IBM serves up magical touch for China market

<p>To many, the server - the cornerstone of ecommerce strategies - is </p><p>a big block of steel, more foreboding than approachable. </p><p><BR><BR> </p><p>But changing this perception of the server helped IBM, the world's </p><p>largest manufacturer of servers, crack the China market, where few </p><p>business leaders understood the full potential of ecommerce. </p><p><BR><BR> </p><p>Despite having the best breed servers in the key growth segments - Unix </p><p>and IT platforms - Big Blue encountered difficulties in turning mind </p><p>share into market share. While IBM servers enjoyed moderate awareness, </p><p>they feell short when it came to customer purchase decisions, unlike </p><p>competing servers, which enjoyed strong mind share and </p><p>consideration. </p><p><BR><BR> </p><p>Research also revaealed that "emotional reward" - one of factors of </p><p>brand preference - was still unclaimed territory in the marketplace. </p><p><BR><BR> </p><p>Based on these insights, IBM's agency Ogilvy & Mather Beijing localised </p><p>the worldwide Magic Box campaign for China. The agency incorporated a </p><p>range of creative solutions to tackle the real marketing issue - IBM </p><p>servers were not preferred and considered. </p><p><BR><BR> </p><p>Creative solutions were: </p><p><BR><BR> </p><p>- To make IBM's Magic Box the talk of the town and a new collective </p><p>synonym for mainframe, NT, Unix and Vax servers. </p><p><BR><BR> </p><p>- To drive responses to the call centre inquiry hot line and IBM website </p><p>for the next level of communication. </p><p><BR><BR> </p><p>- Drive people to the Web and provide an interactive information </p><p>interface online to encourage consideration. </p><p><BR><BR> </p><p>- Deploy the most advanced Web design technoloy for banners and Web </p><p>pages to intensify the magical image. </p><p><BR><BR> </p><p>- Sell the Magic Box concept to IBM server channels (distributor, </p><p>reseller and solution providers) and encourage channels to stock server </p><p>products. </p><p><BR><BR> </p><p>According to O&M Beijing group account director Billboard Kwok, the </p><p>fully integrated campaign set up a revolutionary positioning for servers </p><p>by injecting life and emotion into server values, a marketplace </p><p>first. </p><p><BR><BR> </p><p>Demonstrating this positioning, the TVC posed the question, "What if </p><p>there was a box/ Full of knowledge, insight, ideas, inventions, </p><p>answers. </p><p><BR><BR> </p><p>It would be a magic box, a box of amazing powers ... IBM ebusiness </p><p>servers are the magic box." </p><p><BR><BR> </p><p>"IBM had never positioned its servers as a family, so rather than have </p><p>disparate campaigns, we unified the diferent products in an integrated </p><p>campaign," said Mr Kwok. This approach, along with a unified </p><p>communications mix, enabled IBM to dilute the higher share of voice </p><p>enjoyed by its bigger-spending competitors, while establishing IBM as </p><p>the server company. </p><p><BR><BR> </p><p>The impact of the Magic Box campaign, which won MEDIA's 1999 China Ad </p><p>Campaign of the Year Award, was immediate: it generated millions of </p><p>dollars in sales opportunities being the first image-with-a-hook IBM </p><p>campaign that identified real business leads and tracked final sales. </p><p>The projected increase in sales is expected to boost IBM server market </p><p>shre by five to 10 per cent. </p><p><BR><BR> </p>