CHALLENGE:

Change creates opportunity. When HP established a new infrastructure software business unit, it was an opportune time to create a brand for the software to convey its value to customers. The challenge was to develop and implement a consistent branding and naming approach across the entire product line, made up of suites and products developed by different groups with different brands and naming nomenclatures. The task fell to Don Gentile, Director of Outbound Marketing. "Although highly visible, this was one of many priorities for our relatively small team," said Gentile. "I needed a marketing communications consultant who understood the HP culture, and who worked well across several business units to lead a complex project without my day-to-day oversight." Product names, it seems, are like sacred cows; people are very protective of them. "We needed some structure and messaging around the brand, as well as consistent product naming discipline to help build a cohesive portfolio," added Gentile.

SOLUTION:

Celia Lawren was tapped to lead a branding team, as well as manage several vendors through the process. Once the naming architecture was in place, she developed naming processes, practices and examples to illustrate correct usage and naming structure for the brand. She also established a much-needed naming process for product teams to follow when naming new products.

Likewise, Lawren managed the messaging process and approvals for a complete messaging platform up through management. She created a messaging guide for product management, marketing and sales that described how to use the messaging appropriately with individual product messaging and HP platform messaging. The grab-and-go copy blocks in the guide came in handy when it was time for Lawren to produce a brochure, sales pitch, and podcasts for the new product line.

"We think of branding as an outbound endeavor, but in this case, much of the work was getting buy-in from our product managers and systems owners," said Gentile. "Celia developed an extensive brand roll-out plan and presented it to a variety of internal constituencies. She worked effectively with more than 50 people across five business units and multiple overlay organizations to develop the new brand and messaging and integrate them into our processes and systems."