Rebranding champions: Safaricom, Vodacom and Pick n Pay

Rebranding your company can be a hit or miss. Whether you are doing it to keep up with current trends, to give your brand a fresh look, to attract a new audience, or to take your company in a different direction, changing a brand is a big risk that could make or break what you have built over the years.

Here are three African companies with successful facelifts:

Vodacom Group

South African mobile operator Vodacom Group announced its rebranding in October 2017 – a move that would allow it to expand from being a traditional mobile telecoms company to a provider of everything digital.

Along with announcing this change in direction, South Africa’s largest mobile operator also revealed its new logo (which does not appear too different at first glance) and new slogan, The future is exciting. Ready?

While expanding to different markets and areas of business, Vodacom maintained its original message and brand essence, which allowed its rebrand to be widely well received.

Pick n Pay

As mentioned earlier on in the series, the rebranding process is one that requires a lot of time and research. In the case of Pick n Pay, their rebrand was a slow and well thought out process that yielded great results.

Towards the end of 2007, Pick n Pay began the process, which would only be completed in 2009. The rebrand heralded something of a transformation for the company as it introduced its new logo, brand essence, new direction and branded products.

The rebrand, inspired by the desire to improve customer experience and provide customers with a wider variety of products, while giving the company a fresh look, was well received.

Pick n Pay, having been around for 40 years, managed to keep its original audience and provide them with an improved experience.

Safaricom

In 2017, Kenyan telecoms company Safaricom changed its logo and slogan after 17 years. The company services over 70 percent of Kenyan users and has over 28 million subscribers and over 100 products.

The new slogan Twaweza is a Swahili word for “We can make it happen”, which communicates the company’s aspirations and hopes for success.

The rebrand was widely received as a reflection of the Safaricom’s dominant position in the Kenyan telecommunications value chain. MPesa, the mobile money transfer service, is a subsidiary of Safaricom.

This is the last article in our rebranding series.