The big Chinese brand hope is on Lenovo, the largest personal-computer maker in China. Formerly known as Legend Group Limited, the company bought IBM’s PC operations for $1.75 billion in 2005.
In addition to desktop and notebook PCs, Lenovo makes displays and storage drives. The company also has an IT services business.
Currently Lenovo is tied with Acer, the Taiwan company, as the third largest PC manufacturer with a market share of 6.7 percent. (Hewlett-Packard leads with 19.1 percent. Dell is second with 15.2 percent.)
How can Lenovo move up the PC ladder? We made three suggestions to the Chinese marketing community.
1. Focus the product line.
Leaders can sometimes get away with marketing a broad line of products and services, especially if they have a powerful brand name like General Electric. But is Lenovo a powerful brand name? I think not.
What should Lenovo focus on? Again, that’s a decision that should be easy to make. Recently laptop and notebook computers have been outselling desktop computers. Furthermore, there’s reason to believe desktop computers might someday become obsolete.
Lenovo should drop its desktop machines and focus on notebook computers.
2. Focus the company name.
Legend was a bad name; Lenovo is an even worse name. It sounds like an Italian dessert.
Fortunately, Lenovo was given a priceless present in its IBM purchase. That present was the “ThinkPad” name which IBM used on its notebook computers.
Change the name of the company to ThinkPad Corporation.
ThinkPad is a unique and different name. Furthermore it communicates the “notebook” idea, the new focus of the company.
3. Focus the attribute of the ThinkPad brand.
To build a powerful brand, you need to stand for something in the prospect’s mind. BMW means “driving.” Volvo means “safety.” Mercedes-Benz means “prestige.” What should ThinkPad mean?
What’s the weakness of a notebook computer as compared with a desktop machine? It’s battery life.
We would redesign the entire ThinkPad line in order to double the battery life, even if it meant selling a heavier machine. (Every benefit comes with baggage.) Furthermore, as batteries get better, that disadvantage would disappear.
Hopefully, the new ThinkPad Corporation could produce notebook computers that would run all day on one charge. That would mean a company employee could use his or her notebook computer all day long without plugging the machine into an outline. At the end of the day, the employee would re-charge the notebook so it would be ready to go again the next morning.
Slogan: ThinkPad: The all-day notebook.
Sure, Lenovo is currently successful because it can build computers in China very cheap. But as I said last week, as the Chinese economy improves, as the wages go up, that advantage is going to go away. While it lasts, Lenovo has an opportunity to build a powerful worldwide brand that stands for something in the mind.
China chance will depend on the strength of its brands. And ThinkPad, if focused and branded correctly, has a great chance at being the world's best computer brand.
http://crunchgear.com/2007/05/31/lenovos-latest-laptops-promise-battery-life-to-the-extremesorta-kinda/#more-7730
thats really cool to see the theory really applied. i hope it pays off. i remember reading in 22 immutable laws the suggestion for burger king to differentiate from mcdonalds by a campaign focusing on something like "grow up to the taste of blahblahwhatever." BK ignored the advice, but Hardee's in st louis ran ads doing exactly that, and suddenly their revenues started going up like 10% per year. my marketing professor even mentioned how impressed he was with the ads in class when they started running. one was just classic. they had 3 pregnant women chowing down on thickburgers. the line was "enjoy it, cause for the next 12 years you're gonna be eating at mcdonalds."
Posted by: Tom22 | June 2007 at 12:40 AM
Laura has seen the Asian Disease in action ("Cheaper, Quicker, Better) and understands the cure: Focused marketing (that builds world-class brands).
My work with Asian startups tells me the infants understand, it is the adults who are just beginning to painfully learn (e.g. Read the WSJ's editorial of May 30, 2007, "Yes Logo").
Keep pouring it on, Laura, you'll help fuel the right fire!
Posted by: John | June 2007 at 05:33 PM
Laura,
You have great timing, and obviously amazing pull with your clients. I wander by occasionally and today saw your post; clicking on another site I saw the response - http://crunchgear.com/2007/05/31/lenovos-latest-laptops-promise-battery-life-to-the-extremesorta-kinda/#more-7730
We'll have to see how it plays out. Given your dislike for the feature rich/focus shy iPhone; do you have any insights into what you told Lenovo in regards to portability beyond a laptop?
Posted by: NW Guy | May 2007 at 07:31 PM
But will customers accept the Lenovo brand regardless of its country of origin (COO)?Taiwanese firms are stuggling with their own-brand, forward-integration efforts -- with many failing (e.g. BenQ). I don't know about you, but when I shop for high-involvement products, I want to know where the brand comes from. And I also want to know how Lenovo will stack up post sale. Non-Chinese firms should just take Lenovo's aspirations as a cue to ratchet up their own efforts.
Posted by: Gordon | May 2007 at 04:59 AM
Though I think you make some great points about Lenovo, I respectfully disagree with some of your thoughts on Thinkpad.
The ThinkPad brand in my eyes (though I am biased since I started out in IT) already stands for something. Thinkpads are well-built, strong corporate laptops that won't win awards on looks but that will stand being lugged around from home to work to clients and back on a daily basis. They're not quite unbreakable, they're not pretty, they're certainly not cheap - but they get the job done. They're the 'Company machine', for lack of a catchier concept.
I think that the 'all day charge' concept is not incompatible with this existing image, but I don't see it as the USP that would make the great difference for the Thinkpad user. All the people I know with a Thinkpad put it in a docking station at work, some of them even have a docking station at home - making batterylife moot when not seeing clients.
As such I'd think that the one day charge concept could be better put to use under a new line extension, focusing on that strength, without the Thinkpad image clinging to it.
Posted by: Guy | May 2007 at 04:58 AM
Fantastic post as usual.
I think they could even turn it up a notch from there. The name 'ThinkPad' also implies 'intelligent'. For transparent differentiation under the same slogan, value can be built in by better, intelligent design.
Illuminated keys, power adjustment based on processor 'sensing', biometric scanning as a standard, a wi-fi/bluetooth sensor which automatically senses all communication enabled vessels in a 'personal area network'. Additionally, the notebooks need to be visually discernable in a crowd which comprises of rectangular, black laptops.
China needs to change the 'cheap' association. Efficient is an easily attainable position. Intelligent isn't too far fetched either.
Posted by: yasser brohi | May 2007 at 12:33 PM
Laura: Great ideas. Now, do you have an all-day-long battery I could put in my Dell???
Posted by: greg gillispie | May 2007 at 03:59 PM
Outstanding thoughts as usual!!
Re slogan... could you drop the word "notebook" as it is the same word as "Thinkpad"? Maybe Thinkpad: All-day freedom;
or something similar?
Posted by: Neil Bull (Australia) | May 2007 at 10:35 AM
Thinkpad is a much better name, especially for a notebook. On the other hand, Dell and HP have terrible names and they are the leaders.
Posted by: Charlie Sipe | May 2007 at 12:06 AM
I have to say I always love your insight and would hire you in a heartbeat.
Posted by: Noah | May 2007 at 06:02 PM
Hi Laura! Great thoughts! I just wanted to say that to me, BMW means "performance driving", not just driving, which is what all automobiles do.
Posted by: Morriss Partee | May 2007 at 04:36 PM