Jordan’s strongest local brand is about to disappear. Forever.
Fastlink, launched in the mid-90’s represented a new era in Jordan. An era that is dominated by the growth of the private sector and its brands and images.
The first Fastlink logo was a globe with a mobile sticking out of it. I think it went through two iterations, one more geometrical and the 2nd more free-hand-ish.
Then came the logo with the 0-7-9 triangle, and the rather brilliant slogan “Minna u Feena” (English: One of us).
At the time I was referring to that slogan as Jordan’s “new tribalism”. Which tribe are you? the Fastlink tribe or the Mobilecom tribe (the Umniah tribe was not born until later).
Fastlink’s brand always managed to be the “cooler” of both. Mobilecom never really overcame the image of “that 2nd provider”. Social background and income levels also played a role in this. Having a Fastlink number in a way meant you were one of those people who could afford the expensive cost of mobile telephony. You were an early adopter (business people, etc).
Mobilecom, with their emphasis on “value” had a bit of a “cheap” image.
What I am talking about here has NOTHING to do with things like call quality or real value. Many argue that Mobilecom had better quality and better prices. But Fastlink retained a dominant first mover advantage in the branding game.
Some years ago, I had to visit an army department for some paper work. I over hear two army officers giving each other their mobile numbers.
“What’s you number, man?”
“079….”
“AAAAhhh! One of Us!, Halla!”
The officer just blurted out the corporate slogan in a manner that only showed how this new brand tribalism worked.
But that’s all behind us now. We are leaving the Fastlink/Mobilecom era and entering the Zain/Orange/Umniah/Xpress era.
I blogged about this back in June. September is here and so is Zain, the new regional/global mobile brand which is currently plastering the kingdom with its ads, partially revealing its new logo.
Amman is already full of Orange ads. Their campaign seems to be on every building side billboard they could find. It will be a hot late summer ad season.
Zain’s web site teaser is already online by the way. MTC (the Kuwaiti company that owns Fastlink/Zain) actually managed to buy the Zain.com domain name.
From what we can see of the brand so far, it cannot be more different than the Orange brand: Zain has blueish-green and violet colors. Orange is, uh, orange. Zain has an organic emblem. Orange is square. Zain is Arabic. Orange in English.
This battle of the brands will be interesting to watch.
What matters now is how the market will receive Zain (and Orange). The young consumers entering the market today will not care too much about the legacy of each brand. They will not remember the ‘old days’. If prices are the same or close to each other and if number portability (the ability to change your mobile provider without losing your number) becomes a reality then it will come down to: stickiness and brand perceptions.
The company with the better sense of community, the better ‘story’ and the better emotional connection will win.
Comments
20 responses to “It’s Zain: Saying goodbye to the Fastlink brand..”
I think you need to read my blog post and update yours..
http://moeys.net/2007/09/03/fastlink-jordan-and-mtc-kuwait-are-now-zain/
I have both Zain and Orange now, and for some reason I like Orange more, I had miserable times with MTC Kuwait and FastLink and Mobilecom/Orange was always better.
True, it’ll be a fun game to watch. But I still believe that Orange is way ahead of the game; the Orange brand is very fresh and clean to Jordanians. While as far as I know (more will be revealed of course), Zain looks very typical. Orange introduced simplicity to a market that suffers from a love/hate relationship with jargon. While Zain seems to bring only more jargon.
Plus, not to sound a bit racial or imperialist here. But Orange is a global brand, Zain is a regional one. Zain is in Arabic (which in terms of branding; I feel it’s a step backwards), while Orange is purely European, be it in its minimalist/artistic ads and the attitude that it tries to communicate. I know I’m judging a bit too early, but Zain looks all too redundant to me. I am happy that now I’m with Orange!
Moey..
Your post is great. Thanks for sharing.
Pheras..
I am holding off judgement for now. And thanks for the comment.
May I ask you both: how old where you guys in 1994?
The question is serious. I am interested to connect your age to your perception of these brands.
After all, I bring the Dinasour perspective (I was 24 in ‘94)..!
Well, I was around 9-10 years old kid playing sega and super nintendo 24/7
I faked the potential of looking smart back then 
1.2 billion dollars of brand value was lost in this transition.
i hope those kwaitis know what the hell they are doing.
this is so PS2 don’t you think ?
I can’t deny that Fastlink is definitely part of the popular fads that popped up in the 90’s – and that scribbly logo brings some memories.
Mobilecom is way better, I think I can tell from my father’s experience. He had his Fastlink contract for 8 year but they had absolute terrible services and Mobilecom really showed off how good of a company they are by providing better services and priceplans.
I think the logo is DREADFUL! – it kinda blends with all these new stores whether they’re coffee shops or god-knows-where-you-get-these-shirts-from places in sweifieh and so on. Plus ZAIN is obviously a common name of a girl in Jordan. So I can’t help but Imagine “Mal7amet ZAIN” or “Salon ZAIN lel Sayyedaat” – haha!
Well in Jordan….it was Ahleyeh Abella and it’s still Ahleyeh Abella
JTV= Talfezyoon 3amman
Mobilcom = Orange = El Etisalat (Tab3at el hokomeh)
Zain or not Zain it will always be FastLink.
PS: Any ideas what Fastlink (Zain ) will be doing with their rotating logo at their HQ? You know it’s really tempting to ….nevermind
I actually made a funny logo saying “Bezain” (2 boobs) sorry LOL
Branding is a lengthy war, but Zain has just lost the first battle, namely the corporate identity battle.
Ahmad – You say organic look? I say psychedelia welcome back! Twirls in purple and some degree of green I can’t even describe. And what’s with the type-face?
I was told by a friend of mine (doing a cover story on the new brand) thats Future Brand developed it. I find that to be beyond belief. Future Brand, after all, are brand consultants who produced stunning rebranding gems like British Airways, Standard Chartered, Emirates Airlines, and Dove, to mention a few. If they did indeed develop this laugh of a corporate identity, it only proves they are human after all.
Certainly the Orange brand is hipper, fresher, cooler. The image has been reversed. “FastLink” certainly only stands to lose.
Sorry for the lengthy ramblings of a mad man
Ameen.. thanks for the analysis.
Yeah there’s is something psychedelic about the logo. I said organic because my first impression of the partial logos on billboards was something like “spider” or “octopus”..
The typeface is not too bad, i think..
Orange is, undoubtedly very crisp and strong.. but..
In any case. I want to wait and see. I learned not rush into judgements about corporate design work.
Thanks again..
what’s the point of using an Arabic name for the company and then write it in English. Identity issues, the usual fake-Ammani side of things.
Sorry but I had to do this, http://www.flickr.com/photos/secular_humanist/1341221722/
If they didn’t unveil an arabic font for the name YET doesn’t mean they’re not using it, it’s still to early to judge.
Besides all companies nowadays use Roman letters to spell their name. Sony for example. It’s nothing to do with “fake-ammani side of things” why do you people always have to go to the extreme of everything?
Plus, If you can’t read it, don’t get a cellphone, get an education.
hi guys,
I dont know why you didnt like it, but fastlink is one of 21 mobiles operators under the name of MTC– Now they are (Zain).
Its a nice name,and since its an arabic company—->it has an arabic name.
just think about the future.its a rebranding for 21 company which
for sure will make fastlink=Zain one of the leading companies in the world as vodafone,T-mobile……
just watch the full advs. after a few days…..
Why the name Zain?
*short.
*has a good arabic meaning.
*memorable.
*in the other languages it doesnt have any bad meaning.
*in the latin language it has the meaning of
black horse*Zain name was choosed from a list consists of more than 100 names…upon alot of researches of a new international Brand name.
Behold, it speaks !
hi its agood thing that we talk zain instead of fastlink
may be its be the cheabest web like umniah
good luck
I like th Zain brand and its application, I really do. I think also the font is very nice. The company is going global and it will be great to have a global Arab brand. on the first look, you might like Orange as simpler, but you have to know that it took years for Orange to become what it is, I think Zain will grow on us. yes it was Future brand and I hated many things they did at first including emirates, now, look at Emirates, WoW!
What I am always puzzzled by is how we Jordanians are totally negative. I read this and because we are discussing Zain it is now the worst company in the world and MobileCom is much beterr etc etc. Well, I’ve been hearing that for years but during the past 2 days I got over 100 SMS for Ramadan, guess what, 90% are Zain. Yes, Zain has its problems, but still the market leader by CHOICE. you want to know MobileCom/Orange problems, get an ADSL or go outside of Amman and see their coverage, it sucks!
I’m sure we can be a little more positive, in general. Zain?