Bundling brands

Promoting and protecting the brand has always been of utmost importance to large, well-recognized companies. It is particularly important for communications companies that live and die by service quality. A key ingredient to service quality is consistency. Service providers looking to deliver the triple play or quadruple play have an enormous challenge ahead of them to maintain consistency while they broaden their service portfolios through partnerships with other well-known brands. For example, Time Warner Cable, still looking for a wireless component to bundle with its TV, broadband and MCI-based Internet telephony service, is in discussions with Sprint. Such an agreement would make Time Warner Cable the first major cable company to offer all four services. T-Mobile, the Deutsche Telekom affiliate, also is reportedly looking to partner with cable companies to complete its bundle. Three potential service-related issues arise in scenarios where companies bundle services from other brands and try to pass them off as their own: A company such as Time Warner Cable will be offering the same wireless service (Sprint) as many other providers and will have a hard time distinguishing itself on service quality. Trying to provide a consistent look and feel to customer support will be no less than a magic trick. And while bundling makes it less likely that a customer will switch providers, if a provider screws up on any of the three or four services and does cause a customer to switch, they will be losing the equivalent of four customers instead of one.

Companies that bundle through such partnerships put their reputation and brand image in the hands of others. It may conveniently avoid the cost and uncertainty of acquisition, but some day, the consumer will get wise and realize it could be in their best interest to get their services from different providers — providers they can drop on the spot without disrupting all their communications.