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Communications Strategy 101

Box 4.1 Case study: the launch of Orange in the UK – clarifying
the link between corporate strategy and communications strategy

The story of Orange tells one of the most exciting corporate brand-building successes
in recent years with the company’s market value having gone from nothing in 1994
to £28 billion ($46.6 billion, (39.7 billion ¤) in the year 2000. Apart from great deal
making, shrewd distribution building, service innovations and technological develop-
ment, the lion’s share of this achievement can be attributed to the power of the
Orange brand and its communications that enabled the company to achieve the
corporate objectives that it had set at its launch.
The enormity of the task facing Orange at its launch is perhaps difficult to grasp
and appreciate today, given the current popularity of mobile phones. In 1994, the UK
mobile phone market was a confusing place for customers. Digital networks had just
been introduced, but few people yet understood the benefits. On top of this, Orange
also faced an uphill task in differentiating itself in this market as the last entrant in
a field of four. Cellnet and Vodafone, two of its competitors, already had ten years of
market dominance at that time, with full national coverage for their mobile phones and
millions of captive subscribers on their analogue networks. Both Cellnet and Vodafone
had also successfully developed low-user tariffs as part of a pre-emptive strategy to
block entry into the consumer market and had assiduously strengthened their domi-
nance of the business market through the development of their digital (GSM) networks.
Orange faced a daunting task in 1994 to reach the ambitious corporate objective that
it had set ‘to become the first choice in mobile communications’. Before the Orange
name was launched in 1994, the company’s trading name was Microtel; and execu-
tives of Hutchison group, Microtel’s parent corporation, met at that time to discuss
strategies for overcoming, or minimizing, the huge disadvantage of being last in the
market. They soon realized that communications would be an integral part of this
and instrumental for achieving the ambitious aim of market leadership. In May 1993
a team of senior managers and communications specialists from Microtel, corporate
identity specialist Wolff Olins and advertising agency WCRS was set up and charged
with developing a clear and strong communications strategy and positioning. This
team quickly realized that the new brand could not be built around a low cost strat-
egy, emphasizing price benefits, as this would have pitched the brand directly against
one of Cellnet and Vodafone’s greatest strengths, namely exceptionally low entry
costs. Instead, there was room to develop a fully rounded brand identity built upon
the market high ground, which had been left conspicuously unoccupied by the compe-
tition and would be a better alternative for capturing market share.
The team brainstormed names and propositions and finally arrived at the word
Orange as best representing their ideas, with its connotations of hope, fun and freedom.
Market research indicated that people found the name Orange distinctive and friendly,
extrovert, modern and powerful. The name Orange, along with the term ‘wirefree’
(as one of the communicable values), were subsequently registered as trademarks.
Advertising and corporate identity followed and were based around the positioning
for Orange as formulated by the team:

There will come a time when all people will have their own personal number
that goes with them wherever they are so that there are no barriers to