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Bt Branding Marketing

What should a revamped BT brand look like?

By Michael Quirke, senior strategist

October 7, 2016 | 4 min read

Following its purchase of EE, sure enough it looks like BT is revamping its brand.

BT

The new brand mark leaked this week suggests, if approved, a flatter, simpler, more mobile-friendly future identity for the brand. It’s the latest in a long line of brands which are simplifying their look, including Google, Deliveroo, Instagram and even Co-op.

We can only hope that bold moves on the surface signal positive change within the company. With the EE purchase still fresh, it’s interesting to speculate what might be going on. All telcos are under pressure now; with tech companies encroaching, the network is becoming more commoditised. BT itself is suffering increased pressure to split off its Openreach broadband programme. So what might the BT of the future look like?

1. More fun

Despite privatising back in 1984, BT still hasn’t quite shaken its image of a slow-moving public juggernaut. The most visibility the brand has had since its last refresh has been through its family-friendly but outdated BT Infinity ads.

But EE is a great brand with a dynamism and light-heartedness that might rub off. And in fact BT’s most recent, lesser seen ads, have given us a glimpse of a lighter side to the brand, pulling in big names like Rebel Wilson, Ryan Reynolds and Alec Baldwin to bring life to its Infinity brand on TV. It looks like there might be humour in the old brand yet. Who knew? Long may it continue.

2. More focused

Smaller brands like Three can be more agile on price and service, and build up goodwill through their right to call out terrible service from the market leaders. But the larger telcos, like BT, are facing a real challenge defining their role. Why should I care about texts and minutes when I can WhatsApp over Wi-Fi? The opportunity is there for BT to leverage its sizeable footprint to extend beyond just connecting people, instead providing tech-enabled public services for the people of the UK.

The fact that the new logo looks like it belongs on the front of an app button might signal a change to high-tech, “smart” mobile services, similar to those celebrated by British Gas and Hive. Perhaps BT will build its own ecosystem to compete.

3. Simpler, better

Look at BT’s site and you see a brand that does a lot – news, sport, tv, web, business connectivity, retail – but gains poor customer service scores at its core: 0.4/10 on TrustPilot at last count. The most successful companies of recent years have focused on doing one thing very well: transporting people smoothly, like Uber; being a storefront for the world like Amazon and Alibaba. BT has taken the first step in simplifying its offer to act more like the tech companies that challenge it.

The second step will be in proving it can deliver beyond the face of it, through a consistent quality of basic service for network customers across the UK and through using that network to connect people in innovative ways via software. And then there is the potential that the media component brings – creating new products and content offers through existing distribution platforms.

The possibilities are tantalising. A strong, tight service network that has BT’s reach and is dedicated to the UK would be a marvel to behold. Let’s hope the refreshed logo is a sign of bigger, better things to come.

Michael Quirke is senior strategist at Brand Union

Bt Branding Marketing

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