For a company only a few years old, and one that prides itself on making decisions easier for its customers, it might seem odd for Leap Wireless International Inc. to be making a branding change. While the change is not dramatic-the addition of “Another Leap Innovation” tagline below its Cricket Comfortable Wireless service name and a new logo-it foreshadows changes Leap is planning for its service offerings.
“Cricket has a great brand name,” said Sue Swenson, chief operating officer of Leap. “But, people might not know the association between Leap and Cricket. We will continue to use Cricket as the brand name, with the tagline to make the connection.”
Swenson noted that when Leap spun off from Qualcomm Inc. in 1998, it did what it thought was the right thing at the time in keeping the Leap and Cricket names separate, but now that Leap has established itself in its markets, it wanted to link the names together more.
“Leap is not being positioned as the brand, but as the supporting technology behind the service,” explained Harvey White, chairman and chief executive officer of Leap. White will launch the new branding campaign Tuesday by opening trading on the Nasdaq exchange.
Leap currently offers its fixed price, all-you-can-talk wireless service in 13 markets.
This regional approach plays into the company’s plan in keeping its overhead costs down, a plan that extends to printing a customer’s entire bill on one sheet of paper. Since it’s not a national player, Leap can introduce its brand change to smaller markets with lower advertising costs.
“The change will be gradual in our launched markets,” Swenson noted. “We are a cost-conscience company, so this is an evolutionary change, not a revolutionary change.”
While the new tagline below the Cricket service name will be subtle, the new logo is sure to catch a few eyes. Leap hopes the combination of purple and silver with the dynamic leaping “L” logo will show off the company’s innovative nature.
“Purple and silver are unique to the telecommunications space,” Swenson said. “The silver represents the technology aspects of Leap, even though we are not a technology company.”
Swenson quickly pointed out that even with the new logo and color combination, the iconic green couch used in Leap’s advertising would be retained.
“I have a positive view of the new brand,” said Frank Marsala, vice president of wireless telecom at ING Barings L.L.C. “I perceived the old Leap logo as cheap-looking and I believe the new logo is kind of classy. The company is becoming a real company and the logo and brand associated with the company should be updated to reflect forward thinking and an innovative culture.”
Leap said the branding change also will simplify the branding of additional services the company plans to roll out while not losing the identity behind them.
The first of these additional services will be wireless data services, scheduled to launch by mid-year. Leap said it has been looking at introducing data service for some time, but made a serious move last year when it purchased NeoPoint Inc.’s myAladdin.com location-based content aggregation portal and wireless information technology.
“With the acquisition of myAladdin in mid-December, we can offer a product that is more relevant and more focused on the customer,” Swenson said.
While Leap was not ready to divulge too much information about the service, White said the data service will not be billed on a per-minute basis.
“No one wants to browse the Internet on their phones. We are going to offer personalized services that customers can access when they want,” White said. “The mobile user is going to want their carrier to be cognizant of their needs.”
“I would expect that the data service ultimately introduced by Leap will be one that is well received by its customer base and I would not be surprised if others ended up copying whatever Leap ends up doing,” Marsala noted.
