AT&T Plans to Kill Cingular Brand

I've already talked about the ridiculousness that it AT&T (a former employer of mine) before, but now that lunacy is reaching new heights. AT&T is talking about killing the Cingular brand and becoming AT&T Wireless again.

So let me see if I have my history right. McCaw Cellular becomes AT&T Wireless. AT&T spins the division off, then brings it back into the fold, then spins it off again, only to later sell it to Cingular. AT&T then decides they want to recreate the AT&T Wireless brand as an MVNO, but before they can do that, SBC (owner of Cingular) snatches up the company. SBC then takes their name, becoming the "new at&t". Oh dear, but now our wildly successful and popular wireless division has a different name and branding ... what do we do? Change it back to AT&T Wireless, of course!

Never mind that Cingular is a more powerful brand that AT&T, and has been for quite some time. Why would you voluntarily throw away all that brand equity, just for a bit of brand parity? Sometimes, divergent brand messages are a good thing. The trick is to know when, but apparently SBC/AT&T/Cingular doesn't.

Technorati tags: AT&T Cingular Telecommunications Branding Marketing MVNO