A chief marketing officer walks into a consumer electronics store and can’t spot her own brand of laser printers. There’s no punch line here, just the realization that Hewlett-Packard wasn’t connecting with consumers.
“(Our CMO) was in charge of the laser printer group and she couldn’t tell which ones were HP from 10 feet away,” says Sam Lucente, HP’s vice-president of design and brand at the company’s headquarters in Palo Alto, Calif. “We just missed out on that whole moment of truth P&G talks about,” he adds, referring to the idea that customers are won over in the first few seconds they see a product on the shelf.
It’s no surprise then that HP now aims to build brand recognition by streamlining its design across all its products, from digital cameras to remote controls. “If you have a great product design you can increase your brand value, charge premiums and extend the life of your technology,” says Lucente.
One element of HP’s new design is “the cube,” a control that simplifies the way people navigate computers, cameras, printers and television. The cube is the same on each device, so “it becomes something like a badge, a signature element,” says Lucente. And while the new HP products have a sleeker, more modern look, it’s not just about what’s on the outside. “What we’re really marketing is a way to do things,” says Lucente. For example, customers might buy into HP’s way of managing photos. “And if you like the way you do it on the printer, you’ll probably buy the camera.”
Heather Fraser, director of business design initiatives at Toronto’s Rotman School of Management, says many businesses are using design as a strategic tool. “It’s become the secret weapon of companies that are trying to be more innovative and come up with more breakthrough offerings to the marketplace.”
While HP rival Apple has long been known as a design pioneer, Fraser doesn’t think there’s an “Apple effect” at play with computer companies trying to be more design-oriented. An increased focus on design “is showing up in many sectors, including medical devices, mobile devices, packaged goods and retail.” One of the goals, she says, “is getting at the emotional connection a company can create with the consumer.”
HP also aims to build that connection through a new global ad campaign that focuses not on technology, but on the relationship between people and their computers. “We’re trying to create that emotional connection and identify with people versus throwing a whole bunch of technology marketing at them,” says Marilyn Johns, manager, marketing communications at HP Canada.
The global “The Computer is Personal Again” campaign was created by Goodby Silverstein & Partners in San Francisco, with adaptations for Canada by Publicis. The creative shows boldly coloured hands with handwritten messages inside, such as, “Go far. Keep your secrets close,” “Don’t boot. Play,” and “Work intensely. Protect fiercely.”
“There’s been a real push to commoditize PCs,” says Johns. HP realized the PC is not just a commodity device, that people have a personal relationship with their computers. “We wanted to highlight the relationship that an individual has with the technology versus the ‘speeds and feeds’ that technology marketing had somewhat become.”
-WITH FILES FROM SARAH DOBSON
