For almost two years, our televisions have been heavily saturated with Carly Foulkes and her pink dresses. Her friendly and whimsical demeanor is what T-Mobile used to promote their services and attract new customers. Sadly, those days are gone. In order to reestablish themselves as a legit competitor in the 4G market, the wireless carrier last week ditched the Carly’s “good girl” look in favor of an edgier persona.
According to Wired, the change is T-Mobile’s attempt to mask their failed merger with AT&T. If that’s truly the case, the only way to shed that “guilty by association” aspect is to rebrand Carly. There’s a huge risk when a company rebrands, whether the direction is executed via design, marketing, or branding. If done properly, it refreshes identity, and builds upon what has already been established. If done wrong, a change can result in financial loses. Look at Netflix and their briefly rebranded mail-in service to Qwikster. Not only did it confuse customers, but it also resulted in dropped subscriptions.
Only time will tell if this marketing strategy works in T-Mobile’s favor, but I for one will miss Carly’s cute pink dresses…
