Kansas City, Mo. ? Sprint Corp. and Nextel Communications Inc. said Thursday that Sprint will remain the lead brand name if the companies successfully merge later this year.

Nextel, which enjoys intense loyalty among its business customers, will remain a “key product brand,” the companies said.

Nextel’s yellow-and-black color scheme also will take over the unified brand’s logo, which will feature the Sprint name and a stylizing dropping pin – a nod toward Sprint’s 1990s-era advertising campaign that emphasized the company’s network’s call clarity.

In addition, the companies said Nextel’s sponsorship of NASCAR’s Nextel Cup Series will remain in place through the end of the year and officials will decide on a new branding strategy before the opening race of the 2006 season.

Shareholders are scheduled to vote July 13 on the $35 billion merger, with the deal expected to close in the third quarter.

Officials said the choice of Sprint as the lead name followed discussions with marketing and name recognition research firms, employees and customers. Those discussions, the companies said, determined that Sprint had more widespread recognition.

“The companies are in the enviable position of possessing two incredibly valuable brands with overwhelming positive and powerful equity in the marketplace,” said Mark Schweitzer, Nextel’s senior vice president of marketing. Schweitzer will serve as chief marketing officer for the merged company. “Our brand strategy and logo will integrate the most valuable assets of each company’s identity.”

Telecommunication experts said the move made sense as Nextel is considered more of a favorite for businesses wedded to its press-to-talk reliability. Sprint, on the other hand, is trying to attract more customers interested in lucrative wireless Internet and download services.

“Sprint is definitely one of the companies father down the path of getting customers into data and mobile entertainment,” said Jupiter Research analyst Julie Ask. “Nextel just had more of a niche market than Sprint does. It’s a question of broader appeal.”

Kevin Keller, a marketing professor at the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth College in Hanover, N.H., said incorporating facets of Nextel’s brand in the overall company brand should lessen the confusion and possible anger loyal Nextel customers might feel.

“When you see these branding programs, they try to migrate and do things gradually so they don’t force or allow people to reconsider,” Keller said.

Sprint chief executive officer Gary Forsee, in an interview earlier this month, said decisions about marketing were different than in the Cingular Wireless’ acquisition of AT&T Wireless, where the AT&T brand disappeared.

“You’ve got two companies that are producing well coming together,” Forsee said. “Neither company is in a ditch and needs to be rescued.”

Officials for the two companies haven’t said how the merger would affect their separate networks of retail stores and mall kiosks and didn’t say Wednesday how much the switch could ultimately cost.

The companies haven’t indicated whether they will change the terms of Nextel’s 10-year, $700 million sponsorship deal with NASCAR. The partnership has been fruitful for Nextel, which is estimated to have sold 40,000 NASCAR-branded phones during the first year.

NASCAR officials have said buying out of the remaining portion of the deal would be too costly for the merged company.

Shares of Sprint closed down 42 cents at $24.55 in trading Thursday on the New York Stock Exchange, at the high end of a 52-week range of $16.83 to $25.87. Shares of Nextel closed down 65 cents at $31.62 on the Nasdaq Stock Market, near the low end of a 52-week range of $31.60 to $32.50.