A Dragon in Sheep’s Clothing

Killing Cingular Softly: In Defense Of AT&T

Marketers can be a sentimental bunch. ….How else to explain the marketing community’s continuing defense of Cingular Wireless?

Hmm, let’s see. Something called brand experience.

This is a case, however, where emotion is coloring the facts…

Yes, yes it is. Emotion is coloring the response. That’s what a brand experience is all about — connecting with customers on a level where they care about the brand.

Congrats, Cingular, you did it.

You connected with me when you replaced my Suncom/AT&T service. It took a little while, but I found myself feeling like Cingular was cool, better than the rest. After all, who else has rollover minutes?

In that world, AT&T was passé. They were old. They were behind.

So I find myself distrusting the “new” AT&T. I don’t want change. I distrust the subtitle on their press release: “The merger will speed convergence, continued innovation and competition.”

I want my rollover minutes. I want my orange brand color. Speaking of which…

How will AT&T set themselves apart, since Alltel is already blue, and they have a roundish symbol in their logo, too? (AND a lowercase name?!)

Sprint/Nextel is yellow/black. Verizon is red/black. T-Mobile is pinkish.

So will AT&T blend into the ubiquitous blue of Internet brands?

Oh, and “AT&T Unity” — the new name for the AT&T/Cingular/Bellsouth merger-thingy — is not catchy, future-sounding, or fun.

In short, I want the Cingular brand, which I emotionally equate with the service I have grown to rely on, back. The brand that felt like “mine.”

Darn. And I was just looking forward to upgrading my phone.

Afterthought:
Actually, about logos, Cingular incorporated the AT&T blue/white bars into the “raising the bar” icon, as shown below. I seem to recall a TV commercial where the AT&T globe rotated and zoomed in to create the bars.

Ah, Cingular AT&T, how I hate what you’re doing.