Vodafone is perhaps one of the most valuable brands in UK and the 16th most valuable brand in the world according to the 2014 Brand Finance Global 500. It would be interesting to go back 30 years from now when the Vodafone Telecommunication Service was announced for the first time and the major share of the company was held by Racal Electronics Plc. What’s at the core of this tuneful and remarkable name? Vo. Da. Fo. Ne.
Screen capture from the original press release announcing the new name in public telecommunications – Vodafone.
The name’s meaning of this internationally recognized brand seizes three words which are of significant importance for the industry. The short explanation could be described with the naming formula “voice+data+phone”. These three words truly inspired Saatchi & Saatchi (the advertising agency) and one of the company’s original directors. It’s the agency’s idea of spelling phone as “fone” which at first wasn’t accepted very well by the then CEO of Vodafone. Eventually he had change of heart and came to recognize the name “Vodafone” as a masterstroke.
Vodafone’s purpose in 1984 was to provide a truly portable and mobile nationwide public telephone network. That’s why the brand chose for its naming a mix between the three keywords, which describe the company’s goals in the best possible way.
The 1984 press release states that “initially, the new service is likely to find wide use among people constantly on the move such as business executives, sales representatives, journalists, doctors and veterinary surgeons. Strong demand is expected from nationwide fleet operators typically those involved in construction, distribution, service, motoring and the public utilities.”
The spelling of “phone” as “fone” in Vodafone’s name is an example of how a risky decision could be successful. But defining an original name with spelling change should be considered very careful and this is where the help of professional naming service would be of hand for the brand. Want a fancy word mix as Vodafone’s? Send us an inquiry from here.
Thank you for infomation off Vodaphone
In the early 1980s my father was introduced to mobile phone technology by someone at the London Boat Show exhibition who pulled out a massive ‘brick’ of a phone and told him: “This thing is going to revolutionise the telecommunications industry. You will even be able to phone someone on a boat.”
Voda means water in Russian, Bulgarian, Serbian, Croatian, Macedonian, Ukrainian…