Our Brand
Zain, formerly MTC, was the first mobile telecommunications company in the Middle East when it started its operations in Kuwait back in 1983. At the end of 2002, the company launched its expansion vision, aggressively targeting to achieve a global position in just 9 years – whereas it had taken several decades for global companies to achieve this status. From being in one country in 2002, Zain grew to a conglomerate with commercial operations in 23 countries by third quarter of 2009, making it the world’s 3rd largest telecom company in terms of geographic footprint.
This expansion was partially achieved through the acquisition of several existing telecommunications companies in the region - MTC-Vodafone in Kuwait and Bahrain to Fastlink in Jordan, Mobitel in Sudan, MTC Atheer and Iraqna in Iraq, and Celtel in Africa - each strongly branded in its own right. Thus, as a fast growing mobile operator servicing its clients under 7 different brand names have become local icons in their own right, the company felt the need to group under a single brand that will facilitate its rise on the global arena.
Name:
A long journey, covering several steps in brand name creation and giving voice to the company’s own employees, ended up with the selection of Zain as the new brand name.
Zain is simple, memorable and easy to pronounce across the global marketplace. The name Zain tested extremely well among cross-sections of the potential global audience. These research results coincided with our internal selection. Zain has the added benefit of being rich in positive connotations in several languages. For example, in Arabic, Zain means ‘beautiful, good and wonderful”, in Latin it means ‘dark horse’ (of good breed; meaning cheval de race). In fact, the name Zain reflects our values and our positioning. As a company, our vision is to create a successful business model that will go outward from the Middle East to the rest of the world. Having a name that embodies beauty and optimism is a move we’re proud of.”
Values:
With the need for a new brand name came the need to consolidate the company values into a single set shared by all employees. These values are core to the new brand identity. At the heart of Zain stand 3 core values that constitute the foundations of this brand:
Heart: Live your life with courage and resolve, engage your spirit, touch your emotions, connect to your soul.
The Zain brand and its new theme – A wonderful world - capture the energy, inspiration and diversity of the Group’s customers, employees and other stakeholders. The new signature logo and its colorful identity reflect the Group’s freshness, boldness and vitality. It is a perfect expression of the Zain brand and is inspired from a sense of aura – a distinctive but intangible atmosphere that surrounds a person giving them an air of mystery – something important to human life echoing growth, progression and diversity. Besides its distinctive shape, the strength of the Zain logo lies in the fact that it is as recognizable and liked when used in its fragmented form.
On the technical side, we were bold in choosing colors that were not the usual set of primary and secondary colors used in most telecoms logos (ie: Red, blue, yellow, green, etc…). Color is inspirational and evocative. Used effectively, it can create an emotional language that reflects our character and engages a global audience. Black expresses a sophisticated and contemporary approach; Purple represents our energy and warmth while Aqua brings freshness and a cool assurance to the mix. These colors are enhanced by a set of lively secondary colors that add zest to Zain’s visual signature.
To launch this new brand, Zain developed a campaign promoting a wonderful world in which people observe not what they see, but what they look for...
7 Middle Eastern operations were rebranded to Zain throughout 2007 with a series of first-rate events. 14 African operations followed suit on August 1, 2008 where they rebranded from Celtel to Zain, an occasion that was celebrated with a series of spectacular events, attended by over 100,000 people. The rebranding concerts were attended by some of Africa’s senior diplomats, VIPs, artists and celebrities in all 14 countries who witnessed live speeches and festivities through an hour long live satellite feed that linked all countries to each other, the most ambitious live satellite linkup the continent has ever seen. It was the biggest and most successful rebranding Africa has ever seen, which earned Zain the Best Marketing Campaign of the Year on November 23rd, 2008 at the inaugural AfricaCom Awards in Cape Town, South Africa.
Today, only two years old, Zain has one of the most recognizable and strongest brand presences, supported by strong promotion and sponsorship programs, across each of the group’s key markets. According to the 2009 BRANDFINANCE GLOBAL 500, and independent brand valuation report, Zain’s brand value was estimated at around US$ 2 billion. Additionally, Zain is ranked 28 amongst the top 5 global telecoms operators’ brands according to the Brand Report published by Total Telecom in 2009.
