the grass is greener on the internet

I was going to post on Telstra – the disjointed confused brand, the recent ad spend and yet another store overhaul.

But it seems The Australian’s ‘the Deal’ magazine has managed to cover a lot of what I wanted to say in their latest feature. An interesting read – definitely pick it up (and don’t give me that print is dead spiel, even though newspapers are down there’s niche magazines sprouting up everywhere).

One thing is that Telstra is the big lumbering heavyweight in the industry, and consumers resent the fact that this means they can afford not to care.

Recently Telstra really has been showing off its clout, perhaps passively but in your face nevertheless. Major ad spend in their campaign preceding Mother’s Day – a sticker on the Sunday paper? Oh, well done. Telstra was everywhere you looked. Message: we have money.

The fact also remains that Telstra is the only carrier to have the infrastructure to carry out the national broadband plans – and probably could do it on their own, only it’s that much nicer holding out for a huge government cheque.

They did not touch on the new T [life] image concept going on, so here’s a few thoughts…

• It feels very Optus. Light colours, open spaces, glass exterior. Any moment a giraffe might pop its head round the corner.
• The idea of being able to play with phones in-store is great, but potentially expensive. It’s like an age simulation – I’ve seen what happens to a HTC touch after a few hundred schoolkids have played with it and it’s not pretty.
• Change in image doesn’t mean anything if it’s not accompanied by an internal change. Most telcos seem to struggle with service but I hear the most complaints about Telstra (but that might just be my friends). I still remember the Telecom ads; ‘good, better, best’. They were about always trying to improve.