80 percent of the world’s personal computers. Today, it is one of the most valuable brands in the world, with revenues exceeding $37 billion. In the early days, however, Intel microprocessors were known simply by their engineering numbers, such as “80386” or
“80486.” Since numbers can’t be trademarked, competitors came out with their own “486” chips and Intel had no way to distinguish itself. Nor could consumers see Intel’s products, buried deep inside their PCs. Thus, Intel had a hard time convincing consumers to pay more for its highperformance products. As a result, Intel created the quintessential ingredientbranding marketing campaign and made history. It chose a name for its latest microprocessor introduction that could be trademarked, Pentium, and launched the
“Intel Inside” campaign to build brand awareness of its whole family of microprocessors. This campaign helped move the Intel brand name outside the PC and into the minds of consumers. In order to execute the new brand strategy, it was essential that the computer manufacturers who used Intel processors support the program.
Intel gave them significant rebates when they included the Intel logo in their PC ads or when they placed the “Intel Inside” sticker on the outside of their PCs and laptops.
The company created several effective and identifiable marketing campaigns in the late 1990s to become a recognizable and well-liked ingredient brand name. The
“Bunny People” series featured Intel technicians dressed in brightly colored contamination suits as they danced to disco music inside a processor facility. Intel also used the famous Blue Man Group in its commercials for Pentium III and Pentium IV.
In 2003, Intel launched Centrino, a platform that included a new microprocessor, an extended battery, and wireless capabilities. The company launched a multimilliondollar
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