HP trying to become more hip
Benjamin Pimentel, Chronicle Staff Writer Thursday, October 2, 2003
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Hewlett-Packard turns 65 in a few weeks. While the senior birthday underscores the Palo Alto firm's standing as a technology icon, it also highlights a reputation that HP is trying to shake: that of Silicon Valley's geezer.
It's a rep that Mike Winkler, HP's chief marketing officer, is trying to change with a $300 million consumer campaign that starts today.
Among the campaign's goals: to make HP more hip.
The campaign also points to the growing importance of marketing as HP evolves from a technology firm focused mainly on business executives and engineers to one that's trying to appeal to ordinary consumers, including young people.
"We were viewed as somewhat stodgy, conservative, not very human," Winkler said. "Some would say we've missed a generation relating to teenagers, consumers, younger buyers, because we were viewed as a large corporate engineering (firm), relatively inhuman -- not hip."
The campaign aims to turn the HP brand into a pop culture brand like Coke or Nike.
"When you think of HP, what do you think of?" said Jef Loeb, founder of Brainchild Creative ad agency in San Francisco.
"You think of high-end scientific machines. You don't really think of HP as consumers who are going to say, 'That's cool' like Sony or 'That's hip,' like Apple. You think of HP as a big player, but they don't have that brand cachet to be cool."
The first wave of the consumer campaign focuses on HP's strongest suit, digital imaging.
It includes a slick TV ad featuring ordinary people using HP cameras and printers to the song "Pictures of You" by the Cure.
The spot will premiere this week on such popular and youth-oriented shows as "Friends" and "Will and Grace."
HP also will run ads in newspapers, movie theaters, bus stops and train stations in major cities, including San Francisco, New York, Chicago and Los Angeles.
"Today, we're recognized for our engineering prowess and innovation. Adding great marketing to the list is a good thing," said Allison Johnson, HP's senior vice president for global brand and communications.
It took time for that heightened focus on marketing to happen, and the process wasn't easy.
Silicon Valley pioneers Bill Hewlett and Dave Packard formed HP in a Palo Alto garage in 1938. The company incorporated on Jan. 1, 1939.
It became known as a company of engineers that made quality measuring equipment and computer systems.
But for decades, HP put scant emphasis on marketing, which was decentralized and uncoordinated.
Winkler said part of the problem was HP's "very engineering-oriented culture, a very analytically oriented culture."
"In many technology companies, not just HP, marketing people are seen as more emotional (and) visceral. They're just different DNA than engineering people," he said.
Roy Verley, who served as HP's director of corporate communications from 1989 to 1998, described the company as "a company of engineers by engineers that sold to engineers.
"The marketing was data driven as opposed to image driven,' he added.
A stronger consumer image became more important as HP expanded into that market in the '70s and '80s.
Efforts to build HP as a consumer brand gained momentum after Carly Fiorina took over as chief executive in 1999.
"The day that Carly became CEO, the company's marketing and science became equally important," said Rich Silverstein, co-chairman of Goodby, Silverstein & Partners, the San Francisco agency that worked on the HP campaign.
Marketing became even more important after HP's merger with Compaq Computer last year.
The company formed a centralized marketing group led by Winkler, a former Compaq executive who became HP's first chief marketing officer.
His team spearheaded a new branding campaign late last year under the slogan "Everything is Possible."
Earlier this year, the company unveiled a marketing push geared to business customers.
Part of the HP strategy has been to highlight its partnership with brand name companies, such as Starbucks, DreamWorks and Disney.
HP says the efforts have paid off, citing a Business Week survey in August that showed the company's brand rising in value during the past year.
Loeb said HP has embarked on a smart strategy.
But Peter Sealey, an adjunct professor of marketing at the Haas School of Business at UC Berkeley, said that compared with stronger consumer brands like Sony and Apple, HP has yet to come up with a coherent new image.
HP is also up against Dell's highly successful direct-sales business model and its recent push into new markets, including printers and consumer electronics.
"The (HP) brand has been diffused and lacking in meaning," Sealey said. "The underlying business model of Carly Fiorina in desktops and laptops is not going to sustain itself. Marketing will not solve that."
E-mail Benjamin Pimentel at bpimentel@sfchronicle.com.
