Is Centrino brand all that strong?

[Yousuf Khan]

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

 

[Tony Hill]

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.

 

[Robert Myers]

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

 

[George Macdonald]

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>

 

[Yousuf Khan]

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

 

[Yousuf Khan]

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

 

[Tony Hill]

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?! :>

 

[Never anonymous Bud]

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)...

 

[Robert Myers]

Robert Myers wrote:

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

 

[Robert Myers]

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.

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

 

[Tony Hill]

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

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

Marketing?

 

[Tony Hill]

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.

The OEM is NOT buying the ad campaign at all, they're getting PAID for
the ad campaign. Intel provides BIG-$$$ for companies to advertise
their laptops as "Centrino Mobile Technology", complete with the Intel
symbol and badda-bing. If you just buy the Pentium-M + chipset but
use a different WiFi chip than you gotta foot the entire marketing
bill to advertise your products. Add in that Intel WiFi chip though
and call it Centrino and Intel will basically cover all of your
marketing costs.

 

[Gnu_Raiz]

Marketing?

I am still waiting for Intel or AMD to do something like the Vonage
commercials. you know "People do stupid things" then you insert a guy in a
blue Centrino shirt, or in a green AMD shirt, do something really stupid
with a computer. Or have a big pop up screen, telling the user to right
click, show the user pounding on the left mouse button. Oh don't forget
that catchy tune, that in itself is probably what makes the commercials so
funny. But we all know that who ever did that would probably have the
attorneys knocking on their doors with defamation law suites.

Gnu_Raiz

 

[Yousuf Khan]

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! :>

I think I can recall seeing in fine print on those Intel commercials
that they were saying that there was WiFi at some basestation of
Everest. Of course that had little to do with the images they were
showing on the commercial itself, which really made it clear that these
climbers must've been 10,000 feet up already.

Yousuf Khan

 

[Yousuf Khan]

Marketing?

While AMD's marketing department recently had to pull some radio ads
from Belgium or the Netherlands or somewhere like that, because they
were claiming that their NX-bit technology was a substitute for
anti-virus software. Seems Intel gets away with a few things which AMD
gets caught for.

Yousuf Khan

 

[George Macdonald]

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? ;-).

Figures... all Chrysler had going for it by then was err, seats! Focus
group era? Did that correspond with what was known as the "pussification"
of American industry?

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.

The pricing of non-Centrino Wi-Fi wasn't much different about a year ago...
though I don't bother to look beyond Thinkpads much. Currently, there's
very little competitive offerings that I see; IBM has a very few Thinkpads
with "IBM 11b/g Wireless", which may be Cisco parts(?), in their top end
systems but also in a couple of lower end systems. IOW if you wanted to
avoid Centrino now, it'd be kinda difficult but the price is not much
different, from what I see.

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.

Uh-huh - "real men" sit around drinking beer, watching steroid-induced
monsters in heavily padded clothing trying to beat each other to death?
They go to the gym 3 times a week but don't ask them to walk two blocks to
get there.

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.

Something about the shorts that I've missed? Ever watch Paris-Roubaix?
Now these are the *real* hard men.

 

[Robert Myers]

Uh-huh - "real men" sit around drinking beer, watching steroid-induced
monsters in heavily padded clothing trying to beat each other to death?
They go to the gym 3 times a week but don't ask them to walk two blocks to
get there.


Something about the shorts that I've missed? Ever watch Paris-Roubaix?
Now these are the *real* hard men.

For my own part, I'm fond of Proust. For whatever it's worth, though,
I think my attempted send-up of why Lance Armstrong isn't that
effective for selling outside AMD's core constituency
(anti-establishment gamers) reflects fairly well the level of
rationality at which people actually make these decisions, which is to
say that it isn't rational at all.

Or, oh well, there probably is some rationality there, but I wouldn't
claim to be smart enough to parse it. Intel's marketing is: buy what
you're familiar with and what you know will work; no expatriate
Americans on bicycles in France for that message. AMD's message is:
the same old, same old isn't always the best--(gasp!) American winning
(gasp!) the Tour de France is exactly on message. AMD really can't
build its brand in quite the same way as Intel...

And at some level, the really important buyers have to understand
that. AMD, for all its accomplishments, is still in the "prove it"
division. Lance Armstrong just the right image for that spot, I
guess; he has to have made believers of the French (other than those
who firmly believe his success is the result of illegal drugs).

But Lance Armstrong has ridden his last or next to last tour? DEC is
no more. IBM is still chugging along (although you may have to review
your choice of laptop).

RM

 

[keith]

I think I can recall seeing in fine print on those Intel commercials
that they were saying that there was WiFi at some basestation of
Everest.

Wi Fi Internet Cafe Planned for Everest Base Camp:

http://www.network54.com/Forum/thread?forumid=3897&messageid=1042730350

Of course that had little to do with the images they were
showing on the commercial itself, which really made it clear that these
climbers must've been 10,000 feet up already.

The Everest "base camp" is at 17,500ft. It looks like a nice place for a
vacation. http://www.vashonsd.wednet.edu/everest/dispatch6.htm --- NOT!

 

[keith]

Figures... all Chrysler had going for it by then was err, seats! Focus
group era? Did that correspond with what was known as the "pussification"
of American industry?

Did you drive a Chrysler of that era? A new name for the hyde of the
rare Nalga was by far the best thing they had going.

The pricing of non-Centrino Wi-Fi wasn't much different about a year
ago... though I don't bother to look beyond Thinkpads much. Currently,
there's very little competitive offerings that I see; IBM has a very few
Thinkpads with "IBM 11b/g Wireless", which may be Cisco parts(?),

The drivers for my IBM 11/a/b/g cardbus card have a name on them I've
never heard (and don't remember). I decided to pass on the R50 they were
trying to push on me, so I don't know what the hardware in there is/was.

in
their top end systems but also in a couple of lower end systems. IOW if
you wanted to avoid Centrino now, it'd be kinda difficult but the price
is not much different, from what I see.

The ThinkPads I've looked (a small slice of ones on sale, perhaps) at
weren't Centrinos. They were all Pentium-Ms.

Uh-huh - "real men" sit around drinking beer, watching steroid-induced
monsters in heavily padded clothing trying to beat each other to death?
They go to the gym 3 times a week but don't ask them to walk two blocks
to get there.

Speaking of which, I gotta stock the fridge for the festivities tonight.
What's Vegas have to say about a Harrison "wardrome malfunction"?

Something about the shorts that I've missed? Ever watch
Paris-Roubaix? Now these are the *real* hard men.

No, but if it's anything like Paris-Hilton, I can believe it. ;-)

 

[RusH]

While AMD's marketing department recently had to pull some radio
ads from Belgium or the Netherlands or somewhere like that,
because they were claiming that their NX-bit technology was a
substitute for anti-virus software.

well, it was not made up, it was a LIE for clicking idiots. Something
along the lines of "now you can click anythink on that porn site, AMD
will protect you from viruses and spyware".



Pozdrawiam.