When IBM announced on Dec 7, 2004 that the company was selling its historic PC business to the Chinese maker Lenovo Corp., it could have been a disaster of epic brand proportions. With a brand value estimated at over $51 Billion in 2003, there is a lot at stake and the company clearly did not want nervous customers jumping ship to go to competitors because of the sale.

IBM did the right thing in launching an extensive multi-channel outreach campaign for its customers following the buyout press conference, as reported in the January 10, 2005 issue of eWeek. Rather than allowing jittery customers to “connect the dots” on their own, IBM took the proactive step of applying integrated multi-channel marketing techniques to external communications creating a campaign that included:

• 2,400 IBM representatives taking to the roads to meet with thousands of top customers and business partners
• Launching a massive online campaign
• Contacting still more customers by telephone and email
• Hosting a web conference for customers and partners to air their concerns to IBM executives

The results were nothing short of amazing with only 5% of surveyed customers saying they would change vendors immediately and almost 50% saying they were either completely or somewhat at ease with the deal. This underscores the importance of being proactive in marketing communications to affect the kind of change desired, leveraging as many channels as possible to reach customers and realizing that multi-channel integration can be a powerful tool in areas beyond lead generation.

Sources:
Interbrand Annual Top 100 Global Brands ranking, 2003
Jeffrey Burt. “IBM troops pave path for Lenovo.” eWeek Magazine. January 10, 2005, pg 9-10

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