Rebranding costs?

While I understand the value of advertising, I'm still dumbfounded by the projected costs to rebrand AT&T (to at&t).

According to an article in Forbes, the cost of rebranding the telecom giant could hit $2 billion in 2007, if its BellSouth deal wins approval. That would rank AT&T with some of the nation's biggest advertisers, such as GM and Procter & Gamble.

Yet, what's probably more eye-opening is that the rebranding is even more costly when you factor in the daunting $10.5 billion in ad spend for promoting SBC, BellSouth and Cingular over the past five years, according to the Forbes article.

I just have to wonder: Will the same type of dollars be spent in customer experience enhancements? I hope so, because a good customer experience has a lot more value than flashy ads - for most customers.

Technorati Tags Customer Experience Brand Building