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Lenovo is the best known affordable PC brand in China and Asia
Pacific. It isoriginallyfrom the Legend Company, Inc. who pioneered
the home computer conceptin China. The firstoriginal product was
Legend Chinese-character card which wasbundled with the imported
PCsit distributed. It launched its first brand PC intothe Chinese
market in 1990. Legend becameChinas largest PC maker. It made
headlines around the world, but unknown to the rest of theworld. It
faced increased domestic competition and sensed a growing global
opportunity. Thefirm prepared
for international expansion with new Lenovo name and logo.
Lenovo was derivedfrom Le- for Legend and novo signifying new or
innovative. With the announcement worlide, Lenovo in March 2004
entered into partnership agreementwith the Olympic Partner Program,
the International Olympic Committees highest levelworldwide
marketing program wherein Lenovo became the exclusive provider of
computingequipment and services for the Turin Olympic Winter Games
in 2006 and the Beijing Summer Olympic Games in 2008. It was a
significant investment for a company. Although, Lenovowould be able
to benefit from using the Olympic logo for marketing and
promotions, thecompany would have to spend at least twice the
sponsorship cost on advertising to leverage theinvestment. Lenovo
acquired the IBM Personal Systems Division a few months after
negotiating the Olympicsponsorship. It paid IBM in cash and in
common stock and assumed IBMs liabilities. As part of the deal,
Lenovo g
ained the right to use the IBM on its products for up to five
years, along withtwo major product offerings: the well-established
IBM ThinkPad laptop and ThinkCentre desktop
.Lenovo is the best known affordable PC brand in China and Asia
Pacific. It isoriginally from the Legend Company, Inc. who
pioneered the home computer conceptin China. The first original
product was Legend Chinese-character card which was bundled with
the imported PC sit distributed. It launched its first brand PCinto
the Chinese market in 1990. Legend becameChinas largest PC maker.
It madeheadlines around the world, but unknown to the rest of
theworld. It faced incr
eased domestic competition and sensed a growing global
opportunity. Thefirm prepared for international expansion with new
Lenovo name and logo. Lenovo was derivedfrom Le- for Legend and
novo signifying new or innovative. With the announcementrldwide,
Lenovo in March 2004 entered into partnership agreementwith the
OlympicPartner Program, the International Olympic Committees
highest levelworldwide marketing program wherein Lenovo became the
exclusive provider of computingequipment and services for the Turin
Olympic Winter Games in 2006 and the Beijing Summer Olympic Games
in 2008. It was a significant investment for a company. Although,
Lenovowould be able to benefit from using the Olympic logo for
marketing andpromotions, thecompany would have to spend at least
twice the sponsorship cost on advertising to leverage
theinvestment. Lenovo acquired the IBM Personal Systems Division a
few months after negotiating the Olympicsponsorship. It paid IBM
in
cash and in common stock and assumed IBMs liabilities. As part
of the deal, Lenovo gained the right to use the IBM on its products
for up to five years, along withtwo major product offerings: the
well-established IBM ThinkPad laptop and ThinkCentre desktopbrands.
The IBM logo could only be used on IBM Think-family products. For
any type of advertising, the IBM logo could only be shown on the
product within the ad, not as a separatelogo. In return, Lenovo
promised not to compete with IBMs services and consulting groups.
Lenovo now faced the challenged onhow to build an international
brand from scratch whilemaking the most out of the IBM legacy. The
problem is What should Lenovos brandpositioning and brand strategy
in the global market? The brand strategy should consider
thefollowing parameters: It should increase awareness to customers
of the Lenovo brand; It shouldchange worlds perception of Lenovo as
ideal; It should assure customers of its innovativenessand quality;
It should gain trustworthiness
