Intel has always dominated the processor market. In fact, for most of us, a processor may automatically mean Intel.
p____p Competing brands have been unable to erode this recall and Intel continues to benefit. So how did Intel become as popular as it is today?
p____p Well, quite a few things actually. To begin with, Intel changed a few rules of the game.
p____p There was a change in its marketing strategy after it began shipping its P4 processors. Pentium was shortened to �P� and the processor was called the �P4� as it is known today.
p____p Simultaneously, Intel also began advertising the P4 on television to target assemblers, as well as hobbyists and students. It held “Digital PC Parties” for end-users along with its television campaign. These end-user bashes were held at around 21 Tier-3 cities across the country.
p____p Customers were informed about these events through various point-of-purchase literature as well as �Intel volunteers�. In other words, Intel began aggressively selling the P4 to potential end-users, as if it was a typical FMCG consumer item.
p____p Intel�s effort translated into a lot of sales leads, which were given to its channel partners. In fact, Intel trained them to convert these leads into actual sales.
p____p That was not all. Intel even ensured that end-users had financial options in terms of consumer loans. Of course, the advertisements on television continued.
p____p Meanwhile, Intel had already ensured that teachers and students used its processors, thanks to the numerous training programs it organized. There was no way anyone could miss the sheer presence of the Intel brand.
p____p Until recently, the end-user was not really interested in whether PCs had processors or not. But after these efforts, end-users would begin to insist on an Intel processor.
p____p The message was that their PCs would give them good performance only if it had �intel inside�. Suddenly, everybody wanted a �P4�. No other processor would do.
p____p Needless to say, Intel had created a “pull” for its product from among end-users. And Intel�s channel partners were only too happy to oblige.
p____p Now. is it is any wonder that Intel has very little competition? Also, isn�t it clear that any vendor, which aspires to compete with Intel, would have to do a better job to woo both channel partners as well as end-users?
p____p But as things stand today, no competing vendor seems to have any plans to appeal to end-users� hearts and minds. The competition still seems to believe that merely appointing a few distributors would do the trick.
p____p Now, that�s really sad. If only someone told them to go to the end-users and create that “pull”…