Brand Airtel brands its logo; names it 'Wave'

The name 'Wave' refers to the sweeping changes that the brand strives to bring towards enriching the lives of its customers, and symbolises the brand's virtues of progress and prosperity.

After undergoing an elaborate identity change, repositioning and logo redesigning in 2010, telecom giant Airtel has now gone a step further and named its new logo. The name - Wave - has been crowd-sourced through a six month long online contest that was initiated by Airtel in November 2010. This was when the positioning was switched to 'Dil jo chahe paas laye', a stand that's reiterated in the brand's communication currently on air.

The online contest, called The Name Game, invited customers to recommend a name for the company's new logo. This consumer engagement programme that led to the naming of the symbol pulled in more than 1.5 lakh consumer entries. 'Wave' was one of the three shortlisted names for the logo; the other contenders - also consumer-generated - were 'Hug' and 'Curve'. Ultimately, 'Wave' out-voted the other two.

The name Wave apparently refers to the sweeping changes that the brand strives to bring towards enriching the lives of its customers. It is also symbolic of progress and prosperity - virtues that brand Airtel stands for.

The logo's journey so far

In 1995, Airtel's two-swoosh design, crafted by the then national creative director of Rediffusion-Y&R, Gullu Sen, was meant to position the brand as one that spoke about the coming era; the then tagline, 'Touch Tomorrow', was in tandem with this positioning.

In 2002, the brand underwent a change that brought all its sub-brands - Telemedia, DTH and the Enterprise business - under one roof, namely, 'Airtel'. The new look that accompanied this change was designed by Bengaluru-based brand consulting and design company, Ray+Keshavan.

Last year, Airtel re-introduced itself with a brand new logo, a large 'a'. This time it also changed the letters in the name from upper case to lower case. This modification was born out of the need for a symbol that stood for humility and was one that the consumer could easily connect to. The logo was modernised and the curves made it look like a living object. This new logo was designed by London-based brand agency, Brand Union.

Maneesh Rangra, executive business director, JWT Delhi, tells afaqs! the reason for naming the symbol. "Big, global brands need to generate powerful tools that work as assets of communication. These work as shorthand for the brand," he says, adding that the current change is meant to appeal to the consumers' youthful mindset.