This week started off with the big announcement that Australia’s big brother of telcos has been quietly undergoing a makeover for the last two years and is finally stepping out with its new look.

Telstra announced yesterday that it has rebranded with a new identity that “captures the diversity of its products, services and customers,” according to Inese Kingsmill, the company’s corporate marketing director. Kingsmill says the rebranding comes at a time when Telstra feels it has soldiered through an unfavourable patch of customer satisfaction, amended that, and is now ready to step out with its rebranded image.

“Timing was essential for our rebrand. It would defeat the purpose of telling the market we’re refreshed and better than ever when our customers were not feeling confident about our performance. So it was a matter of solving what had to be resolved, ensuring that we were on the right track, and then announce this rebrand,” Kingsmill explains.

The rebrand will include a change in colours for Telstra’s logo and collateral, moving from their traditional blue and orange to incorporate a spectrum of orange, green, turquoise, blue, purple and magenta to be used across all arms of the business and in various other places, ranging from vehicles to uniforms to product packaging.

Both Interbrand and DDB Sydney worked on the new campaign, and DDB Group CEO, Marty O’Halloran, says that the implantation of new colours demonstrates Telstra’s engagement with their stakeholders: “Aspects of people’s lives are not any one colour, but made up of many, and giving Telstra a new range of colours shows that the brand is relevant and reliable from all aspects of life.”

Looks aside though, Kingsmill advises that the rebranding has included new training for all of Telstra’s staff, not just customer service representatives, to ensure that the new, ‘more engaging and human’ Telstra brand message is communicated throughout the company: “Our promise to quality service to our customers has now been enhanced to 24-hour sales and support, online Twitter support, weekend appointments with technicians, free calls to the Telstra help lines and simple pricing summaries and bills.

“Additionally, we are also introducing a new online community called CrowdSupport, where customers are able to help out other customers.”

When asked whether Telstra thought the new, more vibrant image might risk them losing the mature, reliable reputation, Kingsmill stated that the brand’s existing positive reputation will not harmed: “People associate Telstra with being the most reliable telco in the market, and we always will be. This rebrand will show that we are not only fast, efficient and reliable, but also compassionate and caring towards our customers.”