This article was originally published in the Brand Finance Canada 100 2024 Report
TELUS has become Canada's most valuable Telecoms brand following a 13% increase in brand value in 2024, as well as Canada's sixth strongest brand with an improved brand strength rating of AAA-. In this interview with Brand Finance, Jill Schnarr, Chief Communications and Brand Officer of TELUS, discusses the blueprint to brand value growth - including customer loyalty and social responsibility.
Interview with Jill Schnarr
Chief Communications
and Brand Officer,
TELUS
TELUS’s brand value has grown by 13% in 2024 and is now the most valuable Telecoms brand in Canada. What would you say have been the key drivers behind this success?
The incredible growth and success of our brand is a reflection of a few core TELUS drivers: our deeply rooted commitment to leading with social purpose, our delivery of exceptional customer service and our unwavering investment into our world leading networks - all underpinned by TELUS’ passionate team and culture of caring. Particularly over the last few years as we continue to navigate the effects of a global pandemic, economic and social upheaval, and climate change, people believe that companies have a responsibility to improve the state of the world and expect them to act on that responsibility. Now more than ever before, they want to buy from, work for and invest in brands that share their values. At TELUS, over the last two decades our social purpose has been our differentiator, helping us evolve from a regional telco into a global-leading technology powerhouse that's helping transform other industries and communities, for good. Last year alone we gave more than $100M to our local communities and volunteered 1.5M hours – more than any other company in the world.
Through every campaign, communication and customer touch-point, we’re working to make it unmissable to do business with TELUS without understanding the good we do for our communities. The results speak for themselves. Not only are we making a positive impact in our community, doing good has increased our corporate reputation, enhanced customer retention, attracted top talent, influenced billions of dollars in new revenue for our business and continued to drive incredible lifts in customer consideration, value for money, trust and brand appeal.
What role do you hope TELUS can play in terms of sustainability and the climate change challenge?
TELUS is already a global leader in sustainability, not only through the virtualization of our society which is enabling significant low carbon behaviours, but also through our world-leading sustainable business practices and innovative investments in climate solutions. Through our bold, science-based targets, we’re working toward a low carbon future by leveraging our global-leading technology and moving to 100% renewable or low-emitting electricity within the next two years, with the goal to become carbon neutral by 2027. We’re also holding ourselves accountable to these goals and were the first company in Canada to issue a Sustainability-Linked Bond (SLB) tying our cost of borrowing directly to our success in achieving sustainability targets. This means, if we don’t reach our aggressive science based targets, we will actually pay a premium through higher interest rates.
What I’m most excited about is our innovative investments in climate solutions. For example, we’re investing in reforestation and with the help of TELUS Environmental Solutions, to date we have planted more than 11M trees. Additionally, through our TELUS Pollinator Fund for Good we’ve also made investments into innovative technology and startups including Flash Forest, a Canadian reforestation company that uses drones and technology to regenerate post-wildfire areas that are deemed too unsafe for human tree planters.
Leveraging our technology for good, this unique tree planting solution can be deployed, faster, cheaper and safer than traditional methods, helping to accelerate critical post-wildfire reforestation and biodiversity recovery.
How does the TELUS brand build trust among its stakeholders?
At its core, trust is about accountability - doing what you say you’re going to do. We believe that we have a responsibility to help make the world a better place and are committed to leveraging our technology and compassion to drive social change and enable remarkable human outcomes.
Over the last two decades, we have consistently delivered on our commitment to leverage technology for good; since 2000 TELUS has generously given $1.7 billion and 15 million volunteer hours to our local communities - more than any other company in the world.
