AT&T Rebranding Effort 'a Failure of Epic Proportions'?

SAN FRANCISCO (AdAge.com) -- Before a crowded ballroom at the Frank Lloyd Wright-influenced Arizona Biltmore in Phoenix this month, AT&T VP-Advertising Wendy Clark displayed an internal company chart to a who's who of top marketing executives at the Association of National Advertisers' annual conference. The grid showed brand awareness and affinity to the brand. A dot on the graph positioned AT&T clearly as a brand in decline, while the dot for the Cingular brand was unmistakably in the graph's "Power Brand" quadrant. It was, in a sense, an admission that the company had elected to go with the weaker brand when it acquired BellSouth and became the sole owner of Cingular Wireless. ...