Optus kicked off this week by revealing a complete restructuring in their branding and logo. The change aims to revamp the brand and reflect Optus’ new mood and strategy to improve service and customer satisfaction. After reflecting on their current performance ratings Optus aims to develop stronger customer loyalty.

If you visit Optus’ website a simple click on the new logo will take you to Optus’ declaration to customers; a pledge of assurance; “A Declaration of Yes” as they have put it. Optus say that the word ‘yes’ is “a little word that we don't hear enough of these days” and they go on to declare that they will be improving their network and service, changing their mobile phone plan structures and ultimately striving to make customers feel good about the Optus brand.

The new can-do attitude and general positivity is reflected in the new design and graphics. The logo is now bright, fun and bubbly. And bubbly is meant quite literally here. The letterforms are informal and bubble-like in structure and the iconic ‘yes’ mantra is expressed in a speech bubble. This differs greatly from Optus’ old logo which was formal, structured and quite cold. Optus have also done away with their use of animals in branding and have instead adopted a new friendly character name ‘Ollie’ who will be the new face of Optus’ branding. Ollie is in the shape of a speech bubble and is warm and inviting and integrates nicely with Optus’ new optimistic aesthetic.

The vivid change is just the beginning for Optus. Within the coming six to eight weeks the branding and logo will be splashed across Optus stores and advertising. More importantly however, Optus has dramatically restructured their mobile phone plans. Currently Optus mobile plans are structured with “included value” figures. For example on the $71 iPhone 5 plan you get $650 worth of “included value” to use on phone calls, MMS, 1300 numbers and the like. Optus plans to remove this and replace with included minutes so customers have a clearer sense of their usage, and more importantly how much usage they have left.

Optus also plans to remove expensive over quota data charges. Currently if a customer goes over the data usage included in their plan they are charged 25 cents per MB.  An excess of 1GB costs the customer a whopping $250. Optus plans to remove this and instead temporarily move the customer up to the next tier plan by charging an extra $10 to the customers plan. The upgrade would be automatic and the customer could choose to permanently upgrade if they find they are constantly exceeding their plan’s usage.
                        
The dramatic restructuring aims to tackle customers experiencing unexpected bill shock. According to Optus managing director of customer division, Vicky Brady, 50 per cent of Optus customers in the last year had experienced an unexpected shock when they opened their bill. Changing the plans and how usage is calculated and billed aims to remove hidden costs and keep customers informed.

The new plans are to be called “My Plans” and they will be available next week from 1 July. It will be interesting to see impact that the rebranding and plan restructuring has on customer opinion and satisfaction. Particularly, it will be interesting to see if Optus succeeds in their aim to be seen as honest and fair. The features of the new mobile phone plans are unique and other telcos may follow if the initiative is successful.