Lenovo: China's Big Hope
The big hopes of the Chinese computer market rest with Lenovo, the largest personal-computer maker in China. Lenovo was formerly known as Legend Group Limited when, the company bought IBM’s PC operations for $1.75 billion in 2005. I simply could not believe this. I would bet that the Tom Watsons (Senior and Junior) are spinning in their graves.
In addition to desktop and notebook PCs, Lenovo makes displays and storage drives. The company also has an IT services business.
Lenovo currently is tied with Acer, a Taiwan company, as the third largest PC manufacturer in the world with a market share of 6.7 percent. (Hewlett-Packard leads with 19.1 percent. Dell is second with 15.2 percent.)
How can Lenovo move up the PC ladder you ask? Here are three suggestions to the Chinese marketing community.
Focus the product line.
A company that leads the pack can get away with marketing a broad line of products and services, especially when they have a powerful brand name like General Electric. In my opinion, Lenovo does not fit that description...yet.
What should Lenovo focus on? Again, that’s a decision that should be easy to make. Recently laptop and notebook computers have been outselling the cheap desktop computers. Furthermore, there’s reason to believe desktop computers might someday become obsolete what with the emergence of such powerful PDAs and the new cellphone technology..
Lenovo should drop its cheap desktop computers and focus on notebook computers.
Change the company name
Legend was a bad name to start with; Lenovo is an even worse name. It sounds like a Sicilian dessert.
Fortunately, Lenovo was given a priceless present in its IBM purchase. That present was the “ThinkPad” name used by IBM on its notebook computers.
Change the name of the company to ThinkPad Corporation.
ThinkPad is a unique and different name. Furthermore it communicates the “notebook” idea, the new focus of the company. It also resonates with the word quality. Year in and year out, it has been rated top laptop computer.
Focus ON the attributeS of the ThinkPad brand
In order to build a powerful brand loyalty, you need to stand for something in the prospect’s mind. BMW means “driving.” Volvo means “safety.” Mercedes-Benz means “prestige.” What does ThinkPad mean?
An area where the notebook does not fare well in a comparison with the desktop computer is that of battery life.
If the entire Thinkpad line could be redesigned in order to double the battery life, even if it meant selling a heavier machine. (You have to give something to get something.) Furthermore, as batteries get better, that disadvantage would disappear.
Ideally, the new ThinkPad Corporation could produce notebook computers that would run all day on one charge. The road warriors would jump all over the product! That would mean a company employee could use his or her notebook computer all day long without having to plug the machine into an outlet. At the end of the day, the employee would re-charge the notebook so it would be ready to go again the next morning.
ThinkPad: The all-day notebook.
That would be a slogan crying to be adopted and think how the business public would react to that type of availability. Sure, Lenovo is currently successful since it can build computers in China cheaply. However, as the Chinese economy improves, and the wages go up, that advantage is going to go away. While it lasts, Lenovo has an opportunity to build a powerful worldwide brand that stands for something in the mind.
China's chance will depend on the strength of its brands. And ThinkPad, if focused and branded correctly, has a great chance at being the world's best computer brand.