Human, Not Tech, Define a PC-Free IBM | Marketer A-List: IBM | Advertising Age With Business Focused on Analytics and Marketing Based on Character, Fabled Computermaker Is Poised to Surpass Coke as No. 1 on Interbrand Chart IBM’s path to marketing success began strangely enough with a retreat from the very thing most consumers knew it for best — the personal computer. Since the 2004 decision to divest the business to China’s Lenovo and focus on business services and analytics, the IBM brand has never been stronger. In the annual Interbrand rankings, IBM has added 50% to its value, now nearly $70 billion since then. The brand has reached No. 2 with a bullet, passing Microsoft in 2008 and rising faster than No. 1 Coca-Cola the past three years. Should IBM and Coke maintain their brand-value growth rates of the past year this year, IBM is poised to surpass Coke to become No. 1 by next year on the Interbrand chart. Much of that is based on how investors value IBM, which has seen its stock price soar 78% since 2004, despite a major financial crisis in 2008 that has left U.S. stocks as a whole well below their 2007 peak. A big part of that financial success has been branding, said Jon Iwata, senior VP of IBM’s marketing, communications and citizenship organization, in a presentation to the Association of National Advertisers conference in October. IBM’s “Smarter Planet” campaign focused on its role in solving the world’s problems. Its campaign pitting the Watson supercomputer and artificial-intelligence system against human contestants on “Jeopardy” and its Centennial campaign focused on 100 years of innovations have all played a role in IBM’s success.

Human, Not Tech, Define a PC-Free IBM | Marketer A-List: IBM | Advertising Age

With Business Focused on Analytics and Marketing Based on Character, Fabled Computermaker Is Poised to Surpass Coke as No. 1 on Interbrand Chart

IBM’s path to marketing success began strangely enough with a retreat from the very thing most consumers knew it for best — the personal computer. Since the 2004 decision to divest the business to China’s Lenovo and focus on business services and analytics, the IBM brand has never been stronger. In the annual Interbrand rankings, IBM has added 50% to its value, now nearly $70 billion since then. The brand has reached No. 2 with a bullet, passing

Microsoft in 2008 and rising faster than No. 1 Coca-Cola the past three years. Should IBM and Coke maintain their brand-value growth rates of the past year this year, IBM is poised to surpass Coke to become No. 1 by next year on the Interbrand chart. Much of that is based on how investors value IBM, which has seen its stock price soar 78% since 2004, despite a major financial crisis in 2008 that has left U.S. stocks as a whole well below their 2007 peak.

A big part of that financial success has been branding, said Jon Iwata, senior VP of IBM’s marketing, communications and citizenship organization, in a presentation to the Association of National Advertisers conference in October.

IBM’s “Smarter Planet” campaign focused on its role in solving the world’s problems. Its campaign pitting the Watson supercomputer and artificial-intelligence system against human contestants on “Jeopardy” and its Centennial campaign focused on 100 years of innovations have all played a role in IBM’s success.


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IBM: 1100100 and counting | The Economist The secret of Big Blue’s longevity has less to do with machines or software than with strong customer relationships THE long passage that connects the two wings of IBM’s headquarters in Armonk gives a new meaning to the expression “a walk down memory lane”. From punch cards to magnetic tapes and disk drives to memory chips, every means of storing information since the advent of modern calculating machines is on display, either as an exhibit or as a photo. Other relics of computing can be found in the building, an hour’s drive north of New York City. Near the boardroom sits a desk-sized calculator with hundreds of knobs. Visitors can also wonder about a tangle of wires connected to a metal plate—an early form of software called a “control panel”. No other information technology (IT) company could boast such a collection and also claim to have built each of the items on display. The history of computing cannot be conceived without IBM, which celebrates its 100th birthday on June 16th. Remarkably, even though to many minds Big Blue, like the objects on show at Armonk, is a relic of the 20th century, the firm remains one of the IT industry’s leaders. Its market capitalisation again almost matches that of Microsoft, its archrival for many years (see chart 1). The firm’s centenary is an occasion to reflect on many things digital, but one question stands out: why is IBM still alive and thriving after so long, in an industry characterised perhaps more than any other by innovation and change? This is not just of interest to business historians. As IBM enters its second century in good health, far younger IT giants, such as Cisco Systems, Intel, Microsoft and Nokia, are grappling with market shifts that threaten to make them much less relevant.

IBM: 1100100 and counting | The Economist

The secret of Big Blue’s longevity has less to do with machines or software than with strong customer relationships

THE long passage that connects the two wings of IBM’s headquarters in Armonk gives a new meaning to the expression “a walk down memory lane”. From punch cards to magnetic tapes and disk drives to memory chips, every means of storing information since the advent of modern calculating machines is on display, either as an exhibit or as a photo. Other relics of computing can be found in the building, an hour’s drive north of New York City. Near the boardroom sits a desk-sized calculator with hundreds of knobs. Visitors can also wonder about a tangle of wires connected to a metal plate—an early form of software called a “control panel”.

No other information technology (IT) company could boast such a collection and also claim to have built each of the items on display. The history of computing cannot be conceived without IBM, which celebrates its 100th birthday on June 16th. Remarkably, even though to many minds Big Blue, like the objects on show at Armonk, is a relic of the 20th century, the firm remains one of the IT industry’s leaders. Its market capitalisation again almost matches that of Microsoft, its archrival for many years (see chart 1).

The firm’s centenary is an occasion to reflect on many things digital, but one question stands out: why is IBM still alive and thriving after so long, in an industry characterised perhaps more than any other by innovation and change? This is not just of interest to business historians. As IBM enters its second century in good health, far younger IT giants, such as Cisco Systems, Intel, Microsoft and Nokia, are grappling with market shifts that threaten to make them much less relevant.

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IBM: From Networked Business To Social Media - The BrainYard

As Big Blue’s centennial approaches, CIO Jeanette Horan reviews company’s roots in collaboration and communication technologies.

When IBM CIO Jeanette Horan works to improve communication and collaboration within her company, she is continuing a tradition that stretches back nearly half of IBM’s 100-year history.

With its centennial approaching, IBM is celebrating the role it has played in the creation of networked business, starting with early mainframe systems for sending messages between offices. One of the most fascinating parts of that history is “how the early collaboration tools evolved and morphed into social business tools,” Horan said in an interview.

IBM has a birthday coming up on June 16, which will be 100 years since the company that became International Business Machines was founded, initially to manufacture mechanical tabulators, scales, and other business equipment. In an article that will be published Tuesday on the IBM centennial page, the company traces the beginning of its participation in networked business to the IBM Internal Tele-Processing System created in 1963. This early office automation system used the new IBM 7740 as its hub and leased communications lines to transmit data and administrative messages between offices around the world.

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IBM Centennial: Icons of Progress 3D Gallery on the IBM Global Business Services Virtual Center Visit our new and improved 3D meeting space, which now includes graphics from the Icons of Progress program featuring 100 key stories about innovations at IBM over the last century. Each graphic will open a tab browser to the respective story on http://www.ibm100.com. The Virtual Center is an easy-to-use, web-based and voice enabled venue for 3D meetings, discussions, presentations and other kinds of events. We will be organizing receptions for the 3D Icons of Progress Gallery soon, but in the meantime you are welcome to visit anytime.

IBM Centennial: Icons of Progress 3D Gallery on the IBM Global Business Services Virtual Center

Visit our new and improved 3D meeting space, which now includes graphics from the Icons of Progress program featuring 100 key stories about innovations at IBM over the last century. Each graphic will open a tab browser to the respective story on http://www.ibm100.com.

The Virtual Center is an easy-to-use, web-based and voice enabled venue for 3D meetings, discussions, presentations and other kinds of events. We will be organizing receptions for the 3D Icons of Progress Gallery soon, but in the meantime you are welcome to visit anytime.

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IBM Centennial Film: They Were There - People who changed the way the world works

What does it mean to be an IBMer? Every employee experiences the company in different ways, but the global impact IBM has made on business and society over the last 100 years gives us all a common framework. “They Were There” is told by first-hand witnesses—current and retired employees and clients—who were there when IBM helped to change the way world works. For more information, please visit www.ibm100.com (http://www.ibm.com/ibm100/us/en/)

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IBM Centennial Film: 100 X 100 - A century of achievements that have changed the world

The film features one hundred people, who each present the IBM achievement recorded in the year they were born. The film chronology flows from the oldest person to the youngest, offering a whirlwind history of the company and culminating with its prospects for the future.

smarterplanet:

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