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Hardware softens image
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November 13, 1997: 3:33 p.m. ET
New wave of computing ads puts an increasingly human face on high-tech
From Correspondent Deborah Marchini
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NEW YORK (CNNfn) - High-tech companies are increasingly trying to soften their image and make technology seem more accessible to consumers and small businesses.
Hewlett Packard announced this week that it will be spending $75 million to launch its most expensive marketing campaign ever.
The company is trying to move beyond its colorless image as a computer hardware company to reach out to its fastest growing markets -- families and small businesses.
"As we've transitioned from a business company into the consumer space, we had to look at how we talk to our home and small business consumers in a different way," says Jim Wallace, consumer brand manager for Hewlett-Packard.
Other technology firms are also shedding their product-oriented ad campaigns in favor of a more consumer friendly approach. Intel's latest ads are a case in point -- chipmakers sporting lab suits are becoming recognizable characters.
The company is also targeting women by placing ads in magazines such as Martha Stewart's Living and Self. Intel says it is responding to a shift in the marketplace.. Personal computers have increasingly become a consumer product and are now found in 40 percent of all households. Intel's chips run 90 percent of those computers.
Part of what's at stake is brand recognition for companies, which make products that few consumers even recognize.
"Seagate Technology's new ad doesn't even mention disk drives," says Kathryn Dennis, senior editor at MC, a trade publication. "The average person hasn't heard of Seagate, and people aren't going to go into a store and say, 'I want a PC with a Seagate hard drive in it.' What they're trying to do is build awareness for their brand. . . ."
IBM is aiming at the market it knows best -- business. In its latest campaign, IBM says it can help companies do business on the Internet. But IBM has changed its focus, offering solutions, rather than hardware.
IBM tops the list as the biggest spender shelling out more than $700 million on advertising in the last year.
Ad spending by computer companies increased by 25 percent in the first half of this year. Double digit growth is predicted for next year as well, with TV ad budgets in particular expected to surge as technology companies continue to reach out and touch consumers.
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