All Nortel, All the Time

By Mark Evans | Published: June 16, 2007

Network World blogger Greg Royal has a short post looking at how Nortel is trying revive its brand with the help of advertising agency McCann Erickson. Using the tag line “Business Made Simple”, Royal said Nortel has launched a global branding campaign in Chicago, London, Mexico City and Singapore – with plans to hit four more markets later this year, and another five in early-2008. Along with “Business Made Simple”, Nortel appears intent on hammering us over the head with “Hyper-Connectivity”.

Speaking of advertising, does anyone remember Nortel’s “What Do You Want the Internet to Be?” campaign that features television ads with a fake-CEO and the Beatles “Come Together”? If you were Nortel chief marketing officer, Lauren Flaherty, what would Nortel’s new tag line be?

[Slashdot] [Digg] [Reddit] [del.icio.us] [Facebook] [Technorati] [Google] [StumbleUpon]
This entry was posted in Blogs. Bookmark the permalink. Post a comment or leave a trackback: Trackback URL.
  • Casual Observer

    All the marketing in the world won’t solve Nortel’s lack of product gaps in the enterprise data area and falling Ethernet switching market share the last 6 years.

    I believe the latest campaign is an attempt to go after large, medium and small businesses channels in a bigger way while trying to strengthen its overall marketing to the level of Cisco. Its interesting to note that Cisco has somehow made an infrastructure business sexy to the consumer while still winning market share on the corporate side.

    Nortel still lacks mindshare and more importantly marketshare in end to end solutions which includes the consumer, enterprise and carrier markets. Oh well there’s always voice right ?

  • Jonathan

    Business Made Simple for the world’s largest networks

  • many

    For a new tag line how about

    “We bring drama to networking”
    subtext:
    “buy our products or we’ll grab you by the face”
    or
    “hyperconnectivity; there are decaffeinated networks that work just as well”
    subtext:
    “who needs access?”
    or
    Business made as simple as possible, but no simpler.

  • Observer

    These guys change slogans like CEO’s and CFO’s.

    “Beyond Boundaries” (entertaining this was the slogan before the bonus-gate fraud)

    “this is the way” (was more for lemmings after the fraud)

    Instead of “business made simple”, how about “business made stupid” instead with their endless failed gambles and sold assets.

    No one knows what their product groups have been doing for the last half decade. Their unreliable numbers furnished refinancing, and a reverse split rally rally to boot that normally tanks over 75% of stocks let alone those in their position. A laughing stock, an Enron/Worldcom on steroids with government and regulatory blessings. I am dying to hear their new slogan, they gotta stop, they’re killin me, my ribs hurt .

    Ya “business made simple”, zero means zero… zero profit for a decade since triple their current size. Even their longest term stock chart over decades comparatively makes savings rates look like bonanza returns.

  • nortel_employee

    Remember this one? “When you networks are complex, your choice is simple” It worked for Wellfleet.

  • hmph!

    i remember reading here not too long ago that one of nortel’s problems was lack of marketing. now apparently they are “hammering us over the head” with it.
    is there no right approach for nortel? does it really even matter what they do anymore or are they simply doomed? one would think so in reading the comments here. if the whole of the market’s opinion of nortel is well represented on this board (which i hope not), then it would seem so.

  • many

    Hmph!

    I believe that comments are aimed at nortel being a mile wide and an inch deep. Their marketing slogans are just that, there is no follow through. They do not understand market channels, they don’t play particularly nicely with other vendors (as they must, not being the big dog). their divisions and sales compete with one another. I would agree, unless they get their act together with more than slogans they are doomed to die a death of ten thousand cuts.

  • of course

    How about pushing all the best buzz-phrases together:
    “Nortel – Gaining Traction via a Paradigm Shift in the Hyperconnected Virtual Reality that is Now.”

    or how about

    “You buy our stuff, you will spend less time on hold with tech support than the other guys”

    or one more

    “You don’t see our phones in many TV shows, but Cisco uses them in their call centers.”

  • many

    Does cisco use nortel phones in their call centers? It would not surprise me :)

  • The psychiatrist

    The “Hyprconnectivity” concept is a fine one,however Nortel’s PR department needs to be intimately knowledgable of how to convey this message to the consumer,because it is the consumer ‘s psyche that transcends business and leisure.

    The business made simple catch phrase is fine but in my mind ,limits the potential and meaning of where I think Nortel wants to go with the “Hyperconnectivity” marketing push.

    The idea is let “Hyperconnectivity” represent the potential it holds for human interaction as opposed to business interaction.

    Cisco appears to be aware of this concept with their “the human network” catch phrase ads running in various media.

    Nortel is on the right track with respect to their hyperconnectivity push,but they need to tweak it and have it carry a more personal( human to human) representation.

    Business marketing is a language,but marketing aimed at the human psyche is far more reaching and has a much better chance of conveying what the intent and potential behind Nortel’s “Hyperconnectivity” intentions are.

    Marketing is everything- just ask the people behind Mc Donalds restaurants.

    Nortel’s DNA is historically attentative to the carrier segment,bland and stodgy but practical and reassuring in technological terms,but is of no appeal to the consumer side.

    Teach people on a personal level what the potential holds behind in Nortel’s case the “Hyperconnectivity” concept first rather than the “business made simple” pitch, as it impulsively bounds the marketing aimed at the business community, when in fact hyperconnectivity has unlimted potential covering all aspects of human interaction.

    Nortel’s PR would do well to realign their marketing concepts on a more personal level first and foremost followed by awareness in the various applications in which they could be used such as in personal, business, commercial uses and the respective benefits the bring to each market.

  • many

    Cisco’s “human network” ads irritate me. Perhaps it is the artificially sweetened, childish voice over, maybe it’s that I don’t like the idea of being “dragged and dropped”, but they irritate me.

    I am not a marketing weenie, but to me, the idea that needs to be communicated should be that more bits of information and (more importantly) the associations between those bits of information is becoming more available. This opens up the potential for critical analysis to understand parts of process and make better (or maybe it is just faster?) decisions. Of course the overall value of those “better” decisions are as suspect as the weight assigned those bits (the agenda).

    I thought (for a second) microsoft “got it” with their “one degree of separation” ads, but I did not see it reflected in their products.

    I agree with you comment about the personal nature of the message as opposed to making it appeal to a non human corporate entity.

  • http://lhtweepkkd.com lhtweepkkd

    Hello! Good Site! Thanks you! ejuaiyuaflgwa

  • TwitterCounter for @markevans
  • Seeking Alpha Certified