The Birla-Tata-AT&T-BPL combine is planning to advance the launch of its common brand to this year-end as the promotion of its existing brands — AT&T, Tata Cellular, RPG Cellular and BPL Mobile — in their respective circles are proving to be too expensive.

"We are planning to unveil the common brand by the year-end. Earlier, we had planed to introduce the brand early next fiscal. The preponement of the launch may help us save some money as promotion of existing brands and internal competition (between them) require a huge (funds) outflow," a top Tata executive told Business Standard.

The combine, which has already given the mandate to Lowe & Lintas to draw its brand strategies, is in the final stages of developing the common brand. The proposed brand will be distinct from the promoters’ existing brands.

At the time of announcing the merger, the combine had said that the existing brands like BPL Mobile, AT&T and Tata Cellular will be phased out after the launch of the common brand. However, the Tata executive declined to name the common brand.

The Birla-AT&T-Tata union, in association with Lowe Lintas, has already shortlisted some names. A merger panel comprising executives from Tatas, Birla, BPL and AT&T is working on the comprehensive brand strategy, the executive added.

The existing promoters of new entity will be gaining significantly if the existing entities — Tata Cellular, Birla-AT&T, RPG Cellcom and BPL Communications — decide to discontinue with their individual promotions. Recently, BPL has launched a new campaign in Kerala.

Interestingly, BPL still competes with Birla-AT&T in the Maharashtra cellular circle to retain its marketshare. As BPL Communications needs to hive off the Maharashtra circle, the company is forced to push promotional advertisements in order to attract more subscribers. This is because the company requires a huge subscriber base for a good valuation.