Intel: The Human Element Inside
Let's be honest - when you think of a computer chip processor, you don't get the touchy feelies. But Intel is trying to change end user perception with its humanizing branding campaign, as well as clearer communication and streamlined offerings.
Before Intel crafted its new campaign, there were five basic challenges inhibiting the brand, Nancy Bhagat, vice president of sales and marketing and director of integrated marketing for the Santa Clara, Calif.-based company, told attendees at the Business Marketing Association's Chicago Chapter's MarketingMasters Luncheon yesterday. Among the five, one stands out: awareness was high, but relevance was low, with research showing some consumers simply assumed their computers came with Intel processors. Intel also conducted focus groups where participants described the company as monolithic and expressed an uncertainty for what Intel stood for.
The transformative idea then, pitched by Intel's agency Venables Bell & Partners out of San Francisco, was to change the game, to reach out to consumers in a different way, to transform the rational, engineering-minded Intel into a brand people can care about. That's a difficult task for any company, primarily a B-to-B computer specialist. But Intel's gone about it with ads that play up the people behind the technology courtesy of the Sponsors of Tomorrow campaign.
A sample spot: an Intel engineer walks into an office lunchroom, co-workers snapping pics, clamoring for autographs, like he was a rock star. The humorous spot ends with a shot of Intel employees humming the Intel jingle - again a conscious effort to showcase Intel as a company, and the people that compose that company, as opposed to the technical benefits of Intel chips. (See below). Print ads links end user perceptions of playgrounds and rock stars, showing the typical version (slide in a park; alluring rockers in front of a stage) and the version at Intel (a testing lab; engineers striking cocky poses), to draw further connections between end users and company.
This campaign’s about Intel's image to end users, about making them seek out Intel chips in their computer purchases, so the effect on sales won't come overnight, Bhagat said. But preliminary end user responses from around the world are already in. Opinion of Intel and brand relevance in the U.S. has increased by 12% and 2%, respectively, Bhagat presented at BMA. Brand relevance was up in China and India by nearly 10%. In Germany, relevance and opinion have increased by 4% and 3%, respectively, since campaign launch. But the campaign isn't perfect. In China for instance, where Intel modified the compare concept from its print ads so as not to offend consumers, opinion for the company has decreased by 3% since campaign launch, Bhagat admitted. The company's approach has fared well with mature consumers, but Intel is failing to connect to entry-level computer purchasers, Bhagat said. More work must be done. And work continues in 2010 with Intel simplifying its diverse chip family into four titles, with Intel Core defined as the "hero brand," and Intel Pentium being better defined as the value route.
All in all, an engaging presentation, and Intel certainly is armed with a marketing strategy to watch.
Oh, and in case you were wondering if that antitrust suit with Andrew Cuomo came up, it most certainly did. And while Bhagat of course couldn't say much, to her credit she did say something, commenting that there was something inherently wrong with looking at a company's heavy investment in research and development as a negative. "We don't think of ourselves as being a dominant company," she said at the lunch. "We think of ourselves as being a strong brand and technology leaders."
