It sounds like a desperate attempt by a competitor to discredit a
successful campaign. However, looking at the details they are indicating
that only people who travel in airports regularly know about Centrino,
and obviously ... techies. But the rest of Mr. or Ms. Joe or Jane
Average? Nada.

Yousuf Khan

On Thu, 03 Feb 2005 22:07:42 -0500, Yousuf Khan <(E-Mail Removed)>
wrote:

>It sounds like a desperate attempt by a competitor to discredit a
>successful campaign. However, looking at the details they are indicating
>that only people who travel in airports regularly know about Centrino,
>and obviously ... techies. But the rest of Mr. or Ms. Joe or Jane
>Average? Nada.

I think where Centrino has REALLY succeeded, despite what AMD is
saying, is in convincing the laptop manufacturers. Just have a look
at what the likes of Toshiba and IBM are selling, it's damn near ALL
Centrino laptops. Whether or not customers buying laptops actually
care is another matter, but the marketing money Intel is providing
along with the Centrino brand is doing wonders for moving products.

-------------
Tony Hill
hilla <underscore> 20 <at> yahoo <dot> ca

On Thu, 03 Feb 2005 22:07:42 -0500, Yousuf Khan <(E-Mail Removed)>
wrote:

>It sounds like a desperate attempt by a competitor to discredit a
>successful campaign. However, looking at the details they are indicating
>that only people who travel in airports regularly know about Centrino,
>and obviously ... techies. But the rest of Mr. or Ms. Joe or Jane
>Average? Nada.
>

Google up

centrino brand strength

and wade through the links yourself. :-).

All the players are smart, all know about marketing and branding, all
know that marketing and branding cost money. Intel has lots of money,
but they are under constant pressure to keep their margins in line.
How would you spend the money?

Brands are very, very expensive, but every marketer wants a
recognizable brand, and whether a brand is "recognizable" or not may
depend on how you ask the question. Look at enough notebooks and
notebook ads with the Centrino logo, and the brand becomes
recognizable, if only from the distinctive shape of the logo--that's
why really good graphics designers make so much. To the prospective
buyer, that logo becomes a feature they want to have, even if they
don't know why (cf. Corinthian leather).

To turn the question around: how much market clout do you think an AMD
logo has?

RM

On Fri, 04 Feb 2005 08:11:24 -0500, Robert Myers <(E-Mail Removed)>
wrote:

>On Thu, 03 Feb 2005 22:07:42 -0500, Yousuf Khan <(E-Mail Removed)>
>wrote:
>
>>It sounds like a desperate attempt by a competitor to discredit a
>>successful campaign. However, looking at the details they are indicating
>>that only people who travel in airports regularly know about Centrino,
>>and obviously ... techies. But the rest of Mr. or Ms. Joe or Jane
>>Average? Nada.
>>
>
>Google up
>
>centrino brand strength
>
>and wade through the links yourself. :-).
>
>All the players are smart, all know about marketing and branding, all
>know that marketing and branding cost money. Intel has lots of money,
>but they are under constant pressure to keep their margins in line.
>How would you spend the money?
>
>Brands are very, very expensive, but every marketer wants a
>recognizable brand, and whether a brand is "recognizable" or not may
>depend on how you ask the question. Look at enough notebooks and
>notebook ads with the Centrino logo, and the brand becomes
>recognizable, if only from the distinctive shape of the logo--that's
>why really good graphics designers make so much. To the prospective
>buyer, that logo becomes a feature they want to have, even if they
>don't know why (cf. Corinthian leather).

Was (fine) Corinthian Leather really all that successful? Most people
don't know what Centrino is anyway - it's generally perceived as meaning an
Intel CPU... with a possible assocation with long battery life.

>To turn the question around: how much market clout do you think an AMD
>logo has?

If you watch F1 or the Tour de France... maybe? How much clout does Lance
have in the U.S.?<shrug> It's just the wrong color - most people hate
green [try to sell a green car]; they should change it to sky-blue or maybe
puce.</facetious>

--
Rgds, George Macdonald

Yousuf Khan wrote:
> It sounds like a desperate attempt by a competitor to discredit a
> successful campaign. However, looking at the details they are indicating
> that only people who travel in airports regularly know about Centrino,
> and obviously ... techies. But the rest of Mr. or Ms. Joe or Jane
> Average? Nada.
>
> Yousuf Khan

Oops, forgot to paste the link:

Intel Centrino brand weak, AMD thinks
http://www.theinquirer.net/?article=21073

Yousuf Khan

Robert Myers wrote:
> To turn the question around: how much market clout do you think an AMD
> logo has?

Funny, you should ask, looks like AMD is asking itself the same question:

AMD strikes back at Intel brand hegemony
http://www.theinquirer.net/?article=20890

Yousuf Khan

On Fri, 04 Feb 2005 17:12:32 -0500, George Macdonald
<fammacd=!SPAM^(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:

>On Fri, 04 Feb 2005 08:11:24 -0500, Robert Myers <(E-Mail Removed)>
>wrote:
>Was (fine) Corinthian Leather really all that successful? Most people
>don't know what Centrino is anyway - it's generally perceived as meaning an
>Intel CPU... with a possible assocation with long battery life.

No no no! Centrino means that you can use WiFi at the top of Mount
Everest! Dontcha know?!? Geez.. If you've got Centrino than you can
use WiFi ANYWHERE! Just watch the commercials! :>

>>To turn the question around: how much market clout do you think an AMD
>>logo has?
>
>If you watch F1 or the Tour de France... maybe? How much clout does Lance
>have in the U.S.?<shrug> It's just the wrong color - most people hate
>green [try to sell a green car]; they should change it to sky-blue or maybe
>puce.</facetious>

Hmm.. I guess I yet again do not fit the standard profile. Not only
do I rather like green, but I also watch F1 and have even been known
to catch the odd bit of the Tour. Maybe that's why I like AMD
processors?! :>

-------------
Tony Hill
hilla <underscore> 20 <at> yahoo <dot> ca

Using a finger dipped in purple ink, Tony Hill <(E-Mail Removed)> scribed:

>No no no! Centrino means that you can use WiFi at the top of Mount
>Everest! Dontcha know?!? Geez.. If you've got Centrino than you can
>use WiFi ANYWHERE! Just watch the commercials! :>

Yeah, in the middle of a park with NOTHING around for hundreds of yards!

That Intel, they're really good at (make up something)...





--

The truth is out there,

but it's not interesting enough for most people.

On Fri, 04 Feb 2005 23:02:04 -0500, Yousuf Khan <(E-Mail Removed)>
wrote:

>Robert Myers wrote:

>> To turn the question around: how much market clout do you think an AMD
>> logo has?
>
>Funny, you should ask, looks like AMD is asking itself the same question:
>
>AMD strikes back at Intel brand hegemony
>http://www.theinquirer.net/?article=20890
>
> Yousuf Khan

I'm glad to see that AMD has started paying more attention to my posts
to comp.*. ;-).

It's an ancient story. A better mousetrap just isn't good enough.

At the risk of dragging the discussion off-topic, another organization
that seems to have gotten religion is NASA:

http://origins.jpl.nasa.gov/about/index.html

I didn't direct you to the actual homepage of the Origins program,
because _it_ is still stuck in classic NASA
look-at-the-latest-metal-we-hurled-at-the-heavens mentality. With
that little misstep, though, NASA seems finally to have grasped that
it is more important to tell an engaging story than it is to do the
impossible.

RM

On Fri, 04 Feb 2005 17:12:32 -0500, George Macdonald
<fammacd=!SPAM^(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:

>On Fri, 04 Feb 2005 08:11:24 -0500, Robert Myers <(E-Mail Removed)>
>wrote:
>

<snip>

>>
>>Brands are very, very expensive, but every marketer wants a
>>recognizable brand, and whether a brand is "recognizable" or not may
>>depend on how you ask the question. Look at enough notebooks and
>>notebook ads with the Centrino logo, and the brand becomes
>>recognizable, if only from the distinctive shape of the logo--that's
>>why really good graphics designers make so much. To the prospective
>>buyer, that logo becomes a feature they want to have, even if they
>>don't know why (cf. Corinthian leather).
>
>Was (fine) Corinthian Leather really all that successful?

Corinthian Leather was successful enough to get a writeup in the Wall
Street Journal, and Chrysler stuck with the ad campaign through many
millions of dollars. I think that campaign was well into the focus
group era. Did it sell cars? Would I be spending time here if I
_really_ knew the answer to questions like that? ;-).

>Most people
>don't know what Centrino is anyway - it's generally perceived as meaning an
>Intel CPU... with a possible assocation with long battery life.
>

But it doesn't matter. It's a feature. The feature, you argue, is
poorly correlated in the minds of potential buyers with actual
benefits, but that doesn't matter if it's a feature people want.

If I'm not mistaken, full Centrino is more expensive than
Pentium-M+855 Chipset+OEM-supplied wireless. The OEM is buying the ad
campaign, not the functionality.

>>To turn the question around: how much market clout do you think an AMD
>>logo has?
>
>If you watch F1 or the Tour de France... maybe? How much clout does Lance
>have in the U.S.?<shrug>

Why would an American spend his time riding a bicycle in _France_?
Real men don't ride bicycles, they don't wear shorts like that, they
don't spend time in France or, if forced to do so, don't advertise it,
and they don't use AMD processors. People who ride bicycles, wear
shorts like that, spend time in France, and/or use AMD processors
probably spend their spare time playing weird computer games.

>It's just the wrong color - most people hate
>green [try to sell a green car]; they should change it to sky-blue or maybe
>puce.</facetious>

I liked your analysis of Sempron better. ;-).

RM