Introduction
BRAND PERCEPTION SURVEY
In following up with our team’s observation on 6 individuals and how they related to the Intel Brand, a survey was conducted to gauge Intel’s Brand Perceptions amongst a larger pool of current customers and prospects.
Whilst Intel’s products are largely purchased in Business-to-Business (B2B) transactions to facilitate the final assembly of computer/IT products, it is in reality a business still governed by consumer demand of finished products bearing its components, hence the significance of this poll to ascertain final consumer sentiments towards the brand.
Between 13 June 2014 to 20 June 2014, 82 individuals filled up survey forms pertaining to their perceptions of Intel. The following sections intend to stratify and identify these groups of consumers, and to discern meaningful data from their recorded responses.
RESPONDENTS’ PROFILE
Survey respondents were approached at random from a diverse network of associates within our team’s workplaces and in public. It is further noted that the team deliberately avoided utilizing any means of social media to solicit responses to our survey so as NOT to introduce any bias to the survey results.
Respondents hailed from 8 countries and were either living, working or studying in Singapore, or in the country for a short social visit. They ranged in age from 19 to 57 years, with a majority of respondents aged within their mid-20s to 30s and unmarried. Care was further taken to ensure a good mix of genders for our survey to minimize any effects of gender-bias.
Occupation-wise, surveyees worked in a diverse range of industries that included Banking, Engineering, Aviation, Real Estate, Manufacturing and Healthcare to name a few examples. Others were newly retired or still in college.
One thing that all respondents had in common was their ubiquitous usage of multiple IT devices, which was apparent during the course of the interviews conducted. Unbeknownst to them, the usage of such devices was our team’s qualifying criteria for their responses to be included – so that all responses collated would be relevant, useful and possibly insightful.
INTEL’S SLOGANS AND THEIR RECOGNITION
Surveyees were first asked what brand they associated with the Tagline “Look inside”. Our team found that a large majority of respondents could identify this tagline as belonging to the Intel brand. This is attributable to the successful marketing strategy that Intel used to publicize this tagline.
Before sales, Intel places adverts on platforms such as social media and internet webpages.
The Intel brand is further promoted during at the point of sales of various IT hardware and at IT/Consumer Electronics Fairs around the world. Post-sales, Intel’s “Look inside” tagline continues to excel in promoting brand recognition via its colourful stickers affixed onto the many products which use its computer chips. Of interesting mention is the fact that more than 1 in 10 responses imagined this Intel slogan to refer to Victoria’s Secret products – highlighting the risk, albeit a small risk, that such a tagline might get confused with the products of a wholly different brand.
Respondents were next asked what brand they associated with the Tagline “Leap Ahead”. From the response statistics, it is apparent that relative to the “Intel Inside” tagline, “Leap Ahead” fared more poorly in brand recognition. There were almost 50% less people who recognized the “Leap Ahead” slogan as compared to “Intel Inside”.
Some reasons could account for our surveyees poorer responses in this regard.
Intel could have been a victim of its own success – in particular, the success, wide appeal and deep penetration of the “Intel Inside” campaign in the minds of consumers, made the new “Leap Ahead” slogan something that required a paradigm shift in the minds of Intel’s customers who associated the Intel brand as being ubiquitous with the “Intel inside” slogan.
The company, while having purported to have moved away from its “Intel inside” slogan still retains this tagline on its stickers placed on the exteriors of consumer IT devices. The computer that this blog post is input from is one such example. (Laptop was purchased in 2013). This would potentially cause some degree of brand dilution for “Lead Ahead”, as is apparent in the survey results.
Learning about Intel
In this section of the survey, respondents were asked on the nature of their first encounter with the brand Intel.
The results show that there is a good mix of the 6 marketing channels used by respondents, indicating that there is no overall weakness on the distribution of any individual channel.
Personal experience took up the largest share at 30% compared to all other marketing channels and we think the reason for this is due to the ubiquitous usage of servers, laptops and PCs in the ultra-connected world we live in today. Because Intel is a world leader in this market, there is a direct correlation that justifies this result.
Social media appears to be the weakest link amongst all marketing channels and this result was a surprise to us since a key element of Intel’s brand building strategy over the years has been the social media, particularly the “Search” vehicle - as a measure to generate awareness and demand. This unexpected result certainly questions the effectiveness of their strategy and may be something worth investigating by Intel.
