The marriage of the PC and the telephone is largely responsible for the present day ICT industry. Records of when and where this marriage was consummated aren’t too clear but the couple seems odd considering the fact that the telephone is a staggering one hundred and thirty years old while the personal computer celebrated its twenty fifth birthday only last August. While the PCs paternity seems certainly in the hands of IBM, a silent paternity suit involving the telephone has been going on for several decades. Antonio Meucci, Johann Philipp Reis, Alexander Graham Bell and Elisha Gray, amongst others, all long dead, have been fronted as possible fathers of the telephone. It was only in the last decade that the British government announced that it now recognizes Italian born Cuban resident Antonio Meucci as the first inventor of the telephone. The Americans took a bit longer, only recognizing the Cuban inventor in 2002.

The pace of change brought about by ICT is so rapid that the man most commonly associated with the PC, Microsoft founder Bill Gates, is quoted to have said that we have to conduct “business at the speed of thought”. As the local ICT industry attempts to “conduct business at the speed of thought”, below are a few pointers as to what may lie ahead for ICT sector brands. 

Brand building will take centre stage 

Branding fulfills two main functions: certifying the source's authenticity (unique identity) and differentiating one product from another (differentiation). The ICT industry has spent a lot of time talking technology. That time can only be relived by those driving using only their rear view mirrors. While technology remains important, it will not be the key to ICT firms winning the battle for the consumer. The war shall be won by ICT organizations that invest in building brands, not those that build the best ICT gizmos.

“The consumer is not a geek”

To paraphrase the great David Ogilvy’s famous quote, “the consumer is not a geek, she’s your wife”. As the ICT market continues changing, geeks will progressively take a back seat. The consumer will take the front seat - and rightly so.  

Safaricom recently declared a pretax profit of a whooping 12 billion Kenya shillings! Not many of the firm’s subscribers who contributed to this record breaking profit can tell you on what platform Safaricom’s infrastructure is built. They shall however talk passionately about how the brand talks to them as consumers and addresses their needs in a non-geeky manner. Successful ICT brands of the future are those that will put the consumer first.  

The ISP is dead! Long live the Communications firm 

Access Kenya recently changed their communication to read “ISP – Internet Solutions Provider”. Whether we have the “Internet Solutions Provider” or the more familiar “Internet Service Provider”, the era of the ISP brand is over. When Wananchi Online and Safaricom signed a deal that saw Wananchi commit to supporting the backbone of Safaricom’s mobile office product countrywide, it may have looked like an anomaly. Not really. The ICT industry will see brands being acquired, merging or co-branding at an unprecedented pace. We shall see more strange bedfellows. We shall see more competitors becoming collaborators in an industry that shall simply be called the communications industry. Few of the existing ICT brands will survive with their current brand orientations. New communications brands shall take over the industry. 

Relationships will overthrow Technology

Have you ever heard of the Glanz Group? Did you know that this Chinese home appliance manufacturer produces about fifty percent of the world's microwave ovens sold under some 80 different brands? That begs the question: are brands then just labels? Yes and no. Yes, because to a large extent products (and services) have reached a level of similarity more than ever before in human history such that the differentiator may be the name. No, because brands are more than just about the name, they’re relationships created by various consumer experiences, not the technology behind the product or service. The same is happening in our local ICT industry where the backbone in both the telecommunications and internet sectors are built by a handful of players. The real differentiator between the various brands will increasingly be the relationships the brands create with the consumer. The brand experiences attached to each ICT brand will determine its success.

“There is no reason anyone would want a computer in their home” said Ken Olson, President, Chairman and founder of Digital Equipment Corporation in twenty nine years ago. He now wishes he could eat those words. I hope not to share Mr. Olson’s fate in 2035.