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Intel: Silver Bullet Brand: A Brand or Sub-Brand That Positively Influences The Image of

Intel developed its "Intel Inside" branding strategy in the 1990s in response to losing its monopoly on microprocessor chips and increasing competition from AMD. The strategy involved convincing PC manufacturers to create a sub-brand highlighting computers that used Intel chips. This gave those PCs a 10% premium and advertising support from Intel. Intel also researched target consumers and found many non-technical users saw PCs as mysterious. They focused on positioning Intel chips for the "Achievers" segment of knowledge workers by communicating the reliability, quality, compatibility and experience Intel provided. This successful strategy allowed Intel to remain a dominant brand even for an unseen component.

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82 views4 pages

Intel: Silver Bullet Brand: A Brand or Sub-Brand That Positively Influences The Image of

Intel developed its "Intel Inside" branding strategy in the 1990s in response to losing its monopoly on microprocessor chips and increasing competition from AMD. The strategy involved convincing PC manufacturers to create a sub-brand highlighting computers that used Intel chips. This gave those PCs a 10% premium and advertising support from Intel. Intel also researched target consumers and found many non-technical users saw PCs as mysterious. They focused on positioning Intel chips for the "Achievers" segment of knowledge workers by communicating the reliability, quality, compatibility and experience Intel provided. This successful strategy allowed Intel to remain a dominant brand even for an unseen component.

Uploaded by

sumit shewani
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Silver Bullet Brand: A brand or sub-brand that positively influences the image of

another brand. It can be a major factor in changing, creating or maintaining a


brand image.

Intel

Intel inside strategy

A few years ago, Microprocessor chips, as it was not seen outside the product,
were an unknown component of PC for the end consumers. It was a commodity
product. Intel was a dominant microprocessor brand in the 1980s with the launch
of microprocessor 286, 386 and 486. Soon competitors were catching up with
Intel. It was getting tough. In 1991, Intel lost its trademark violation case against
AMD who had similarly named clone chip AMD 386. Intel realized that to remain
as a leader in business for a longer duration, it needs to enter the mind of
Consumer and that could be done only through branding.

It was a massive challenge as the product was a commodity component and also
not visible to the consumer. How did Intel build a brand around a commodity?

What Intel had done?

Intel convinced OEM partners to create a sub-brand for products having


competitor microprocessors. In this scenario — customers realized that they were
buying a computer without “Intel Inside”.
OEM partners were happy as they got a 10% premium for “Intel Inside” products
from end-consumers plus advertising support from Intel.

UNDERSTANDING THE USERS


Except for programmers, gamers and scientists, the computer was a mystery for
many target segments. Many of the end-users were uncertain about the quality
and reliability of the computer product and they were not aware that
microprocessor chip was a critical component. Intel sensed that microprocessor
being a critical component of PC had an opportunity to enter consumer’s mind.

Through their research, they came across a market segment called “Achievers
segment” — People made up of knowledge workers — who spent the majority of
time in gaining knowledge, reviewing information and they were major decision
makers in companies but they were not programmers. PC manufacturers like
Apple were already targeting this segment by designing products that were easy
and intuitive to use.

Intel felt that the company had to focus their communication, branding strategies
to target this “Achievers” segment.
POSITIONING and DIFFERENTIATION
INTEL had already established it as a quality product manufacturer and an
innovator among OEM companies — Operational excellence in creating complex
new products with speed and good infrastructure. Intel believed that it could
position its chips as a premium product. (Matches identity requirements of
“Achievers” segment).

VALUES THAT WOULD RESONATE WITH CONSUMER


TRUST —Honesty is expected but Trust is earned. Intel had to show the world that
the world’s best computers were driven by Intel’s chips. The one way to reach
consumers was through well-known PC brands of that time. It needed to
communicate that the reliability, quality, speed, consistent performance of PC, is
controlled by Intel’s chip.

COMPATIBILITY & INTEGRATION — It was important to allay consumer’s fears.


Intel had to convey that chip was compatible with the Softwares used by target
segment and would play a major role in smooth functioning of those Softwares.

QUALITY SERVICE — Intel had strong service support center for OEMs which in
turn assured end-users of quicker solutions to the hardware problems related to
chips.

EXPERIENCE— Intel had a stronger infrastructure with a huge R&D facility. This
helped the company to try out countless solutions as frequently as possible
resulting in increased customer experience.

COMMITMENT — The “Achievers” category is like “Early Majority” segment and


they would prefer a vendor who was assured to be around for a longer period —
They need long-term association and commitment from vendors(basically for
service support). Intel had a potential advantage here.

Intel instead of verbally communicating the values had to make customers


experience the values.
This marketing strategy by Intel was highly successful as it was able to
understand the market at that time. We can see that this strategy is being
followed now also as all the laptops, pc company uses Intel inside logo on their
products and by this companys are earning around 10% more margin due to
premium product.

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