AT&T To Use iPhone To Push Name Change
- May 21st, 2007
- 3 Comments
With the iPhone about a month away, AT&T has finally gotten around to realizing they need to ditch the Cingular name. Using the iPhone as a catalyst, AT&T will be replacing signs inside all 1800+ Cingular stores with AT&T logos, adverts, and signs. Says AT&T Spokesperson Mike Coe:
“The iPhone is one of the most anticipated handsets ever in the wireless industry, and we want to make sure that every drop of equity from the iPhone accrues to the AT&T brand,”
“We want to be as far along as possible with our rebranding in advance of the launch of the iPhone.”
Every drop, eh? Quite the statement there, Coe. Though if there were a time to push a rebranding, I’d say the iPhone is the way to go. AT&T knows that Cingular name is going to be hard to shake and this is the only chance to shake it off for good.
mathew (Who am I?)
1 year ago
Given that people’s associations with both the AT&T and Cingular brands are negative, it’s a bit odd to make such a big deal over the switch.
Jules
1 year ago
I trust Apple. I don’t trust Cingular and I trust AT&T even less. At least Cingular sounded repuitable, AT&T = monopoly/price gouging for me. I only have the slightest amount of faith in AT&T because Apple is working with them. Had Apple picked T-Mobile or Sprint, granted I have Sprint (and hate it), I centantly trust them more than AT&T. The only thing worse than AT&T would have been Verizon, then we would have to deal with the Verizon logo and ad text on every screen of every menu. Verizon’s use of advertising on their phones is sickening. If anything kills (or hurts) the iPhone, it will be AT&T. Not another company, phone or the consumers.
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Jonathan Salem Baskin (Who am I?)
1 year ago
AT&T proved yet again that it does not understand the nature of branding in the 21st Century. The ‘branding’ that it ‘got right’ before the iPhone launch was all about ads, images, and other make-believe conceits; the reality of the branding was that they juggled and dropped consumer activation of the phone, got bad press because the connection rates are clunky, and otherwise gave consumers no real reasons to choose AT&T as a service provider other than being positioned as a necessary evil to wade past (or ignore entirely) on the way to getting a cool new Apple product. How can such fundamental stupidity on their part still prompt such immense financial rewards for their execs? Anyway, there’s lots to the branding story here, and I’ve written a bit on it at Dim Bulb, http://dimbulb.typepad.com, if you want to check it out. Thanks!