Brand Optimization: An interview with Speaker Shelagh Stoneham, Rogers Communications Inc.

CI Producer Kevin Strychalski chats with Shelagh Stoneham, Senior Vice President and General Manager, Brands & Marketing Communications, Rogers Communications Inc, about her upcoming session at the Brand Optimization conference on February 25-26, 2013. Good morning Shelagh.  Can you give delegates some details on your current roles and responsibilities? I am responsible for brand strategies and marketing communications- including mass advertising, social media, search, direct customer base management, and retail programs-for all Rogers, Fido and Chatr products and services.   How have advancements in social media transformed the way Rogers approaches brand management? Marketers used to present their product and service messaging through mass advertising and direct communications. We now have a dialogue with our customers. Social media gives us real time feedback from our customers. I think that marketers now need to be “pinball wizards.” The path to purchase is no longer linear, no longer predictable. I view all customer touch points, which most definitely includes social media, as potential opportunities to deepen the relationship with the consumer by giving them information that they want/need at the juncture/bumper hat suits them best. When customers hit these bumpers in random ways they will either continue the dialogue or they/ball bearing drops to the bottom. How and what we say in our points of interaction determine the outcome and ultimately the path to purchase.   Why has Rogers undergone its recent rebranding initiative? At Rogers, we launched the brand refresh to better reflect our organization’s personality-tenacious, dynamic, dependable, enthusiastic and young at heart. Our intention was to develop a tagline that resonates closely with our target of Canadian tech enthusiasts who are forward-minded. The goal was to reflect their youthful and entrepreneurial spirit to embrace what’s next. Our tagline, “Live Like Never Before.” further expands on the Rogers brand ethos. It is memorable, speaks to consumers and helps to differentiate us from our competitors.  We hope this approach will attract like-minded customers to Rogers and confirm that we are the best telecommunications choice for existing customers.   Did you find it particularly challenging to carry out the rebranding process across multiple channels? Yes it was challenging to develop a new creative look and feel and tagline that works well across multiple communication vehicles and lines of business. We achieved this by really thinking carefully what divisions with their various targets and broad range of media channels would ideally embrace our rebranding. That ensured we didn’t fall in love with an idea that worked really well with one channel or LOB but couldn’t work well for another!   We are delighted that you will be delivering a case study presentation at the Brand Optimization conference, January 28-29, 2014 in Toronto.  Can you please describe what delegates can expect to learn from your session? How do you know when its time to do a brand refresh? What is a good process? How do you measure success? How will rebranding efforts impact or even improve customer experience?   Shelagh, thank you for spending some time with us today.  We cannot wait to wait to hear more from you during the conference. 

 

Brand Optimization February 25-26, 2014, Toronto

For more information, visit www.CanadianInstitute.com/BrandOptimization

   

Tags: rebranding, Rogers Communications, Shelagh Stoneham