MARKETING STRATEGY CASE

Marketing Strategy Case

Marketing Strategy Case

Introduction

Intel has emerged as the market leader of central processor in the personal computing industry. Establishing high quality products and a reputation for always meeting their shipping commitments, has been a driving edge. The market share advantage they enjoy is due to the x86 line of products, which have differentiated Intel from other technologies such as reduced instruction set computing processors from other manufactures. Intel makes the microprocessors that are found in 80 percent of the world's personal computers. In the early days, Intel microprocessors were known simply by their engineering numbers, such as “80386” or “80486.” Intel positioned its chips as the most advanced. The trouble was, as Intel soon learned, numbers can't be trademarked.(Ambrosini 2003)

Competitors came out with their own “486” chips, and Intel had no way to distinguish itself from the competition. Worse, Intel's products were hidden from consumers, buried deep inside PCs. With a hidden, untrademarked product, Intel had a hard time convincing consumers to pay more for its high-performance products. Intel's response was a marketing campaign that created history. The company chose a trademarkable name (Pentium) and launched a marketing campaign to build awareness of the Intel brand. The “Intel Inside” campaign was Intel's effort to get its name outside of the PC and into the minds of consumers. Intel used an innovative cooperative scheme to extend the reach of its campaign. It would help computer makers who used Intel processors to advertise their PCs if the makers also included the Intel logo in their ads.(Orville et. al. 2008)

Intel also gave computer manufacturers a rebate on Intel processors if they agreed to place an “Intel Inside” sticker on the outside of their PCs and laptops. Simultaneously with the cooperative ads, Intel began its own ad program to familiarize consumers with the Intel name. The “Intel Inside” campaign changed Intel's image from a microprocessor maker to a quality standard-bearer. The ads that included the Intel Inside logo were designed to create confidence in the consumer's mind that purchasing a personal computer with an Intel microprocessor was both a safe and technologically sound choice. Between 1990 and 1993, Intel invested over $500 million in advertising and promotional programs designed to build its brand equity.Since Intel has introduced there own RISC processors that have been received favorably in the in niche markets like CAD design and graphics rendering. The Introduction of the i386 and i486 established Intel as a major force in the personal computer market and switched Intel from an EPROM manufacture to a PC processor company. Intel Marketing Strategy

Intel established itself as a reliable trust worthy company committed to its customers and the PC market. While research and development of the next generation of central processors was under way other manufactures, like Sun Microsystems developed and introduced RISC based processors or reduced instruction set computing.Intel has maintained its Vision and Core Ideology. It has had a three Point Strategy wrapped around its vision of maintaining a world class ...