Lenovo is trying to consolidate its brand power by removing the IBM logo from
popular ThinkPad laptops sold to big corporate customers, local media reported.
"We now ask our big customers whether they need the logo. If the answer
is no, there won't be IBM marks on the ThinkPads they buy," the Beijing Business
Today quoted an unidentified source from the ThinkPad business unit of Lenovo
Greater China as saying.
Chinese PC giant Lenovo acquired Big Blue's PC unit
in 2005. In order to maintain its appeal for global customers, it obtained the
right to retain the famous IBM logo on the previously IBM-developed computers,
including the Think series, until 2010.
Pictures of Lenovo's new
ThinkPad X60 without IBM logos have recently appeared on the Internet, drawing
speculation about a major branding change for the products.
"Lenovo can't
remove IBM logos from laptops targeted at retail customers before 2008," the
source told the newspaper.
However, giving large enterprise customers
the option of removing the IBM logo shows the company is implementing a "soft
landing" strategy to reinforce its brand step by step, an analyst with the CCID
Consulting was quoted as saying.
Last October, the Lenovo logo was added
to the lower right-hand corner of the ThinkPad screen, in a move to dilute the
influence of the IBM brand.
Lenovo will stick to its strategy of
developing cheap Lenovo-branded products aimed at retail customers and small and
medium-sized enterprises while selling high-end IBM-branded Think series to
large companies, Chen Shaopeng, chief marketing officer of the Lenovo Group,
told the China Business News.
But the dual-brand strategy is unlikely to
last long because Lenovo has a golden opportunity for brand promotion during the
2008 Beijing Olympic Games, which it will sponsor, said the analyst.
Market researchers say Lenovo has to decide which market is its major
target -- high-end or low-end, as an unclear market niche is risky.
Sales
of Lenovo's personal computers soared 25 percent in China but slumped 9 percent
in America in the July-September period, according to the company's fiscal
report released last November.
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