SAN FRANCISCO--Qualcomm's (NASDAQ:QCOM) new chief marketing officer said the company plans to more heavily advertise its brand, including to smartphone users. However, Qualcomm CMO Anand Chandrasekher said the company's new advertising push won't be as bombastic as Intel's "Intel Inside" marketing effort.
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Chandrasekher |
In his first public comments since Qualcomm hired him away from Intel in August, Chandrasekher said Qualcomm is relatively unknown in the mass market. He said this is surprising for a company of Qualcomm's size (Qualcomm's market cap is around $104 billion). Thus, Chandrasekher said Qualcomm will work with its partners, including handset makers and carriers, to promote its brand (including its Snapdragon brand) to end users. But he described the effort as "opt-in," meaning Qualcomm won't require its partners to advertise the Qualcomm brand on their products.
During his keynote appearance here at the Open Mobile Summit, Chandrasekher said an example of Qualcomm's approach is LG's marketing for its new Optimus G Android smartphone, which runs on Qualcomm's Snapdragon processor. LG has featured Qualcomm's Snapdragon brand in its marketing for the phone.
"We will start talking about what we stand for," Chandrasekher explained, adding that "we will do it in a focused manner" and in a way that won't "usurp" the OEM's brand.
Chandrasekher said smartphone users sometimes have a personal relationship with their phones, and Qualcomm's silicon can power that phone. "We're the item that causes that user to fall in love with that device. That's the association we would like to make," he said.
Chandrasekher declined to provide specifics about Qualcomm's new advertising push, including how much money the company will spend on the effort.
Before joining Qualcomm, Chandrasekher was the general manager for the Ultra Mobility Group at Intel, with responsibility for the Intel Atom processor family. During his nearly 25-year tenure at Intel, Chandrasekher held a variety of leadership roles including head of Intel's Worldwide Sales and Marketing Group, corporate vice president of the Mobile Platforms Group and co-general manager for the Intel486 Processor Division. He is best known for his pioneering efforts on the Intel Centrino platforms.
For its part, Intel has been working to break into the smartphone market. Intel has so far managed to sell chips into select Motorola Mobility and ZTE phones.
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