TalkTalk rebrands a bit

What do you do over the summer when you’re stuck in the office and everyone else is on holiday? Why, you mastermind a superficial rebrand of course.

TalkTalk has announced it ‘has made an unambiguous return to its challenger roots’ by putting the customer at the centre of its business, in a move which has been billed as the idea of the century by people who know about that sort of thing. The organizations name or branding will not change, but the ethos of the business will be more customer-centric, focusing on loyalty not new customer acquisition. Sounds brilliant doesn’t it?

But what does it all actually mean? In short, the new proposition will fall into three areas:

So let’s examine these exciting new features a bit more closely.

Firstly, the team will offer existing customers the same opportunities and deals as new customers TalkTalk is trying to lure away from competitors. While this may be a new idea for TalkTalk, it has been fairly common practise in the UK for some time. A variety of industries have used this tactic, but on another level, it is common courtesy also.

Existing customers will likely get a bit aggro should they find out new customers are getting better deals. If TalkTalk execs feel the need to make a big song and dance about the new proposition, it calls into question how much and often existing customers were getting screwed up until this change in approach.

Secondly, the team will now guarantee no broadband price rises over the course of the contract. So basically, TalkTalk will honour a contract which it enters into with its customers. Now that is good to know.

Finally, rental line charges will be scrapped. TalkTalk claims to have been the first provider to announce the ‘all in’ pricing in May, however Vodafone beat it to market and has been brandishing the idea all over primetime TV. As to whether TalkTalk come up with idea first it matters about as much as a sunbed in Saudi Arabia, Vodafone won this one.

Although very little has actually been said in the announcement, you have to feel a bit sorry for the TalkTalk marketing team. While there has been little to shout about, the team must be under considerable pressure to salvage credibility following last-year’s data breach which saw TalkTalk haemorrhage customers and drop 8.3% market share in the Q2 2016/2015 quarterly comparisons. Whether TalkTalk customers have forgotten the data breach may determine how many more non-announcements we see from the team over the coming months.