Digital Laggards & Leaders: A Brand Management Comparison

Executive Summary

We surveyed brand managers across regions in the telco community to understand their challenges, initiatives, and vision. We classified these telcos into the following tiers as we carried out these surveys:

1. 1. Traditional telcos but innovative
2. 2. Aspiring digital telcos with some beyond connectivity revenues
3. 3. Digital leaders who score high on their digital maturity assessment, have higher margins in connectivity and beyond, higher brand scores
4. 4. Digital-first, Digital only brands

To our surprise, these 4 tiers had different goals, objectives, and plans. For simplicity let's draw them into 2 tiers as digital laggards and leaders and discuss the findings.

What are the focus areas for Tier 2 telcos: Digital laggards?

1. 1
   Keep up with Competition: How do we find ways to differentiate our brand from competitors and stay on top of mind with customers?
2. 2
   Retain our Customers: What strategies can help us ensure brand customer loyalty?
3. 3
   Tech Advancements: Mobile technology is constantly evolving, with the introduction of new features and services. Keeping up with these advancements and ensuring the brand remains relevant and innovative is a significant challenge.
4. 4
   Network Quality and Reliability: The perception of a mobile operator's brand is closely tied to the quality and reliability of its network. Any network outages or service disruptions can have a negative impact on the brand's reputation, so how do we manage that?
5. 5
   Tech Convergence: Mobile operators are increasingly diversifying their services into areas like broadband, digital entertainment, and IoT. How do we as Brand managers manage these expansions while maintaining a cohesive brand identity?
6. 6
   Environmental and Social Responsibility: Consumers are becoming more conscious of a company's environmental and social impact. Brand managers may need to incorporate sustainability and corporate responsibility into the brand's messaging and practices.

What are the focus areas for Tier 1 telcos: Digital leaders & high margin telcos?

While the above challenges are also relevant, but, the lens through which brand managers at Tier 1 are thinking is notable and that's the point we want to communicate through this whitepaper.

1. 1
   Digital way of life: How do we position ourselves to be serving the digital lifestyle for our customers?
2. 2
   Tech-co: How do we position ourselves to be a leader in Telco to Tech-co transformation and the digital services provider that we are!
3. 3
   Customer Centricity: From a consumer segment perspective, how do we strategically position our brand and propositions so customers resonate with our brand? A. To perceive as a Young, Innovative, Fresh brand for the Youth consumers B. Emerge as a premier and customer-centric brand for the High Value C. To position ourselves as a fair, transparent, and value-for-money brand for the Mass Market
4. 4
   SAAS provider to SME: When enterprises and SME think of mobility and connectivity (SIMs, leaselines, broadband) they think of us but when businesses think of Technology and Software, they resonate with Google, Microsoft, Oracle, and SAAS. How do we position ourselves as the digital enabler of businesses in our country to not become a dumb pipe?
5. 5
   Premier brand: How do we make high-value customers yearn to be with our network and brand?
6. 6
   Marketing the App as a channel: How do we market our App considering our digital-first goals and highlight the convenience of self-service while we enable digital acquisition, and digital onboarding, CLV on the app itself?
7. 7
   Finding the Winning Zone for our brand: How to find that space unique to customer wants backed by our strengths and find ways to position our brand against everything our competition stands for?

Lessons from Tier 1 telcos

We researched the strategies of digital leaders and found that they leverage the Customer brand relationship model and the Brand key framework for all brand development initiatives and follow a structured approach to branding...

What is the CBR Model and Why is it important for brand management?

The customer brand relationship model highlights the various stages of the relationship a customer undergoes with a brand – and where you should aim to be. It can help brand managers design and develop an effective brand strategy and journey for their customers.

1. Firstly, it helps brand managers identify their target audience and to understand their needs, preferences, and behaviors. By analyzing the interactions between the brand and its customers, brand managers can identify patterns in customer behavior and adjust the brand strategy accordingly.
2. Secondly, the model helps establish two-way communication with customers. By listening to their customers' feedback, concerns, and suggestions, you can make informed decisions about the brand strategy and create a more customer-centric brand experience.
3. Thirdly, it builds long-term relationships with its customers. By creating a positive brand experience and engaging with their customers on an emotional level, you can establish a loyal customer base that is more likely to recommend the brand to others and remain loyal to it even in the face of competition.
4. Finally, it helps to measure the success of their brand strategy over time. By tracking customer behavior and perceptions, brand managers can identify areas of improvement and adjust the brand strategy accordingly to improve customer satisfaction and loyalty.

What is the Brand key?

The Brand Key Model is a model that is used to position a brand. It is a popular tool used in many organizations including brands in the telecom and media space. The model explains the nine steps or phases of distinguishing a brand.

Etisalat's brand transition from Telco to Tech-co

Etisalat rebranded itself to e& reflecting its core business with separate verticals in order to cater to the needs of customers that are increasingly diverging from basic needs of connectivity to ones that are far more niche, personalized, and reflect the digital needs of today's customers.

These verticals/ brands are e&mobility for mobility and connectivity, e&life for digital services and home, e&enterprise for B2B, e&capital for investments.

The branding "and so much more" is meant to convey the company's wide range of offerings, which now go beyond traditional telecommunications. e& is now a global technology and investment conglomerate, with interests in a variety of sectors, including digital solutions, cybersecurity, cloud computing, and artificial intelligence.