Orange should keep the Amena brand as it is.

Amena is a good brand. Keep it as it is.

"France Telecom España will study the opportunity of using, for its
integration effort, a single strong brand: "Orange"."

ThatÂŽs what you can read in the official
note from France Telecom (the owner of Orange) about the adquisition
of Amena.

Freedom and youth. ThatÂŽs the space amena has conquered during these
years. A lot of advertising and promotion built the amena brand around
the concepts of freedom and youth (Amena spent around 30 million euros per year in advertising).

Orange as a brand is too corporate. Orange doesnÂŽt look young or fresh. Orange, just looks orange.

The communication feels a little too correct or too corporate. Amena is fresh and the communication is
really young.

Killing this brand will leave a lot of space for Telefonica to grow
throught the youth market and will leave Orange side by side with
Vodafone as "european" (outsiders) brands.

In general the public in Spain is a little skeptic about names in
english. Pleople feel a little embarrassed about saying names in
english and that could create an initial conflict with the brand.

Orange and Vodafone will look the same

On the other hand, keeping Amena will help Orange to have a "spanish"
brand instead of aligning itself with Vodafone’s "european" look, that in a way, looks too sofisticated for the Spanish.

Amena, the cheap brand…

An idea would be to keep Amena for the cheap and young market where Orange can hurt Telefonica a lot.

Creating flat rates for teenagers, unlimited SMS, music and pictures,
ringtones, cool phones, etc… can give Orange a huge edge with the
young market.

… and Orange the sophisticated brand.

Now that Telefonica will leave the FreeMove association a lot of consumers will be abandoned while travelling throughout Europe.

Orange can create a premium brand if they can do 3 small things:

• Sell slick phones with no stupid ringtones, funky colors or anything
  that can make you look silly.

• Setup email by default, that is to say as you turn on the phone you can send and receive email.
• Link files over the web somewhere that is secure and reliable.
  "I need to access my files anywhere, anytime."

Vodafone, Movistar… are trying to be too many things

ItÂŽs ok if Vodafone and Movistar are more in the consumer market. But I
think they are leaving the premium / business market.

And I think one looks stupid when dressed as a business man, having to
answer a phone that has some silly music that is set up as default.

I think the premium / business market deserves a better provider. A provider that understands the needs of profesionals.

Double cost

Obviously maintaining 2 brands will cost double. Or not.

I think Orange can be a strong premium brand and I would keep Amena as the
consumer brand.

Making smart investments in media and keeping the channels separated can give Orange a double blade to hurt Movistar.

With amena they can cut into the young market / direct market.
With Orange they can create a premium market that I think is not being
treated as it deserves.

Good luck Orange.