Why we may never see another “red” or “yellow” mobile operator in South Africa
A recent article entitled “Color Wars: Multi-Branded Strategy in French Telecommunications” highlights the lengths to which French service providers have gone to differentiate their brands through the use of colour.
The article analyses how a low-cost new entrant effectively disrupted the market, resulting in the three major players launching sub-brands.
These sub-brands had to be differentiated from the main brands to achieve the goal of being associated with low-cost.
The fact that, to differentiate the sub-brands, the service providers could not use the same colours as their main brands, this points to the power of colour branding in telecommunications.
It is also interesting to note that all of the sub-brands incorporate a blue-green colour combination.
This blue-green combination could be argued to indicate “low-cost” in the telecommunications industry in France; again proving the power of colour branding.
According to Jean Bruneau of law firm Adams & Adams, the South African telecommunications industry is no different to the French industry when it comes to the importance of colour.
He noted that it is possible to name the four major mobile service providers solely by reference to their colours – black, red, yellow and blue.
“With the nature of telecommunications being what it is, every segment of our population is aware of these service providers and would be able to identify them simply by reference to their respective colours,” he said.
“It is a well-known fact that people in the industry refer to their competitors by reference to colour alone.
“In an industry where margins are low, and are under more and more scrutiny, the extensive marketing efforts (and no doubt marketing spend) of each service provider in promoting their respective colours is testament to the importance that each places on the marketing power of their colour,” Bruneau said.
Registrability of colour as a trade mark in South Africa
According to Bruneau, colours are theoretically registrable as trade marks in South Africa; however, like any other trade mark, a colour mark must be capable of distinguishing the goods or services of one person in relation to which the mark is used, from the goods or services of another person, either inherently or through acquired distinctiveness.
“The colours red, black, yellow and blue are clearly not inherently distinctive,” said Bruneau.
This is especially important given that the average consumer can identify each provider simply by colour (without reference to anything else) indicates that these colours have become capable of distinguishing through use, he said.
“Brands are of significant importance in the telecommunications industry,” said Bruneau.
“It will be interesting to watch for any developments in this regard, particularly as more and more smaller players enter the market as mobile virtual network operators (MVNOs).
“These MVNOs will occasionally bring their existing branding into the market (for example, FNB), and this may at some stage conflict with the colour branding of the existing service providers.
“This is definitely a space to watch.”
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