What high-tech managers need to know about brands

What makes for success in high-tech markets! Many managers believe it's offering products with the best performance at the lowest price. Yet most would also acknowledge that price and performance are just the ante to get into the game, that they don't make the difference between a successful hightech venture and an unsuccessful one. One factor that can make the difference, the authors argue, is brand management. The problem is, most hightech managers think of branding only as an advertising campaign or a slogan. Developing and maintaining a strong brand in the fullest sense requires much more - it's conceiving of a promise of value for customers and then ensuring that the promise is kept. The Gateway Computer brand, for example, is a promise of friendly service that's backed by efficient help lines and effective order and service fulfillment. Building a powerful brand requires fives steps. The first two steps involve determining the tangible characteristics of the offerings that carry the brand name and the benefits the customers accrue from those benefits. In the remaining steps, high-tech managers consider the psychological or emotional benefits of the products; what "value" means to a typical loyal customer; and what, ultimately, is the essential nature and character of the brand over time. Like the Apple brand - which has been consistently synonymous with easy-to-use, reliable computers- and the IBM brand-which promises value built on its long tradition of superior service and support-a successful brand commands enduring premium profits that can help a high-tech company get off the price-performance roller coaster.