Touchstone Energy is planning to launch a national brandingcampaign this weekend with television, radio and print ads in 20major American markets, primarily to keep as many of its 11 millionretail customers from getting cherry-picked by power marketers. Andit is considering adding natural gas, propane, telecommunicationsand security services to its future energy mix.

“The power of human connections,” is the theme of the ads, whichfeature a children’s choir singing “This Little Light of Mine.” Thecampaign includes ads in the Wall Street Journal, TV spots on CNNand CNBC, and targeted network advertising on programs likeSunday’s Meet the Press and Face the Nation. This year the groupwill spend $7 million on national marketing, with some of thatmatched by local funding. Next year the budget will double,according to Dawn Sweeney, vice president of marketing for theNational Rural Electric Cooperative Association (NREC), who headsTouchstone’s marketing effort.

The plan has won favor with cooperatives. Touchstone began as astudy group about a year and a half ago. Since December, thecompany has attracted 400 out of the country’s 900 electriccooperatives as members, representing over half the retail volumefrom cooperatives, according to Touchstone Chairman Mickey Miller.The membership also includes about 25 generating and transmissioncoops-the majority of spinning reserves in the coop community.

“This is phenomenal growth,” Miller told NGI, “and there’s nodeadline for other coops to join.” The groups pay a licensing feebased on revenues, agree to stringent operating standards, and thenare able to use the Touchstone name and logo as a “co-branded”identity on their trucks, uniforms and stationary, he added. Thecoops will still maintain their own identities, but customers whomove from one state to another may recognize the national name.

“We start with what everyone else wants-those strong customerrelationships,” said Miller. “Everybody else is trying to buy thoserelationships. We already have more people in communities acrossthe nation than any other utility. We serve 2,600 counties-that’smore than 80% of the land mass in the U.S,” Miller noted.

According to Martin Lowry, NREC executive vice president, thereis also “considerable activity” in widening the products Touchstonewill offer to include natural gas, propane, telecommunications andsecurity services-the same basic utility offerings touted byUtiliCorp, KN, Enron and other giant marketers.

“People are going to be bombarded by calls, offers, deals anddiscounts by people they’ve never heard of, from another state oreven another country,” said Miller. “Some of these people callingdon’t even have a service truck, poles, or anyone in the communityto answer questions or deal with an outage. There’s a danger thatpeople could be taken advantage of.” He thinks Touchstone can keepthose customers in the coop flock. “We’re in the business forservice, not for profit. Our bottom line is to do what’s best forour customers.”

©Copyright 1998 Intelligence Press Inc. All rights reserved. Thepreceding news report may not be republished or redistributed, inwhole or in part, in any form, without prior written consent ofIntelligence Press,Inc.