Inside Intel Inside Case Analysis

Problem Statement:

Should Intel associate with Microsoft to venture into the PDA and mobile segment and risk its brand equity? Would this b2b association be profitable to brand Intel?

Background:

Intel was a well established company in the microprocessor segment. Intel was a market leader with more than 70% market share through the years 1994 till 2000. Their maket share grew by 6.55% in the last 6 years. Intel was always ahead of the technology curve and made products which were a market winner. Intels marketing program to educate the consumer on why they should be using their brand was very enriching. Intel associated themselves with OEM’s to create a very strong brand name.

Intels marketing campaign was very strategic and quite innovative. Intel strived to create a brand rather than just being a technology company. Mr. Carter was a very important figure in create the brand “Intel”. Creating a equity for a microprocessor is an ardous task. He created campaigns which made the end consumers understand the value of having Intel int their PC’s. This in turn stimulated the PC manufacturers to associate with Intel as they stood for innovation and relaibility. The perks and also the sales were impacted in a positive way for the manufacturers when they associated with Intel and they agreed to advertise Intel on their campaigns. Thus the age of Intel Inside began.

Intel faced stiff competition from AMD and other microprocessor manufacturers as the technology industry opened and a lot of small time players came in. This created a whole new market where cheap processors were available for the low end products. Intel ventured into this market with its low end processor and captured that market too. The success of Intel lay in its ability to create motherboards for its partners to make them adapt to the new microprocessor technology. During the recession period Intel contiuned with its innovative products and kept leading the market.

Challenges:

• Intels market share in the PC sector which is priced over $2000 has gone down from 47% to 30%

• Intel has constantly grown in the business sector but its growth in the consumer and education sector seems to be stagnant

• The mobile market was expected to grow over 261.3% in the year 2001 and Intel had just 1% share in that and the PDA market was expected to grow by 200% in that year. Intel didn’t have a solid base in these two markets to accelrate the growth

• The desktop sector is the highest revenue generator for Intel but the growth has started stagnating in that sector

• Extending the Intel inside campaign might result in disastorous results which can lead to dilution of the brand