So much of a company’s brand persona is embodied in every customer touch point - from the company’s logo to its tagline to the way a company conducts its call centre. Even a company’s voice mail system says a lot about the firm and the people who work there. Just call my friends at Toronto ad agency Lowe Roche … they have best voice mail in the country, hands down!
That’s why I had the biggest shock of my life when I recently called the offices of former CHUM/CITY-TV in Toronto. The big booming voice of TV broadcaster Mark Daley has been replaced by some squeaky sounding guy telling me I just dialed CTVglobemedia. I thought I had dialed the wrong number so I hung up. Who was that? Where was Mark? And what happened to the CHUM I know? Where’s that familiar greeter on the phone system I am so used to hearing?
Ok, I know CHUM was sold. But did they have to lose Mark Daley's distinctive voice on the phone system?
For those of you who know what I mean, there is a deep sense of character loss when you dial that number now. It’s just not the same anymore.
Let’s face it, you don’t have to get rid of every piece of branding after a merger or buyout. A great example is when Telus bought Clearnet years ago. They adopted Clearnet’s tag “The Future is Friendly” and most of the iconic branding that was associated with Clearnet. Telus did the right thing.
So my message to CTVglobemedia is this: bring back Mark’s voice! Even that simple recognizable voice on the phone is part of CHUM/CITY-TV’s hallmark. Don’t dump it simply because of new ownership. Embrace it. Keep it. It still works.
Btw, August 16th has a real significance for me. First, it was on this day in 1977 that The King, Elvis Presley, passed away (shhh, I can still hear him in the building). Second, it’s singer Madonna’s birthday, she and her fab abs turn 49 today. And finally, it was one year ago today that I posted my first blog and entered the blogosphere. So … Happy Anniversary to me!
4 comments:
Happpy Anniversary. One year blogging. It's gone by quickly.
I have only one request of you. More posts!
Thanks Joe! Yes, I promise ... more posts ... one thing is for sure ... I'm never out of material, see ya, JULIE
Congrats on a year of blogging.
It's amazing that CTV would do that to City-TV. Most broadcasters in this country snorted at City's model back in the day and now they are all trying to catch up. Wouldn't they all love to have the MuchMusic franchise, Fashion TV, CityLine, and specialty channels that people actually watch.
There was no need to take Mark's voice off the greeting...why not make him the voice of all of CTV's voice mail?
If only you had a Facebook profile then you could create a bring back Mark Dailey group and get us all riled up.
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