Comments on: AT&T: iPhone is key for mobile rebranding

By: Jason Fontenot

Jason Fontenot — Mon, 14 May 2007 20:44:17 +0000

You do know that “AT&T Mobility” is just the legal/regulatory name, right? The company will not use “Mobility” to market their wireless divison to the public…it’s all, simply, AT&T…period. Regardless of their true legal names, subsidiaries and affiliates of AT&T Inc. provide products and services under the AT&T brand.

By: steve

steve — Thu, 10 May 2007 05:23:24 +0000

My personal lesson on how powerful brands are... When my local phone company (originally PacBell then SBC) became AT&T, suddenly my SBC long distance was AT&T long distance and EVEN THOUGH I KNEW it was the same SBC, my gut said whoa... I've got MaBell long distance? Even though it was over 2 decades ago, I remember how much we all saved when we didn't have to use MaBell anymore.

So I took a second look at what I was paying and switched to Sprint.

Yep, brands they are powerful and long-lived... but not always positive.

If they had renamed the whole company Cingular, I'd have had a better impression. But then again, I've never used Cingular and I'm sure there's plenty of baggage in that brand too.

By: mike

mike — Tue, 08 May 2007 00:38:59 +0000

Why kill a name off if the customers like it? Cingular is a decent name, and there is no point at killing it off.

By: Caleb

Caleb — Mon, 07 May 2007 22:21:42 +0000

Do you have an actual copy of the UBS report you could link to or upload to the site or email to me? I know some people just like the headlines, but I would really love to read the full report.

By: RandomThoughts

RandomThoughts — Mon, 07 May 2007 19:34:16 +0000

Maybe AT&T could get Stephen Colbert to be their spokesperson. He did a great segment on AT&T.

By: Ian

Ian — Mon, 07 May 2007 19:25:22 +0000

"The New AT&T" is an oxymoron.

Whatever the company is called, they are clearly locked in a 1980s BellHead marketing mentality. Company executives actually think that the AT&T brand is strong, reading the corporate tea leaves and taking the fact that most people were too lazy to switch from AT&T to any of the other two dozen brands as their long-distance carriers as some sort of endorsement of their marketing prowess.

For a forward-looking, next-generation product and service offering, Cingular was a much stronger brand with north of a billion dollars spent on establishing its identity.

Ma Bell is dead, as is their maternalistic view of the marketplace.

-Ian.

By: TG

TG — Mon, 07 May 2007 17:05:23 +0000

"AT&T Mobility" sounds like a medical product to help elderly people get around, like a walker or motorized wheelchair. Not a branding homerun in my opinion.

They'd be better of sticking with "the new AT&T" for a while, then sliding back into plain ol' AT&T.