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Ben's Talk3G Blog

Everything Everywhere: Brand to nowhere

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3 Comments
by
Ben
, 26th July 2012 at 01:26 PM (7193 Views)
Everything Everywhere, the amalgamation of T-Mobile and Orange in the UK, faces a massive challenge. It wants to consolidate its brand. This would be difficult given the best of scenarios, but CEO Olaf Swantee seems resigned to uniting behind the Everything Everywhere identity.

At first pass this seems to be an insurmountable challenge. The mobile network cannot possibly be called "Everything Everywhere". It's too long. There's simply nothing that can be done with it.

In order to use this moniker, it first needs to be transformed into something palatable. Something that can be imagined displayed next to the signal bars on a phone screen, or stamped onto the back case of a subsidised handset. So lets look into that.

Ee
Everything, everywhere

Ee (pronounced "E"), seems an obvious choice. The group name can then be turned around into the slogan; Ee means everything, everywhere. I still don't like the arrogance and incredible lack of focus 'everything, everywhere' portrays, but I can actually imagine Ee as a successful mobile and ISP brand in the UK. It looks scientific, as if plucked from the periodic table, and in the face of cutesy wootsey Three I think it has potential.

Everything
everywhere

Seizing upon Everything as the new brand name is only slightly better than swallowing the whole Everything Everywhere pill. My main problem is with the word. Three signifies the third generation of mobile technology, the mobile internet revolution. Orange symbolises a bright future. They're great brands. It's very difficult to assign any great meaning to something known as 'everything'. Alternatively, "Everywhere" could be used as the brand name for the network, but it leaves us with the same problems and adds one: how stupid does a brand called 'everywhere' look when you go somewhere that's out of coverage.

If Everything Everywhere gets gobbled up by private equity as is expected then it's highly unlikely the Orange brand, that, despite many missteps in the stewardship of France Telecom, still has some mileage in it, will be available to Everything Everywhere to use without costly licensing. Will a Tom Alexander-lead Everything Everywhere adopt an entirely new brand for the UK? I'd say there's a much better chance of it than if Swantee stays at the helm, and therefore a much better chance of the identity bereft network succeeding full stop.
Categories
Mobile Networks , Mobile

    Comments

    1. The Mullet of G's Avatar
        I think most people considered Orange to be a horrible network and equally so T Mobile, so definitely don't want to adopt either name. It is tricky though and I recently contacted Brian Cox for his views on the amalgamation, and he said "it's a lot like accelerating 2 turds in opposing directions around the LHC, what is left after the impending collision looks quite different from what you started with, but there is no escaping the fact that it's still classed as a turd."


        PS. I probably didn't contact Brian Cox.
      • Ben's Avatar
          Probably not, but it's an epic quote all the same!

          I accept that the Orange brand has been tarnished over the years. However, the early branding was phenomenal (a long series of ads that never featured a mobile phone), and the whole concept of Orange and a bright future works in marketing terms.

          Best hope, IMHO, is the private equity takeover and the birth of a new brand. Everything Everywhere could then be viewed as a transitional brand, giving way to a much stronger one accompanied by a new vision for the telecommunications behemoth.
        • The Mullet of G's Avatar
            I think both Orange and T Mobile are damaged beyond repair, and while I agree that Orange's early marketing was decent it was also the rod that people used to beat them with for years after, where every time someone couldn't get signal or got poor service from Orange people would comment about the future not being so bright. Orange always had a huge problem - they were a terrible network by any standard, but they thought marketing could turn that round instead of actually trying to be a better network.

            I agree think the only way forward for them now is complete rebranding/rebirth, try and create a bit of buzz, as currently Everything Everywhere is like Patrick Swayze in ghost, everyone else knows they are dead already, I haven't heard a single person mention Everything Everywhere, they literally don't exist.