“Intel Inside” BRANDING A COMPONENT IN A BUSINESS MARKET

A few suppliers to manufacturers are now working to build brand preference or consumer franchise. Discusses the success of NutraSweet in obtaining long‐term supply contracts, despite patent expiration; it can be attributed to building such consumer franchise successfully through an ingredient branding strategy that included both their original equipment manufacturers′ customers and the end consumer. To be successful, such a branding effort requires a multifaceted strategy, one which must include collaboration with manufacturers as well as direct consumer promotion. Emphasizes this point with an analysis of the current “Intel Inside” campaign, an ingredient branding strategy being employed by the Intel Corporation, a supplier of microprocessor chips to the personal computer industry. Intel′s efforts represent a particularly demanding test of ingredient branding because both the PC industry and those which supply it are both technology‐driven and extremely price competitive. Despite these obstacles, Intel appears to be making its investment work.