Belize Telemedia Ltd. is undergoing a rebranding exercise. The launch of the rebranding of the company's services is being done under the new name Digi. CEO Rochus Schreiber spoke of the new strategy.
CEO Rochus Schreiber: “It is not only important that we do a new brand. It will actually also create new value and save us money in the short and long term. Our company has been an integral part of Belize for over 100 years. It was actually said before that there were different names under which we operated during this time. Typically these new names were introduced when the company started something new when there was a break with the past or some new development that we were getting into and today we are exactly at the same time point. We are going beyond, we are starting something new; something revolutionary. Our Digi brand is the center of our new marketing platform that will make it easy for us and for our cross customers to recognize the new services that we will be rolling out shortly and it will make it easy for us to bundle these services into very attractive and affordable offers for our customers to use and enjoy in their day to day lives as well as for our business customers to use to develop themselves into new strategic directions and to go beyond what they thought was possible up until now."
Schreiber was asked how impactful the new brand Digi will be on the company's overall image, service and clientele.
CEO Rochus Schreiber: “We are doing lots of new thing and in order to break through the inertia, the expectations that customers have and that are partners have. We have to draw their attention to it and the new brand Digi, the new symbol, these strategies are the tools that we are using to break through these barriers of perception; through the barriers of stagnant stereotypes. We are a company that is bringing new things, we are a company that’s transforming the country and the brand and the new logo will help us to make it visible so the impact is as much a direction as the new technologies that we bring in because that is what will make people sit up and pay attention and notice that there is something new."
The new Digi rebranding is scheduled for next Monday and will be displayed across all the company websites, social media platforms, Television and Radio advertising.
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BTL Launches The "Digi" World
We're already used to BTL's Digicell mobile phone service. But now BTL is re-branding and will use that DIGI prefix to cover all its services. We found out more at a grand launch today at the Civic Center:..
Jules Vasquez reporting
The new brand is Digi - and it's the single flagship name and logo under which BTL will now offer all its services.
Rocus Schriber, CEO - BTL
"We are the company that is now building fiber to the home. We are going to deliver ICT services. We are delivering cloud computing and we are expanding internationally. For the first time we are selling to our neighboring countries. So this is the right time for us to look at what will be the name for these new services. What will be the umbrella brand that will make it easy to recognize that these services belong together and they are all coming from the same source. All these services rely on digital technology and therefore Digi."
The single umbrella offers some flexibility as BTL enters a future where it will be offering customers a host of diversified services - so diverse, it's not even sure what they are:
Rocus Schriber, CEO - BTL
"Our ambition is to offer all possible services that our customers are asking for. So it does not stop on quadruple threat or a triple threat - there are other things that customers need. They need education. They need remote working. So it be quintuple threat, octuplet threat. I mean we can go into as many as the customers need. Infinity and beyond. Thank you."
And that's the infinity sign on the logo - which expresses the company's ambition:
Marconi Leal, Deputy Chief Sales and Marketing
"Our new brand and strategic direction will stand out. They will highlight our strength and define our future."
But, the fact is, the future of telecommunications is undefinable and the landscape ever changing:
Rocus Schriber, CEO - BTL
"10 years ago our competitor was across the street. It was a company that was employing people in Belize. It was a company that was paying taxes in Belize. It was a company that was following Belizean laws. Now our competitors are out there and they have access in here. Now that a kind of scary picture, because facebook is our competitor. Asymmetrical warfare. It's a beautiful picture because 10 years ago we knew exactly who our customers are. It was the less than 300,000-400,000 people in Belize. But just like they can reach in, we can reach out. With Belizeans, with the networks that we offer can reach out. So now our customers are the billions of people."
But at the end of the day, the only billions BTL's shareholders care about is on the bottom line - and BTL's profits have been steadily slipping:
Rocus Schriber, CEO - BTL
"That is a worldwide trend. the more services you bring and the more competitive the environment is, the more affordable you have to become the more competitive you as a supplier have to be and therefore the margins for operator globally are going down and we are living in the same environment as our competitors globally. Therefore our margins are going down. However, our revenue has been growing."
And now shareholders hope that the DIGI branding will be enough to position BTL for future profits as it competes in a global marketplace:
Rocus Schriber, CEO - BTL
"Our competition is not here. We don't look at who our competition is. We look at what the opportunities that we can unlock for Belizeans and for ourselves and Digi is the binding glue."
BTL will start rolling out its new Brandon Monday with billboards and signs. IT will use the uniform DIGI red across all its branding now and abandon the purple and the green it formerly used. The brand ambassadors will be TV personality William Neal and former Miss Belize Rebecca Rath.
Channel 7