What’s in a name? You have only to look at the words “Commander Phone” to realise the power of marketing. Over the last 20 years Commander has spent millions building a brand that has become almost part of the consumer’s vernacular. Customers call Infiniti for new phone systems, service work or even extra handsets and when asked what they currently have they invariably respond with “a Commander Phone”. They don’t realise that Commander is not the brand of the handset or system but rather just a company. The term has become so synonymous with phones in Australia that even people that don’t have a Commander solution often still refer to it as a commander phone.
Consumers think that commander phone describes a small phone systems in general but it doesn’t. In fact Commander themselves don’t even manufacture phones or phone systems – and never have. They buy phone systems from existing manufacturers and rebrand them as Commander. 10 years ago you were hard pressed to find the manufacturer on the phone itself and we had to use codes on the bottom of the handsets to decipher the actual brand a customer was using.
So if you’re looking for a Commander phone you’re actually looking for a PABX or PBX phone system. If you get a quote from Commander it’s important to realise this because you need to know the actual brand of the system on offer to be able to obtain comparison quotes. To give you an idea the current leading brands in the Australian market include:
- Avaya
- Alcatel
- Cisco
- Ericsson LG (formerly LG Ericsson, LG Nortel and LG Aria)
- NEC
- Panasonic
- Samsung
- Siemens
- Polycom
So the term Commander Phone is testament to the pervasive marketing and dominance that Commander once held over the Australian communications marketplace. Very few companies have been able to achieve this – maybe Hoover to describe a vacuum, Kleenex to describe a tissue etc. We say well done to Commander for executing such a brilliant and pervasive brainwashing exercise en masse.
