Ulrich Klenke

Chief Brand Officer
Deutsche Telekom
“Marketing budgets are an investment in your customer and marketplace.”
Deutsche Telekom, also known as T-Mobile, is one of the major network carriers in the world. Famously known for their magenta color and distinct T in the logo. Talking about their brand equity, the staggering amount of 51 billion US Dollars in brand value has been reported for 2021. It’s the sheer scale that gets Chief Brand Officer Ulrich Klenke excited and makes him sweat. Holding a 51 billion dollar piece in his hands, is quite a responsibility. In this episode Ulrich Klenke shares his vision on brand equity and explains how they are shaping the brand and creating something so meaningful for people everyday.
When were you first interested in the concept of branding?
"I went to a corporate university founded by Mercedes Benz back in late 1970’s. We did corporate studies in university and at the same collected practical experience in the corporation. The Mercedes Benz children were grown there and I was part of that system. They saw me as a salesperson and told me I could work anywhere; Singapore, New York, Stuttgart. But I was far more interested in marketing. They gave me a six-month contract working on fairs and exhibitions. It was for commercial vehicles - not sexy at all. Later I moved to the truck business, which was very B2B and ROI oriented. When I moved to passenger cars I thought: OK, this is the Champions League, where you work with big amounts of people and money. So this is how I grew in the organization."

Do you miss the automotive industry?

"Not at all. I think connectivity is far more interesting and terrific right now. Being at Deutsche Telekom as a chief brand officer is the dream of every marketer. It's the sheer scale; being responsible for a 51-billion-dollar brand, that’s quite a responsibility. So many people are shaping this brand each day. You've got so many touch points and interactions with clients and customers around the globe. It's really interesting and varied; it ranges from design discussions to defending the brand against claims in court. As a global brand you can create something that is meaningful for people."
 
You've been at Deutsche Telekom for just over a year. What did you bring to the table?
"Through my experience at Mercedes, Deutsche Bahn and Volkswagen, I developed a gut feeling for what Germans like. But I have international experience as well. Working for Volkswagen, for example, I learned that the way things are organized in the US, is really different to what we're doing in Germany, Austria or South Africa. I don’t think too many people have that experience with huge brands."
Did Covid-19 have a positive or negative impact on the T-Mobile brand? 
"We coped very well with the crisis; we were there for our customers with a great quality product when people depended on good connections. They rewarded this with their loyalty and we had lots of new customers as well. The financial markets recognized this, so we now rank among the 25 biggest brands in the world, right behind Disney. That's really huge. We were quite quick in offering our help to people, for instance by giving free data volumes, free software for corporates, organizing lots of activities in schools and nursing homes, and so on. People responded very positively to this. The decision to do this came directly from our CEO. He told us that we had to do something in the marketplace, because people needed us. Two things happened: firstly, the digital connection became far more important than before due to high quantity demand. Secondly, we tried to be very empathetic and really reached out."

Was that genuine or did you see a marketing opportunity?

"When you enter our headquarters in Bonn, you’ll see that our purpose is carved in the stone wall: ‘We will not stop until everybody is connected.’ Our purpose came to life during the recent weird period, it became a guiding star. Of course, it was an excellent marketing tool, but not at that very moment. All that mattered was getting stable connections to all our customers, without our visiting service technicians getting hit by the virus. We were all a little frightened, and the only thing we could do was get the service out there."
Do you feel that brand equity deserves a position on every company's balance sheet?
"Everybody in our organization knows and accepts the value of brand. Marketing budgets are not regarded as a cost, but as an investment into your customers and marketplace. This pays off at the end of the day, because you could get a better position in the marketplace, higher prices and you're doing fairly better. The people who manage the culture in the organization must all tow into the right direction and see the value of brands. The brand stands for mindset of your people. You need to have a strong recognition from the outside world as well as a strong culture from the inside. And when it all comes together, you're successful in the marketplace."

How would you describe the Deutsche Telekom brand?

"It's a ‘we’ brand. We truly believe that if people are connected via our digital technologies and our networks, then they can cope and we can find answers for the problems to come. You see this in everything that we do. Take our 5G proposition for instance, which says: we have this technology so nothing stands between us anymore. And it's connecting people emotionally."
Touching people emotionally… isn't that a bit ambitious? Do people really care who the provider is?
"True, it’s just a network. It's just about having a good connection and adding something to people's lives. That’s the hygiene factor, but it suddenly became much more valuable. And that's the reason why our brand value increased by 23 percent last year. Coming back to emotion, the brand is the product of the product. It's not just there, you have to work on it, you have to define it and defend it."

In our previous episode of CMOtalk, L'Oréal Group’s Philip Markman, had two questions for you: how does T-Mobile turn fans and brand lovers into advocates, and how is digital tech changing the way you build best customer experiences?
"You have two dimensions: satisfaction and loyalty. You try to maximize those. First you offer an experience that makes customers happy. But then, from time to time, you have to delight people unexpectedly. You can do something special for them, exceed their expectations. If you interact, you can turn your customers into fans and advocates. Because they get more from you than they expected. For instance, in the US we had Magenta Friday: every Friday we offered something special, like a discount coupon. We did this in cooperation with Adidas. During the corona crisis, we offered a free month of Disney Plus with Magenta TV."

Magenta is important to your T brand. How do you protect that color?
"Some very smart guys protected that color 20 years ago. We cannot protect it for every business, but if you were to use it in a telco related area I could sue you. And we always do, because for us as a brand it's a very, very important differentiator. That color just tells the people where the T-brand is."
How important is being data-driven as opposed to creativity?
"Data makes you better. Inventing and reinventing are agile collaboration processes. Whether it’s an analysis of ROI, or what the competition does, data really directs you to a better performance. Creativity is better for making a difference in the marketplace, it lets you do something unexpected and delight people with something they didn't see before. That is really hard to achieve with data."

Which is your number one marketing metric?
"In the beginning it was time spent with the brand. I thought that a long interaction with the brand, would make us successful. It means you've got content which is interesting, and then you have people in your ecosystem, into the apps and so on. But service or buying something online, these are things that need to be very fast and easy. So nowadays I prefer another metric: giving people the feeling of being in the safe hands of a service brand. This is a really relevant KPI, because we want to show that we really care in all interactions."

What keeps you awake at night, Uli? 
"Competition from other brands. For instance, in Germany, Telefonica’s O2 invest heavily into the younger generations and youth products. That makes me think, because we as Deutsche Telekom, especially in Germany, need to have a very broad appearance in the marketplace. From young to old, rich to poor. We have different approaches and competing brands in different markets. Some have creative solutions to target younger demographics. I'm not into the Vodafone game, I'm more into the O2 game. We all know each other and it's a very friendly competition. I enjoy that."

With so many brands in so many countries, how do you keep focused?
"Market research. We're getting information every month from all brands in all countries. Then, as a brand guy, you have to decide about the next step: where are you going to lead the brand next? Right now, we have to be empathetic and very close to the customers. But when exactly do we reach the turning point, when we are getting into something fun and euphoric? Will there be an overreaction when everything is open again and everybody is vaccinated? In that respect, the post-pandemic period we’re now entering will be very interesting."

Image sources:
Magenta colour – Angela Ricardo
We won’t stop until everyone is connected –Instagram Deutsche Telekom
About Ulrich Klenke
Ulrich Klenke joined Deutsche Telekom a year and a half ago. Before that, he was CEO at different ad agencies. Earlier, he worked in the automotive industry for a.o. Volkswagen and Daimler. Ulrich lives in Bonn and in his spare time, he's a kite surfer.

About Deutsche Telekom
Deutsche Telekom is by revenue (€101 billion in 2020) the largest telecommunications provider in Europe. The company was formed in 1995, when the former state-owned monopoly Deutsche Bundespost was privatized. The company operates several subsidiaries worldwide, including T-Mobile.
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