Brand Strength
To calculate the Final Brand Valuation, a Discount Rate is required.
The discount rate is the rate of return that could be earned on an investment in the financial markets with similar risk – the opportunity cost of capital.
The value of the discount rate is derived from the Brand Strength – the higher the brand strength, the lower the discount rate.
The following 10 factors are used to ascertain the Brand Strength. Equal weights (10% each) are placed on each of these factors to derive a final Brand Strength Value.
A Brand Strength Value of 70 is calculated.
See Below for a substantiation of ratings for each factor.
Finally, a discount rate is applied in proportion to the following table.
A Discount Rate of 7.68% is determined.
Substantiation of Ratings
Internal Factors:
Clarity (9)
Within Intel’s organization, at all levels, there is a strong understanding of the primary goal of the brand – Omnipresence in every piece of technological devices beyond servers and PCs.
If employees in an organization truly believe in the organization’s goal, customers seem to gain similar perceptions over time. This was substantiated from our survey results which indicated that Intel has managed to build an image amongst its consumers that resonates with its goals. Intel is hence rated high on Clarity.
Commitment (8)
In terms of commitment, we have found that Intel commits wholeheartedly to its future by continuously investing in new technologies that could “write the next page” in our usage of Information Technology in our lives. Their various campaigns and research into the Internet of Things (IOT) and wearable technologies underlie this commitment. Intel is rate an 8 in this respect.
Responsiveness (5)
Intel is rated a 5 in this factor for responsiveness. As a developer of new technologies, billions have to be spent to incubate and develop ideas before any revenue streams can be realized after many years. Hence the company is highly susceptible to changes in the market, particularly when it comes to consumer sentiment and realizing opportunities. Fortunately for Intel, its products have thus far revolutionized and led the market in terms of personal computing products and servers built around the capabilities of its processors. The company has also taken pains to continuously renew and reinvent itself in is consumer campaigns and slogans. However, it remains to be seen if Intel can maintain its existing market share to capture and influence opportunities into the future.
Protection (7)
Intel is rated a 7 here for its brand’s Protectability. While Intel enjoys protection and preservation of its intellectual property (IP) across most of its markets, the global scale and competitive nature of its business makes it somewhat susceptible to copycats who might attempt to reverse-engineer its technologies. The constant presence of its faithful competitor AMD and the rise of cash rich technology companies in the far east threaten in respect. Thankfully however, Intel’s technological capabilities are at such a level that there are only a few global companies with the necessary expertise to be able to distill its IP from an analysis of its products to make new copycat products of their own.
External Factors:
Relevance (6)
As long as people still use laptops, desktop PC’s and servers, Intel will never be irrelevant to the consumer market. As far as these market segments are concerned, Intel is doing a fantastic job on delivering consistent quality tailored to the needs of every particular segment – be it gaming enthusiast, general computing or enterprise usage. Intel’s technology partner program is one example of how it continues to ‘listen’ to the market and how it is open to cooperating (in terms of technology) with other firms who are not in the traditional PC manufacturing industry so as not to miss out on any growing trends which may be disguised opportunities.
However, Intel is only scored a 6 out of 10 is because we feel that it has almost completely missed out on being in large part of our daily lives – the mobile computing market, a market which most people in our survey felt Intel should play a big part in.
Authenticity (8)
For the last two decades, Intel has been the epitome of reliability and quality in terms of the products they deliver. This fact is obvious in the results of our survey, where majority of respondents confirmed one of the qualities of Intel as reliable. Also, none of the respondents responded that Intel had product performance below functional. True to their famous tagline or logo “Intel Inside”, Intel has placed true emphasis on delivering the best available computing power inside hardware of various applications. Their latest marketing strategies which espouse the value that “it is the inside that counts” remain consistent with this central theme. As a result, our team feels Intel is an 8 out of 10 for authenticity.
Differentiation (9)
Intel has clearly set itself apart from the rest of its competitors when it comes to how consumers perceive the brand. Intel has become synonymous to reliability, high performance and excellence through its marketing campaigns and user experience. Its distinct positioning in the market as the premium and top of mind brand for data servers, desktop PCs and laptop microprocessor chips made us give it a score of 9 out 10.
Consistency (6)
Intel has constantly stayed on top of its game, having majority of the share in its main markets segments – data servers, desktop PCs and laptops. Being the market leader across these areas has helped Intel build a reputation of ubiquity and omnipresence, however, as the technological advances are now more prevalent than ever, spanning across not only these three main markets, Intel has yet to stay consistent. Especially in the smartphones and tablets area, where it lags behind, Intel must now take two steps ahead in order to allow its brand to be experienced even more. Thus, we give Intel a score of 6 out of 10 for this.
Presence (8)
Intel enjoys a high degree of presence or rather omnipresence in its strong segments, i.e. data centers and personal computers. In these 2 key segments, Intel brand’s presence is a key driver amongst opinion and decision forming customers. Thus, we have given a score of 8 for the ‘Presence’ factor.
Understanding (4)
The masses don’t completely understand the brand. They recognize the company at a broad level – their understanding varies across the technology spectrum. They are not completely in sync with Intel’s products or the products that Intel is present in. Too many sub-products and complex nomenclature further add to their woes. The masses are not aware of Intel’s future in IOT. Keeping these considerations in mind, we have given a score of 4 for the ‘Understanding’ factor.
