MANAMA, 9 September 2007 — MTC Group, which was awarded the third mobile telecommunications license in July this year, announced yesterday that it has rebranded to Zain (www.zain.com), which becomes the Group’s corporate master brand with immediate effect.
Speaking at a conference where more than 50 journalists from the Middle East and Africa were present, Dr. Saad Al-Barrak, Zain Group’s chief executive officer, said, Zain plans to have its corporate office either in Dubai or in Bahrain. “Zain will bring together all our operations under a single, strong and unique identity. We believe it is the optimal platform upon which we can build a global brand with the ultimate goal of better serving our customers. It will propel the Group toward becoming one of the top ten global mobile telecommunications companies in the next four years,” Al-Barrak said.
Zain is the leading telecommunications mobile provider in 21 countries across the Middle East and Africa. Four country operations in Kuwait and Bahrain, (both formerly MTC-Vodafone), Jordan (formerly Fastlink) and Sudan (formerly Mobitel) will immediately rebrand to Zain. Regarding Zain’s entry to Saudi market in early 2008, Barrak said “it is a competitive market. We don’t want a price war there,” promising that Zain would attract customers by offering quality service to its customers in the Kingdom. He said the group plans to bring Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Jordan and Iraq under one network. This will enable prepaid customers in these four countries to move freely across geographical borders without roaming call surcharges and without having to pay for incoming calls, he noted. “We have also submitted relevant papers to enter the Saudi stock exchange ,” he added.
Speaking about the new logo, Barrak pointed out that 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 logo and its colorful identity reflect the Group’s freshness, boldness and vitality with the “swirl” communicating the idea of an aura, something important to human life echoing growth, progression and diversity.
The new identity was developed in partnership with world leading consulting firms and advertising agencies.
Brand architect Tito Alai, the Group’s chief commercial officer who also developed the Zain Group’s successful Celtel brand in Africa, said: “The name Zain was selected from a list of over 400 after extensive research across many countries and cultures validated its broad global appeal.” “Although it was chosen for its simplicity, memorability and ease of pronunciation across the global marketplace, as an added bonus Zain was found to be rich in positive connotations.”
