Intel Doesnt Sell Processors, Computers Sell Processors
post a comment | posted Sep 24
A business needs to make money. To make money it needs customers. To attract customers it advertises its products. However, there are businesses that simply don't need to advertise. These businesses sell products that are so engraved in our culture that we can't help but spend money on them on a regular basis. An example of this is milk. We've all seen the Got Milk? ads that feature celebrities holding a glass of milk with a curious milk moustache. As if people would stop drinking milk--what would we dip our oreos in?
This brings me to the subject of the post, Intel. In the remaining issues of my big-mistake-subscription to Popular Science these new Intel ads started appearing, featuring hip young adults doing back flips, supposedly because their Acer notebooks are powered by the new Centrino Duo processors. It's insane. It's a waste of money.
Do they really think that this will increase their market share? People don't buy Intel processors, they buy Dell computers. They buy HP Pavilions. It's like a Windows Ad. Windows is the default OS. When someone wants to buy a computer, they go down to Best Buy and pick up a PC notebook, unless of course they were persuaded by those Get-A-Mac ads to do otherwise.
People don't read "Maximize Your Discovery" or "Multiply Your Scholastic Curiosity" and think, "Oh shit! That's what I want to do! I better make sure my next notebook has one of those Centrino stickers on it!" They probably look at the ad, see the Intel logo and think "Hey! That looks like the sticker on my laptop" and then turn the page.
"Over 2x Processor Performance when Multitasking with Intel Centrino Duo Processor Technology. Multiply your possibilities with notebooks maximized by Intel Core 2 Duo processor. Learn more at intel.com/core2duo/cmt.htm"
Lets take a look at this for a second. So, this ad tells me that when I multitask on my computer, an Intel Duo Centrino Duo Processor will double the processor performance. Well, how does this affect my performance? Does my performance double as well? Wait! Does that mean it'll play my MP3s twice as fast?--I don't want that. Hold on...does this mean I can download Lost episodes twice as fast?
Who knows. All I know is everything I do is maximized, multiplied, and doubled. Chances are, though, that I never even read that. I just read the ambiguous "Maximize your Discovery" and moved on.
Sorry Intel, but leather-bound break-dancing teenagers promoting every synonym of increase are not going to sell more processors. Intel doesn't sell processors, computers sell processors.