Cingular logoWe’re all aware by now of the adventures of at&t (formerly known as AT&T), Cingular, SBC, et al and the question of which company owns which, which name they’re going to use, how much they’re spending to rebrand themselves, etc. I’d show you that great Stephen Colbert video about it, but YouTube had to delete it when Viacom raised a stink about the copyright. Thanks, Sumner.

AT&T logoI noticed something in a Cingular spot on the eye of hell a few days ago: they’ve changed the tagline at the end of their commercials. A month ago, if you saw a Cingular commercial you’d hear the announcer intone “Cingular is now the new at&t — your world, delivered” at the end. The new ads end with “Cingular’s name is now at&t.”

It made me wonder about the process that’s involved in rebranding something this big. Obviously, it has to be done step by step. You change your company name without telling anybody, and you’re lost. But do you have to work out a path in advance in order to lead people to understand what’s going on?

  1. Put out a press release.
  2. Announce in public advertising that a change is coming.
  3. Announce in public advertising what that change is.
  4. Assure established customers that the name change means nothing.
  5. Assure potential customers that the name change means everything.
  6. Run ads stating that X has joined with Y.
  7. Run ads stating that X is now part of Y.
  8. Run ads stating that X is Y.
  9. Run ads about Y without mention of X.

And somewhere along that line, the old website has to be redirected to the new one, signs have to be changed, and customer service people have to start answering the phone with the new name. Do the CSRs report back to management on the percentage of callers who respond to the new name with “huh?” or just hang up?

Is this all planned out in advance? What about contingency plans? If customers aren’t following along do they need to change tactics, or do they stick with the plan? Sometimes when a new film is being marketed,
you can see a clear act of desperation: one week the film is being advertised as a mystery, and the next the background music in the advertising has changed, a few edits have been made, and they’re pushing it as a comedy. This actually happens, although I can’t think of an example off the top of my head. The satires like the one below are based on reality.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KmkVWuP_sO0]

So is this latest change just a step along the path, plan B, a Hail Mary play, or what? And when will the day come when we hear of Cingular no more and we’re expected to have gotten the message?

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