|




 

 
 

 
 Agenda
‡ Overview
‡ Branding IT products
‡ Branding IT services
‡ Branding costs
‡ Tools to implement branding
‡ Internet as IT branding vehicle
‡ People as brand ambassadors
‡ Does open source need branding?
‡ Brand collaborators
‡ A few rules of thumb
 Overview
‡ Branding to remove distrust!
‡ Brand clutter ± numerous product variants
‡ Brand is definitely a matter of trust / distrust
‡ secure products from Microsoft (
‡ Vendor credibility at stake, for unrelated reasons
‡ Post sale failure rate impact on brand value of
services
‡ Bad Word @ The Speed of Virus
‡ Branding costs are high
 Branding IT products
‡ Umbrella branding is common
‡ Product branding
‡ Prominent in software ± MS Office, Adobe Acrobat«
‡ Confusing in hardware (Nokia, Cisco ± numbered
models)
‡ Co-branding is rare in products
‡ Sony Ericsson
 Branding IT services
‡ Branded merchandise for employees, partners
‡ Individual service brand less prominent (low recall)
‡ Few services are branded ± many operate as
independent profit centers e.g., Sun Professional
Services
‡ Services are usually subordinate brands
‡ Service vendors flaunt certifications ± who benefits ?
‡ Co-branding is absent in services
 Branding costs
‡ Branding cost is high
‡ Can reduce customer acquisition cost!
‡ Reduces cost of new product introduction
± Short life span of IT products
± A stronger case for umbrella branding
‡ Parasitic analysts!
 Branding tools
‡ Interactive branding
‡ IT products as prizes in target market
competition
‡ Web based contests
‡ Screen savers
‡ Publishing books is great branding!
‡ Certifications as brand vehicles, benchmarks
‡ Complementary branding from partners
± training institutes
± channel
 Branding tools«
‡ Merchandise for retail
‡ Dolls (Tux, Intel Bunnies)
‡ T-Shirts, hats
‡ Wind cheaters
‡ Umbrellas (Netscape)
‡ Cuff links (Intel), Tie Pin (Macromedia)
‡ Corporate merchandise
‡ Planners
‡ Mouse pads
‡ Anti-glare screens
‡ Trade shows / road shows
 Branding tools«
‡ Pre-sales marketing collaterals
± Silver bullets
± Vulnerabilities (Oracle¶s comparative advertising with
MS)
± Success stories / case studies
± White papers
‡ Academia / decision influencers
‡ PR firms
‡ Vendor speaking sessions
 Internet as IT branding medium
‡ Decked up web sites
‡ Advertisements
± Banners
± Pop-ups
± Tickers
‡ Newsgroups
‡ Newsletters
‡ Downloads - logos, screen savers, trial software, tunes
‡ Webinars
‡ Career sites (own and third party)
‡ Unsolicited / solicited e-mails
 People as brand ambassadors
‡ Wearing merchandise
‡ Certified professionals allowed to have logos on their
CVs
‡ Intel Bunnies
‡ OEM - Channel - Reseller display
‡ Almost no celebrity endorsement
‡ Customer experience based advertising
± Sun ± ICICI, Citibank
± HP ± DreamWorks SKG
‡ Branding by pre-sales & sales persons
‡ Skilled engineers - for services
 Does open source need branding?
‡ Beacons - Richard M Stallman, Linus Torvalds
‡ Open source branding is largely collaborative!
‡ Word of mouth, user group, merchandize
‡ Corporate backing
‡ Reliability
‡ Freedom as brand persona!
 Brand collaborators
‡ ï 

‡ ï   ï
 ! "# 
! "$ 

! 
‡ 
 
‡  



%  
‡ & 
 
‡ '
 
‡ ( 
 
‡ )
*)+ *,(*)   
‡ -

*
  .
% /0
‡    1/
 A few rules of thumb
‡ Branding is necessary expensive evil!
‡ Quality contributes to the longevity of any brand
‡ Branding costs, but also saves
‡ In little differentiated hardware (servers,
desktops) market, brand is a valuable
differentiator
‡ IT industry has maximum variety of collaborators,
as compared to any other industry
‡ Market share reinforces the brand