Lenovo Adds to the Olympic Experience
I don't know about you, but I've got Olympic fever. I've been watching swimming, basketball, cycling, rowing, soccer, you name it. I've seen it on TV, and also watched some events on my computer. It's very cool how NBC has set everything up. Powering much of this technology at the Olympics is computer maker Lenovo. The brand name might not be very familiar in the United States, but the maker of the ThinkPad PC has its own Olympic-sized hurdles to jump in its branding strategy.
More than 30,000 pieces of equipment including Lenovo desktop and notebook PCs, monitors and servers are supporting the Olympic Games. This hardware helps manage virtually every aspect of the Games, from gathering and storing participant data to displaying the scores. Lenovo equipment supports 56 venues across seven cities for the Beijing Games. And some athletes are using Lenovo ThinkPads to blog about their experiences. It's just one part of the company's strategy to increase worldwide brand awareness.
We spoke to David Churbuck, Lenovo's vice president of global Web marketing, in the latest issue of 1to1 Weekly. Churbuck leads Lenovo's interactive advertising globally, as well as supporting all of its e-commerce divisions and Lenovo's Web operations. He says that The great challenge of Lenovo marketing is to build a new brand around what is essentially a $16 billion start-up. Awareness is the name of the game.
As for online marketing, he explains that customer expectations online have evolved, and the experience is of utmost importance.
It's about looking at the best-in-breed experience that customers are accustomed to everywhere online -- not just among our competitor set. We look at eBay, at Amazon, at discount camera vendors, etc., to try and learn about meeting the needs of the customer. Our Web traffic provides us with the largest focus group we could ask for. We just need to hear what they're telling us.
How does your company approach branding and online marketing? What challenges do you see? And how do you like the Olympics so far?
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IBM has produced a truly stunning notebook computer made up of the best mobile components available. Yes it’s ludicrously expensive, but that doesn’t stop it being a superb mobile workstation, and definitely doesn’t stop me wanting one.
Social networking on the Net is really a big deal for us as we're developing complex Web applications. So, sponsorship of professional and social blogs is a staple here. I absolutely agree with Lenovo's David Churbuck that listening on the Net does a lot of good both in product development and customer service. At the end of the day, it all boils down to strengthening the bond with customers and instilling brand awareness around the corner. Well, it seems listening pays in every medium.
The ThinkPad stood for design and operationally quality. We have owned five of them and still do. In our judgment, they operate better and have more interesting features than any other laptop. We particularly liked the unique trackball. Also the full size keyboard.
The transition from IBM to Lenovo was seamless. They did a good job. The quality remained, even on the lower end 3000 model.
But now with the advent of new products, they seem to have emulated other computer manufacturers, outsourcing sales and service to India or other points East. They may be ahead of themselves.
If the goal is to instill the notion of Lenovo quality in people's minds and to make people comfortable with the brand, then service, assuming the U.S. is the largest market, should cater to the American idiom. Lenovo can slowly transition to the Eastern service mode in the future but now seems a bit too soon.
Also, the elimination of the unique trackball on certain models seems a bit too soon as well. Otherwise, what does Lenovo offer that others don't?
For the first time in more than twenty years, we are reluctantly considering a different brand for our next purchase--an especially interesting situation for us as we operate an advertising/marketing consulting firm that specializes in branding and direct marketing.