with Hutchison's pioneering status in cellular services the world over, as well as Essar's in India - a heritage as hoary as this cannot be abridged into three words, claims the company.
A pan-national brand is part of the larger picture but won't having so many now cause dissonance? Kirby and Ghosh disagree. While Ghosh says "It's all about consonance, considering four out of seven circles we operate in now are under Hutch," Kirby says "They won't be unrecognisable. The brands will change when the consumer is willing to change." Kirby, a branding expert, says this is the new approach to branding - "Offer the customers what they want, not what we assume that they want."
According to the Cellular Operators' Association of India Web site, Hutchison has about 1.35 million consumers across the four circles it is operating cellular services now. It has invested Rs 1,200 crore in the Southern phase of its operations. The subscriber base in India is 6.71 million. Bharti Cellular, the other major player, has around 1.42 million.
Hutchison is not revealing its targets in the three new circles where its rivals are Idea Cellular and Bharti Mobile in Andhra Pradesh, RPG Cellular and Bharti Mobinet in Chennai, Bharti Mobile and Spice Comm in Karnataka. A high-decibel campaign in print, outdoors and promotions is in the wings.
As with any other queries, those related to tariffs, price wars and competition are dismissed with a smile and stock statements: "We welcome competition, we'll offer competitive tariffs at all times and a superb value proposition. We are prepared to do serious business."
On the issue of WiLL providers grabbing a large chunk of the potential market with cheaper rates, Ghosh says, "We welcome fair competition through the front door."
Given the excitement that pervaded the launch of Hutch, which is yet to be seen (at the time of going to press, the final clearance for the operations had not been given), its dogged resolve to talk less and achieve more, and the company's belief that it is "on the cusp of a new journey with Hutch", the nascent brand certainly evokes a lot of curiosity, especially in the context of its forebear, Orange, having been an example of a great marketing success.
If the future's bright, is it Hutch?

Article by Business Line a Financial Daily from THE HINDU group of publicationsThursday, Jun 06, 2002