QUICK. How many Chinese brands can you name? Probably not many. While China has been known for its manufacturing prowess, branding its own products has not been its strength.
That?s why the Chinese computer manufacturer Lenovo, largely unknown to the average American consumer, is trying to get its products into the hands of the coveted 18- to 25-year-old Apple generation, which has been raised on all things iPod and iPad.
?The most difficult thing in marketing and branding is trying to change the perception,? said David Roman, the company?s senior vice-president and chief marketing officer, ?but Lenovo had very little recognition in the consumer space.?
It?s a tall order, but in January, Lenovo partnered with Saatchi & Saatchi, part of the Publicis Groupe and the company?s agency of record, to work on a new advertising effort. The resulting campaign, which will begin in May, is estimated to cost $100 million.
The campaign?s focus is action, specifically the idea that Lenovo products are ?for those who do.? One 30-second television spot shows a blinking cursor on a computer screen, the flame from a gas stove being turned on and a pencil being sharpened. ?The world won?t move forward by itself,? says a narrator. The world needs ?the people who do. The ones who tinker, who build, who create.?
The campaign portrays these ?doers? as people who are known for doing something extraordinary. Print ads feature a new Lenovo laptop in a variety of situations, including as part of the dashboard of a car outfitted with gadgets for a storm chaser, and harnessed to the space between the handlebars on a motorcycle as it is driven through a desert.
The tagline on the ads reads, ?We make the tools. You make them do.? A digital billboard installation shows a 360-degree moving image of the motorcycle laptop contraption and provides technical details highlighting the laptop?s computing power.
To help develop the creative elements of the new campaign, Saatchi & Saatchi conducted research with 18- to 25-year-olds and learned that they were ambitious and optimistic, said Claudine Cheever, the agency?s chief strategy officer. The campaign was designed to embody the ideals of pragmatism, authenticity and the act of getting things done. But aren?t millennials more captivated by design and coolness than pragmatic electronics? Not according to Cheever, who said technology was ?not just a badge, it?s a tool?.
The advertising initiative includes digital banner ads and rich media ads on the Web, television spots, digital billboards and a smattering of print ads. Outdoor advertising has begun in nine cities, including New York, Atlanta and San Francisco.
Lenovo?s last consumer campaign, called ?Ideas Anywhere,? was tied to the company?s sponsorship of the Beijing Olympics and ran from August 2008 to November 2009.
Before heading out into the real world, the company brought the message in-house and rallied employees with new business cards, T-shirts, building signs and new e-mail signatures.