Liverpool Street & T-Mobile - buzzworthy advertising

Thanks Jonathan for sending this link. Great advertising in terms of buzz and brand from the magenta-patenting mobile phone network T-Mobile. Just in case you have only caught part of it (or not come across this at all). The hi-res version is much better if you have the bandwidth.

it's good to talk

This used to to the the strap line for one of the funkiest mobile phone brands - Orange. I loved their marketing and wanted to belong to the club. Around seventeen years ago a phone cost £300 and Orange had about three transmitters in the UK yet I was still queuing outside the Orange dealer. The customer service was amazing - lose your phone and one would be motorcycle-couriered to you, anywhere, within a two-hour time window of your choosing. Amazing.

Fast forward to 2008/09. Confusing tariffs, even more confused staff and deals not designed for families. Add one year (yes one whole year) of speaking to call centres for hours on end without any success and we have arrived at today.

Today I leave Orange.

Even if I have to pay off the remainder of an 18-month agreement I am still leaving. What happened to such an amazing brand? I cannot believe that Orange's acquisition by France Telecom is responsible.

There is a lesson here for any brand. It's interesting how 'tribes' work; we forgive brands most things as long as the core experience remains special.

I note Orange is currently running a strap line 'together we can do more'.

Too little, too late. I loved this brand and they blew it.

2009 Customer Reference Survey - nearly there....

Number crunching finished it's being polished and about to be released. Interesting stuff - watch this space

Customers - your biggest threat or secret weapon?

IBM is running a vertically-segmented advocacy campaign (advising companies re creating advocates through using their technologies). It’s under the banner of ‘customers - are they your biggest threat or secret weapon’?

It uses a measure created back in 2007 called Customer Focused Insight Quotient (CFiq) – aimed to be a more predictive and commercially viable view of advocacy. It is similar to Netpromoter in many ways and is based on an advocate agreeing with three statements:

1. I would recommend my XXXX to friends and family.
2. I would buy my next product/service/solution from XXXX
3. If another XXXX offered me a competitive product/service/solution I would remain with XXXX.

Their campaign is recognising the power of advocacy however I have just given up trying to find a link to their customer evidence/case studies.

hmmm :o)