NEW YORK: AT&T, the telecoms and entertainment company, found in research that it has high consideration levels for categories it does not currently trade in, a positive outcome for an “elastic” brand active in a growing number of sectors.

Kevin Peck, AT&T’s VP/Global Branding, Strategy, Design, & Brand Management, discussed this topic at an event held by Kantar Millward Brown to launch the BrandZ Top 100 Most Valuable US Brands 2018.

“We’re lucky in that we’ve built a brand that is elastic,” he said. (For more, read WARC’s in-depth report: AT&T finds new ways to extend its “elastic” brand.)

Elaborating on this theme, Peck explained that AT&T had learned that a meaningful number of potential customers would be willing to add the brand to their consideration set in verticals where it is not currently involved.

“When you ask consumers, when you ask business people, ‘Hey, would you buy something from AT&T?’ and you look at categories that we’re not in today, the consideration level is very high, actually,” he said.

“That’s really great; that gets us some efficiency when we do go into a new category. But we’re really purposeful about pushing the brand to new places.”

Given that AT&T is present in an expanded range of segments – from the media industry with DIRECTV and the proposed acquisition of Time Warner through to the smart home and connected cars – this serves as powerful validation for its brand.

In breaking down AT&T’s broad areas of focus, Peck suggested that technology is one vital element of the organization’s focus going forwards.

“We really are a technology company, everybody,” Peck said. “That’s what enables us to build all of the tech that is in your internet of things, in your connected car, in all your devices.”

Equally, he argued, becoming a major player in terms of content – from making and funding this material to distributing it – has an increasingly important role in shaping the firm’s thinking.

“That’s what helping us be relevant in the next S-curve, which is really about being relevant in media,” Peck told the Kantar Millward Brown assembly.

Sourced from WARC