Brand Personlities:ibm and Appple

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 multibillion-dollar software and services industries, of which IBM is today a world leader. In early 1980s 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 1990s IBM started concentrating on the servers business but however in mid 1990s 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 1950s.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,