Globalization…integration of technology…and maintaining competitive edge are issues confronting organizations worldwide. Companies tapping into strategic visioning, creativity and innovation can perhaps successfully reposition themselves by viewing these shifts in the business environment not as threats but opportunities. Business entities that respond to change, instead of rebel against it, will certainly thrive by benefitting from traditional and emerging markets.
According to the Jamaican press, Cable & Wireless (C&W) is considering rebranding its Caribbean operations to LIME, “Landline, Internet, Mobile, and Entertainment.” A possible rebranding was also reported in the Trinidad Express newspaper.
A company internal memo from a C&W executive cited by the Jamaican Gleaner reads: “We will be taking a new version of C&W out to market before Christmas. We are going to rename our business. We are changing our name because the business we are becoming bears little resemblance to the business we were… because we want to show the world how much we have changed. Ladies and gentlemen start preparing because Cable & Wireless Caribbean is going to become LIME- Landline, Internet, Mobile, and Entertainment; a new name that says what we do, which stands for something, which tells the Caribbean that we are back and that we mean business.”
About Cable & Wireless
Cable & Wireless, a UK-owned telecommunication company, operates in 34 countries across the globe, including the Caribbean, Panama, Asia, the Middle East and the Pacific. In the majority of markets, it is the leading telecoms provider, offering complete service including local and international telephone, mobile and Internet to residential and business customers.
Cable & Wireless now faces competition in 90% of its markets and continues to compete with new rivals by investing in world-class innovation, technology and people. It is proud of its contributions to local economies and the communities in which it operates, continues to build its brand and works to deliver excellence to its customers around the world.
Cable & Wireless previously announced sweeping changes to its structure in the Caribbean after disappointing results in fiscal year 2008, ending March 31. Jamaica, in particular, showed poor results.
According to a recently published article by Patrick Nixon, “Speculation abounds that Mexican giant América Móvil, which has entered the Caribbean market through the acquisition of MiPhone in Jamaica and PRT in Puerto Rico, may be eying the acquisition of C&W’s Caribbean operations.
“Indeed, the two main candidates for acquiring C&W’s Caribbean assets would be regional giants América Móvil and Telefónica (NYSE: TEF)”, José Otero, President of Consultancy, Signals Consulting, told BNamericas.
Nixon’s article went on to suggest that “C&W would provide them with an overnight pan-regional presence in the Caribbean and with both fixed and mobile assets that could greatly benefit from these two companies’ economies of scale. The big loser on this scenario would be Digicel [which has its principal operations in the Caribbean],” Otero said.
MORE THAN A NAME
According to Otero in the same Patrick Nixon article,” The revamping of C&W’s Caribbean operations goes beyond the new brand name. The company is trying to regain some of the territory lost in one of their key regions in terms of revenues to the likes of Digicel.”
The ‘new’ Cable & Wireless will try to position itself as a technology innovator through the launch of new services such as PayTV and UMTS/HSPA. These are necessary changes for the company in a region where most mobile markets surpass the 90% penetration rate and multi-SIM users are the norm. New services will provide another revenue source for the operator, Otero said.
It was recently announced that Nokia and Cable & Wireless have signed an International Frame Agreement for the supply of GSM and WCDMA 3G radio and core networks. Cable & Wireless is a new mobile network customer for Nokia. This agreement will help increase Cable and Wireless’ coverage, capacity and quality in key markets.
The deal covers radio networks, including the Nokia HSDPA solution; core networks, including the 3GPP release 4 compliant Nokia mobile softswitch; and services, including the unique multitechnology Nokia NetAct(TM) solution, which supports both 2G and 3G networks.
“Our aim is to offer the very latest mobile multimedia services to our customers. We chose Nokia on the strength of its technology offering and ability to support us globally,” says Francis Mount, Chief Technology Officer, Cable & Wireless International Businesses.
“Nokia is delighted to be signing an International Frame Agreement with Cable & Wireless,” says Peter Kühne, Vice President, Networks, Nokia. “With Nokia’s leading technology, particularly WCDMA 3G and HSDPA, Nokia can bring value and new revenues to Cable & Wireless in deploying new networks globally across Cable & Wireless’s selected markets.”
The 3GPP Release 4 architecture of the Nokia MSC Server System will allow Cable & Wireless to gain significant cost savings in the operation of its GSM and WCDMA 3G networks and will enable the operator to offer the most advanced mobile multimedia services to its customers.
According to one leading industry player out of the US, “Miphone and Digicel are both 3g by now. C&W Jamaica just purchased their 3g infrastructure from Ericsson so it seems like they jumped the gun and would not reap the benefits from the frame agreement now. Overall the benefits are that any features and functionality can be purchased in bulk as its under the agreement so little JA can benefit from the competitive pricing from the economies of scale.”
But for brand strategist Aldo, the solution to the C&W problem is not so much a change of name, for him, it’s a much deeper problem, one he likens to a relationship.
According to Aldo, “The Jamaican consumer and for that matter the Caribbean consumer has over the years fallen out of love with C&W. Like many relationships, they continued to live with C&W because ‘no betta no deh’. Along come Digicel, younger, energetic, modern, and man looking fine. The consumer does not need much to convince them to leave C&W for the new suitor and so they do in droves. C&W, on the other hand, rather than recognize what is happening, starts to cuss and criticise the new player, who simply ignores them and continue to woo the consumer with all manners of gifts and new toys.
The consumer falls deeply in love with Digicel and many vows never to go back. Some consumers however play it safe and give C&W “bun”, by flirting and entering a relationship with Digicel, while at the same time holding on to C&W. Other consumers see the new player and prefer to stick with the evil they know.
When Miphone enters the scene, the consumer cannot believe their luck, some jump ship and leave C&W and Digicel, others give C&W and Digicel “bun”; and still others, the vast majority, stick with whom they have.
Now, in that situation C&W has to try to woe the consumer back, they have to find out why the consumer left them and under what conditions they will return. I am yet to see a communication programme or campaign from C&W that speaks to this issue. Digicel on the other hand is showering the consumer with love, adoration and gifts; ensuring that it will have to take tremendous efforts by C&W and Miphone to woo them away. What C&W needs to understand is what is commonly know as brand affinity.”
Donald Ryan, from iKnowtion, in an article entitled, “Knowing Customer Affinity with the Brand” published
in DMnews had the following to say, “It is a fundamental truth that not all customers are alike. Every business owner knows this, just as every business owner knows that the value of each customer will depend, in large part, on his or her affinity with the brand. However, while brand affinity may be an emotional connection that is difficult to quantify, without having a detailed interview with each customer, there is a way to approach this measure by assessing what you can observe fairly easily through the assorted contacts a customer has with the brand. That is, it is possible to approximate brand affinity at the customer level by examining information not only about a customer’s purchase transactions, but also about the customer’s non-financial interactions and other dealings with the brand.”
How people relate to brands is invariably linked to how the brand tells its story, or the way a customer experiences a brand across a variety of touch points; ultimately the stories and the experiences all add up to how an individual perceives your brand and at the moment consumer perception of the C&W brand is not that high.