Behind the Renaming Trend: A Broadband Brand Scorecard

The last two years or so have seen a slew of broadband providers rename either themselves or their services. Some are even using a brand name as though it was a company, issuing press releases that scarcely reference the official corporate identity, instead using only the brand name as the protagonist. In the latter category is Windstream, which routinely issues press releases under the Kinetic name. Charter, which announced the Spectrum brand back in 2014, more recently has adopted the same approach in its press releases. Why all the new brands and corporate identities? “Some brands are switching away from being a geographically parochial brand like Cincinnati Bell to become something broader like Altafiber,” said Lorenzo Coruzzi, associate director at Brand Finance. That logic also could explain why Atlantic Broadband became Breezeline. Never was the saying “You can’t tell the players without a scorecard” more pertinent in the broadband business. With that in mind, telecompetitor created just such a scorecard.