Telecom Branding: Service vs. Innovation

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Gone are the days when a wireless phone was a phone. Technological innovations have brought the world of wireless through the portal of science fiction tales and have created a new generation of communication. The challenge for the wireless brand category is to balance their innovation offerings with services that make the consumers life easier…and this is a feat of feats to do well.

We began our research on this show with the question of: Can telecom survive on innovation alone? Well, we all know the answer, without even having to back it up with substantial evidence. No. If you don’t have proper service offerings to support your innovation, your brand cannot survive.

Of course, on a topic like this you can’t help but reference the latest version of Apple’s iPhone, the 3G. It was a debate. Could the recent reports of Internet connectivity issues, coupled with Steve Jobs announcement of the “Kill Switch” be the beginning of the downfall for our golden brand? Well, download the show and to hear what our social anthropologist and brand analyst have to say. ) I can’t give away all the goods…though I will say we are all curious to see if Apple’s partnership with Best Buy plays out as hoped. Last year The BrandShow reported Best Buy’s low employee engagement stats and forecasted a gloomy few years for this bargain tech retailer. Will the 250,000 hours of internal telecom training to Best Buy employees help increase morale and engagement? We shall see on Sept. 7th, the official date when iPhones will be sold in over 970 Best Buys across the nation. Apple’s partnership with Best Buy marks the first independent retailer of iPhone.

Another tech innovation we had to look into was the Android. Yes, mobile devices will soon be coming equipped with robots! Well, not really, but that’s the impression the Android is making with the common man. Take a listen to our street poll. If you haven’t heard about the Android platform you will soon, as the first Android phone, HTC’s Dream filed with the FCC just this week.

The Android is an open-source mobile platform from Google. The speculation on the business front it that the Android is Google’s way of taking on Microsoft. We shall see where the robots lead us.

Thank goodness our guest rescued us from our own demise, as we began to turn down the road of tech innovation, leaving our core point of discussion: service, in the dust.

Mike Goff, Vice President, Corporate Marketing for Sprint joined the show and demonstrated how Sprint is successfully balancing the brand promise of quality service offerings and innovation.

Mike took us through the launch of their recent launch of the Simply Everything plan and the Samsung Instinct …a service and product that stand well alone, but are almost unbreakable when paired together. Sprint’s launch of the Instinct was well crafted and widely successful. This rival handset to the iPhone 3G will remain in the hands of the public for some time to come. Aside from the category basics of handsets and coverage Sprint is leading the pack with their retail experience as well. Mike describes in detail the unique offerings and energy of the Sprint Studio.



Watch out Apple!

For the complete show and interview with Mike Goff of Sprint, we encourage your to download the show.