Yes, that's one big failure of HP Marketing. It's exactly what, in some of
my previous posts, I refer as a "preaching the choir" attitude.

A few weeks ago, on French TV, we had an excellent IBM commercial. Beware,
this commercial described server consolidation onto a mainframe running
Linux. The ad featured a supermarket-size computer room which has been
totally emptied, save a big Superdome-size box (exact name unimportant) at
the very end. Of course, the IBM people who designed the ad do not expect a
prime-time, commercial-channel TV audience to master the tricky art of
consolidation, nor do they expect their audience to have any idea of what a
mainframe is, or of what Linux is. And I'd bet the farm and all its attached
land that they plain don't care. Their aim is to promote brand awareness.

To some extent, HP has been successful in promoting brand awareness, but
their brand recognition remains limited to home/small office segments :
Deskjets, some Laserjets, do-it-all appliances (you know, those boxes that
send faxes, print and scan documents, etc), home scanners, CD writers,
perhaps home PCs, and that's it. The HP brand recognition does not encompass
the corporate world. That's where, IMNSHO, they have failed big time : most
decisions involving IT are now made by non-IT people : read CFOs, COOs,
CEOs, Presidents, in other words the ones who have enough clout (including,
but not limited to, the strings of the purse) to sponsor big-buck projects
(SAP and the like). That's where an unlimited brand awareness and brand
recognition may help. That's where, in the medium term, IBM will leverage
corporate-segment market share out of a consumer-oriented commercial. But
IBM has always been quoted in business schools as an example relevant and
successful marketing. Excuse me, HP Ladies and Gentlemen, but I yet have to
read my first case study based on an HP marketing action. Unless, of course,
you are looking for examples of what NOT to do.

That's why preaching the choir is irrelevant.

Christian Lheureux
Responsable du Département Systèmes et Réseaux / Head of Systems and
Networks Department
APPIC R.H.
business partner hp invent
Tel : +33-1-69-80-97-22   /   Fax : +33-1-69-80-97-14 / e-mail :
[log in to unmask]
"Le Groupe APPIC recrute, contactez nous !"



> -----Message d'origine-----
> De : HP-3000 Systems Discussion [mailto:[log in to unmask]]De la
> part de Jonathan M. Backus
> Envoyé : mercredi 19 décembre 2001 19:04
> À : [log in to unmask]
> Objet : Re: [HP3000-L] The Real Story About HP's Announcement...
>
>
>         I personally believe part of the marketing failure
> came from HP's decision
> to only market HP3000 computers, and advancements, to the
> installed base.
> If you have a closed audience of, say 60,000 customers (just
> a number out of
> the air), and you only target them with your limited marketing budget
> (advertising in HP centric publications, etc.), then you are
> going to loose
> ground.  No matter how happy and loyal your customs are there
> will be some
> that fall away for a variety of reason (go out of business,
> merge, acquire a
> package only available on another platform, etc.) and if you
> do nothing to
> bring new customers to the table, your install base WILL shrink.
>
> Thanx,
>         Jon
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: HP-3000 Systems Discussion [mailto:[log in to unmask]]On
> Behalf Of John Pollard
> Sent: Wednesday, December 19, 2001 11:34 AM
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: Re: [HP3000-L] The Real Story About HP's Announcement...
>
> And all this talk about HP's failure in marketing may have
> some truth in
> it; I am no marketer.  But it is certainly insulting to HP's
> customers,
> current and past.  I do not assume that those who purchased
> HP products in
> the past were so stupid that they did not know about HP's
> newer products,
> and were just sitting around not buying again because HP was
> not “selling”
> to them.  I believe that, absent convincing evidence to the contrary,
> those “one-time” customers were themselves making good
> business decisions
> (not to buy), and that no amount of marketing was doing to
> stuff a computer
> down their throats which they did not believe they needed.
>
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