IBM tackles a marketing paradox

This event report discusses how IBM faces a marketing paradox: it is one of America's best known companies, but few consumers know what it does.

IBM tackles a marketing paradox

Stephen WhitesideWarc

IBM faces an unusual marketing paradox: it is one of America's largest and best-known companies, but few consumers know precisely what it does.

John Kennedy, vp/marketing, IBM Global Business Services, told delegates at BRITE '14 – an event held by the Center for Global Brand Leadership at Columbia Business School – that shoppers often still associate "Big Blue" with personal computers, even though it sold that part of its business to Lenovo, the Chinese IT firm, in 2004 as part of a move towards software and services.

"IBM is a brand that...

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