Ditching Cingular brand is a questionable call
To the victor go the spoils.
So it is that AT&T decided to give the Cingular brand the heave-ho, a move we can’t help but question.
Cingular was a healthy, well-recognized brand with a successful marketing strategy. Now in its place is the AT&T brand, too often perceived as an impersonal behemoth.
The recent debut of the iPhone was unfortunate proof that the newly reassembled AT&T is carrying on its longstanding tradition of customer disservice. Even though the launch of the iPhone was one of the most anticipated product debuts in history, those who purchased the device during the first couple of days faced excruciating delays in activiation due to AT&T's inability to process the volume of requests during the period. And many switching carriers found themselves without any service for days as delays rendered both old and new accounts lifeless.
AT&T is associated with old technology and an old way of doing business. In contrast, Cingular had built a brand as a fresh, vibrant company. The way we see it, AT&T is throwing away a strong brand and replacing it with a broken brand.
Of course, there are two sides to every story. Forbes.com sees AT&T’s move as a shrewd one, for two reasons: 1) Brand appeal to older Americans, who are buying more wireless services and who associate AT&T with reliability and longevity; and 2) Better positioning for marketing bundled services.
Even so, had AT&T been our client, we would have advised them to keep the Cingular brand, which we believe is a better fit for the fast-moving wireless market.
Tell us what you think. Did AT&T discard too much precious brand equity by tossing aside the Cingular brand, or are we just too progressive to appreciate AT&T’s age-old brand value?
Point of Vision
Read this story from the Atlanta Business Chronicle. Seems the marketing geniuses at AT&T agree with us ;)
The question is why AT&T will be spending billions to make its brand into something Cinguar has accomplished quite successfully over the past several years -- particularly when it's difficult to name even one success transferring brand equity from one name to another through acquisition?
According to a recent press release from AT&T:
"Around the world, our customers recognize the AT&T brand for meaningful innovation, a commitment to customer service, high quality and exceptional reliability," said Edward E. Whitacre Jr., chairman and CEO of AT&T. "AT&T, BellSouth and Cingular are now one company, and going to market with our services under one brand is the right thing to do."
The real answer to the question probably has less to do with the excellence of AT&T and more to do with the pure cost of creating deeper worldwide awareness of the Cingular brand versus the cost of modifying the perception of AT&T which is already one of the most recognizable brands around the globe. According to Karl Barnhart, managing director of CoreBrand, a former AT&T agency, research indicates that 98% of consumers have a "general awareness" of AT&T's name.
If you want to get a little more geeky about the decision, read this artcile on Forbes.com.
While certainly within their right to conduct business as cost-effectively as possible, it should be noted that "The right thing to do," as Mr. Whitacre states should probably be read as, "the cheapest way to do it."
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Reader Comments (6)
I agree that AT&T should have kept the brand. As a mostly satisfied Cingular customer, I didn't even know about the switch until it just appeared on my phone. My immediate reaction was, "There goes the neighborhood." It suddenly made my fresh Cingular account seem like it was being administered by an antiquated entity right out of the movie Brazil.
I had no ongoing contract with Cingular and I started thinking about switching to Verizon. What did I do instead? I bought an iPhone & signed up for 2 more AT&T years. So it ultimately didn't matter, but it does affect my perception.
Totally agree with you! First, Cingular put a ton of money into building their brand from scratch, and they succeeded. Everyone knows who Cingular is and what they stand for. (Not to mention, they had a great logo!) Plus, as a former advertising professional, their "raising the bar" campaign was BRILLIANT! It looks like AT&T may be keeping that campaign (which is the first bright move they've made), but still...I agree that replacing fresh Cingular with stodgy AT&T (which partly stands for "telegraph" for Pete's sake!) is a mistake.
I absolutely agree with POV. The FIRST THING I thought of when I observed the branding switch towards the AT&D limage was what a shame -- and what a waste. Cingular had done such a great job building an appealing, "vibrant" and personal image with the colors, icon/character, and campaigns -- the change is a step backwards. While "older americans" is a target market, appealing to them by designing an entire brand around this audience is a mistake. Agreed, the overall wireless market better FIT with the Cingular brand.
YES, AT&T DID "discard too much precious brand equity by tossing aside the Cingular brand".
An additional note: I was an "AT&T Wireless" customer when I first purchased my cell/mobile phone YEARS ago... before Cingular bought that division and before they were transitioned "back" to AT&T. As a former AT&T Wireless customer, this move to drop the Cingular brand seemed even more rediculous. While I realize, intellectually the "new AT&T" is not the old AT&T Wireless, but the decision to leave the Cingular brand makes as a customer customer feel like I stepped back in time to my "old provider" -- and I'm no longer part of a leading edge provider as Cingular positioned themselves (the first ones to offer Rollover Minutes, etc.) - RF Holmes
Agreed, a questionable marketing call throwing away years of work and money. The logo, also, should have incorporated orange instead of blue to ease the visual transition. Oh well.
I think ATnT botched this one. Their brand is like a grandparent who probably can't operate a cell phone. Now I get calls from their telemarketers wanting to sell me cable and high speed internet bundles. This from a company who couldn't even keep their core business intact from federal regulators. Why on earth they couldn't incorporate Cingular's brand name intact seems a short term gaffe, but won't present a long term problem. These days, even with strong brand recognition like Cingular's, the collective attention span and short term retention is not even as long as the cell phone bill printout.
I have two sides to my opinion on this topic.
First: I think from a P.R. standpoint, it made great sense to change back to AT&T. Those of us that have been using AT&T/Cingular for years know that before the first switch to Cingular, AT&T's customer service was top-notch. When dealing with a problem (which were few and far between to begin with), AT&T was always spot on with their help and assistance. Cingular, however, was a disaster at customer service (especially at first). When the switch was on to Cingular, there were several time that one needed to contact Customer Service - mainly because they made us switch phones. When you called, you had to either talk to an AT&T Representative or a Cingular one. When I would mention "I thought you were the same company", the answer was "We are, but we are different" - huh? When connecting to an AT&T rep, things usually went smooth. The process of connecting to a Cingular rep was as follows: Put on hold for about 20 minutes (if you are lucky) - Getting someone who has no clue of what your problem is so they need to get someone else - you get put on hold again for 15 minutes or so and get elated by yet another numbskull who can't help you - this process will go on and on for about 4 or 5 times until you finally get someone who can kind-of-sort-of help you. It was a very frustrating procedure.
Second: I think it shows that the company can't make up it's mind. You are AT&T and merge with Cingular, so you take the lesser of the names and do away with that to introduce people to a company that they are not use to dealing with and then you decide, "Wait a minute - we miss AT&T. Do you think anyone will mind if we switch back?" Actually what I think happened here is that they did some marketing research and got people's opinion on Cingular versus AT&T and probably came back overwhelmingly in favor of AT&T. That's why the switch back.
Bottom line: I don't think it was a great move. I haven't had the chance to need Customer Service yet, but I'm willing to be it's still the knuckleheads that were with Cingular. So now AT&T will get a bad reputation as having terrible Customer Service. Way to go. Maybe you should think about merging with Comcast. That way there people will already be expecting your Customer Service to be in the crapper.
Next time I'll tell you how I really feel.
Michael M. Kadrie
V.P./Creative Director
Atlas Design Group
imagine it Real