Broadband and telecoms giant BT appears to have confirmed that their strategy of turning EE into the group’s “flagship brand for our consumer customers”, which was eventually expected to result in the BT brand focusing more on business customers, will no longer result in the original brand being retired for consumer products.
Just to recap. Back in April 2022 the BT Group announced a significant and surprising change in their branding strategy (here), which sought simplification (i.e. no more having “two of everything“) by turning EE into their “flagship brand” for most consumer customers, while BT would become the main brand for their Enterprise and Global units. In addition, Plusnet would have continued to “serve customers with basic no-frills broadband and landline” (although they’ve opted not to offer landline phone services on FTTP).
Since then there have been a series of gradual moves to help facilitate this transition (e.g. product changes and withdrawals), although we’ve long questioned the wisdom of the operator’s approach, particularly given that the BT brand was already synonymous with home broadband and phone services. Instead, BT’s efforts to foster brand simplification always seemed destined to fuel consumer confusion.
According to The Telegraph (paywall), the CEO of BT Group, Allison Kirkby, has now “shelved” the original re-branding strategy “amid concerns that dropping the historic brand risked alienating older customers” (this seems like a reference to their older standalone broadband and landline-only base).
A Spokesperson for BT said:
“EE is our lead consumer-facing brand for converged mobile and broadband customers but there will always be a big role for BT as one of our most highly valued brands by our customers. BT will therefore continue as part of our portfolio of well-loved consumer brands alongside EE and Plusnet.”
The report also indicates that BT will “step up its investment” in Plusnet, which seems odd given how much they’ve gutted from that service in recent years (mobile, TV, home phone etc.). But despite this, the report indicates that BT may be preparing to launch a new budget focused mobile service in the future, although it’s unclear if this will be done under Plusnet or a completely new brand.
On the one hand, we agree that the BT brand should be retained for consumer services, particularly broadband and phone. On the other hand, we’ve just spent 2-3 years on the process of transitioning consumers over to EE, and to change course now seems likely to fuel yet more confusion. Hopefully we’ll learn a bit more about exactly what BT intends to change in the near future.
