Intel To Spend $2m Re-branding
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It’s likely to be a big year for Intel Australia’s marketing department with a list of major product announcements lined up and a re-branding campaign already underway.

The company plans to spend in excess of $2 million dollars in Australia branding the new company logo and promoting its new platforms such as Centrino DUO and Viiv, both of which are launching in the first quarter.

High on the to-do list will be a complete refresh of the company’s Point-of-Sale materials which all need to reflect the new branding. Intel Public Relations Manager Dan Anderson told SmartOffice the company hopes to have the bulk of this re-branding completed within six months with a near complete refresh likely to take at least a year.

You can’t force every little retail outlet to change over their signage when you want them to, but Intel will be sending out new PoS materials to resellers in an effort to get the new look in front of the public as quickly as possible.

The$2 million-plus budget for this year’s marketing activities incorporates a $1 million direct spend with the remainder offered to vendor, distribution and resellers partners in cooperative marketing dollars as in previous campaigns.

This component is hard to put an exact figure on at this stage as it depends on sales volumes and the amount of  cooperative dollars Intel’s partners are willing to invest. However, Anderson said that $1 million would be a conservative figure based on past experience.

As well as the new logo, tag line and new platform branding to cover off, Intel is working to re-position itself as a company that empowers users much in the same way that Microsoft pitches its wares.

One example of the new marketing philosophy, explained Anderson is the new sponsorship of the BMW Sauber Formula 1 racing team. It’s a long way from the earnest educational and scientific sponsorships Intel has done in the past, he said and the move to a racier (pardon the pun) type of sponsorship reflects a new positioning for the company.

Intel wants the market to know that it is a key enabler for the digital world and the move away from CPU speeds, chipsets numbers and general geekdom signals what the company admits is a “fundamental shift in its approach to the market that began with the development of the Intel Centrino mobile technology platform”.

The new look, platform orientation and marketing messages are designed to “better communicate important characteristics and value to consumers’ says the company, so that Intel can be “better recognized for [its] contributions, establish a stronger emotional connection with [its] audiences, and strengthen [its] overall position in the marketplace.”

The new Intel logo evolves the Intel Inside logo (introduce in 1991) and significantly updates the “dropped-e” logo, which was created by Robert Noyce and Gordon Moore 37 years ago when they first formed their new “INtegrated ELectronics” company.

The new “Leap ahead” tagline is Intel’s unique brand promise and is designed to communicate what drives Intel as a company, and what Intel makes possible, said the company.

“‘Intel. Leap ahead.’ is a simple expression that declares who we are and what we do,” said a company spokesperson. “This is part of our heritage. Our mission at Intel has always been to find and drive the next leap ahead — in technology, in education, social responsibility, manufacturing and more — to continuously challenge the status quo.  It’s about using Intel technology to make life better, richer and more convenient for everyone.”