Sprint to eliminate Nextel name to save sagging business
Quote selected text Published June 28th, 2007 in NASCAR News
Sprint is wiping Nextel from its slogan.
After their merger, Sprint Nextel embarked on what analysts said was a disastrous marketing campaign. And problems with Nextel’s network prompted an exodus of customers.
So now, the Reston company is hoping to reinvent its image around a new tagline — “Sprint ahead” — that ignores Nextel. It will also eliminate the Nextel name from the sponsorship of the main NASCAR racing series, one of Nextel’s most successful branding campaigns before the merger. Starting next year, the Nextel Cup will be the NASCAR Sprint Cup.
New television commercials, online ads, billboards and movie theater ads will roll out Sunday at a critical time for the company. In addition to trying to improve the reputation of its network, Sprint is attempting to stave off competition from AT&T and Verizon Wireless, which have benefited from Sprint’s steady loss of customers.
“This is the most important initiative the company’s undertaken since the merger” in 2005, said Michael Nelson, an analyst with the Stanford Group, a New York investment firm. “This is going to be a defining moment in whether they can turn around their business.”
More at Washington Post
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Sh!t, lets go back to Winston Cup. Would have been better off staying Winston IMO.
You know how companies like this work anyway, always changing. This is going to get real old too,
changing the Cup name every so often.
Oh for crying out loud. Three and a half years of having to call it the Nextel Cup and they ALREADY want to change it.
They should have called it the Sprint Cup in the first place. Too bad the actual championship has to have any kind of sponsor tied to it. I wish they could name it after something better.
If they want to eliminate things to save a sagging business they should get rid of the idiots that keep coming up with all these name changes! It’s a good thing they’re not in the tattoo business.
The Brian France Trophy. The End
Andrew, you just might be on to something.
Could it be that NASCAR has gotten too big for a company
like Nextel ?????
Andrew, maybe just The France Cup, that would pretty much cover it. I know some prim and proper people would say call it The Spit Cup, which would be better fitting for us fans since we are all tobacco using rednecks. I tend to resemble that statement so don’t bash me. Or maybe we could really piss some people off and call the winner “The World Champion”. That could work since we have Juan Pablo driving now which is giving us SO much WORLD recognition!!! Whatever they call it, I wish they would just stick with it for a while, something common regardless of title sponsor would be even better. I am getting tired of commentators making referance to Dale Sr as “7 time NASCAR Nextel Cup Champion” or any other driver who won the cup previously. It just doesn’t sound right in my mind.
Why not Nascar cup series championship sponsored by Sprint? sounds good to me.
George I believe you are on the right track (no pun intended) let’s just name it the NASCAR CUP sponsored by ??? and keep it that way for oh, say 20 yrs or so till we get used to it. The “sponsored by” could be in small print and changed at will with out changing the Cup name..
what say you one and all ?? How about it NASCAR
I agree, with all these name changes, the trophies are always going to be different. Look at all the other sports, the same trophies since the beginning! Eliminate the sponsor name and call it the Nascar Series Cup or something along those lines.
You really think the main sponsor of the whole series is not going to want their own name on the Championship Events? Yeah okay.. lmao Its all about the money people, don’t you know that by now? Just like they won’t sit a team out because the sponsor isn’t going to stand for their car not being in the race unless its unavoidable like it gets wrecked. Without sponsors, NASCAR wouldn’t exist.
How about the ‘Athletic Cup?’