Changes afoot for Orange and T-Mobile brands

Since their merger in 2010 under the Everything Everywhere (EE) banner, Orange and T-Mobile seem to have been getting understandably closer as brands, with their network sharing and co-branded stores. Now EE are looking to distinguish the two, with their forthcoming marketing campaigns aiming to position each brand at opposite ends of the market.

The ads, due to hit TV screens this weekend, aim to push Orange as a premium offering, focusing on giving customers “more for more”, while T-Mobile will be portrayed as the value option, aimed at customers who are looking for a great deal.

EE director of brand Spencer McHugh outlined the plans in an interview with Marketing Week magazine. He explained that “Orange is the brand of choice for people who want more from their network… [we] want to position the brand as the premium smartphone experience.” With highlighted features including the ability to add premium content subscriptions to a user’s monthly bill, Orange will be the network for those of us who aren’t afraid to spend money to make the most of their smartphone.

T-Mobile, on the other hand, “is fun, populist and for the masses that are looking to get real value from a proper network that doesn’t compromise when it comes to quality” according to McHugh. The T-Mobile advert – you can see it in James’s post here – focuses on the new “Full Monty plan”, the unlimited calls, texts and data plan which we reported recently.

This is an interesting move from Everything Everywhere – while McHugh admits “[most] of our customers don’t really know they are an Everything Everywhere customer”, there have been clear signs that the Orange and T-Mobile brands were becoming more closely aligned. The new campaign is clearly setting out to reverse that and maintain the two as clearly separate brands. The Full Monty plan looks like a great deal for T-Mobile customers – we’ll be waiting to see what Orange’s high-end offering looks like.

Source – Marketing Weekly

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