Intel re-branding effort revisited

Today Intel announced new technology that is reported to offer a microarchitecture dual-core processor that will deliver gains in performance and reductions in power-consumption.This new technology, vPro, joins the confusing array of brand names such as Centrino, Viiv, Core Duo and Core Solo that Intel has embraced as part of its new re-branding effort (I previously commented on the new strategy in my January 4, 2006 blog entry at http://davedolak.blogspot.com/2006/01/intel-rebrands-itself.html ).

If one reads the press release from the company (http://www.intel.com/pressroom/archive/releases/20060422corp.htm), one cannot shake the feeling that Intel is either trying to confuse consumers with its brand communication or that it is now only speaking to geeks within IT departments.

One of the reasons Intel had built such a powerful consumer brand was the fact that its brand communication was simple and we consumers all somehow understood that the Intel chip was superior to its competitors.We may not have understood exactly why, but we believed it.

Now Intel’s brand communication is a muddled message of technical specifications, jargon and benefits so difficult to decipher that it sends the message that Intel is now a commodity brand whose promises are only intelligible to the fine folks within IT departments who can understand the jargon and any possible benefits.

Intel has taken one of the strongest consumer brands in history and positioned itself as a commodity with very low differentiation in the minds of consumers. I strongly doubt that most consumers will continue to perceive much different between Intel and competing brands and that the equity Intel has built by having consumers ask for its chips by name has been squandered.The very fact that the brand’s communication is so technical and so hard to understand seems to communicate that there aren’t real differences between computer chip brands anymore and that any differences are so arcane so as to be unimportant to most consumers.

We should all take note as we build our brands.If we try to “re-brand” and change the meanings of our brands once brand equity has been established in the marketplace, we run the risk changing brand promises to the point where they communicate very little, or worse, communicate nothing unique or compelling whatsoever.

In my opinion, Intel has invented a whole new science within the marketing profession called, “reverse branding”. They have taken a leading consumer brand and commoditized it.