Vodafone is to revamp its brand and marketing for the first time in four years after chief executive Vittorio Colao decided this was a priority area, the Times reported. Vodafone will drop its "Make the most of now" tagline in favour of "Power to you" as it prepares to launch a suite of new services to capitalise on the growing popularity of the mobile internet. "It is not the brand talking any more and telling the customer what to do," said Colao. "It is the customer who will decide. I am trying to steer the whole company in this direction." Colao wants to transform Vodafone into one of the world's best-loved brands and drive the switch to smartphones such as iPhones and BlackBerrys, where customer use typically increases by 700 percent. This autumn it will take on Apple's app store by launching a service to sell applications that can be downloaded from other content providers. Vodafone spends almost GBP 600 million a year on advertising. The new tagline will begin appearing on all of its communications over the next six weeks. The launch comes amid concerns that Vodafone has fallen behind in Britain, where it could drop into third place when T-Mobile and Orange merge. Colao is also looking for Vodafone's next sponsorship deal. When its GBP 4 million-a-year association with the England cricket team expires this winter, the company's only global deal will be its backing of Formula One's McLaren Mercedes team.
