Last month saw Vodafone Malta unveil its long-awaited rebranding to Epic, following a buyout of the former by Monaco Telecom back in April.

With Vodafone Malta being such a beloved brand locally, this morning’s episode of The Boardroom saw Epic’s Chief Marketing Officer, Karl Galea, shed light on what the rebranding efforts entailed, and what the new brand means for the company’s customers.

Speaking on this morning’s episode, Mr Galea shares:

“You do not just rebrand for the fun of it, but for a reason, and the reason should always focus on the customer.

“It’s a great responsibility because you need to live up to the promises you have made as a new brand. I think we were known in the past years for the successes of the old brand, but now we are launching something new and we have a great responsibility to deliver on that promise.”

Asked for his advice for other entrepreneurs embarking on a rebranding exercise, he says it is important to recognise that the real work starts after the rebrand has been announced and launched.

Mr Galea has over 10 years of experience in marketing, with a focus on customer relationship management and customer experience. He also holds a PhD in Internet Computing.

Asked about what the brand change means for its customer, Mr Galea stresses that the company is building on what customers loved Vodafone Malta for – a great network.

“We have worked very hard to invest in a great mobile network which has been rated as the best time and time again. We are also very much known for roaming, and since March we have doubled our roaming footprint.

“Finally, we do not just offer mobile services, but for busines clients, we offer more than just mobile, such as bandwidth, telephony, hosting, data centre services and more. For personal users, we are also offering home fibre internet”.

Mr Galea points towards the added value Epic has sought to bring its customers, highlighting the launch of unlimited mobile bandwidth for €24.99 without locking clients into a contract, a first for Malta.

“We also launched a value pack and unlimited plans for business clients. In a very tangible way, we are bringing great value,” he says.

Mr Galea adds that Epic has been launched on very strong foundations and that the company is primarily building on this by introducing better value.

Asked about the actual launch of Epic, which took place on 17th November, Mr Galea describes the company’s approach as a “big bang”, with seven stores having been completely rebranded from Vodafone’s red to Epic’s yellow, in just a matter of hours, apart from launching a new application, website and product lines on the day.

“We have been communicating with clients to make them aware, and I would say that for some customers, we are still on that journey explaining who we are. So far, we have had very positive feedback,” he says.

Mr Galea describes the difficulties in the background work and the actual launch of the new brand while the pandemic has been ranging on. He concedes that without COVID, a lot would have been done differently.