Branding Worlds Collide

Telecommunications is an industry of rapid change and rapid heartbeats -- a sudden merger ("Don't worry. We're equals."); a technological shake-out ("Did we back the wrong horse?"); a competitor's press conference ("We're combining voice, data, video, theme parks, hub-cap assembly and lunch meat. "). Anything is likely in this industry, except a good night's sleep.

In markets overseas, the dangers are multiplied. How about having your cozy monopoly status ripped away and your organization sold to private investors? There's a paradigm shift for you. Or suppose you want to raise phone rates, and customers respond by hurling rocks at your windows? That happened in the Dominican Republic. A logo gains unforeseen applications when customers use it for target practice.

Rather than succumb, marketing executives can invest in one bulwark, one renewable resource that may offer lasting value. A company's strength in difficult times is a strong brand.

Americans, who exported Nike, Coke and Boeing, bring a wealth of expertise to telecommunications companies overseas. Yet we have a lot to learn, too. Working with non-U.S.-based companies enriches our sensitivity of telecommunications marketing and brand building. Following are seven tested lessons that are drawn from -- and have guided -- the building of telecommunications brands in global markets.

* Lesson 1: A telecom brand must resonate with the local people. Principles of branding are applicable worldwide, but every culture has its unique demands. Whether in India or Indiana, strong brands have a local feel.

In the remote parts of Venezuela, for example, a phone is not something to take for granted. It is a sustainer of life. A fierce topography and conditions of economic development have made this a difficult region to wire. Because you might wait 10 years for a landline -- three if you know somebody influential -- getting a wireless phone is a moment of exhilaration.

Under these circumstances, a telecom brand can be much more than a pretty logo or a zippy name. The two wireless carriers, TELCEL and Movilnet, are fighting it out for customer loyalty. The winner will have found the way to resonate with the Venezuelan people.

* Lesson 2: Beware of making "the latest technology" central to your brand promise. Building a brand demands a simple, unique promise. "We bring you imaginative, wholesome family entertainment," Disney says. "Our food is fast, clean and well-priced," McDonalds says. These propositions are clear and defensible. These brands have endured.

Wireless telecommunications is being improved continually, so a company that enters the marketplace saying, "Our technology is superior," risks having that claim destroyed by an upstart innovator. That leaves the first company scrambling for a new promise. You can lose lots of money and credibility in the process.

It is better to be known for superior convenience, seamless accessibility, a visionary philosophy or intimate knowledge of a region. Then use innovative systems to support the promise.

One of my colleagues is working with a wireless phone company in an emerging foreign market. Her client offers conventional wireless service. As she bluntly put it: "Our client's competitor is seen as having a more sophisticated technology. We're not getting into a spitting match over technology because someone can always come along and beat you." This is not formal marketing jargon. It is savvy brand marketing.

* Lesson 3: A brand is more than image. It also is behavior. Imagine claims of clarity with reception that crackles like wadded-up paper; phones that mysteriously stop working -- then start again; and a rate plan that has customers wondering, "Am I getting the best deal?" A grandiose, unmet promise is more destructive than no promise at all. If you claim you are the best, you'd better be able to back it up.

Do store personnel answer questions or just push hardware? Do customers receive technical support or rosy promises? Communications and behavior must be aligned. Employees are the brand's best ambassadors. In the Domincan Republic, Codetel expects everyone to walk the talk and to make every interaction with the brand consistent. Our company even has a director of employee training, Larry Oakner, whose role is to educate and inspire sales agents and technicians to project a consistent brand voice.

A brand puts a compelling, human face on a service, and that service must support the promise. In this country, rocks may not fly. But customers will.

* Lesson 4: A brand is more than behavior. It is experience. Companies pour money into logos and advertising but often forget the most tangible points of contact with customers: Signing up and being billed.

Think about it: A wireless phone is the customer's window to the world, a miracle of human contact. Yet how miraculous is the experience of taking a ballpoint pen and filling out a 3-page application just to qualify for service?

"The whole process of signing up is much more paper-intensive than it should be," said Irene Etzkorn, head of Siegel & Gale's Simplified Communications. "From a brand-development standpoint, a telecom company has a great opportunity to differentiate itself simply by streamlining the sign-up process and imbuing application forms with the brand spirit."

The lowly bill doesn't have to be a cold, complicated demand for money. Using customer databases, carriers can customize bills and present special offers. They can serve their customers information in an interesting manner, provoking dialog and fostering a relationship.

Great companies pay attention to every point of interaction with the customer. That's how great companies become great brands.

* Lesson 5: Strive to make your brand human as well as distinctive. Many American telecom brands seem cold and corporate.

"For something so personal -- something you carry in your pocket -- there is a dearth of evocative brands," said Bob Knapp, head of Siegel & Gale's strategic consulting services.

"A compelling brand introduction was Orange, a cellular service in the U.K., " Knapp said. Orange has a strong combination of unusual name, powerful imagery and valued services. Some day the world will be able to speak without wires, the ads state -- with a Chinese mother and child seen bicycling through a field of rice. The company says it will charge only for the percentage of the minute used, not a rounded-up number. The entire experience is summed up in the line, "The future is bright. The future is Orange."

Beyond Europe, life in the emerging nations has vibrancy of color, intensity of emotion. In telecommunications, dry, technology-driven names dominated by acronyms eventually will be replaced by warm, approachable brands.

* Lesson 6: A merger or spin-off is an opportunity. Go for it! Sprint -- with a bouncing pin symbolizing its commitment to clarity -- has a robust image. When Sprint spun off its cellular line to focus on PCS, the challenge was to create a new brand for Sprint's cellular business.

Here was a brand strategist's nightmare: How do you create an entirely new brand to differentiate a division of a company that labels your service "old technology" and plans to come back into your market as your arch competitor? In fact, the division's entrepreneurial leaders saw the split as an opportunity to go it alone and focus on what they did best. But survival would depend on communicating clearly, memorably, instantly.

Thus, 360 Communications was born. Instead of price wars and free phones, the company saw that the most powerful tool for connecting people is people. The company called itself "a human network" with the encompassing symbol of a green circle.

Of course, today the brand is disappearing into its acquirer, ALLTEL.

* Lesson 7: A brand is not a public relations campaign. It is a lasting promise. Look at the industry from your customer's point of view -- an exploding array of options. No wonder churn is the scourge of the industry.

Our research shows that people care most about cost, coverage and clarity. But consumers have difficulty comparing one provider with another because wireless phone service is an intangible purchase, something difficult to judge and to brand.

In fact, this market environment is open to creative brand strategies. The deafening shrieks of competitors give any one player a chance to define and communicate a new proposition. Getting a unique message before the public -- if backed by behavior and reinforced by experience -- can generate loyalty to a company and comfort with its brand. If everyone sells the same thing, then someone can prevail by being different.

The face you put on your company and the services you provide must be in harmony.