CASE STUDY

Google

BRAND STRATEGY
Technology

Transforming telecom marketing: building genuine brand love.

THE CHALLENGE

Google provided digital ad solutions to telecom providers but recognized a critical industry problem: telecom companies focused almost exclusively on customer acquisition rather than building brand loyalty.

In a market dominated by price wars and feature comparisons, telecom brands struggled to differentiate themselves meaningfully. Despite sophisticated ad tools, these companies remained trapped in a commoditized market where emotional connections with customers seemed impossible.

Google engaged Heart+Mind Strategies to develop a framework that would help telecom providers transcend traditional marketing approaches and build genuine brand love—shifting industry conversations from tactical acquisition to strategic brand building. This was primarily a thought leadership initiative to establish Google’s credibility with telecom clients, with longer-term goals of driving ad product growth.

OUR STRATEGY

To address this challenge, we developed and executed a comprehensive 9-month program that included:

– Conducting extensive secondary research to understand the market landscape

– Performing social listening analysis to identify customer sentiment and pain points

– Engaging key stakeholders through interactive workshop sessions

– Mapping customer journeys using qualitative techniques with brand lovers in adjacent categories

– Gathering quantitative insights through 3,000 targeted surveys with U.S. adults

This multi-method approach allowed us to deeply understand how telecom brands could move beyond feature-based competition to create meaningful emotional connections with their customers.

IMPACT

Through the research we created a Brand Love framework that delivered measurable results:

– Google positioned itself as a strategic partner rather than just an ad vendor, strengthening relationships with key accounts

– Telecom providers gained a clear roadmap to build emotional brand connections in an industry that previously had “little to no brand love“

– Google’s solutions were mapped to specific brand-building objectives, increasing their perceived value

– Data-driven insights allowed telecom brands to identify gaps in CX and prioritize improvements

– Workshops with key accounts led to increased adoption of Google’s premium ad products

The work transformed how telecom brands approach marketing, moving the conversation from short-term acquisition to sustainable brand loyalty.