The Challenge
Broadband is BT’s most important consumer offer, but when Sky and Carphone Warehouse entered the telecoms market with ‘free broadband’ offers in 2006, it threatened to make broadband provision solely dependent on price. BT needed to compete on service and offer.
The Brief
BT wanted to let its customers know that it was offering service unparalleled by its competitors. Rather than offering an off-the-shelf grey box broadband router, BT turned to Priestman Goode to create a BT branded product that was both tangible and desirable. The Home Hub had to embody the BT brand’s proposition ‘creating ways to thrive in a changing world’ and needed to represent the core values of simplicity, trust and reliability in a number of different environments
The Design With the domestic environment in mind, the Home Hub was designed to be more like a piece of furniture or architecture than an electronic product detailed yet unobtrusive in the home. The Home Hub supports BT’s full range of services, connects wirelessly to PCs and other broadband devices including set top boxes, and works with other services including the on-demand video offer, BT Vision. It has an upright format to reduce the space it uses on surfaces and a recess at the front (the working concept for which was ‘house with a mouse’) which functions as an area where associated products (such as a telephone handset) can be attached.
The Results
This £60,000 (Euro 88,000) investment in design has enabled BT to establish itself in the broadband market without having to compete on price. In the nine months since launch, BT Total Broadband’s market share grew by 4 points to 34%, its highest level in two years. The Home Hub has also driven increased VoIP (voice over internet protocol) connections and revenues, enabling BT to reach its target of 1million VoIP customers in January 2007, 6 months ahead of target. The product has also driven a step change in the broadband options chosen by BT customers, with 60% of existing customers now choosing the more expensive tiers of BT’s Broadband Options in order to secure a Home Hub, which is not available at the lowest tier.
