The making of a global brand
October 10th, 2006 | Melissa MarronLast week I attended the CMO Council’s North American Summit in San Francisco. The keynotes shared experiences involved with re-branding, brand realignment and customer retention. Lenovo’s SVP and CMO, Deepak Advani, explained marketing challenges that Lenovo faced before and after they acquired IBM’s Personal Computing Division. The marketing team was not only challenged with re-branding their products as ThinkPad, but they also had to develop programs that fostered this Chinese company’s growth in the worldwide marketplace. Subsequently, they launched the largest partnership with the International Olympic Committee. At the Torino 2006 Olympic Winter Games, they supplied 5,000 desktop PCs, 350 servers and 1,000 notebook computers, supported internet lounges as well as the the technology needs of many media partners. Their flawless sponsorship led to extensive press coverage and they have since signed on for the 2008 Olympics.
Do you have any experiences with rebranding or growing a brand internationally?
October 11th, 2006 at 1:08 pm
Just wanted to offer a cautionary note on translationg brand names across the water. We all no that Nova means “doesn’t go” in Spanish, which is kind of a deal-breaker for a car, but it really is important to do some due diligence before using your “great in English” name internationally. When I was at Genuity, they rebranded their hosting service as Black Rocket, which turned out to be a form of hashish in Holland and a condom in Spain. Oops! Then there was my friend whose company renamed itself something that turned out to be slang for “fool” in some language or another! Caveat product namer.
October 11th, 2006 at 1:10 pm
My comment should have said “We all KNOW” (not “we all know”). I guess that’s why people proof things before they post them, rather than after, huh?
October 12th, 2006 at 4:03 pm
Hi Maureen - I agree. Cultural sensativity is very important when taking a brand globally. But at the same time, I think it is also important to take some calculated risks as well!
November 9th, 2006 at 4:10 pm
My favorite “oops” moment was when we decided to go the “animal logo” route that was popular a numer of years ago. We soon found out that the bird we had chosen was similar to a feminine hygiene product in Germany. Oh well. I think more than anything, is to remember that the way other countries and cultures conduct business and negotiate sales deals can, and are in most instances, very different than how we conduct ourselves in the US. If you remember that, you’ll go a long way.
April 5th, 2007 at 3:00 pm
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