Should You Launch a Fighter Brand?†

Customers are suddenly hyperconscious of value, and new low-price competitors are nipping at your heels.

Harvard Business Review, October 1, 2009 — Managers contemplating a new product launch during the prosperous early years of the twenty-first century typically looked only in one direction: up. Thanks to consumers’ rising incomes and apparently insatiable desire for superior quality, the era began with a focus on “premiumization,” “trading up,” and “luxury for the masses.”

But times change. Economic strains are now causing consumers to trade down, and many midtier and premium brands are losing share to low-price rivals. Their managers face a classic strategic conundrum: Should they tackle the threat head-on by reducing prices, knowing that will destroy profits in the short term and brand equity in the long term? Or should they hold the line, hope for better times to return, and in... continue reading

A Tech Company’s Campaign to Burnish Its Brand

New York Times, May 6, 2009 — AD AGENCIES usually hang on their clients’ every directive. But when Intel was developing its biggest advertising campaign in years, it handed a carefully thought-out brief to the ad agency Venables Bell & Partners, which said Intel’s idea — to talk about the company’s role in everyday life — was, in a word, bad.

Microsoft Introduces Windows 7, Ending Vista Brand

New York Times, October 29, 2008 — Microsoft introduced what it said would be a slimmer and more responsive version of its Windows operating system on Tuesday, while unceremoniously dropping the brand name Vista for the new product.

Offsetting the Risks of Innovation

Prophet, October 1, 2008 — Classic financial theory has it that all else being equal, the

greater the risk, the greater the return. And when it comes

to innovation, those businesses that are the most successful

embrace that notion.

Otellini Hopes Everyone Gets an Intel Chip†

CEO Oversees Restructuring As Firm Turns to Powering Gadgets for Web

Wall Street Journal, April 28, 2008 — Intel Corp. already reaches hundreds of millions of people with its chips. But Paul Otellini has his eye on billions.

The Silicon Valley giant's chief executive is no longer content to just supply the electronic brains for conventional computers. He also wants to push Intel microprocessors into people's pockets, exploiting a shift to add Internet capability to cellphones and other gadgets.