Virgin brand lands in Singapore with style

Few people know how to throw a party better than Virgin Group founder and chairman Sir Richard Branson. So when his Virgin Mobile division launched a handphone service in Singapore in October, entertainment and flamboyance were the order of the day. Virgin's marketing expertise has been honed in sector after sector as the entrepreneur has expanded the group's portfolio of products and services and extended its operations from its original UK base to markets across the globe. The Singapore launch was the first step in a wider plan to establish the Virgin Mobile operation in Hong Kong and Taiwan, with plans for further expansion into South Korea, Malaysia, India and China. It was also part of a broader strategy to expand the Virgin portfolio in Asia. Virgin's events in Singapore were designed to stress the uniqueness of Virgin Mobile's offering in what, until now, has been a tightly contested but, according to some, a bureaucratically organised market which confused consumers and offered little choice. Virgin Mobile's service promised customers a more transparent pricing structure with no hidden charges and more flexible contracts on a pay-as-you-use basis. Therefore, the launch events aimed to highlight personal freedom and customer emancipation from the rigid structures of the other existing mobile operators. A key challenge was to introduce the service into an already crowded market, where 75% of tech-savvy Singaporeans are already signed into one of the existing handphone systems. It was also an initiation into a market some observers feel is slowing down, both because of market saturation and the generally harsher economic climate in Singapore. Outlining his vision for Virgin Mobile, Sir Richard argued there were no existing regional brands for mobile telephones in Asia and, in fact, there were no consumer brands in the mobile business. His ambition was for Virgin Mobile to become the first. The events, therefore, had to promote the brand's specific offering while remaining firmly identifiable as part of the wider Virgin "family" of goods and services Given the timing of the event, just weeks after the terrorist attacks in the US, and the rather more conservative social atmosphere in the city-state, Virgin decided on what could be considered a more subdued strategy than it had used elsewhere. Previous Virgin launch spectacles have included Sir Richard dressing up as a bride or surrounding himself with naked models. However, Virgin Mobile Asia chief marketing officer Ms Norliza Kassim says the events communicated the brand message very effectively. "Historically, Virgin has a long tradition of being linked with entertainment and music. The Virgin way is a whole attitude. It is an unconventional approach pushing aside old restrictions," Ms Kassim says. No one could accuse Sir Richard of being publicity shy or hiding himself behind his brand, so all the launch events featured the multi-millionaire prominently. During the day, the Virgin founder rode on the back of a Harley-Davidson motorcycle into Singapore's Ngee Ann City's Civic Plaza in the busy Orchard Road shopping district. He was then hoisted on top of a 12m-tall tower erected in the mall, emblazoned with a billboard bearing the slogan "The Big Phone Rip-off". As a curious crowd gathered, Branson abseiled down the tower, dramatically ripping off the billboard signage to reveal a Virgin Mobile logo and a call to customers to "Join us and be free". In the evening, a media launch party was held in TJ Livehouse in Little India. Guests arriving early were personally greeted at the door by Sir Richard and a group of "paparazzi" photographers. They then had to negotiate their way through a darkened labyrinth with moaning chained "prisoners", representing the previous lack of freedom for Singapore's suffering handphone users. Once inside, guests discovered the venue was decorated in the psychedelic style of a set from the cult Austin Powers comedy movies. Continuing the theme of freedom, the Friday night party, which lasted until 3am, the latest licence possible in Singapore, had a "Swinging 60s" and "70s Flower Power" feel. Hostesses in knee-length platform boots mingled with the invited guests, while a Virgin couple posed on a "love-in" bed. Many of the guests turned up wearing ostentatious flares, beads, frilly shirts and platform shoes topped off with Afro-style wigs. The evening's entertainment reflected the retro-style and freedom theme. Some may have questioned the wisdom of using imagery with such strong North American and European links for an Asian launch, along with the use of the retro theme for an emerging and very contemporary technology such as handhpones. However, Ms Kassim points out: "The evening's motif was free self-expression, which is very much associated with the period of the late 1960s and early 1970s. So it provided an obvious link with the Virgin Mobile brand. "We wanted to reach out to potential customers with the promise they could escape into a different world and were no longer trapped and caught in restrictive handphone contracts without consumer choice or freedom."