AT&T ending Cingular name on wireless

NEW YORK (Reuters) -- AT&T Inc. will begin next week to extinguish the brand of cellphone operator Cingular, built up with billions of dollars over a few years, to imprint its more-than-century-old name firmly across its services.

AT&T (Charts), which took full control of No. 1 U.S. mobile carrier Cingular with its $86 billion purchase of BellSouth Corp. last month, will launch a campaign Monday to mark the change.

"We did not enter that decision lightly," Wendy Clark, vice president of advertising at AT&T, said in an interview. "We came to understand that consumer customers and business customers alike are looking for a single provider. We heard it so consistently across the marketplace."

In its first stage, Cingular will share its orange logo of a bouncing jack with the AT&T globe logo on everything from television ads to sales uniforms and monthly bills.

AT&T's name and logo will eventually replace Cingular in a process expected to take several months, with the exact timing determined as more customer feedback comes in, Clark said.

But with its long and complicated history, AT&T may face customer confusion over its name, marketing experts said. Also, Cingular built up a reputation among younger customers who may not easily associate with the AT&T brand.

At stake are AT&T's efforts to promote its bundle of phone, Internet and video services against a growing number of rivals, including cable operators and Web providers, such as Comcast (Charts) and Time Warner (Charts), parent company of CNNMoney.com.

One new ad will portray a familiar Cingular image - grain harvesters mowing a field to represent "bars" showing maximum cellphone reception. But in a new take, the harvesters will change direction and mow the AT&T globe out of the stalks.

"It's a tough proposition," said Hayes Roth, chief marketing officer at brand agency Landor Associates. "Multiple brands within any company is expensive. Arguably they don't have much choice, they've made a stand now that they've invested back in the core brand."

Cingular spent nearly $1 billion on media advertising in the first nine months of 2006, up from about $920 million in the same period during 2005, according to the latest data from tracking firm TNS Media Intelligence.

For the remainder of their businesses, AT&T spent nearly $600 million on media ads in the nine-month period, while BellSouth spent just over $100 million, TNS said.

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