Telstra Brand Launch

Welcome to the second entry to the Marketing Matters blog! I survived through the first one! Yay! Hope you liked it!

As we all would have noticed by now Telstra looks different… (Actually I wasn't until I was told in my Master of Marketing class) and because Telstra is such an iconic brand, I’m planning to turn this topic into a case study about how major brands reposition themselves to create new brand values. This blog entry will be on-going as I will be watching Telstra’s performance and people’s reaction closely for the next few months as part of my study covering a few subjects including Integrated Marketing Communications and Regulatory Environment & Ethics.

Since the beginning of 2009, rumour has it that Telstra’s NextG Wireless is growing, with Telstra already set up to transition to 4G and LTE Wireless technology, which is capable of delivering movies to tablets and other devices in a matter of seconds (Richards, 2011). In September 2011 Telstra has unveiled a new colourful identity that aims to capture the diversity of its products, services and customers, in the biggest change to the Telstra brand since its transition from Telecom Australia in 1993 (CB, 2011). Full page ads were featured on the Sun-Herald on the 18th of September in celebration of the launch.

Full page ads on the Sun-Herald

DDB Group's specialist brand agency, Interbrand, worked with Telstra on the brand identity and along with DDB Sydney launched a new Telstra advertising campaign featuring the new look brand through TV and press. Marty O’Halloran, Chief Executive Officer, DDB Group said: “Telstra is one of Australia’s biggest, most recognisable brands. Our challenge was to maintain that familiarity, while also encouraging customers to re-evaluate what Telstra is about. Aspects of people’s lives are not any one colour, so injecting the existing branding with a full colour wardrobe means that we can take the Telstra brand to customers in a recognisable, relevant and engaging way.” (Aimgroup, 2011)

Telstra's new TVC

The new brand identity is designed to reflect the changes that have been happening at Telstra over the past two years, as the company moves to focus on customer service, sales and marketing while continuing its great legacy of engineering excellence (CB, 2011). The Telstra logo will continue in its current shape, and will feature a new colour palette incorporating orange, green, turquoise, blue, purple and magenta. The new look will be used for all customer groups including consumer, business, enterprise and government (Sandev, 2011).

Most of the negative comments from Mumbrella, the B&T website and CB website are from people who are not convinced that Telstra is able to provide real improvements to their services and this all “advertising fluff”. But overall, Telstra received positive feedback but the effects of the campaign are yet to be seen. This is a comment from GreatStrategy on the B&T website: "I think Telstra has done a great job rebranding. As a customer that has loathed Telstra for most of my life, I am observing my own change in attitude to Telstra not just from this rebranding but by their recent attempts to be more competitive. Its a good change and looking forward to seeing how it all pans out.” And another one from Al on CB:“Colourfully forgettable”. I personally am staying neutral as I’m waiting to see what actual changes Telstra will make before making a decision on the effectiveness of this brand change. For more information on their new branding, visit Telstra's website.

This is an interesting case study because it covers a variety of issues including brand equity, corporate restructuring, internal marketing as well as value creation which are all important topics covered in the Master of Marketing course. There are many other topics and I will include them as I go.

This marks the end of this post. I will be writing about this topic from difference perspectives through the next few months and compare it to other major iconic brands that are perhaps not doing so well cough*Qantas*cough. I’ll leave you with something to think about. What is your point of view on the new Telstra campaign?