Branding is almost as charged a word as stickers where I work. And it’s misused almost as much as the term value proposition. Almost.

When the subject of branding comes up at AMD, inevitably cars are the example people use. Sometimes sneakers, other times cereal, but always cars. I have to remind folks we don’t sell Mercedes, or Nikes, or Frosted Flakes. We sell the equivalent of an engine, a rubber insole, and yep, milled corn. While vital to the experience the consumer gets from the end product, it’s just not as sexy or simple. Sorry.

That said, when done right, ingredient branding can be very powerful. Some classic examples are Gore-Tex, NutraSweet, and closer to our industry, Dolby.

What does each of these have in common? They consistently and effectively execute the true tenets of ingredient branding. They

• Help differentiate the end product from other, similar products
• Serve to simplify the purchasing decision for the customer
• Do not compete with the brand identity or brand promise of the end product

That last one may be the most interesting for our industry. I always find it odd when Intel is used as the epitome of an ingredient brand. They’re not. They are a parallel brand to the PC and many times compete with the PC brand for importance. That’s their branding strategy, and they are entitled to it. So is Microsoft. But, in my opinion, this is not the best marketing strategy for the company, for the industry, or for the consumer.

Now, before I go off on our competitors, customers and partners let me add that as an industry it’s time we –including AMD – take another look at what we are doing to the consumer. All of us. Are we helping to enhance, differentiate and simplify? Let’s look at three key pieces: what brand matters to the consumer, the promise of an ingredient brand, and how that promise is merchandized with PCs.

The Brand that Matters

Nothing speaks like a consumer, and consumers consistently tell us what they want. After everything this industry has done for 20+ years – after all the dollars spent – the brand that matters to consumers is the PC makers’ brand. People buy an HP, Dell, Acer, Toshiba, etc. They don’t buy an AMD, or an Intel, or a Windows. This may not surprise you, but it surprises some.

Now juxtapose this against what you get in your Sunday circular if you live in the U.S. Here is just one example among hundreds. Look at how large the ingredient brands are relative to the PC brands. What is more important? How does this help the consumer decide? How does it help HP differentiate from Sony or Acer from Asus? It doesn’t.

The Ingredient Brand Promise

The goal of VISION Technology from AMD is to be a true ingredient brand. VISION technology is designed to provide the most vivid experience for your PC. Around the world, that is the singular proposition it stands for. It is the brand promise of the underlying (read ingredient) technology that is VISION.

If you look at the logo at the top of this blog, you will see that VISION is bigger than AMD. That’s by design. VISION is the ingredient brand that enhances the PC experience and complements the PC brand.

That is what an ingredient brand is designed to do. Gore-Tex keeps you dry. NutraSweet tastes great and is sugar-free. Dolby sound heightens your entertainment experience. And while I don’t put VISION into that classic category (yet), it is singularly consistent in what it is and what it means to your PC: the most vivid experience. But it is not a PC. It is not more important than a PC.

The Merchandizing of Ingredient Brands: A.K.A. Stickers

Lately I’ve been playing the “Six Degrees of Stickers” game with my product marketing team. There are only six sentences separating every marketing conversation we have from the topic of stickers. It takes up so much time that I’m seriously contemplating hiring a Vice President of Stickers.

Charlotte Grim, the four-year-old daughter of Bob Grim, who runs Client Product Marketing, is the best candidate thus far. She loves stickers.

I, alas, do not.  I think there is a proliferation of stickers on PCs. As David Pogue from the New York Times lamented last month, Laptops Look Like Racecars — and Not in a Good Way. I think we’ve all forgotten that stickers were originally there to communicate a level of quality when people were just doing email and the computer for personal use was a relatively new concept. Now they are consumer electronics devices primarily used for entertainment. And now it feels to me as if these stickers are simply distracting from the beautiful, sleek IDs and copping the PC brand to the point of no differentiation and added confusion.

Ashlee Vance  from the New York Times recently wrote that Intel is forgoing their “Intel Inside” logo approach on consumer electronic devices. I find it curious that nowhere does he make the connection that PCs are consumer electronics devices now!

Stickers have no magical powers (no matter what the color). They are not a substitute for good point of purchase material and sales training. And you simply cannot fit your entire message in a 2 cm square.

That’s why AMD does not tie any funding to using our stickers on PCs. None. Nada. It’s completely up to the PC maker whether they use them, as it’s their product, not ours. And, beginning next year, VISION stickers will be peel off. So, after you buy a PC with VISION you can easily take off the sticker if you want. After all, it’s your PC now.

Why doesn’t Apple promote ingredient brands? I will use our established statement whenever I get asked about Apple: Ask Apple.

But I can take some guesses. First, they know the brand that matters to their customers is their brand, no one else’s. They want to own their brand promise and are unwilling to relinquish the experience to anyone else. I would also guess that they took a look at the PC category and what it has become with ingredient brand merchandizing and said, “No thanks.”

Good for them. But why should they stand alone?

Let’s give the PC makers their brands back.

Let’s embrace true ingredient branding.

Let’s remember it’s just a sticker. The industry will not collapse if they go away. Really. I promise.

And let’s not make me hire a VP of Stickers (sorry Charlotte).

Leslie Sobon is corporate vice president, product marketing at AMD.Her postings are her own opinions and may not represent AMD’s positions, strategies or opinions. Links to third party sites, and references to third party trademarks, are provided for convenience and illustrative purposes only.  Unless explicitly stated, AMD is not responsible for the contents of such links, and no third party endorsement of AMD or any of its products is implied.