Benjamin Brancato

Javier Cobo
Brand Strategy – Professor Galloway
New York University Leonard N. Stern School of Business
June 6th, 2011

Assignment 3:
Brand Market Research and Recommendations for
Microsoft, Intel and HP

Interview Data:

1. Name a person that comes to mind when you think about each company

MICROSOFT INTEL HP
Bill Gates None None
Steve Balmer No one No one
Bill Gates Mark Hurd Don’t know
Gates Carly Fiorina No one
Bill Gates Don’t know Don’t know

2. In a few words, what do you think it’s like working in these organizations?
MICROSOFT INTEL HP
Stimulating Challenging trying Old fashioned Feeling behind
to compete with Apple
Stiff Innovative Boring
Very urban and creative Robotic Like working in a cloud
Structured Creative Freedom
Not good… corporations are Not good… corporations are Not good… corporations are
bad bad bad

3. Name a place that best represents each city

MICROSOFT INTEL HP
Seattle Staples/Office Max In an office (not a tech
company)
Seattle Silicon Valley California
Seattle Santa Clara Palo alto
Seattle California California
Seattle Don’t know Don’t know

4. If each company were a car, what car would they be

MICROSOFT INTEL HP
Prius Camry Old Camry
Ford Lexus Volkswagen
Mini Cooper Porsche Infinity
 Benjamin Brancato
Javier Cobo
Brand Strategy – Professor Galloway
New York University Leonard N. Stern School of Business
June 6th, 2011
Honda Maserati Cadillac
Saab. They look nice but have Smart Car Cadillac. Super expensive and
internal malfunctions all the not worth it
time

5. How do these brands relate to consumers?

People like Microsoft because its…

 A modern classic
 Understandable and inexpensive
 Software usability
 Ubiquitous
 Known and everywhere, and sell reasonably priced software

Intel is symbolized by…

 A blue symbol
 Bom, bom, bom (the song in the commercial)
 Processing speeds
 Cutting edge technology
 A little sticker on my computer saying there is a chip inside

HP is popular because…
 They make printers
 Printers
 Hardware platforms
 Creative
 They sell many electronic items

6. Rate Intel on quality

INTEL Weak Fair Good Great Strong Rating Count

Ave
Reliable 0.0% 0.0% 20.0% 20.0% 60.0% 4.4 5
User 0.0% 0.0% 40.0% 20.0% 40.0% 4.0 5
Friendly
Integrated 0.0% 0.0% 20.0% 20.0% 60.0% 4.4 5
Functional 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 40.0% 60.0% 4.6 5
Inspiring 20.0% 0.0% 20.0% 40.0% 20.0% 3.4 5
Essential 0.0% 0.0% 40.0% 20.0% 40.0% 4.0 5
 Benjamin Brancato
Javier Cobo
Brand Strategy – Professor Galloway
New York University Leonard N. Stern School of Business
June 6th, 2011
7. Rate Microsoft on quality

Weak Fair Good Great Strong Rating Count

Ave
Reliable 0.0% 20.0% 60.0% 20.0% 0.0% 3.0 5
User 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 100.0% 0.0% 4.0 5
Friendly
Integrated 0.0% 0.0% 20.0% 60.0% 20.0% 4.0 5
Functional 0.0% 20.0% 0.0% 60.0% 20.0% 3.8 5
Inspiring 0.0% 40.0% 60.0% 0.0% 0.0% 2.6 5
Essential 0.0% 0.0% 40.0% 40.0% 20.0% 3.8 5

8. Rate HP on quality

Weak Fair Good Great Strong Rating Count

Ave
Reliable 0.0% 20.0% 40.0% 20.0% 20.0% 3.4 5
User 0.0% 20.0% 40.0% 20.0% 20.0% 3.4 5
Friendly
Integrated 0.0% 20.0% 60.0% 20.0% 0.0% 3.0 5
Functional 0.0% 20.0% 60.0% 20.0% 0.0% 3.0 5
Inspiring 20.0% 20.0% 20.0% 40.0% 0.0% 2.8 5
Essential 20.0% 40.0% 20.0% 20.0% 0.0% 2.4 5

9. If each were an animal, what would it be? (multiple choices allowed)

Dog Lion Bear Turtle Monkey Elephant Count

Microsoft 40.0% 20.0% 20.0% 0.0% 0.0% 20.0% 5
Intel 0.0% 40.0% 0.0% 20.0% 20.0% 20.0% 5
HP 20.0% 20.0% 20.0% 20.0% 20.0% 0.0% 5

10. Who is the typical consumer base?

Microsoft
 Average Joe
 Mid west
 Average computer word processing consumer
 Everyone
 The average person
 Benjamin Brancato
Javier Cobo
Brand Strategy – Professor Galloway
New York University Leonard N. Stern School of Business
June 6th, 2011
Intel
 Techie people
 Coasts
 Most consumers don’t know they’re using Intel
 Computer users
 Everyone, right?

HP
 Senior citizens
 Corporate
 Split between average consumer who owns a pc and business buying HP servers and
storage
 Computer users
 Businesses

Key Learnings from Interviews:

People think of Microsoft as essential, useful, and for the average person.  They are ubiquitous,
large and corporate.

People think of Intel as inspiring and technologically exciting.  They think of Silicon Valley, the bom,
bom, bom jingle and the "Intel inside" sticker on their PCs.

People think of HP as boring, slow, behind.  They consider it a printer company (not a PC company
incidentally).  They have a limited to no perception of a brand personality.

Recommendations and Next Steps:

Microsoft:
Microsoft should capitalize on its relative price advantage and greater availability over
Apple in order to differentiate. It should brand itself as a value brand that “makes sense.”
People view the company as a Prius, Ford, Mini Cooper, Honda and Saab. Most of these cars
are not flashy, but they are respected due their technology, familiarity, or reliability.
Microsoft should capitalize on these traits and paint competitors, Apple and Google, as out-
of-touch, San-Francisco based, egomaniacal companies that make products for gadget
obsessed, time-wasting dweebs that constantly have their faces buried in their phones.

In the smart phone market, Microsoft’s recent alliance with Nokia has potential in the mid-
to-high end range of smart phone devices. Because MS Mobile Office is integrated into W7
mobile, there is a good opportunity for Microsoft to market its mobile platform to
corporate consumers. Microsoft should also consider further developing its partnership
with Blackberry Manufacturer, Research in Motion. Blackberry has recently lost share in
 Benjamin Brancato
Javier Cobo
Brand Strategy – Professor Galloway
New York University Leonard N. Stern School of Business
June 6th, 2011
the smart phone market to Apple iOS and Google droid. Through a partnership or
acquisition, Microsoft could essentially own the business use market and offer business
users an easy transition into using its Windows desktop platform with another established
player in mobile hardware manufacturing.

Microsoft rated most poorly in “Reliability” and “Inspiring.” By highlighting Window’s

history as the product used by the millions for years, they can improve performance in
these areas. They should target their efforts not at techies, people that can identify the past
weaknesses of the product, but at average Joes and typical business users who are familiar
with the product and see it as the standard for software. Highlighting this history can also
help business managers feel safer as they transition into an increasingly mobile world –
security is an important issue for business users and Droid has recently had several
security mishaps.

In order to make the brand more “inspiring,” Microsoft can continue to appeal to middle
America by telling stories about how Microsoft has played a role in their lives. It can also
highlight companies that are using Microsoft software to improve lives including medical
uses and use of their software by non-profit organizations.

Microsoft is the brand that business-people have used for decades, by differentiating itself
as the business-users software platform; it builds on its existing SCAs and makes itself
more relevant to business users.

Intel:
Intel manufactures memory chips. Their product cannot exist on its own – it can only be
used within other manufacturer products. Typically, such a product would not have much
of a brand identity to the general public. From this perspective, Intel’s brand equity is
extremely high and it is performing very well across all metrics.

Even though Intel scored lowest in its quality ratings on “inspiring,” we don’t believe it
should focus more energy or funds here. B2B firms are not typically known for being
inspiring, yet Intel beats both Microsoft and HP, well-known B2C firms, in this category.
Instead, Intel should focus on strengthen its already strong ratings for “Essential” and
“User-friendly.”

Intel should run an awareness campaign to inform consumers how computers with Intel
chips are vastly superior to computers using other chips and how the chips also improve
usage. They can highlight the fact that Intel chips are used by all main computer
manufacturers and may even want to play on the fact that, even though Apple and
Microsoft are trying one-up each other, the one they can agree on is Intel.

Intel should also run an education campaign to illustrate how Intel chips make users
performance better and easier. One tactic could be a contest that asks everyday users to
 Benjamin Brancato
Javier Cobo
Brand Strategy – Professor Galloway
New York University Leonard N. Stern School of Business
June 6th, 2011
explain how the product works, promote the finalists and ask the contestants to solicit
friends and families to Like and share their work. Contestants should all get some kind of
reward for participating – not just big rewards for the top finalists. They should also have
different contests based on people’s talents – contestants can enter with a video a drawing,
an essay or something else of their choosing. Doing so will increase involvement at all
levels and fully engage the people involved and those close to them.

Once winners have been selected, they can run this campaign on TV and web media.

HP

The HP brand is in the worst shape of these three technology companies. Our market
research shows that people still think of HP as a printer company even though HP’s
Imaging and Printing Group is only one of its seven divisions. The division is not even the
largest by revenues, earning only 25% of revenues1 for the company, less than the Personal
Systems Group and their Services Group. HP is the Market Share Global leader 2 in personal
computers, ahead of its nearest competitor, Dell, by 500 basis points and upstart Acer, in
third place by market share, by 590 bps. This lead has been relatively stable since 2007
when HP overtook Dell as the leader. Apple, the perceived leader in this area, only enjoys a
little over 7% market share, mainly due to its relatively high prices and unique operating
system.

Printers do account for about 50% of earnings and represent the companies “Cash Cow”
product as defined in the BCG Marketing Matrix. While it is important that HP continue to
promote its printers to maintain earnings, it must work to improve its image as an
innovator and market leader if it hopes to increase profits on its other divisions.

HP should begin by investing in its brand equity. What does HP stand for? What are its
core values? It’s ethos? In our market research, users viewed the brand as stale, boring
and for senior citizens. The brand needs identify its core essence and values and compute
them across all mediums. They need to develop a brand personality, develop sponsorship
and charitable partnerships and broadcast these activities across a wide spectrum of
people.

1
http://media.corporate-ir.net/media_files/irol/71/71087/AR2010/images/Hewlett-
Packard-AR2010.pdf
2
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Market_share_of_leading_PC_vendors and
http://media.corporate-ir.net/media_files/irol/71/71087/AR2010/images/Hewlett-
Packard-AR2010.pdf