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When 3 were just launching in the UK, they had to pay particular attention to how they communicated with investors and investment analysts. Working with Brunswick, I analysed how each different telecoms provider was described by the financial community, as well as the messages put out by the companies themselves.

I also interviewed a number of investment analysts. This is always a pleasure. In my experience investment analysts break into four broad categories:

1. Analysts who concentrate on the financial fundamentals of a business.
2. Analysts who follow the people - and who trust certain financial directors or CEOs to do well more or less at anything.
3. Analysts who believe that a particular industry will do well. This group breaks down again into the 'gut feel' investors and the quantative specialists.
4. Analysts who respond first and foremost to the product itself. You get this a lot in the fashion industry, where analysts some analysts base their investment decisions on the strength of a particular collection.

There were a surprising number of the last category among the telecoms analyst. They had bought several of the phones, tried them out, called the call centre, experienced the battery life. Three's initial phones were awful, so clarity about the handset roadmap became a much more important part of their communications.

Besides this specific issue, the outcome was greater clarity about how to present 3's brand positioning and future plans to this audience.