Jul 15, 2005
Posted by Mike in Advertising,Branding
1 Comments
ThinkPad X41 Tablet by… ummm… Lenovo
Did anyone else notice the new advertising campaign for the ThinkPad X41 Tablet PC that launched yesterday?
WPP Group’s Ogilvy & Mather, New York created the campaign, which aside from the coolness factor of the product shot (which dominates 2/3 of the full-page New York Times ad) it’s missing the one thing that most clients would demand: the Lenovo™ brand.
It’s an interesting strategy, the client’s logo is nowhere to be found in the ad. Come to think of it, the client’s logo is nowhere to be found on their website either. Even the Lenovo™ name is burried in the last paragraph, with both Microsoft and Intel logos and names coming before it. Heck, if you even just glance at the product shot, you notice that the IBM logo is still in the lower right corner of the product itself! What’s really strange, is that the press photo available from the Lenovo™ website has no logo at all.
So what’s going on here? AdAge‘s Beth Snyder Bulik had a piece covering the new campaign yesterday (LENOVO BREAKS FIRST PRODUCT CAMPAIGN SINCE IBM MERGER) in which Josh Shapiro, Lenovo’s vice president of integrated market communications summed it all up:
“While the merger has gone smoothly, Mr. Shapiro said it is important going forward to establish the Lenovo brand, distinct from either the “old” Lenovo, which was China’s largest personal computer maker, or IBM personal computing.”
The strategy is simple:
- Launch waaayyy cool new product
- Lenovo™ currently has no brand in the US market (except maybe as that Chinese company that bought IBM).
- Product partners Microsoft and Intel have strong brands, so rely on them for now to build the Lenovo™ brand.
- Throw in a subtle reference to IBM to play off of whatever is left of their PC brand glory.
- Save the real branding campaign with nifty logo and positioning ads for a later date.
LESSON FOR CLIENTS:
Sometimes slapping your logo all over an ad is not such a good idea.
LESSONS FOR MARKETERS:
1) Listen to David Ogilvy: “Every advertisment is part of the long-term investment in the personality of the brand.” The folks at Ogilvy & Mather, New York obviously did.
2) A brand is more than a logo, build the brand, tell the client no when they want their logo everywhere, and listen to David Ogilvy.
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