Nearly everywhere
We always thought that naming a company Everything Everywhere was setting a rather high bar for it to be judged by, but the combined operation of Orange and T-Mobile UK is moving to realise the letter half of that name by launching 30 new stores in the UK this year.
There have been some tentative moves to introduce T-Mobile branding to Orange stores and vice-versa, but this looks like a more formal move towards bringing the Everything Everywhere brand to the fore. Whether that's such a great idea, however, given the strength of the respective operator brands and rather general nature of the new one, remains up for debate.
"The new stores will be branded Everything Everywhere and will sell Orange and T-Mobile products," said Everything Everywhere CEO Tom Alexander. "It means that by the end of this year we'll have created more opportunities for our people, more choice for our customers and more potential for our business."
There's even a marketing mantra for the stores; they're designed to ‘inspire, excite and educate'. That means an emphasis on interactivity and being able to experience devices, apps and services. That does seem like a good idea as right now most phone shops are pretty unimaginative, with rows of often dated handsets that aren't even turned on, let alone connected.
Field tests have reassured Everything Everywhere that people more likely to both spend and recommend in such stores. "The trial results have already shown us that we've tapped into an incredibly successful and highly engaging customer experience formula within the Everything Everywhere format, and that our two brands Orange and T-Mobile, as well as our customers, are benefiting," said Alexander.
