Hewlett-Packard (and many other IT companies)
focus primarily on building their corporate brand.
The IT companies know that we, as customers, can
see strong connections between different types
of IT product and the skills and resources required
to make them. As a result customers in the IT
sector (both businesses and individuals), rely
heavily on the overall reputation of the company
to guide their buying decisions - and so investing
heavily in the corporate brand is the right strategy.
This
is what the portfolio looks like: the corporate
brand is by far the largest presence in the mind
of the customer...
Contrast
this approach with the Procter & Gamble portfolio.
P&G know that we, as customers, won't see
much connection between the wide range of household
goods they manufacture (P&G's portfolio covers
perfume, soap, pet food, and more). Because of
this P&G (and other companies in the household
goods sector) understand they must invest in building
strong product brands: because it is the reputation
of the product brand, more so than the corporate
brand, which guides our purchase decisions.
As
a result it is the product brands that have by
far the largest presence in the mind of the customer...
