Tata DoCoMo – Do the new
“Do the new” is the tagline of Tata’s GSM service. It is not a complete sentence and yet complete. I am really not sure if it is grammatically correct but I really don’t care. It is like Samsung’s Next is What? But, only better and stickier.
Tata DoCoMo is the GSM service from the Tata stable. Tata already has a presence with Tata Indicom in CDMA space. CDMA only has 25% market share and Tata just like Reliance wanted a bigger pie and wanted to enter GSM market. And hence Tata DoCoMo.
If you are in Bangalore it is hard to miss the Tata DoCoMo billboards. Tata DoCoMo has finished rolling out the service to the southern states of Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Orissa.
You will never see a brand (NTT DoCoMo) which has only 26% stake dominate 74% (did not measure) of the logo. NTT DoCoMo a Japanese telecom company holds 26% stake in Tata Teleservices Limited. And the new brand which came out of this is Tata DoCoMo.
If there is one brand that most Indians know then it is salt-to-software maker – Tata. Tata DoCoMo messes with that very brand by giving it a lesser real estate. And guess what – it has worked. Just like the name Tata, DoCoMo has a rhyming name too. And Tata DoCoMo rhymes like hell (it does for me).
Tata DoCoMo’s ad just like the tagline is a simple ad without any fuss. It just says Do the New with the funny Do – Co – Mo sounds. No SRK’s, Hrithik’s or Kajol’s and no ZooZoo’s or Pugh’s. Plain simple.
Now compare that with the Reliance GSM ad. Sure it got Hrithik Roshan and my attention. But that is where my interest ended. The ads look like Reliance is introducing a mobile phone for the first time in India. Did not click. It might be mustering new subscribers but Reliance GSM doesn’t stick and Hrithik Roshan is wasted.
Tata DoCoMo sticks. Besides, Reliance GSM does not stand out from Reliance CDMA. Another reason why branding matters. Whatever the product is. And why do I have to compare Tata with Reliance? Well, there is no other company which has both CDMA and GSM licenses.
Its not the logo or the name or the tagline which is simplified. The pricing is simplified too. For the first time in a long time the pulse is brought down to 1 second from the prevailing 1 minute. Sure the cost might be the same but the rounding off will be to the nearest second and not to the nearest minute. Quite handy for people on shoestring budget – of which there are many.
From the logo design to tag line to the price, Tata DoCoMo has concentrated on simplifying things. Because, life should not be complicated at all and a mobile service should be simplest of all things.
PS : Tata DoCoMo has a social media play too. Its twitter id : tatadocomo has 865 followers already and it is following only 2 – ttsl and nontoxin.
PPS : Everything about Tata DoCoMo stands out. I am willing to shift to DoCoMo and make that funny noise if only the mobile number portability isn’t delayed. I will settle with the DoCoMo ringtone for now.