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As its marketing head for five years, he's credited with having turned the Samsung Electronics into a globally cool consumer electronics brand. For 51-year-old Korean-American, Eric Kim, Vice President & General Manager (and Head of Marketing) , Intel Corporation, the challenge now is to change how the world sees the chipmaker, not a PC-component maker, but the enabler of a digital lifestyle. On a recent visit to India, Kim spoke to BT's Shailesh Dobhal. Excerpts: What was the challenge with brand Intel when you came in last year? Intel is already an established brand, so the challenge was very different from Samsung. Samsung was not a very well known brand, it was commodity brand (back in 2000), and the challenge was to bring it onto the global stage, get it recognised, establish its credibility and build momentum behind the brand. With Intel it is to go beyond the PC, for Intel was established within the PC category, synonymous with PC. And as the PC is already the largest digital technology market segment and now other market (segments) are taking off now, such as the mobile and consumer electronics (CE), which has digitised very quickly. Intel's (brand) mission is to leverage its strength in PC to establish itself as the leader in the mobile and CE segments. You have been with Intel for over a year now. What's your stamp on the brand? In 2005, Intel made a fundamental change to go from a microprocessor - oriented technology to platforms and market-solution orientation. And with that we made a massive internal change, both structural and people change. And now we have established specific brand management functions within Intel. This year, from an external marketing perspective, was predominantly a preparation stage. When you have the world's fifth most valuable brand, you don't just come in flip up the switch (and change it). The vision for the brand is to evolve IT from a technology - leadership brand to an emotionally exciting digital convergence one, because that's where the world is going. Why emotion is important is because technology has got to a point where it has become such an intricate fabric of life, it is no longer only for the specialists. Technology is accepted implicitly as part of life, and Intel brand has to be positioned as a brand that you accept as part of life, not as a technology product. So it is important for Intel to evolve to something people have strong emotional attachment to, that people trust deeply, and that they are willing to give us credit for even if they go to different categories. For the first time, Intel is using celebrities (specific to markets) for its Centrino notebook-led ad campaign, which we rolled globally in September 2005. Intel is a strong OEM brand. Any plans to get into the product space? Intel is not a product brand because we don't make any products for the end consumer. We sell to OEMs, but we're a strong consumer brand. Consumers have a high level of awareness and they look for Intel. The brand gives consumer a level of assurance and trust for PCs and other high-technology products they're buying are inherently complex and it is a deeply - considered purchase, not a impulse purchase. As Intel moves out from mere PC to other areas such as mobiles, how does it take on big consumer electronics and products brands, much like Samsung? It's a different challenge (for Intel). Samsung is an end consumer brand, it makes televisions, headphones. Samsung's component business is primarily memory (D-rams, flash memory). Memory products typically tend to be sold based on price and capacity basically. So, memory industry is volatile and driven by high price-demand elasticity. Intel (also) has a flash memory business because it is an important part of the overall platform. Other than that, Samsung and Intel have very little overlap. In fact, they're complimentary because Samsung uses Intel's platform to create its new products, and clearly Intel needs OEM partners such as Samsung to create new kinds of products. Samsung is classic consumer marketing, based on consumer products they sell. Intel is very much an overall, environmental ecosystem foundational brand, consumer -centric for sure, but in the sense of selling consumer products. Another campaign, and this we are rolling out even in India, addresses the typical question in emerging markets, lot of people don't know why they need a PC, because there are other competing needs in their lives-they have limited income, and need to get a washing machine or a car. Essentially the question of why priorities a PC over something else? So the whole idea (behind Intel's Gray Box ad campaign, running in India) is to position a PC as a highly versatile tool for your family. What's the objective of your new global ad campaign, 'When Intel is built in, success is built in'? What we are saying is that not only does Intel provides the best technology, but also the best capabilities and solutions . So, we are positioning Intel much more than a silicon platform provider. Who are you competing with here at the brand level? Well, Intel is unique in that there is no comparable ingredient brand. So, our mission is not really to compete, but to complement- (just as the) Intel brand complements HP, IBM, HCL etc. (in the PC business. The reason why they embrace our offering ---number one is that we provide the right technical specs and right components for their needs ---is also because we bring a brand to the products they use. Intel is reportedly going for a re - branding exercise with a new logo. I won't call it re-branding, but the evolution of Intel brand. Intel was very much associated with the PC, and we need to take that as our core strength and evolve it into a broader foundation ---not just PC but anything digital, that requires strong computer and communication capabilities and can deliver high performance at low power consumption. The latest RIM phone (the new Blackberry phone model from Canadian company Research In Motion) that uses the latest 3G technology, has Intel's latest application and communication processor and is (almost) a full computer. We have agreed to have RIM brand ' Intel Inside ' with this phone to be available in the US by the end of the year and other parts of the world, by next year. This product will be sold with an Intel Inside brand. So, Intel Inside brand is expanding beyond just PC products, into mobile products, and hopefully in the future, into consumer electronics products. Samsung has broken up its global account with WPP-do you see it as an undoing for your one agency-one-message philosophy at Samsung? I left Samsung over a year ago, so it won't be appropriate for me to comment on it. Why did Intel scrap the 'Whitefield Chip Project' in India? Leading edge technological development is never a guaranteed thing, so you engage in multiple projects betting that some of them will be successful. We are funding many projects, and it was (Whitefield) was one of the projects that didn't work out. On the other hand, there has been a major success story . We are launching Intel's latest mobile platform, by far the most competitive product in the entire marketplace. And a key part of the platform was developed here (in India) by the same team. What's important to know is that we continue to rely heavily on Indian R&D talent; we are increasing our investment significantly (in India). Indian R&D site (for Intel) is the largest non-manufacturing site in the world, even in terms of the number of people employed.
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