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Angus Porter, managing director of BT's consumer division, BT

Retail, was this week appointed non-executive director of travel

operator Airtours.

Porter says the post will bring fresh challenges to those he has faced

since joining BT as UK marketing director in 1999 from Mars, but insists

that his main focus remains with BT.

"I am delighted to be joining Airtours," he says. "For me it is a great

way of developing lateral thinking about leveraging and positioning

brands as well as broader general management issues."

"But I joined BT because of the sheer scale and heritage of the brand

and there are still plenty of challenges and excitement."

In the past 12 months those challenges have included a period of

restructuring, a mountain of debt to attack, and the floating off of the

mobile business as mmO2.

Porter acknowledges that the period has had an impact, but he is certain

the BT brand has remained healthy and has been quick to adapt.

He says the results are set to start emerging more clearly over the

coming year.

"Only fools would dismiss the heritage of a brand, and while there are

elements of the past that can be double-edged, I doubt there are many

brands that have as rich a heritage as BT. But we are also demonstrating

that we are nimble."

Stronger customer focus

Porter attributes changes at the telecoms giant to leadership and

focus.

"Pierre Danon's arrival a year ago as chief executive of BT Retail has

had a dramatic impact.

"He came in and not only told the business it would have to become

centred on the customer, but also led it directly into that battle. He

will not let any of us escape that single-minded focus on the customer.

It helps that we have some real marketing talent to bring the brand

potential to life. It is a good mix of BT experience and fresh

thinking."

The visible evidence of that focus has been strong. Following a period

of famous brand iconography evolving from Busby and through Bob

(Hoskins) to Beattie and latterly ET, Porter and his team faced a

considerable task to deliver a marketing theme that could match the

calibre of its predecessors.

"For BT Retail, we have everything to gain from continuing to strengthen

our place as a leading customer-centric distribution business," he

says.

"More than 40% of people think BT is changing for the better, and that

the company is standing out from the competition as modern and up to

date by a factor of three. I think we can even improve on that.

"The stadium ad that broke last July was seen internally as a big gamble

at first. But we needed to put BT at the heart of the communications

society and the 'connections and possibilities' theme has done more to

pitch us into that space than we could imagine. The Guardian rated it as

one of the UK's favourite commercials of the year."

TV creative since the gladiatorial extravaganza has followed human, and

warm, themes without the need for rubber extra-terrestials. There have

even been forays into the risky area of corporate humour, with the

evolution of the BT Business sub-brand, and 'Bringing people together'

has had a consistent top-ten presence in Marketing's Adwatch table since

its launch six months ago.

But critics have accused the company, which remains one of the biggest

employers and advertisers in the country, of losing power, mainly

through fragmentation.

Porter thinks such thinking is flawed. "Part of the power we enjoy is

that BT can tolerate an entrepreneurial development of ideas across its

business mix. There is now a sharper perspective on how the new

communications world is shaping up, based on lessons learned," he

insists.

Creative solutions

"The test is what the consumer thinks. In the past year BT Retail, as

the engine room of the BT brand, has been able to be very inventive and

creative about defending our core business.

"The result has been a halt to the erosion of our market share and we

can think even more creatively about growth - careful and steady - going

forward."

"BTopenworld, BT Ignite and the BT Wholesale business face similar

challenges to those of BT Retail, but in many respects the challenges

are tougher because of the relative newness of the propositions. Even in

Wholesale, remodelling a 100-year-old network of copper into a

high-fibre superhighway is not a stroll in the park, despite what some

might think.

"But there is a very clear overarching strategic model now, and each of

us understands what we can bring to the party. That can only benefit the

brand going forward."

The restructure and demerger have yet to prove their worth, but Porter

is confident that BT's brand heritage and initiatives will deliver.

"Independent auditors have put an estimated value on the BT brand of

more than £9bn in terms of turnover. I will not surrender

that.

"Not only will we continue to demonstrate the soundness of our core

heritage, I think we will positively surprise some with very distinctive

new propositions.

"That does not mean we are going to start making soap operas, but we

have stated clearly our vision to connect people's worlds completely. We

will continue to make communications easy, fun and relevant."