What is the first thing that comes to mind when you think of a hamburger and French fries? Probably
McDonalds.
Think of a pair of tennis shoes, and you probably picture the Nike swoosh. Or a pair of jeans, and you
probably think of Levi’s. Craving a cup of coffee? See you at Starbucks.
Some brand names have become so well-
known that the brand has become a substitute for the product itself. Think Xerox, Kleenex and Band-Aid.
But what
comes to mind when consumers think of wireless?
According to Peter Dresch, director of telecommunications
market analysis at J.D. Power and Associates, long-distance carriers and regional telephone companies continue to
garner the highest marks for customer satisfaction in a majority of their wireless markets, due in large part to their
brand names.
AT&T Corp.’s name is so well-known, in fact, that the company often is credited with providing
products and services it does not actually provide, such as local telephone service and wireless handsets.
James
Dettore, president and chief executive officer of Brand Institute Inc., said wireless carriers typically have used
descriptive brands that explain the product, such as AT&T Wireless Services Inc. As a result, not many wireless brands
stand out.
“With deregulation, more and more companies are competing, and a lot of them are trying to
differentiate with a unique name,” said Dettore. “The problem with a unique name is it takes more money
and time to build.
“In the wireless area, the key ingredient in developing a brand is that it has to play
globally,” continued Dettore. In order to do that, the brand must be easy to pronounce and must not have negative
connotations in other languages. “It has to extend through cultural barriers,” he said.
With the explosive
growth of the Internet, another key to a successful brand, said Dettore, is that it must be easy to spell. A brand should
be shorter than the usual two- and three-word brands that exist in the wireless industry today. A one-word brand of
eight to nine letters and two or three syllables is ideal, said Dettore.
Experts say a strong brand name and corporate
reputation can create customer loyalty, bolster stock prices and even increase a company’s overall value in mergers. A
negative association with a brand, on the other hand, can spell disaster.
Promises, promises
One of the quickest
ways to create a negative association with a brand is by making promises you can’t live up to.
AirTouch
Communications Inc., the largest independent cellular carrier in the United States, is taking that idea to heart. With an
already strong brand in the markets it serves, AirTouch is launching a new advertising campaign that promises
customers a consistent level of high-quality customer service.
Jonathan Marshall, a spokesman for the company,
said it is making a six-point promise to its customers that includes a follow-up call to every new customer that signs up,
a toll-free customer service number available nationwide and a live customer service representative available 24 hours
a day, seven days a week. The company also will automatically credit customers’ accounts for dropped
calls.
Marshall said AirTouch is taking the new customer service focus so seriously that it is tying employee reviews
and compensation to it. Beyond the marketing itself, the effort included examining all of the company’s processes to
make sure they worked.
“The last thing we wanted to do was make a promise we couldn’t deliver on,”
said Marshall. “You don’t just throw a promise out there and then walk away from it.”
Hunt Eggleston,
president of San Diego-based Technology Trends Inc., said delivering on promises is a matter of thinking cross-
functionally.
“Wireless has not learned that you can’t do marketing in a silo, technology in a silo and customer
service in a silo,” said Eggleston. “Marketing needs to sit down at the table with sales, the technology guys,
customer service and finance, and they need to make sure they all can deliver on the promises that their marketing is
making.”
Eggleston said advertising will foster brand recognition, and a killer application will attract
customers. “But you better make sure your network can handle it or you’re going to stub your toe and actually do
damage to your brand,” he said.
Man’s best friend
Like AirTouch, Canada’s Microcell
Telecommunications Inc. elected to move away from a technology-based brand name and focused instead on building a
consumer brand. Just three years after the company first launched its personal communications services network,
Microcell said its Fido brand is well-known and also well-liked by consumers.
Yona Shtern, vice president of
marketing at Microcell, said the company chose the Fido brand because it wanted to present itself as
approachable.
“From its inception, Microcell made a commitment to the brand and the idea of a consumer
brand,” he said. “It was a very important decision.
“We understood that there was going to be
tremendous growth in this market, and we wanted our product to appeal to a new category of users,” continued
Shtern. “We understood that there would be some customers switching from other services, but mostly they were
going to be new subscribers.”
The question the company asked itself was how it could speak to that audience,
said Shtern.
“We could easily have been Microcell Telecommunications or some technology name, but the
company decided to represent itself in the eyes of the consumer as friendly and straightforward,” said
Shtern.
Looking for a symbol to convey those qualities, Microcell decided on the dog-man’s best friend. Microcell
has incorporated the theme into all of its marketing efforts-from outdoor signs to television and radio spots to its
product packaging. The company has launched promotions that build on its dog theme and engage its subscribers, such
as a recent campaign that sought out dogs and owners that resembled each other.
“That’s been the most talked
about promotion that we have,” said Shtern.
But behind its lighthearted approach, Microcell takes its brand
very seriously.
“It sounds a little cliche, but our message not only permeates our product, it really permeates
our organization,” said Shtern. “We have to be true to ourselves. If our product doesn’t hold up to the
promises we make, then we’d have an issue.”
Looking big
Eggleston said he believes two or three strong
national brands will survive, leaving small players with a difficult challenge.
Widespread consolidation among
wireless carriers is creating brands that many small carriers will find difficult to compete with. Cellular One, an
enduring cellular brand throughout the years, said small carriers could benefit by operating under a well-known
national brand like Cellular One rather than spending the money to build their own.
In order to encompass emerging
PCS carriers, Cellular One this year launched a new brand-Cell One-that plays on the idea that customers don’t
distinguish between frequencies and technologies. Instead, they simply call their wireless phone a ‘cell
phone.’
“From the perspective of a consumer faced with a buying decision, when all other attributes are
similar, they feel more comfortable placing their purchase with a familiar name,” said Richard J. Lyons, president
of Cellular One Group. “In the case of Cell One, the consumer’s perception of familiarity, easy identification,
size, stability and quality of service will be derived from a positive name association with Cellular One.”
A
phone by any other name …
Wireless carriers aren’t the only companies competing for consumer
attention.
According to
a Strategy Analytics Inc. study, Motorola Inc. and Nokia Corp. dominate in unaided brand
awareness-by users-of wireless handset makers, with 58 percent and 43 percent awareness respectively. L.M. Ericsson
(14 percent) and Sony Corp. (13 percent) make up a second tier, followed by Qualcomm Inc., Panasonic Inc.,
Mitsubishi, NEC Corp. and Samsung, each with less than 5 percent brand awareness.
Roughly one-fifth of wireless
users in the study could not name a wireless handset vendor.
David Kerr, director of North American wireless
programs at Strategy Analytics, said customers continue to make buying decisions based on price, talk times and size
and weight. With so many handsets on equal ground with respect to those features though, Kerr said a real opportunity
exists for vendors to differentiate on a second level that includes display size, standby time, voice dialing and
brand.
“The fact that Nokia is so close to Motorola shows that they are winning the battle for mind share and
winning the battle for market share,” said Kerr. “Other vendors that are desperately trying to build brand
awareness can take solace in the fact that Nokia, which started out as almost a no-name company that most people
thought was Japanese, now has such a commanding presence.
“The winners and losers will be based on an
association with a brand and truly differentiated features,” said Kerr.
