Brands Ibm Computers example essay topic

Question attempted: Identify two brands within the same product category that project different images to the consumer. Discuss the different projected images by comparing and contrasting the two different brands. What techniques did the marketer use to create these images? How would you explain this deliberate attempt in the light of the self- concept of the buyer?

Executive Summary " Products are created in factories but brands are created in the mind of the prospect". These immortal words symbolize the power of branding and the criticality of brand management. Every brand has a personality and is thus able to position itself in the mind of the prospect. Products in the same category may solve the same problem but, all consumers don't buy the same product. Some base their decisions on price while some may decide on the basis of the benefit they derive from that product. The decision making process is sometimes long and arduous but sometimes, low involvement and easy.

The personality of the brand and how it is communicated is one of the key factors on which decisions are made. Through this paper one would identify products in the same category and analyze their promotional strategies and how the brands have evolved over the years. Marketers use diverse techniques to project various images to the prospect, once these projection techniques are identified the marketing techniques would also be explored. After the brands are identified, the promotional strategies employed by them would be explored. Thus, the evolution of the brand can be traced. The evolution of the brand would give us key insights in the different images projected by them.

The self concept of the buyer, gives us reasons as to why the prospect buys our product, and to what parts of his / her self, our product targets. THE BRANDS IBM computers, one of the largest computer hardware firms in the world and probably one of the oldest. International Business Machines was established in 1924, when they made the Electronic Accounting Machine. In 1969, IBM changed the way it sold technology. Rather than offer hardware, services and software exclusively in packages, marketers 'unbundled' the components and offered them for sale individually.

Unbundling gave birth to the multi billion-dollar software and services industries, of which IBM is today a world leader. In early 1980's IBM got into the personnel computer business as they saw an opportunity in it, this was the period when IBM had spent vast amount of money on R&D and product development. On the marketing side the firm maintained substantial advertising and promotion budgets to keep potential customer informed about it and burnish the IBM brand. In 1982, the IBM personal computer was named "The man of the year, 1982", by TIME magazine, which gave a great fillip to the brand.

In this decade IBM was successful in its business and known for PCs. In 1981 IBM had captured more than 40% of the US market which further saw big growth and expansion in other countries. In the 1990's IBM started concentrating on the servers business but however in mid 1990's IBM's traditional business was in trouble. The company's share of world wide PCs fell down to 8%, in 1999 IBM was third behind Dell and Compaq. Even in the servers market the growth rate was only one-third of that the major competitor Sun Microsystems. IBM which was successful as a brand in computer industry now was in spot of bother.

IBM needed to something to get back old glory of 'The IBM Brand'. This was the period when internet was growing very fast. IBM saw the opportunity; they realized that Internet would change everything. To revitalize the IBM brand they tried to move away their focus from creating the technology to application of technology. The area which they choose was the services in the field of e-Business.

They tried to reposition themselves by refocusing the corporate mission, emphasizing on providing the customers with e-Business engineering, design and outsourcing services. This also allowed IBM to embrace small customers with not only these services but also with their hardware solutions which was offered as a package. Today IBM is talking about 'On Demand Computing' the new mantra in technology business. All these efforts have helped IBM to project itself as not only a experienced, expertise and quality driven but also a competitive, superior, knowledge based and service driven brand. Apple Computer doesn't create new family members so much as brothers- and sisters-in-arms. Presenting itself as the anti-IBM, Apple is the computer for those who shun the domineering image of 'Big Blue.

' This approach can be traced from the historic '1984' television ad that depicted Macintosh computers as a tool to fight Orwellian oppression caused by widespread PC use (aired just once, during the 1984 Superbowl, but still considered one of the most successful ads ever) to its recent showcasing of computer owners who have made the switch from PCs and the Windows operating system. Apple presents itself as unique. It invites users to think of themselves as revolutionary -- even though, by buying and supporting Apple, they " re really just responding to another marketer's push. Apple has also pushed its brand personality through product design: Other computers are gray, so theirs are colorful; others are square, theirs are round. Apple thus created a 'meme' -- a term the Darwinian biologist Richard Dawkins coined to describe self-replicating cultural elements.

The meme lives outside of Apple advertisements, effectively turning its customers into a quasi-sales force. While most computers can be mistaken for one another, Apple computers stand out. Apple's presentation of its brand as an attitude rather than a product advantage is merely an extension of the concept that advertising superstar David Ogilvy developed in the 1950's. Similarly, IBM will always remain an office hardware supplier, and its main business is driven by providing reliable 'gray' personal computers. Hence, IBM as a brand represents efficiency, reliability and robustness. Whereas apple projects a more quirky, offbeat and 'anti-establishment' image.

BRAND PERSONALITY Geography can have an impact on brand personality, this fact is exemplified by these two brands. Apple computers was developed by two geniuses in the Californian valley, Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak. Apple as a brand represents this Californian attitude, and an alternative and quirky culture. Whereas, IBM was developed as an office equipment manufacturer in the east coast. IBM epitomizes the traditional machine-man relationship; it takes computer science very seriously and thus expresses this in its promotion also. The apple logo in Apple computers represents the 'non-seriousness' of the brand.

It refuses to idolize computer science, and prefers to look at its fun side. It reverses the human-machine relationship, instead of it being based on fear or revere, it turns it into fun. IBM just has 'IBM' written in its logo, in blue color. This focuses the brand personality as being precise and to the point. Apple is a brand that is always defying the odds. The company commands global market share of just 3%, almost went out of business after a financial nosedive in the mid 1990's and its main products compete with the ubiquitous IBM compatible PC.

Yet despite the difficulties it has faced and continues to face, it remains an amazing success. The brand was voted brand of the year by Interbrand in 2001, came a close second to branding 'wonder kid' Google in 2002 and continues to command amazing loyalty amongst users. The value of the brand to a company such as Apple is almost incalculable; so much so that it prompted Wired News to claim recently that 'without the brand, Apple would be dead... The power of their branding is all that keeps them alive'.

Why has Apple been so successful? Because it concentrated on building a powerful brand based on emotional rather than functional values. Apple makes an effort targets the right side of the brain whereas IBM targets the logical side of the brain. But by far their greatest success has been in enticing Apple has always played on the emotions. It has been David taking on the Goliath of IBM, its ethos is power to the people through technology and it seeks to build communities around its products. The brand has become synonymous with creativity, the choice for designers everywhere, and has communicated itself as funky, quirky and colorful - a vibrant alternative to its drab and businesslike competitors.

The equity produced by this powerful branding is without a doubt Apple's key asset. Competitors such as Commodore and Amstrad were slain by the growth of the PC but the loyalty and affection that the Apple brand commanded allowed it to keep its head above water and become the success it is today. In a faceless market, Apple showed character and built an image. When former CEO John Scully talks of his time in the company during the late 1980's and early 1990's he has no illusions about Apple's role, pointing out that 'people talk about technology but Apple was a marketing company.

It was the marketing company of the decade. ' This kind of thinking built the brand equity Apple enjoys today - the brand equity that both kept Apple afloat and promises future profits. This asset may be intangible but it is also truly invaluable. IBM Corp., which was called a 'big blue dinosaur' in the 1999 Fortune 500 issue, ranked third in this year's Business Week / Interbrand report on top global brands, demonstrating a remarkable ability to turn its brand image around. In the past decade, IBM has built its brand to a leading worldwide position by keeping its business relevant to changing times and effectively communicating its positioning through integrated marketing communications". Ten years ago, IBM was in pretty deep trouble with its brand and brand image around the world,' said Lisa Baird, VP-worldwide integrated marketing communications for IBM.

'It was a crisis time for the brand. The brand had become irrelevant". As part of its strategy to reinvigorate the IBM brand, once known as a mainframe giant, the company consolidated all its global advertising business with Ogilvy & Mather Worldwide, New York, in 1994. Under the direction of then-chairman-CEO Lou Gerstner and senior VP-marketing Abby Kohn stamm, IBM and Ogilvy set a new course that would define the company's brand strategy going forward.

Sam Palmisano, who was named CEO of IBM in 2002 and elected chairman in 2003, unveiled the new strategy of 'e-business on demand' at a shareholder meeting in late 2002. The strategy positioned IBM as a company that understands the needs of its business customers and can provide a total portfolio of products, services and consulting advice. Working with Ogilvy on a 360-degree marketing communications strategy, IBM has effectively used TV, print, outdoor, events, sports sponsorships, online and non-traditional media to communicate its brand positioning. ' IBM has a heritage of being a traditional company, yet it has a radically progressive agenda,' said Matt Ross, COO-IBM brand services worldwide at Ogilvy & Mather.

'It presents some interesting brand challenges. "IBM has thus started producing advertisements which employ humor as a damper to the seriousness of its product. IBM still remains a serious brand with a serious agenda. THE SELF Concepts much as a company will seek to control all these elements to ensure a consistency for the customer, total control is impossible. A company builds and controls a product, but the brand evolves from the interaction between the company and the consumer.

The company makes a set of claims and proposals about itself and consumers react to these messages; the brand lies between the two. Perception is the key to a brand - it starts with what the company says or does, but is inevitably modified, sometimes significantly, by the way customers interpret the message. The perception of a brand and the message it sends across depends on the personality of the person. In, essence the consumers seek to depict themselves in their brand choices-they tend to approach products with images that could enhance their self concept and avoid those products that do not.

There are four basic dimensions to self-concept that create motives for buying certain products. These dimensions include o Actual self-concept, o Ideal self-concept, o Private self-concept, and o Social self-concept These self-concepts are perceptions that we have of ourselves that help us to develop reasons for buying products. Apple As mentioned earlier, Apple as a brand represents the fun side of life, it represents creativity and quirkiness. Apple wants to be different; Apple users almost form a subculture. This fact is represented in its advertising and promotional strategy as well, the advertisements are very different from all the other ads. The advertising mediums employed are also very different from other regular technology brands.

Product placement in movies is also a key feature of Apple's strategy, Apple computers have been featured in almost 36 movies, including movies like The interpreter, War of the worlds etc. Ads are also released on the internet, which is fairly unconventional. Based on research, Apple Computers caters to the Private Self-concept. Private Self-concept-This is how I am or would like to be to myself, is what is termed private self-concept. Private self-concept can be how you believe that you act as a person such as friendly, creative, or adventurous. Marketers realize that they can use these internal self-concepts to relate to their product images...

Apple Computer's slogan 'Think different' no doubt attempts to set Apple computers apart from other computer manufacturers by saying they are different. Perhaps they are also trying to draw the attention of those individuals who believe themselves to be different. Their target audience may be people whose private self-concept is 'I see myself as creative and unique'. IBM IBM in its promotion uses conventional media like television and Newspapers. Another medium it uses to increase its brand recall is sponsorship of major events like The US Open Tennis Championships. Through IBM's promotions one can decipher the brand personality they " re trying to project.

Its image is-o Efficient Hardworking o Reliable Technology Success Consistent with the idea of self images, IBM also caters to a particular self-image. All technological products usually target the worker inside oneself; IBM is no different. It also targets the Ideal Self; it tries to project what the consumers would like to see themselves as. The slogan for IBM is 'On demand Business', which represents efficiency and technological brilliance.

The target market for IBM computers is the office going male / female or even college students. People in this segment aspire to be all what IBM stands for. Even though IBM is not a fantasy product, IBM promotes it to be a panacea for all office and home troubles. This further enhances its aim to target the Ideal Self concept.