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...