New York — Time Warner Cable wants to give its
most profitable customers the white-glove treatment
with the November launch of the “SignatureHome” service
tailored to high-end customers.
“This is not going to be the same package with a few
frills hanging off it,” Time Warner Cable chief marketing
officer Sam Howe said in a keynote presentation at Multichannel
News/Broadcasting & Cable’s OnScreen Media
Summit here Oct. 28.
Howe, interviewed by Multichannel News editor in chief
Mark Robichaux, declined to disclose many details of SignatureHome.
But he said a key part of the service revolves around
specially trained installation technicians, who provide
a more personalized, high-touch experience for new
customers. “You can create clues about that when they
arrive — and it’s not because they wear white booties,”
Howe said.
The installation component of SignatureHome is designed
to fix a concern of new cable customers: the perception
that installers don’t know what services they
ordered. “We will have the installer go through the
home and put Post-It notes on where things will go,”
Howe said. “They will say, ‘Hey, you said Emily’s room
will get a DVR, too.’”
Added Howe, “It’s not enough to give you a guarantee
that if we mess up you get the first month free.
That’s old.”
The SignatureHome service is part of a larger “reframing”
of Time Warner Cable’s corporate identity. The MSO
recently undertook an 18-month exercise, code-named
Project Mercury, to evaluate whether to change its name
or introduce a new brand.
Time Warner Cable found that it had about $1 billion of
equity in its existing name — and that the value declined
if “Time Warner” or “Cable” were removed, Howe said.
So the MSO decided to retain the name but made some
tweaks, making more prominent use of the “eye and ear”
logo, and adopted a new typeface.
“It’s not just a logo change or a freshen-up of the bundle,”
Howe said. “It’s nothing less than the reframing of
your cable company.”
