AT&T marketing exec leaves amid Cingular rebranding

NEW YORK, April 20 (Reuters) - The chief marketing officer of AT&T Inc.'s (T.N) wireless unit has resigned, according to the company, which is in the midst of scrapping the Cingular Wireless brand in favor of AT&T.

The departure of Marc Lefar, which AT&T officials said on Friday was voluntary, also comes about two months ahead of AT&T's plan to start selling the highly anticipated iPhone, a device combining wireless service and Apple Inc.'s(AAPL.O) market-dominating iPod music player.

Company officials said Lefar resigned to "do something else," and was taking some time to decide his next move. Lefar could not immediately be reached.

Lefar had played a key role in building up the Cingular brand name since he took the job in early 2003, including the absorption of the former AT&T Wireless brand into Cingular after they combined in 2004.

While Lefar was involved in the company's current efforts to rebrand Cingular as AT&T, spokesman Michael Coe noted that the project was headed by two other executives.

Some marketing experts had criticized AT&T's plans to ditch the Cingular brand, which took six years to build. One brand executive said the plan could have caused internal rifts.

"One can hypothesize there have been turf battles as well as common sense, strategic battles," about the rebranding, said Robert Passikoff, president of the Brand Keys consultancy.

In a brand loyalty survey of 2,200 consumers to be published later this month, Brand Keys said the Cingular brand ranked fourth out of five U.S. wireless services while the AT&T brand did not come up in discussions with respondents.

AT&T said in January it would take about a year for consumers to fully recognize that Cingular had changed its branding. It began the process in the first quarter after closing its purchase of BellSouth Corp.

But Passikoff said it looked as if the rebranding was starting slowly because billing statements and cell phones still display the Cingular logo prominently, even as the company's media advertising focuses on the new AT&T brand.