AMD defends decision to bin ATI brand

Following screams and howls from enthusiasts who are attached to brands and branding, AMD defends its decision to ditch the ATI graphics brand.

AMD Corporate Vice President John Volkmann takes the stage to try to restore calm:

First, we learned that the "Radeon" brand is as strong as any other product or company brand in terms of awareness and consideration. Oh, there are regional differences in favor of one brand or another - but in general, Radeon is well established as a leader in this segment.

Second, preference for the AMD brand is stronger against the competition than the ATI brand. This isn't to say the ATI brand isn't strong... it says that enthusiasts assign higher brand preference to the AMD brand. And it is a nice complement to the Radeon-related finding mentioned above.

Third - and this was the clincher - those who know that AMD and ATI merged score their brand preference for AMD three times higher than those who are not aware of the merger. In other words, if you know we are one company, you believe in us more. On the other hand, by keeping the brands distinct, we were actually limiting or handicapping our own brand strength.

In short, we needed to make ‘the move.'

Well, in short, I hope that it was the right move to make. AMD really can't afford to stumble right now, even if that is a PR stumble. Bottom line, I think that AMD might have been better off ditching the brand right from the beginning following acquisition rather than hang on to it for a few years like it did. People expect change with a new broom, but retaining the brand gave fanboys the hope that it would remain forever.

A poll on a previous post seemed to suggest that 50% of you thought it was a bad move for AMD to drop the ATI brand, while 36% thought it was a good idea.