What's in a Brand Name?

The other day I was driving by the Cingular store and the outdoor sign with the orange jack logo was gone.  It had been replaced by the blue AT&T sign.  It should not have surprised me since AT&T has been advertising this new change since the beginning of the year. 

The Cingular logo and brand name had been in existence for about 6 years.  According to brand identity consultants the Cingular brand name appeals more to youth than the AT&T brand.  But as long as AT&T delivers services that youth want, the brand name becomes secondary.  According to AT&T, the storefront rebranding phase resulted from research that indicates that consumer awareness of the AT&T brand name is high and is ahead of expectations.  AT&T's management hopes that a single brand name will convince customers that AT&T is a convenient single source to shop for all communications and entertainment, television, wireless, and high speed internet services.

By the way, the rebranding change is happening just before the launch of the Apple iPhone.  AT&T starts selling the phone at 6 pm on Friday, June 29 at 1,800 U.S. store locations.  I will write more about the iPhone in a future post.